AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT

Early voting had been scheduled to begin Saturday for Louisiana's May 16 primaries. But Republican Gov. Jeff Landry issued an executive order postponing the U.S. House primary in response to a ruling Wednesday by the court that struck down a majority Black congressional district.

“Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters,” Landry stated. “This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map.”

The Republican-controlled secretary of state's office, which declared an electoral emergency allowing for Landry's order, said it would post notices at early voting sites alerting the public about the suspended congressional primary. All other races on the ballot will proceed as scheduled.

The governor's order postponed the congressional primary until either July 15 or a date to be set by the Legislature. The state's Republican House and Senate leaders said they are prepared to pass new congressional voting districts — and set a new election date — before their regular session ends in a month.

Supreme Court hollows out a landmark law that had protected minority voting rights for 6 decades

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Lyndon B. Johnson knew the legislation he was about to sign was momentous, one that took courage for certain members of Congress to pass since the vote could cost them their seats.

To honor that, he took the unusual step of leaving the Oval Office and going to Capitol Hill for the signing ceremony. It was Aug. 6, 1965, five months after the “Bloody Sunday” attack on civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, gave momentum to the bill that became known as the Voting Rights Act.

In the six decades since, it became one of the most consequential laws in the nation's history, preventing discrimination against minorities at the ballot box and helping to elect thousands of Black and Hispanic representatives at all levels of government.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court knocked out a major pillar of the law that had protected against racial discrimination in voting and representation. It was a decision that came more than a decade after the court undermined another key tenet of the law and led to restrictive voting laws in a number of states. Voting and civil rights advocates were left fearful of what lies ahead for minority communities.

“It means that you have entire communities that can go without having representation,” said Cliff Albright, a co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter. "It is literally throwing us back to the Jim Crow era unapologetically, and that’s not exaggeration.”

Trump signs bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, ending record shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump swiftly signed bipartisan legislation Thursday funding much of the Department of Homeland Security, but not its immigration enforcement operations, after it won final approval in the House, ending the longest agency shutdown in history.

The White House had warned that temporary funding Trump had tapped to pay Transportation Security Administration and other agency personnel would “soon run out,” and that sparked new threats of disruptions for travelers at airport. DHS has been without routine funds since Feb. 14, causing hardship for workers, though much of Trump’s immigration agenda that is central to the dispute is being funded separately.

The package had languished in the House, despite being approved without opposition last month in the Senate, as Republicans revolted, forcing a separate path for the immigration funds. Once that launched this week, it cleared the way to fund the rest of homeland security, whose employees risked lost paychecks in May.

“It is about damn time,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, who proposed the bipartisan bill more than 70 days ago.

The House swiftly voted by voice earlier Thursday, without a formal roll call, to pass the measure. It brought an abrupt end to the standoff that began months ago after Trump's deadly immigration crackdown in Minneapolis launched a reckoning on Capitol Hill over the money being sent to fuel the president's agenda.

Iran’s supreme leader vows to protect nuclear and missile capabilities

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader vowed Thursday in a defiant tone to protect the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and missile capabilities, which U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to curtail through airstrikes and as part of a wider deal to cement the war’s shaky ceasefire.

In a statement read by a state television anchor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said the only place Americans belonged in the Persian Gulf is “at the bottom of its waters" and that a “new chapter” was being written in the region's history. Khamenei has not been seen in public since taking over as supreme leader following the killing of his father in the war’s opening airstrikes.

His remarks come as Iran's economy is reeling and its oil industry is being squeezed by a U.S. Navy blockade halting its tankers from getting out to sea. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all crude oil is transported. On Thursday, the global benchmark for oil, Brent crude, traded as high as $126 a barrel.

That shock to oil supplies and prices is putting pressure on Trump, who is floating a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by the U.S.'s Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.

Under the plan, the U.S. would continue its blockade on Iranian ports, while coordinating with allies to impose higher costs on Iran’s attempts to subvert the free flow of energy, according to a senior administration official.

Trump pulls Casey Means' stalled surgeon general nomination. New pick is radiologist Nicole Saphier

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he’s nominating radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after Dr. Casey Means’ path forward stalled in the Senate over questions about her experience and her stance on vaccines.

In a social media post, Trump said he would nominate Saphier, whom he called “a STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment.” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. complimented the nomination, calling Saphier “a long-time warrior for the MAHA movement.”

But at least in one instance, she hasn't been in lockstep with Trump's thoughts on health policy, telling The Associated Press in September that his cautions about pregnant women taking Tylenol were oversimplistic and “patronizing.”

Saphier is director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth, according to her profile on the New York-based institution’s website. She has a doctor of medicine degree from Ross University School of Medicine in Barbados along with fellowships at the Mayo Clinic, the profile said.

She also used the phrase “Make America Healthy Again” before Kennedy claimed it for his political movement. It was the title of a book she wrote in 2020 that criticized government handling of health care and the Affordable Care Act.

Takeaways from Hegseth's first hearings in Congress since the start of Iran war

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared before Congress at a pair of hourslong hearings this week for the first time since the Trump administration went to war against Iran, with the Pentagon chief facing tough questions from skeptical Democrats.

Hegseth seemed to emerge with solid Republican support over his leadership and handling of the war. But a few GOP lawmakers questioned his dismissal of a top Army general, while some sought assurances that the Pentagon is doing everything possible to prevent civilian deaths.

The hearings Wednesday and Thursday before the House and Senate Armed Services committees delved into the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. Hegseth and other Pentagon officials stressed the need for more drones, missile defense systems and warships.

While Republicans focused on the details of military budgeting and voiced support for the Iran operation, Democrats grilled Hegseth about the ballooning costs of the war, the huge drawdown of critical U.S. munitions and the bombing of a school that killed children.

Here are some takeaways from the hearings:

Tax refunds and AI boom have offset some US economic pain from Iran war and high gas prices, so far

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are paying for the war in Iran with every visit to the gas station, but some of the damage to the U.S. economy is being offset — for now anyway — by big tax refunds and an investment boom driven by artificial intelligence.

Prices rose at the fastest pace in almost three years last month, U.S. economic growth is steady and layoffs fell last week, according to a slew of economic data released Thursday.

The inflation gauge favored by the Federal Reserve — the Commerce Department's Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — rose 0.7% from February to March and 3.5% from a year earlier. The year-over-year gain was the biggest since May 2023.

No secret what was driving the increase: Gasoline prices shot up 21% in March from February after Iran responded to U.S. and Israeli attacks by closing the Strait of Hormuz and creating the biggest disruption of oil supplies in history.

The same data showed that prices outgrew American incomes — wages, business income and government benefits — for the second straight month in March.

Camp Mystic drops summer reopening plan over outrage by families and Texas lawmakers

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Camp Mystic on Thursday halted plans to reopen this summer on the Texas river where floodwaters killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors, backing down in the face of outraged families and investigations that accused the all-girls Christian camp of dangerous safety and operational deficiencies.

The decision, a striking reversal of the camp owners' determination to reopen, follows weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations. Those hearings laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency, reliance on poorly trained staff, and missed chances for an evacuation that came too late as floodwaters ripped through the camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River in the early morning hours of July Fourth.

The camp’s owner, Dick Eastland, also died in the flooding.

As recently as Tuesday, members of the Eastland family told state lawmakers the camp would be ready to open for business for nearly 900 campers on May 30. That swiftly changed with Thursday's announcement that the camp had withdrawn its application for a license renewal for 2026.

“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement.

The first direct US-Venezuela commercial flight in 7 years lands in Caracas

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The first direct commercial flight between the United States and Venezuela arrived Thursday in the capital of the South American country, seven years after the U.S. Homeland Security Department ordered an indefinite suspension, citing security concerns.

The resumption of a nonstop commercial flight between the two countries comes months after the U.S. capture of then President Nicolás Maduro in a stunning nighttime raid on his residence in Caracas in early January.

It also comes a month after the U.S. formally reopened its embassy in Caracas following the restoration of full diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

“I'm very excited to go and see the family and I'm looking forward to see the country,” said passenger Lennart Ochoa of Miami shortly before boarding. He said that he was “ready to go" and got his ticket as soon as they were available. “Just to go and see the family on a direct flight from Miami to Caracas is priceless.”

The director of the U.S. National Energy Dominance Council, Jarrod Agen, was among the passengers on the inaugural flight. Agen is scheduled to meet with Venezuelan officials and executives from energy and mining sectors as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to facilitate the entry of U.S. companies into the South American country, reported the Venezuelan government.

Britney Spears charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears was charged in California on Thursday with driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, authorities said.

The 44-year-old pop star was charged with a single misdemeanor count of driving under the combined influence of alcohol and at least one drug, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office said.

A Spears representative had no immediate comment.

The criminal complaint does not specify what kind of alcohol or drugs, or what amount, Spears is accused of having used.

Spears, who has since entered substance abuse treatment, was arrested March 4 after she was pulled over for driving her black BMW fast and erratically on U.S. 101 near her home, the California Highway Patrol said. She appeared to be impaired, took a series of field sobriety tests, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a combination of alcohol and drugs and was taken to a Ventura County jail, the CHP said.