A volunteer makes a camouflage net at a facility producing material for Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 22, 2024. A newly approved package of $61 billion in U.S. aid may prevent Ukraine from losing its war against Russia. But winning it will be a long slog. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
From left, U.S. representatives Nathaniel Moran, R-Tx, Tom Kean Jr, R-NJ, Bill Keating, D-Mass, and Madeleine Deane, D-Pa, talk to journalists during a joint news conference outside Saint Michael cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 22, 2024. A newly approved package of $61 billion in U.S. aid may prevent Ukraine from losing its war against Russia. But winning it will be a long slog. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Luka Doncic scored 32 points and the Dallas Mavericks overcame the return of Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard to beat Los Angeles 96-93 and tie their Western Conference first-round playoff series at a game apiece. Leonard had 15 points and seven rebounds in 35 minutes of his first game since March 31. He had been out with inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee. Kyrie Irving added 23 points and P.J. Washington Jr. had 18 for the Mavs. Game 3 is Friday in Dallas.
Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said a fan directed a racial slur at his younger brother during Game 1 of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series with the Milwaukee Bucks. Haliburton said after the Pacers' Game 2 victory on Tuesday that “my little brother in the stands the other day was called an N-word." Neither the Bucks nor the NBA immediately responded to an email asking whether the team or league had been made aware of this before Haliburton’s comment, and whether any investigation had been conducted.
Phoenix Suns guard Grayson Allen appeared to aggravate the sprained right ankle he suffered in the playoff opener. Allen hobbled off in the third quarter of Game 2 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first-round series. Allen was guarding Mike Conley on a drive to the lane when he went airborne to try to block the shot and landed awkwardly on his right leg. Allen had to be helped away from the court and into the locker room. He had three points in 17 minutes.
As Mexico’s drought drags on, angry subsistence farmers have begun taking direct action against thirsty avocado orchards and berry fields of commercial farms that are drying up streams in the mountains west of Mexico City. Rivers and even whole lakes are disappearing in the once green and lush state of Michoacan, as the drought combines with a surge of the country’s lucrative export crops. lead by avocados. In recent days, farmers and activists from the Michoacan town of Villa Madero have organized teams to go into the mountains and rip out illegal water pumps and breech unlicensed irrigation holding ponds. The potential for conflict with large-scale growers _ who are often in thrall to drug cartels _ is ripe.
Student protests over the war in Gaza have created a new and unpredictable challenge for President Joe Biden as he resists calls to cut off U.S. support for Israel while trying to hold together a coalition of supporters he’ll need for reelection. While so far limited to only a few campuses, they’ve seized attention and resurfaced questions about Biden’s lagging support from young voters and his handling of Israel’s war with Hamas. At best, the protests are a passing distraction while Biden presses forward with negotiations over a ceasefire. At worst, they build momentum toward the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
For a third straight week, Democrats at the Arizona Legislature are attempting to repeal the state’s near-total ban on abortions after a court concluded the state can enforce the long-dormant law that permits the procedure only to save a patient’s life. Republicans have used procedural votes to block earlier repeal efforts after the court revived the law that predates Arizona’s statehood and provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. The ruling also suggested doctors could be prosecuted under the 1864 law, which carries a sentence of two to five years in prison for anyone who assists in an abortion.
A man shows a pump removed from an unlicensed water intake as his group of residents, farmworkers and small-scale farmers from Villa Madero dismantle illegal water taps in the mountains of Villa Madero, Mexico, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. As a drought in Mexico drags on, angry subsistence farmers have begun taking direct action on thirsty avocado orchards and berry fields of commercial farms that are drying up streams in the mountains west of Mexico City. (AP Photo/Armando Solis)
An unlicensed irrigation pond holds water near an avocado orchard in the mountains of Villa Madero during a drought in Mexico, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Residents from Villa Madero who spotted the pond say they plan to meet with authorities to get the pond's owner to agree on a percentage of water usage, and if it fails, they plan to destroy it. (AP Photo/Armando Solis)
