Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people including two children, the Palestinian Authoritys Health Ministry said.

The official Palestinian news agency said the family was shot late Saturday after going out to buy new clothes for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this week. Israel said it was investigating the shooting.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said that Ali and Waed Odeh, and two of their four children, were shot in the head. The Odehs two surviving children had shrapnel wounds that were examined by first responders once they were granted access, the group said, accusing Israel of delaying ambulances dispatched to the scene.

RELATED STORY | Israel sends tanks into West Bank for first time in decades, says fleeing Palestinians can't return

Israels military and police said in a joint statement Sunday that forces opened fire after a car accelerated toward them in Tammun. They said the forces were pursuing suspects accused of terrorist activity and that the shooting was under investigation.

The members of the Odeh family were the latest casualties in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers and soldiers had previously shot and killed at least eight Palestinians since the start of the Iran war.

Since Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Israeli authorities have restricted movement across the West Bank, intermittently closing hundreds of gates and checkpoints on roads used by residents, ambulances and commercial traffic. The barriers have tightened movement and made emergency response significantly more difficult, the Red Crescent told The Associated Press last week.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Gaza's border crossing to Egypt reopens but few Palestinians can cross

Israeli rights group Yesh Din said on Wednesday that it had documented 109 incidents of settler violence in the occupied West Bank in dozens of Palestinian communities since the start of the war.

The toll is lower than at this point in 2025 a record year for violence that began with Israel invading northern West Bank cities that the military said were militant strongholds. Israeli forces still maintain a presence there.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has recorded 18 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of 2026, including eight by Israeli settlers. Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank.

Representatives from Beijing and Washington began their economic and trade talks in Paris on Sunday, paving the way for U.S. President Donald Trumps state visit to Beijing to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in about two weeks.

The delegations, led by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, convened in the French capital in the morning, China's official news agency Xinhua reported. The White House has said that Trump will travel to China from March 31 to April 2, though Beijing has not officially confirmed it.

Bessent said on Thursday that his team will continue to deliver results that put America's farmers, workers and businesses first. The U.S. Treasury Department said Bessent will meet He on Sunday and Monday.

Chinas commerce ministry said Friday the two sides are set to discuss trade and economic issues of mutual concern.

RELATED STORY | Trump holds wide-ranging call with Xi, touching on Iran, Taiwan and trade

Trumps visit to China will be the first for a U.S. president since he went in his first term in 2017. It will come five months after the two leaders met in the South Korean city of Busan and agreed to a one-year truce in a trade war that temporarily saw tit-for-tat tariffs soar to triple digits before the two sides climbed down.

Still, trade remains a source of tensions. The commerce ministry on Friday hit back against the Trump administrations new trade investigation into 16 trading partners, including China. The investigation which came after a Supreme Court ruling struck down Trumps sweeping global tariffs that were imposed last year could pave the way for new tariffs.

Another issue that could be discussed is the Iran war, especially when global anxiety is soaring over oil prices and supplies. Trump said Saturday that he hopes China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and others will send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and safe.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Trump asks allies to deploy warships as Iran vows to block oil flow

Before Sunday's talks, Gary Ng, a senior economist at French bank Natixis and a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, said the Paris meeting is likely the most important bilateral one before the Xi-Trump summit.

The key issue is "whether China and the U.S. can agree on what is agreed and manage disagreement. Iran is a new factor, but Beijing is more concerned about the flip-flopping of U.S. policies, he said.

Last week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it would be a big year for China-U.S. relations. While he did not confirm the state visit, Wang said that the agenda of high-level exchange is already on the table.

Bessent and He have led trade negotiations between the countries since last year, having met in Geneva, London, Stockholm, Madrid and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power Saturday after high winds raked eastward from the Great Lakes region, leaving trees down and substantial property damage in their wake. Further west, at least one person died in a massive wind-driven wildfire in Nebraska.

Nearly 450,000 customers were still affected by midafternoon in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.

RELATED STORY | California walloped by winter storm with high winds and heavy rain and snow California on Monday saw a powerful winter 

A 66 mph gust at Pittsburgh International Airport on Friday was deemed its fourth-strongest on record that was not caused by a thunderstorm, according to the National Weather Service. Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport saw winds hit 85 mph Friday afternoon.

Winds took down a gas station canopy in New Franklin, Ohio, and an auto parts store sign in Baldwin, Pennsylvania. Trees and tree limbs fell into or onto homes and cars from Cleveland to Pittsburgh. The roof of a school building in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Illinois, was severely damaged by wind.

High winds fueled multiple wildfires across a broad swath of Nebraskas range and grassland, causing one death in Arthur County, officials said. The victim was not immediately identified and the sheriffs office did not disclose other details about the death.

What state officials have dubbed the Morrill County fire has burned at least 735 square miles across four counties since Thursday. At least 12 structures have been destroyed, according to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency.

Chelle Ladely of Sidney said her home is currently safe, lying about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of the nearest fire. But she worries for other friends and family in the area.

Smoke is filling the air and at night, I can see the burn of the fires on the horizon, Ladely said. My father is a crop agronomist, and his company as well as other local farmers are all gathering their water trucks to help aid with the fires, and truckloads of bottled water and food is being supplied by our good patrons for our volunteer firemen trying to extinguish the blazes.

Several other wildfires being pushed by winds of up to 65 mph burned another 225 square miles for a total of nearly 938 square miles by midday Saturday. The strong winds have kept firefighters from containing any of the fires, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said. Gov. Jim Pillen on Saturday toured areas burned by the Morrill County fire.

RELATED STORY | World already seeing more dangerous heat days and its just the beginning, study says

In Chicago, thousands of revelers turned out to see the city's namesake river dyed bright green and a downtown parade celebrating the St. Patrick's holiday, despite the threat of snow and stiff winds that drove the feels-like temperature to well below freezing.

Dangerous winds are but one piece of a wild weather mosaic that includes heavy rains in Hawaii, triple-digit heat ahead in Phoenix and the return of winter cold to the Midwest and Northeast. Chicago was expected to approach the single digits Fahrenheit by Tuesday, with Minneapolis seeing lows around zero.

Several Minnesota cities have already declared snow emergencies starting Sunday, when what could be the seasons largest snowfall is expected to hit. Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula are also in the crosshairs.

AccuWeather is describing conditions as a potent triple-threat March megastorm from Sunday into Monday.

Its definitely a very active weather weekend, thats for sure, AccuWeather senior meteorologist John Feerick said. Its a highly amplified pattern, which means you get a lot of extremes. Also, not just the Lower 48, but Hawaiis getting hit hard right now with some very heavy rain.

Feerick said people along the Wisconsin-Iowa border might see some ice as travel conditions become dangerous in large parts of the Upper Midwest.

Math nerds and dessert enthusiasts unite to celebrate Pi Day every March 14, the date that represents the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi.

Representing the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, pi is approximately equal to 3.14159 but its digits go on forever. In school, you might have used it to calculate the area of a circle or the volume of a cylinder. But the applications of pi are endless and part of every corner of our world.

The holiday was created in 1988 by Larry Shaw, a physicist at the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco.

He had a very open and expansive view of the world and saw an opportunity with this number, mathematical concept, to invite people into the joy of mathematical learning, said Sam Sharkland, program director of public programs at the museum, who worked with Shaw before he died in 2017.

While it began as a small staff celebration featuring pie, it soon turned into a grand procession where hundreds of visitors marched around the pi shrine, each carrying a digit. Attendees often show up early to claim their favorite digit for the parade. One woman who has the symbol tattooed on her neck comes every year and marches near the front with a pi flag, Sharkland said.

RELATED STORY | 10 fascinating things to know about pi on Pi Day

The celebration begins at 1:59 p.m., signifying the next three digits of pi.

Here are a few ways pi is being used on the cutting edge of science.

Pi in outer space

In Artur Davoyan's field of mechanical and aerospace engineering, pi is so fundamental that it would be hard to pinpoint one use case for it, he said.

Pi is part of literally every single formula that you would use to do any calculation, like for spacecraft motion, for materials and how they work, or propulsion systems, said Davoyan, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Anything that is round or has cyclical or repeating properties such as radio waves involves pi. Even squares or irregular blobs can be broken down into a series of progressively smaller circles and calculated using pi, Davoyan said.

Davoyan's research looks at how to create new propulsion systems to send spacecrafts more quickly to the far reaches of the solar system to gather and send back information to Earth. He pointed to NASAs Voyager 1 and 2, which launched in 1977 but didn't reach interstellar space until 2012 and 2018.

To send a signal to those space probes, NASA must calculate Earth's exact position in orbit around the sun and design antennas for communication using pi. Then scientists use pi once more when receiving and breaking down complex signals that are being beamed back to Earth.

Say aliens send something to us, something that we dont know how to deal with, Davoyan said. So the very first thing that you would do, you would try to split it into simple functions... and turns out that when you do this operation, you will naturally have pis in it.

Tiny droplets of pi

Pi also comes up frequently when studying small amounts of fluids.

Dino Di Carlo, chair of the bioengineering department at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, conducts research that involves creating little particles out of polymers that act as tiny test tubes for cells. This is used as an important tool to examine cells closely and learn about their functions and what's inside them.

The pi constant is used in calculating how to form those droplets, surface tension calculations that define how droplets can break up, and how researchers can control the size of those volumes, Di Carlo said.

Di Carlo is using this technique to find antibodies small proteins that fight diseases in your body that could block signals put out by cancer cells.

Pi is also an important part of calculations when looking at how liquids flow through tubes and barriers. One example is when the fluid sample slowly flows sideways in a take-home COVID-19 test.

Di Carlo used these properties to devise a new test for Lyme disease that can be completed in 20 minutes, rather than days or weeks like previously.

As an engineer and scientist, (pi) is just a part of life, Di Carlo said. Maybe Ive taken it for granted.

President Donald Trump said the U.S. destroyed military sites on an island vital to Irans oil network and warned that its oil infrastructure could be next if Iran continues to interfere with the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said U.S. forces on Friday obliterated targets on Irans Kharg Island, which is home to the primary terminal that handles the countrys oil exports. The speaker of the Iranian parliament had warned that such strikes would provoke a new level of retaliation.

Meanwhile, an American official said 2,500 more Marines and an amphibious assault ship are being sent to the Middle East nearly two weeks into the war with the Islamic Republic.

RELATED STORY | Trump says war in Iran is 'won,' but administration expects fighting to continue for weeks

Iran has continued to launch widespread missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf states, and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the worlds traded oil passes, even as U.S. and Israeli warplanes pummel military and other targets across Iran.

The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon deepened, with nearly 800 people killed and 850,000 displaced as Israel launched waves of strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and warned there would be no let up.

Marines and assault ship will add to US forces

Elements from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli have been ordered to the Middle East, according to the U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.

Marine Expeditionary Units are able to conduct amphibious landings, but they also specialize in bolstering security at embassies, evacuating civilians, and providing disaster relief. The deployment does not necessarily indicate that a ground operation is imminent or will take place.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the new Marine deployment.

The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, as well as the Tripoli and other amphibious assault ships carrying the Marines, are based in Japan and have been in the Pacific Ocean for several days, according to images released by the military. The Tripoli was spotted by commercial satellites sailing alone near Taiwan, putting it more than a week away from the waters off Iran.

Earlier in the week, the Navy had 12 ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and eight destroyers, operating in the Arabian Sea. Should the Tripoli join this flotilla, it would be the second-largest ship behind the Lincoln in the region.

RELATED STORY | Oil market sees its worst disruption ever as Iran war threatens supply

While the total number of U.S. service members on the ground in the Middle East is not clear, Al-Udeid Air Base alone, one of the largest in the region, typically houses some 8,000 U.S. troops in Qatar.

US strikes Persian Gulf island after Iranian warning

The U.S. strikes on Irans Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf targeted military sites but left its oil infrastructure alone for now, Trump said in a social media post.

But he warned that if Iran or anyone else interferes with the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, he will reconsider his decision not to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure.

Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned on Thursday in a social media post that attacks on the islands on Irans southern maritime frontier would cause Iran to abandon all restraint, underscoring how central they are to the countrys economy and security.

On Saturday, Irans joint military command reiterated its threat that it will attack the U.S.-linked oil and energy facilities in the region if the Islamic Republic's oil infrastructure is hit.

Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, warned they will target all oil, economic, and energy infrastructures belonging to oil companies across the region that have American shares or cooperate with America.

The joint military command also threatened to attack cities in the United Arab Emirates, saying the U.S. used ports, docks and hideouts within UAE cities to launch strikes on the islands, without providing evidence. It called on people to evacuate those areas where it said U.S. forces were sheltering

Irans semiofficial Fars news agency Saturday said the U.S. strikes caused no damage to oil infrastructure on the island.

It reported at least 15 explosions followed the strikes, which it said targeted an air defense facility, a naval base, the airport control tower and an offshore oil companys helicopter hangar.

Missile strikes inside US Embassy compound in Baghdad

A missile struck a helipad inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, two Iraqi security officials said.

Associated Press footage showed a column of smoke rising Saturday morning over the embassy compound.

The sprawling embassy complex, one of the largest U.S. diplomatic facilities in the world, has been repeatedly targeted by rockets and drones fired by Iran-aligned militias.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. On Friday, the embassy renewed its Level 4 security alert for Iraq, warning that Iran and Iran-aligned militia groups have previously carried out attacks against U.S. citizens, interests and infrastructure, and may continue to target them.

Roughly 2,500 Marines and at least one amphibious assault ship are headed for the Middle East, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said elements from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit and the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli have been ordered to the Middle East. The move marks a major addition of troops to the region.

Iran has continued to launch widespread missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf states, and has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes, even as U.S. and Israeli warplanes pummel military and other targets across Iran.

The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon deepened, with nearly 800 people killed and 850,000 displaced as Israel launched waves of strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and warned there would be no let up.

With growing global concerns about a possible energy crisis, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, hovered around $100 per barrel. Brent prices are about 40% higher than when Israel and the United States launched the war on Feb. 28.

In an interview with Fox News, U.S. President Donald Trump said the war would end when I feel it in my bones.

Explosion rocks area of mass demonstration

An explosion in Tehran rocked the Ferdowsi Square area midday, where thousands had gathered for an annual Quds Day rally in which they chanted death to Israel and death to America.

Israel had issued a warning on a Farsi-language X account for people to clear the area shortly before the blast. But few Iranians would have seen it, as authorities have almost completely shut down the internet since the start of the war. Footage from the scene showed people chanting God is greatest, as smoke rose in the area.

The Israeli military later posted a second message in Farsi, noting the head of Irans judiciary was at the rally and criticizing Iran for blocking many from seeing their warning.

The hard-liner who leads Irans judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, had been giving an interview on state television at the demonstration when the strike happened. His bodyguards encircled him, as he raised his fist and said Iran under this rain and missiles will never withdraw.

US says 15,000 targets struck in Iran since the start of the war

Israel had earlier announced another wave of strikes in Iran targeting infrastructure, and said its air force had hit more than 200 targets in the last 24 hours, including missile launchers, defense systems and weapons production sites.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck, which is more than 1,000 a day since the war began.

He also sought to address concerns about the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, telling reporters: We have been dealing with it and dont need to worry about it.

Irans Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday vowed to continue the attacks and keep the strait closed in his first public statement since succeeding his father, who was killed in the opening day of the war. Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over leadership and released a written statement.

Hegseth said Khamenei is wounded and likely disfigured, without providing evidence or elaborating. Israel suspects Khamenei was wounded at the start of the war.

All six crew of US refueling plane confirmed dead after crash

The U.S. military confirmed on Friday that all six crew members of an American KC-135 refueling plane were killed when it crashed in Iraq, bringing the U.S. death toll to at least 13 service members.

U.S. Central Command said the crash wasnt related to friendly or hostile fire, and that two aircraft were involved, including one that landed safely.

The KC-135 is the fourth publicly acknowledged aircraft to crash as part of the U.S. militarys operations against Iran. Last week, three American fighter jets were mistakenly downed by friendly Kuwaiti fire.

New Iranian attacks across the region

Iran continued its daily attacks on oil and other infrastructure across the Gulf. In Oman, two people were killed when two drones crashed in the Sohar region, the Oman News Agency reported.

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Oscar Austin shot down an Iranian ballistic missile over Turkey on Friday, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity in order to discuss ongoing military operations. It was the third such interception over the NATO member in the last two weeks.

Residents in the southern Turkish city of Adana reported hearing a loud explosion and sirens sounding at Incirlik Air Base, which is used by U.S. forces.

In the latest sign of unease from some close U.S. allies, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a convincing plan on how to end the war. He spoke alongside the prime ministers of Norway and Canada at military exercises in Norway.

Fighting escalates between Israel and Hezbollah

At least eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on Lebanon's southern coastal city of Sidon, Lebanons Health Ministry said Friday. Nine others were wounded, the ministry added. The toll could rise as rescuers search the rubble.

The ministry said 773 people including more than 100 children and 62 women have been killed since fighting erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants 10 days ago. More than 1,900 people have been wounded, it said.

Some 850,000 have been internally displaced in Lebanon, according to United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres, who launched a $325 million humanitarian appeal during a surprise visit to the country.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam urged Israel to halt strikes on his country and criticized Hezbollah for firing rockets at Israeli targets.

There is no justification in holding an entire nation hostage, he said.

Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said strikes so far were just the beginning and warned that Lebanons government will pay an increasing price for the damage to Lebanese national infrastructure used by Hezbollah.

Salam pushed back on the criticism, saying the Lebanese army had dismantled more than 500 Hezbollah military positions and weapons depots.

The Israeli military said its strikes have killed more than 350 Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, including what it called key commanders.

Iranian authorities say that more than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran, and Israel has reported 12 deaths.

A man who opened fire in a classroom at Virginias Old Dominion University had been granted an early release from federal prison in 2024 after completing a drug treatment program, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on the condition of anonymity.

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2017 to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State group, and was released about 2 years early, according to prison records.

It wasnt clear how Jalloh qualified for a prison drug treatment program, which allows inmates to shave up to a year off their sentences. Inmates serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses typically arent eligible for such programs or other sentence-reducing credits.

RELATED NEWS | Old Dominion shooter previously convicted of trying to support ISIS

Jalloh, a former member of the Virginia Army National Guard, killed one person and injured two other people in Thursdays shooting before ROTC students subdued and killed him.

A message seeking information about Jallohs incarceration and release was left with the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Some elected officials questioned how someone with known ties to the Islamic State group was able to carry out such an attack.

The horrific tragedy that occurred today on ODUs campus never should have happened, U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents the congressional district neighboring the university, wrote on Facebook.

After Jalloh pleaded guilty in October 2016 to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization the Islamic State group a federal judge sentenced him in 2017 to an 11-year prison term with credit for time served retroactive to his July 2016 arrest.

He was on supervised release, which is comparable to probation, when he carried out the attack on Thursday. Based on his release date, that wouldve run into 2029.

Confessions to undercover agents

Jallohs October 2016 plea came after a three-month sting operation in which he, then 26, confessed to an undercover FBI agent that he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead. Authorities launched the 2016 operation after Jalloh made contact with members of the Islamic State group in Africa earlier that year.

Jalloh later told the informant that the Islamic State group had asked if he wanted to participate in an attack. He tried to donate $500 to the group, but the money actually went to an account controlled by the FBI, according to court documents.

Jalloh then tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle from a Virginia gun store but was turned away because he lacked the proper paperwork. The affidavit says he returned the next day and bought a different assault rifle. Prosecutors said the rifle was rendered inoperable before Jalloh left the store, unbeknownst to Jalloh. He was arrested the following day.

RELATED STORY | Professor killed at Old Dominion University was retired Army officer remembered as 'true hero'

Debate over sentencing

The Justice Department in 2017 requested a 20-year prison sentence for Jalloh, noting that he had made multiple attempts to join the Islamic State group and had attempted to acquire a gun to carry out a murder plot.

The defendant was fully aware of what he was doing, and the consequences of those actions. His only misgivings seemed to be a fear that he would waver at the critical moment, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

They added: By putting the idea of this murder plot into religious terms, and by suggesting that murdering members of the US military would be a path to heaven, the defendant showed how strongly committed he was to the deadly ideology of the Islamic State group.

Jallohs lawyers asked for a sentence of 6 years in prison and requested that he be placed in a facility that provides residential drug treatment for inmates with addiction and substance abuse issues.

U.S. District Judge Liam OGrady, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, sentenced him instead to 11 years in prison.

The judge also ordered Jalloh to participate in a program for substance abuse testing and treatment and mental health treatment, and requested that he be evaluated for the federal prison systems residential drug program.

Completing the Residential Drug Abuse Program can reduce an inmates prison sentence by up to a year, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons. It wasnt immediately clear if Jalloh qualified for the program. Normally, inmates serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses arent eligible.

In addition, some inmates who stay out of trouble in prison can reduce their sentence by earning up to 54 days of good conduct time credit for each year of their sentence. However, under the 2018 prison reform law known as the First Step Act, inmates convicted of terrorism-related offenses are not eligible for such credit.

Troubled shooter lured by radical cleric

Little is publicly known about Jalloh, who was a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone. But court documents depict him as a troubled man who was radicalized by Anwar al-Awlaki, a well-known American imam who became an al-Qaida propagandist.

The Virginia Army National Guard confirmed he served as a specialist from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged. Jalloh told a government informant he quit the National Guard after hearing lectures from al-Awlaki, according to a 2016 FBI affidavit filed in his criminal case.

In a letter to the federal judge that presided over his sentencing, Jalloh wrote: I feel deep regret in having been driven by my emotions rather than my intellect and becoming involved with such an evil organization. I reject and deplore terrorism and any groups associated with it, especially ISIL.

He wrote that he started using drugs after his girlfriend ended their six-year relationship.

The pain I felt internally was unbearable, and drugs and alcohol were the only things that took that pain away, Jalloh wrote. I started doing marijuana, coke and mushrooms using one of them at least on a daily basis in order to kill the pain I was in and to fill in the void I felt internally.

The letter itself remains under seal, but his lawyer included excerpts of it in his sentencing memorandum.

Incendiary internal messages in which a Live Nation employee mocks customers as so stupid and says the company is robbing them blind, baby have been made public as over two dozen states weigh whether to continue their antitrust trial against the entertainment giant and its subsidiary Ticketmaster.

The messages from late 2021 through early 2023 on the online work messaging platform Slack were highlighted late Wednesday in a filing by government lawyers released in the public court record. The lawyers insist the messages should be evidence in the week-old trial in Manhattan federal court against Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

At the trial, lawyers for the federal government and 39 states and the District of Columbia say Live Nation and Ticketmaster were squelching competition and driving up prices for fans through threats, retaliation and other tactics to suffocate the competition by controlling virtually every aspect of the industry, from concert promotion to ticketing. The companies insist that artists, sports teams and venues set prices and decide how tickets are sold.

RELATED STORY | Government says Live Nation bullied venues, artists in ticketing market

The government lawyers wrote that the statements should be part of the trial because they are candid, internal messages" in which Ben Baker calls fans so stupid, explains that he gouge(s) them, and brags that Live Nation is robbing them blind, baby."

In the submission to Judge Arun Subramanian, the lawyers noted that Baker made the statements while he was a regional director of ticketing with responsibility for a large amphitheater in Florida but has since been promoted to head of ticketing for Venue Nation with responsibilities relating to all of Live Nation's venues.

They said the employees were discussing Live Nation's price for access to the VIP area of a show at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa when Baker wrote that the prices are outrageous, that these people are so stupid and that I almost feel bad taking advantage of them before writing, BAHAHAHAHAHA.

Live Nation wants the exhibits disqualified from the trial, saying the messages reflect off-the-cuff banter, not policy between two personal friends who do not work together.

RELATED STORY | Live Nation to limit all Ticketmaster users to one account after FTC lawsuit

The company's lawyers wrote that the exhibits don't relate to the antitrust claims. They said the employees were making passing references to non-ticket ancillary products such as VIP club access, premier parking, or lawn chair rentals sold to concertgoers at two amphitheaters in Florida and Virginia.

But lawyers for the plaintiff states and U.S. government wrote that excessive prices for ancillary services are directly relevant to their claims and that ancillaries are a significant way that Live Nation monetizes its monopoly position in the amphitheater market.

In a statement Thursday, the company said the Slack exchange from one junior staffer to a friend absolutely doesn't reflect our values or how we operate.

The company added: Because this was a private Slack message, leadership learned of this when the public did, and will be looking into the matter promptly.

The arguments regarding the exhibits were made after Bloomberg News, The New York Times and MLex, a publication which covers legal and regulatory matters, and Inner City Press requested their release.

The trials status is up in the air after the federal government announced this week it was settling with Live Nation in a deal that would give Live Nation's competitors some access to ticket sales they are currently excluded from.

Lawyers for more than two dozen states have asked that the ongoing trial be scrapped and that a new jury be chosen in the weeks ahead. A jury that began hearing evidence last week was told to stay home this week with the expectation the trial would resume on Monday.

Meanwhile, Subramanian encouraged lawyers for the states and Live Nation to negotiate this week before telling him late Friday whether they've reached a deal.

Although the parties were not speaking publicly about the progress of any talks, a lawyer for Live Nation indicated at a court hearing Tuesday that there was no realistic chance of a fast deal with all states.

In a letter to the judge Thursday, a states' lawyer signaled the trial was likely to resume, saying the judge needed to rule on whether the Slack message exhibits can be shown to the jury because his decision will have a material impact on which witnesses the states call to testify as the states prepare to resume trial next week.

A large explosion rocked an area of Irans capital where thousands were gathered Friday for an annual state-organized rally to support the Palestinians and call for Israels demise. Israel had warned that it would target the area in central Tehran.

There were no immediate reports of casualties. But the decision to proceed with the mass demonstration that was attended by some senior government officials, and Israels threat to target the area, underscored the fierce determination on both sides nearly two weeks into a war that has rattled the global economy and shows no sign of letting up.

Iran has continued to launch widespread missile and drone attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf states, and has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes, even as U.S. and Israeli warplanes pummel military and other targets across Iran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Thursday vowed to continue the attacks and keep the strait closed in his first public statement since succeeding his father, who was killed in the opening day of the war. Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over leadership and released a written statement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Khamenei is wounded and likely disfigured," without providing evidence or elaborating. Israel suspects Khamenei was wounded at the start of the war.

With growing global concerns about a possible energy crisis and no end to the war in sight, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, remained over $100 per barrel. Brent prices have spiked as high as about $120 per barrel and are about 40% higher than when Israel and the United States launched the war on Feb. 28.

Explosion rocks area of mass demonstration

The explosion rocked the Ferdowsi Square area midday, where thousands had gathered for an annual Quds Day rally in which they chanted death to Israel and death to America.

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Israel had issued a warning on a Farsi-language X account for people to clear the area shortly before the blast. But few Iranians would have seen it, as authorities have almost completely shut down the internet since the start of the war. Footage from the scene showed people chanting God is greatest, as smoke rose in the area.

The Israeli military later posted a second message in Farsi, noting the head of Irans judiciary was at the rally and criticizing Iran for cutting off the internet, blocking many from seeing their warning.

The hard-liner who leads Irans judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, had been giving an interview to a state television reporter at the demonstration when the strike happened. His bodyguards encircled him, as he raised his fist and said Iran under this rain and missiles will never withdraw.

Senior security official Ali Larijani, who was also at the Quds Day demonstrations, told Iranian media covering the event that the suspected Israeli attack was a sign of its desperation.

US says 15,000 targets struck in Iran since the start of the war

Israel had earlier announced another wave of strikes in Iran targeting infrastructure, and said its air force had hit more than 200 targets in the last 24 hours, including missile launchers, defense systems and weapons production sites.

In Washington, Hegseth said that over 15,000 enemy targets have been struck, which is more than 1,000 a day since the war began on Feb. 28.

In a social media post hours earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had said watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today, while claiming that Irans military had been decimated and that its leaders had been wiped from the face of the earth.

New Iranian attacks across the region

Iran has responded with daily attacks on oil and other infrastructure around the Gulf region, and on Friday Saudi Arabia said that it had downed nearly 50 drones sent in multiple waves.

In Oman, two people were killed when two drones crashed in an industrial area in the region of Sohar, the Oman News Agency reported.

In the business and tourism hub of Dubai, black smoke billowed from an industrial area from a blaze that authorities said was sparked by debris from an interception.

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A building at the Dubai International Financial Center also sustained damage when hit with debris from what authorities described as a successful interception. DIFC is an economic free zone for banks, capital traders and wealth managers, home to exclusive restaurants and nightclubs.

Iran said earlier this week that it would target banks and financial institutions, after an airstrike hit a bank in Tehran.

In Turkey, NATO defenses intercepted another ballistic missile fired from Iran, the third time since the war began. Residents in the southern city of Adana reported hearing a loud explosion and sirens sounding at Incirlik Air Base, which is used by U.S. forces.

Fighting escalates between Israel and Hezbollah

Nearly 60 people were wounded in northern Israel after the Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah said that it had fired several rocket salvos toward the area and at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. Almost all the injuries were described as very minor.

One person was killed in southwestern Beirut in an Israeli strike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and another attack hit an apartment in the capital, leaving it engulfed in flames. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hezbollah member.

In eastern Lebanon, a strike on an apartment wounded a local official with the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and killed his two sons, the state-run National News Agency reported. For the past two years, Israel has targeted officials with the group.

More than 600 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, the Health Ministry has reported, and nearly 800,000 have been internally displaced, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Iranian authorities say that more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 deaths. The U.S. has lost at least 11 soldiers, while another eight have suffered severe injuries.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes so far were just the beginning and warned that Lebanons government will pay an increasing price for the damage to Lebanese national infrastructure used by Hezbollah.

Pushing back on U.S. President Donald Trumps comments, Iran's national soccer team says no one can exclude it from playing in the men's World Cup in the United States.

Instead, a post on the team's official Instagram account Thursday suggested maybe the U.S. team should be excluded after Trump indicated that the host country couldn't guarantee the safety of the Iranian players.

Trump wrote in a social media post Thursday that the Iranian team was welcome at the World Cup despite the ongoing war with Iran but that I really dont believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.

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Iran is set to play all three of its World Cup group games in the U.S., which is co-hosting the tournament with Mexico and Canada.

The regional war has put doubt on Irans ability to fulfil its World Cup entry, and sports minister Ahmad Donyamali told state TV this week the current circumstances meant it was not possible to play.

But the Iran teams riposte on Instagram confirmed it still wants to participate, and pointed out that the tournament is run by FIFA not Trump or the U.S.

The World Cup is a historic and international event and its governing body is FIFA not any individual, country, the post said. Certainly, no one can exclude Irans national team from the World Cup; the only country that could be excluded is one that merely carries the title of host yet lacks the ability to provide security for the teams participating in this global event.

Iran is scheduled to play in Inglewood, California, against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, before finishing group play in Seattle against Egypt on June 26.

Mixed messages

Trumps mixed messages on the subject include saying last week I really dont care if Iran plays, then assuring FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the White House on Tuesday that Irans team was welcome.

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Iran is a power in Asian soccer, ranked No. 20 in the world by FIFA and has qualified for its fourth straight World Cup edition.

Irans soccer federation has planned to use a tournament base camp in Arizona, at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson.

Before the World Cup, Iranian soccer officials are due to attend FIFA's annual congress on April 30 in Vancouver. The Iranian federation was unable to attend meetings in Atlanta last week to help teams prepare for the 48-nation tournament.

The U.S. economy, hobbled by last falls 43-day government shutdown, advanced at an unexpectedly sluggish 0.7% annual rate from October through December, the Commerce Department reported Friday in a big downgrade of its initial estimate.

Growth in gross domestic product the nations output of goods and services was down sharply from 4.4% in last years third quarter and 3.8% in the second. And the fourth-quarter number was half the governments first estimate of 1.4%; economists had expected the revision to go the other way and show stronger growth.

Federal government spending and investment, clobbered by the shutdown, plunged at a 16.7% rate, hacking 1.16 percentage points off fourth-quarter growth.

For all of 2025, GDP grew 2.1%, solid but down from an initial estimate of 2.2% and from 2.8% in 2024 and 2.9% 2023.

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In the fourth quarter, consumer spending grew at a 2% clip, down from 3.5% in the third quarter and the 2.4% the government had initially estimated. Business investment, excluding housing, increased at a healthy 2.2% pace, likely reflecting money being poured into artificial intelligence, but the increase was down from 3.2% in the third quarter and from the 3.7% advance in the Commerce department's initial estimate.

Exports fell at a 3.3% annual rate in the fourth quarter, a bigger drop than the government first estimated.

A category within the GDP data that measures the economys underlying strength came in weaker than previously reported, growing at a 1.9% clip, down from 2.9% in the third quarter and from the first estimate of 2.4%. This category includes consumer spending and private investment, but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

The U.S. economy the worlds largest has shown surprising resilience in the face of President Donald Trumps policies, including sweeping import taxes and mass deportations. But the war with Iran has driven up oil and gas prices and clouded the economic outlook.

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Meanwhile, the American job market is in a slump. Last month, companies, nonprofits and government agencies cut 92,000 jobs. In 2025, they added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, the weakest hiring outside recession years since 2002.

Fridays GDP was the second of the three estimates of fourth-quarter growth. The final report is due April 9.

Senate Democrats have filed legislation that would prevent the U.S. from attacking Cuba without congressional approval as they seek to force a vote on President Donald Trump's stated goal of a takeover of the Caribbean country.

Democrats have repeatedly used war powers resolutions to force debate on Trump's foreign policy moves, though Republicans have so far mostly backed the president. The resolution filed Thursday by Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine, Ruben Gallego and Adam Schiff would require the president to remove the military from any hostilities with Cuba and could potentially receive a vote by the end of the month.

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"Only Congress has the power to declare war under the Constitution, but he operates with the belief that the U.S. military is a palace guard, ordering military action in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and Iran without Congress authorization or any explanation for his actions to the American people, Kaine said in a statement.

Trump said earlier this week that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was negotiating with Cuba's leadership as the country faces a crippling energy crisis that has been exacerbated by a U.S. blockade of the island.

It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover, Trump told reporters this week at a news conference in Florida. He added that he and Rubio would focus on that goal after the war with Iran.

The U.S. for decades has had a tense relationship with Cuba, but Trump's turn to using military action to take out foreign opponents has raised anticipations that the island could be next. Rubio, whose family immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba in the 1950s, has long pushed for the U.S. to aggressively oppose the Caribbean nation's leadership.

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Rubio told senators earlier this year that the Trump administration would love to see a Cuban regime change, but cautioned that does not mean we are going to provoke it directly." Republicans in Congress have mostly stood behind the Trump administration's aggressive foreign policy

However, Democrats have turned repeatedly to war powers resolutions in order to force debates over how Trump can use military force in foreign nations. They have not succeeded in passing any of the resolutions so far, but the tactic at times has compelled the Trump administration to explain its goals to Congress.

Democrats are also planning next week to potentially force votes on a series of war powers resolutions that apply to Iran unless Republicans agree to hold public hearings on the conflict.

He ran on America First, but now its clear hes become a puppet of the war hawks in his party, Gallego said in a statement.

After about a month of hearing from addiction experts, therapists, platform engineers and executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, 12 jurors are listening to closing arguments before deciding whether social media companies should be liable for harms caused to children using their platforms.

Closing statements in the trial began Thursday at the Spring Street Courthouse in Los Angeles. Lawyers representing the plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman, and those representing the two defendants, Meta and Google-owned YouTube, are making their respective cases to the jurors. TikTok and Snap were also named defendants in the lawsuit, but they each settled before the trial began.

The case, along with two others, has been selected as a bellwether trial, meaning its outcome could impact how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies are likely to play out.

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The plaintiff, identified as KGM in documents or Kaley, as her lawyers have called her during the trial, says her early use of social media addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts.

Mark Lanier, the attorney representing Kaley, began his closing statement by presenting the jurors with an image of a herd of gazelles surrounded by a lion. The lions never go after the strongest or boldest gazelles, he said, but rather target the ones they think are weakest.

I think thats what we got in this case, he said.

In the first hour of his statement, Lanier pointed to several internal documents from Meta and YouTube that seemed to illustrate a clear understanding of the potentially addictive nature of their platforms.

I dont naysay the opportunity to make money, but when youre making money off of kids, you have to do it responsibly, he said.

Both the defendants and the plaintiff have pointed to a turbulent home life for Kaley. Her attorneys say she was preyed upon as a vulnerable user, but attorneys representing Meta and YouTube have argued Kaley turned to their platforms as a coping mechanism or a means of escaping her mental health struggles.

Throughout the trial, Meta argued that Kaley faced significant challenges before she ever used social media. The jurys only task, a Meta spokesperson said in a statement Thursday, is to decide if those struggles would have existed without Instagram. Not one of her therapists identified social media as the cause.

As Lanier went through evidence and testimony presented during the trial, including Kaley's medical records and testimony, he argued that the young girl wouldn't have wanted to bring up her persistent social media use at risk of having her phone taken away. She would return to platforms despite being on the receiving end of cyberbullying on them because it was easier for her to endure the bullying than be off the platforms, he said, echoing her testimony from late February.

In a briefing with reporters earlier, a Meta legal spokesperson also said they didnt believe that youth mental health struggles, both broadly and with Kaley specifically, could be solved through litigation.

Instead of zeroing in on Kaley's mental health history, the attorneys representing YouTube have consistently argued that it is not a social media platform and that its features are not addictive. YouTube has also frequently made the comparison of its platform to television, emphasizing that it doesn't have the same social validation features as Instagram and other platforms.

Lanier, who has used drawings and illustrations throughout the trial to help jurors follow along with testimony and visualize the points being made, also brought out a cupcake to visualize a point related to the juror instructions that Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl had enumerated to them earlier Thursday morning.

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Jurors must decide if Meta and YouTubes negligence was a substantial factor in causing Kaleys harm. The cupcake Lanier displayed to jurors had very little baking soda in it to cause it to rise, but it was a substantial factor in the baking process, he said.

Since it is a civil case, only nine out of the 12 jurors have to agree on each count. They will decide the case against each platform independently, and the judge advised them to treat it as if it were a separate lawsuit.

Jurors will also decide the amount of damages Kaley should be awarded in the event they find either or both of the platforms liable. Lanier advised them to think of one question as they were deciding on that amount: "What is a lost childhood worth?

Jill Biden is breaking her silence about Joe Biden's decision to abruptly end his 2024 presidential reelection bid under pressure from Democrats concerned about his age, health and viability against Republican Donald Trump in a rematch of their 2020 campaign.

A political spouse for nearly 50 years, Jill Biden said she has never publicly discussed her feelings about the three-week stretch when her husband ended his political career, instead saving her thoughts for the pages of her soon-to-be-released memoir.

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Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on Wednesday announced that her book, View from the East Wing: A Memoir, is scheduled to be published June 2.

Jill Biden told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview that the book is a reflection of my four years as first lady and that writing it was somewhat healing.

It was kind of cathartic for me to write it, and I wrote about all the, you know, sometimes painful but other times, most of it really beautiful moments that Joe and I shared during his presidency, she said.

Jill Biden declined on Tuesday to discuss any of those moments, good or bad including watching her husband work his way to the decision to end his five-decade-long political career by dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

In an announcement video shared on Instagram, she said she wants to set the record straight.

The last chapter of her husband's political career

In April 2023, then-President Joe Biden was 80 and the oldest president in U.S. history when he announced he was running for a second term. His age and fitness to serve another four years which would take him to age 86 became a source of concern for the public. Some fellow Democrats began to pressure him to step aside after he turned in a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024 in which he struggled, in a raspy voice, to land his debating points and often appeared to lose his train of thought. Aides blamed the poor performance on a cold.

Joe Biden at first insisted that he would stay in the race, but after a few weeks he withdrew from the campaign and endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris, his vice president. Harris became the partys presidential nominee but lost to Trump in the November 2024 election.

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Jill Biden said that, with the book, I have put things in perspective, presenting what she describes as a more balanced view of her husband's time as president.

The memoir is also a tribute of the sorts to women who, like herself, juggle multiple roles.

It's also a story about my being able to balance life, you know, as a working woman and as a mother, a grandmother, a first lady, she said.

During her four years in the role, Jill Biden, 74, made history as the first first lady to continue the career she had before entering the White House. She had taught English and writing for decades at the community college level, and she continued teaching twice a week at a Northern Virginia school while serving as first lady.

Joe Biden doing well after his cancer diagnosis

The former president's office announced in May 2025 that he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones. He's receiving treatment.

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Jill Biden said it was quite a shock getting the diagnosis for her husband, who's now 83.

The fact that it is in his bones means that he will have cancer, you know, all his lifetime, Jill Biden said. She said the doctors say he will live out his natural life.

Like most retired couples, he'll probably drive me crazy till the end of it, she joked.

She said he visits Washington at least once a week for meetings or to give speeches.

A unique period in American history

The former first lady also writes in the book about serving during a unique period in U.S. history, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the publisher.

Her husband was sworn into office on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021, just two weeks after a mob of Trump supporters, spurred by his false claims that the Republican lost because of election fraud, stormed the building in a violent attempt to keep lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden's victory.

Joe Biden's first year in office was dominated by the federal response to the pandemic and, while he mostly stayed at the White House, Jill Biden wore face mask and traveled around the country to encourage people to get their vaccinations. She also continued her advocacy on behalf of military families, education and community colleges, cancer prevention and women's health initiatives.

Before she became first lady, Jill Biden was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, when her husband was Barack Obama's vice president. She currently chairs the Milken Institute's Women's Health Network.

Jill Biden is also the author of Where the Light Enters, published in 2019, in which she writes about meeting Joe Biden, then a U.S. senator from Delaware, and marrying and building a life with him. She also has written three children's books.

Inflation stayed stubbornly elevated last month as gas prices rose in a snapshot of what consumer prices looked like before the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran sent energy costs soaring.

Consumer prices rose 2.4% in February compared with a year earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday, matching Januarys 2.4% increase. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices climbed 2.5% from a year ago, also matching Januarys level, which was the lowest in five years. Both figures are above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

Wednesdays data has been overtaken by the conflict that began when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, which has caused wild gyrations in oil prices as shipping lanes through the Persian Gulf have suffered a rare shutdown. Gas prices have already jumped and are expected to push inflation much higher when inflation data for this month is released in early April.

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The price spike will challenge officials at the Federal Reserve and could slow consumer spending, which drives two thirds of the nations economic growth each year. The increase could be a one-time event and potentially reverse if the war ends soon, as President Donald Trump has hinted. But the spike in gas prices threatens to worsen inflation for at least a few months with Americans already worn down by nearly five years of stubbornly high prices. Affordability is already a thorny political issue for congressional Republicans who will face voters in midterm elections later this year.

On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.3% in February from the previous month, up from 0.2% in January. Increases at that pace for an extended period would push yearly inflation higher. Core prices moved up just 0.2%, down from a 0.3% rise in January.

Grocery prices rose more quickly, continuing a trend that has hammered family budgets. They rose 0.4% in February and were up 2.4% from a year earlier. Gas prices increased 0.8% last month, though were down 5.6% compared with a year ago.

Oil prices soared as high as nearly $120 a barrel late Sunday before falling closer to $87 by Wednesday after Trump suggested that the conflict would be a short-term excursion. Still, he has also threatened ongoing attacks and it isnt clear when the conflict might end.

Some analysts warn prices will move much higher if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, which has removed roughly three-quarters of the Persian Gulf region's oil production from world markets, according to Wood Mackenzie, an energy analytics firm. On Wednesday, a projectile hit a Thai cargo ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze.

Iran is also targeting oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations, aiming at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.

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Oil prices could soar to $150 a barrel in the coming weeks, the firm forecasts, if shipments don't resume.

That would push gas prices still higher in the United States, where they jumped to $3.58 a gallon on average nationwide Wednesday, according to AAA, an increase of about 20% just in one month.

Higher oil prices will lift other costs as well, including air fares and shipping costs, which could make groceries and restaurant meals more expensive.

At the same time, given the volatility of oil prices U.S. crude prices rose 3% Wednesday after falling nearly 9% to $86.55 the day before it is difficult to forecast how big the impact will be. If shipments resume in a week or so, gas prices will likely decline fairly soon, though they typically fall much more slowly than they rise.

Laura Rosner-Warburton, senior economist at MacroPolicy Perspectives, a consulting firm, expects inflation could jump by as much as 0.9% in March from the previous month, when that data arrives in early April. It would be the largest monthly gain in nearly four years. Yearly inflation could easily surpass 3% in that case and potentially near 4% in the following months.

The jump in gas prices so far this month has been the largest since March 2022, and before that since June 2009, Rosner-Warburton said.

That is enormous, she said. Increases of that magnitude are highly unusual.

Core prices will be much less affected this month, but could tick higher over time as more expensive gas pushes up airline fares and shipping, and other transportation costs. Core inflation is expected to have increased 0.3% in February from the previous month.

Even if the sharp rise is short-lived, it will almost certainly delay any interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve, which meets next week. It cut its key rate three times last year before leaving it unchanged at its last meeting in January.

The Fed is already deeply divided over whether it needs to keep its rate at its current level of about 3.6% to push inflation down closer to its 2% goal, or whether it should reduce the rate to support borrowing, spending, and hiring.

Last Friday, the government reported an unexpectedly sharp job loss in February, as employers slashed 92,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, from 4.3%.

The weak jobs report puts the Fed in an especially difficult position: It would normally reduce rates to boost growth and hiring, but it typically raises rates or at least keeps them where they are if they are worried about inflation.

That's always the worst-case scenario for the central bank, said Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, on Bloomberg Friday. "As we get more uncertainties, I kind of think that the time at which it makes sense to act keeps getting pushed back.

Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, a consulting firm, said that normally the Fed would expect an oil price shock to have at most a temporary impact on inflation and might still cut rates if the economy needed lower borrowing costs.

But Fed policymakers were burnt just a few years ago when they initially said the post-COVID inflation spike in 2022-23 the worst in four decades would be temporary, Daco said. As a result, they will be reluctant to take the risk of prematurely lowering rates. A few officials even mentioned during the January meeting that they might have to hike rates soon, rather than cut them, according to the meeting's minutes and that was before the Iran war.

They do not want to be burned again, Daco said.

Major storms whipped up tornadoes in parts of Illinois and Indiana that leveled homes, killing at least two people and injuring others, and another round of rain, hail and strong winds made its way through the region Wednesday, authorities said.

Please do not come here. Do not try to help right now, Newton County Sheriff Shannon Cothran said in a video update in front of what looked to be a destroyed home in the small northwestern Indiana community of Lake Village.

The deaths in Lake Village were confirmed by Laurie Postma, a spokeswoman for the Lake Township Fire Department, at a news conference held by the sheriff, state police and local authorities on Wednesday. Their names were not released.

She said fewer than 10 people were hurt in Tuesday's storms, which also knocked down trees and power lines.

Multiple homes in the community were destroyed in an apparent tornado, and Indiana State Police Cpl. Eric Rot said people had been injured. He wasn't able to provide an exact number or their conditions.

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David Ferris, a paramedic in a neighboring county who lives in Lake Village, just south of the area that was hit, said he, his wife, and their dogs rode it out in our downstairs bathtub. They were unscathed, except for losing power. He went out to help with rescue efforts and helped people who suffered cuts, scrapes and bumps to the head.

We had another house where a guy crawled out, Ferris told The Associated Press in an interview. He was having some trouble breathing because he was covered in house insulation.

Ferris said the local Family Dollar store was destroyed, as well as a gas station across the street. He said multiple large trees were uprooted.

Severe storms dumping rain and hail in parts of the Midwest were threatened to bring intense tornadoes, damaging winds and very large hail from the southern Plains to the southern Great Lakes, according to the National Weather Service. Parts of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio were under a tornado watch Wednesday morning.

Several tornadoes formed across northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana, but the exact number wont be available until officials conduct damage surveys, said Andrew Lyons, a meteorologist with the weather service Storm Prediction Center.

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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a post on the social platform X that he'd been briefed on the storm and tornado damage.

Keeping in our thoughts all Illinoisans impacted by the severe weather well be here to help them recover, he said.

A tornado struck down near the Kankakee fairgrounds, about 57 miles (92 kilometers) south of Chicago, before traveling northeast into Aroma Park, where it caused extensive damage, according to the Kankakee County Sheriffs Office. No injuries have been reported.

I want to remind area residents to check on their neighbors and loved ones but to avoid unnecessary travel, if at all possible, Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey said in a statement.

In video shared on social media, the twister is seen ripping across a field of farmland near an airport while vehicles lined the road.

More than 2 million Americans were at a moderate risk of severe weather in Illinois and Indiana. Nearly 22 million were at a slightly lesser risk in a zone that includes Chicago, Fort Worth, Texas, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Bam Adebayo scored 83 points, the second-best scoring effort in NBA history, to carry the Miami Heat to a 150-129 win over the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night.

Adebayo had 31 points in the first quarter, 43 by halftime and 62 by the end of the third quarter. He finished 20 for 43 from the field, 36 for 43 from the foul line and 7 for 22 from 3-point range.

Adebayo's free throw makes and attempts both set NBA records for a game. The record for attempts was 39 by Dwight Howard who got to the line that many times on two occasions. The record for free throws made in a game was 28, set by Wilt Chamberlain and Adrian Dantley.

Chamberlain got the 28 free throws on the night he scored 100 points in 1962 the only game better than Adebayo in NBA history. Adebayo passed his basketball idol, Kobe Bryant, for the second-highest scoring game ever; Bryant's career-best was 81.

LeBron James had the previous Heat single-game scoring mark; his 61-point effort against Charlotte happened on March 3, 2014. Denver's Nikola Jokic had the previous season high in the NBA this season with 56.

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Adebayo passed them both in the third quarter and just kept going.

Simone Fontecchio scored 18 points for Miami (37-29), which has won six straight and moved a season-best eight games over .500. The Heat were without Norman Powell (groin), Tyler Herro (quadriceps), Nikola Jovic (back) and Andrew Wiggins (toe).

Alex Sarr had 28 points for the Wizards, who were without Trae Young held out with right knee injury management. Will Riley added 22 and Jaden Hardy scored 17 for Washington, which has lost nine straight.

Democrat Shawn Harris and Republican Clay Fuller advanced to an April 7 runoff for Marjorie Taylor Greenes former U.S. House seat in Georgia after no candidate won a majority in Tuesdays special election.

President Donald Trump in February endorsed Fuller, a district attorney who prosecutes crimes in four counties, to succeed Greene.

Fuller has called Trumps endorsement rocket fuel for his candidacy, but it did not boost him to a majority of the vote in a 14-candidate field that included nine Republicans, three Democrats, a Libertarian and an independent. All the candidates ran together regardless of party, with the top two moving on to the runoff.

Harris, a cattle farmer and retired brigadier general, is likely to face an uphill battle to win a majority in the heavily Republican district. Nevertheless, Democrats are likely to boast of his first-round showing as a further success in a period when they have focused on strong performances in special elections. Harris has promised moderation and a focus on the districts problems, contrasting himself with Greenes bomb-throwing style.

The winner will serve out the remaining months of Greenes term. A Republican win in northwest Georgias 14th Congressional district would bolster the partys majority in the House. The district stretches from suburban Atlanta to the Tennessee state line.

Fuller was a White House fellow in the first Trump administration and is a lieutenant colonel in the Georgia Air National Guard. He finished fourth in the 2020 Republican primary that Greene won before becoming a district attorney. Fuller had set an outright win as his goal for Tuesdays vote.

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This round of voting is only the first step in an elections marathon in the Georgia district. Republicans and Democrats seeking a full two-year term are set for a May 19 party primary, and possibly a June 16 party runoff, before advancing to the general election in November.

Last week, 10 Republicans and Harris qualified to run in November's election for a full two-year term. That includes Fuller, as well as Colton Moore, a former state senator and favorite of far-right activists who drew attention for a vociferous attack on Trumps prosecution in Georgia for alleged election interference.

For some, support for Trump hasn't wavered. Presley Stover of Dallas, Georgia, voted for Fuller. She said she doesn't agree with the president on everything, but supports him on the whole.

I think as of right now, hes doing a great job," she said. Hes definitely helping us a lot more than Biden did. I mean, as of now, theyre not the best, but youre not gonna change anything overnight.

Some Republicans, though, were unaffected by Trump's nod.

God, no. That's not going to sway me one way or the other, said Brendon OLaughlin of Dallas, noting he voted for Brian Stover, a Republican from his area. OLaughlin said he was looking for a change in style from Greene.

Those who backed Democrats said they were repelled by Trump and eager to reduce his power.

There just needs to be checks and balances and I don't think we have many of those right now," said Matthew Wisniewski, a Dallas resident who voted for Harris.

But voters on a whole in the district embraced Greenes hard-right campaign in 2020, when she parachuted into the district after aborting a campaign in a more closely contested district closer to Atlanta.

Greene was one of the most well-known members of Congress until she left in January. She remained loyal to Trump after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, promoting Trumps falsehoods about a stolen election. When Trump ran again in 2024, she toured the country with him and spoke at his rallies while wearing a red Make America Great Again hat.

But Greene began clashing with Trump last year after he and other Republicans pushed back against her running for U.S. Senate or governor. Greene criticized Trumps foreign policy and his reluctance to release documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. The president eventually had enough, saying he would support a primary challenge against her. Greene announced a week later that she would resign.

Returning another Republican to Congress would bolster the party's narrow majority in the House. Republicans currently control 218 House seats to Democrats 214.

MORE ON ELECTIONS | Could a Democrat flip Georgias most Republican district after Greenes exit?

Iranian state TV announced Sunday that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the country's late supreme leader, has been named his successor.

The younger Khamenei had long been considered a contender, even before an Israeli strike killed his father at the start of the war, and despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.

Irans powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard answers to the supreme leader, and now Khamenei will have the central say in war strategy. The announcement came on the ninth day of the war and after signs of a rift among Iranian officials as the country awaited a decision by the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics that selects Irans supreme leader.

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U.S. President Donald Trump told ABC News earlier Sunday he wants a say in who comes to power once the war is over; a new leader is not going to last long without his approval, Trump added. The U.S. and Israel killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the wars opening airstrikes.

Regional anger grows over strikes

The war toll on civilian targets grew as Bahrain accused Iran of striking a desalination plant vital to drinking water supplies, and oil depots in Tehran smoldered following overnight Israeli strikes.

In a sign of rising regional anger, the Arab League chief lashed out at Iran for its reckless policy of attacking neighbors, including ones that host U.S. forces. Gulf countries have been struck by hundreds of missiles and drones since the war started on Feb. 28, and Irans president has vowed to expand attacks.

Saudi Arabia reported its first deaths, saying a military projectile fell onto a residential area and killed two people of Indian and Bangladeshi nationality. Foreign residents and workers have made up most of the wars deaths in Gulf nations.

Israel reported its first soldier deaths, saying two were killed in southern Lebanon, where its military is fighting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. The U.S. military said a service member died of injuries from an Iranian attack on troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Seven U.S. soldiers have now been killed.

The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and at least 11 in Israel, according to officials.

Irans president toughens tone

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian backtracked from conciliatory comments a day earlier in which he apologized for attacks on neighbors soil. Iranian hard-liners had swiftly contradicted him, saying war strategy wouldnt change.

The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be, Pezeshkian said Sunday.

Pezeshkian has urged neighboring states not to take part in U.S. and Israeli attacks. The U.S. strikes have not come from the Gulf Arab governments but from U.S. bases and vessels in the region.

The geography of some countries in the region both overtly and covertly is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue," judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on X on Saturday.

RELATED STORY | Trump warns Iran of complete destruction

Mohseni-Ejei and Pezeshkian are part of the three-member leadership council overseeing Iran since Khamenei was killed.

Desalination and oil facilities attacked

Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia reported additional Iranian missiles launched toward them.

Bahrain accused Iran of indiscriminately attacking civilian targets and damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online.

Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region and thousands of stranded travelers, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.

The desalination plant strike came after Iran said a U.S. airstrike damaged a desalination plant there. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strike on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz had cut into the water supply to 30 villages.

He warned that in doing so the U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.

In response, CENTCOM spokesperson U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins said that "U.S. forces do not target civilians period.

Iranian authorities also said Israel's overnight strikes on four oil storage tankers and a petroleum transfer terminal killed four people. Witnesses in Tehran said the smoke was so thick that it looked as if the sun had not risen.

Israels military said the oil depots were being used by Irans military for fuel to launch missiles.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society warned Tehran residents to take precautions against toxic air pollution and the risk of acid rain.

It also said about 10,000 civilian structures across the country had been damaged, including homes, schools and almost three dozen health facilities. It also

Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned it soon could become harder to produce and sell oil. Some regional producers, including in Iraq, have curbed output amid dangers in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran maintains sufficient fuel, Veys Karami, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, told the state-run news agency.

Lebanon says a half-million people displaced

Lebanon said over a half-million people have been displaced in the week of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

The actual number is likely higher. Lebanons count of 517,000 refers to those who registered on the governments online portal. Israel over the past week has called on residents in dozens of villages across southern Lebanon and the entirety of Beiruts southern suburbs to evacuate as fighting intensifies.

Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine said 83 children and 82 women have been among those killed.

In Beirut, sheltering families crammed into schools, slept in cars or in open areas near the Mediterranean Sea, where some burned firewood to keep warm. The government said it would open a sports stadium to shelter thousands more.

Israels renewed offensive began last week after Hezbollah launched rockets toward northern Israel during the war's opening days. The strikes have been the most intense since a November 2024 ceasefire. Israel has continued near-daily strikes, primarily in southern Lebanon, saying Hezbollah had been trying to rebuild its positions there.