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

US and Iran prepare for high-level talks as Israel and Hezbollah trade more fire

ISLAMABAD (AP) — With the ceasefire in Iran still shaky, U.S. Vice President JD Vance headed Friday to Pakistan for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah militants traded fire and Tehran maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Many issues could derail the truce and the negotiations aimed at making a broader deal to stop the fighting permanently.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, claimed that the talks set for Saturday would not happen unless Israel stopped its attacks in Lebanon. And U.S. President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that Iran has no leverage except to restrict ship traffic in the strait, through which 20% of the world’s traded oil once passed.

Kuwait, meanwhile, said it was targeted by seven drone attacks since Thursday that it blamed on Iran and its militia allies in the region. Though the Guard denied launching any assault, it has carried out attacks across the Mideast in the past that it did not claim.

Preparations for the talks between Iran and the U.S. appeared to be moving forward, with Vance boarding Air Force Two for the long flight to Islamabad.

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Israeli strike kills Lebanese security forces as Israel and Hezbollah trade fire ahead of talks

BEIRUT (AP) — Attacks intensified Friday between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah ahead of direct talks between the Lebanese government and Israel set to begin next week.

The talks are set to begin Tuesday in Washington and will be mediated by U.S. diplomats, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s office said in a statement, citing the outcome of a call Friday among Israeli, Lebanese and U.S. ambassadors. The statement reiterated Beirut’s position that the talks be held under a ceasefire or truce.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter later issued a statement describing next Tuesday’s talks as “formal peace negotiations,” but said a ceasefire was not on the agenda, in a stark contradiction to Aoun’s remarks.

“Israel refused to discuss a ceasefire with the Hezbollah terrorist organization, which continues to attack Israel and is the main obstacle to peace between the two countries,” the statement read.

At least 13 members of Lebanon’s State Security forces were killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon on Friday, while Hezbollah claimed an attack targeting a naval base in the Israeli port city of Ashdod some 145 kilometers (90 miles) from the border.

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War in Iran sends inflation soaring and the mood of American consumers plunging

WASHINGTON (AP) — The largest monthly jump in gas prices in six decades caused a sharp spike in inflation last month, creating major challenges for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve and heightening already substantial political hurdles for the White House.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% in March from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, up sharply from just 2.4% in February and the biggest yearly increase since May 2024. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.9% in March from February, the largest such increase in nearly four years.

It’s the first read on inflation to capture the effects of the Iran war. The surge in gas prices will stretch the budgets of lower- and middle-income households as it erodes their incomes, making it harder to afford other necessities such as food and rent.

Excluding volatile food and energy, core prices rose 2.6% in March from a year earlier, up from 2.5% in February. And last month core prices rose a modest 0.2%, suggesting that rising gas prices haven’t yet spread to many other categories.

A big question for now is how long the oil and gas price shock lasts and whether it will lead to a broader, long-lasting inflation boost, similar to what occurred in the spring of 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. For now, economists say that it is unlikely the U.S. will see a widespread increase similar to a few years ago, when inflation topped 9%.

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Stocks drift lower and oil prices ease ahead of planned US-Iran talks

Stocks drifted mostly lower on Wall Street and oil prices slipped Friday ahead of planned U.S.-Iran talks following a shaky ceasefire agreement.

The S&P 500 inched 0.1% lower after a day of choppy trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.

The major indexes each notched a weekly gain for the second week in a row. They have been gaining ground this month amid optimism that the war with Iran could be heading toward a resolution. High-level talks between negotiators from Iran and the U.S. are planned for Saturday in Pakistan.

The benchmark S&P 500 has erased most of its losses from March and is just 2.3% short of its all-time high set in January. The market is still prone to big swings on developments around the war.

Oil prices have been behind many of the stock market’s sharp movements. They’ve risen sharply as shipping through the vital Strait of Hormuz essentially stalled since the war began.

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Artemis II’s record-breaking journey around the moon ends with dramatic splashdown

HOUSTON (AP) — Artemis II’s astronauts closed out humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century with a Pacific splashdown on Friday, blazing new records near the moon with grace and joy.

It was a dramatic grand finale to a mission that revealed not only swaths of the lunar far side never seen before by human eyes, but a total solar eclipse and a parade of planets, most notably our own shimmering Earth against the endless black void of space.

With their flight now complete, the four astronauts have set NASA up for a moon landing by another crew in just two years and a full-blown moon base within the decade.

The triumphant moon-farers — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen — emerged from their bobbing capsule into the sunlight off the coast of San Diego.

In a scene reminiscent of NASA’s Apollo moonshots of yesteryear, military helicopters hoisted the astronauts one by one from an inflatable raft docked to the capsule, hauling them aboard for the short trip to the Navy’s awaiting recovery ship, the USS John P. Murtha.

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Zelenskyy says Ukrainian forces shot down Shahed drones in Middle Eastern countries during Iran war

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian military personnel have shot down Iranian-designed Shahed drones in multiple Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, describing the operations as part of a broader effort to help partners counter the same weapons used by Russia in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy made his first public acknowledgment of the operations Wednesday in remarks to reporters that were embargoed until Friday. He said Ukrainian forces took part in active operations abroad using domestically produced interceptor drones proven in countering Iranian-designed Shahed drones used by Russia in Ukraine.

“This was not about a training mission or exercises, but about support in building a modern air defense system that can actually work,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine took part in the defensive operations before the tentative ceasefire in the Middle East was reached among Iran, the United States and Israel this week.

Zelenskyy did not identify the countries involved but said Ukrainian personnel operated across several nations, helping strengthen their air defense systems. He previously said that 228 Ukrainian experts were deployed in the region.

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Five people charged with murder in deadly Northern California fireworks warehouse explosion

Five people have been charged with murder in a deadly Northern California explosion at an illegal fireworks warehouse that killed seven people and shook a tiny farming community, authorities said Friday.

The charges stem from a grand jury indictment related to the July 1 explosion that injured two others, Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Clara Nabity said. One of the people charged with murder is Samuel Machado, who was a Yolo County Sheriff’s Department lieutenant at the time of the explosion. He illegally stored more than 1 million pounds (453,000 kilograms) of fireworks at his property and used his position at the sheriff’s office to evade scrutiny as the operation grew, she said.

The explosion near the community of Esparto, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento, sparked a massive fire and led to nearby Fourth of July celebrations being called off.

“Samuel Machado’s participation included using his role as a trusted lieutenant to help shield the conspiracy as it expanded, and the expansion was significant,” Nabity said, adding that the warehouse went from having 13 fireworks storage containers in 2015 to 50 last year.

It was not immediately clear if Machado has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. A telephone number listed for him went answered Friday.

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Federal court hears new case against Trump’s latest global tariffs

NEW YORK (AP) — The centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s economic policy — sweeping taxes on global imports — is under legal assault again.

The U.S. Court of International Trade, a specialized court in New York, heard oral arguments Friday in an attempt to overturn the temporary tariffs Trump turned to after the Supreme Court in February struck down his preferred choice — even bigger, even more sweeping tariffs.

In his first attempt to impose global tariffs, the president last year invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), using the law to declare America’s longstanding trade deficit a national emergency and to impose double-digit worldwide taxes on imports to combat it. He interpreted the law broadly to justify tariffs of whatever size he wanted, whenever he wanted to impose them, on whatever country he wanted to target.

The Supreme Court struck those tariffs down on Feb. 20, saying IEEPA did not authorize the use of tariffs to counter national emergencies.

But Trump had alternatives to IEEPA. The quickest option was Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose global tariffs of up to 15% for 150 days, after which congressional approval is needed to extend them. After his defeat at the Supreme Court, Trump quickly announced 10% Section 122 tariffs. He said he’d raise them to the maximum 15% but hasn’t yet done so. The tariffs are scheduled to expire July 24.

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Michigan couple at center of Bahamas disappearance chronicled sailing adventures on social media

Lynette Hooker bounced around the deck of the docked Soul Mate, smiled into the camera and proclaimed: “We’re finally leaving Kemah,” referring to a Texas port town.

“It’s only been four months,” she said as her husband, Brian, tugged on some rigging as they got ready to set sail.

The “Gulf Crossing” video more than three years ago marked the start of a sailing adventure — chronicled on Facebook — for a couple who are now at the center of criminal investigations after Lynette went missing in the Bahamas.

A few days after Lynette disappeared, police in the Atlantic Ocean island nation arrested Brian. He denies causing his wife’s death and has been cooperating with law enforcement, his attorney, Terrel Butler, said.

On Friday, Brian’s attorney reiterated his innocence and said his wife has not been found. She said police had just finished an intensive 4-hour interview with him in which she described him as continuously asking about his wife.

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Artemis II astronauts return to Earth, capping historic NASA mission, in photos

The Artemis II astronauts are back on Earth. The three Americans and one Canadian returned with a dramatic splashdown Friday evening, as their capsule parachuted into the Pacific to close out a nearly 10-day trip to the moon and back. The crew was the first to visit the moon since NASA’s Apollo era more than a half-century ago.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.