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

Ex-FBI Director Comey indicted again, in a probe over an online post officials call a Trump threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted again Tuesday, this time over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat against President Donald Trump.

The criminal case is the second in months against Comey and is part of the Trump administration Justice Department’s relentless effort to prosecute political opponents of the Republican president. The seashells photo was posted nearly a year ago, but the indictment was secured at a time when acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, a Trump loyalist who previously served as his personal lawyer, aims to prove to the president that he is the right person to hold the job permanently.

The fact that the Justice Department pursued a new case months after a separate and unrelated indictment was dismissed could expose the government to claims of a vindictive prosecution and to arguments that it is going out of its way to target Comey, who as FBI director had overseen the early months of an investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election.

Comey was fired by Trump months into the president’s first term as that investigation was underway, and they have openly feuded ever since.

The prosecution arises from a May post on Instagram in which Comey shared a photo of seashells he saw on a walk in the arrangement of “86 47.” He has said he assumed that the numbers reflected a political message, not a call to violence. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

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King Charles III highlights US-UK bond during busy day of diplomacy with Trump and Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — King Charles III marked the 250th anniversary of American independence from Britain with gratitude that the two countries united to build “one of the most consequential alliances in human history” while urging “that we ignore the clarion calls to become ever more inward-looking.”

Speaking Tuesday to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Charles repeatedly highlighted the historical and cultural ties that he said have cemented an enduring bond between the United States and the United Kingdom. But even as he spoke in unifying, optimistic terms, he delivered a series of nuanced warnings encouraging leaders in the U.S. to remain collaborative and engaged in global affairs.

He said the alliance between the U.S. and the U.K., tested anew by President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, “cannot rest on past achievements.” Charles urged “unyielding resolve” in backing Ukraine against Russia and heralded the NATO alliance that Trump has consistently undermined.

The king praised religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue in terms that are rare in Trump’s Washington. As the White House rolls back regulations aimed at denting climate change, the king encouraged those in power to “reflect on our shared responsibility to safeguard nature, our most precious and irreplaceable asset.”

At one point, Charles traced the notion of checks and balances on executive power to the Magna Carta, the foundational legal document sealed by King John in 1215. Trump told The New York Times earlier this year that he was constrained only by “my own morality.”

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United Arab Emirates will leave OPEC in a blow to the oil cartel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it will leave OPEC effective May 1, stripping the oil cartel of its third-largest producer and further weakening its leverage over global oil supplies and prices.

The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn’t able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

The UAE’s withdrawal from OPEC won’t necessarily have any immediate effects in markets. That’s because world oil supplies are sharply constrained by the war in Iran, which has closed off the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil supplies — including much of the UAE’s — is transported. On Tuesday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded above $111 a barrel, or more than 50% above its prewar price.

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US soldier pleads not guilty to using intel on Maduro raid to win $400,000 on Polymarket

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. special forces soldier pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he used classified information about the mission to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to win more than $400,000 on the prediction market Polymarket.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court after he was charged with the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and making an unlawful monetary transaction.

He was released on $250,000 bail and his travel was restricted to portions of New York, North Carolina, California and points necessary to travel between.

Prosecutors said evidence in the case will include information resulting from grand jury subpoenas, cryptocurrency exchange records, search warrants and social media accounts.

Defense attorney Zach Intrater told Judge Margaret M. Garnett he doubts there will be many disputes arising from “the actual event,” but suspects the case will rise and fall on motions he will make on behalf of his client.

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Elon Musk takes stand in trial vs. Sam Altman that could reshape AI’s future

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, world’s richest man and OpenAI cofounder, took the stand Tuesday in a high-stakes trial revolving around a bitter feud with his former friend Sam Altman that could reshape the future development of artificial intelligence.

His testimony at the Oakland, California, federal courthouse kicked off a legal drama that is expected to brim with intrigue and potentially embarrassing details about the two tech moguls. Musk filed the lawsuit against Altman and his top lieutenant, Greg Brockman, along with Microsoft over its investments in OpenAI, in 2024.

“Fundamentally, I think they’re going to try to make this lawsuit … very complicated, but it’s actually very simple,” Musk said. “Which is that it’s not OK to steal a charity.”

The nine-person jury was selected Monday and the trial is scheduled to take three weeks.

In the civil lawsuit, Musk accuses Altman and Brockman of double-crossing him by straying from the San Francisco company’s founding mission to be a steward of a revolutionary technology. In his opening statement, Musk’s attorney, Steven Molo, quoted OpenAI’s mission statement when it was created as a nonprofit for the benefit of humanity, not constrained by the need to generate financial enrichment for anyone.

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What to know about how a suspect in the killing of two Florida students used ChatGPT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The investigation into the deaths of two University of South Florida doctoral students took a twist this weekend when prosecutors said that the suspect asked ChatGPT about body disposal in the lead up to the students’ disappearance, raising questions about the role tech companies have in preventing the misuse of the powerful chatbots.

It wasn’t long after University of South Florida students Zamil Limon and his girlfriend Nahida Bristy went missing on April 16 that law enforcement began to suspect Limon’s roommate Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, of killing both Bangladeshi students. Limon’s body was found Friday under a bridge and a second body, found in a waterway near Limon’s body, was recovered but has not been identified.

Now, court records filed by prosecutors on Saturday suggest that Abugharbieh’s OpenAI search history has emerged as a prominent piece of evidence. Specifically, in the days before Limon and Bristy went missing, Abugharbieh asked the artificial intelligence chatbot a slew of questions about guns and the disposal of bodies.

Abugharbieh was charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the first degree with a weapon in the deaths of Limon and Bristy, and he was ordered held without bond at a hearing on Tuesday.

Ahead of the hearing, court records painted a clearer picture both about how people planning crimes may be using chatbots and how law enforcement is able to leverage the artificial intelligence data that usage creates. The case also raises questions about what obligation tech companies have to prevent criminal misconduct, as well as to cooperate with and aid investigations.

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Agents armed with search warrants keep focus on Minnesota in public fraud probe

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents executed multiple searches in Minnesota on Tuesday, seizing records and other evidence in an ongoing fraud investigation by the Trump administration of publicly funded social programs for children, authorities said.

No details about possible crimes were disclosed, though armed agents were seen at childcare centers in the Minneapolis area. KSTP-TV said one crew even had a battering ram.

The searches occurred months after right-wing influencer Nick Shirley posted a video that said members of Minnesota’s Somali community were running fake childcare centers to collect federal subsidies. It caught the attention of the administration and conservative activists, though inspectors said the centers were operating as expected.

Minnesota has been dogged by fraud: At least 65 people, many of them Somali Americans, have been convicted of ripping off a federal program that was meant to provide food to children. The investigation began during the Biden administration.

Separately, a federal prosecutor in December said as much as $9 billion in federal funds that supported 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen.

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Iran’s economy has been battered. Its leaders still think Trump will blink first

CAIRO (AP) — In the heartland of Iran’s famed carpet-making industry, manufacturing has ground to a near halt. Dairies struggle to find packages for milk and butter. Giant steel mills that once drove Iran’s economy have gone silent. Hundreds of thousands have lost jobs, and millions more are at risk.

Over more than five weeks of bombardment, U.S. and Israeli strikes hit thousands of factories. The damage is reverberating across Iran’s economy, threatening increasing waves of layoffs, even as Iranians face skyrocketing prices. The cost of chicken is up 75% the past month, and beef and lamb jumped 68%. Many dairy products have increased by half.

It could get worse as the United States blockades Iranian ports, choking off many imports and oil exports that bring in billions of dollars. Economic woes sparked the mass protests that were crushed before the war and could again push Iranians into the streets.

Still, Iran has its own weapon pointed at the global economy, with its grip on the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s leaders say they will only reopen the key waterway for global energy if the blockade is lifted and the war ends. They are betting that an economy built to be self-reliant under decades of international sanctions can endure the pain longer than U.S. President Donald Trump.

Iran has lost at least 1 million jobs directly because of the war, Deputy Labor Minister Gholamhossein Mohammadi said, according to state media.

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Takeaways from AP investigation: Adopted kids confined in for-profit institutions

An Associated Press investigation finds that a business known for tough-love boarding schools for rebellious, rich teenagers set its sights on a different demographic: adopted kids.

Adoptees are vastly overrepresented in what some call the “troubled teen industry,” a sprawling network of loosely regulated, for-profit residential treatment centers, wilderness programs and boarding schools. Experts say that adoptees, only 2% of American children, account for an estimated 25-40% of those in residential treatment.

Adoptees told the AP they believe they’ve been enmeshed in a shadow orphanage system where children end up with the very fate that adoption was supposed to spare them — promised forever homes but institutionalized instead, some for years, in oppressive and sometimes abusive facilities.

Many said the programs felt like prison, except they had not been convicted of any crime, they had no sentence and no judge monitored their confinement. Parents alone usually decide to send their children away and for how long.

The AP interviewed dozens of program attendees and their families, former employees, public officials, attorneys and experts, and obtained hundreds of government and business records to examine why and how adopted kids land in such facilities despite the companies’ disturbing track records.

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Ex-NBA player Damon Jones is 1st to plead guilty in gambling sweep that led to over 30 arrests

NEW YORK (AP) — A hot hand on the hardwood, former NBA player Damon Jones once proclaimed himself “the best shooter in the world.” As an assistant coach, he helped guide the Cleveland Cavaliers to their only championship in 2016.

But after his playing and coaching days ended, Jones betrayed the game he loved, solemnly admitting in court Tuesday that he exploited his fame and insider access to profit from sports betting and rigged poker games.

Jones, 49, became the first person to plead guilty in a gambling sweep that led to the arrests of more than 30 people, including reputed mobsters and other basketball figures. Sports bettor Marves Fairley is poised to become the second.

During back-to-back hearings in Brooklyn federal court, Jones entered guilty pleas to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in schemes to defraud major sportsbooks, including DraftKings and FanDuel, and filch millions of dollars from unwitting poker players.

Sitting alongside his lawyer and reading from a prepared statement, Jones acknowledged that he aided the betting conspiracy with “insider information that I obtained as a result of my relationships as a former player.”