- HOUSTON (AP) — Still marveling over their moon mission, the Artemis II astronauts received a thunderous welcome home Saturday from hundreds who took part in NASA’s lunar comeback that set a record for deep space travel. The crew of four arrived at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control, flying in from […]
- By Danielle Broadway LOS ANGELES, April 11 (Reuters) – When Sandra Martinez couldn’t make it to Kpop supergroup BTS’s concert in Goyang, South Korea, she and her friends found a workaround. On Saturday, they gathered at an AMC theater in Los Angeles to experience the South Korean performers’ “ARIRANG” tour on the big screen. “We […]
- WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge must reconsider the possible national security implications of halting construction of President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom, an appeals court ruled on Saturday. A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it did not have enough information to decide […]
- By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) – The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed on Saturday that it is investigating sexual assault allegations against U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and a leading candidate for governor of the state. The San Francisco Chronicle on Friday reported that a woman who previously worked in […]
- The Trump administration approved major disaster declaration requests for at least seven states this week, according to information released Saturday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, allowing affected communities to access federal support. About 15 requests for assistance from others states and tribes for extreme weather events this year and last seem to be pending, […]
- US and Iran end ceasefire talks and Vance heads home without an agreement
on April 12, 2026 at 6:18 amISLAMABAD (AP) — The United States and Iran ended face-to-face talks on Sunday without an agreement. U.S. officials said the negotiations broke down over Iran’s refusal to commit to abandoning their nuclear weapon program, leaving a fragile two-week ceasefire in doubt. Neither side indicated what will happen after the 14-day ceasefire expires. Pakistani mediators urged all parties to maintain it. “We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vice President JD Vance, who led the U.S. delegation, said after the 21-hour-long talks. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the talks collapsed over a “gap between our opinions over two or three important issues.” He told state television that the Strait of Hormuz was among the topics discussed and blamed “U.S. overreach.” He did not mention nuclear weapons, though the broadcaster earlier mentioned Iran’s nuclear program as a key sticking point. Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, it has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,020 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and caused lasting damage to infrastructure in half a dozen Middle Eastern countries. Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz has largely cut off the Persian Gulf and its oil and gas exports from the global economy, sending energy prices soaring. Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue between Iran and the U.S. in the coming days. “It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to ceasefire,” Dar said. There was no word on whether negotiations would resume, though Iran said it was open to continuing the dialogue, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported. The United States and Iran entered talks with sharply different proposals and contrasting assumptions about their leverage to end the war. Before negotiations began, the ceasefire was already threatened by deep disagreements and Israel’s continued attacks against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran’s 10-point proposal ahead of the talks called for a guaranteed end to the war and sought control over the Strait of Hormuz. It included ending fighting against Iran’s “regional allies,” explicitly calling for a halt to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah. Pakistani officials told The Associated Press in March that the U.S. 15-point proposal included monitoring mechanisms and rollback of Iran’s nuclear program. Speaking on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to discuss details, they said it also covered reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Indeed, Iran’s closure of the strait has proved its biggest strategic advantage in the war. Around a fifth of the world’s traded oil had typically passed through on over 100 ships a day. During the talks, the U.S. military said two destroyers transited the critical waterway ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran’s state media, however, reported the country’s joint military command denied that. “We’re sweeping the strait. Whether we make a deal or not makes no difference to me,” Trump said as talks extended into early Sunday morning. The impasse raises new questions about fighting in Lebanon. Israel pressed ahead with strikes after the ceasefire was announced, saying the agreement did not apply there. Iran and Pakistan claimed otherwise. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported six people were killed Sunday morning in an Israeli strike in Maaroub, a village near the southern Lebanon’s coastal city Tyre. Though Israel’s strikes over Beirut have calmed in recent days, its strike on southern Lebanon have intensified alongside a ground invasion it renewed after Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel in the opening days of the Iran war. Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon are expected to begin Tuesday in Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office has said, after Israel’s surprise announcement authorizing talks despite the lack of official relations between the countries. Protests erupted over the planned negotiations in Beirut on Saturday. Israel wants Lebanon’s government to assume responsibility for disarming Hezbollah, much like was envisaged in a November 2024 ceasefire. But the militant group has survived efforts to curb its strength for decades. Hezbollah joined the war in support of Iran in the opening days. Israel followed with increased airstrikes and a ground invasion. The day the Iran ceasefire deal was announced, Israel pounded Beirut with airstrikes, killing more than 300 people in the deadliest day in Lebanon since the war began, according to the country’s Health Ministry. ___ Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Finley from Washington. E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, Collin Binkley in Washington, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- A 23-story Miami hotel is set for implosion on a human-made island near downtown
on April 12, 2026 at 4:18 amMIAMI (AP) — A hotel at one of Miami’s most exclusive locations is set to be demolished Sunday to make way for something bigger. Demolition experts will conduct the controlled implosion of the former Mandarin Oriental, Miami on Brickell Key, a human-made island at the mouth of the Miami River, across from downtown. It marks the largest implosion for Miami in more than a decade, officials said. The 23-story building, which opened 25 years ago, is expected to collapse in seconds following a blast scheduled for 8:30 a.m. According to Swire Properties, the demolition will make way for the groundbreaking of The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Miami, a two-tower ultraluxury hotel and residential development scheduled for completion in 2030. The operation follows nearly two years of planning and coordination with specialized contractors and the city, developers said. Implosion was selected as the safest and most efficient method to maintain the project timeline while minimizing disruption and ensuring the safety of the Brickell Key community. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Cruise companies to Alaska are avoiding a popular excursion to Tracy Arm after a massive landslide
on April 12, 2026 at 4:18 amJUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — For years, a popular part of many cruises in southeast Alaska has been sailing up Tracy Arm, a long, narrow fjord marked by steep mountains, glittering waterfalls and calving glaciers. But this season, major cruise lines are skipping it. A massive landslide last summer sent parts of a glacier crashing into the water, generated a tsunami and pushed a wave high up the opposite mountain wall. Several companies opting out cited safety concerns with the still-hazardous slopes. “Tracy Arm is the majestic princess, you know, she is the queen of fjords,” said travel agent Nate Vallier. The destination cruise and tour companies have chosen as an alternative — nearby Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier — is “still beautiful by any means, but it’s just not the same,” he said. Tracy Arm, southeast of Juneau, is a roughly 30-mile (50-kilometer) fjord that features two tidewater glaciers — the North and South Sawyer — and wildlife, including seals and bears. Early on Aug. 10, 2025, a landslide originating high on a slope above the toe of the South Sawyer, near the head of the fjord, sent water surging more than a quarter mile (more than half a kilometer) up the mountain wall opposite the slide and out Tracy Arm. No ships were in the fjord, officials said, and no deaths or injuries were reported. But kayakers camped on an island near where Tracy and Endicott arms meet had much of their gear swept away by the rushing water. Southeast Alaska, largely encompassed by a temperate rainforest, is no stranger to landslides. And while it’s long been known the fjord network in the Tracy Arm region has been susceptible, the slope that failed had not been identified as an active hazard before last summer’s collapse, said Gabriel Wolken, manager of the state’s climate and ice hazards program. Scientists are working to understand not only what caused the slope to collapse but to understand what other hazards might exist in the fjord, he said. The area remains unstable, said Steven Sobieszczyk, a U.S. Geological Survey spokesperson. Steep landslide areas continue to change for years after an initial slide, he said by email. “Continued rockfall and small-scale sliding from the exposed landslide scar are expected and could impact the water, potentially causing a future localized tsunami,” he said. Major cruise companies, including Holland America, Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean said in response to inquiries from The Associated Press that they are replacing a Tracy Arm visit with Endicott Arm. MSC Cruises, Virgin Voyages and regional tour company Allen Marine also are doing Endicott and Dawes Glacier instead. Norwegian Cruise Line said it does not have voyages sailing by Tracy Arm. Endicott already has been a stop for some ships previously and an alternative when conditions in Tracy Arm, such as excess ice, have been unsafe. Vallier, who owns the Alaska Travel Desk, said he would have liked cruise companies to give travelers more advance notice about itinerary changes. After leaving Seattle, the first ships of the season are due April 21 in Ketchikan and in Juneau the following week. Seeing a glacier — particularly a dynamic, calving glacier — is a bucket-list item for many tourists, and that’s what has made Tracy Arm so popular, he said. While the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau is a major attraction for the capital city and cruise port, many visitors view it from across a large lake, and it has diminished or entirely retreated from view from some hiking overlooks. Kimberly Lebeda of Wichita, Kansas, was excited when she booked tickets for a Tracy Arm excursion for her family last year. Lebeda, who researches areas she visits, said she was sold on the scenery. But the night before the stop, they were told that due to ice in Tracy Arm, they would go up Endicott instead. Her family and others who’d booked the excursion got off the ship and onto a smaller boat with glass windows, abundant seating and snacks. They saw seals on ice floes, waterfalls and “a wall of ice” calve from Dawes Glacier, she said. She called it “an amazing thing to witness.” “Was it worth it? Yes, because I don’t know if I’ll ever get to do that trip again,” she said. “Again, I haven’t ever been to Tracy Arm so I can’t really compare. But to me, was it worth it and was it exciting? Absolutely.” Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- What to know about Trump’s tax breaks for tips and overtime when filing state tax returns
on April 12, 2026 at 4:18 amAs the tax-filing deadline nears, millions of Americans are expected to claim new federal income tax breaks for tips and overtime wages available for the first time under a wide-ranging tax law enacted by President Donald Trump. But many people won’t get those same deductions when they fill out their state income tax forms. That is because it is up to each state to decide whether to match federal tax changes, and many have decided not to do so. In states that don’t conform to the federal tax changes, workers who receive a federal tax deduction for tips or overtime still will owe state taxes on those earnings. The tax-filing deadline is Wednesday for the federal government and most states. Here is what to know about state income tax rates and deductions: In most states, individuals must fill out two separate tax forms. First, the federal income tax form. Then a state income tax form. The order matters, because most states use figures from the federal tax form as the starting point for their state tax calculations. No income tax is levied in eight states — Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. Washington state taxes income from capital gains but not wages and salaries. Missouri taxes income from wages and salaries but not capital gains. Only about a half-dozen states are mirroring Trump’s law by offering tax breaks on tips and overtime wages or for loan interest on new vehicles assembled in the U.S. All three of those tax deductions are available to state income taxpayers in Idaho, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota and Oregon. Colorado offers the tips and auto loan deductions but not the overtime tax break. Alabama offers only the auto loan deduction. Laws in several states automatically apply federal tax changes to state income taxes unless the governor and lawmakers opt out — like Colorado officials did on the overtime tax deduction. But in most states, the tax breaks are available only if officials updated their state laws, like they did in Idaho. State income tax forms in Arizona list tax deductions for tips, overtime, auto loans and older residents based on a November executive order from Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. She assumed the Republican-led Legislature would later pass a bill putting the tax breaks into state law. But Arizona law remains unchanged. Hobbs vetoed two tax-break bills because she objected to provisions that also would have adopted Trump’s corporate tax breaks. And lawmakers have not passed a third attempt. “It’s an extraordinarily unusual situation,” said Adam Chodorow, a law professor at Arizona State University who specializes in tax law. “We will likely have lots of people deducting tips” and overtime wages “who aren’t legally entitled to do so,” he said. “But they are being instructed by the state government to take those deductions.” It is possible that Arizona still could enact a law officially allowing the deductions; it could even be done retroactively, after the tax-filing deadline. Tipped workers and overtime earners almost got tax breaks this year in some additional states. South Carolina extended its deadline to file for tax refunds to Oct. 15 to allow time for the Republican-led Legislature to opt in to the federal tax deductions. Legislation to do so passed the House but got defeated in the state Senate. Wisconsin’s Republican-led Legislature passed bills to allow the tips and overtime deductions. But Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed them on April 3. Officials in Georgia, Indiana and Michigan have enacted laws allowing tax deductions for tips and overtime wages starting with the 2026 tax year. That means they aren’t available for people currently filing their 2025 tax returns. Oregon, meanwhile, could move the other direction. Legislation pending before Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek would stop offering the auto loan deduction and some corporate tax breaks for the 2026 tax year. Other states could still opt in or out of the tax deductions for their 2026 taxes. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
- Iran war diverts US military and attention from Asia ahead of Trump’s summit with China’s leader
on April 12, 2026 at 4:18 amWASHINGTON (AP) — In 2011, President Barack Obama declared it was time for America to leave behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and “pivot” to Asia to counter the rise of China. Fifteen years later, the U.S. finds itself still at war in the Middle East and has pulled military assets from the Asia-Pacific as it aims to eliminate the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. The demands of the Iran war also caused President Donald Trump to delay by several weeks his highly anticipated trip to China, deepening worries that the U.S. is once again getting distracted at the cost of its strategic interests in Asia, where Beijing seeks to unseat the U.S. as the regional leader. Those skeptical of the U.S. involvement in the Middle East say the war is preventing Trump from adequately preparing for his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month, when economic interests are on the line, and they warn that a failure to focus on Asia and maintain strong deterrence could lead to greater instability, if China should believe the time is ripe to seize the self-governed island of Taiwan. “This is precisely the wrong time for the United States to turn away and be sucked into another intractable Middle East conflict,” said Danny Russel, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “Rebalancing to Asia is highly relevant to America’s national interests, but it has been undercut by many bad decisions.” Others defend the president’s approach, arguing that the forceful steps he is taking elsewhere, including in Venezuela and Iran, serve to counter China globally. “Beijing is the chief sponsor for the adversaries that President Trump is dealing with sequentially, and it’s wise to do this sequentially,” Matt Pottinger, who served as a deputy national security adviser in the first Trump administration, said in a recent podcast. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also said conflicts may not be confined to a single theater, suggesting that China could call upon its “junior partners” elsewhere to divert U.S. attention if it should move against Taiwan. “Most likely it will not be limited, something in the Indo-Pacific to the Indo-Pacific,” Rutte said, speaking Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Institute in Washington. “It will be a multi-theater issue.” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently led a bipartisan group of senators to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, where they heard concerns about the impact of the war on energy costs and about the departure of U.S. military assets, including missile defense systems from South Korea and a rapid-response Marine unit from Japan. She sought to reassure them of the U.S. commitment to deterring conflicts in Asia and shoring up regional stability. “Failure is not an option,” Shaheen told The Associated Press after returning from Asia. “We know China has already said they intend to take Taiwan by force if they need to, and they’re on an expedited time schedule. And we also know that what happened in Europe, in the war in Ukraine, in the Middle East is affecting those calculations.” Kurt Campbell, who served as deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration, said he’s worried that the military capabilities that the U.S. had patiently accumulated in the Indo-Pacific region might not return in full even after the Iran war ends. The longer the conflict goes on, the more it will pull resources and focus away from Asia, said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies the U.S. strategy in Asia. He added that future arms sales to the region also will be negatively affected. “The United States has expended substantial numbers of munitions in the Middle East and will have to keep an increased force presence there, some of which has been redirected from Asia,” Cooper said. “Meanwhile, Xi Jinping’s wisdom in preparing a ‘war time’ economy by stockpiling and adding alternate energy sources has shown itself to be beneficial.” Shaheen said the U.S. defense industry will struggle to meet the demand to replenish the weapons stockpile. “We’re working on a number of strategies to improve that, but at this point, timelines for weapons delivery are slipping,” she said. The senator from New Hampshire said she’s encouraged that Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are stepping up their own defense. Obama’s strategic rebalance to Asia reflected his understanding that the U.S. must be a player in the Pacific to harness the region’s growth and ensure continued U.S. leadership in the face of China’s rising influence. “After a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia-Pacific region,” Obama said in a speech to the Australian Parliament. “So make no mistake, the tide of war is receding, and America is looking ahead to the future that we must build.” But the strategy was set back when a proposed trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership with key U.S. regional partners failed to get through the U.S. Senate. After Trump first took office in 2017, he withdrew the U.S. from the partnership and launched a tariff war with China. His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, kept Trump’s tariffs on China and tightened export controls on advanced technology, while strengthening regional alliances to counter China. By the time Trump rolled out his national security strategy in late 2025, the U.S. strategy in Asia had been narrowed to military deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and the First Island Chain, a string of U.S.-aligned islands off China’s coast that restrict its access to the Western Pacific. The national security document says it’s in the economic interest of the U.S. to secure access to advanced chips, which are sourced primarily from Taiwan and are needed to power everything from computers to missiles, and to protect shipping lanes in the South China Sea. “Hence deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” the document says. “We will build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain.” The Middle East, it says, should be getting less attention: “As this administration rescinds or eases restrictive energy policies and American energy production ramps up, America’s historic reason for focusing on the Middle East will recede.” Then came the Iran war. ___ AP writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
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