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

Fears of a global energy crisis persisted, even as a small number of ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is usually transported.

Iranian strikes on commercial ships in and around the strait — and even just the threat of attacks — have slowed shipping to a trickle, dramatically increasing the price of oil and pressuring Washington to do something to ease the pain for consumers and the global economy.

Brent crude, the international standard, remained over $100 a barrel on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump said he has demanded that roughly a half-dozen countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. So far his appeals have brought no commitments.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said of the strait: “From our perspective it is open” — just not for the United States, Israel and its allies. On social media, Araghchi also rejected as “delusional” claims that Iran was looking for a negotiated end to the war. He said it was seeking neither “truce nor talks.”

Trump side-stepped diplomacy on his way to war in Iran. Now, he's asking China and others for help

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump relied on his gut and largely side-stepped diplomatic coordination as he made the decision to launch strikes on Iran with Israel. But now with the war's economic and geopolitical consequences unfurling rapidly, he's cajoling allies and other global powers to help mop up the mess.

Trump says he's asked roughly a half-dozen other countries to send warships to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz, a consequential waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s traded oil flows. So far, none has committed. Trump even indicated he would use his long-planned trip to China to pressure Beijing to help with a new coalition meant to get oil tanker traffic moving through the strait — a notion that his treasury secretary later downplayed.

“We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the strait far more than ours ... we want them to come and help us with the strait,” Trump said at the White House on Monday, listing Japan, China, South Korea and several countries in Europe as examples. Trump has argued that the shipping channel is not something the United States needs because of its own access to oil.

It's the type of bullying to action that has secured key foreign policy wins for the Republican president in his second term, like prompting nearly all NATO countries to up their defense spending last year after he spent years accusing allies of freeloading off American largess, and using tariffs to extract investments and concessions from trade partners.

But with oil prices soaring and the Middle East rattled by violence, there's little inclination from other countries to heed Trump's call.

Winds, blizzards and triple-digit heat put over half of the US in the path of extreme weather

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chaotic weather, from surprising heat in California to damaging winds around Washington, D.C., put over half the U.S. population in the path of extreme conditions Monday.

Storms across the nation's eastern half forced airlines to cancel roughly 4,000 flights nationwide Monday, and many schools closed early in the mid-Atlantic states, where high winds and tornadoes were in the forecast for the evening.

Blizzards buried parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota while torrential rains flooded homes and washed out roads in Hawaii.

In Washington, the House and Senate postponed votes because of difficulty traveling with inclement weather, and federal agencies told workers to go home early.

Airport delays and cancellations piled up Monday in some of the nation’s largest airports — including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

Storms cancel more US flights as TSA remains under pressure from partial government shutdown

Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed Monday as powerful storms swept across the eastern half of the country and a partial government shutdown affecting airport security screeners dragged into a second month.

The disruptions come at an already challenging time for air travel, in part because the shutdown that began Feb. 14 has strained staffing at some security checkpoints. At the same time, airports are crowded with spring break travelers and fans heading to March Madness games, the annual NCAA men’s and women's college basketball tournaments.

Flight delays and cancellations piled up Monday at some of the nation’s largest airports, including those in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The storm system that dropped snow by the foot in the Midwest was barreling toward the East Coast with dangerously high winds and the potential for “producing strong and long track tornadoes,” the National Weather Service warned Monday.

More than 3,900 flights scheduled to fly into, out of or within the U.S. on Monday have been called off, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Roughly 8,200 other U.S. flights were delayed.

Kelly Price, who was trying to get home to Colorado after a family vacation in Orlando, Florida, said her Sunday night flight wasn’t canceled until early Monday.

Islandwide blackout hits Cuba as island struggles with deepening energy crisis

HAVANA (AP) — Officials in Cuba reported an islandwide blackout Monday in the country of some 11 million people as its energy and economic crises deepen and its power grid continues to crumble.

The Ministry of Energy and Mines on X noted a “complete disconnection” of the country’s electrical system and said it was investigating, noting there were no failures in the units that were operating when the grid collapsed.

It was the third major blackout in Cuba over the past four months.

Tomás David Velázquez Felipe, a 61-year-old resident of Havana, said the relentless outages make him think that Cubans who can should just pack up and leave the island. “What little we have to eat spoils,” he said. “Our people are too old to keep suffering.”

Cuba’s aging grid has drastically eroded in recent years, leading to an increase in daily outages and islandwide blackouts. But the government also has blamed its woes on a U.S. energy blockade after President Donald Trump in January warned of tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The Trump administration is demanding that Cuba release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in return for a lifting of sanctions. Trump also has raised the possibility of a "friendly takeover of Cuba."

Judge blocks US government from slimming down vaccine recommendations

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked federal health officials from cutting the number of vaccines recommended for every child, and said U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee.

The decision halts an order by Kennedy — announced in January — to end broad recommendations for all children to be vaccinated against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV.

A number of leading medical groups raised alarms that the vaccine recommendation changes made under Kennedy would undermine protections against a half-dozen diseases. And the American Academy of Pediatrics and some other groups amended a lawsuit they had filed in July, asking the judge to stop the scaling back of the nation’s childhood vaccination schedule.

The original lawsuit, in federal court in Boston, focused on Kennedy’s decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccinations for most children and pregnant women.

The suit was updated as Kennedy took more steps that alarmed medical societies, causing the plaintiffs to ask Judge Brian E. Murphy to take steps to address those policy changes too. For example, the amended complaint asked the court to look at Kennedy’s actions concerning the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises public health officials on what vaccines to recommend to doctors and patients.

Bombs explode in northeastern Nigeria, leaving scores killed and injured, authorities say

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Bombs exploded in at least three locations in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state Monday night, killing and injuring scores of people, the emergency services told The Associated Press, citing possible suicide bombings.

Explosions were heard in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, where Nigeria’s homegrown jihadi Boko Haram extremists have waged an insurgency for more than a decade.

The blasts occurred at the entrance of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and two local markets, known as Post Office and the Monday Market, according to Sirajo Abdullahi, head of operations at Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, or NEMA, in Maiduguri.

“There are casualties and they are still managing the causalities at the hospital,” Abdullahi said. “We can’t give the actual figure until we count.”

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the suspected bombings.

Supreme Court to hear arguments over push to end legal protections for migrants from Haiti, Syria

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments over the Trump administration’s push to end legal protections for people fleeing war and natural disaster from countries around the world, including Haiti and Syria.

The justices refused to immediately lift the protections for hundreds of thousands of people Monday, allowing them to live and work in the U.S. legally for now.

The court is expected to hear the case next month.

The conservative-majority court has sided with the Trump administration on the issue before and allowed the end of temporary legal status for a total of 600,000 people from Venezuela while lawsuits play out. That exposed them to potential deportation amid the administration's wider crackdown on immigration.

The Trump administration filed emergency appeals after lower courts stopped the immediate end of the program for 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,000 people from Syria.

Jury deliberating in case of Utah woman accused of killing husband, then writing book on grief

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Prosecutors on Monday aimed to drive home their argument that a Utah woman who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband killed him for his money, while her defense team argued the prosecution's case leaves much to speculation.

Defendant Kouri Richins was $4.5 million in debt and falsely believed she would inherit her husband Eric Richins' estate worth more than $4 million when he died, prosecutors said during closing arguments in her murder trial.

“She wanted to leave Eric Richins but did not want to leave his money,” said Summit County prosecutor Brad Bloodworth.

Prosecutors say Richins, 35, slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a cocktail that she made for her husband, causing his death in March 2022 at their home just outside the affluent ski town of Park City.

She is also charged with fraudulently claiming insurance benefits after her husband’s death, trying to kill him weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out, and other felonies, according to court documents. Richins has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Key Oscar moments: Paul Thomas Anderson and Amy Madigan wins, outstanding songs and sad goodbyes

This Oscar cycle's heavyweight battle is finally over. The politically charged action comedy “One Battle After Another” just managed to outmuscle Ryan Coogler’s musically driven vampire thriller “Sinners.”

It was a 3-hour and 40-minute whirl through cinema and celebration, with Michael B. Jordan winning best actor for “Sinners” and Jessie Buckley winning for “Hamnet,” making her the first Irish performer to ever win in the category.

There was electricity when Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman and Black person to win the cinematography award for “Sinners,” asking all the women in the Dolby Theatre to stand up because moments like this don’t happen without women “standing up for you and advocating for you.”

Here were some other show highlights:

Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the most respected filmmakers of his generation, finally won an Oscar. Then he won another. Then he won for best picture.