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

Man suspected of shooting 2 Minnesota lawmakers caught, AP sources says

BELLE PLAINE, Minn. (AP) — The man suspected of killing a Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another has been taken into custody, two law enforcement officials said, bringing an end to a nearly two-day search that put the state on edge.

Vance Boelter was arrested Sunday evening. The arrest was confirmed to The Associated Press by law enforcement officials were who were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. Former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed in their Brooklyn Park home early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs. Sen. John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, were injured at their Champlin home, about 9 miles (about 15 kilometers) away.

Boelter was captured in Minnesota, though officials didn’t immediately say where.

Earlier Sunday Drew Evans, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said at a news conference a nationwide warrant was out for the suspect’s arrest.

Evans said authorities found a car very early Sunday they believed Boelter was using, a few miles from his home in Green Isle, in the farm country about an hour west of Minneapolis. He also said they found evidence in the car that was relevant to the investigation, but did not provide details.

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A teenager with a job making burritos became a powerful Minnesota lawmaker who trained service dogs

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Melissa Hortman’ s influence at the Minnesota Capitol and her power as a Democratic leader to shape the course of a deeply divided Legislature were a far cry from her job as a teenager making chili-cheese burritos and overshadowed her volunteer work training service dogs for veterans.

She was a lifelong Minneapolis-area resident who went to college in Boston and then returned home for law school and, with degree fresh in hand, worked as a volunteer lawyer for a group fighting housing discrimination. Elected to the Minnesota House in 2004, she helped pass liberal initiatives like free lunches for public school students in 2023 as the chamber’s speaker. With the House split 67-67 between Democrats and Republicans this year, she helped break a budget impasse threatening to shut down state government.

Tributes from friends and colleagues in both parties poured in after Hortman and her husband were shot to death early Saturday in their suburban Brooklyn Park home in what authorities called an act of targeted political violence. Helping Paws, which trains service dogs, posted a message on its Facebook page, along with a 2022 photo of a smiling Hortman with her arm around Gilbert, a friendly-looking golden retriever trained to be a service dog and adopted by her family.

“Melissa Hortman was a woman that I wish everyone around the country knew,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a longtime friend and Democratic ally, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Klobuchar added: “She was a true leader and loved her work, but was always so grounded and such a decent person. I think that’s probably the best word to describe her. You look at her pictures and you know what she was about.”

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Political violence is threaded through recent US history. The motives and justifications vary

The assassination of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife at their homes are just the latest addition to a long and unsettling roll call of political violence in the United States.

The list, in the past two months alone: the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, the firebombing of a Colorado march calling for the release of Israeli hostages, and the firebombing of the official residence of Pennsylvania’s governor — on a Jewish holiday while he and his family were inside.

And here’s just a sampling of some other attacks before that — the killing of a health care executive on the streets of New York late last year, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in small-town Pennsylvania during his presidential campaign last year, the 2022 attack on the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by a believer in right-wing conspiracy theories, and the 2017 shooting by a liberal gunman at a GOP practice for the congressional softball game.

“We’ve entered into this especially scary time in the country where it feels the sort of norms and rhetoric and rules that would tamp down on violence have been lifted,” said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University who studies extremism. “A lot of people are receiving signals from the culture.”

Politics have also driven large-scale massacres. Gunmen who killed 11 worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, 23 shoppers at a heavily Latino Walmart in El Paso in 2019 and 10 Black people at a Buffalo grocery store in 2022 each cited the conspiracy theory that a secret cabal of Jews were trying to replace white people with people of color. That has become a staple on parts of the right who support Trump’s push to limit immigration.

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Israel and Iran trade strikes for a third day and threaten more to come. Over 230 are reported dead

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel and Iran traded more missile attacks Sunday despite calls for a halt to the fighting, with neither country backing down as their conflict raged for a third day.

Iran said Israel struck its oil refineries, killed the intelligence chief of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and hit population centers in intensive aerial attacks that raised the death toll in the country since Israel launched its major campaign Friday to 224 people. Health authorities also reported that 1,277 were wounded, without distinguishing between military officials and civilians.

Israel, which has aimed its missiles at Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program and military leadership, said Iran has fired over 270 missiles since Friday, 22 of which slipped through the country’s sophisticated multi-tiered air defenses and caused havoc in residential suburbs, killing 14 people and wounding 390 others.

In an indication of how far Israel was seemingly prepared to go, a U.S. official told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump nixed an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who serves as a religious authority and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Israel, the sole though undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, has said this attack — its most powerful ever against Iran — was to prevent the country from developing a nuclear weapon.

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Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader, US official tells AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump rejected a plan presented by Israel to the U.S. to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The Israelis informed the Trump administration in recent days that they had developed a credible plan to kill Khamenei.

After being briefed on the plan, the White House made clear to Israeli officials that Trump was opposed to the Israelis making the move, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration is desperate to keep Israel’s military operation aimed at decapitating Iran’s nuclear program from exploding into an even more expansive conflict and saw the plan to kill Khamenei as a move that would enflame the conflict and potentially destabilize the region.

Asked about the plan during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report with Bret Baier,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not directly address whether the White House rejected the plan.

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Remains of Air India crash victims are handed over to relatives

AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — Authorities have started handing over remains of the victims of one of India’s worst aviation disasters, days after the Air India flight crashed and killed at least 270 people, officials said Sunday.

The London-bound Boeing 787 struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of the northwestern city of Ahmedabad minutes after takeoff Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. One passenger survived.

Hundreds of relatives of the crash victims provided DNA samples at the hospital. Most of the bodies were charred or mutilated, making them unrecognizable.

Rajneesh Patel, an official at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, said authorities have so far identified 32 victims through DNA mapping and their families were informed. He said the remains of 14 victims were handed over to relatives.

The victims’ families waited outside the hospital mortuary as authorities worked to complete formalities and transfer the bodies in coffins into ambulances. Most of them have expressed frustration at a slow pace of the identification process. Authorities say it normally takes up to 72 hours to complete DNA matching and they are expediting the process.

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G7 leaders gather in Canada for a summit overshadowed by Israel-Iran crisis and trade wars

KANANASKIS, Alberta (AP) — Leaders of some of the world’s biggest economic powers arrived in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday for a Group of Seven summit, overshadowed by an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran and U.S. President Donald Trump’s unresolved trade war.

Israel’s strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation, which appeared to catch many world leaders unawares, is the latest sign of a more volatile world.

Trump in recent days vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a U.S. official told The Associated Press, in an indication of how far Israel was prepared to go.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had discussed efforts to de-escalate the crisis with Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as other world leaders and said he expected “intense discussions” would continue at the summit.

As summit host, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has decided to abandon the annual practice of issuing a joint statement, or communique, at the end of the meeting.

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Justice Department’s early moves on voting and elections signal a shift from its traditional role

ATLANTA (AP) —

In North Carolina, it was a lawsuit over the state’s voter registration records. In Arizona and Wisconsin, it was a letter to state election officials warning of potential administrative violations. And in Colorado, it was a demand for election records going back to 2020.

Those actions in recent weeks by the U.S. Department of Justice’s voting section may seem focused on the technical machinery of how elections are run but signal deeper changes when combined with the departures of career attorneys and decisions to drop various voting rights cases.

They represent a shift away from the division’s traditional role of protecting access to the ballot box. Instead, the actions address concerns that have been raised by a host of conservative activists following years of false claims surrounding elections in the U.S. Some voting rights and election experts also note that by targeting certain states — presidential battlegrounds or those controlled by Democrats — the moves could be foreshadowing an expanded role for the department in future elections.

David Becker, a former department attorney who worked on voting rights cases and now leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the Justice Department’s moves represent a departure from focusing on major violations of federal law.

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Spaniards turn water pistols on visitors in Barcelona and Mallorca to protest mass tourism

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Protesters used water pistols against unsuspecting tourists in Barcelona and on the Spanish island of Mallorca on Sunday as demonstrators marched to demand a rethink of an economic model they believe is fueling a housing crunch and erasing the character of their hometowns.

The marches were part of the first coordinated effort by activists concerned with the ills of overtourism across southern Europe’s top destinations. While several thousands rallied in Mallorca in the biggest gathering of the day, hundreds more gathered in other Spanish cities, as well as in Venice, Italy, and Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.

“The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,” Andreu Martínez said in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an outdoor café. “Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.”

Martínez, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, is one of a growing number of residents who are convinced that tourism has gone too far in the city of 1.7 million people. Barcelona hosted 15.5 million visitors last year eager to see Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade.

Martínez says his rent has risen over 30% as more apartments in his neighborhood are rented to tourists for short-term stays. He said there is a knock-on effect of traditional stores being replaced by businesses catering to tourists, like souvenir shops, burger joints and “bubble tea” spots.

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‘How to Train Your Dragon’ soars in box office debut with $83.7 million, beating ‘Lilo & Stitch’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “How to Train Your Dragon” took flight at the box office this weekend, proving that some remakes still have teeth.

The Universal live-action adaptation of the beloved animated franchise soared to a strong $83.7 million debut in North American theaters, according to Comscore estimates Sunday. The film, directed by franchise veteran Dean DeBlois, follows the unlikely friendship between a young Viking named Hiccup (Mason Thames) and a dragon called Toothless.

The reboot easily outpaced 2019’s “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” which opened with $55 million. The latest film earned more than $114.1 million internationally, bringing the global total to $197.8 million.

“This is yet another example of a live-action remake really delivering on the promise of the marketing,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “I think the longevity and playability of some of these films particularly in the summer has been nothing short of miraculous.”

“How to Train” also claimed the No. 1 spot ahead of Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch,” which slipped to second place after topping the charts for three weekends. That hybrid live-action remake added another $15 million, pushing its domestic total past $386.3 million.