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  • Where abortion laws stand in every state a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe

    Where abortion laws stand in every state a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe

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    In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that ended nearly a half-century of a nationwide right to abortion, states have enacted contrasting policies on the issue. The Dobbs decision overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that protected the right to an abortion until fetal viability, which is generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks of pregnancy.

    Lawmakers, governors, courts and voters are all shaping policies — and more changes are in the pipeline.

    A state-by-state breakdown of where things stand:

    STATES WHERE ABORTION IS BANNED THROUGHOUT PREGNANCY

    ALABAMA

    Law adopted in 2019 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exception: Woman’s life or health.

    ARKANSAS

    Law adopted in 2019 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Woman’s life.

    IDAHO

    Law adopted in 2020 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Rape, incest and life of the woman. A judge has blocked enforcement in cases of medical emergencies.

    The state also has a law making it a felony to transport a minor for the purpose of obtaining an abortion without parental consent.

    KENTUCKY

    Law adopted in 2019 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Health or life of the woman.

    Kentucky voters in 2022 defeated a ballot question for an amendment that would have declared there to be no right to abortion in the state constitution.

    LOUISIANA

    Law adopted in 2006 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Life or heath of the woman.

    MISSISSIPPI

    Law adopted in 2007 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Rape and the life of the woman.

    MISSOURI

    Law adopted in 2019 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Life or heath of the woman.

    NORTH DAKOTA

    A new law was adopted in 2023, replacing one that was blocked by a court.

    Exceptions: Rape, incest and health or life of the woman.

    OKLAHOMA

    Law adopted in 2022 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Life of the woman.

    SOUTH DAKOTA

    Law adopted in 2005 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Life of the woman.

    TENNESSEE

    Law adopted in 2020 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Health or life of the woman.

    TEXAS

    Law adopted in 2021 took effect after Dobbs.

    Exceptions: Health or life of the woman.

    WEST VIRGINIA

    Ban adopted in 2022 after the Dobbs ruling.

    Exceptions: Rape, incest and health or life of the woman.

    WISCONSIN

    Ban is from an 1849 law. There’s litigation over whether it should be in effect.

    Exceptions: Woman’s life.

    ___

    STATES WHERE ABORTION IS BANNED AFTER 6 TO 15 WEEKS OF PREGNANCY

    ARIZONA

    A ban on abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation was adopted in 2022 and took effect after the Dobbs ruling.

    Exceptions: Health or life of the woman.

    A state court has ruled that a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy does not apply to doctors; there’s a legal dispute about whether it is in effect for “helpers.”

    GEORGIA

    Law adopted in 2019 bans abortion once cardiac activity can be detected, generally around six weeks into pregnancy — and before women often know they’re pregnant.

    Exceptions: Rape, incest and health or life of the woman.

    NEBRASKA

    Law adopted in 2023 bans abortion at 12 weeks’ gestational age.

    Exceptions: Rape, incest and life of the woman.

    ___

    STATES WHERE BANS HAVE BEEN ADOPTED BUT ARE NOT YET IN EFFECT

    FLORIDA

    A ban on abortion after 15 weeks’ gestation was adopted in 2022 and took effect after the Dobbs ruling.

    Exceptions: Health or life of the woman.

    If a court finds the current ban to comply with the state constitution, it is to be replaced with a more stringent one adopted in 2023 that would ban abortion after six weeks and add exceptions for cases of rape and incest.

    NORTH CAROLINA

    A ban on abortions after 20 weeks is in place until July 1, when a ban after 12 weeks, with exceptions for the health and life of the woman, rape and incest takes effect.

    ___

    STATES WHERE BANS OR RESTRICTIONS HAVE BEEN PUT ON HOLD BY COURTS

    INDIANA

    A ban on abortion after 22 weeks’ gestation is in place.

    A law to ban abortion at any point in pregnancy was adopted in 2022 after Dobbs, but the Indiana Supreme Court put it on hold.

    MONTANA

    Abortion is banned after viability. A Montana judge has put on hold enforcement of a ban on abortions after 20 weeks and one on the most commonly used procedure in the second trimester, dilation and evacuation, after 15 weeks.

    OHIO

    A ban on abortions after 22 weeks is in place. A county judge put on hold a ban on abortion after cardiac activity can be detected. The state Supreme Court is reviewing that decision.

    Abortion-rights groups are pursuing a measure for the November ballot that would enshrine in the state constitution a right to make one’s own decisions about a variety of reproductive care issues.

    SOUTH CAROLINA

    A ban on abortions after 20 weeks is in place. A judge has put on hold enforcement of a ban after cardiac activity can be detected.

    UTAH

    A ban on abortions after 18 weeks is in place. A state court has put on hold enforcement of a ban on abortions at all stages of pregnancy. A ban on abortion clinics is also on hold.

    WYOMING

    Abortion is banned after viability. Courts have put on hold enforcement of two different bans at all stages of pregnancy, and blocked a specific ban on abortion pills while a lawsuit proceeds.

    ___

    STATES THAT HAVE MOVED TO PROTECT ABORTION ACCESS

    CALIFORNIA

    Abortion is banned after viability.

    Since last year, the state has adopted an executive order, laws and a state constitutional amendment to protect abortion access.

    COLORADO

    Abortion is not banned at any point in pregnancy.

    An executive order and laws to protect access to abortion and one to bar “deceptive practices” by anti-abortion centers have been adopted since last year.

    CONNECTICUT

    Abortion is banned after viability. An executive order signed last year protects access to abortion.

    DELAWARE

    Abortion is banned after viability. A law has been adopted since last year to protect access.

    DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

    Abortion is not banned at any point in pregnancy. A law has been adopted since last year to protect access.

    HAWAII

    Abortion is banned after viability. An executive order and law have been adopted since last year to protect access.

    ILLINOIS

    Abortion is banned after viability. A law has been adopted since last year protecting access.

    MAINE

    Abortion is banned after viability. An executive order has been signed since last year protecting access.

    MARYLAND

    Abortion is banned after viability. A law has been adopted since last year protecting access.

    MASSACHUSSETS

    Abortion is banned after 24 weeks. A law has been adopted since last year protecting access.

    MICHIGAN

    Abortion is banned after viability. A constitutional amendment was adopted in 2022 to protect abortion access.

    MINNESOTA

    Abortion is banned after viability. An executive order and law have been adopted since last year to protect access.

    NEVADA

    Abortion is banned after 24 weeks. An executive order and law have been adopted since last year to protect access.

    NEW JERSEY

    Abortion is not banned at any point in pregnancy. A law has been adopted since last year protecting access.

    NEW MEXICO

    Abortion is not banned at any point in pregnancy. An executive order and law have been adopted since last year to protect access.

    NEW YORK

    Abortion is banned after viability. Laws have been adopted since last year to protect access.

    PENNSYLVANIA

    Abortion is banned after 24 weeks. An executive order has been signed since last year protecting access.

    RHODE ISLAND

    Abortion is banned after viability. An executive order has been signed since last year protecting access. A 2023 law expands coverage for abortion for state workers and Medicaid enrollees.

    VERMONT

    Abortion is not banned at any point in pregnancy. A constitutional amendment and law protecting access have been enacted since last year.

    WASHINGTON

    Abortion is banned after viability. An executive order and law have been adopted since last year to protect access.

    ___

    STATES WHERE KEY ABORTION POLICIES ARE UNCHANGED SINCE DOBBS

    ALASKA

    Abortion is not banned at any point in pregnancy.

    IOWA

    A ban on abortion after 22 weeks’ gestation is in place.

    KANSAS

    A ban on abortion after 22 weeks’ gestation is in place.

    Voters in 2022 defeated a ballot question that would have found no right to abortion in the state constitution.

    NEW HAMPSHIRE

    Abortion is banned after 24 weeks.

    OREGON

    Abortion is not banned at any point in pregnancy.

    VIRGINIA

    Abortion is banned after the second trimester, around 26 weeks.

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  • Ex-Trump lawyer turned witness against him loses bid for release from probation

    Ex-Trump lawyer turned witness against him loses bid for release from probation

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s onetime personal lawyer and the key witness against him in his New York state criminal prosecution lost his bid Friday for early release from probation following a three-year prison sentence after federal prosecutors said he’s lying again.

    U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan cited Michael Cohen’s recent comments in a book and television appearance as reasons to conclude that early release from court supervision would not ensure rehabilitation and deterrence from future crimes.

    The credibility of Cohen — who served as Trump’s personal lawyer from his early 2017 inauguration until his 2018 arrest — will be scrutinized if a jury ever hears the state criminal case filed against Trump over payments Cohen says he made on Trump’s behalf to silence two women who claimed they had affairs with Trump before the Republican became president.

    In court papers, federal prosecutors highlighted Cohen’s recent public comments in arguing against early release from probation rules that, among other things, restrict his travel, subject him to visits and scrutiny from a probation officer and ban him from owning firearms.

    Prosecutors say Cohen falsely wrote in a book that he did not engage in tax fraud, that the charges were “all 100 percent inaccurate” and that he was “threatened” by prosecutors to plead guilty. They noted that under oath at his plea hearings he admitted the crimes and said he was not threatened or forced to plead guilty. They said he also lied in a March television interview.

    In requesting early release for Cohen from court supervision, attorney David M. Schwartz wrote that his client has “clearly demonstrated” that he has been rehabilitated after being a model inmate in prison and after having “substantially cooperated with all government authorities.”

    Schwartz said via email Friday that he would leave public statements to his client. Cohen responded to a text message seeking comment by saying he will issue a statement Monday.

    In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple charges, admitting that he lied to Congress, violated campaign finance laws through excessive political contributions, lied to multiple banks to obtain financing and evaded income taxes by failing to report over $4 million in income. He was sentenced to three years in prison, although he served nearly two-thirds of it at home, released after the COVID-19 outbreak overwhelmed the nation’s prisons.

    Despite Cohen’s claims that he has repeatedly aided state and federal authorities in investigations and deserves credit for his cooperation, federal prosecutors in Manhattan have consistently said his lies undermine his attempts at cooperation, as they did again in opposing his request to be spared from the year and a half left of his probation.

    Federal prosecutors, knowing they’d have to rely on Cohen as the key witness, chose not to prosecute Trump in connection with payouts to porn star Stormy Daniels and a Playboy centerfold, Karen McDougal, to buy their silence during Trump’s successful quest in 2016 for the White House. Trump has denied the affairs.

    State prosecutors pursued the case and relied on Cohen’s testimony before a Manhattan grand jury returned an indictment charging Trump with 34 crimes. Trump, the first ex-president to face criminal charges, pleaded not guilty to the charges in early April.

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  • Balloons, tears and hugs as family of girl who died in Border Patrol custody holds New York funeral

    Balloons, tears and hugs as family of girl who died in Border Patrol custody holds New York funeral

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Balloons with rainbows and Minnie Mouse surrounded the casket of an 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody as dozens of people gathered Friday to remember Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez in New York City.

    Her family had been heading to the city last month before their journey across the southern U.S. border ended in tragedy. The child’s death has put the U.S. government under new scrutiny over the care given to thousands of detained migrants.

    The girl’s mother, Mabel Alvarez Benedicks, hugged almost every guest at the R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home, thanking them for coming to honor their daughter. She grabbed a handful of tissues to wipe her eyes and nose.

    Anadith had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia, her mother has said. An internal investigation found that Border Patrol medical personnel were informed about the girl’s medical history but declined to review the file before she had a seizure and died May 17, her family’s ninth day in custody.

    “We are laying our baby to rest and may she rest in peace,” the Alvarez family said in a statement. “We want justice for her, and we do not want this to ever happen again. We will fight for justice.”

    As the girl’s casket was closed, Benedicks began weeping. Pastor Arnold Ciego led the gathering in a song and commented that the family didn’t leave their countries because they wanted to simply leave, but because they were searching for a cure and medical help for Anadith.

    “When are we going to rest from an unjust system?” Ciego said.

    Pointing to poster boards with photos of Anadith, Rossel Reyes recalled memories of his daughter.

    “Here, we were in Mexico. She was the one who never got off her bike,” he said, choking up. “Here, we were in Honduras on the beach walking. I always held her hand, carried her, always, always. She was always affectionate, kind and caring. And every day I will think of her. Every day.”

    Anadith, who was born in Panama, died in a Border Patrol station in Harlingen, Texas. More than a week earlier, her family of five had surrendered to border agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico.

    Anadith tested positive for influenza while in custody. Her mother told The Associated Press that she had warned agents and staff about Anadith’s medical history. A preliminary report from CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility found medical staff declined to review the file.

    Late Thursday, CBP announced it had reassigned its chief medical officer, Dr. David Tarantino, after Anadith’s death, saying in a statement it was “bringing in additional senior leadership to drive action across the agency.”

    The family entered the U.S. at a time when daily illegal crossings topped 10,000 as migrants rushed to beat the end of pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum that were lifted May 11.

    While the family was being held in Harlingen, the girl experienced stomachaches, nausea, difficulty breathing and a fever that reached 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit (40.5 degrees Celsius) a day before her death, the CBP report said.

    The nurse practitioner also reported denying three or four requests from the girl’s mother for an ambulance until the girl collapsed in her mother’s arms and lost consciousness.

    “Despite the girl’s condition, her mother’s concerns, and the series of treatments required to manage her condition, contracted medical personnel did not transfer her to a hospital for higher-level care,” the Office of Professional Responsibility said.

    Dr. Paul H. Wise, a Stanford University pediatrics professor who visited South Texas to look into the circumstances around what he said was a “preventable” death, said there should be little hesitation about sending ill children to the hospital, especially those with chronic conditions.

    Attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nongovernmental organization working with the family, have requested an independent autopsy to determine the cause of the girl’s death.

    “When I heard of Anadith’s death, my heart broke in a million different pieces,” Guerline Jozef, founder of immigration advocacy nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, said during the wake, which ended with a group of artists performing a song with maracas and drums.

    The family said Anadith will be buried Saturday at a cemetery in New Jersey.

    ___

    Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct the girl’s name to Anadith Danay, not Anadith Tanay.

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  • Destruction in Texas Panhandle: Storm blamed for 3 deaths wrecked mobile homes and main street

    Destruction in Texas Panhandle: Storm blamed for 3 deaths wrecked mobile homes and main street

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    PERRYTON, Texas (AP) — As Sabrina Devers watched what would turn out to be a deadly storm approach her ranch just north of the Texas Panhandle town Perryton, she first spotted golf ball-sized and then softball-sized hail.

    Then, Devers said, across the high plains toward Perryton, the system spawned a tornado.

    Once the twister had moved through, Devers drove into into the town to find a path of wreckage local officials estimated was a quarter of a mile (400 meters) wide, and 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) long. The Thursday afternoon storm would be blamed for three deaths and more than 100 injuries as it destroyed hundreds of homes, tossed vehicles into buildings and knocked out power and cellphone service in Perryton, a town of 8,000 about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Amarillo, just south of the Oklahoma line.

    “The devastation was unbelievable,” Devers told Fox Weather. “It took a tanker truck and threw it into a pasture.”

    Cleanup efforts were underway Friday in Texas as the same system that slapped Perryton continued to wreak havoc as it marched across the Deep South, dumping rain in the Florida Panhandle and sending howling winds into Mississippi. In total, the storms were blamed for five deaths: three in Texas, and one each in Florida and Mississippi.

    Ochiltree General Hospital in Perryton treated 115 patients suffering minor to major injuries, including head trauma, collapsed lungs, lacerations and broken bones, the medical center said on Facebook.

    “We kind of expected to see more last night and we didn’t,” the hospital’s interim CEO, Kelly Judice, said. “We just want people in our community to know that we’re here. We’re open. We have clinics open. We’re ready for business to take care of the people that need to be treated.”

    People with routine medical checkups planned were asked to reschedule.

    The hospital was operating on a generator and some patients were being treated in a sunlit conference room since exam rooms in one clinic don’t have windows, Judice said.

    Among those helping out at the hospital on Thursday was Dr. Mark Garnett, the medical director of Majestic Laser on Main Street who hitched a ride to there after the tornado hit.

    “People were coming out the woodwork to help and volunteer,” he said. “The response from the area was tremendous.”

    Earlier Thursday, he and the staff at the clinic on Main Street had been listening to the rain come down and watching the lights flicker. They thought the tornado might be passing north of Perryton instead of right above them.

    “We could hear the rain intensity getting a little louder and then we started hearing some hail and that’s when everyone’s phones went off with a tornado warning,” Garnett said.

    He went to the door and realized that he was in the middle of a tornado. He could see trees and debris flying in the air. Garnett and the staff sheltered in the back of the clinic as the glass in the front door shattered.

    As he heard the tornado pass, Garnett stepped out onto Main Street and was stunned by the level of debris and destruction.

    “We were all just wondering what had happened and how we were still alive,” he said.

    Perryton Fire Chief Paul Dutcher estimated that 150 to 200 homes in the community had been destroyed and said that in the downtown area, many storefronts were totally wiped off and buildings had collapsed or partially collapsed.

    “It is such a tragedy,” Dutcher said on NBC’s “Today” show. “All the stuff behind me, it can all be rebuilt, but those lives that we’ve lost is really the tragedy of everything.”

    Tornadic activity is not typical for this time of year, according to meteorologist Matt Mosier at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

    “You expect thunderstorms this time of year,” Mosier said. “It’s definitely not rare, but tornadoes are not on a lot of people’s minds because they’ve just kind of moved away from the season that they’re typically focused on (tornadoes).”

    This week has been very warm with moist, unstable conditions that combined with strong wind shear, which is abnormal for this time of year, Mosier said.

    In the Florida Panhandle, a person died Thursday night when at least one confirmed tornado cut through Escambia County, toppling a tree onto a home, county spokesperson Andie Gibson told the Pensacola News Journal.

    Flash flooding also was reported in Pensacola where between 12 and 16 inches (30 and 40 centimeters) of rain has fallen since Thursday evening, said Caitlin Baldwin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Mobile in Pensacola.

    In West Pensacola, flash floodwaters surrounded an apartment complex that was evacuated of all its 146 residents. Boats were used to remove some and take them to a local community center, said Davis Wood, public information officer for Escambia County Public Safety. No injuries were reported.

    In Mississippi a man died after a tree fell on him during stormy weather early Friday. Canton Police Chief Otha Brown told WLBT-TV the man was killed after high winds toppled a tree onto his carport as he was entering his car.

    The storm system also brought hail and possible tornados to northwestern Ohio.

    More than 536,000 customers were without electricity in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida on Friday afternoon, according to the poweroutage.us website.

    The National Weather Service in Amarillo was surveying damage Friday to determine the tornado rating in the Perryton area, meteorologist Brett Muscha said.

    More thunderstorms were possible in the far northern Texas Panhandle and the Oklahoma Panhandle Friday afternoon and night, Muscha said. The greatest chance of strong and severe storms were on the Oklahoma side with golf ball-size hail and 60 mph (100 kph) wind gusts.

    Also in Texas and Southern states including Louisiana, heat advisories were in effect Friday and were forecast into the Juneteenth holiday weekend with temperatures reaching toward 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). It was expected to feel as hot as 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius).

    Earlier this week, damaging winds toppled trees, damaged buildings and blew cars off a highway as powerful storms crossed the South from Texas to Georgia.

    ___

    Brumfield reported from Washington, D.C. and Dupuy from New York. Associated Press journalists Ken Miller reported from Oklahoma City; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis; Robert Jablon in Los Angeles; Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi; Juan Lozano in Houston and Adam Kealoha Causey in Dallas contributed to this report.

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  • Theranos founder objects to $250 monthly restitution sought by US due to limited financial resources

    Theranos founder objects to $250 monthly restitution sought by US due to limited financial resources

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors want Elizabeth Holmes to pay $250 each month to victims of her failed blood testing startup after she leaves prison, but her attorneys are pushing back citing “limited financial resources” available to the disgraced founder of Theranos.

    The U.S. filed a motion last week asking the court to correct “clerical errors” which included, prosecutors said, the lack of a timeline for restitution from the one-time billionaire once she exits prison. Holmes’ legal team objected to those changes this week.

    Holmes, 39, began an 11-year sentence at a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas, late last month after she and her former partner, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, were convicted of fraud for duping investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars while running Theranos, a Silicon Valley startup that promised to revolutionize health care.

    In a May 16 ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila ordered Holmes and Balwani, who is serving a nearly 13-year prison sentence in California, to pay $452 million in restitution to victims.

    After paying a total of $25 every three months to victims while incarcerated, federal prosecutors want Holmes to pay at least $250 each month or 10% of her earnings, whichever is greater, in restitution once she is released from prison.

    That would be similar structure to Balwani’s judgment, which requires the former Theranos COO to pay at least $1,000 per month upon supervised released, prosecutors said in last week’s filing.

    Holmes’ lawyers argued this week that Holmes’ payment schedule in court documents is not a clerical error.

    “Ms. Holmes’ Amended Judgment already includes a restitution schedule that begins while she is incarcerated,” Holmes’ attorneys wrote in a Monday filing. “There is no indication in the record that the absence of a change to the schedule after she is released was a clerical error.”

    The defense team also argued that Balwani’s amended judgment “says nothing” about what the court intended for Holmes’ payment schedule — adding that Holmes and Balwani “have different financial resources and the Court has appropriately treated them differently.”

    Holmes’ attorneys made similar financial arguments throughout her criminal fraud trial. Both Holmes — whose stake in Theranos was once valued at $4.5 billion — and Balwani, whose holdings were once valued around $500 million, have indicated they are nearly broke after running up millions of dollar in legal bills while proclaiming their innocence.

    The Associated Press reached out to attorneys representing Holmes and the U.S. government for statements on Wednesday.

    __________

    AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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  • Biden dispatching Sullivan to Tokyo for talks with Japan, Philippines, South Korea officials

    Biden dispatching Sullivan to Tokyo for talks with Japan, Philippines, South Korea officials

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is dispatching White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan to Tokyo this week for talks with his counterparts from Japan, Philippines and South Korea.

    Sullivan will also take part in “the first-ever trilateral meeting of the Japanese, Philippine, and U.S. national security advisers” while in Japan, the White House National Security Council said in a statement Tuesday.

    The White House offered scant details about Sullivan’s two-day visit that begins Thursday, saying Sullivan and his counterparts “will discuss ways to deepen collaboration on a number of key regional and global issues.”

    Sullivan’s visit comes after U.S., Japanese and Philippine coast guard ships staged law enforcement drills in waters near the disputed South China Sea earlier this month. Washington has stepped up efforts to reinforce alliances in Asia amid an increasingly tense rivalry with China.

    Washington lays no claims to the strategic South China Sea, where China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysian, Taiwan and Brunei have been locked in tense territorial stand-offs for decades. But the U.S. says freedom of navigation and overflight and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the busy waterway are in its national interest.

    The White House confirmed Sullivan’s travels after Biden during a reception at the White House for U.S. chiefs of diplomatic missions on Tuesday made an off-hand remark that Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. envoy to Japan, was not on hand because he was getting ready for Sullivan’s visit.

    U.S.-China relations have been strained throughout Biden’s tenure. China launched military exercises last year around Taiwan after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., visited the democratically governed island that China claims as its own.

    Relations became further strained early this year after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had crossed the United States. Beijing also was angered by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover in the U.S. in April that included an engagement with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

    And on Saturday, the White House confirmed that China has been operating a spy base in Cuba for sometime and that it was upgraded in 2019 under the Trump administration’s watch.

    White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday said that the Trump administration had the “same access” to intelligence about China’s spying operations as the Biden administration did.

    Former Trump administration officials, including former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and national security adviser John Bolton, have pushed back against the assertion that the Cuba spy base was upgraded under their watch.

    “The (Biden) administration claims that the base was there in 2019 if not before, all I can say is I was in the White House for part of 2019 I was certainly unaware of it,” former Trump-era national security adviser John Bolton said in an interview on Tuesday with SiriusXM’s POTUS channel. “I think I would have remembered it if it crossed my desk.”

    The White House confirmed the base after the Wall Street Journal reported last week that China and Cuba had reached an agreement in principle to build an electronic eavesdropping station on the island.

    Despite the tensions with Beijing, the administration has been eager to restart high-level communications with Beijing.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning a visit China on June 18 to meet with senior officials, according to U.S. officials, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because neither the State Department nor the Chinese foreign ministry has yet confirmed the trip. Blinken was scheduled to visit China in February but those talks were scrapped after the spy balloon incident.

    Sullivan is currently in India meeting with officials ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington next week.

    He held talks on Tuesday with his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, that focused on potential U.S.-Indian collaboration on artificial intelligence, semiconductors and defense, according to the Indian Foreign Ministry. Sullivan also addressed a conference of business leaders where he said the U.S. was keen on doing away with regulatory obstacles that are holding back the two countries from deepening trade in areas like defense and high-tech.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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  • Inside the Tony Awards: No script, but plenty of song, dance, high spirits and history

    Inside the Tony Awards: No script, but plenty of song, dance, high spirits and history

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    NEW YORK (AP) — No script? No problem!

    There was plenty of uncertainty in the run-up to this year’s Tony Awards, which at one point seemed unlikely to happen at all because of the ongoing Hollywood writer’s strike.

    But the ceremony went off without a hitch on Sunday night. The event was scriptless, to honor a compromise with striking writers, but chock-full of high-spirited Broadway performances drawing raucous cheers from an audience clearly thrilled just to be there at all.

    It was a night of triumph for the small-scale but huge-hearted musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teenager with a rare aging disease, but also a night notable for inclusion: Two nonbinary performers, Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee, made history by winning their respective acting categories.

    The ceremony also touched on the specter of antisemitism in very different places: World War II Europe, with best play winner “Leopoldstadt,” and early 20th-century America, with “Parade,” winner for best musical revival.

    In the end, the lack of scripted banter didn’t much dampen the proceedings, and little wonder: Broadway folks are trained in improv. And of course there was more room for singing and dancing — including from current shows not in competition — and nobody was complaining about that.

    Oh, and the show ended right on time. Oscars, are you listening?

    Some key moments of the night:

    BROADWAY HEADS UPTOWN

    It wasn’t just the writers strike that made for a different evening. The venue was new, too. It was on Broadway, yes, but miles from the theater district. The ceremony took place uptown in Washington Heights, in the ornate, gilded United Palace, a former movie theater filled with chandeliers and carpets and majestic columns.

    “Thank you for coming uptown — never in my wildest dreams,” quipped Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has helped bring events to the venue in the neighborhood where he set his “In the Heights.” The afterparty was held in tents outside the building instead of the usual festivities in the fancy food halls of the Plaza Hotel near Central Park.

    A BLANK PAGE, BUT A FULL NIGHT

    Oscar winner and Broadway luminary Ariana DeBose, hosting for the second year running, immediately addressed the elephant in the room. Speaking to the audience before the pre-show telecast began, she explained nothing would be scripted and told winners the only words they’d see on teleprompters would be “wrap up please.” When the main telecast began, she appeared on camera reading a Tony script, but the pages were blank.

    Instead of words, DeBose and others spoke with their dance moves, doing a brassy number in the theater’s grand lobby, staircases and aisles, complete with gravity-defying leaps. Afterward, DeBose warned anyone who may have thought last year was “unhinged”: “Buckle up!”

    DeBose, who performed in the original cast of “Hamilton” and won an Oscar for “West Side Story,” also passionately explained why the Tonys are so crucial to the economic survival of Broadway, and to touring productions around the country.

    A TIMELY REMINDER OF ANTISEMITISM IN EUROPE …

    An early award brought a sobering reminder of the horrors of antisemitism. Brandon Uranowitz of “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard’s sweeping play about a Jewish family in Vienna, thanked the celebrated playwright “for writing a play about Jewish identity and antisemitism and the false promise of assimilation,” and noted his ancestors, “many of whom did not make it out of Poland, also thank you.”

    Uranowitz, who won for featured actor in a play, also joked that the thing he wanted most in life was to repay his parents for the sacrifices they made — only he couldn’t, because he works in the theater.

    … AND IN AMERICA

    “Leopoldstadt” went on to win best play, while best musical revival went to another searing work about antisemitism: “Parade,” starring Ben Platt as Leo Frank, a Jewish man lynched in 1915 in Georgia. In his acceptance speech for best director, Michael Arden echoed the play’s somber themes: “We must battle this. It is so, so important, or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.”

    He added his own story of how, growing up, he often had been called the “f-word,” referring to a homophobic slur. He then earned some of the night’s loudest cheers when he triumphantly reclaimed the slur while pointing out that he now had a Tony.

    ‘I SHOULD NOT BE UP HERE’

    It was an emotional moment when Alex Newell of “Shucked” became the first out nonbinary person to win an acting Tony, taking the prize for best featured actor in a musical. Newell, also known for “The Glee Project” and “Glee,” thanked close family for their love and support and then addressed the outside world.

    “Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black, little baby from Massachusetts,” they said. “And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face and tell you that you can do anything you put your mind to.”

    Like the Oscars, the Tonys have only gendered categories for performers.

    ‘THIS IS FOR YOU’

    J. Harrison Ghee was the second nonbinary actor of the night to make history, winning best actor in a musical for their role in “Some Like It Hot,” based on the classic 1959 film. They play a male musician on the run who disguises as a woman in what becomes a voyage of discovery about gender (the movie role involved disguise, but no discovery). Accepting the award, Ghee said they had been raised to use their gifts not for themselves, but to help others.

    “For every trans, non-gender-conforming, nonbinary human who ever was told you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” Ghee said, tapping the Tony for emphasis.

    LEA MICHELE GETS HER TONY MOMENT (NEIL DIAMOND, TOO)

    Not to mix show metaphors or anything, but Lea Michele was not about to throw away her shot. The “Funny Girl” lead was not eligible for a Tony because she didn’t originate the role last year (that would be Beanie Feldstein, whom Michele replaced in a matter of months).

    But the former “Glee” star, who has turned around the fortunes of the revival, is seen by many as the ultimate Fanny Brice, and her gorgeously belted rendition of “Don’t Rain On My Parade” — 13 years after she first performed it at the Tonys — definitely did not disappoint.

    Judging from faces in the crowd, neither did Neil Diamond — actually Will Swenson, who plays Diamond in the musical “A Beautiful Noise” (not nominated but currently playing). After the audience was warned during a commercial break to keep the aisles clear for a big moment, Swenson came onstage crooning “Sweet Caroline,” soon accompanied by dancers dressed in sparkly gold, filling the aisles. Among those seen singing happily along: Sara Bareilles, Jessica Chastain, Melissa Etheridge, Miranda, and countless others shouting out the lyrics: “So good! So good!”

    PARTY TIME

    Most Tony attendees spent a good five hours in the United Palace, and the room got pretty warm. So folks were happy to step outside to the afterparty, where guests munched on ceviche, mangoes on sticks and mini-Cuban sandwiches, and sipped specially designed cocktails.

    Ghee was a clear star of the party, towering over most guests — literally and figuratively — as they clutched their Tony and accepted well wishes or agreed to selfies. Ghee also chatted with last year’s winner of the same award, Myles Frost, who played Michael Jackson in “MJ.”

    “Our industry is shifting forward! We are erasing labels and boundaries and limits,” Ghee said when asked their main takeaway of the night. The actor wore a bright blue custom ensemble by Bronx designer Jerome LaMaar, with a choker of glistening jewels.

    “When you’re getting it custom made, you can really do something,” they quipped.

    ___

    For more on the 2023 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards

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  • Pat Sajak announces ‘Wheel of Fortune’ retirement, says upcoming season will be his last as host

    Pat Sajak announces ‘Wheel of Fortune’ retirement, says upcoming season will be his last as host

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pat Sajak is taking one last spin on “Wheel of Fortune,” announcing Monday that its upcoming season will be his last as host.

    Sajak announced his retirement from the venerable game show in a tweet.

    “Well, the time has come. I’ve decided that our 41st season, which begins in September, will be my last. It’s been a wonderful ride, and I’ll have more to say in the coming months. Many thanks to you all,” the tweet said.

    Sajak, 76, has presided over the game show, which features contestants guessing letters to try to fill out words and phrases to win money and prizes, since 1981. He took over duties from Chuck Woolery, who was the show’s first host when it debuted in 1975.

    Along with Vanna White, who joined the show in 1982, Sajak has been a television mainstay. The show soon shifted to a syndication and aired in the evening in many markets, becoming one of the most successful game shows in history. Sajak will continue to serve as a consultant on the show for three years after his retirement as host.

    “As the host of Wheel of Fortune, Pat has entertained millions of viewers across America for 40 amazing years. We are incredibly grateful and proud to have had Pat as our host for all these years and we look forward to celebrating his outstanding career throughout the upcoming season,” said Suzanne Prete, executive vice president of game shows for Sony Pictures Television.

    In recent years, some of Sajak’s banter and chiding of contestants have become fodder for social media. That prompted Sajak to remark in his retirement post about doing another season: “(If nothing else, it’ll keep the clickbait sites busy!)”

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  • ‘Hair,’ ‘Everwood’ actor Treat Williams dies after Vermont motorcycle crash

    ‘Hair,’ ‘Everwood’ actor Treat Williams dies after Vermont motorcycle crash

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    DORSET, Vt. (AP) — Actor Treat Williams, whose nearly 50-year career included starring roles in the TV series “Everwood” and the movie “Hair,” died Monday after a motorcycle crash in Vermont, state police said. He was 71.

    Shortly before 5 p.m., a Honda SUV was turning left into a parking lot when it collided with Williams’ motorcycle in the town of Dorset, according to a statement from Vermont State Police.

    “Williams was unable to avoid a collision and was thrown from his motorcycle. He suffered critical injuries and was airlifted to Albany Medical Center in Albany, New York, where he was pronounced dead,” according to the statement.

    Williams was wearing a helmet, police said.

    The SUV’s driver received minor injuries and wasn’t hospitalized. He had signaled the turn and wasn’t immediately detained although the crash investigation continued, police said.

    Williams, whose full name was Richard Treat Williams, lived in Manchester Center in southern Vermont, police said.

    His agent, Barry McPherson, also confirmed the actor’s death.

    “I’m just devastated. He was the nicest guy. He was so talented,” McPherson told People magazine.

    “He was an actor’s actor,” McPherson said. “Filmmakers loved him. He’s been the heart of … Hollywood since the late 1970s.”

    The Connecticut-born Williams made his movie debut in 1975 as a police officer in the movie “Deadly Hero” and went on to appear in more than 120 TV and film roles, including the movies “The Eagle Has Landed,” “Prince of the City” and “Once Upon a Time in America.”

    He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his role as hippie leader George Berger in the 1979 movie version of the hit musical “Hair.”

    He appeared in dozens of television shows but was perhaps best known for his starring role from 2002 to 2006 in “Everwood” as Dr. Andrew Brown, a widowed brain surgeon from Manhattan who moves with his two children to the Colorado mountain town of that name.

    Williams also had a recurring role as Lenny Ross on the TV show “Blue Bloods.”

    Williams’ stage appearances included Broadway shows, including “Grease” and “Pirates of Penzance.”

    Colleagues and friends praised Williams as kind, generous and creative.

    “Treat Williams was a passionate, adventurous, creative man,” actor Wendell Pierce tweeted. “In a short period of time, he quickly befriended me & his adventurous spirit was infectious. We worked on just 1 film together but occasionally connected over the years. Kind and generous with advice and support. RIP.”

    Justine Williams, a writer, director and producer, tweeted that Williams was “the best.” Actor James Woods said, “I really loved him and am devastated that he’s gone.”

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  • Inside the Tony Awards: No script, but plenty of song, dance, high spirits and history

    Inside the Tony Awards: No script, but plenty of song, dance, high spirits and history

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    NEW YORK (AP) — No script? No problem!

    There was plenty of uncertainty in the run-up to this year’s Tony Awards, which at one point seemed unlikely to happen at all because of the ongoing Hollywood writer’s strike.

    But the ceremony went off without a hitch on Sunday night. The event was scriptless, to honor a compromise with striking writers, but chock-full of high-spirited Broadway performances drawing raucous cheers from an audience clearly thrilled just to be there at all.

    It was a night of triumph for the small-scale but huge-hearted musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” about a teenager with a rare aging disease, but also a night notable for inclusion: Two nonbinary performers, Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee, made history by winning their respective acting categories.

    The ceremony also touched on the specter of antisemitism in very different places: World War II Europe, with best play winner “Leopoldstadt,” and early 20th-century America, with “Parade,” winner for best musical revival.

    In the end, the lack of scripted banter didn’t much dampen the proceedings, and little wonder: Broadway folks are trained in improv. And of course there was more room for singing and dancing — including from current shows not in competition — and nobody was complaining about that.

    Oh, and the show ended right on time. Oscars, are you listening?

    Some key moments of the night:

    BROADWAY HEADS UPTOWN

    It wasn’t just the writers strike that made for a different evening. The venue was new, too. It was on Broadway, yes, but miles from the theater district. The ceremony took place uptown in Washington Heights, in the ornate, gilded United Palace, a former movie theater filled with chandeliers and carpets and majestic columns.

    “Thank you for coming uptown — never in my wildest dreams,” quipped Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has helped bring events to the venue in the neighborhood where he set his “In the Heights.” The afterparty was held in tents outside the building instead of the usual festivities in the fancy food halls of the Plaza Hotel near Central Park.

    A BLANK PAGE, BUT A FULL NIGHT

    Oscar winner and Broadway luminary Ariana DeBose, hosting for the second year running, immediately addressed the elephant in the room. Speaking to the audience before the pre-show telecast began, she explained nothing would be scripted and told winners the only words they’d see on teleprompters would be “wrap up please.” When the main telecast began, she appeared on camera reading a Tony script, but the pages were blank.

    Instead of words, DeBose and others spoke with their dance moves, doing a brassy number in the theater’s grand lobby, staircases and aisles, complete with gravity-defying leaps. Afterward, DeBose warned anyone who may have thought last year was “unhinged”: “Buckle up!”

    DeBose, who performed in the original cast of “Hamilton” and won an Oscar for “West Side Story,” also passionately explained why the Tonys are so crucial to the economic survival of Broadway, and to touring productions around the country.

    A TIMELY REMINDER OF ANTISEMITISM IN EUROPE …

    An early award brought a sobering reminder of the horrors of antisemitism. Brandon Uranowitz of “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard’s sweeping play about a Jewish family in Vienna, thanked the celebrated playwright “for writing a play about Jewish identity and antisemitism and the false promise of assimilation,” and noted his ancestors, “many of whom did not make it out of Poland, also thank you.”

    Uranowitz, who won for featured actor in a play, also joked that the thing he wanted most in life was to repay his parents for the sacrifices they made — only he couldn’t, because he works in the theater.

    … AND IN AMERICA

    “Leopoldstadt” went on to win best play, while best musical revival went to another searing work about antisemitism: “Parade,” starring Ben Platt as Leo Frank, a Jewish man lynched in 1915 in Georgia. In his acceptance speech for best director, Michael Arden echoed the play’s somber themes: “We must battle this. It is so, so important, or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.”

    He added his own story of how, growing up, he often had been called the “f-word,” referring to a homophobic slur. He then earned some of the night’s loudest cheers when he triumphantly reclaimed the slur while pointing out that he now had a Tony.

    ‘I SHOULD NOT BE UP HERE’

    It was an emotional moment when Alex Newell of “Shucked” became the first out nonbinary person to win an acting Tony, taking the prize for best featured actor in a musical. Newell, also known for “The Glee Project” and “Glee,” thanked close family for their love and support and then addressed the outside world.

    “Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black, little baby from Massachusetts,” they said. “And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face and tell you that you can do anything you put your mind to.”

    Like the Oscars, the Tonys have only gendered categories for performers.

    ‘THIS IS FOR YOU’

    J. Harrison Ghee was the second nonbinary actor of the night to make history, winning best actor in a musical for their role in “Some Like It Hot,” based on the classic 1959 film. They play a male musician on the run who disguises as a woman in what becomes a voyage of discovery about gender (the movie role involved disguise, but no discovery). Accepting the award, Ghee said they had been raised to use their gifts not for themselves, but to help others.

    “For every trans, non-gender-conforming, nonbinary human who ever was told you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” Ghee said, tapping the Tony for emphasis.

    LEA MICHELE GETS HER TONY MOMENT (NEIL DIAMOND, TOO)

    Not to mix show metaphors or anything, but Lea Michele was not about to throw away her shot. The “Funny Girl” lead was not eligible for a Tony because she didn’t originate the role last year (that would be Beanie Feldstein, whom Michele replaced in a matter of months).

    But the former “Glee” star, who has turned around the fortunes of the revival, is seen by many as the ultimate Fanny Brice, and her gorgeously belted rendition of “Don’t Rain On My Parade” — 13 years after she first performed it at the Tonys — definitely did not disappoint.

    Judging from faces in the crowd, neither did Neil Diamond — actually Will Swenson, who plays Diamond in the musical “A Beautiful Noise” (not nominated but currently playing). After the audience was warned during a commercial break to keep the aisles clear for a big moment, Swenson came onstage crooning “Sweet Caroline,” soon accompanied by dancers dressed in sparkly gold, filling the aisles. Among those seen singing happily along: Sara Bareilles, Jessica Chastain, Melissa Etheridge, Miranda, and countless others shouting out the lyrics: “So good! So good!”

    PARTY TIME

    Most Tony attendees spent a good five hours in the United Palace, and the room got pretty warm. So folks were happy to step outside to the afterparty, where guests munched on ceviche, mangoes on sticks and mini-Cuban sandwiches, and sipped specially designed cocktails.

    Ghee was a clear star of the party, towering over most guests — literally and figuratively — as they clutched their Tony and accepted well wishes or agreed to selfies. Ghee also chatted with last year’s winner of the same award, Myles Frost, who played Michael Jackson in “MJ.”

    “Our industry is shifting forward! We are erasing labels and boundaries and limits,” Ghee said when asked their main takeaway of the night. The actor wore a bright blue custom ensemble by Bronx designer Jerome LaMaar, with a choker of glistening jewels.

    “When you’re getting it custom made, you can really do something,” they quipped.

    ___

    For more on the 2023 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards

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  • Supreme Court won’t review North Carolina’s decision to nix license plates with Confederate flag

    Supreme Court won’t review North Carolina’s decision to nix license plates with Confederate flag

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it won’t review North Carolina’s decision to stop issuing specialty license plates with the Confederate flag.

    As is typical, the court did not comment in declining to hear the case, which challenged the state’s decision. The dispute was one of many the court said Monday it would not hear. It was similar to a case originating in Texas that the court heard in 2015, when it ruled the license plates are state property.

    The current dispute stems from North Carolina’s 2021 decision to stop issuing specialty license plates bearing the insignia of the North Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The chapter sued, claiming that the state’s decision violated state and federal law. A lower court dismissed the case, and a federal appeals court agreed with that decision.

    North Carolina offers three standard license plates and more than 200 specialty plates. Civic clubs including the Sons of Confederate Veterans can create specialty plates by meeting specific requirements.

    In 2021, however, the state Department of Transportation sent the group a letter saying it would “no longer issue or renew specialty license plates bearing the Confederate battle flag or any variation of that flag” because the plates “have the potential to offend those who view them.”

    The state said it would consider alternate artwork for the plates’ design if it does not contain the Confederate flag.

    The organization unsuccessfully argued that the state’s decision violated its free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment and state law governing specialty license plates.

    In 2015, the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Texas chapter claimed Texas was wrong not to issue a specialty license plate with the group’s insignia. But the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Texas could limit the content of license plates because they are state property.

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  • Silvio Berlusconi’s death draws tributes, even from critics, in Italy and beyond

    Silvio Berlusconi’s death draws tributes, even from critics, in Italy and beyond

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    ROME (AP) — Adored, scorned, impossible to ignore in life, former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in death drew tributes even from his critics, and ever more lavish praise from admirers, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as prayers from Pope Francis.

    Following word of Berlusconi’s death on Monday in a Milan hospital, where he was being treated for chronic leukemia, reaction poured in from around the world, from national leaders to announcers who burst into tears on one of his television networks, for the populist three-time premier and media mogul.

    Here are some of the reactions:

    — In a condolence telegram, Putin hailed Berlusconi as a “patriarch” of Italian politics and a true patriot who had improved Italy’s standing on the world stage.

    “I have always sincerely admired his wisdom, his ability to make balanced, far-sighted decisions even in the most difficult situations,” Putin said in the telegram released by the Kremlin. “During each of our meetings, I was literally charged with his incredible vitality, optimism and sense of humor.”

    Berlusconi hosted Putin twice at one of his Sardinia Emerald Coast villas, and the Russian reciprocated, including with a stay at Putin’s dacha. For Berlusconi’s last birthday in September, Putin gifted him bottles of vodka, even as the Italian government staunchly backed Ukraine in the war against the Russian invasion.

    “Undoubtedly, he was a politician of the European and the world scale,” Putin said. “There are few such people in the international arena now. He was a great friend of our people and did a lot to develop business, friendly relations between Russia and European countries.” Berlusconi had expressed reservations about sanctions against Russian interests over the invasion.

    — Former U.S. President George W. Bush, in a message from Kennebunkport, Maine, recalled Berlusconi as a “vibrant leader with a personality to match. (Wife) Laura and I were fortunate to spend a good deal of time with him during my presidency. There was never a dull moment with Silvio. He strengthened the friendship between Italy and the United States, and we are grateful for his commitment to our important alliance. Laura and I send our condolences to the Berlusconi family and the people of Italy.”

    — Far-right Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose coalition government’s junior partners include the Forza Italia party Berlusconi founded three decades ago, bid him “farewell, Silvio” in a video statement carried on Italian television. With his passing, “a great European political leader and a great Italian is gone. His intuitions, his battles, his commitment transformed our nation and opened spaces for authentic liberty.”

    — Pope Francis, in a condolence telegram sent to Berlusconi’s eldest daughter, Marina Berlusconi, assured his closeness to all the family. The pontiff said that the late premier had carried out “public responsibilities with an energetic temperament.” Francis prayed that God grant “eternal peace for him and consolation of the heart for those who weep for his passing.” Francis said he joined in the condolences “with a fervent remembrance in prayer.”

    — The Biden administration extended its condolences to Berlusconi’s family, friends “and to the government and people of Italy,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “The prime minister worked closely with several U.S. administrations on advancing our bilateral relationship. We stand with the people of Italy today.”

    — Tony Blair, a former U.K. prime minister, in a statement recalled his many interactions with Berlusconi. “Silvio was a larger-than-life figure with whom I worked closely for several years as Prime Minister. I know he was controversial for many but for me he was a leader whom I found capable, shrewd and, most important, true to his word.”

    — Former center-left Italian Premier Romani Prodi, who in 2006 narrowly defeated Berlusconi in an election to take the premiership, said that their rivalry “never exceeded into enmity on the personal level, keeping the confrontation in a context of reciprocal respect.” A former European Commission president, Prodi expressed appreciation for Berlusconi’s “support for the pro-Europe cause, above all because it was confirmed and reiterated in a period in which our common European destiny was harshly and unwisely under accusation.”

    — “We had our political differences but on a personal level, he was always charming and engaging company,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister and former NATO secretary-general, said of Berlusconi.

    — Italian President Sergio Mattarella, whose role as head of state was coveted by Berlusconi — he sought unsuccessfully in recent years to be chosen by Parliament for that position — in his tribute described the former premier as a “protagonist of long seasons of Italian politics.

    “Berlusconi was a great political leader who marked the history of our republic, influencing its paradigms, customs and language,” Mattarella said.

    — Former center-left Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, who now heads a centrist opposition party, recalled Berlusconi’s divisive legacy in a message on Twitter. “Silvio Berlusconi made history in this country. Many loved him, many hated him. All must recognize that his impact on political life, but also economic, sport and television, has been without precedence.”

    — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted about her sadness. Berlusconi “led Italy in a time of political transition and since then continued to shape his beloved country. I extend my condolences to his family and the Italian people.”

    — French President Emmanuel Macron said Berlusconi was “a great entrepreneur, and he left his mark on Italian political life over the last few decades, and we send the Italian people and the Italian government our condolences.”

    — Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Berlusconi’s top Forza Italia official, said the late premier was a “precious engine of ideas.” “Berlusconi changed the history of our country,” he said.

    __In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Berlusconi “obviously a tremendously significant figure in the life of Italy, in the political life, in the public life of the country. Many American administrations worked with him over the years.”

    — Fabrizio Marrazzo, a spokesperson for Italy’s Gay Party, recalled Berlusconi as “a liberal person who contributed to the dissemination of LGBT+ issues on his television networks,” including the first television interviews in Italy with gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people. Still, Marrazzo noted that Berlusconi’s solidarity on the political front sometimes wavered. In 2010, buffeted by sex scandals over his partying with women decades younger, Berlusconi offended many with his remark that it was “better to be passionate about a beautiful girl than a gay.”

    — On one of the three private television networks in Berlusconi’s media empire, a pair of announcers hosting a live morning talk show choked up and shed tears when giving the audience the news of his death. Outside one of Berlusconi’s villas, in Arcore, near Milan, someone placed a scarf from AC Milan soccer club, which Berlusconi had long owned, next to bouquets of flowers.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show that the spelling of the Gay Party spokesperson’s last name is Marrazzo, not Marazzo.

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  • Oldest of 4 siblings who survived Colombian plane crash told family their mother lived for days

    Oldest of 4 siblings who survived Colombian plane crash told family their mother lived for days

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    BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The four Indigenous children who survived 40 days in the Amazon jungle after their plane crashed have shared limited but harrowing details of their ordeal with their family, including that their mother survived the crash for days before she died.

    The siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1, are expected to remain for at least two weeks in a hospital receiving treatment after their rescue Friday, but some are already speaking and wanting to do more more than lie in bed, relatives said.

    Manuel Ranoque, father of the two youngest children, told reporters outside the hospital Sunday that the oldest of the four siblings — 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy — had described to him how their mother was alive for about four days after the plane crashed on May 1 in the Colombian jungle.

    Ranoque said before she died, the mother likely would have told them: “Go away,” apparently asking them to leave the wreckage site to survive. He provided no more details. Authorities have not said anything about this version.

    Details of what happened to the youngsters, and what they did, have been emerging gradually and in small pieces, so it could take some time to have a better picture of their ordeal, during which the youngest, Cristin, turned 1 year old.

    Henry Guerrero, an Indigenous man who was part of the search group, told reporters that the children were found with two small bags containing some clothes, a towel, a flashlight, two cellphones, a music box and a soda bottle.

    He said they used the bottle to collect water in the jungle, and he added that after they were rescued the youngsters complained of being hungry. “They wanted to eat rice pudding, they wanted to eat bread,” he said.

    Fidencio Valencia, a child’s uncle, told the media outlet Noticias Caracol that the children were starting to talk and one of them said they hid in tree trunks to protect themselves in a jungle area filled with snakes, animals and mosquitoes. He said they were exhausted.

    “They at least are already eating, a little, but they are eating,” he said after visiting them at the military hospital in Bogota, Colombia. On Saturday, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez had said the children were being rehydrated and couldn’t eat food yet.

    Later, Valencia provided new details of the children’s recovery two days after the rescue: “They have been drawing. Sometimes they need to let off steam.” He said family members are not talking a lot with them to give them space and time to recover from the shock.

    The children were traveling with their mother from the Amazonian village of Araracuara to the town of San Jose del Guaviare when the plane went down.

    The Cessna single-engine propeller plane was carrying three adults and the four children when the pilot declared an emergency due to engine failure. The small aircraft fell off the radar a short time later and a search for survivors began.

    Dairo Juvenal Mucutuy, another uncle, told local media that one of kids said he wanted to start walking.

    “Uncle, I want shoes, I want to walk, but my feet hurt,” Mucutuy said the child told him.

    “The only thing that I told the kid (was), ’When you recover, we will play soccer,” he said.

    Authorities and family members have said the siblings survived eating cassava flour and seeds, and that some familiarity with the rainforest’s fruits were also key to their survival. The kids are members of the Huitoto Indigenous group.

    After being rescued on Friday, the children were transported in a helicopter to Bogota and then to the military hospital, where President Gustavo Petro, government and military officials, as well as family members met with the children on Saturday.

    An air force video released Friday showed a helicopter using lines to pull the youngsters up because it couldn’t land in the dense rainforest where they were found. The military on Friday tweeted pictures showing a group of soldiers and volunteers posing with the children, who were wrapped in thermal blankets. One of the soldiers held a bottle to the smallest child’s lips.

    Gen. Pedro Sanchez, who was in charge of the rescue efforts, said that the children were found 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from the crash site in a small forest clearing. He said rescue teams had passed within 20 to 50 meters (66 to 164 feet) of where the children were found on a couple of occasions but had missed them.

    Two weeks after the crash, on May 16, a search team found the plane in a thick patch of the rainforest and recovered the bodies of the three adults on board, but the small children were nowhere to be found.

    Soldiers on helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle, hoping that it would help sustain the children. Planes flying over the area fired flares to help search crews on the ground at night, and rescuers used speakers that blasted a message recorded by the siblings’ grandmother telling them to stay in one place.

    Colombia’s army sent 150 soldiers with dogs into the area, where mist and thick foliage greatly limited visibility. Dozens of volunteers from Indigenous tribes also joined the search.

    Ranoque, the father of the youngest children, said the rescue shows how as an “Indigenous population, we are trained to search” in the middle of the jungle.

    “We proved the world that we found the plane… we found the children,” he added.

    Some Indigenous community members burned incense as part of a ceremony outside the Bogota military hospital Sunday to give thanks for the rescue of the kids.

    Luis Acosta, coordinator of the Indigenous guard that was part of the search in the Amazon, said the children were found as part of what he called a “combination of ancestral wisdom and Western wisdom… between a military technique and a traditional technique.”

    The Colombian government, which is trying to end internal conflicts in the country, has highlighted the joint work of the military and Indigenous communities to find the children.

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  • Jeffrey Epstein victims settle sex trafficking lawsuit against JPMorgan for $290 million

    Jeffrey Epstein victims settle sex trafficking lawsuit against JPMorgan for $290 million

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    JPMorgan Chase announced a tentative $290 million settlement Monday with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein who had accused the bank of being the financial conduit that allowed the financier to continue operating a sex trafficking operation.

    Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls for massages and then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York. He was found dead in jail in August of that year, at age 66. A medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.

    The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court in November sought to hold JPMorgan financially liable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of teenage girls and young women. A related lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    The proposed settlement comes roughly two weeks after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified in a deposition for the case, where he denied knowing about Epstein and his crimes until the financier was arrested in 2019, according to a transcript of the videotaped deposition released last month.

    “We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and we believe this settlement is in the best interest of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man,” JPMorgan Chase said in a written statement early Monday.

    The proposed settlement, which must still be approved by the judge in the case, totals $290 million, according to lead plaintiff attorney David Boies.

    According to the lawsuits, JPMorgan provided Epstein loans and regularly allowed him to withdraw large sums of cash from 1998 through August 2013 even though it was aware of his participation in sex trafficking. The anonymous victim in the suit, referred to as Jane Doe, said she was sexually abused by Epstein from 2006 and 2013.

    Also on Monday, a judge ruled in favor of making Doe’s lawsuit into a class-action lawsuit for all victims of Epstein’s sex crimes.

    “Money, which for far too long flowed with impunity between Jeffrey Epstein’s global sex trafficking enterprise and Wall Street’s leading banks, is decisively being used for good,” said Sigrid McCawley, an attorney for Jane Doe and other Epstein victims, in a prepared statement. “The settlements signal that financial institutions have an important role to play in spotting and shutting down sex trafficking.”

    The bank continued to count Epstein as a client despite the fact that he was arrested and pled guilty in 2008 to sex crimes in Florida.

    “Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it,” the bank said in a prepared statement. “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”

    Both lawsuits were filed after New York state in November enacted a temporary law letting adult victims of sexual abuse to sue others for the abuse they suffered, even if the abuse occurred long ago.

    Lawsuits are still pending between the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase, and the bank is still pursuing its lawsuit against JPMorgan former executive Jes Staley.

    The bank has denied the allegations and sued Staley, saying he hid Epstein’s crimes to keep him as a client. Staley left JPMorgan in 2013 to later become CEO of the British bank Barclays. Staley stepped down from that role in 2021 due to his prior relationship with Epstein.

    __________________________________________________

    AP Writer Michael Hill contributed to this report from Albany. AP Writer Larry Neumeister contributed from New York.

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  • The pause on student loan payments is ending. Can borrowers find room in their budgets?

    The pause on student loan payments is ending. Can borrowers find room in their budgets?

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — In a good month, Celina Chanthanouvong has about $200 left after rent, groceries and car insurance. That doesn’t factor in her student loans, which have been on hold since the start of the pandemic and are estimated to cost $300 a month. The pause in repayment has been a lifeline keeping the 25-year-old afloat.

    “I don’t even know where I would begin to budget that money,” said Chanthanouvong, who works in marketing in San Francisco.

    Now, after more than three years, the lifeline is being pulled away.

    More than 40 million Americans will be on the hook for federal student loan payments starting in late August under the terms of a debt ceiling deal approved by Congress last week. The Biden administration has been targeting that timeline for months, but the deal ends any hope of a further extension of the pause, which has been prolonged while the Supreme Court decides the president’s debt cancellation.

    A Republican measure overturning Biden’s student loan cancellation plan passed the Senate last week, but the president vetoed the bill Wednesday.

    Without cancellation, the Education Department predicts borrowers will fall behind on their loans at historic rates. Among the most vulnerable are those who finished college during the pandemic. Millions have never had to make a loan payment, and their bills will soon come amid soaring inflation and forecasts of economic recession.

    Advocates fear it will add a financial burden that younger borrowers can’t afford.

    “I worry that we’re going to see levels of default of new graduates that we’ve never seen before,” said Natalia Abrams, president of the nonprofit Student Debt Crisis Center.

    Chanthanouvong earned a bachelor’s in sociology from the University of California-Merced in 2019. She couldn’t find a job for a year, leaving her to rely on odd jobs for income. She found a full-time job last year, but at $70,000, her salary barely covers the cost of living in the Bay Area.

    “I’m not going out. I don’t buy Starbucks every day. I’m cooking at home,” she said. “And sometimes, I don’t even have $100 after everything.”

    Under President Joe Biden’s cancellation plan, Chanthanouvong would be eligible to get $20,000 of her debt erased, leaving her owing $5,000. But she isn’t banking on the relief. Instead, she invited her partner to move in and split rent. The financial pinch has them postponing or rethinking major life milestones.

    “My partner and I agreed, maybe we don’t want kids,” she said. “Not because we don’t want them, but because it would be financially irresponsible for us to bring a human being into this world.”

    Out of the more than 44 million federal student loan borrowers, about 7 million are below the age of 25, according to data from the Education Department. Their average loan balance is less than $14,000, lower than any other age group.

    Yet borrowers with lower balances are the most likely to default. It’s fueled by millions who drop out before graduating, along with others who graduate but struggle to find good jobs. Among those who defaulted in 2021, the median loan balance was $15,300, and the vast majority had balances under $40,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

    Resuming student loan payments will cost U.S. consumers $18 billion a month, the investment firm Jefferies has estimated. The hit to household budgets is ill-timed for the overall economy, Jefferies says, because the United States is widely believed to be on the brink of a recession.

    Despite the student loan moratorium, Americans mostly didn’t bank their savings, according to Jefferies economist Thomas Simons. So they’ll likely have to cut back on other things — travel, restaurants — to fit resumed loan payments into their budgets. Belt-tightening could hurt an economy that relies heavily on consumer spending.

    Noshin Hoque graduated from Stony Brook University early in the pandemic with about $20,000 in federal student loans. Instead of testing the 2020 job market, she enrolled at a master’s program in social work at Columbia University, borrowing $34,000 more.

    With the payments paused, she felt a new level of financial security. She cut costs by living with her parents in New York City and her job at a nonprofit paid enough to save money and help her parents.

    She recalls splurging on a $110 polo shirt as a Father’s Day gift for her dad.

    “Being able to do stuff for my parents and having them experience that luxury with me has just been such a plus,” said Hoque, who works for Young Invincibles, a nonprofit that supports student debt cancellation.

    It gave her the comfort to enter a new stage of life. She got married to a recent medical school graduate, and they’re expecting their first child in November. At the same time, they’re bracing for the crush of loan payments, which will cost at least $400 a month combined. They hope to pay more to avoid interest, which is prohibited for them as practicing Muslims.

    To prepare, they stopped eating at restaurants. They canceled a vacation to Italy. Money they wanted to put toward their child’s education fund will go to their loans instead.

    “We’re back to square one of planning our finances,” she said. “I feel that so deeply.”

    Even the logistics of making payments will be a hurdle for newer borrowers, said Rachel Rotunda, director of government relations at National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. They’ll need to find out who their loan servicers are, choose a repayment plan and learn to navigate the payment system.

    “The volume of borrowers going back on the system at the same time — this has never happened before,” Rotunda said. “It’s fair to say it’s going to be bumpy.”

    The Education Department has promised to make the restart of payments as smooth as possible. In a statement, the agency said it will continue to push for Biden’s debt cancellation as a way to reduce borrowers’ debt load and ease the transition.

    For Beka Favela, 30, the payment pause provided independence. She earned a master’s in counseling last year, and her job as a therapist allowed her to move out of her parents’ house.

    Without making payments on her $80,000 in student loans, she started saving. She bought furniture. She chipped away at credit card debt. But once the pause ends, she expects to pay about $500 a month. It will consume most of her disposable income, leaving little for surprise costs. If finances get tighter, she wonders if she’ll have to move back home.

    “I don’t want to feel like I’m regressing in order to make ends meet,” said Favela, of Westmont, Illinois. “I just want to keep moving forward. I’m worried, is that going to be possible?”

    ___

    AP Economics Writer Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.

    ___

    The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Apple unveils a $3,500 headset as it wades into the world of virtual reality

    Apple unveils a $3,500 headset as it wades into the world of virtual reality

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    CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple on Monday unveiled a long-rumored headset that will place its users between the virtual and real world, while also testing the technology trendsetter’s ability to popularize new-fangled devices after others failed to capture the public’s imagination.

    After years of speculation, Apple CEO Tim Cook hailed the arrival of the sleek goggles — dubbed “Vision Pro” — at the the company’s annual developers conference held on a park-like campus in Cupertino, California, that Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs helped design. The device will be capable to toggling between virtual reality, or VR, and augmented reality, or AR, which projects digital imagery while users still see can see objects in the real world.

    “This marks the beginning of a journey that will bring a new dimension to powerful personal technology,” Cook told the crowd.

    Although Apple executives provided an extensive preview of the headset’s capabilities during the final half hour of Monday’s event, consumers will have to wait before they can get their hands on the device and prepare to pay a hefty price to boot. Vision Pro will sell for $3,500 once it’s released in stores early next year.

    “It’s an impressive piece of technology, but it was almost like a tease,” said Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen. “It looked like the beginning of a very long journey.”

    Instead of merely positioning the goggles as another vehicle for exploring virtual worlds or watching more immersive entertainment, Apple framed the Vision Pro as the equivalent of owning a ultrahigh-definition TV, surround-sound system, high-end camera, and state-of-the art camera bundled into a single piece of hardware.

    “We believe it is a stretch, even for Apple, to assume consumers would pay a similar amount for an AR/VR headset as they would for a combination of those products,” D.A. Davidson Tom Forte wrote in a Monday research note.

    Despite such skepticism, the headset could become another milestone in Apple’s lore of releasing game-changing technology, even though the company hasn’t always been the first to try its hand at making a particular device.

    Apple’s lineage of breakthroughs date back to a bow-tied Jobs peddling the first Mac in 1984 —a tradition that continued with the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, the Apple Watch in 2014 and its AirPods in 2016.

    The company emphasized that it drew upon its past decades of product design during the years it spent working on the Vision Pro, which Apple said involved more than 5,000 different patents.

    The headset will be equipped with 12 cameras, six microphones and variety of sensors that will allow users to control it and various apps with just their eyes and hand gestures. Apple said the experience won’t cause the recurring nausea and headaches that similar devices have in the past. The company also developed a technology to create three-dimensional digital version of each user to display during video conferencing.

    Although Vision Pro won’t require physical controllers that can be clunky to use, the goggles will have to either be plugged into a power outlet or a portable battery tethered to the headset — a factor that could make it less attractive for some users.

    “They’ve worked hard to make this headset as integrated into the real world as current technology allows, but it’s still a headset,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Yory Wurmser, who nevertheless described the unveiling as a “fairly mind-blowing presentation.”

    Even so, analysts are not expecting the Vision Pro to be a big hit right away. That’s largely because of the hefty price, but also because most people still can’t see a compelling reason to wear something wrapped around their face for an extended period of time.

    If the Vision Pro turns out to be a niche product, it would leave Apple in the same bind as other major tech companies and startups that have tried selling headsets or glasses equipped with technology that either thrusts people into artificial worlds or projects digital images onto scenery and things that are actually in front of them — a format known as “augmented reality.”

    Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been describing these alternate three-dimensional realities as the “metaverse.” It’s a geeky concept that he tried to push into the mainstream by changing the name of his social networking company to Meta Platforms in 2021 and then pouring billions of dollars into improving the virtual technology.

    But the metaverse largely remains a digital ghost town, although Meta’s virtual reality headset, the Quest, remains the top-selling device in a category that so far has mostly appealed to video game players looking for even more immersive experiences. Cook and other Apple executives avoided referring to the metaverse in their presentations, describing the Vision Pro as the company’s first leap into “spatial computing” instead.

    The response to virtual, augmented and mixed reality has been decidedly ho-hum so far. Some of the gadgets deploying the technology have even been derisively mocked, with the most notable example being Google’s internet-connected glasses released more than a decade ago.

    Microsoft also has had limited success with HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset released in 2016, although the software maker earlier this year insisted it remains committed to the technology.

    Magic Leap, a startup that stirred excitement with previews of a mixed-reality technology that could conjure the spectacle of a whale breaching through a gymnasium floor, had so much trouble marketing its first headset to consumers in 2018 that it has since shifted its focus to industrial, health care and emergency uses.

    Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives estimated Apple will sell just 150,000 of the headsets during its first year on the market before escalating to 1 million headsets sold during the second year — a volume that would make the goggles a mere speck in the company’s portfolio.

    By comparison, Apple sells more than 200 million of its marquee iPhones a year. But the iPhone wasn’t an immediate sensation, with sales of fewer than 12 million units in its first full year on the market.

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  • FDA warns consumers not to use off-brand versions of Ozempic, Wegovy

    FDA warns consumers not to use off-brand versions of Ozempic, Wegovy

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use off-brand versions of the popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy because they might not contain the same ingredients as the prescription products and may not be safe or effective.

    Agency officials said this week that they have received reports of problems after patients used versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in the brand-name medications, which have been compounded, or mixed in pharmacies. Officials didn’t say what the problems were.

    The trouble is that those versions, often sold online, contain a version of semaglutide that is used in lab research and has not been approved for use in people.

    “Compounded drugs are not FDA-approved, and the agency does not verify the safety or effectiveness of compounded drugs,” the notice said.

    Sales of semaglutide products have soared in the past few years after the drug was shown to spur fast and significant weight loss. The drugs manufactured by Novo Nordisk include brands Ozempic and Rybelsus, used to treat diabetes, and Wegovy, approved to treat obesity.

    Demand for the medications has outstripped supply. As of May, Ozempic and Wegovy remain on the FDA’s list of drug shortages. When drugs are in short supply, compounding pharmacies are permitted to produce versions of those medications.

    Consumers should only use drugs containing semaglutide with a prescription from a licensed health care provider and obtained from a state-licensed pharmacy or other facilities registered with the FDA, the agency said.

    __

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

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  • What to stream this weekend: Foo Fighters, ‘The Idol,’ LeBron James and ‘American Gladiators’ doc

    What to stream this weekend: Foo Fighters, ‘The Idol,’ LeBron James and ‘American Gladiators’ doc

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    There’s new music from Foo Fighters, the buzzy HBO series “The Idol” starring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd and a documentary about the breakthrough TV show “American Gladiators” among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you.

    Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are a LeBron James’s origin story and a TV show where contestants compete to transform nostalgia cars into life-sized Hot Wheels.

    NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

    — LeBron James’s origin story is dramatized in the new film “Shooting Stars,” debuting exclusively on Peacock on Friday. Based on the 2009 book, written by James and “Friday Night Lights” author Buzz Bissinger, the film looks at how he and his childhood friends (the self-anointed “fab four”) rose to basketball prominence on their high school team in Akron, Ohio. He and his friends would help lead their St. Vincent-St. Mary’s team to three state championships in four years. James is played by newcomer Marquis “Mookie” Cook, who co-stars with “Stranger Things’” Caleb McLaughlin as Lil Dru, Avery S. Wills Jr. as Willie McGee and Khalil Everage as Sian Cotton in the Chris Robinson-directed film.

    — Sydney Sweeney, of “Euphoria” and “The White Lotus,” takes a starring role in “Reality,” available now on HBO and Max. (Read AP’s review here. ) She plays former U.S. Air Force member and NSA contractor Reality Winner who was accused of leaking classified documents about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The film is based on actual dialogue between Winner and the FBI agents (Josh Hamilton and Marchant Davis) who showed up at her doorstep to interrogate her in 2017. It’s the directorial debut of Tina Satter, who adapted her 2019 play “Is This a Room?” and has gotten rave reviews since its debut at the Berlin Film Festival.

    — Method acting is in the spotlight in a new series that debuted on The Criterion Channel on Thursday, along with a conversation between Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio and Isaac Butler, who wrote a book on the matter (“The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned How to Act.”) The films feature performances by noted disciples like Sidney Poitier, Montgomery Clift, Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando. Included among the 25 titles are George Stevens’ “A Place in the Sun,” Sidney Lumet’s “12 Angry Men,” Elia Kazan’s “Splendor in the Grass,” Mike Nichols’ “The Graduate” and “Carnal Knowledge,” Bob Rafelson’s “Five Easy Pieces” and Warren Beatty’s “Reds.”

    — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

    NEW MUSIC TO STREAM

    — Foo Fighters have a new album, the first since the death of the band’s drummer, Taylor Hawkins. The rockers say the 10-track “But Here We Are” is “a brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything Foo Fighters endured over the last year.” The lead, driving single is “Rescued,” with the lyrics “I’m just waiting to be rescued/Bring me back to life. Kings and queens and in-betweens/We all deserve the right.” The new album, out Friday is produced by Greg Kurstin and Foo Fighters. Hawkins died last year during a South American tour. (Read AP’s review here.)

    — Bob Dylan’s re-recordings of old songs, which first premiered on Alma Har’el’s 2021 film “Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan,” will be released on audio formats for the first time on Friday. The collection includes “Forever Young,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and “When I Paint My Masterpiece.” The 14 tracks include “Watching the River Flow,” a bluesy jewel. The full-length “Shadow Kingdom feature” film will also be available for download and rental on June 6. (Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings)

    — The Revivalists return with their fifth full-length album, promising more of their spicy gumbo of horn-accented alt-rock, blues, folk and gospel. “Pour It Out Into the Night” is out Friday and the New Orleans-based band offers three very different takes on their sound, with the driving anthem “Kid,” the folky “Down in the Dirt” and the political protest tune “The Long Con,” with the lyrics “Every day they take away/A little piece of you/a little piece of me.” The band this summer are performing at Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. (Concord Records)

    — This week will offer a chance to honor Kenny Rogers with some rare songs he left behind. The 10-track “Life Is Like a Song” features eight never-before-heard recordings, spanning 2008-2011, including covers of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” and Lionel Richie’s “Goodbye,” as well as his duet with Dolly Parton, “Tell Me That You Love Me.” The collection is curated and executive produced by the late Country Music Hall of Famer’s widow, Wanda Rogers. Two bonus tracks include a cover of the Mack Gordon/Henry Warren standard, “At Last” and the Buddy Hyatt-penned “Say Hello to Heaven.” (UMe)

    — AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy

    NEW SERIES TO STREAM

    — “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson has a new gritty HBO series called “The Idol” starring Lily-Rose Depp and Abel Tesfaye, also known as the recording artist The Weeknd, who is a co-writer and co-executive producer. Depp plays a recording artist in LA who, after a nervous breakdown, enters a disturbing relationship with a self-help guru/cult leader played by Tesfaye. “The Idol” has already garnered a lot of buzz for an alleged toxic work environment off camera and reportedly gratuitous sex scenes that are also violent, which the cast and Levinson have denied. The show premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where Levinson acknowledged at a press conference that while it is a “provocative” story, the media coverage has convinced him “we’re about to have the biggest show of the summer.” “The Idol” premieres Sunday on HBO.

    — A new miniseries offers a history lesson on the 32nd president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms in office. Co-executive produced by Bradley Cooper and biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, “FDR” delves into some of the most pivotal times in Roosevelt’s life including when he contracted Polio disease and was permanently paralyzed from the waist down, when U.S. forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and his marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt who became a champion for human rights. The three-night miniseries premiered its first episode Monday on History.

    — ESPN’s award-winning “30 for 30” series returns with “The American Gladiators Documentary,” a two-part film examining the history of the former syndicated reality-competition show. It also reveals “American Gladiators” had a dark underbelly, involving greed, addiction and blackmail. Former contenders and crew members are interviewed. It premiered Tuesday.

    — Gearheads will rev up for “Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge,” where contestants compete to transform nostalgia cars into life-sized Hot Wheels. Hosted by auto expert Rutledge Wood and featuring celebrity guests including Anthony Anderson, Joel McHale and Terry Crews, the winner of each episode gets a $25,000 prize. Jay Leno, known for his own love of automobiles and rare car collection, appears in the finale episode where the winner is awarded $50,000 and have their creation turned into an actual Hot Wheels diecast model that the public can purchase. “Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge” debuted Tuesday on NBC.

    — Alicia Rancilio

    NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

    — As Mick Jagger once sang, summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street. For aficionados of Capcom’s venerable Street Fighter series, that time can’t come soon enough. Street Fighter 6 — the franchise’s first release since 2016 — brings back 18 fan-favorite brawlers for more one-on-one punching and kicking. The new edition also lets you create your own avatar from scratch and go cruisin’ for a bruisin’ in cities all over the world. And there’s a battle hub where you and your friends can start fight clubs, compete in tournaments and play old-school Capcom arcade games. The fists and feet start flying Friday on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S and PC.

    — Lou Kesten

    ___

    Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/apf-entertainment.

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  • Flower power and diplomacy: Versailles perfume gardens transport public back in time

    Flower power and diplomacy: Versailles perfume gardens transport public back in time

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    VERSAILLES, France (AP) — The Versailles flower gardens were once a symbol of the French king’s expeditionary might and helped water-deprived courtiers perfume their skin. Now, they have been reimagined to give today’s public a glimpse — and a sniff — into the gilded palace’s olfactory past.

    Holding secrets to the original concept of flower power, scents of Bulgarian rose, mint and citrus from hundreds of vividly colored historic blooms unveiled this week waft into the nostrils of paying visitors at the Chateauneuf Orangery of the Grand Trianon, transporting them back in time.

    “Those discovering the gardens will, from flower to flower, understand what we loved in history,” Versailles Palace president Catherine Pegard said. “Many are the original scents.”

    The aim of the Perfumer’s Garden is to unlock the mysteries and significance behind the scented flowers of the 17th-century French court — yet also remind us that it was no accident that the Versailles Palace was the very place where the job of perfumer was actually invented during that century.

    The gardens sprawl in four sections, reimagining the vision of Sun King, Louis XIV, who wanted his grounds to overflow with the scents of orange blossom, hyacinth, tuberose and jasmine. The king had a practical reason for his obsessions: Following the plague that killed tens of millions of people in the Middle Ages in Europe, people feared that hot water could spread infection. Courtiers instead washed with alcohol rubs and used scents to mask bodily odors.

    But there was also a diplomatic explanation for these floral obsessions: The king’s flower collection served as a means of projecting strength as France became the world’s greatest power in that century.

    “Versailles was all about olfactory diplomacy in those days. Flower meant power. Dignitaries were impressed by the exotic flowers because only the king — who was now very powerful — had the money to fund expeditions to bring back exotic blooms,” said Giovanni Delu, one of the garden’s creators. “It’s a vegetal cabinet of curiosities.”

    Delu said that court-funded expeditions brought back fashionable plants — many of which feature in the new perfumer’s gardens — from far-flung South Asia that were “nursed” or acclimatized in the French soil of Brittany, before being planted in Versailles. Any French nobleman who wanted to replant the prized flowers in his grounds had to first be granted a royal charter or face punishment.

    The stories of Versailles’ modern gardeners convey the hidden intrigue, humor, knowledge and mystery the flowers once held. Vibrant historical anecdotes flow freely from their mouths, unveiling an unending trove of historical color. Legend has it that Louis XIV loved the orange blossom, as featured in the garden, so much that his courtiers doused themselves in it to curry favor, at one point causing the king to faint. The scent from some blooms was so intense that the bulbs during this latest venture had to be physically separated in the gardens so that they didn’t conspire to produce an undesirable — or equally intoxicating — nasal mix.

    There were unexpected twists in its conception. A “secret garden” — with four brick walls — was only properly discovered and renovated on the site recently, sending ripples of excitement among the Versailles gardening staff. Now a sanctuary, it has been adorned with plant species so delicate that only the head gardener has the right to handle them. One 17th-century plant now growing there called the firethorn — which leaves a delightful citrus smell on the fingers when rubbed — is prized and feared because it literally catches on fire with the slightest heat.

    Another flower holds secrets in its petals to the love story of Louis XV, an obsessive botanist, and his mistress Madame de Pompadour.

    “Louis XV sent botanical species ‘hunters’ around the world to bring species back, because he and his mistress expressed their love through a shared passion for flowers,” gardener Fulvia Grandizio said.

    Grandizio claimed that Louis XV used one of the world’s very first prototype greenhouses here to nurse his plants — a version of which is on display now. Lovingly caressing the flower with billowing pink-red petals called the calycanthus, Grandizio said nostalgically it was Madame de Pompadour’s favorite.

    Yet the garden has its villains. Grandizio’s eyes narrowed when she spoke of Marie Antoinette. It was bad, she said, that the French-Austrian queen wasn’t interested in keeping up the scientific work of the previous king, Louis XV, in exotic flowers — and was taken instead with the heady ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers and unbridled nature.

    “It’s a real shame when Marie Antoinette arrived at Versailles that she transformed what Louis XV built, the big greenhouse and the plant nursery, into a wild English garden,” Grandizio said, with a hint of sadness.

    Despite that claim, Marie Antoinette loved flowers, and was at the heart of the development of perfume.

    “She’s not that bad. History has been unkind to her,” Grandizio added.

    The Versailles Perfumer’s Garden opened on May 30, in collaboration with high-end perfume company Maison Francis Kurkdjian.

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  • Disney lawsuit judge removes himself from case but not for reasons cited by DeSantis

    Disney lawsuit judge removes himself from case but not for reasons cited by DeSantis

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    ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge overseeing the First Amendment lawsuit that Walt Disney Parks filed against Gov. Ron DeSantis and others is disqualifying himself, but not because of bias claims made by the Florida governor.

    Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said in a court filing Thursday that it was because a relative owns 30 shares of Disney stock. Walker described the person as “a third-degree relative,” which typically means a cousin, a great-aunt or great-uncle, or a great-niece or great-nephew.

    The governor’s lawyers had filed a motion to disqualify Walker last month because he had referenced the ongoing dispute between the DeSantis administration and Disney during hearings in two unrelated lawsuits before him dealing with free speech issues and fear of retaliation for violating new laws championed by the governor and Republican lawmakers.

    Disney had opposed the governor’s motion, saying the judge had shown no bias.

    The judge on Thursday called DeSantis’ arguments “without merit.” DeSantis declared his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination last week.

    Under the code of conduct for federal judges, Walker wasn’t required to look into the financial interests of third-degree relatives but did so and decided that “disqualification from this proceeding is required under the circumstances,” he said.

    Disney’s share price was in the $90 range on Friday, so the value of the relative’s holdings would be around $2,700. In his decision, the judge said that the value of the holdings didn’t matter but rather any impact he could have on the investment because of a ruling.

    “Even though I believe it is highly unlikely that these proceedings will have a substantial effect on The Walt Disney Company, I choose to err on the side of caution — which, here, is also the side of judicial integrity — and disqualify myself,” said Walker, who was nominated to the federal bench in 2012 by President Barack Obama.

    The feud between DeSantis and Disney started last year after the company, in the face of significant pressure, publicly opposed legislation concerning lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades that critics called “Don’t Say Gay.”

    As punishment, DeSantis took over Disney World’s governing district through legislation passed by lawmakers and appointed a new board of supervisors. Before the new board came in, the company signed agreements with the old board made up of Disney supporters that stripped the new supervisors of design and construction authority.

    In response, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature passed legislation allowing the DeSantis-appointed board to repeal those agreements and made the theme park resort’s monorail system subject to state inspection, when it previously had been done in-house.

    Disney filed the First Amendment lawsuit against the Florida governor and the DeSantis-appointed board in April, claiming violations of free speech and the contracts clause. The DeSantis-appointed board, known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, sued Disney in state court in Orlando seeking to void the deals the company made with the previous board.

    DeSantis on Thursday named Tampa attorney Charbel Barakat to the oversight board to replace Michael Sasso, who resigned last month around the same time the governor appointed Sasso’s wife, Meredith, to the Florida Supreme Court.

    ___

    Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP

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