AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EDT

The war has threatened global supplies of oil and natural gas, sparked fertilizer shortages and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices. The United States and Israel continue to strike Iran, whose retaliatory attacks have targeted Israel and neighboring Gulf Arab states. More than 3,000 people have been killed.

The Houthis’ entry could further hurt global shipping if they again target vessels in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea, through which about 12% of the world’s trade typically passes.

There could be limited relief after Iran on Friday agreed to allow humanitarian aid and agricultural shipments through the strait following a United Nations request. U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has given Iran until April 6 to reopen the strait.

Witnesses in Tehran reported heavy strikes late Saturday. Israel's military earlier said it targeted Iran's naval weapons production facilities that it would finish attacking essential weapons production sites within “a few days." The U.S. said it has struck more than 11,000 Iranian targets in the war.

Trump's conflicting messages sow confusion over the Iran war

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the United States is winning the war with Iran even as thousands of additional American troops deploy to the Middle East.

He has pilloried other countries for not helping the U.S., only to say later he does not need their assistance. He has twice delayed deadlines for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He has both threatened to “obliterate” Iran's energy plants if the vital waterway remains largely shuttered and said the U.S. was “not affected" by the closure.

At one point this month, Trump said one of his predecessors — who, he strongly suggested, was a Democrat — privately told him he wished he had taken similar action against Iran. Representatives for every living former president quickly denied that such a conversation happened.

As the war entered its second month on Saturday, Trump's penchant for embellishments, exaggerations and falsehoods is being tested in an environment where the stakes are much higher than an isolated political fight.

A president who has long embraced bluster and salesmanship to shape narratives and focus attention is confronting the unpredictability of war.

How the Homeland Security deal unraveled and split Republican leaders in Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — For several hours Friday, in the stillness before dawn, the Senate appeared to have finally figured out how to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security before it faced the longest partial shutdown in U.S. history.

Senators handed House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., their deal and headed for the airports, seemingly confident of success.

Then it collapsed. Spectacularly.

An incensed Johnson marched out of his office Friday afternoon. He angrily rebuked the plan that the Senate had unanimously agreed to as a “joke.”

“I have to protect the House, and I have to protect the American people,” Johnson told reporters.

Zelenskyy visits Gulf Arab states to talk drone defense and seek strategic ties

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday made unannounced visits to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as Ukraine seeks to use its drone expertise to help Gulf Arab states blunt Iran's attacks during the war in the Middle East.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has already signed 10-year security agreements with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and expects to shortly finalize a similar agreement with the UAE.

Ukraine has quickly grown into one of the world’s leading producers of cutting-edge, battle-tested drone interceptors that are cheap and effective. They are playing a key part in its defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.

In return for its aid to Gulf countries, Ukraine is seeking more high-end air-defense missiles that they possess and that Kyiv needs to counter Russia’s attacks. On Thursday, Zelenskyy visited Saudi Arabia,, and last week he said that Ukraine is looking into whether it can play a role in restoring security in the Strait of Hormuz.

On Saturday, Zelenskyy and Emirati state media reported on a meeting between the Ukrainian president and his Emirati counterpart, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to discuss regional security amid the Iran war.

Pope visits Monaco to urge its people to reject idolatry of power and wealth fueling wars

MONACO (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged residents of the principality of Monaco on Saturday to use their wealth and influence for good and reject the “idolatry of power and money” that is fueling wars around the world.

Leo made a one-day trip to the glitzy Mediterranean enclave, becoming the first pope to visit since Pope Paul III came in 1538.

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene met Leo at the Monaco heliport, just down the coast from the marina that is home to the megayachts of the rich and famous. To celebrate his arrival, a cannon boomed in a ceremonial salute and boats in the marina sounded foghorns that at one point interrupted Leo’s remarks.

At the palace, members of the royal family stood in the courtyard to greet Leo, the women dressed in black and with lace head coverings. Charlene wore white — a protocol privilege granted by the Vatican to Catholic royal sovereigns when meeting popes, known in diplomatic terms as "le privilège du blanc."

In his opening greeting from the palace balcony, Leo urged Monaco to use its wealth, influence and “gift of smallness” to do good in the world.

Bills to pay FAA and TSA workers during shutdowns get introduced but keep stalling in Congress

The Aviation Funding Solvency Act. The Keep America Flying Act. The Keep Air Travel Safe Act. The Aviation Funding Stability Act.

Again and again, members of Congress have dusted off the same idea: ensuring the federal employees who control air traffic and screen passengers and bags at U.S. airports get paid during government shutdowns.

Bills to make it happen keep getting introduced in one form or another, sometimes with Democrats and Republicans as co-sponsors. Yet session after session, the result has been the same — agencies receive their annual appropriations, public outrage over long security lines and flight delays fades, legislation languishes and workers have no guarantees their paychecks won't stop coming again.

“Once the crisis is over, people assume that the good times are back,” said Eric Chaffee, a Case Western Reserve law professor whose research includes risk management in the aviation industry. “It’s easy to pass the next big bill when you’re still in the throes of the financial crisis, but once the shutdown is done, people have a relatively short memory of the problems that it created.”

Since 2019, after a partial shutdown that spanned the holiday travel season, lawmakers have drafted, revised and reintroduced multiple proposals to pay aviation workers who would have to keep reporting for duty in the event of another budget impasse.

CPAC activists embrace Paxton as MAGA's choice for Senate over Cornyn

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s was the unofficial guest of honor at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where hundreds of right-wing activists from around the country hailed him as Republicans’ clear choice for U.S. Senate.

He met with supporters behind closed doors, gave the keynote address at the Ronald Reagan dinner and held court during a private reception where people lined up for handshakes and photos. Audiences cheered for Paxton and booed any mention of Sen. John Cornyn, Paxton's opponent in the May 26 runoff.

If Paxton wins the nomination, it will be because of support from his party's fervent grassroots base. That rock-solid foundation rescued Paxton's political career after he was impeached — but acquitted — for corruption charges by the Texas Legislature three years ago.

“I want you to know, there’s only one reason I got through all that, and it’s by the grace of God,” he said in his Friday night speech as a wave of applause rolled through the hall. “He absolutely delivered me, and he used to people of Texas to deliver me."

Neither Paxton nor Cornyn won enough votes in the March 3 primary to clinch the nomination outright. Although Cornyn has raised far more money and is backed by the party establishment in Washington, Paxton’s well-honed survival skills could lead him to victory.

'No Kings' rallies draw crowds across US, in Europe. Springsteen headlines Minnesota demonstration

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Large crowds protested Saturday against the war in Iran and President Donald Trump's actions in “No Kings” rallies across the U.S. and in Europe. Minnesota took center stage, with thousands of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder to celebrate resistance to Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement.

Minnesota's flagship event on the Capitol lawn in St. Paul drew Bruce Springsteen as its headliner. He and other speakers praised the state's people for taking to the streets over the winter in opposition to a surge of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents.

Springsteen performed “ Streets of Minneapolis,” the song he wrote in response to the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. Springsteen lamented Good and Pretti’s deaths but said the state's pushback against ICE has given the rest of the country hope.

“Your strength and your commitment told us that this was still America,” he said. “And this reactionary nightmare, and these invasions of American cities, will not stand.”

People rallied from New York City, with almost 8.5 million residents in a solidly blue state, to Driggs, a town of fewer than 2,000 people in eastern Idaho, a state Trump carried with 66% of the vote in 2024.

UFC brings cage-match bout to the White House, home of a president who favors cage-match politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cage-match fighting is coming to the White House to fete President Donald Trump, a proud proponent of cage-match politics.

In the coming weeks, crews will erect a 6-foot (1.83 meter) wire-mesh fence shaped into an octagon on the lawn, where UFC fighters will use a combination of kickboxing, jiujitsu, wrestling and other martial arts in a June 14 mixed martial arts show timed for Trump's 80th birthday and as part of the nation's 250th anniversary.

The celebration of bloody, brute force dovetails with Trump’s gleefully combative charisma and extreme ideological masculinity — a brawling, no-holds-barred approach to the highest office in the land.

“I have respect for fighters, you know, when you can take 200 shots to the face and then look forward to the second round,” Trump told podcaster Logan Paul as he campaigned for his second term.

Trump was the first sitting president to attend a UFC show, taking in a 2019 fight that was stopped because of a cut over the loser's eye that left blood pouring down the fighter's face.

Meet the Artemis crew in NASA's first astronaut mission to the moon in more than a half-century

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The four astronauts making NASA’s next lunar leap bear little resemblance to the Apollo era.

The Americans who blazed the trail to the moon more than half a century ago were white men chosen for their military test pilot experience. This first Artemis crew includes a woman, a person of color and a Canadian, products of a more diversified astronaut corps.

None of them were alive during NASA’s storied Apollo program that sent 24 astronauts to the moon including 12 moonwalkers. They won’t land on the moon this time or even orbit it, but the out-and-back journey will take them thousands of miles deeper into space than even the Apollo astronauts ventured, promising unprecedented views of the lunar far side.

Here’s a look at the Artemis astronauts whose mission aims to pave the path for future moon landings:

Leading the nearly 10-day mission is a widower who considers solo parenting — not rocketing to the moon — his biggest and most rewarding challenge.