AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Man charged with attempted assassination of Trump in White House correspondents’ dinner shooting

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives was charged Monday with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump as federal authorities suggested an attack that disrupted one of Washington’s glitziest events had been planned for at least several weeks.

Cole Tomas Allen appeared in court to face federal charges after the chaotic encounter Saturday that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage unharmed and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables. He was ordered to remain jailed pending additional court hearings, and faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone.

An FBI affidavit filed in the case Monday revealed additional details about the planning behind the assault, with authorities alleging that Allen on April 6 reserved a room for himself at the Washington hotel where the event would be held weeks later under its typical tight security. He traveled by train cross-country from California last week, checking himself into the Washington Hilton one day before the dinner with a room reserved for the weekend.

The dinner had barely begun when officials say the 31-year-old Torrance, California, man tried to race past a security barricade near the cavernous ballroom holding hundreds of journalists and their guests, prompting an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service agents tasked with safeguarding the event. Allen carried with him a 12-gauge pump action shotgun he bought last year and a .38 caliber semi-automatic pistol he purchased in 2023, authorities said.

“Violence has no place in civic life,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference. “It cannot and will not be used to disrupt democratic institutions or intimidate those who serve them, and it certainly cannot continue to be used against the president of the United States.”

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Reporters covered the correspondents’ dinner shooting in real time. Conspiracy theories still spread

So much information, streaming out in so little time. And still: Within minutes, conspiracy theories flooded the internet.

The shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner attended by President Donald Trump on Saturday night played out in front of some of the nation’s most powerful reporters and editors who snapped into action in real time to provide detailed accounts from the scene.

What resulted was a steady stream of facts from myriad reputable media outlets — hardly an information vacuum. Despite this, unfounded conspiracy theories from both the left and the right proliferated, chief among them that the shooting was staged. Some spread in spite of the facts, while others used real information to create false narratives.

Jen Golbeck, a professor at the University of Maryland who studies conspiracy theories, said a lack of trust in institutions and an inability to sort fact from fiction create a “textbook recipe” for such rumors. But, she said, even when an abundance of information is available the entertainment value of conspiracy theories can still prevail.

“The thing about conspiracy theories that makes people enjoy them, even if they’re not politically extreme, is that you get to go looking for breadcrumbs,” she said. “It’s a way to feel smart and accepted when you come up with a nugget to contribute and people like it.”

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Iran offers to reopen Strait of Hormuz if US lifts its blockade and the war ends, officials say

CAIRO (AP) — Iran offered to end its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. lifts its blockade on the country and ends the war in a proposal that would postpone discussions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, two regional officials said Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump seems unlikely to accept the offer, which was passed to the Americans by Pakistan and would leave unresolved the disagreements that led the U.S. and Israel to go to war on Feb. 28. And U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to rule out any deal that excludes Iran’s nuclear program.

“We can’t let them get away with it,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview Monday. “We have to ensure that any deal that is made, any agreement that is made, is one that definitively prevents them from sprinting towards a nuclear weapon at any point.”

With a fragile ceasefire in place, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. The U.S blockade is designed to prevent Iran from selling its oil, depriving it of crucial revenue while also potentially creating a situation where Tehran has to shut off production because it has nowhere to store oil.

The strait’s closure, meanwhile, has put pressure on Trump, as oil and gasoline prices have skyrocketed ahead of crucial midterm elections, and it has pressured his Gulf allies, which use the waterway to export their oil and gas.

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King Charles III arrives at the White House on a delicate mission to restore the UK-US relationship

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two and a half centuries after the American colonies declared independence from Britain under King George III, his descendant King Charles III arrived at the White House on Monday with trans-Atlantic ties under strain and security in the spotlight.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump greeted Charles and Queen Camilla as they arrived, posing for photos and exchanging small talk before they went inside for tea in the Green Room. Afterward, the couples went down to the south grounds to see a new beehive in the shape of the White House that the first lady had installed last week.

Charles and Camilla both support beekeeping. He keeps at least three beehives at his private residence in England as part of his support for the environment and sustainability.

After the White House visit, the royal couple attended a garden party at the British Embassy.

A rift between the U.K. government and Trump over issues including the Iran war had already raised the political stakes for the British monarch’s visit.

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Tired and worried, seafarers have been stranded in the Persian Gulf for weeks

NEW DELHI (AP) — For about eight weeks, Indian Capt. Rahul Dhar and his crew have been stranded on their tanker in the Persian Gulf, sometimes watching drones and missiles explode as the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively shut while the Iran war dragged on.

The crew’s morale, he said, is holding as they carry on with their routines, but the strain is beginning to show.

A shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has brought “a careful sense of hope” for the crew, but there is still no clear end to the war. “Day to day, we try to keep things normal with open conversations and small team activities that help lift everyone’s spirits.”

The crew sighted drones and missile interceptions several times, both near the ship and along the horizon during their watches. “Those moments were difficult and created real tension for the crew,” Dhar told The Associated Press.

“None of us expected the warlike situation,” he said, noting that reliable internet has helped them stay in touch with families. “Those calls and messages really keep us grounded and give us strength.”

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Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman head to court in high-stakes showdown over AI

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Technology tycoons Elon Musk and Sam Altman are poised to face off in a high-stakes trial revolving around the alleged betrayal, deceit and unbridled ambition that blurred the bickering billionaires’ once-shared vision for the development of artificial intelligence.

The trial, which started Monday with jury selection, centers on the 2015 birth of ChatGPT maker OpenAI as a nonprofit startup primarily funded by Musk before evolving into a capitalistic venture now valued at $852 billion.

The trial’s outcome could sway the balance of power in AI — breakthrough technology that is increasingly being feared as a potential job killer and an existential threat to humanity’s survival.

Those perceived risks are among the reasons that Musk, the world’s richest person, cites for filing an August 2024 lawsuit that will now be decided by a jury and U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California.

The civil lawsuit accuses Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, of double-crossing Musk by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be an altruistic steward of a revolutionary technology. The lawsuit alleges they shifted into a moneymaking mode behind his back.

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‘Dances With Wolves’ actor Nathan Chasing Horse sentenced to life in prison for sexual assault

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge sentenced “Dances With Wolves” actor Nathan Chasing Horse on Monday to life in prison for sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls.

A jury had previously convicted him of 13 charges, mostly related to sexual assault of three women.

Accusers and their families told Judge Jessica Peterson they continue to suffer from the trauma caused by Chasing Horse, 49, and struggle with their faith after he exploited his position as a spiritual leader.

“There is no way to get back the youth, the childhood loss, my first time, my first kiss, the graduation I never got to have,” said Corena Leone-LaCroix, who was 14 when Chasing Horse assaulted her. “The life that little girl could have lived has been taken from me forever.”

The Associated Press typically does not use the name of alleged sexual assault victims unless they come forward publicly, as Leone-LaCroix has.

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Prosecutors say suspect in missing students’ killings asked ChatGPT about disposing of a body

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The suspect in the killings of two University of South Florida doctoral students from Bangladesh had asked ChatGPT what would happen if a human body was put in a garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster, days before they went missing, according to a report filed by prosecutors over the weekend.

Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, also asked the artificial intelligence chatbot whether the vehicle identification number on his car could be changed and whether he could keep a gun at home without a license, according to the pretrial detention report filed Saturday. ChatGPT responded that Abugharbieh’s question sounded dangerous, according to the report.

An investigation that the office of Florida’s attorney general launched last week over whether ChatGPT offered advice to a gunman who killed two people last year at Florida State University will be expanded to include the killings of the USF students, Attorney General James Uthmeier said Monday on social media.

The remains of Abugharbieh’s roommate, Zamil Limon, were found on the Howard Frankland bridge Friday morning, but Hillsborough County Chief Deputy Joseph Maurer said later that day that they were still searching for Limon’s girlfriend, Nahida Bristy. On Sunday, the sheriff’s office announced that a body had been found in a waterway near the bridge but had not been identified.

Abugharbieh, was charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the first degree with a weapon in the deaths of Limon and Bristy, the sheriff’s office announced Saturday. The former USF student was ordered held without bond. A hearing is set for Tuesday.

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Fast-moving storms batter the Midwest, flooding streets and stranding commuters

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Fast-moving storms pummeled parts of the Midwest with hail, strong wind and heavy rain Monday, flooding streets and leading to stranded commuters who needed to be rescued, with more storms on the way, authorities said.

More than 64 million people in the Midwest were at risk of severe storms into the afternoon and evening, with the St. Louis region at moderate risk for multiple long-track tornadoes and large hail, the National Weather Service said.

“The greatest area of concern is across central Missouri into southern Illinois and into southeast Missouri,” Evan Bentley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said on X.

Bentley later told reporters that temperatures near 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius) and other factors were contributing to “atmospheric instability.”

Hundreds of schools in the St. Louis area closed early, and many after-school activities were canceled. Temporary afternoon tornado warnings were posted in the region as well as across the Missouri border in southwestern Illinois.

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Trumps call for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel — again — after morbid joke about first lady

Donald and Melania Trump both called for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel on Monday after a joke last week in which the late-night comic described the first lady as having “the glow of an expectant widow.”

The remark about the president’s wife was part of a routine on Thursday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” where the host pretended to deliver a comedy routine at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. That event two nights later was cut short when a man armed with guns and knives tried to enter the Washington ballroom where the Trumps and much of the nation’s political leadership had gathered.

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” Melania Trump said in a social media post later echoed by her husband.

There was no immediate comment from ABC.

Kimmel has long targeted the president in his comedy, and he doubled down after a run-in with the administration last fall. Kimmel was suspended by ABC and some of the network’s affiliates said they would take him off the air following a comment made about assassinated conservative leader Charlie Kirk, moves encouraged by Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr. ABC and the stations later brought Kimmel back.