Iran has sent its response to the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal via Pakistani mediators and wants negotiations to focus on permanently ending the war, Irans state-run media said Sunday. Pakistan confirmed receiving it.

Iran seeks to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, and to ensure the security of shipping, its state TV said. Washingtons latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and roll back Irans nuclear program, an issue that Tehran would rather discuss later.

The White House had no immediate comment about Irans reply but U.S. President Donald Trump on social media accused Tehran of playing games with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!"

Trump is giving diplomacy every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier Sunday.

Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.

Drone attacks target Gulf Arab nations

The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAEs Defense Ministry said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry called it a dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region." The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said the ship attack happened 23 nautical miles (43 kilometers) northeast of Doha. It gave no details about the ship's owner or origin.

Kuwait Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones in accordance with established procedures but did not say where they came from.

Iran and armed allied groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.

Iran says it's on full readiness to protect nuclear sites

Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.

The U.S. in turn has blockaded Iranian ports and on Friday struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Irans Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a heavy assault on one of the U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.

The American military said Sunday that it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four since the blockade began April 13.

Another sticking point in negotiations is Irans highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.

In an interview with state media posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said its forces were on full readiness to protect nuclear sites where uranium is stored.

We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations, Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an excerpt of an interview with CBS scheduled to air later Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. Trump has said to me, I want to go in there, and I think it can be done physically, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscows proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.

The majority of Irans highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was bombarded by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.

Pakistan oversaw face-to-face talks between the U.S. and Iran last month and continues to pursue mediation. In rare public comments, army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said Islamabad remains committed to helping end the conflict. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke by phone with his Qatari counterpart.

Iran warns against French-British effort in the strait

Iran's deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort that aims to support maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities are over.

The presence of French and British vessels, or those of any other country, for any possible cooperation with illegal U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces, Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media.

French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying it won't be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping once conditions allow.

Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to guide ships through the strait was quickly paused.

South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation that said two unidentified airborne objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the strait last week, causing an explosion and fire. A foreign ministry spokesperson said officials have yet to determine who was responsible.

In a box office battle of the sequels, The Devil Wears Prada 2 had the slight edge over Mortal Kombat II in North American theaters this weekend. According to studio estimates Sunday, The Devil Wears Prada 2 earned a chart topping $43 million in its second weekend, while Mortal Kombat II took in $40 million in its first.

This weekend had wide variety of newcomers playing in wide release, including the family-friendly whodunnit The Sheep Detectives and a James Cameron co-directed Billie Eilish concert film.

But it was the holdover that triumphed. The Devil Wears Prada 2, which has grossed $433.2 million worldwide in its first 12 days in release, helped push The Walt Disney Studios over $2 billion globally for the year. Its also surpassed the total grosses of the first film, which earned $327 million globally in 2006, not accounting for inflation.

Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Comscore, said Mother's Day might have helped Prada get the advantage over the newcomer and have such a modest 44% dip in weekend two.

The release date was perfect, Dergarabedian said. This may be the new blueprint for how to start a summer.

Mortal Kombat II provided some gendered counterprogramming in the second weekend of Hollywood's summer movie season. Warner Bros. opened the movie in 3,503 locations where it drew a heavily male audience. According to PostTrak, 75% of the ticket buyers were men. The Devil Wears Prada 2 had almost the exact opposite gender breakdown on its first weekend.

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The first movie in this series, Mortal Kombat, was released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in April 2021 as a part of Warner Bros. pandemic-era day-and-date strategy. Reviews have been mixed for the sequel, as was its B CinemaScore. It also earned $23 million from 78 markets internationally, adding up to a $63 million global debut.

Michael landed in third place in its third weekend with another $36.5 million over the weekend, down only 33% from last weekend. The Michael Jackson biopic has now earned $240.5 million in North America, surpassing the total domestic grosses of Bohemian Rhapsody, and $577.4 million globally.

Fourth place went to Amazon MGM Studios' The Sheep Detectives which brought in $15.9 million in its first weekend in 3,457 theaters. The quirky, all-ages murder mystery features a starry ensemble including Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson and Nicholas Braun, as well as the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Regina Hall and Patrick Stewart as the sheep who try to figure out who murdered their shepherd. Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore. The movie cost a reported $75 million to produce.

Rounding out the top five was Billie EilishHit Me Hard & Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) an immersive concert experience which Cameron shared co-directing credits on with Eilish. Paramount released the movie in 2,613 theaters, where it earned $7.5 million in North America and $12.6 million internationally. The movie was very well reviewed by critics (93% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences, who gave it an A CinemaScore.

Project Hail Mary, in its eighth weekend, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, in its sixth weekend, are still going strong as well adding up to a weekend that is up significantly from the same weekend last year. Dergarabedian said the films that seem to be doing well and drawing new and repeat audiences week after week are the ones offering pure, escapist entertainment.

This is playing out very well for movie theaters right now, he said.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. The Devil Wears Prada 2, $43 million.

2. Mortal Kombat II, $40 million.

3. Michael, $36.5 million.

4. The Sheep Detectives, $15.9 million.

5. Billie EilishHit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour, $7.5 million.

6. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, $6.6 million.

7. Project Hail Mary,$6.1 million.

8. Hokum, $3.3 million.

9. Deep Water, $780,274.

10. Animal Farm, $663,624.

The first plane carrying passengers from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship left Spains Canary Islands on Sunday for Madrid, where they will be taken to a military hospital.

Spanish nationals were the first to leave the MV Hondius, which remains anchored off Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa. The ship arrived hours earlier.

None of the more than 140 people on the Hondius has shown symptoms of the virus, Spains health ministry, the World Health Organization and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said.

Those disembarking and personnel working at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife were wearing protective gear during the evacuation process, including face masks, hazmat suits and respirators.

The entire operation is proceeding normally, Spanish Health Minister Mnica Garca said.

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Passengers and some crew members from more than 20 nationalities on board will be evacuated throughout Sunday into Monday.

After reaching Madrid, those evacuated on the first plane will be under quarantine, Spanish health authorities say. Only the 14 Spanish nationals on board will quarantine in the country.

Authorities have said the passengers and crew members disembarking will be checked for symptoms, have no contact with the local population and will only be taken off the ship once evacuation flights are ready to fly them to their destinations. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Spains health and interior ministers are supervising the operation in Tenerife.

Pope Leo XIV thanked the Canary Islands for allowing the arrival of the Hondius.

Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isnt easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.

Passengers and crew members disembarking are leaving behind their luggage, and are allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, a charger, and documentation.

Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, Spanish authorities said.

The expected sailing time to Rotterdam is around five days, the cruise company said.

Evacuation and quarantine plans

The U.S., the United Kingdom and the Netherlands will send planes to evacuate their citizens. Americans on board will be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.

Twenty-nine people will be on board the Dutch charter flight, including Dutch nationals and people of other nationalities, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.

Five French passengers will be repatriated Sunday, and will be hospitalized for 72 hours for monitoring, after which they will quarantine at home for 45 days, France's Foreign Ministry said.

U.K. passengers and crew will be hospitalized for observation once they are flown home, British authorities say.

Australia is sending a plane, expected to arrive on Monday, to evacuate its nationals and those from nearby countries such as New Zealand, Garca said. Its plane will be the last to leave Tenerife, she said.

Norway has sent an ambulance plane to Tenerife with personnel trained to transport patients with high-risk infections, its Directorate for Civil Protection told public broadcaster NRK.

The ambulance plane is owned by the European Union, but operated by Norway.

Countries monitor suspected cases

British Army medics have parachuted onto the remote South Atlantic territory of Tristan da Cunha, where one of the 221 residents has a suspected case of hantavirus.

The patient was a passenger on the MV Hondius and disembarked last month.

The U.K. defense ministry says a team of six paratroopers and two medical clinicians jumped Saturday from a Royal Air Force transport plane, which also dropped oxygen and medical equipment.

Tristan da Cunha is Britains most remote inhabited overseas territory, about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the nearest inhabited island, St. Helena. The group of volcanic islands has no airstrip and is usually accessible only by boat on a six-day voyage from Cape Town, South Africa.

Meanwhile, a Spanish woman in the southeastern province of Alicante suspected of being infected tested negative for hantavirus, Spanish health authorities said Saturday.

The woman was a passenger on the same flight as the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg after traveling on the cruise ship.

Google has settled with Black employees who alleged systemic racial disparities in hiring, pay, and advancement in a lawsuit filed in 2022.

April Curley, a former Google employee, had sued the tech giant for racial discrimination, saying it engages in a pattern and practice of unfair treatment for its Black workers. The suit claimed the company steered them into lower-level and lower-paid jobs and subjected them to a hostile work environment if they speak out. Other former Google workers also joined the suit, which later received class action status.

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This case is about accountability, plain and simple, said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the plaintiffs, in a statement. For far too long, Black employees in the tech industry have faced barriers that limit opportunity. This settlement is a significant step toward holding one of the worlds most powerful companies accountable and making clear that discriminatory practices cannot and will not be tolerated.

The settlement was announced in May 2025 and granted final approval this week. Google said when the settlement was reached that it strongly disagrees with the allegations that it treated anyone improperly and remains "committed to paying, hiring, and leveling all employees consistently.

The lawsuit, echoed years of complaints from Black employees at the company. That includes prominent artificial intelligence scholar Timnit Gebru, who said she was pushed out in 2020 after a dispute over a research paper examining the societal dangers of an emerging branch of artificial intelligence.

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The 2022 lawsuit claimed that Mountain View, California-based Google viewed Black job candidates through harmful racial stereotypes and claimed that hiring managers deemed Black candidates not Googly enough, a plain dog whistle for race discrimination.

In addition, according to the suit, interviewers hazed and undermined Black candidates and hired Black candidates into lower-paying and lower-level roles with less advancement potential based on their race and racial stereotypes.

The settlement, which does not constitute admission of liability by Google, also includes a commitment to pay equity analyses, pay transparency measures, and limits on mandatory arbitration for employment-related disputes through at least August 2026, according to Crump.

No quick dispatching of disease investigators. No news conference to inform the public. No timely health alerts to doctors.

In the midst of a strange outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship that involves Americans and is making headlines around the world, the U.S. government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been missing in action, according to a number of experts.

We seem to have things under very good control," President Donald Trump told reporters Friday evening.

But experts say the situation has not spiraled because, unlike COVID-19 or measles or the flu, hantavirus does not spread easily. It has been experts in other countries, not the United States, who have been dealing primarily with the outbreak in the past week.

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The CDC is not even a player," said Lawrence Gostin, an international public health expert at Georgetown University. I've never seen that before.

The CDC's diminished role in this outbreak is an indicator the agency is no longer the force in international health or the protector of domestic health that it once was, some experts said.

The hantavirus outbreak is a sentinel event that speaks to how well the country is prepared for a disease threat. And right now, Im very sorry to say that we are not prepared, said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive officer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

How the outbreak unfolded

Early last month, a 70-year-old Dutch man developed a feverish illness on a cruise ship traveling from Argentina to Antarctica and some islands in the South Atlantic. He died less than a week later. More people became sick, including the man's wife and a German woman, who both died.

Hantavirus was first identified as a cause of sickness of one of the cases on May 2. The World Health Organization swung into action and by Monday was calling it an outbreak. About two dozen Americans were on the ship, including about seven who disembarked last month and 17 who remained on board.

It's WHO taking center stage

For decades, the CDC partnered with the WHO in such situations. The CDC acted as a mainstay of any international investigation, providing staff and expertise to help unravel any outbreak mystery, develop ways to control it and communicate to the public what they should know and how they should worry.

Such actions were a large reason why the CDC developed a reputation as the world's premier public health agency.

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But this time, the WHO has been center stage. It made the risk assessment that has told people the outbreak is not a pandemic threat.

I dont think this is a giant threat to the United States, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of Brown Universitys Pandemic Center. But how this situation has played out just shows how empty and vapid the CDC is right now, she said.

Tumult until Trump

The current situation comes after 16 tumultuous months during which the Trump administration withdrew from the WHO, has restricted CDC scientists from talking to international counterparts at times and embarked on a plan to build its own international public health network through one-on-one agreements with individual countries.

The administration has laid off thousands of CDC scientists and public health professionals, including members of the agency's ship sanitation program.

As this was playing out, Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said he was working to restore the CDCs focus on infectious disease, invest in innovation, and rebuild trust through integrity and transparency.

Waiting to hear from the CDC

The CDC has not been completely silent on hantavirus.

The agency on Wednesday issued a short statement that said the risk to the American public is extremely low, and described the U.S. government as the worlds leader in global health security.

Said Nuzzo: Not only was that not helpful, it actually does damage because a core principle of public health communications is humility.

The CDC's acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, posted a message on social media that the agency was lending its expertise in coordinating with other federal agencies and international authorities. Arizona officials this week said they learned from the CDC that one of the Americans who left the ship a person with no symptoms and not considered contagious had already returned to the state. WHO officials said the CDC has been sharing technical information.

The CDC also is monitoring the health status and preparing medical support for all of the American passengers on the cruise, Bhattacharya wrote.

But federal health officials have mostly been tight-lipped, declining interview requests. Some details emerged not through public statements but through disclosures from anonymous sources, including news Friday that the CDC was sending a team to Spain's Canary Islands to meet the Americans onboard.

On Friday evening, health officials issued an updated statement, confirming the deployment of a team to the Canary Islands. They also said a second team will go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska as part of a plan to evacuate American passengers from the ship to a quarantine center.

COVID-19 comparison

In interviews this week, some experts made a comparison with a 2020 incident involving the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Japan that became the setting of one of the first large COVID-19 outbreaks outside of China.

The CDC sent personnel to the port, helped evacuate American passengers, ran quarantines, shared genetic data on the virus, coordinated with the WHO and Japan, held public briefings and rapidly published reports that became the worlds reference data on cruise ship COVID transmission, said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

Some aspects of the international response to the Diamond Princess were criticized, and it did not halt the outbreak or stop COVID-19s spread across the world. But some experts say it was not for the CDC's lack of trying.

The CDC was right on top of it, very visible, very active in trying to manage and contain it, Gostin said, while the agency's work now is delayed and subdued.

Instead of working with nearly all of the world's nations through the WHO, the Trump administration has pursued bilateral health agreements with individual nations for information sharing, public health support, and what it describes as the introduction of innovative American technologies. Roughly 30 agreements are currently in place.

That's not sufficient, Gostin said. You can't possibly cover a global health crisis by doing one-on-one deals with countries here and there, he said.

The remaking of the U.S. political map accelerated this week in courts and legislatures, all of it in this round expected to boost Republicans in their attempt to keep control of Congress in November's elections.

This week's major action came in Southern states, with a significant state court ruling in Virginia and continued fallout from a U.S. Supreme Court decision last month.

Here's a look at where things stand.

Virginia court undoes new map drawn to help Democrats

In a 4-3 decision Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court stuck down a Democratic congressional redistricting plan that was approved by voters in April.

The new map was intended to give Democrats an inside track for 10 of the state's 11 seats in the U.S. House a jump from the six they currently hold. The new lines were drawn as part of a push by both parties to redistrict for their advantage in time for the 2026 midterm elections.

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The court majority cited procedural reasons for rejecting the amendment to the state constitution that paved the way for new maps. To send a constitutional amendment to voters, lawmakers are supposed to approve the measure twice once before and once after a legislative election. The court found that they didn't comply because the initial approval came in October after early voting had begun for the general election.

The result is that the state's previous maps will remain in place for this year's elections.

Fallout from US Supreme Court ruling leads to quick redistricting

Multiple GOP-controlled Southern states pushed this week to redraw their congressional maps in the aftermath of an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Louisiana congressional district drawn to have a Black majority of constituents.

The ruling was seen as a blow to a provision of the Voting Rights Act that requires political maps to include districts where minority populations' preferred candidates can win elections.

Louisiana quickly suspended primaries scheduled for May 16 so lawmakers could create new districts. Voting rights activists there packed the statehouse to oppose proposals for new maps that could eliminate at least one of the two current majority-Black districts.

Republicans in Alabama enacted a law Friday that would ignore the results of its May 19 congressional primaries and instead hold a new election if a federal court agrees to lift an order for the state to have a second congressional district where a majority or near-majority of residents are Black. Republicans currently hold four of the state's six seats in the House and want to instead use a map that could allow them to win an additional seat.

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South Carolina's GOP-dominated legislature met Friday to discuss a proposal to create a new map that gives the party a shot at winning all seven of the state's House seats. But some worried that breaking up the one Democratic-controlled district could make some other districts vulnerable to Democratic election wins.

Tennessee enacted a law Thursday creating a new U.S. House map that carves up a majority-Black House district in Memphis, the only one now held by a Democrat. That would give Republicans a strong chance of winning all nine of the state's seats.

The balance of power could be tipping more to Republicans

Normally, House districts are reworked only after results from the once-a-decade U.S. Census are tallied.

This time it's different.

President Donald Trump urged Texas officials to draw new districts to help his chance of keeping Congress in GOP control after the 2026 midterm elections. Texas officials complied with a plan designed to bring them as many as five new seats.

Democratic-dominated California responded with a map intended to bring them five new states. Other states have followed. And in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling, the pace has picked up, though it's been mostly in states where Republicans have nearly all the seats already and thus not much room for gains.

Without counting the pending possible map changes in Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina, the mid-decade redistricting has created 14 more House seats that Republicans believe they could win and six that could give Democrats an edge. Overall, that would mean a potential eight-seat advantage for the GOP ahead of a midterm election, when the president's party normally loses seats.

But as changes and court challenges play out along with voters having their say the results aren't certain.

Currently, Republicans have 217 seats in the House to Democrats' 212. There's one independent member. Five seats are vacant.

A national redistricting battle over U.S. House seats swung toward Republicans on Friday, as a Virginia court invalidated a Democratic gerrymandering effort and Republicans in Alabama approved plans for new primary elections if courts allow GOP-drawn House districts to be used in the November midterm elections.

The Alabama legislation, which was signed quickly into law by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, is part of an effort by Republicans in Southern states to capitalize on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly weakened Voting Rights Act protections for minorities.

At the Alabama Statehouse, a chaotic scene erupted as one protester was dragged from the packed House gallery by security officers. Republican lawmakers in Louisiana and South Carolina also faced staunch opposition from civil rights activists and Democrats as they presented plans Friday to redraw their congressional districts.

The action came just a day after Tennessee enacted new congressional districts that carve up a Democratic-held, Black-majority district in Memphis. The state Democratic Party sued on Friday, seeking to prevent the districts from being used until after this year's elections because of the tight time frame

Even before last week's Supreme Court ruling in a Louisiana case, Republicans and Democrats already were engaged in a fierce redistricting battle, each seeking an edge in the midterm elections that will determine control of the closely divided House. That battle tilted further toward Republicans when the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that Democratic lawmakers had violated constitutional requirements when placing a redistricting amendment on the ballot.

Since President Donald Trump prodded Texas to redraw its congressional districts last summer, Republicans think they could gain as many as 14 seats from new districts in several states while Democrats think they could gain up to six seats. But the parties may not get everything they sought, because the gerrymandering could backfire in some highly competitive districts.

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Alabama primaries could be in flux

Demonstrators outside the Alabama Statehouse on Friday shouted fight for democracy and down with white supremacy.

I was out there in 1965 marching for the right to vote, and now we are back here in 2026 doing the same thing, Betty White Boynton said.

During debate inside the statehouse, Black lawmakers said the Republican legislation harks back to the states shameful Jim Crow history. The new law would ignore the May 19 primary results for some congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under revised districts, if a court allows it. Lawmakers also approved a similar bill related to state Senate districts.

What happened here today is that we were set back as a people to the days of Reconstruction, Democratic state Sen. Rodger Smitherman said after the vote.

Senate Democrats shouted hell no and stop the steal as senators voted.

The special primary would happen only if the courts agree to lift an injunction that put a court-selected map in place until after the 2030 census. That order required a second district where Black voters are the majority or close to it, resulting in the 2024 election of Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who is Black. If a court lifts the injunction, Republican officials want to put in place a map lawmakers drew in 2023 which was rejected by a federal court that could allow them to reclaim Figures district.

With this special session successfully behind us, Alabama now stands ready to quickly act, should the courts issue favorable rulings in our ongoing redistricting cases," Ivey said in a statement.

Virginia ruling centered on timing of election

Democrats had hoped to gain as many as four additional U.S. House seats under new districts narrowly approved by voters in April. But the state Supreme Court invalidated the measure because it said the Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements.

To place a constitutional amendment before voters, the Virginia Constitution requires lawmakers to approve it in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between. The legislatures initial approval of the redistricting amendment occurred last October while early voting was underway but before it concluded for the general election. The legislatures second vote on the amendment occurred after a new legislative session began in January.

The state Supreme Court said the initial legislative approval came too late, noting that more than 1.3 million ballots already had been cast, about 40% of the total votes ultimately cast.

Louisiana lawmakers look at map options

A Louisiana Senate committee considered several redistricting options Friday from Republican state Sen. John Jay Morris that would eliminate either both or one of the current Black-majority U.S. House districts.

Every one of these maps reduces Black voting power in every one of the districts. And I think thats a problem, Democratic state Sen. Sam Jenkins told Morris.

Morris denied that the proposed redistricting maps were racially discriminatory. He said his goal was to be respectful of the traditional boundaries of the states six congressional districts.

I dont think we should care that much about race, Morris said.

The only four Black congressmen who have represented Louisiana since the end of the Reconstruction era appealed to state senators to keep two majority-Black districts in a state where one-third of voters are Black.

Leona Tate said she was escorted as a 6-year-old girl by federal marshals through a racist white mob trying to prevent her from desegregating a New Orleans elementary school. She told lawmakers she felt they were taking a step backward in time by reducing Black political power.

You have a choice in front of you: You can draw a map that reflects what Louisiana actually is -- a state where Black voices belong in the halls of Congress," said Tate, 71. "Or you can draw a map that tells my grandchildren that their votes dont count, that their faces dont matter and that the progress I helped build with my own two feet as a 6-year-old can be erased at will.

South Carolina considers a House map

South Carolina lawmakers held a rare Friday meeting to discuss a proposed new congressional map intended to allow Republicans a clean sweep of the states seven U.S. House seats.

The House hearing was the first step in redistricting. But its future remains murky. The state Senate has yet to agree to consider new districts later this month, an action that requires a two-thirds vote.

The new map has some Republicans nervous. Breaking up the 6th District, represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, makes the other six districts less Republican.

At Fridays subcommittee meeting, lawmakers heard hours of testimony, almost all against the new map. The hearing included a consultant who reviewed the map, saying it appeared to be legal under the Supreme Court's decision in the Louisiana case.

I agree if the law allows us to do it, then we can do It, Democratic state Rep. Justin Bamberg said. But I can slap somebodys mama and its not the right thing to do.

Some absentee ballots already have been returned for the state's June 9 primary elections. The legislative subcommittee advanced a plan to delay the congressional primary to August and reopen a candidate filing period, if a new map is approved.

California families welcoming newborns will soon receive hundreds of free diapers before leaving the hospital under a first-in-the-nation program announced Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

During the programs first year, it will be offered at about 65 to 75 hospitals that handle about a quarter of births in the state and largely serve low-income patients, Newsom's office said. The initiative will expand to more hospitals statewide, though the governor's office did not say how many. The state has partnered with nonprofit Baby2Baby to manufacture the diapers under the label Golden State Start.

Newsom said the plan builds on California's effort to make living in the notoriously expensive state a little easier for families. He highlighted policies in recent years to provide students with free meals at school and make preschool free for all.

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Every baby born in California deserves a healthy start in life and that means making sure parents have the basics they need from day one, the Democrat said in a statement.

The state set aside $7.4 million in last year's budget to roll out the initiative, and this year's budget proposal includes an additional $12.5 million to implement the program for the upcoming fiscal year ending in June 2027.

It will allow each family to receive 400 diapers in sizes for newborns and babies up to 14 pounds (6 kilograms) when they are discharged from a hospital after birth. That's a little more than a months worth, since newborns on average require eight to 10 diapers a day.

Baby2Baby provides families in need with essential items. The nonprofit built a manufacturing system that allows them to produce diapers for 80% less than the retail price, co-CEO Kelly Sawyer Patricof said.

California is once again setting the standard of what it means to show up for mothers and babies, added co-CEO Norah Weinstein.

The announcement comes two years after Tennessee and Delaware became the first U.S. states to offer free diapers to families enrolled in their Medicaid programs, which provide healthcare to low-income families. Tennessee families can go to pharmacies to pick up 100 diapers per month for children under two. The Delaware program, which began as a pilot before the state extended it in 2024, provides individuals with up to 80 diapers and up to one pack of baby wipes per week in the first 12 weeks of life.

California's Medicaid system doesn't cover diapers for newborns, but it does cover the items for enrollees ages 5 and older if they have a medical need for them.

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Diapers are a large, ongoing expense for many families. They typically spend about $100 a month on the items per child, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. The cost burden can lead some parents to leave their child's diapers on for too long or reuse disposable diapers, which can result in rashes and urinary tract infections, the center says.

California officials are touting the new effort as a way to ease that financial strain.

The first days at home with a newborn should be focused on the love, connection, and joy of an expanded family, not stress about affording diapers, said Kim Johnson, the state's health secretary. This program helps ensure families can begin that journey with greater stability and peace of mind.

The NFL and the NFL Referees Association agreed Friday on a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement that avoids a potential work stoppage and use of replacement officials.

The agreement, which was approved by the union's board of directors and ratified by a vote of the membership, runs through the 2032 NFL season.

We see this new CBA as a partnership with the league that benefits our membership but also seeks to make our game better. It is good to get these negotiations behind us so we can focus on preparing for the 2026 season, union President Carl Cheffers said.

The NFLs collective bargaining agreement with the referees association had been set to expire on May 31, and the two sides began negotiating in the summer of 2024.

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The league began the onboarding process for replacement officials last month because negotiations werent progressing. But they wont be necessary.

The league and the union said in a joint statement that the deal covers a wide range of issues including economics, performance and accountability.

This agreement is a testament to the joint commitment of the league and union to invest in and improve officiating, said Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations. It also speaks to the game officials relentless pursuit of improvement and officiating excellence. We look forward to working together for the betterment of the game.

Detailed terms weren't released.

But two people with knowledge of the offer told The Associated Press in March that the NFL had increased its offer to a 6.45% annual growth rate in compensation over a six-year labor deal.

A stalemate in 2012 resulted in a 110-day lockout and replacement referees were used.

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That led to several high-profile mistakes, including the Fail Mary when Russell Wilson completed a desperation pass to Golden Tate in the closing seconds to lift Seattle over Green Bay in a Monday night game. Tate pushed off so he shouldve been penalized for offensive pass interference. He appeared to wrestle the ball away from a Packers defender and was given credit for a catch even though two officials had called it differently.

There werent as many glaring errors when the NFL also used replacement officials for one week of exhibition games and the opening week in 2001 before the labor dispute was resolved shortly after 9/11, and the regular officials returned in time when the season resumed following a one-week break.

The Trump administration's cancellation of more than $100 million in humanities grants to scholars, writers, research groups and other organizations was unconstitutional, and the Department of Government Efficiency had no authority to end the funding, a federal judge in New York ruled on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan sided with The Authors Guild, several other groups and several people who had their grants canceled and sued DOGE and the National Endowment for the Humanities. McMahon permanently barred the administration from terminating the grants and criticized DOGE's use of artificial intelligence in nixing the funding.

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Government lawyers had argued that the cuts of more than 1,400 grants of congressionally approved funds were legal moves to implement President Donald Trump's directives, eliminate grants associated with diversion, equity and inclusion and reduce discretionary spending under the administration's priorities.

The White House and Department of Justice, which defended against the lawsuit, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Thursday evening. It was not immediately clear if an appeal was planned.

McMahon said the government violated the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment's equal protection right, and DOGE did not have the lawful authority to cancel the grants. She wrote, for example, that it was a textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination when officials canceled the grants based on DEI.

The public interest favors permanent relief, McMahon wrote in her ruling. The public has a strong interest in ensuring that federal officials act within the bounds set by Congress and the Constitution.

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Several groups that sued the government, including the American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association and Modern Language Association, hailed the decision in a joint statement.

This ruling in an important achievement in our effort to restore the NEHs ability to fulfill the vital mission with which Congress charged it: helping to create and sustain a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry through the humanities, said Sarah Weicksel, executive director of the American Historical Association.

Yinka Ezekiel Onayemi, an attorney for the Authors Guild, called the grant cancellations a direct assault on constitutional free speech and equal protection.

Were pleased with the Courts decision, which vindicates our clients: the brilliant academics, writers, and institutions doing work that is deeply important to our democracy, Onayemi said in a statement. It also reaffirms that Congresss 60 year old commitment to the humanities cannot be dismantled by an overreaching executive.

The judge scrutinized how government officials classified grant projects as DEI and used ChatGPT to target them for funding cuts. In one case, she said officials, using the AI platform, labeled as DEI an anthology titled In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union. She also listed numerous other examples.

McMahon also rejected the government's argument that there was no constitutional problem because any viewpoint classification was ChatGPT's doing, and not the government's.

ChatGPT was the Governments chosen instrument for purposes of this project, and DOGEs use of AI to identify DEI-related material neither excuses presumptively unconstitutional conduct nor gives the Government carte blanche to engage in it, she wrote.

The grant cancellations were announced in April 2025, three months after Trump issued an executive order titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing. In February 2025, Trump issued another executive order implementing DOGE's cost efficiency initiative.

Michael McDonald, then the acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, sent letters to grant recipients informing them that their grants were canceled.

In a letter to one organization on April 1, 2025, he wrote, The NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the Presidents agenda.

Many of the canceled grants were awarded during the Biden administration, and only about 40 grants awarded by that administration were spared from the cuts, the judge wrote.

McMahon wrote that while a new administration may pursue lawful funding priorities, it has no license to suppress disfavored ideas.

In a temporary block of the grant cancellations issued last year that raised First Amendment and other issues, the judge said the defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas."

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year's midterm elections.

The court ruled that the state's Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment April 21, but the court's ruling renders the results of that vote meaningless.

This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void, the court said in its opinion.

Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia's redrawn U.S. House map as part of an attempt to offset Republican redistricting done elsewhere at the urging of President Donald Trump. That ruling, combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision severely weakening the Voting Rights Act, has supercharged the Republicans' congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year's midterm elections.

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump started an unusual flurry of mid-decade redistricting last year when he encouraged Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts in a bid to win several additional U.S. House seats and hold on to their party's narrow majority in the midterm elections.

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California responded with new voter-approved districts drawn to Democrats' advantage, and Utah's top court imposed a new congressional map that also helps Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans stand to gain from new House districts passed in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. They could add even more after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Voting Rights Act case, which has prompted some other Republican states to consider redrawing their maps in time for this years elections.

Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts could have given Democrats an improved chance to win all but one of the state's 11 congressional seats.

Under the Demcoratic-drawn map, five districts would have been anchored in the Democratic stronghold of northern Virginia, including one stretching out like a lobster to consume Republican-leaning rural areas. Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads would have diluted the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia would have lumped together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.

The state Supreme Courts seven justices are appointed by the state legislature, which has toggled back and forth between Democratic, Republican and split control over recent years. Legal experts say the body doesnt have a set ideological profile

The case before the court focused not on the shape of the new districts but rather on the process the General Assembly used to authorize them.

Because the states redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose an amendment to redraw the districts. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place the amendment on the ballot.

The legislatures initial approval of the amendment occurred last October while early voting was underway but before it concluded on the day of the general election. The legislatures second vote on the amendment occurred after a new legislative session began in January. Lawmakers also approved a separate bill in February laying out the new districts, subject to voter approval of the constitutional amendment.

Judicial arguments focused on whether the legislatures initial approval of the amendment came too late, because early voting already had begun for the 2025 general election.

Attorney Matthew Seligman, who defended the legislature, argued that the election should be defined narrowly to mean the Tuesday of the general election. In that case, the legislatures first vote on the redistricting amendment occurred before the election and was constitutional, he told judges.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Thomas McCarthy, argued that an election should be interpreted to cover the entire period during which people can cast ballots, which lasts several weeks in Virginia. If thats the case, he told justices, then the legislatures initial endorsement of the redistricting amendment came too late to comply with the state constitution.

In January, a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia, ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session last fall. Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. also ruled that lawmakers failed to initially approve the amendment before the public began voting in last years general election and that the state had failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result, he said, the amendment is invalid and void.

The Virginia Supreme Court placed Hurleys order on hold and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case.

The Pentagon has begun releasing new files on UFOs, saying members of the public can draw their own conclusions on unidentified anomalous phenomena.

Besides the Pentagon, the effort is led by the White House, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA and the FBI.

The Pentagon said Friday in a post on X that while past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Donald Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files. The Pentagon says additional documents will be released on a rolling basis.

Trump, a Republican, has been teasing the announcement since February. He has previously released records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. that revealed little beyond what was already known.

The Pentagon has been working on declassifying documents related to UFOs for years, and Congress created an office in 2022 to declassify material. Its 2024 debut report revealed hundreds of new UAP incidents but found no evidence that the U.S. government had ever confirmed a sighting of alien technology.

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Congress ordered the Pentagon to begin releasing decades of files on UFO sightings in 2022 as some members of the military shared encounters with unexplained aircraft.

A small group of Republicans in Congress has pressed for further transparency, accusing the Pentagon of holding documents back. A March letter from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna demanded 46 UAP videos identified by whistleblowers. On social media on Friday, Luna said those videos are expected to be released in a later Pentagon release.

Rep. Tim Burchett thanked Trump for keeping his word on transparency and disclosure.

I would like to remind people that transparency wont all happen at once, it will take some time, Burchett said in a statement.

Experts have urged caution around the release of the new files, warning that UAP videos are often misinterpreted and mischaracterized by those unfamiliar with advanced military technology. The Pentagons 2024 report rebutted claims that the U.S. government has recovered alien technology or confirmed evidence of alien life.

Americas employers a delivered a surprising 115,000 new jobs last month despite an economic shock from the Iran war.

Hiring was better than the 65,000 forecasters had expected, though it decelerated from the 185,000 jobs created in March. The unemployment rate remained at a low 4.3%.

The Iran war has caused the biggest disruption of global oil supplies in history and sent average U.S. gasoline prices surging past $4.50 a gallon this week. But the conflict hasnt done much damage to the American job market so far.

Healthcare added 37,000 jobs last month and transportation and warehousing companies 30,000. However, manufacturers cut 2,000 jobs in April and have shed 66,000 jobs over the past year despite President Donald Trumps protectionist policies aimed at creating factory jobs.

Labor Department revisions shaved 16,000 jobs from February and March payrolls.

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Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% from March and 3.6% from April 2025, consistent with the Federal Reserves 2% inflation target.

The number of people in the U.S. labor force dropped last month, and the share of those working or looking for work the so-called labor force participation rate dropped to 61.8%, lowest since October 2021.

Baby Boomer retirements and Trumps immigration crackdown mean that fewer people are competing for work and that the economy doesnt need to generate as many jobs as it used to.

Matthew Martin of Oxford Economics says the so-called break-even point the number of new jobs required each month to keep the unemployment rate from rising is now near zero.

After the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks Feb. 28, Iran shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the worlds oil and liquefied natural gas passes. The disruption has caused a painful increase in the price of energy and led many economists to downgrade their estimates for global and U.S. economic growth.

But the fallout isnt showing up yet in the U.S. job market.

Payroll processor ADP reported Wednesday that private employers added a solid 109,000 jobs in April. The ADP figure isn't a reliable guide to what the Labor Department will report Friday but the pace of hiring it showed was the fastest since January 2025. And on Tuesday the Labor Department reported that a measure of gross hiring before subtracting those who left or lost their jobs was stronger in March than it had been in more than two years.

The economy is getting a boost from big tax refund checks this spring, arising from Trumps tax cut legislation last year; the refunds allow consumers to spend more freely, giving companies an incentive to add workers in response to rising sales.

The job market is showing intermittent signs of recovery after a bleak 2025. Employers last year created just 9,700 jobs a month, fewest outside a recession year since 2002. High interest rates and uncertainty over Trumps economic policies held back hiring.

There's been progress this year, but it's been uneven strong growth (160,000 new jobs) in January, March (185,000) and April's 115,000 and one bad month (employers cut 156,000 jobs in February).

U.S. hiring, though, has been dominated by one industry: Healthcare companies, catering to an aging American population, have added 456,000 jobs over the past year; other employers have combined to cut 205,000 over the 12 months that ended in April.

Still, Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, noted that last month's job gains extended beyond healthcare. Retailers, for example, added 22,000 jobs and construction companies 9,000.

Americas hiring recession appears to be over,'' she wrote. "Average job gains in 2025 were an anemic 10,000 a month. So far in 2026, the average is 76,000. The bad news is inflation is eating up wage gains again. Wages grew at 3.6%. That certainly wont be enough at a time when inflation is expected to hit 4%. Americans still have jobs, but they are financially squeezed by surging gas prices and transportation costs.

The jobs data will likely keep the Federal Reserve on the sidelines, as it holds its key rate unchanged while evaluating the economic impact of the Iran war. Fed officials are increasingly focused on inflation, which has risen quickly since the war, driven higher by spikes in gasoline prices.

Inflation jumped to 3.3% in March, a two-year high and far above the Feds target. The Fed typically keeps its rate unchanged -- or even raises it -- to combat inflation, while it cuts rates to spur more growth and hiring. Early this year many Fed policymakers were worried the job market was stalling and leaned toward rate cuts. But in more recent months hiring has stabilized, undermining the case for cuts.

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A system that thousands of schools and universities use to support instruction was back online Friday after it went down during a cyberattack that created chaos as students tried to study for final exams.

The hacking group named ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach at Canvas, said Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emisoft. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, said in an update late Thursday that the system was available for most users.

Canvas is used to manage grades, course notes, assignments, lecture videos and more. The hacking group posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed, Connolly said.

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Screen shots Connolly provided showed that the group began threatening Sunday to leak the trove of data. By Friday, Instructure and Canvas had been removed from a dedicated leak site created by the ransomware group on the dark web to publish stolen data.

Canvas went down Thursday at the worst possible time. Students quickly took to social media, with many panicking that they could no longer view course materials housed within the platform to study for their final exams.

Teachers said they were having to find workarounds to help students study for exams and submit final assignments. And some schools, such as the University of Texas at San Antonio, announced they were pushing back finals scheduled for Friday in response to the outage.

Schools like Princeton University turned to X late Thursday to announce Canvas appears to be available again and that information technology staff was monitoring the situation.

Rich in digitized data, the nations schools are prime targets for far-flung criminal hackers, who are assiduously locating and scooping up sensitive files that not long ago were committed to paper in locked cabinets. Past attacks have hit Minneapolis Public Schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Instructure has not posted about the attack on its social media. The company didnt immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press asking whether it paid a ransom and inquiring about what happened with the compromised data.

Connolly said the Canvas attack is strikingly similar to a breach at PowerSchool, which also offers learning management tools. In that case a Massachusetts college student was charged.

Connolly described ShinyHunters as a loose affiliation of teenagers and young adults based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The group also has been tied to other attacks, including one aimed at Live Nations Ticketmaster subsidiary.

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A federal court ruled Thursday against the new global tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed after a stinging loss at the Supreme Court.

A split three-judge panel of the Court of International Trade in New York found the 10% global tariffs were illegal after small businesses sued.

The court ruled 2-1 that Trump overstepped the tariff power that Congress had allowed the president under the law. The tariffs are invalid and unauthorized by law, the majority wrote.

The third judge on the panel found the law allows the president more leeway on tariffs.

If the administration appeals Thursdays decision, as expected, it would first turn to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, based in Washington, and then, potentially, the Supreme Court.

At issue are temporary 10% worldwide tariffs the Trump administration imposed after the Supreme Court in February struck down even broader double-digit tariffs the president had imposed last year on almost every country on Earth. The new tariffs, invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, were set to expire July 24.

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The courts decision directly blocked the collection of tariffs from three plaintiffs the state of Washington and two businesses, spice company Burlap & Barrel and toy company Basic Fun! Its not clear whether other businesses would have to continue to pay the tariffs, said Jeffrey Schwab, director of litigation at the libertarian Liberty Justice Center, which represented the two companies.

We fought back today and we won, and were extremely excited, Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun!, told reporters Thursday.

The ruling marked another legal setback for the Trump administration, which has attempted to shield the U.S. economy behind a wall of import taxes. Last year, Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to declare the nation's longstanding trade deficit a national emergency, justifying sweeping global tariffs.

The Supreme Court ruled Feb. 28 that IEEPA did not authorize the tariffs. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to establish taxes, including tariffs, though lawmakers can delegate tariff power to the president.

Dave Townsend, a trade lawyer at Dorsey & Whitney, said the ruling will open the door for more companies to request that the tariffs be thrown out and that any payments they've made be refunded.

Other importers likely will now ask for a broader remedy that applies to more companies, Townsend said, though he cautioned the case could also reach the Supreme Court.

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Trump is already taking steps to replace the tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court in January. The administration is conducting two investigations that could end in more tariffs.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is looking into whether 16 U.S. trading partners including China, the European Union and Japan are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage. It is also investigating whether 60 economies from Nigeria to Norway and accounting for 99% of U.S. imports do enough to prohibit the trade in products created by forced labor.

The NCAA announced Thursday that it will expand its two March Madness tournaments by eight teams each next season, a long-expected move that will drop more games into the first week of the highly popular and lucrative showcase without substantially changing its overall form.

The new, 76-team brackets will jam eight extra games for a total of 12 involving 24 teams into the front half of the first week of the men's and the women's tournaments. It will turn whats now known as the First Four into a bigger affair that will now be called the March Madness Opening Round.

The 12 winners will move into the main 64-team bracket that will begin, as usual, on Thursday for the men and Friday for the women.

It is the first expansion of the tournaments in 15 years, when they were bumped to 68 teams each.

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The NCAA said it will distribute more than $131 million in new revenue to schools that make the tournament. That money will come via expanded TV advertising opportunities for alcohol, the likes of which were previously restricted. It said the value of the rights agreement will increase $50 million each year on average over the course of the six years.

Most of the eight new slots are expected to go to teams from the power conferences that were already commanding the lion's share of entries in the bracket. Two years ago, the Southeastern Conference placed a record 14 teams in the mens bracket. Last season, the Big Ten had nine.

Keith Gill, the chairman of the Division I men's basketball committee, called the expansion a nice way to create some access but make sure we have the bracket we all love when we start Thursday at noon.

The move is a product of the times, which includes massive expansion the Atlantic Coast Conference, for instance, has grown from nine to 17 teams since 1996 and the reality that mid-major schools with top-notch players will often see them plucked away by programs with bigger budgets and the ability to pay them through revenue sharing.

Cinderella? There will still be room for those stirring runs in the tournaments, though not a single mid-major advanced past the first weekend of either tournament the last two seasons.

This is hardly a concern of the decision-makers anymore, who will point to TV ratings that traditionally spell out fans preference for the likes of Duke and North Carolina over St. Peters and San Diego State, especially once the Sweet 16 starts.

What matters more to the biggest schools is that their teams have a chance to compete in what remains the best postseason in college sports and that they aren't iced out by lower conference champions who earn automatic bids.

Youve got some really, really good teams who are going to end up in that 9, 10, 11 (seed) category that I think should be moved into the 64-team bracket, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last year in discussing how he favored expansion.

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Also, the money. The new beer and wine money will add to what the NCAA can distribute in units that are earned for placing teams in the bracket and then for every round those teams advance. Last year, that amounted to about $350,000 per unit for the mens tournament. The Big Ten made nearly $70 million from both tournaments, won by conference members Michigan (men) and UCLA (women).

Leaders in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC have all acknowledged that smaller programs help make March Madness what it is, all the while steadily expanding their own power in NCAA decision-making. That brings with it the tacit threat of fracturing the single thing the NCAA does best the basketball tournament.

This move might forestall that. What it isn't expected to do is drastically change the TV deal beyond the advertising.

The current deal for the men's tournament is worth $8.8 billion and runs through 2032. Adding a few extra games between mid-level Power Four teams on Tuesday and Wednesday won't change that much.

One reason this took as long as it did was the NCAA negotiations with CBS and TNT, which themselves have been in negotiations over their own ownership.

The more drastic option of expanding the tournament to 96 teams or beyond would involve adding an extra week to a tournament that has thrived in part because of the symmetry of a six-round bracket that gets whittled down over three weeks.

That basic shell began in 1985, with only slight tweaks, the latest of which came in 2011 when it was upped to 68.

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee approved a new U.S. House map Thursday that carves up a majority-Black district in Memphis, reshaping it to the GOPs advantage as part of President Donald Trumps strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections.

Protesters shouted No Jim Crow outside the House and Senate chambers as lawmakers convened to consider the legislation. As the Republican-led House voted for the new map, Democratic lawmakers locked arms at the front of the chamber while protesters in the gallery yelled, chanted and blew air horns. Shouts from protesters who flooded the halls, where Tennessee state troopers held them back, could be heard inside both chambers.

The new map now goes to Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who called lawmakers into special session.

The NAACP on Thursday sued Gov. Lee and the state assembly, alleging the redistricting was unlawful. The group asks a judge to prevent the state government from moving forward with the redisctricting plan.

Tennessee is the first state to pass new congressional districts since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week significantly weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. But more Southern states could follow. Republicans in Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina also have taken steps toward redistricting.

The court ruled that Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with federal law. The high court's decision altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.

Louisiana has postponed its congressional primary to give time for state lawmakers to craft a new House map. Legislation awaiting a final vote in Alabama also would upend the states congressional primaries if courts allow the state to change its U.S. House districts. In South Carolina, meanwhile, Republican lawmakers urged on by Trump have taken initial steps to add congressional redistricting to their agenda.

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The states are the latest to join an already fierce national redistricting battle. Since Trump prodded Texas to redraw its U.S. House districts last year, eight states have adopted new congressional districts. From that, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats while Democrats think they could gain up to 10. But some competitive races mean the parties may not get everything they sought in the November elections.

Tennessee Republicans act despite protests

As a first step to adopting new House districts, Tennessee lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to legislation quickly signed into law by Lee that repealed a state law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting. They then passed a bill that would reopen candidate qualifying until May 15 to allow time for new people to enter the U.S. House primaries and existing candidates to switch districts or drop out.

The proposed House map would break up Tennessees lone Democratic-held district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis, creating a ripple effect of alterations to districts throughout the western and central parts of the state. The geographically compact 9th District that includes Memphis currently represented by Steve Cohen, who is white would stretch a couple hundred miles eastward before reaching north toward the Nashville suburbs.

Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton said the proposed districts were drawn based on population and politics, not racial data.

But Democrats dismissed such assertions.

These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, said state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Black Democrat from Memphis who is running for the U.S. House.

Republican state Sen. John Stevens defended the new districts he sponsored by noting that Democrats in Illinois, Massachusetts and other states also had drawn congressional districts to their advantage.

This bill represents Tennessees attempt to maximize our partisan advantage, he said.

It does so at the expense of both Memphis residents and democracy, said Sen. London Lamar, a Democrat from Memphis.

You cannot take a majority Black city, fracture its voting power and then tell us race has nothing to do with it," she said.

Democrats noted that the state Supreme Court in April 2022 rejected a challenge to the current congressional map, finding it was too close to the election to make changes. This year, theres even less time before the Aug. 6 primary, raising the potential of confusion for both candidates and voters, Democrats said.

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A plan for a new primary advances in Alabama

Protesters watching an Alabama legislative committee Thursday erupted in shouts of shame as Republican lawmakers advanced legislation to authorize special congressional primaries if the state can put a new congressional map in place for the November midterms.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision arising from Louisiana, Alabama is seeking to overturn a court injunction that created a second U.S. House district with a substantial percentage of Black voters. That map led to the 2024 election of Rep. Shomari Figures, a Black Democrat. Republicans want instead to use a 2023 map drawn by state lawmakers that would give the GOP an opportunity to reclaim Figures district.

If a court grants Alabama's request, the legislation under consideration would ignore the May 19 primary results for congressional seats and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.

The House passed the legislation on a party-line vote Thursday after four hours of fiery debate. A final vote in the Senate is expected Friday.

South Carolina may add redistricting to its agenda

The South Carolina Senate could take up a resolution Thursday giving lawmakers permission to return later, after their regular work ends, to redraw congressional districts that could eliminate the states only Democratic-held district. The proposal, which passed the House on Wednesday, needs a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Republican House leaders said after the vote that they plan to introduce a new map Thursday and hold committee meetings on Friday. But during debate Wednesday, Republicans fended off specific questions from Democrats, including why they were willing to stop the June 9 U.S. House primary elections well after candidates filed and how much a rescheduled primary could cost.

Democratic Rep. Justin Bamberg said he felt sorry for Republicans who, he said, were giving up their principles to follow the whims of Trump.

The president of the United States is a very powerful man, wields a heavy, heavy thumb Truth Social, X, Meta, Instagram. To be honest, I dont envy our Republican colleagues, Bamberg said.

Whirlpool appeared to be in a prime position to thrive, producing about 80% of its major appliances at American factories at a time when President Donald Trump has emphasized domestic manufacturing jobs and more production at home.

This week, however, the company said that revenue dropped nearly 10% in its most recent quarter and sales of major appliances in North America tumbled 7%.

The company that also produces KitchenAid and Maytag products said that the Iran war has led to a recession-level industry decline" that has shaken consumer confidence.

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Whirlpool announced a 10% price hike in April, its largest in a decade, and said that a separate 4% price increase will happen in July to address multiyear inflationary cost pressures.

The company had absorbed the higher costs, choosing not to pass them on to customers, but that must change after the company posted a first quarter loss of $82 million, reversing last year's gains.

CEO Marc Bitzer said Thursday that the North American slide in sales has a precedent.

This level of industry decline is similar to what we have observed during the global financial crisis and even higher than during other recessionary periods, he said during a conference call.

Whirlpool said that its performance has been impacted by the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down Trump's emergency tariffs. Rival appliance makers are seeking refunds to reduce the impact of those tariffs, disrupting pricing in the industry further.

The Benton Harbor, Michigan, company estimated that the tariff impact on its competitors was about 10% to 15%, while the impact on its business was around 5%, according to details in its earnings presentation.

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But with consumers already worried about high grocery prices and escalating gas prices, many are holding off on big-ticket purchases like major appliances and instead trying to make due with what they already have.

People are looking at the price of replacing appliances and realizing its not something they want to deal with right now, Mark Stevenson, managing director and product designer at Stove Shield, said in a statement. Instead, theyre asking how to avoid the damage in the first place.

Whirlpool also announced that it is slashing its full-year earnings forecast to a range of $3 to $3.50 per share, from its prior outlook of $6 per share. Its also suspending its dividend while it looks to reduce its debt this year.

Shares tumbled more than 12% Thursday.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon after reports that the former Prince Andrew was threatened by a masked man while walking dogs near his home.

Norfolk Constabulary said that the arrest came Wednesday evening after a man was reported behaving in an intimidating manner near the home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in eastern England.

Officers attended, and the man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offense and possession of an offensive weapon, the force said.

The suspect is being held for questioning at a nearby police station. The term offensive weapons covers knives, truncheons and other items used to cause injury. Police didn't specify what type of weapon was involved.

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The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a man wearing a ski mask ran toward the former royal while shouting abuse. It said the incident occurred near the Sandringham Estate while the former prince was out walking his dogs, and that Andrew and his protection officer got in their car and sped away.

Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, moved to the kings private Sandringham Estate, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London, after he was evicted from his longtime home near Windsor Castle and stripped of his royal title following revelations about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew now lives at Marsh Farm, a property on the Sandringham estate, after leaving Royal Lodge last year.

He was arrested and held for hours by British police in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office in a case related to his links to Epstein, an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield the royal family from embarrassment.

Police previously said they were assessing reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent trade information to Epstein, a wealthy investor and convicted sex offender, in 2010, when the former prince was the United Kingdom's special envoy for international trade.

Correspondence between the two men was released by the U.S. Justice Department along with millions of pages of documents from the American investigation into Epstein.