Guatemalan man pleads guilty in federal court after truck crash in Mexico killed over 50 migrants<\/p>\n
LAREDO, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Guatemalan man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to a felony offense and acknowledged his involvement in an attempt to illegally smuggle migrants to the U.S. when a jampacked tractor-tailer truck crashed in Mexico in 2021, killing more than 50 migrants.<\/p>\n
Daniel Zavala Ramos, 42, faces a possible sentence of life in prison following his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Laredo, Texas, to a single charge of conspiring to bring migrants without documents from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. and placing lives in jeopardy and causing serious injury and deaths, the U.S. Department of Justice said. <\/p>\n
Sentencing is set for July 7.<\/p>\n
Ramos was among six Guatemalans charged over the crash of the semitrailer truck and the first to be convicted. The other five have a final pretrial conference on June 3, according to court records. Ramos’ attorney did not immediately return an email Wednesday evening seeking comment.<\/p>\n
At least 160 migrants, many from Guatemala, were packed into the truck that hit the support base for a pedestrian bridge on Dec. 9, 2021, and overturned, authorities said. At least 53 people were killed and more than 100 were injured, officials said, and video footage at the time of the crash showed dead and injured migrants in a jumbled pile inside the truck’s collapsed freight container.<\/p>\n
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At least 182 killed as Israel strikes central Beirut after saying Iran truce doesn’t apply there<\/p>\n
BEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Israeli strikes hit busy commercial and residential areas in central Beirut without warning on Wednesday, hours after a ceasefire was announced in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Lebanon said at least 182 people were killed and hundreds were wounded, making it the deadliest day in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. <\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump told PBS News Hour that Lebanon was not included in the deal because of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. When asked about Israel\u2019s latest strikes, he said, \u201cThat\u2019s a separate skirmish.\u201d Israel had said the agreement does not extend to its war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah, although Iran and mediator Pakistan said it does. <\/p>\n
The fleeting sense of relief among Lebanese after the ceasefire announcement turned into panic with what Israel\u2019s military called its largest coordinated strike in the current war, saying it had hit more than 100 Hezbollah targets within 10 minutes in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.<\/p>\n
Black smoke towered over several parts of the seaside capital, where a huge number of people displaced by war have taken shelter. Explosions interrupted the honking of traffic on what had been a bustling, blue-sky afternoon. Ambulances raced toward open flames. Apartment buildings were struck.<\/p>\n
Associated Press journalists saw charred bodies in vehicles and on the ground at one of Beirut\u2019s busiest intersections in the central Corniche al Mazraa neighborhood, a mixed commercial and residential area. Using forklifts, rescue workers removed smoldering debris and sifted through ruins for survivors.<\/p>\n
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Oil plunges below $95 as the Dow surges 1,300 in a worldwide rally following a ceasefire with Iran<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Oil prices plunged below $95 per barrel, and stock markets surged worldwide Wednesday after President Donald Trump pulled back from his threat to destroy Iran.<\/p>\n
The S&P 500 leaped 2.5% after Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran, less than 90 minutes before a deadline Trump had set for it to open the Strait of Hormuz and allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 1,325 points, or 2.8%, and the Nasdaq composite soared 2.8% following even bigger gains in European and Asian stock markets.<\/p>\n
To be sure, stock prices are still below where they were before the war. And oil prices are still higher because of the threat of a resumption to the war. The ceasefire already looks precarious, and Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz again Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Such uncertainty caused some of the euphoria that fueled financial markets in the morning to fade as Wednesday\u2019s trading progressed, and financial markets have been prone to sharp and sudden reversals since the war began.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a reason to be optimistic, but it is still too early to tell, because, as you know, after all, it is Trump,\u201d said Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at MONEX. <\/p>\n
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Trump complains NATO ‘wasn’t there when we needed them’ after talks with alliance leader Rutte<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump repeated his complaint about NATO after a closed-door meeting with the alliance’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday for discussions that had been expected to be aimed at soothing Trump\u2019s anger with the military alliance over the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the private meeting, Trump had suggested the U.S. may consider leaving the trans-Atlantic alliance after NATO member countries ignored his call to help as Iran effectively shut the the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping waterway, and sent gas prices soaring.<\/p>\n
Afterward, he issued an all-caps comment on social media suggesting he remained aggrieved. \u201cNATO WASN\u2019T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON\u2019T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,\u201d Trump said in his post. The White House did not immediately offer any further updates.<\/p>\n
The Republican president has had a warm relationship with Rutte in the past, and the meeting came after the U.S. and Iran late Tuesday agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the strait. The nascent ceasefire was struck after Trump said he would strike Iran’s power plants and bridges, threatening that \u201ca whole civilization will die tonight.”<\/p>\n
Earlier Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that Trump had discussed leaving NATO. \u201cI think it\u2019s something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with Secretary-General Rutte,\u201d Leavitt said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
How Trump went from threatening Iran’s annihilation to agreeing to a 2-week ceasefire with Tehran<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump, over the course of a single day, went from threatening Iran with \u201cannihilation\u201d to proclaiming that the battered Islamic Republic’s leadership had presented a \u201cworkable\u201d plan that led him to agree to a 14-day ceasefire that he hopes will pave the way to end the nearly six-week war.<\/p>\n
The dramatic shift in tenor came as intermediaries led by Pakistan worked feverishly to head off a further escalation. Even China, Iran’s biggest trading partner and America’s most significant economic competitor, quietly pulled strings to find a path toward a ceasefire, according to two officials briefed on the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,\u201d Trump said in a social media post Tuesday announcing the temporary ceasefire. It came about 90 minutes before his deadline for Tehran to open the critical Strait of Hormuz or see its power plants and other critical infrastructure obliterated.<\/p>\n
But even as the White House was celebrating the moment as a victory, the fragile ceasefire appeared in danger of falling apart as the U.S., Iran and Israel offered differing statements on Wednesday on what was included in the deal less than 24 hours after it was brokered.<\/p>\n
Iran insisted that an end to the Israeli war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire agreement with the U.S. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon and the Israeli operations there continued.<\/p>\n
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Rex Heuermann pleads guilty to murder charges and admits he killed 8 women in the Gilgo Beach case<\/p>\n
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 A Long Island architect who led a secret life as a serial killer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings.<\/p>\n
Rex Heuermann, 62, entered the pleas in a courtroom packed with reporters, police and victims\u2019 relatives, some of whom wept as he detailed his murders. He will be sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n
Heuermann’s guilty pleas \u2014 to three counts of first-degree murder and four of intentional murder \u2014 bring finality to a case that bedeviled investigators, tormented victims\u2019 families and tantalized a true-crime obsessed public for years. Although he wasn’t charged in her death, he also admitted that he killed Karen Vergata in 1996.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been a long journey of hope \u2014 hope that one day we would stand here and say her name with justice beside it,” Melissa Cann, the sister of victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes, said at a news conference hours after the hearing as she fought back tears. “Today, that long, painful journey brings us to this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
In court, Heuermann admitted that he strangled all eight victims and dismembered some of them before dumping their bodies.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
California Supreme Court orders GOP sheriff to pause election probe and preserve seized ballots<\/p>\n
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a county sheriff who seized more than half a million 2025 election ballots to pause his probe into election fraud allegations while the judges review the legal challenge against it.<\/p>\n
The order came after California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, last month asked the court to step in, arguing the sheriff has no authority over election materials. A voting rights group is also challenging the ballot seizure.<\/p>\n
The dispute started earlier this year and escalated last month when Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seized 1,000 boxes of election materials to investigate a complaint from a local citizens group about the ballot count from a November 2025 special election on redistricting. Local election officials told the county Board of Supervisors that the complaint was unfounded. After Bonta ordered Bianco to halt his probe, the sheriff seized another 426 boxes of ballots.<\/p>\n
Bianco and his office \u201care hereby ordered to pause the investigation into the November 2025 special election and preserve all seized items,\u201d the order reads.<\/p>\n
Bonta said the Wednesday order is essential to stop the sheriff\u2019s probe.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
March smashes record as most abnormally hot month for continental US, federal meteorologists say<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 March\u2019s persistent unseasonable heat was so intense that the continental United States registered its most abnormally hot month in 132 years of records, according to federal weather data. And the next year or so looks to turn the dial up on global warmth even more, as some forecasts predict a brewing El Nino will reach superstrength.<\/p>\n
Not only was it the hottest March on record for the U.S., but the amount it was above normal beat any other month in history for the Lower 48 states. March\u2019s average temperature of 50.85 degrees Fahrenheit (10.47 degrees Celsius) was 9.35 F (5.19 C) above the 20th century normal for March. That easily passed the old record of 8.9 F (4.9 C) set in March 2012 as the most abnormally hot month on record \u2014 regardless of the month of the year \u2014 according to records released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. <\/p>\n
The average maximum temperature for March was especially high at 11.4 F (6.3 C) above the 20th century average and was almost a degree warmer than the average daytime high for April, NOAA said.<\/p>\n
Six of the nation\u2019s top 10 most abnormally hot months have been in the last 10 years. This February, which was 6.57 F (3.65 C) above 20th century normal, was the tenth highest above normal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we experienced in March across the United States was unprecedented,\u201d said Climate Central meteorologist Shel Winkley. \u201cOne reason that\u2019s so concerning is just the sheer volume of records, all-time records that were set and broken during that time period. But also this is coming on the heels of what was the worst snow year. And the hottest winter of record. So we\u2019re seeing this continuation of extraordinary heat that took place during the winter months, continuing into the spring months as well. That\u2019s where it\u2019s really concerning, it\u2019s just the duration of this heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife convicted of attempted manslaughter<\/p>\n
HONOLULU (AP) \u2014 A Hawaii anesthesiologist who was accused of trying to murder his wife on a cliffside hike last year has been convicted of the lesser charge of attempted manslaughter.<\/p>\n
A Honolulu jury returned the verdict against Gerhardt Konig, 47, on Wednesday after a day of deliberations. The crime he was convicted of, attempted manslaughter based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance, carries up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing was set for Aug. 13.<\/p>\n
Thomas Otake, his attorney, said he planned to appeal. Nevertheless, Otake said the defense respected the jury’s verdict.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thankful that they did not convict him of attempted murder, which would have been life in prison,\u201d Otake said. \u201cWe look forward to an appeal related to some of the judge’s rulings throughout the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Eight states, three time zones and a ton of history: Take a trip down Route 66 as it turns 100<\/p>\n
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 If you\u2019ve ever planned to motor west and take the highway that\u2019s the best, this might be the time: Route 66 turns 100 this year.<\/p>\n
The Mother Road, as author John Steinbeck dubbed it, has evolved over the years from an escape for poor farmers fleeing the devastating dust storms of the 1930s to perhaps the quintessential American road trip that\u2019s still delivering kicks.<\/p>\n
Although there have been faster and more direct routes between the nation\u2019s second- and third-largest cities for some time, Route 66\u2019s neon still burns brightly and its vintage signs beckon travelers to restored motor lodges, classic diners and roadside attractions.<\/p>\n
Each stop turns the wheels of the imagination, leaving travelers to contemplate what life was like for the people and communities that have made the road hum over the years.<\/p>\n
Chicago has long been one of the country\u2019s economic engines, with access to international waters and railroads that linked all corners of the country. In the 1920s, Oklahoma businessman Cyrus Avery, known as the Father of Route 66, knew it wouldn\u2019t be long before automobiles would dominate the transportation landscape, and the Windy City would be the perfect place to start the journey he envisioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guatemalan man pleads guilty in federal court after truck crash in Mexico killed over 50 migrants LAREDO, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Guatemalan man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to a felony offense and acknowledged his involvement in an attempt to illegally smuggle migrants to the U.S. when a jampacked tractor-tailer truck crashed in Mexico […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"guid":"b1a7a6ae-4178-4bbd-bf78-38cd42269000","source":"The Associated Press","byline":"","published":"2026-04-07 21:04:51","updated":"2026-04-08 20:04:32","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1303,1304],"tags":[],"region":[1279,1280,1305,1413,1320,1301],"class_list":["post-5415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-world","region-british-columbia","region-canada","region-nova-scotia","region-sydney","region-victoria","region-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/5415\/ap-news-in-brief-at-1104-pm-edt-284\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/5415\/ap-news-in-brief-at-1104-pm-edt-284\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/5415\/ap-news-in-brief-at-1104-pm-edt-284\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"International","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Associated Press"}],"creator":["The Associated Press"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iNwheels","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-04-08T04:04:51Z","datePublished":"2026-04-08T04:04:51Z","dateModified":"2026-04-09T03:15:01Z"},"rendered":"