A Delaware animal shelter is trying to care for and rehome thousands of chicks that survived being left in a postal service truck for three days. Trapped in a warm enclosure, without food and water, thousands died before they were discovered.

The involved parties are still awaiting answers as to how 12,000 chicks were abandoned within the truck at a Delaware mail distribution center. The United States Postal Service said in an email that it was aware of a process breakdown and was actively investigating what occurred.

Pennsylvania-based Freedom Ranger Hatchery raised the chicks for their weekly distribution to clients across the country, said a spokesperson for the company. Due to biosecurity concerns, the hatchery cannot take the chicks back.

The spokesperson said it would have been best if USPS, after discovering the chicks, had completed delivery as the recipients would have been adequately equipped to handle the birds even malnourished ones.

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For more than two weeks, the surviving chicks have been nursed and cared for at First State Animal Center and SPCA, said John Parana, executive director.

Last Tuesday, the shelter began offering the birds for adoption, but only a few hundred out of thousands have been picked up. There is no complete count of the chicks, as the shelter has no feasible way to do so, but Parana estimates there to be more than two thousand available.

Some have inquired about buying the birds for meat, but, as a no-kill shelter and SPCA, those were refused.

The strain has turned the animal care center into a 24/7 operation and necessitated a staffing increase, Parana said. Money remains the biggest concern for the donation-reliant nonprofit. Some employees have begun spending their money to support the operations, he added.

Among the birds were young turkeys, geese and quail, but the vast majority were Freedom Ranger chicks. One concern for the shelter, Parana explained, was the increasing demand for space and feed over time, as Freedom Rangers take about ten weeks to reach maturity.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture, after a call from USPS, directed the animals to the shelter, which shares a memorandum of understanding with the animal center as a state vendor. The department said it is responsible for assisting the shelter with funds for chickens, the rate was $5 each per day.

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The department's chief of planning, Jimmy Kroon, said negotiations were ongoing, but Parana claims that the department communicated that they had no funds to allocate for the chicks. Both acknowledged the original rate would be unreasonable in the current circumstances.

They said that theyre gonna try to go after the post office to get recoupment, Parana said. That doesnt help us in the meantime.

Thousands of people from Texas to Kentucky cleaned up Monday from severe weather that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in four days as another round of tornadoes struck the central U.S.

At least four tornadoes were confirmed in Oklahoma and Nebraska on Monday evening, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.

In Wilburton, in southeast Texas, the citys Facebook page reported a tornado on the ground and heading its way. Take cover now! the post warned residents.

In northern Texas, softball-sized hail was confirmed, according to Scott Kleebauer, meteorologist with the service's Weather Prediction Center.

Earlier Monday in St. Louis, where officials estimated a Friday tornado damaged 5,000 buildings and may cost well over $1 billion, the mayor warned that federal assistance could take weeks.

Kentucky has been hardest hit by the storms. A devastating tornado late Friday into early Saturday damaged hundreds of homes, tossed vehicles, left many homeless, and killed at least 19 people, most of them in southeastern Laurel County.

In London, Kentucky, where the devastation was centered, the small airport became a beehive of cleanup work after it took a direct hit from a tornado. Small aircraft stored there had large dents in them and even wings ripped open. Officials were using it as a base to get water, food, diapers and other supplies out to the community.

"We have 1,001 things going on. But were managing it. And were going to get it all cleaned up, said London Mayor Randall Weddle.

Officials in Kansas and Texas also were evaluating damage from late Sunday storms.

The risk of severe storms moves into Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee on Tuesday, the weather service said.

Kentucky cleans up

The Kentucky storms that killed 19 people were part of a weather system that caused seven deaths in Missouri and two in northern Virginia, authorities said.

Lonnie Nantz hid in a hallway with his wife, two daughters and a grandson as the one-story brick home they bought near London in 1977 was destroyed around them. They were trapped in rubble for about 20 minutes in the midnight darkness before they were rescued unharmed.

I dont know why this happened. Ive tried to live a good life all my life. Ive still got the faith," said the 77-year-old Nantz, who went to church as always on Sunday.

London city worker Ashley Taylor was back on the job Monday loading doughnuts to take to a hospital and dispatch center even though there was a tarp on her roof. She was lucky the houses across her street were destroyed late Friday night.

She survived the storm with nine other people and three dogs in the crawl space of a neighbors home.

We prayed like never before and just thankful for everything God did for us, Taylor said.

In surrounding Laurel County, first responders mourned one of their own.

Fellow firefighters found the body of Laurel County Fire Major Leslie Leatherman on top of a woman he was shielding from the storm's fury as he answered calls during the worst of the storm. The woman was yelling for help and they were in a field across from a destroyed subdivision.

The injured woman turned out to be Leatherman's wife and officials arent sure if he knew who he was protecting in the darkness and chaos, the fire department said on social media.

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A Kansas City is spared 18 years after a tornado nearly wiped out the community

Forecasters on Sunday night issued a tornado emergency for Greensburg, Kansas, where 12 people were killed and 90% of the town was destroyed in May 2007 by a 1.5-mile wide tornado with winds of 205 mph.

The city was spared this time. Power was out but residents were safe after the storm scare, Greensburg officials posted on social media.

Tornadoes in Kansas carved a 20-mile path through Stafford and Reno counties. While damage was extensive, no injuries or deaths were reported.

Hard-hit St. Louis waits for FEMA

St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said five people died, 38 were injured and more than 5,000 homes were affected by an EF3 tornado with winds up to 150 mph that slammed areas north and west of downtown Friday. Spencer has estimated that damages will exceed $1.6 billion.

Eight miles of pure destruction, at times a mile wide," Spencer said at a Monday news conference. Were talking about thousands of buildings, thousands of families are being displaced.

The city is awaiting a disaster declaration from the governors office as a first step to getting federal assistance.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, expressed frustration over the federal response to a deadly March storm. Im not happy about the fact were still waiting from all of that damage two months ago," Hawley said.

Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief David Richardson said last week he plans to shift responsibility for disaster recovery to states this year as part of an agencywide transformation and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance when deemed necessary.

Spencer said during a news conference Monday evening that emergency protocols put in place in 2021 were not followed, possibly preventing sirens being activated to warn residents about the tornado.

She said it was not clear whose responsibility it was to let the community know about the emergency but that the fire department will do so moving forward.

In Texas, several tornadoes touched down west of Fort Worth on Sunday, including an EF1 with peak winds of 105 mph that caused damage in and around Gordon, the weather service said Monday.

New Jerseys top federal prosecutor said Monday that shes charging Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver with assault after a skirmish with federal officers who arrested the Newark mayor outside an immigration detention center.

Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced the charge on social media, but court papers providing details were not immediately released or publicly available online. Habba said McIver is charged with assaulting, impeding or interfering with law enforcement.

Habba at the same time announced that her office was dismissing a misdemeanor case brought against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested after he attempted to join three members of New Jerseys congressional delegation inspecting the facility in their oversight capacity. Habba said the decision was reached for the sake of moving forward.

The citizens of New Jersey deserve unified leadership so we can get to work to keep our state safe, Habba said in a statement.

McIvers attorney, Paul Fishman, the former U.S. attorney for New Jersey, issued a statement calling the decision to charge McIver spectacularly inappropriate, saying she went to Delaney Hall to do her job and she has the responsibility as a member of Congress to oversee ICEs treatment of detainees.

Rather than facilitating that inspection, ICE agents chose to escalate what should have been a peaceful situation into chaos, Fishman said. This prosecution is an attempt to shift the blame for ICEs behavior to Congresswoman McIver. In the courtroom, facts not headlines will matter.

A nearly two-minute clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver on the facility side of a chain link fence just before the arrest of the mayor on the street side of the fence. She and uniformed officials go through the gate and she joins others shouting surround the mayor. The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word Police on it.

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McIver and the two other Democrats Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr. had denied any wrongdoing and had accused federal agents of escalating the situation by arresting the mayor.

Theres no video that supports me body slamming anyone, McIver said in a recent CNN interview. We were simply there to do our job. ... It was a very tense situation. It unfortunately did not have to be like that. They created that confrontation. They created that chaos and then ultimately went to arrest the mayor.

Biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is buying 23andMe for $256 million, two months after the genetic testing company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In March 23andMe said that it was looking to sell substantially all of its assets through a court-approved reorganization plan. Its co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki also resigned from the top post, but remained as a board member.

23andMe has faced an uncertain future for some time. Beyond battles to go private, the company struggled to find a profitable business model since going public in 2021. Privacy concerns related to customers genetic information have also emerged, notably spanning from a 2023 data breach along with questions around what new ownership could mean for users data.

The proposed transaction with Regeneron includes 23andMe's personal genome service and total health and research services. It does not include the Lemonaid Health subsidiary, a telehealth services provider which 23andMe plans to wind down.

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"We believe we can help 23andMe deliver and build upon its mission to help people learn about their own DNA and how to improve their personal health, while furthering Regenerons efforts to improve the health and wellness of many, Regeneron co-founder, board co-chair and Chief Scientific Officer George Yancopoulos said in a statement.

Regeneron said Monday that it will comply with 23andMe's privacy policies and applicable law, process all customer personal data in accordance with the consents, privacy policies and statements, terms of service, and notices currently in effect and have security controls in place designed to protect such data.

We are pleased to have reached a transaction that maximizes the value of the business and enables the mission of 23andMe to live on, while maintaining critical protections around customer privacy, choice and consent with respect to their genetic data, said Mark Jensen, chair and member of the special committee of 23andMe's board.

Regeneron will be keeping all of 23andMe's employees, Jensen added.

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As part of the court-supervised sale process, 23andMe required all bidders to guarantee that they will comply with its privacy policies and applicable law.

Regeneron said that its proposed deal aligns with 23andMes privacy statement, but that a court-appointed, independent consumer privacy ombudsman will also examine the transaction and any potential impact on consumers privacy. The ombudsman will present a report to the court by June 10.

A court hearing to consider approval of the transaction is currently scheduled for June 17. The deal, which still needs approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, is expected to close in the third quarter.

Shares of Regeneron fell slightly before the market open.

New Jersey Transit's train engineers reached a tentative deal Sunday to end their three-day strike that had halted service for some 100,000 daily riders, including routes to Newark airport and across the Hudson River to New York City. The union said its members would return to work on Tuesday, when trains would resume their regular schedules.

The walkout that began Friday was the state's first transit strike in over 40 years, forcing people who normally rely on New Jersey Transit to take buses, cars, taxis and boats instead or consider staying home. The main sticking point had been how to accomplish a wage increase for the engineers without creating a financially disastrous domino effect for the transit agency.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen initially announced regular train service would begin again Monday, but moments later, union spokesperson Jamie Horwitz said NJ Transit informed them that it would be Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. instead.

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A transit agency statement said the Tuesday start was necessary because "it takes approximately 24 hours to inspect and prepare the infrastructure before returning to full scheduled service."

A union statement sent by email said the terms of the agreement would be sent to the union's 450 members who work as locomotive engineers or trainees at the passenger railroad.

"While I won't get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month and beyond where we were when NJ Transit's managers walked away from the table Thursday evening," said Tom Haas, the union's general chairman at NJ Transit.

He added that the union was able to show management "ways to boost engineers' wages ... without causing any significant budget issue or requiring a fare increase."

The union statement also said the deal would be submitted for a ratification vote by the national union and would require a vote of the New Jersey Transit board at its next regularly scheduled meeting on June 11. NJ Transit's board also has to approve the deal.

"To offer the understatement of the year, this is a very good outcome," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said at a Sunday evening news conference. He commended the two sides for finding an agreement that is "both fair to NJ Transit's employees while also being affordable for our state's commuters and taxpayers."

NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri didn't provide details of the deal, but said it was "fair and fiscally responsible." He thanked the union for negotiating in good faith.

"The deal itself reflects a series of concessions that came together by way of a work bill that will eventually end up paying for this fair wage that the union has asked for," Kolluri said at the news conference.

Buses would be provided on Monday, but Murphy and Kolluri both urged commuters, if possible, to work from home for one more day.

"Please do that tomorrow so we can move essential employees through the system," Kolluri said.

A month earlier, members of the union had overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.

NJ Transit the nation's third-largest transit system operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halted all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City's Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.

Mark Wallace, the union's national president, had said NJ Transit needs to pay engineers a wage that's comparable to Amtrak and Long Island Railroad because some are leaving for jobs on those other railroads for better pay.

The union had said its members have been earning an average salary of $113,000 a year and it wanted to see an agreement for an average salary of $170,000.

NJ Transit leadership, though, disputed the union's data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.

The WNBA is investigating racial comments directed toward Angel Reese by fans during the Chicago Skys loss to Caitlin Clark and the Fever at Indiana on Saturday.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on Sunday on condition of anonymity because the league had not publicly identified the subject of the taunts or who made the allegations.

The WNBA strongly condemns racism, hate, and discrimination in all forms they have no place in our league or in society, the league said in a statement. We are aware of the allegations and are looking into the matter.

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Reese, who is Black, and Clark, who is white, met for the seventh time in their ongoing and much-talked-about rivalry. Clark was named Rookie of the Year last season and Reese finished second in the voting.

The WNBA Players Union released a statement soon after the leagues comment on the matter.

The WNBPA is aware of reports of hateful comments at yesterdays game in Indianapolis and supports the WNBAs current investigation into this matter. Such behavior is unacceptable in our sport, the statement said. Under the WNBAs No Space for Hate policy, we trust the league to thoroughly investigate and take swift, appropriate action to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all.

Sky president and CEO Adam Fox said later Sunday in a statement that the organization welcomes the league's investigation.

We will do everything in our power to protect Chicago Sky players, and we encourage the league to continue taking meaningful steps to create a safe environment for all WNBA players, he said.

The Sky and Fever will play four more times during the regular season.

We are aware of the allegations of inappropriate fan conduct during yesterdays game and we are working closely with the WNBA to complete their investigation, the Fever said in a statement. We stand firm in our commitment to providing a safe environment for all WNBA players.

Reese had 12 points and 17 rebounds in the 93-58 loss to the Fever. The Sky forward and Clark had an incident on the court with 4:38 left in the third quarter. It started with Reese grabbing an offensive rebound and Clark slapping Reeses arm hard enough to jar the ball loose and knock Reese to floor.

When Reese got up, she tried to confront Clark before Indiana center Aliyah Boston stepped in between the players. Clarks third personal foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1, while Boston and Reese each drew technical fouls following a replay review by the referees.

Both players downplayed the play after the game.

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The league launched No Space for Hate this season, a multi-dimensional platform designed to combat hate and promote respect across all WNBA spaces both online and in arenas.

The league is focused on four areas: enhanced technological features to detect hateful comments online; increased emphasis on team, arena and league security measures; reinforcing mental health resources; and alignment against hate.

This will be the league's first test of it.

It's nice in words, but we got to see actions, Aces star A'ja Wilson said Friday after practice. Hopefully people can take actions and understand this is bigger than basketball. We're true people behind it. Any shoe that we wear, any jersey we have on, we're human. People have to respect that. I hope they pay attention and listen to the words.

House Republicans narrowly advanced President Donald Trump's big tax cuts package out of a key committee during a rare Sunday night vote, but just barely, as conservative holdouts are demanding quicker cuts to Medicaid and green energy programs before giving their full support.

Speaker Mike Johnson met with Republican lawmakers shortly before the meeting and acknowledged to reporters that there are still details to iron out. He said some changes were being made, but declined to provide details.

Its all setting up a difficult week ahead for the GOP leadership racing toward a Memorial Day deadline, a week away, to pass the package from the House. The Budget Committee, which just days ago failed to advance the package when four conservative Republicans objected, was able to do so Sunday on a vote of 17-16, with the four hold-outs voting present to allow it to move ahead, as talks continue.

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The bill does not yet meet the moment, said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leader of the House Freedom Caucus, in a social media post immediately after the late-night session. We can and must do better before we pass the final product."

The path ahead for Johnson is unclear as he tries to hold his narrow House majority together to pass the president's top domestic priority of extending the tax breaks while pumping in money for border security and deportations all while cutting spending.

Republicans criticizing the measure argued that the bills new spending and the tax cuts are front-loaded in the bill, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded. In particular, they are looking to speed up the new work requirements that Republicans want to enact for able-bodied participants in Medicaid.

Johnson indicated he wants to impose the the work requirements as soon as possible but acknowledged it may take states longer to change their systems. Those requirements would not kick in until 2029 under the current bill.

There will be more details to iron out and several more to take care of, Johnson, R-La., said outside the hearing room.

But Im looking forward to very thoughtful discussions, very productive discussions over the next few days, and Im absolutely convinced were going to get this in final form and pass it.

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More talks are ahead, but Johnson is looking to put the bill on the House floor before the end of the week.

Democrats have decried the cuts Republicans are proposing to Medicaid and food stamps to offset the costs of the tax breaks.

This spending bill is terrible, and I think the American people know that, Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., told CNNs State of the Union on Sunday. There is nothing wrong with us bringing the government in balance. But there is a problem when that balance comes on the back of working men and women. And thats what is happening here.

The first time that Republicans tried advancing the bill out of the House Budget Committee last week, the deficit hawks joined with Democratic lawmakers in voting against reporting the measure to the full House.

Those same four Republicans Roy and Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia cast their present votes Sunday.

Norman pointed to a recent downgrade of the nations credit rating in making his arguments for steeper reductions.

Weve got a lot more work to do, Norman said. Were excited about what we did. We want to move the bill forward.

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At its core, the sprawling legislative package permanently extends the existing income tax cuts that were approved during Trumps first term in 2017 and adds temporary new ones that the president campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and auto loan interest payments. The measure also proposes big spending increases for border security and defense.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade.

Johnson is not just having to address the concerns of the deficit hawks in his party. He's also facing pressure from centrists who will be warily eyeing the proposed changes to Medicaid, food assistance programs and the rolling back of clean energy tax credits. Republican lawmakers from New York and elsewhere are also demanding a much larger state and local tax deduction.

As it stands, the bill proposes tripling whats currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year.

Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the New York lawmakers leading the effort to lift the cap, said they have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.

Rep. Jodey Arrington, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said the bill remained under negotiation.

Deliberations continue at this very moment, Arrington said. They will continue on into the week, and I suspect right up until the time we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House.

If the bill passes the House this week, it would then move to the Senate, where Republican lawmakers are also eyeing changes that could make final passage in the House more difficult.

Israel launched extensive new ground operations in the Gaza Strip while airstrikes in its new offensive killed at least 103 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said. The bombardment forced northern Gaza's main hospital to close as it reported direct strikes.

Israel began the offensive the largest since it shattered a ceasefire in March on Saturday with the aim of seizing territory and displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Israel is pressuring Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire that would free hostages from Gaza but not necessarily end the war. Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and a path to ending the war as part of any deal.

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When the Jews want a truce, Hamas refuses, and when Hamas wants a truce, the Jews refuse it. Both sides agree to exterminate the Palestinian people, said Jabaliya resident Abu Mohammad Yassin, who was among those fleeing the new offensive on foot or in donkey carts. For Gods sake, have mercy on us. We are tired of displacement.

Israel's military, which recently called up tens of thousands of reservists, said the ground operations are throughout the Palestinian territory's north and south. Israels chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said that plans include dissecting the strip.

Before the announcement, airstrikes killed more than 48 people including 18 children and 13 women in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, which said it struggled to count the dead because of the condition of bodies.

In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in Jabaliya killed nine members of a family, according to the Gaza Health Ministry's emergency services. Another strike on a residence there killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government.

Israel's military had no immediate comment. Its statement announcing the ground operations said preliminary strikes over the past week killed dozens of militants and struck more than 670 targets. Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas because the militant group operates from civilian areas.

Shortly afterward, Israels military said that it intercepted a projectile from central Gaza and another fell in an open area, with no injuries reported.

Talks in Qatar

Israel had said it would wait until the end of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East before launching its offensive, saying it was giving ceasefire efforts a chance. Trump didn't visit Israel on his trip that ended Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said his negotiating team in Qatar was working to realize every chance for a deal, including one that would end fighting in exchange for the release of all remaining 58 hostages, Hamas' exile from Gaza and the disarmament of the territory.

Hamas has refused to leave Gaza or disarm.

Israel ended the previous eight-week ceasefire in March. Gaza's Health Ministry has said almost 3,000 people have been killed since then.

Days before resuming the war, Israel cut off all food, medicine and other supplies to Gaza. The blockade is now in its third month, with global food security experts warning of famine across the territory of more than 2 million people.

Frustration in Israel has been rising. A small but growing number of Israelis are refusing to show up for military service, even risking imprisonment. Other Israelis have been displaying photos of children killed in Gaza during weekly rallies demanding a deal to free all hostages and end the war.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. Israels retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which doesnt differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

Hospital cites Israeli siege

Health officials said fighting around the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and an Israeli military siege prompted it to shut down. It was the main medical facility in the north after Israeli strikes last year forced the Kamal Adwan and Beit Hanoun hospitals to stop offering services.

There is direct targeting on the hospital, including the intensive care unit, Indonesian Hospital director Dr. Marwan al-Sultan said in a statement, adding that no one could reach the facility that had about 30 patients and 15 medical staff inside.

Israels military said that troops were operating against militant infrastructure sites in northern Gaza, including the area directly adjacent to the hospital.

Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals, accusing Hamas of being active in and around the facilities. Human rights groups and U.N.-backed experts have accused Israel of systematically destroying Gazas health care system.

In northern Gaza, at least 43 people were killed in strikes, according to first responders from the Health Ministry and civil defense. Gaza City's Shifa Hospital said 15 children and 12 women were among the dead.

A drone strike Sunday afternoon killed at least seven Palestinians near a school sheltering displaced people northwest of Gaza City, according to the Health Ministrys emergency service.

Other strikes in central Gaza killed at least 12 people, hospitals said. One in Zweida town killed seven people, including two children and four women, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah. Another hit an apartment in Deir al-Balah, killing parents and their child, the hospital said.

In Gaza City, Um Mahmoud al-Aloul lay across the shrouded body of her daughter, Nour al-Aloul.

You took my soul with you, she cried. I used to turn off my phone from how much you called.

The FBI has identified a 25-year-old California man as the person responsible for the explosion of a Palm Springs fertility clinic.

Authorities say the suspect, Guy Edward Bartkus of Twentynine Palms, was attempting to livestream the bombing attack and had expressed nihilistic ideations.

Akil Davis, the head of the FBIs Los Angeles field office, said during a Sunday news conference that investigators were reviewing writings left behind by Bartkus that could shed light on his state of mind. The Associated Press reported Saturday night that those writings communicated a belief that the world should not be populated.

The bombing injured four other people in addition to killing Bartkus. Davis said all embryos at the facility were saved.

Good guys one, bad guys zero, he said.

Investigators called the explosion on Saturday an intentional act of terrorism. The suspect posted writings online and attempted to record the explosion, though authorities said the video failed to upload online. An official who was not authorized to discuss details of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.

The blast gutted the single-story American Reproductive Centers clinic in upscale Palm Springs, though a doctor told the Associated Press its staff were safe.

Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients, Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, told the AP in a phone interview.

The person believed responsible for an attack posted rambling online writings before the explosion, according to a law enforcement official.

Make no mistake: This is an intentional act of terrorism, Akil Davis, the head of the FBIs Los Angeles field office, told an evening news conference.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged Sunday that Walmart, the largest U.S. retailer, may pass along some of the costs from President Donald Trumps tariffs to its shoppers through higher prices.

Bessent described his call with the companys CEO a day after Trump warned Walmart to avoid raising prices from the tariffs at all and vowed to keep a close watch on what it does.

As doubts persist about Trumps economic leadership, Bessent pushed back against inflation concerns, praised the uncertainty caused by Trump as a negotiating tactic for trade talks and dismissed the downgrade Friday of U.S. government debt by Moodys Ratings.

Yet Walmart does not appear prepared to eat the tariffs in full, as Trump has insisted the company and China would do.

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Bessent said he spoke Saturday with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, stressing in two news show interviews that what he thought really mattered for Walmart customers was the decline in gasoline prices. Gas is averaging roughly $3.18 a gallon, down from a year ago but also higher over the past week, according to AAA.

Walmart will be absorbing some of the tariffs, some may get passed on to consumers, Bessent said. Overall, I would expect inflation to remain in line. But I dont blame consumers for being skittish after what happened to them for years under Biden, a reference to inflation hitting a four-decade high in June 2022 under then President Joe Biden as the recovery from the pandemic, government spending and the Russian invasion of Ukraine pushed up costs.

Walmart did not comment on Bessents description of his conversation with McMillon.

In a social media post on Saturday morning, Trump said Walmart should not charge its customers more money to offset the new tariff costs. "I'll be watching, and so will your customers!!! he posted.

Bessent said Walmart on its earnings call on Thursday had been obligated under federal regulations to give the worst-case scenario so that theyre not sued, suggesting that the price increases would not be severe in his view.

But Walmart executives said last week that higher prices began to appear on their shelves in late April and accelerated this month.

Were wired to keep prices low, but theres a limit to what we can bear, or any retailer for that matter, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Bessent maintained that the ratings downgrade was a lagging indicator as the financial markets had already priced in the costs of a total federal debt of roughly $36 trillion. Still, the tax plan being pushed by Trump would add more roughly $3.3 trillion to deficits over the next decade, including a $600 billion increase in 2027 alone, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The treasury secretary maintained that deficits would not be a problem because the economy would grow faster than the debt accumulation, reducing its increase as a size of the overall economy.

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Most independent analyses are skeptical of the administration's claims that it can achieve 3% average growth as Trump's 2018 tax cuts failed to do so. Those tax cuts from Trump's first term did boost economic growth before the pandemic, but they also raised the budget deficit relative to previous estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

On tariffs, the Trump administration is still trying to determine rates with roughly 40 major trading partners before a July deadline. It's also in the early stages of a 90-day negotiation with China, after agreed a week ago to reset tariffs on that country from 145% to 30% so that talks can proceed.

Bessent said any worries about tariffs by small business owners most likely reflected the higher rate previously being charged on China. Still, the uncertainty has been a major drag for consumers and businesses trying to make spending plans in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Strategic uncertainty is a negotiating tactic," Bessent said. So if we were to give too much certainty to the other countries, then they would play us in the negotiations.

Bessent appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and CNN's State of the Union.

Pope Leo XIV, historys first American pope, vowed Sunday to work for unity so that the Catholic Church becomes a sign of peace in the world, offering a message of communion during an inaugural Mass in St. Peters Square before an estimated 200,000 pilgrims, presidents, patriarchs and princes.

Leo officially opened his pontificate by taking his first popemobile tour through the piazza, a rite of passage that has become synonymous with the papacys global reach and mediatic draw. The 69-year-old Augustinian missionary smiled and waved from the back of the truck, but didnt appear to stop to kiss babies and the crowd.

During the Mass, Leo appeared to choke up when the two potent symbols of the papacy were placed on him the lambswool stole over his shoulders and the fishermans ring on his finger as if the weight of responsibility of leading the 1.4-billion strong church had just sunk in.

He turned his hand to look at the ring and seal and then clasped his hands in front of him in prayer.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, one of the last foreign officials to see Pope Francis before he died, led the U.S. delegation honoring the Chicago-born Leo after paying his respects at the Argentine pope's tomb upon arriving in Rome late Saturday.

The theme of Leo's papacy

In his homily, Leo said he wanted to be a servant to the faithful through the two dimensions of the papacy, love and unity, so that the church could be a force for peace in the world.

I would like that our first great desire be for a united church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world, he said. In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earths resources and marginalises the poorest.

His call for unity was significant, given the polarization in the Catholic Church in the United States and beyond.

Francis radical 12-year pontificate, which emphasized care for the poor and marginalized and disdain for the capitalist economic system, often alienated conservatives and traditionalists. Leos May 8 election, after a remarkably quick 24-hour conclave, appears to have pleased conservative Catholics who seem to appreciate his more disciplined, traditional style and Augustinian background, emphasizing core truths of Catholic doctrine.

Leo drove that message home further by wearing the formal red cape of the papacy, or mozzetta, to receive Vance and official government delegations in the basilica. Francis had eschewed many of the formalities of the papacy as part of his simple style, but Leo's return to the traditional garb has pleased conservatives and traditionalists who cheered when he came out of the loggia on May 8 wearing the red cape.

Let us build a church founded on Gods love, a sign of unity, a missionary church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the word, allows itself to be made restless by history, and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity, Leo said, referencing some of the themes of Francis' pontificate as well.

Tight security and protocol

Strict diplomatic protocol dictated the seating arrangements at the inaugural Mass, with both the United States and Peru getting front-row seats thanks to Leos dual citizenship. Vance, a Catholic convert who tangled with Francis over the Trump administrations mass migrant deportation plans, was joined by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who arrived in Rome ahead of time to try to advance Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte is one of around a dozen heads of state attending, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russia had planned to send its culture minister but was represented by its ambassador, reports said.

Diplomatic protocol also dictated the dress code: While most wore black, the handful of Catholic queens and princesses Letizia of Spain and Charlene of Monaco among others wore white in a special privilege allowed them. Three dozen of the worlds other Christian churches sent their own delegations, the Jewish community had a 13-member delegation, half of them rabbis. Other representatives headed Buddhist, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Sikh and Jain delegations.

Security was tight, as it was for Francis funeral on April 26, which drew an estimated 250,000 people. The Vatican said 200,000 were on hand Sunday in the piazza and surrounding streets, parks and piazzas, where giant television screens and portable toilets were set up.

At the end of the Mass, Leo expressed hope for negotiations to bring a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and offered prayers for the people of Gaza children, families and elderly who are reduced to hunger, he said. Leo made no mention of hostages taken by Hamas from southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as Francis usually did when praying for Gaza.

Americans are rejoicing

Susan Hanssen, a professor who was born in Chicago and just arrived in Rome to teach, said she thought Leos homily of unity would resonate in the U.S. and beyond. I think he will inspire, she said after Mass. What I particularly loved was the phrasing, unity within the doctrine of the faith, and then in love.

U.S. seminarian Ethan Menning, 21, from Omaha, Nebraska, wrapped himself in an American flag, purchased at a truck stop in Iowa, to celebrate.

Rome always felt like home for a Catholic, but now coming here and seeing one of our own on the throne of Peter ... it almost makes Jesus himself more accessible, he said.

The two symbols of the papacy handed to Leo were the pallium stole, and the fishermans ring. The pallium, draped across his shoulders, symbolizes the pastor carrying his flock as the pope carries the faithful. The ring, which becomes Leos official seal, harks back to Jesus call to the apostle Peter to cast his fishing nets.

The other symbolically important moment of the Mass was the representational rite of obedience to Leo: Whereas in the past all cardinals would vow obedience to the new pope, more recent papal installations involve representatives of cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, nuns, married couples and young people participating in the rite.

Gregory and Susan Hudak, who lived for 40 years in the Chicago area, found themselves in Rome after booking a trip in February, with just a faint hope of perhaps glimpsing the pope. Seeing the popemobile pass by in front of them, with the Chicago-born Leo on board, was even better than watching Michael Jordan play, said Gary Hudak, a former altar boy wearing a Chicago Bears hat.

Originally, the only hope I had coming here was to see the inside of the Sistine Chapel," he said. "Seeing the pope was not scheduled, it was a long shot hope. And this was a treasure, simple as that.

An explosion tore through a fertility clinic in the upscale California city of Palm Springs late Saturday morning, leaving one person believed to be the suspect dead in an attack the FBI characterized as terrorism.

A burned-out vehicle was seen in the parking lot behind the clinic after the blast, which caved in the building's roof, sprayed debris across a five-lane road and shattered windows in businesses blocks away. The clinic was closed for the weekend, and the doctor who leads it told The Associated Press its staffers were safe.

Make no mistake: This is an intentional act of terrorism, Akil Davis, the head of the FBIs Los Angeles field office, told an evening news conference. He declined to say how authorities reached that conclusion.

A law enforcement official said investigators recovered an AK-47-style rifle from the scene. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Authorities were still working to confirm the identity of the person killed, Davis said. Four people were hurt, but authorities provided no details on the severity of those injuries, how they occurred or where. Davis said law enforcement was also looking into the possibility that the explosion was livestreamed.

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The act was being investigated as a possible car explosion, according to two other law enforcement officials briefed on the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss preliminary information from an ongoing investigation.

One of the officials told AP that investigators believe the person who died was likely the person who set off the explosion, but they cautioned that the investigation was still in its early stages.

The blast gutted the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic, in a single-story building along a five-lane street lined with palm trees. Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, told AP in a phone interview that the explosion damaged the practices office space, where it conducts consultations with patients. The clinic's IVF lab and stored embryos are offsite and were not damaged.

Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients," Abdallah said.

Palm Springs Mayor Pro Tem Naomi Soto called the clinic a place of hope.

This is a building that people go to to start or expand their families, she said. We acknowledge their pain and concern across the community for the patients and staff."

Rhino Williams, 47, said he was chatting with customers at a hotel restaurant he helps manage just over a block away when he heard a huge boom. Everything rattled, Williams said, and he sprinted to the scene to see if anyone needed help.

Williams covered his nose with his shirt as he smelled burning plastic and rubber. He said he saw a building had blown out into the street, with bricks and debris scattered everywhere, and he spotted a cars front axle on fire in the parking lot.

He said it was the only car in the lot. He ran into the building, calling out and peering behind the counter to see if anyone was inside. He did not hear a response and did not see anyone behind the counter.

Williams then ran around to check on other buildings. Multiple windows of the neighboring liquor store were also blown out, he said. Once he saw authorities arrive, he headed back to the hotel.

Steven Michael Chacon was in his car preparing to turn into a hospital across the street from the clinic when felt and heard a massive boom as the building was torn apart, sending a massive plume of black smoke into the air. Not knowing what happened, he exited his car to flee the scene. Glass was all over the ground.

I got out of my car and then people started screaming, there were people bloody, there was glass everywhere, he said.

Palm Springs, about a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles, is known for upscale resorts, golf courses and a history of celebrity residents.

Among those investigating were investigators, bomb technicians and an evidence response team from the FBI as well as investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The Trump administration condemned the attack.

The Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable.

A Mexican navy ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday during a promotional tour in New York City, the top of its mast brushing the iconic span as it sailed through the East River.

Eyewitness video of the collision that was posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a giant green, white and red Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge. The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.

The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in an accident with the Brooklyn Bridge that prevented it from continuing its voyage.

It added that the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.

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The Secretary of the Navy renews its commitment to the safety of personnel, transparency in its operations and excellent training for future officers of the Mexican Armada, it said in Spanish.

The Cuauhtemoc is a vessel that sails at the end of classes at the Mexican naval military school to finish cadets' training.

This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on April 6 with 277 people onboard, the Navy said then.

The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; and New York.

It had also planned to go to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bordeaux, Saint Malo and Dunkirk, France; and Aberdeen, Scotland, among others, for a total of 254 days 170 at sea and 84 in port.

The Trump administration will allow the sale of forced-reset triggers, which make semiautomatic rifles fire more rapidly, with the federal government ending a ban as part of a settlement that also requires it to return seized devices.

The agreement announced Friday by the Justice Department resolves a series of cases over the aftermarket trigger that the government had previously argued qualify as machine guns under federal law. The settlement is a dramatic shift in Second Amendment policy under the Republican administration, which has signaled it may undo many of the regulations that the previous administration of Democratic President Joe Biden had fought to keep in place in an effort to curb gun violence.

This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Gun control advocates said the settlement would worsen gun violence.

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The Trump administration has just effectively legalized machine guns. Lives will be lost because of his actions, said Vanessa Gonzalez, vice president of government and political affairs at GIFFORDS, a gun control group.

There had been several legal battles over forced-reset triggers, which replace the typical trigger on an AR-15-style rifle. The government for years had argued they are essentially illegal machine gun conversion devices because constant finger pressure on the triggers will keep a rifle firing essentially like an automatic.

The deal announced Friday was between the Justice Department and Rare Breed Triggers, which was previously represented by David Warrington, Trumps current White House counsel. Rare Breed Triggers argued that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was wrong in its classification and ignored demands to stop selling the triggers before being sued by the Biden administration.

This victory is a landmark moment in the fight against unchecked government overreach, Lawrence DeMonico, the group's president, said in a statement. The ATF and DOJ tried to silence and bury us not because we broke the law, but because I refused to bend to the will of a tyrannical administration.

Under the settlement, Rare Breed Triggers has agreed not to develop such devices to be used on handguns, according to the Justice Department. The settlement requires the ATF to return triggers that it had seized or that owners had voluntarily surrendered to the government.

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A 28-year-old woman described Friday how she survived for weeks outdoors in California's eastern Sierra Nevada by foraging for food and drinking melted snow after a solo camping trip went awry during harsh winter weather.

Tiffany Slaton detailed her ordeal during a news conference with the Fresno County Sheriff's Department, two days after she was found in a cabin that the owner had left unlocked in case wayward hikers needed shelter. Authorities said she had been there for only eight hours before the cabin's owner arrived and discovered her.

Slaton described being caught in an avalanche at one point, causing her to fall and hurt her leg. She didnt say which day that happened. She had a bicycle, a tent, two sleeping bags and food, she said, but she ended up losing all of her equipment, leaving her with only a lighter, a knife and some snacks. She didnt describe how she lost her tent or other gear.

After she fell, Slaton said she tried calling 911 five times with no success but got a GPS signal on her phone.

I ended up on this very long, arduous journey that I journaled to try and keep sane and eventually managed to get to civilization, she said.

Authorities called her survival stunning given the conditions. The cabin was more than 20 miles from where she had last been seen, and the mountains were covered in up to 12 feet of snow in some areas.

I would have never anticipated her in my wildest dreams being able to get back as far as she did, Sheriff John Zanoni said.

Slaton had been on an extended biking and backpacking trip that also included time in Oregon, department spokesman Tony Botti said. Her journey took her to the Sierras, where she decided to make the trek to the Mono Hot Springs before meeting a friend in mid-April, he said. She was last seen on April 20 by a security camera near Huntington Lake, an unincorporated mountain community, riding on a bicycle and also sitting on a sidewalk with a backpack.

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Slatons parents, who live in Georgia, reported her missing on April 29 after they hadn't heard from her in a week.

Slaton, who was a competitive archer in her home country of Bermuda, said her athleticism and foraging knowledge helped her survive. She had some snacks on her but eventually ran out.

The owner of Vermilion Valley Resort, Christopher Gutierrez, said his staff left cabin doors unlocked during the winter in case someone needed shelter during the frequent mountain snowstorms. His backcountry lodge sits in the Sierra Nevada about halfway between Yosemite and Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks and is a frequent stop for hikers on the John Muir and Pacific Crest trails.

Slaton found safe haven in one of those cabins during an intense snowstorm, where all she could see was white, she said. It was just eight hours later that Gutierrez arrived to open the cabin for the season, authorities said.

If he hadn't come that day, I think they would have found my body there, Slaton said.

Two days earlier, the Fresno County Sheriffs office called off a search that had covered more than 600 square miles (1,550 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest, with no luck. Searchers were hampered by heavy snow blocking many roads.

Slaton emerged battered and bruised from the cabin on Wednesday.

When she saw Gutierrez, she ran up to him to give him a hug.

I really do have a new faith in humanity, Slaton said of surviving her ordeal.

Joe Bidens time in public office is now behind him, but his age and mental acuity have become a litmus test for the next leaders in his party.

Audio was published Friday from portions of interviews Biden gave to federal prosecutors in 2023, the latest in a stream of reports putting questions about Biden's health back in the spotlight. Months after former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to President Donald Trump, a new book alleges that White House aides covered up Biden's physical and mental decline.

Several potential Democratic contenders for the 2028 nomination have been asked in recent days whether they believe Biden was declining in office or whether he should have sought reelection before a disastrous debate performance led to his withdrawal.

Many Democrats would prefer to focus on Trump's second term. Trump has done his best to prevent that mentioning Biden's name an average of six times per day during his first 100 days in office, according to an NBC News analysis and Republicans have followed his lead, betting that voters frustrated by Trump's policy moves will still prefer him over memories of an unpopular presidency.

In the race for Virginia governor, one of this year's highest-profile contests, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is running a pair of digital ads tying Democrat Abigail Spanberger to Biden, with images of the two hugging and the former president calling her a friend.

The stench of Joe Biden still lingers on the Democratic Party, Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett said. We have to do the hard work of fixing that, and I think that includes telling the truth, frankly, about when we were wrong.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told Politico this week that theres no doubt that Biden, now 82, experienced cognitive decline as president.

Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary, wasnt nearly as blunt but still stopped short of defending Bidens decision to run. He responded maybe when asked Tuesday whether the Democratic Party would have been better off if Biden hadnt tried to run for a second term.

Right now, with the advantage of hindsight, I think most people would agree that thats the case, Buttigieg told reporters during a stop in Iowa.

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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he didn't see signs of mental or physical decline in his meetings with Biden.

I saw him a few times, he told CNN this week. I certainly went to the White House whenever there was an opportunity for me to make the case for something for people in my state. And I never had the experience of anything other than a guy who brought to the table a lot of good ideas about how to solve problems.

The book Original Sin, by journalists Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios, revives a core controversy of Bidens presidency: his decision to run for a second term despite voters, including Democrats, telling pollsters that he should not run again. Biden would have been 86 at the end of a second term had he won in November.

A spokesperson for Biden did not respond to a request for comment.

We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job, the spokesperson has told many media outlets in response to the book.

Late Friday, Axios published portions from audio recordings of Biden's six hours of interviews with prosecutors investigating his handling of classified documents after his term as vice president ended in 2017.

The Biden administration had already released transcripts of the interviews, but the recordings shed light on special counsel Robert Hur's characterization of Biden as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory and appeared to validate his claim that the then-president struggled to recall key dates, including the year his son Beau died of cancer in 2015.

Biden and his aides pushed back aggressively against Hur's report, which they characterized as a partisan hit. Biden was at that time early 2024 still planning to run for a second term and fending off accusations that he was too old for another four years in the job.

The recordings released by Axios include Biden's discussion of his son's death. His responses to some of the prosecutors' questions are punctuated by long pauses, and his lawyers at times stepped in to help him recall dates and timelines.

Before he dropped his reelection bid last summer, Biden faced widespread doubts within his own party, even as Democratic leaders dismissed both a series of verbal flubs and Republican allegations about his declining acuity.

In January 2022, just a year into Bidens first term, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that only 48% of Democrats wanted him to seek reelection. That fell to 37% of Democrats in an AP-NORC poll conducted in February 2023. Three-quarters of Americans and 69% of Democrats said in August 2023 that they believed Biden was too old to serve as president for another four-year term.

And shortly after his debate flop, nearly two-thirds of Democrats said Biden should withdraw from the race.

Biden and former first lady Jill Biden appeared on ABCs The View in a preemptive defense of his health and decision-making before the first excerpts of Original Sin were published.

He said hes responsible for Trumps victory but attributed Harris loss, at least in part, to sexism and racism. He maintained that he would have won had he remained the Democratic nominee. Both Bidens rejected concerns about his cognitive decline.

Patricia McEnerney, a 74-year-old Democrat in Goodyear, Arizona, said Biden should not have tried to run again.

I think its sad the way it ended, she said.

She compared him to Douglas MacArthur, the World War II and Korean War general famously dismissed by President Harry Truman.

I think he needs to stop giving interviews. I think that would help, McEnerney said. Like MacArthur said, generals just fade away.

Janet Stumps, a 66-year-old Democrat also from Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, had a different view.

I dont think its going to hurt the Democrats, Stumps said. I feel badly that he feels he has to defend himself. I dont think he has to. Everybody ages. And the fact that he did what he did at his age, I think he should be commended for it.

Hackett, the Democratic strategist, predicted Biden wont be a major factor in the 2026 midterms or the 2028 presidential primaries. But he said Democrats who want voters to trust them would be well-served by telling the truth about the mistakes that our party made in the run-up to 2024.

Those mistakes were largely driven by Joe Biden, and I think any Democrat not willing to say that is not really prepared to face the voters, who want the truth and they want authenticity, Hackett said.

Rick Wilson, a former GOP strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project, said Republicans want to talk about Biden to avoid defending Trump. But he said the strategy is folly.

Besides political nerds, he said, no one else cares.

Moody's Ratings stripped the U.S. government of its top credit rating Friday, citing successive governments' failure to stop a rising tide of debt.

Moody's lowered the rating from a gold-standard Aaa to Aa1 but said the United States "retains exceptional credit strengths such as the size, resilience and dynamism of its economy and the role of the U.S. dollar as global reserve currency.''

Moody's is the last of the three major rating agencies to lower the federal government's credit. Standard & Poor's downgraded federal debt in 2011 and Fitch Ratings followed in 2023.

In a statement, Moody's said: "We expect federal deficits to widen, reaching nearly 9% of (the U.S. economy) by 2035, up from 6.4% in 2024, driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending, and relatively low revenue generation.''

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Extending President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, a priority of the Republican-controlled Congress, Moody's said, would add $4 trillion over the next decade to the federal primary deficit (which does not include interest payments).

A gridlocked political system has been unable to tackle America's huge deficits. Republicans reject tax increases, and Democrats are reluctant to cut spending.

On Friday, House Republicans failed to push a big package of tax breaks and spending cuts through the Budget Committee. A small group of hard-right Republican lawmakers, insisting on steeper cuts to Medicaid and President Joe Bidens green energy tax breaks, joined all Democrats in opposing it.

Federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove Monday that Sean "Diddy" Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades. Testimony in Combs' New York trial could begin as soon as the afternoon, after a final phase of jury selection and opening statements from the lawyers.

Combs, wearing a white sweater and with his formerly jet-black hair now almost completely gray, entered the courtroom shortly before 9 a.m., hugging lawyers and giving a thumbs up to supporters seated in wooden court benches behind him. Earlier in the morning, a line to get into the courthouse stretched all the way down the block. Combs' mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and brought straight into the building.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges including one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Presiding is U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey is the lead prosecutor. New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo is leading the defense.

Combs is a cultural icon and a criminal, prosecutor says

Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson pointed at Combs as she stood before the jury.

"To the public he was Puff Daddy or Diddy. A cultural icon. A businessman. Larger than life," Johnson said. "But there was another side to him. A side that ran a criminal enterprise."

"During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant's crimes. But he didn't do it alone. He had an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees who helped him commit crimes and cover them up."

Those crimes, she said, included: Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction.

The hip-hop icon leaned back in his chair as she spoke.

Standard instructions take added weight in this celebrity trial

The jury and alternates 12 men and 6 women are now seated in the courtroom. Openings will start after the judge finishes explaining the law as it relates to this trial, along with incidentals such as that a light breakfast will be provided to them in addition to lunch.

The jury is essentially anonymous, meaning their identities are known to the court and the prosecution and defense, but won't be made public.

"We will keep your names and identities in confidence," Subramanian told jurors.

It's a common practice in federal cases to keep juries anonymous, particularly in sensitive, high-profile matters where juror safety can be a concern. Juror names also were kept from the public in Donald Trump's criminal trial last year in state court in New York.

Subramanian tells jurors to judge the case only based on the evidence presented in court. It's a standard instruction, but carries added significance in this high-profile case, which has been the subject of intense media coverage.

"Anything you've seen or heard outside the courtroom is not evidence," the judge said. "It must be disregarded."

Judge rejects claim of discriminatory jury strikes

The judge rejected the defense's claim that the prosecution's strikes of potential jurors were discriminatory because seven Black individuals were struck from the jury.

The judge said Comey had given "race-neutral reasons" to explain each strike and that the defense had failed to show purposeful discrimination.

Some of the reasons why prosecutors said they excluded some potential jurors

Comey said one juror seemed favorably inclined toward 17 people she learned about by watching Combs' TV show "Making the Band," which Comey said will come up during the trial.

She said another claimed he would lose 30 percent of his income by sitting on the jury, but didn't seem bothered, which "made us worried that he had an agenda and was trying to get on the jury."

Another potential juror, she said, had difficulty speaking English, expressed doubts he could be fair and had a nephew who'd been jailed for shooting at a police officer.

Supreme Court ruled against excluding jurors solely because of their race

In the 1986 Batson v. Kentucky ruling, a Black man was convicted of robbery by an all-white jury after the prosecutor used what are known as peremptory challenges to strike all four prospective Black jurors.

During jury selection, each side is given a limited number of peremptory challenges that allows them to eliminate people from the jury pool without stating a reason.

Since the decision and subsequent rulings that have expanded its scope, the term "Batson challenge" has taken hold to describe an objection raised by one side when it appears the other could be excluding potential jurors based on demographic characteristics, such as race, gender, national origin, religion or sexual orientation.

A jury has been selected in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial

The defense announced its 10 strikes and prosecutors announced their six strikes for the creation of the main panel. Then, they struck jurors from the pool of alternates.

A defense lawyer claimed that prosecutors struck seven Black people from the jury, which he said amounts to a pattern. As a result, Comey gave reasons to explain why prosecutors struck each of the prospective jurors from the jury. She noted that at least one text message to be unveiled during the trial will describe Combs' behavior as "bi-polar or manic."

The witnesses and the evidence:

Without identifying them publicly, prosecutors have said four of Combs' accusers will testify at the trial. The prosecution will be allowed to show the jury security video of Combs beating and kicking one of his accusers, the R&B singer Cassie, in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016. Diddy's attorneys are expected to argue at trial that the government is demonizing and distorting the sexual activity of consenting adults.

About the defense

Combs' team of seven defense attorneys is sitting in two rows, with others behind them. They're led by New York lawyer Marc Agnifilo, who along with his wife Karen Friedman Agnifilo is also defending Luigi Mangione, the man accused of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

About the prosecution

The team has consisted of eight assistant U.S. attorneys, seven of them women.

The prosecutor who will deliver an opening statement is Emily Johnson. Leading the team is Maurene Ryan Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. She was among the prosecutors in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein.

The judge warned a Mark Geragos, a lawyer for the music mogul, to tame his public comments last week, saying it was "outrageous" that he referred to prosecutors during a podcast as a "six-pack of white women."

About the judge

Subramanian is a Columbia Law School graduate and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and was appointed a federal judge by President Joe Biden in 2022.

Proceedings beginning with final stage of jury selection

This is when lawyers on both sides can strike several jurors from the panel.

For this trial, defense lawyers are allowed to eliminate 10 individuals and prosecutors can dismiss six to create a panel of 12 jurors. Each side is allowed to eliminate another three jurors from the group of six alternates. They don't have to explain their reasons unless the opposing lawyers claim they were striking jurors from the panel for inappropriate reasons, such as race.

This phase of jury selection usually takes less than an hour. One of Combs' lawyers claimed on Friday that it could be finished in 10 to 15 minutes. The lawyers are working from a panel of about 45 prospective jurors.

Combs gives a thumbs up

Sean "Diddy" Combs entered the courtroom shortly before 9 a.m., hugging his lawyers and giving a thumbs up to spectators who will sit on benches behind the well of the courtroom. The audience includes his mother and at least four of his children.

About the courthouse

Subramanian is presiding over the trial at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in lower Manhattan, blocks from City Hall and overlooking the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The courthouse, opened in the mid-1990s, is next to the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, which was built in the 1930s.

Most of the federal judges work out of the newer courthouse. The older one, which was refurbished in the early 2000s, houses the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and several district court judges have their chambers and courtrooms there as well.

The courtroom only seats about 100 people

And journalists probably get two to three dozen. So most of the people in line will end up in overflow rooms.

This courtroom is one of the larger venues in the courthouse that are used for the biggest trials, including when Donald Trump came early last year for E. Jean Carroll defamation trial. The line to get in stretched all the way down the block. One line-sitter was trying to sell his spot for $300 after holding his place overnight.

After a final phase of jury selection in the morning, federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove that Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires. Combs has pleaded not guilty.

At least 10 people in the U.S. have been sickened in a listeria outbreak linked to ready-to-eat food products, and a producer is voluntarily recalling several products, federal officials said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Saturday that federal, state and local officials are investigating the outbreak linked to foods produced by Fresh & Ready Foods LLC of San Fernando, California. The FDA says the 10 people who fell ill were in California and Nevada, and required hospitalization.

The agency said the products were sold in Arizona, California, Nevada and Washington at locations including retailers and food service points of sale, including hospitals, hotels, convenience stores, airports and by airlines.

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Listeria symptoms usually start within two weeks of eating contaminated food. Mild cases can include fever, muscle aches, nausea, tiredness, vomiting and diarrhea, while more severe symptoms may include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.

Federal officials said they started investigating the recent outbreak last year but didn't have enough evidence to identify a source of the infections. They said the investigation was reopened in April when FDA investigators found listeria in samples collected from Fresh & Ready Foods that matched the strain from the outbreak.

Fresh & Ready Foods said in a news release that it took immediate corrective actions, including removing equipment to address the issue.

The FDA found that six of the 10 people who got sick had been hospitalized before becoming ill with listeria. The FDA found that items made by Fresh & Ready Foods had been served in at least three of the health care facilities where the patients had been previously treated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the test samples from sick patients were collected from December 2023 to September 2024.

Fresh & Ready voluntarily recalled several products, which can be identified by "use by" dates ranging from April 22 to May 19 of this year under the brand names Fresh & Ready Foods, City Point Market Fresh Food to Go and Fresh Take Crave Away.