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

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This article was published 06/03/2025 (238 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Gene Hackman died at home a week after wife Betsy Arakawa died from hantavirus, authorities say

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Forensic experts came to a heartrending conclusion Friday about the manner of death for actor Gene Hackman — heart failure with complications from Alzheimer’s disease on an empty stomach a week after a rare, rodent-borne disease took the life of his wife at their home in Santa Fe.

The partially mummified remains of Hackman, 95, and Betsy Arakawa, 65, were discovered Feb. 26 when maintenance and security workers showed up at the home and alerted police.

Authorities unraveled the mysterious circumstances and revealed that Arakawa likely died Feb. 11 at home from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease spread by infected rodent droppings.

Hackman, in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s, apparently was unaware that his wife was dead.

“He was in a very poor state of health. He had significant heart disease, and I think ultimately that’s what resulted in his death,” chief medical investigator Dr. Heather Jarrell said. “It’s quite possible he was not aware she was deceased.”

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A South Carolina man executed by firing squad is the first US prisoner killed this way in 15 years

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man who killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat was executed by firing squad Friday, the first U.S. prisoner in 15 years to die by that method, which he saw as preferable to the electric chair or lethal injection.

Three volunteer prison employees used rifles to carry out the execution of Brad Sigmon, 67, who was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m.

Sigmon killed David and Gladys Larke in their Greenville County home in 2001 in a botched plot to kidnap their daughter. He told police he planned to take her for a romantic weekend, then kill her and himself.

Sigmon’s lawyers said he chose the firing squad because the electric chair would “cook him alive,” and he feared that a lethal injection of pentobarbital into his veins would send a rush of fluid and blood into his lungs and drown him.

The details of South Carolina’s lethal injection method are kept secret in South Carolina, and Sigmon unsuccessfully asked the state Supreme Court on Thursday to pause his execution because of that.

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Expert tells judge to drop charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams without letting them be refiled

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has no choice but to grant the Justice Department’s unusual and divisive request to dismiss New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case, a court-appointed lawyer said Friday. But he recommended that prosecutors be barred from ever reviving the charges so they don’t hang over Adams “like the proverbial Sword of Damocles.”

Paul Clement, who represented the federal government before the Supreme Court as President George W. Bush’s solicitor general, delivered the recommendation to Manhattan federal Judge Dale E. Ho in papers filed two weeks after Ho appointed him to provide neutral advice on the case.

In a written submission, Clement told Ho that there was “ample reason” to dismiss the prosecution without granting the Justice Department’s request to be able to refile them after this year’s mayoral election, which would leave “a prospect that hangs like the proverbial Sword of Damocles over the accused.”

“The prospect of re-indictment could create the appearance, if not the reality, that the actions of a public official are being driven by concerns about staying in the good graces of the federal executive, rather than the best interests of his constituents,” Clement wrote.

Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy said on the social platform X: “To quote @NYCMayor, ‘Yeah, duh.’”

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A single day of Trump and Musk’s cost-cutting campaign remakes huge sections of government

WASHINGTON (AP) — A series of decisions revealed Friday provided a glimpse of the turmoil engulfing federal agencies since President Donald Trump and Elon Musk launched their campaign of disruption, upending how government functions in ways big and small.

Some changes appeared designed to increase political control over agencies that have historically operated with some degree of autonomy, such as requiring Environmental Protection Agency officials to seek approval from the Department of Government Efficiency for any contracts exceeding $50,000.

Other directives increased burdens on federal workers, who have already endured insults, layoffs and threats from the president and other top officials. For example, government credit cards issued to civilian employees at the Pentagon were altered to have a $1 limit, choking off their ability to travel for work.

The Transportation Security Administration became another target. The administration canceled a collective bargaining agreement with 47,000 workers who screen travelers and luggage at airports around the country, eliminating union protections in a possible prelude to layoffs or privatization.

The cascading developments are only a fraction of the upheaval that’s taken place since Trump took office, but they still reshaped how hundreds of thousands of public servants do their jobs, with potentially enduring consequences. The ongoing shakeup is much more intense than the typical whiplash that Washington endures when one administration gives way to another, raising fundamental questions about how government will function under a president who has viewed civil servants as an obstacle to his agenda.

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Stock market today: Wall Street ends its wild week with what else but more swings

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rose on Friday, but only after careening through another wild day. It was a fitting ending to a brutal week of scary swings dominated by worries about the U.S. economy and uncertainty about what President Donald Trump will do with tariffs.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% after storming back from an earlier loss that had reached 1.3%. It was coming off a punishing stretch where it swung more than 1%, up or down, for six straight days.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 222 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%. The wild week, which was the worst for the S&P 500 since September, left the index a little more than 6% below its all-time high set last month.

The head of the Federal Reserve helped ease the market’s worries on Friday afternoon after saying he thinks the economy looks stable at the moment, and he doesn’t feel pressure to cut interest rates in order to prop it up.

Traders in recent weeks had been building bets the Fed would have to cut its main rate more than three times this year following a stream of weaker-than-expected reports on the economy. But Jerome Powell pushed back on speculation he and other Fed officials could feel pressure to act soon.

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WWII bomb disposal operation in Paris causes hours of travel chaos and Eurostar line closure

PARIS (AP) — The disposal of what Paris police called an “excessively dangerous” unexploded World War II bomb caused hours of transportation chaos Friday on rail and road networks in the French capital, including the suspension of high-speed train links with London and Brussels.

Having moved the bomb into a hole, disposal experts managed to unscrew and then destroy its fuse, “like you see in the movies,” said Christophe Pezron, who heads the Paris police laboratory that includes bomb disposal services. He said that the half-ton British-made bomb could have caused major damage had it exploded after workers inadvertently dug it up with an earthmover.

But the police operation that made the bomb safe before it was then taken away triggered major disruption for hundreds of thousands of rail travelers and motorists.

The bomb was dug up near train tracks north of Paris, forcing a shutdown of the rail network serving Gare du Nord, France’s busiest station. A portion of the A1 highway — a major road artery into northern Paris — and sections of the capital’s always-busy beltway were also closed while police disposal officers worked.

“We’re delighted and relieved that all this has come to an end,” Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot was able to finally declare Friday afternoon — 12 hours after the bomb-disposal police were first called — as roads reopened and rail services were progressively being restored.

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West Texas reports nearly 200 measles cases. New Mexico is up to 30

A historic measles outbreak in West Texas is just short of 200 cases, Texas state health officials said Friday, while the number of cases in neighboring New Mexico tripled to 30.

Most of the cases across both states are in people younger than 18 and people who are unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status.

Texas health officials identified 39 new infections of the highly contagious disease, bringing the total count in the West Texas outbreak to 198 people since it began in late January. Twenty-three people have been hospitalized so far.

Last week, a school-age child died of measles in Texas, the nation’s first measles death in a decade. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that they were sending a team to Texas to help local public health officials respond to the outbreak.

New Mexico health officials had been reporting for weeks a steady number of cases in Lea County — which borders the epicenter of Texas’ outbreak. But on Friday, state health officials provided The Associated Press a week-by-week count that shows cases have steadily increased from 14 cases in the week of Feb. 9 to 30 this week.

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Panama to allow 112 migrants deported from the US to move about freely in the country

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama announced Friday that it will allow 112 migrants deported from the United States who have been held in a remote camp in the Darien region since last month to move about the country freely until they decide on their next course of action.

The government cited humanitarian reasons for the decision but rights lawyers promptly expressed concerns that this could be a tactic to absolve the authorities of international scrutiny for their treatment of migrants while also putting them in more danger.

Panama’s Security Minister Frank Ábrego said the migrants — from a number of mostly Asian nations — would be granted temporary humanitarian passes as documents. They would find their own places to stay while they decide where they are going next, Ábrego said, without elaborating.

The passes would last for an initial 30 days but could be renewed, he added.

“They have exactly 30 days to figure out how to leave Panama, because they refused … to accept help from the (International Organization for Migration) and (the U.N. Refugee Agency) and said that they wanted to do it themselves,” Ábrego said, speaking to reporters outside a security conference Friday.

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States sue President Trump’s administration over mass firings of probationary federal workers

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland and 19 other states are suing multiple federal agencies, contending President Donald Trump’s administration has illegally fired thousands of federal probationary workers.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown is leading the coalition of attorneys general in the federal lawsuit that was filed late Thursday in Maryland, where the state estimates about 10% of households receive wages from the federal government.

“The draconian actions of the Trump-Vance Administration could lead to tens of thousands of jobs lost, hundreds of thousands of lives disrupted, and the cratering of tens of millions of dollars in income here in Maryland,” Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, said Friday in support of the complaint.

Brown followed up on Friday by moving for a temporary restraining order in federal court in Maryland seeking to stop any more firings of federal probationary employees and to reinstate those who have already been dismissed.

The mass firings will cause irreparable burdens and expenses on the states, the lawsuit said, because states will have to support recently unemployed workers and review and adjudicate claims of unemployment assistance. More than 800 fired federal workers in Maryland already have applied for unemployment benefits, Brown’s office said.

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Trump weighs new sanctions on Russia, days after pausing military aid and intel sharing with Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he is “strongly considering” levying new sanctions and tariffs on Russia for its war against Ukraine, floating the possibility of new pressure on Moscow just days after he ordered a pause on U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing with Kyiv.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, said he was considering the action “based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now.”

He added that the prospective sanctions could remain in place until the two sides come to a ceasefire and peace settlement.

The sanctions threat came as Trump faces criticism for increasing pressure on Ukraine to reach a deal while playing down or even denying Russia’s responsibility for starting the war with its invasion three years ago.

“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” Trump added in his post.