Iran rejects US ceasefire plan, issues its own demands as strikes land across the Mideast

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran on Wednesday dismissed an American plan to pause the war in the Middle East and launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries, including strikes that hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fire.

Iran's defiance came as Israel launched airstrikes on Tehran and as the United States deployed paratroopers and more Marines to the region.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview on state TV that his government has not engaged in talks to end the war, "and we do not plan on any negotiations.” That followed a report from Iranian state TV's English-language broadcaster quoting an anonymous official as saying Iran rejected America’s ceasefire proposal and has its own demands to end the fighting.

Earlier, two officials from Pakistan, which transmitted the U.S. plan to Iran, described the 15-point proposal broadly, saying it addressed sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, limits on missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped.

An Egyptian official involved in the mediation efforts said the proposal also includes restrictions on Iran’s support for armed groups. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet released.

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Jury finds Instagram and YouTube liable in a landmark social media addiction trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Meta and YouTube must pay millions in damages to a 20-year-old woman after a jury decided the social media giant and video streamer designed their platforms to hook young users without concern for their well being.

The California jury's decision Wednesday in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit could influence the outcome of thousands of similar lawsuits accusing social media companies of deliberately causing harm.

The plaintiff, known by her initials KGM, testified at trial that she became addicted to social media as a child and that this addiction exacerbated her mental health struggles. After more than 40 hours of deliberations, a majority of jurors agreed and awarded her $3 million in damages.

Jurors later recommended an additional $3 million in punitive damages after deciding the companies acted with malice, oppression or fraud in harming children with their platforms. The judge has final say over how much damages are awarded.

It’s the second verdict against Meta this week, after a jury in New Mexico determined the company harms children’s mental health and safety, in violation of state law.

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TSA boss warns of airport shutdowns, but no deal yet on day 40 of Homeland Security funding fight

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports if the budget impasse drags on, the agency's acting head said Wednesday, even as record wait time for travelers did little to end the standoff over the funding fight in Congress.

The TSA's Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned that lawmakers must ensure "this never happens again."

“This is a dire situation,” she testified at a House hearing, warning of potential airport closures. “At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”

Yet on the 40th day of the standoff involving the Department of Homeland Security, there was no easy way out in sight. Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who countered by reiterating their demands for changes to President Donald Trump 's immigration enforcement operations, appeared closer to a compromise.

Trump, who initially appeared to have given his nod to the deal, has declined to lend it his full support or put his political weight behind making sure it is approved.

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Justice Department settles lawsuit from Trump ally Michael Flynn for $1.2 million, AP source says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has settled for roughly $1.2 million a lawsuit from Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump who pleaded guilty during the Republican's first term to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a top Russian diplomat and was later pardoned.

Court papers filed Wednesday do not reveal the settlement amount, but a person familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose nonpublic information, confirmed the total as about $1.2 million.

The settlement resolves a 2023 lawsuit in which Flynn sought at least $50 million and asserted that the criminal case against him amounted to a malicious prosecution. It also represents a stark turnabout in position for a Justice Department that during the Biden administration had pressed a judge to dismiss Flynn's complaint. Attorney General Pam Bondi, a former personal lawyer for the president, has openly criticized the Russia investigation in which Flynn was charged and the Justice Department in the last year has opened investigations into former officials who participated in that inquiry.

The Justice Department cast the settlement as an “important step in redressing” what it says was a “historic injustice” of the Russia investigation that shadowed Trump for much of his first term.

“This Department of Justice will continue to pursue accountability at all levels for this wrongdoing. Such weaponization of the federal government must never be allowed to happen again,” a spokesperson said.

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Mangled plane in LaGuardia crash is towed from runway as most injured passengers leave hospital

NEW YORK (AP) — All but four of the passengers injured in Sunday’s deadly collision between an Air Canada plane and a fire truck have been released from the hospital, the airline said Wednesday, as crews began moving the mangled aircraft off the runaway at New York's LaGuardia Airport.

The crash, which remains under investigation, killed two pilots. Roughly 40 people were treated at area hospitals for a range of injuries, some serious. Further details on the four people who remained hospitalized were not immediately available.

The plane, which originated in Montreal, was carrying 76 people, including the crew, when it slammed into the fire truck that had driven out onto the runway. Seconds before the collision, an air traffic controller had cleared the truck to cross the runway.

Since Monday, much of the wreckage had remained on the tarmac, blocking access to one of two runways at one of the country's busiest airports.

Just before 5 p.m. on Wednesday, airport workers began towing the remnants away. Two big tow trucks working in tandem also righted the badly damaged fire truck, which had been laying on its side since the crash.

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Conservatives gather for CPAC with the right openly divided over the Iran war

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — Conservatives are holding one of their largest annual gatherings at a perilous political moment for President Donald Trump and with open division on the right over the war he launched in Iran.

While Trump maintains broad support among conservatives, the war in Iran is more than a wrinkle for activists drawn to his “America First” campaign pledge against getting involved in foreign conflicts. A new AP-NORC poll shows about 59% of Americans think the military action in Iran is excessive. The debate will be a subtext — and likely flare publicly — as thousands of activists, influencers and Republican lawmakers gather at the Conservative Political Action Conference that begins Wednesday outside Dallas.

The event also comes a day after a Democrat flipped the Florida state legislative seat that's home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

The gathering will be a contrast to the celebratory meeting one year ago when Trump, newly returned to office, vowed to “forge a new and lasting political majority” and Elon Musk wielded a chain saw to symbolize how the Republican administration was slashing the government workforce and red tape.

This year, neither Trump nor Vice President JD Vance has been publicly announced as speaking to the gathering. But among those who are slated to speak are big names in the MAGA movement who have voiced conflicting views on the Iran war.

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Trump will travel to Beijing for rescheduled China trip May 14-15, after delay due to Iran war

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will travel to Beijing for a rescheduled summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on May 14 and 15, the White House announced on Wednesday.

Trump had been scheduled to travel to China later this month but previously announced he was delaying the trip so he could be in Washington to help steward the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran. The Republican president had announced a rescheduled trip even though the war in Iran continues and the U.S. is pressing Tehran to accept a ceasefire proposal.

The president and first lady Melania Trump also plan to host Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, for a White House visit later this year, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Leavitt, when asked if the new dates for Trump's trip could suggest he believes the Iran war could end soon, offered an optimistic tone that the conflict could reach an endgame before he travels.

“We’ve always estimated four to six weeks,” Leavitt responded. “So you could do the math on that.”

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Teens get probation after using AI to create fake nudes of classmates

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Two teenage boys who used artificial intelligence to create fake nude photos of their classmates at an exclusive private school in Pennsylvania received probation Wednesday after dozens of victims described the images' traumatizing effect on them.

The boys were 14 at the time. They admitted this month that they made about 350 images, showing at least 59 girls under 18, along with other victims who so far have not been identified.

Authorities and the girls themselves said the boys took images of the girls from school photos, yearbooks, Instagram, TikTok and FaceTime chats in 2023 and 2024, and morphed them with images of adults depicting nudity or sexual activity.

More than 100 students and parents from Lancaster Country Day School were in court to hear victims describe the shock of having to identify their own faces in pornographic photos to detectives. Juvenile proceedings in Pennsylvania are normally closed, but this was opened by the judge, providing an unusual opportunity for the community to be seen and heard.

The girls described the fallout — anxiety attacks, a loss of trust, problems focusing on schoolwork and a fear that the images may someday surface in unexpected ways.

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Savannah Guthrie in NBC News interview appeals for help finding her missing mother

A tearful Savannah Guthrie, in her first interview since her 84-year-old mother was apparently abducted from her Arizona home, said that “someone needs to do the right thing” and come forward with information to help the investigation.

“We are in agony,” she told NBC News colleague Hoda Kotb in a portion of the interview aired Wednesday on the “Today” show. She said she wakes up in the middle of each night thinking of what her mother went through.

NBC said Wednesday that a full interview with its “Today” show host will air on the program Thursday and Friday. It is Guthrie's first interview since her mother was reported missing on Feb. 1. Based on security footage, authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped or otherwise taken against her will.

Both Guthrie and Kotb were crying during the brief portion of the interview aired on Wednesday. Kotb, Guthrie's former co-host, has returned to “Today” while her former colleague has been away.

Guthrie said that while it is unbearable to think of the terror her mother must have felt, “those thoughts demand to be thought. And I will not hide my face. But she needs to come home now.”

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Woman pleads not guilty to attempted murder of Rihanna and to assaulting the superstar’s family

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman from Florida pleaded not guilty Wednesday to attempted murder of Rihanna, and a newly public police report revealed that the shots she is alleged to have fired from an AR-15 style rifle hit an Airstream trailer while the singing superstar and her partner A$AP Rocky were inside.

Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, of Orlando, who had no prior police record, also pleaded not guilty through her attorney to more than a dozen other felony counts in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Hours after her arrest on March 8, Ortiz told detectives she would not answer questions without a lawyer, but spoke up once, according to the Los Angeles police report made public in a court filing Tuesday.

“Can I say one sentence?” she said. “I would like to say that I wasn't attempting murder. But that's all I wanted to say.”

Police and prosecutors said that Ortiz, 35, pulled up in a white Tesla to the home Rihanna and Rocky share with their three young children in the Beverly Hills area, pointed the rifle out the window and sprayed at least 20 bullets toward the property and a neighboring home. No one was injured.

News from © The Associated Press, 2026