GRIF MAG

U.S. President Donald Trump said the military could end its Iran offensive in two to three weeks and will shift responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz to countries that rely on it for oil and shipping as the White House announced a prime-time presidential address Wednesday evening on the war.

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Trump expressed frustration Tuesday with allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the U.S. war effort, telling them to "go get your own oil." Trump recently has vacillated between insisting there is progress in diplomatic talks with Iran andthreatening to widen the war.

He said the U.S. "will not have anything to do with" what happens next in the vital waterway that has been closed by the Islamic Republic. Instead, he told reporters, the responsibility for keeping the strait open will rest with countries that rely on it. Gulf states rely on the waterway for both exports and imports, including food, and 20 percent of the world's oil supply flows through it.

U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of$4 a gallonfor the first time since 2022 on Tuesday, as the Iran war continues topush fuel prices higher worldwide. Analysts say those high fuel costs will trickle into groceries as businesses' transportation and packaging costs pile up.

Here is the latest:

Israel warns of incoming Yemeni missile attack

Israel's military warned the public Wednesday a missile was incoming from Yemen, yet another attack from the country's Houthi rebels who have just entered the war on Iran's side.

Air raid sirens went off in southern Israel, from Beersheba to the Mediterranean coast.

The warning, just around dawn, broke a long lull, more than 19 hours since the last time Israel's military warned of an incoming missile launch from Iran, and more than six hours from the last alarms in the northern part of Israel, which in past days received near-constant fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iranian drone attack starts fire at Kuwait International Airport

A drone attack by Iran and its allies hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a fire, authorities said.

The state-run KUNA news agency said the attack early Wednesday sparked a "large fire" at the airport.

It said there were no immediate injuries from the attack and firefighters were working to control the blaze.

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Kuwait International Airport has been attacked before by Iran during the war. The KUNA report suggested the attack may have been launched by Iranian-supported militias in Iraq with Tehran's support.

In another strike, Bahrain said early on Wednesday morning that it was working to extinguish a fire at a business facility that resulted from an Iranian attack.

Israel strikes factory in Iran it alleges supplies fentanyl for chemical weapons

Israel said early Wednesday it struck a plant supplying Iran's theocracy with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, to allegedly use in a chemical weapons program. Iran acknowledged the strike on Tofigh Daru factory, but insisted it only supplied "hospital drugs" used in medical operations.

The strike happened Tuesday, both the Israelis and the Iranians said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted a picture of the factory in Tehran, writing on X: "The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies."

Hospitals extensively use fentanyl to treat severe pain. But a small amount of the drug can be fatal.

Both Israel and the United States have warned in recent years Iran was experimenting with fentanyl in munitions. The U.S. previously pointed to Iranian academic research studying how Russia likely used a fentanyl derivative during the 2002 Moscow theater hostage seizure by Chechen militants.

Israel alleged Tofigh Daru supplied fentanyl to an advanced research institute in Tehran, known by its acronym SPND. The U.S alleges SPND has conducted research and testing that could be applicable to the development of nuclear explosive devices and other weapons.

Major airlines in United Arab Emirates say country is barring Iranian travelers

The United Arab Emirates has barred Iranians from entering or transiting the country as the war rages, three major airlines said Wednesday.

Long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, as well as the lower-cost airline FlyDubai, made the announcements on their websites.

Entry rules can sometimes be opaque in the autocratic United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, the three airlines agreed on the order. It said holders of 10-year Golden Visa residency permits could still enter the country.

Authorities have offered no official comment. But Dubai has already shut down the city-state's Iranian Hospital and Iranian Club, institutions that date back to the time of the shah.

WASHINGTON (AP) —The Supreme Courtis taking up one of the term's most consequential cases,President Donald Trump'sexecutive order onbirthright citizenshipdeclaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.Trump plans to be in attendance.

Supreme Court Birthright Citizenship

In arguments Wednesday, the justices will hear Trump's appeal of a lower-court ruling from New Hampshire that struck downthe citizenship restrictions, one of several courts that have blocked them. They have not taken effect anywhere in the country.

A definitive ruling is expected by early summer.

Trump will be the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the nation's highest court.

The case frames another test of his assertions of executive power that defy long-standing precedent for a court that has largely ruled in the president's favor, but with some notable exceptions that Trump has responded to with starkly personal criticisms of the justices.

The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed the first day of his second term, is part of his Republican administration's broadimmigration crackdown.

Birthright citizenship is the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the court for a final ruling. The justices previously struck down global tariffs Trump had imposed under an emergency powers law that had never been used that way.

Trump reacted furiously to the late February tariffs' decision, saying he was ashamed of the justices who ruled against him and calling them unpatriotic.

He issued a preemptive broadside against the court on Sunday on his Truth Social. "Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES!," the president wrote. "Dumb Judges and Justices will not a great Country make!"

Trump's order would upend the longstanding view that the Constitution's14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, and federal law since 1940 confer citizenship on everyone born on American soil, with narrow exceptions for the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.

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The 14th Amendment was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship, though the Citizenship Clause is written more broadly. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside," it reads.

In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down the executive order as illegal, or likely so, under the Constitution and federal law. The decisions have invoked the high court's 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark, which held that the U.S.-born child of Chinese nationals was a citizen.

The administration argues that the common view of citizenship is wrong, asserting that children of noncitizens are not "subject to the jurisdiction"

The court should use the case to set straight "long-enduring misconceptions about the Constitution's meaning," Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.

No court has accepted that argument, and lawyers for pregnant women whose children would be affected by the order said the Supreme Court should not be the first to do so.

"We have the president of the United States trying to radically reinterpret the definition of American citizenship," said Cecillia Wang, the American Civil Liberties Union legal director who is facing off against Sauer at the Supreme Court.

More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would be affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University's Population Research Institute.

While Trump has largely focused on illegal immigration in his rhetoric and actions, the birthright restrictions also would apply to people who are legally in the United States, including students and applicants for green cards, or permanent resident status.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court athttps://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump assembled his Cabinet last week, he asked Secretary of StateMarco Rubioand Vice PresidentJD Vanceto give an update on theIran war.

Iran US Vance Rubio

Rubio, known for his hawkish views, gave an impassioned defense of the war, calling it "a favor" to the United States and the world.

Vance, who has long pushed for restraint in U.S. military intervention overseas, was more sedate. He said that the U.S. now has "options" it didn't have a year ago and that it is important Iran does not get a nuclear weapon — before redirecting his remarks toward wishing the troops a happy Easter.

The exchange was a distillation of their diverging postures toward thewar that their boss has launchedin Iran. And it comes as some would-be Republican presidential candidates begin quietly courting officials in key states like New Hampshire in the early stages of the GOP's next nomination fight.

With Vance and Rubio seen as the party's strongest potential candidates in a 2028 primary, the two have to balance their roles in the Trump administration with their future political plans.

"It's very obvious from the way that Rubio talks about Iran and the way that Vance talks about Iran that they are of different casts of mind," said Curt Mills, the executive director of "The American Conservative" magazine and a vocal critic of the war. The Cabinet meeting episode was telling, he said, because it seemed as though Vance, discussing Easter, was "literally trying to talk about anything else other than the war."

Vance's office declined to comment. The State Department declined to comment but pointed to Rubio's remarks last year during a Fox News Channel interview where he said he hopes Vance intends to run for president and wouldn't rule out anything for himself.

It's too soon to forecast how Republican voters might feel about the war next spring, when the 2028 contest is expected to begin in earnest, but the risks for both Vance and Rubio are acute. Rubio's full-throated support for the war could come back to haunt him depending on how the conflict develops. Vance, meanwhile, would risk accusations of disloyalty if he were to stray too far from Trump, but struggles to square an appearance of support for the war with his past comments.

Vance's restrained comments stand in contrast to Rubio's full defense

Vance, who served in the Iraq war, has said that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, but he's long been skeptical of foreign military interventions.

Trump seemed to allude that Vance may have held onto that position in private discussions about Iran, telling reporters that Vance was "philosophically a little bit different than me" at the outset of the conflict.

"I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic," Trump said.

Though Vance has been careful in how he speaks about the war, what he's not saying has been conspicuous. On a March 13 trip to North Carolina, he was twice asked by reporters if he had concerns about the conflict. Each time, he said it was important that Trump could have conversations with advisers "without his team then running their mouths to the American media."

A few days later at the White House, when Vance was again asked if he had concerns, he accused the reporter of "trying to drive a wedge between members of the administration, between me and the president."

For Rubio, long before he became the country's chief diplomat, he voiced support for muscular foreign policy and American intervention abroad.

Days into the war, he told reporters that it was "a wise decision" for Trump to launch the operation, that there "absolutely was an imminent threat" from Iran and that the operation "needed to happen."

Fractures are emerging in the GOP

The apparent split between Rubio and Vance on the Iran war is emblematic of the divide starting to cleave within the Republican Party. A recent survey fromThe Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Researchfoundsome divisions within the GOP on Iran, with about half of Republicans saying the U.S. military action has been "about right." Relatively few Republicans, about 2 in 10, say military action has not gone far enough, while about one-quarter say it's gone too far.

While someconservatives have described the war as a betrayal, many other Republicans have cheered on the president's actions.

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Alice Swanson, a 62-year-old who attended Vance's event in North Carolina, said she wants Vance and Rubio to run together in 2028 but favors the vice president.

"I think he fully believes and supports exactly what his convictions are," Swanson said.

Swanson acknowledged, nonetheless, that Vance has been an outspoken opponent of interventionist policy but has been quieter on the subject since the war. "I can see both sides," Swanson said after expressing full support for Trump's decisions.

Tracy Brill, a 62-year-old from Rocky Mount, spoke highly of Rubio, but declared, "I love JD Vance."

She made it clear she sides with the president, calling the course he's taken "spot on." But she defended the vice president if he seems at odds with his past statements, noting politicians do it frequently. "They've all changed their positions at one point or another," she said.

However, Joe Ropar, attending the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, said Rubio's unequivocal support for the Iran war helped crystallize his preference for the secretary of state for 2028.

"I'm not looking at JD Vance for president, and it's for stuff like that," said Ropar, a 72-year-old retired military contractor from McKinney, Texas. "I don't 100% trust him."

Benjamin Williams, of Austin, Texas, said at CPAC that both Trump and Vance are "tied to this war." The 25-year-old marketing specialist for Young Americans for Liberty is looking elsewhere for a candidate.

The political risks might not be known until the field fills out

Whether the war becomes a political problem for Vance and Rubio depends on who ultimately enters the GOP's next presidential primary.

While Vance and Rubio are currently considered the overwhelming front-runners, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu expects a half dozen high-profile Republicans to enter the contest.

Sununu and former RNC Committeewoman Juliana Bergeron told The Associated Press that multiple Republican presidential prospects have reached out to them in recent weeks to discuss the political landscape in the state that traditionally hosts the opening presidential primary; they declined to name them.

Republican strategist Jim Merrill, a top New Hampshire adviser for Rubio's 2016 presidential bid, predicted that Iran would become a flashpoint in 2028 — just as the Iraq war was for Democrats in 2004 and 2008.

"If for some reason things don't go as anticipated, there will be contrasts drawn," he said.

Still, Sununu is doubtful that Iran would become a meaningful dividing line in a prospective Vance-Rubio matchup given their status as prominent members of the Trump administration. Both will likely take credit if the conflict ends well, and both would look bad if it does not, he predicted.

"They're tied together with the success or failure of Iran. It doesn't really separate one versus the other, at least I don't think that's how the electorate will see it," Sununu said.

Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Bill Barrow in Rocky Mount, N.C., and Thomas Beaumont in Grapevine, Texas, contributed to this report.

When you become well-known, whether as a company or a celebrity, sooner or later you're going to end upin the public eye. And with that comes opinions, both good and bad. Naturally, nobody wants the bad ones, because adamaged reputationcan cost money, opportunities, and sometimes even everything you've worked for.

Redditorsacross different threads asked people to share what they think are theworst PR disastersof all time, and there wasno shortage of answers. We've rounded up some of the most interesting ones below, so scroll down to read them, and if you think any other cases deserve a mention, drop them in the comments.

The Segway. They played it coy, dropped hints about this revolutionary new technology and how blown away we'd be, and how future cities would be redesigned from the ground up around this incredible breakthrough - an innovation touched by god.It was a scooter. We could all see it was a scooter. It doesn't hover, or make your teeth whiter while you sleep. Just a scooter.

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The one that irritated me the most was when Bank of America had one of their customers arrested for inquiring about a questionable check. The guy had made a transaction with someone on craigslist and was a little suspicious about the check he got, so he took it into his local branch to ask if it was legit. The teller held it for a bit, then said, "yeah, go ahead and sign it." Once he signed it they told him he was guilty of passing a bad check and arrested him.

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Sarah Palin being named as the Republican Vice Presidential Nominee for the year 2008. I said this last time this came up and I posted.For those who were to young to be in tune to the political situation of the day. Senator's John McCain and Barak Obama were the nominee's, Obama picked BIden as his running mate and McCain decided to pick the (then unknown) Former Governor of Alaska, Mrs Palin. The News cycle tried to get to know her, tried to introduce her to the people who would be voting her, but it was just constant "wait, wut?" reactions as her "Foreign Policy Experiance" came off sounding like "I can see Russia from my house (Thank you Tina Fey/SNL).Then there was a rather lengthy interview (or series) with Katie Couric, where Palin said "I love to read! It's Great!" and got stumped by the question "So what's the last thing you've read?"And things just kept spiraling out of control until the Election day feed from McCain HQ looked like eight guys in suits quietly hiding from reality while Ted Nugent tried to get some energy in the room.

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VWs emissions scandal. CEO resignation, huge drop in market value and sales, court cases, compensation claims....

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Anybody else remember the olean/olestra "Wow" potato chips back in the 90s? The idea was that the olean in the chips would prevent your body from absorbing some of the fat and calories, so you could eat the chips and not put on weight as fast. They eventually had to put a little disclaimer on the bag that mentioned they could cause "oily discharge". They gave a lot of people diarrhea and ruined a lot underwear.

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Jesy Nelson's solo debut.was so disasterous all the goodwill she had from Little Mix and her mental health work disappeared in basically 3 days.GrumpyPancake:I'm still so upset about her and how her whole solo thing started and immediately derailed. Especially bc I enjoyed the debut single, despite all the criticisms of it, and was looking forward to new music in that direction. The black girl cosplay tho, the blackfishing, girl why

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The disaster recovery official that spend a huge amount of time and emails worrying about what to wear on camera while hoards of people were losing their lives, trapped or living in squalor immediately after Hurricane Katrina.

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2006, then Senator George Allen referred to one of his assistants a certain name. He tried to play it off that he really didn't know what that name meant, or that it wasn't really meant to be racist, but no one bought it, and he lost reelection.

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The Chevy Nova. For some reason it just didn't sell well in Latin America. ("No va" means "doesn't go" in Spanish).

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DaBaby randomly being homophobic at the peak of his carreer, then having the worst response ever to a controversy like this where he said something like "my gay fans arent like that"and then on top of the controversy his carreer was already kinda imploding because he was releasing the worst singles ever i think its pretty much impossible for him to recover he lost the opportunity to be the new ludacris the pop-rap feature guy.

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Ashlee Simpson's SNL debacle. She was not well and couldn't sing, as was depicted in her reality show. Nevertheless, she chose to show up and lip sync, the wrong track played, and humiliation ensued.She kept going though. Her next album debuted at #1. She returned to SNL to sing for real, and did well, but people didn't talk about it much because it went well. She phased out of her commercial peak for unrelated reasons...I think she was just never poised to be a very big star for long. People still remember the incident and it does come up in interviews sometimes. Things turned out fine for her because she didn't blow the money she made and she's busy being a mom.

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Adele cancelling her Vegas residency a day before. So like all these fans flew in from wherever and were literally staying at the hotel when the announcement was made. And then there were all the people who had made accomodations for the next three months afterward.

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ARTPOP was pretty wack to live through. If she wasn't screaming at Perez Hilton to stop stalking her outside her apartment, she was melting down on Twitter about Katy and Madonna to promote a song with R Kelly.

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Hilaria Baldwin being exposed for faking she is Spanish and from Spain. Neither true.

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New Balance announcing support of the Trump administration for its pro domestic manufacturing policies.The left started to boycott them and burn their shoes.Meanwhile, the far right attempted to coopt them as the "official shoes of the alt right.".

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Barcelona's stupid hashtag when Messi got busted avoiding taxes. Even their own fans weren't defending him. #WeAreAllMessi

Paramore, when the Farro brothers left the band after the third album, Josh posted a rant online that personally attacked Hayley Williams as a diva, and more detrimentally, said the band was a fraud since Hayley was the only one signed to a label, and the rest of the group were just her employees.While the initial damage control was pretty effective, especially an hour long MTV interview where Hayley and the remaining members explained the intricacies of the situation, the image of the band, especially among those who already saw them as "the ones with the Twilight song", was pretty bad.Over time this has lessened, both albums released after the departure were met with great reviews, and Zach Farro rejoining the band indicated that maybe Josh' claims weren't as substantial as he claimed.

Story time, this is a blast from that past. Guns N' Roses, biggest band in the world dissappears around 1993. Axl Rose returns having fired the entire old band, Slash etc, after being in hiding for 8 years. Has a guy looking like the Alien from Alien on rhythm and a dude with a KFC bucket on his head playing lead guitar. Same guy does a numchuck dance before his guitar solo slot. First North American show in 8 years, band no shows in Vancouver, riot, Axl's private jet still parked on the tarmac at LAX. show cancelled, police have to tear gas the downtown.Tour goes on a few weeks, disaster VMA slot, Axl refuses to elaborate on whether a long awaited album will come out all, looks terrible and sounds out of breath. Axl then refused entry to nightclub in NYC because he was wearing animal fur. Sulks in his hotel room, no shows at Philly, second massive riot, millions in damages. Tour cancelled by Live Nation, Axl doesn't emerge for another 4 years.

Lee Ryan from the British boy band Blue ruining their US debut by saying that 9/11 terrorist attacks were "blown out of proportion" and asking people to be more concerned about the animals.

The Slap has turned out to be much bigger than I thought it would when it happened.xandrenia:This is truly one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen on live TV. Here we have a grown man getting up and slapping someone over an arguably offensive joke, screaming and cursing in his face, and nobody knew for a couple minutes whether it was real or not. It's still so shocking to watch.

Ariana Granda licking doughnuts and saying she hates America…..

Katy Perry's lead up and promo for WitnessJust the entire thing, the music videos, the 24 hour live stream, the performance at SNL, dressing up as Hilary Clinton for Halloween, hosting the VMAsAll of those had multiple people working on it and going yasss this is a great idea.

Taylor Swift and her private jet usage. She says she rents it out to others. As if that makes it better.

Christopher North, who played keyboards as a founding member of the soft-rock group Ambrosia, died Monday in a hospice in Los Angeles. He was 75.

His death was confirmed by Ambrosia's Joe Puerta, who said the cause was throat cancer. According to Puerta, North was seriously injured late last year when he was hit by a car as he walked into Fromin's deli in Santa Monica.

In a post on Ambrosia's Facebook account, the banddescribedNorth as "the Hammond B3 King" after his preferred instrument and said his "sonic architecture defined a generation of progressive and soft rock." North "was a keyboard wizard," the group added, "who brought an unmatched intensity and emotional depth to every performance" and whose work "created 'aural landscapes' that balanced virtuosity with soulful, radio-friendly hooks."

Purveyors of the breezy, lightly soulful sound that also brought success in the mid-1970s to acts like America and Seals & Crofts (whoseDash Crofts diedlast week), Ambrosia scored a string of top 40 hits in the second half of that decade, including two that went to No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100: "How Much I Feel" and "Biggest Part of Me," the latter of which was nominated for a Grammy Award for pop performance by a duo or group with vocals.

Today both songs are regarded as key examples of the style that became known retroactively as yacht rock; on Spotify, each has more than 120 million streams.

North was born Jan. 26, 1951, and grew up in San Pedro. He formed Ambrosia in 1970 with Puerta on bass, singer and guitarist David Pack and drummer Burleigh Drummond. The group's self-titled debut album came out in 1975; at the time, the band had a more ornate sound à la Genesis. Yet it had smoothed out by 1978's "Life Beyond L.A.," its first LP for the Warner Bros. label.

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Read more:At this point, Paul McCartney might play your birthday party

"What we didn't like about progressive rock was that it was too flamboyant without substance," PacktoldThe Times in 1999. "Those bands dated themselves by making the arrangements more of the central focus than the quality of songwriting. I think that we were different in that respect."

The album "One Eighty" came out in 1980 and yielded a second hit after "Biggest Part of Me" in "You're the Only Woman (You & I)," which peaked at No. 13 on the Hot 100. The next year, Ambrosia's song "Poor Rich Boy" appeared on the soundtrack of the movie "Arthur" alongside Christopher Cross' chart-topping "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)."

Ambrosia broke up in 1982 but reunited in 1989; Pack later left, though the band's other three founders continued to perform. North's survivors include a brother and two children.

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This story originally appeared inLos Angeles Times.