Negotiators for the group have also reached an agreement on how to provide Ukraine with up to $50 billion backed by frozen Russian assets.

The international group of wealthy democracies has been discussing ways of using the more than $260 billion in frozen Russian assets, most of which are outside the country, to help Ukraine fight Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

European officials have resisted confiscating the assets, citing legal and financial stability concerns, but the plan would use the interest earned on the assets to help Ukraine’s war effort. An official with the French presidency confirmed the agreement Wednesday, saying most of the money would be flowing to Ukraine in the form of a loan from the U.S. government backed by the proceeds of the frozen Russian assets in the European Union. Two other people familiar with the matter confirmed the arrangement.

Final technical negotiations were underway ahead of the summit to finalize the legal terms of the deal.

The announcement of the agreement comes as Biden landed in Italy with an urgency to get big things done. Thursday’s security arrangement was aimed to send a signal to Russia of American resolve in supporting Kyiv, the White House said.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the security agreement would not commit U.S. troops directly to Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion — a red line drawn by Biden, who’s fearful of being pulled into direct conflict between the nuclear-armed powers.

“We want to demonstrate that the U.S. supports the people of Ukraine, that we stand with them and that we’ll continue to help address their security needs,” Sullivan said, adding “this agreement will show our resolve.”

Sullivan said aboard Air Force One that the goal of the financing plan was to have a loan that would “pull forward the windfall profits from the seized assets” of Russia, giving Ukraine a “substantial source of funding” to meet its immediate needs.

The national security adviser said he had a specific sum of money in mind, but declined to say if that figure was $50 billion. He stressed the urgency of getting Ukraine financial resources as soon as possible and that multiple countries would back the agreement.

“It’s to provide the necessary resources to Ukraine now for its economic energy and other needs, so that it’s capable of having the resilience necessary to withstand Russia’s continuing aggression,” Sullivan said.

This year’s meeting comes three years after Biden declared at his first such gathering that America was back as a global leader following the disruptions to Western alliances that occurred when Donald Trump was president. Now, there’s a chance this gathering could be the final summit for Biden and other G7 leaders, depending on the results of elections this year.

Biden and his counterparts from Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan will use the summit to discuss challenges related to artificial intelligence, migration, the Russian military’s resurgence and China’s economic might, among other topics. Pope Francis, Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are joining the gathering at the Borgo Egnazia resort in the Puglia region of southern Italy.

The summit, which opened Thursday, will play out after far-right parties across the continent racked up gains of surprising scale in just-concluded European Union elections. Those victories — coupled with upcoming elections in the United Kingdom, Franceand the United States — have rattled the global political establishment and added weightiness to this year’s summit.

“You hear this a lot when you talk to U.S. and European officials: If we can’t get this done now, whether it’s on China, whether it’s on the assets, we may not have another chance,” said Josh Lipsky, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, an international affairs think tank. “We don’t know what the world will look like three months, six months, nine months from now.”

The G7 is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies that meets annually to discuss shared issues and concerns. This is Biden’s second trip outside the U.S. in as many weeks; the Democratic president was in France last week for a state visit in Paris and ceremonies in Normandy marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in World War II.

While last week’s visit had a celebratory feel, this one will be dominated by pressing global issues, including how to keep financial support flowing to Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion. Biden’s trip comes days after his son Hunter was convicted on federal gun charges, a blow sure to weigh heavily on the president’s mind.

Despite pressing global challenges, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said there’s still a sense of relief among world leaders in 2024 that “America was back,”referencing Biden’s 2021 speech at the G7 in England.

“Biden’s message then was that democracies need to step up and show they can deliver for their people,” Kirby said. “That’s true now more than ever.”

Kirby said the U.S. was prepared to work with democratically elected officials in the EU no matter who they are, though some of those being elevated have expressed far less support for Ukraine than current leaders.

“We have every confidence that regardless of who fills the seats in the European Parliament, we’re going to continue to work closely with our EU partners on all the issues relative to our shared interests across the European continent,” Kirby said. “That includes supporting Ukraine.”

Biden and Zelenskyy, who met last week in Paris, are expected to hold a joint news conference while meeting at the G7 summit. Biden is also expected to meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the pope and other leaders.

Biden, who’s been adamant “we will not walk away” from Ukraine, last week publicly apologized to Zelenskyy for a monthslong delay by Congress in authorizing additional American military assistance. The delay allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield.

Sullivan called the security agreement a “bridge” to when Ukraine is invited to join the NATO alliance — a long-term priority of Zelenskyy’s that the allies have said will first require an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and that Putin has steadfastly opposed.

Biden’s back-to-back trips to France and Italy amount to a rare doubleheader of diplomacy in the midst of the presidential election. The president, however, will skip a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland this weekend to jet to Los Angeles for a campaign fundraiser with big names from Hollywood. Vice President Kamala Harris will represent the U.S. at the conference.

Despite the delays in military aid, the Biden administration on Tuesday announced it would send Ukraine another Patriot missile system to help fend off Russian strikes, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. also announced fresh sanctionstargeting Chinese companies that help Russia pursue its war in Ukraine, as well as Russia’s financial infrastructure. Sullivan said, “These actions will ratchet up the risk that foreign financial institutions take by dealing with Russia’s war economy.”

Biden is also expected to discuss economic concerns brought on by Chinese manufacturing overcapacity, how to use artificial intelligence in a way that maximizes benefits but still manages national security risks, and global migration.

The U.S. and other G7 nations are struggling to manage large influxes of migrants arriving for complicated reasons that include war, climate change and drought. Migration, and how nations cope with the growing numbers at their borders, has been a factor driving the far-right rise in some of Europe.

Superville reported from Bari, Italy. Miller and Madhani reported from Washington. Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Fatima Hussein and Josh Boak in Washington contributed.

The lawsuit — filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and RAICES — is the first test of the legality of Biden’s sweeping crackdown on the border, which came after months of internal White House deliberations and is designed in part to deflect political attacks against the president on his handling of immigration.

“By enacting an asylum ban that is legally indistinguishable from the Trump ban we successfully blocked, we were left with no choice but to file this lawsuit,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the ACLU.

The order Biden issued last week would limit asylum processing once encounters with migrants between ports of entry reach 2,500 per day. It went into effect immediately because the latest figures were far higher, at about 4,000 daily.

The restrictions would be in effect until two weeks after the daily encounter numbers are at or below 1,500 per day between ports of entry, under a seven-day average. But it’s far from clear when the numbers would dip that low; the last time was in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order went into effect June 5, and Biden administration officials have said they expected record levels of deportations.

But advocates argue that suspending asylum for migrants who don’t arrive at a designated port of entry — which the Biden administration is trying to push migrants to do —- violates existing federal immigration law, among other concerns.

Biden invoked the same legal authority used by the Trump administration for its asylum ban, which comes under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That provision allows a president to limit entries for certain migrants if their entry is deemed “detrimental” to the national interest.

Biden has repeatedly criticized Trump’s immigration policies as he campaigns, and his administration argues that his directive is different because it includes several exemptions for humanitarian reasons. For example, victims of human trafficking, unaccompanied minors and those with severe medical emergencies would not be subject to the limits.

“We stand by the legality of what we have done,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on ABC’s “This Week” before the lawsuit was filed, saying he anticipated legal challenges. “We stand by the value proposition.”

Under Biden’s directive, migrants who arrive at the border but do not express a fear of returning to their home countries will be subject to immediate removal from the United States, within a matter of days or even hours. Those migrants could face punishments that could include a five-year bar from reentering the U.S. or even criminal prosecution.

Meanwhile, those who express fear or an intention to seek asylum will be screened by a U.S. asylum officer but at a higher standard than currently used. If they pass the screening, they can pursue more limited forms of humanitarian protection, including the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which prohibits returning people to a country where they’re likely to face torture.

The 216-207 vote fell along party lines, with Republicans coalescing behind the contempt effort despite reservations among some of the party’s more centrist members.

“We have to defend the Constitution. We have to defend the authority of Congress,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press conference ahead of the vote. “We can’t allow the Department of Justice and Executive Branch to hide information from Congress.”

Garland is now the third attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress. Yet it is unlikely that the Justice Department — which Garland oversees — will prosecute him. The White House’s decision to exert executive privilege over the audio recording, shielding it from Congress, would make it exceedingly difficult to make a criminal case against Garland.

The White House and congressional Democrats have slammed Republicans’ motives for pursuing contempt and dismissed their efforts to obtain the audio as purely political. They also pointed out that Rep. Jim Jordan, the GOP chair of the House Judiciary Committee, defied his own congressional subpoena last session.

“This contempt resolution will do very little, other than smear the reputation of Merrick Garland, who will remain a good and decent public servant no matter what Republicans say about him today,” New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on Judiciary Committee, said during floor debate.

Garland has defended the Justice Department, saying officials have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the committees about Special Counsel Robert Hur’s classified documents investigation, including a transcript of Biden’s interview with him.

“There have been a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice Department,” Garland said in a press conference last month. “This request, this effort to use contempt as a method of obtaining our sensitive law enforcement files is just most recent.”

Republicans were incensed when Hur declined to prosecuteBiden over his handling of classified documents and quickly opened an investigation. GOP lawmakers — led by Jordan and Rep. James Comer — sent a subpoena for audio of Hur’s interviews with Biden during the spring. But the Justice Department only turned over some of the records, leaving out audio of the interview with the president.

On the last day to comply with the Republicans’ subpoena for the audio, the White House blocked the release by invoking executive privilege. It said that Republicans in Congress only wanted the recordings “to chop them up” and use them for political purposes.

Executive privilege gives presidents the right to keep information from the courts, Congress and the public to protect the confidentiality of decision-making, though it can be challenged in court.

Administrations of both political parties have long held the position that officials who assert a president’s claim of executive privilege can’t be prosecuted for contempt of Congress, a Justice Department official told Republicans last month.

Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte cited a committee’s decision in 2008 to back down from a contempt effort after President George W. Bush asserted executive privilege to keep Congress from getting records involving Vice President Dick Cheney.

Before Garland, the last attorney general held in contempt was Bill Barr in 2019. That was when the Democratically controlled House voted to issue a referral against Barr after he refused to turn over documents related to a special counsel investigation into Trump.

Years before that, then-Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt related to the gun-running operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. In each of those instances, the Justice Department took no action against the attorney general.

The special counsel in Biden’s case, Hur, spent a year investigating the president’s improper retention of classified documents, from his time as a senator and as vice president. The result was a 345-page report that questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but recommended no criminal charges for the 81-year-old. Hur said he found insufficient evidence to successfully prosecute a case in court.

In March, Hur stood by his no-prosecution assessment in testimony before the Judiciary Committee, where he was grilled for more than four hours by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

His defense did not satisfy Republicans, who insist that there is a politically motivated double standard at the Justice Department, which is prosecuting former President Donald Trump over his retention of classified documents at his Florida club after he left the White House.

But there are major differences between the two probes. Biden’s team returned the documents after they were discovered, and the president cooperated with the investigation by voluntarily sitting for an interview and consenting to searches of his homes.

Trump, by contrast, is accused of enlisting the help of aides and lawyers to conceal the documents from the government and of seeking to have potentially incriminating evidence destroyed.

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

Musk in February sued the San Francisco artificial intelligence company and its CEO Sam Altman over what he said was a betrayal of the ChatGPT maker’s founding aims of benefiting humanity rather than pursuing profits.

In the lawsuit filed in February at San Francisco Superior Court, billionaire Musk said that when he bankrolled OpenAI’s creation, he secured an agreement with Altman and Greg Brockman, the president, to keep the AI company as a nonprofit that would develop technology for the benefit of the public and keep its code open instead of walling it off for private gain.

However, by embracing a close relationship with Microsoft, OpenAI and its top executives set that pact “aflame” and are “perverting” the company’s mission, Musk alleged in the lawsuit.

Most legal experts said Musk’s claims — centered around allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and unfair business practices — were unlikely to succeed in court. Musk’s lawyer filed a notice Tuesday seeking to dismiss the entire case. No explanation was given for why it was being dropped.

Neither Musk nor anyone representing him in the case showed up at a status hearing Wednesday.

Musk’s lawyers and OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. OpenAI vowed in March to get the claim thrown out and released emails from Musk showing his earlier support for making it a for-profit company.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan will drop coverage of GLP-1 obesity drugs in fully insured large group commercial plans starting in January, a spokesperson said, citing consideration of their “efficacy, safety and access, and cost.” The insurer didn’t immediately respond to questions about how many patients will be affected or what the potential safety concerns were.

GLP-1s such as Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound are exploding in popularity. But with list prices of $1,000 a month or more for a single user, insurers are balking at cost and trying to limit how widely they’re used. The US Medicare health program for the elderly doesn’t cover them for obesity at all, although it covers similar drugs for diabetes.

Some states’ Medicaid plans that cover low-income residents pay for GLP-1 drugs, but even that has been contentious. North Carolina’s health plan for state employees dropped coverage of the drugs for weight loss earlier this year after projecting a $1.5 billion loss by the end of the decade. Health plans offered through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace rarely cover the treatments for obesity, according to an analysis from health researcher KFF.

Novo is “disappointed” in the decision, a spokesperson said, “as it is contrary to actions that many throughout our country are taking – which is to expand coverage for these important medicines.” About half of all commercial insurance plans cover Wegovy, the spokesperson said.

“They are back open for business, ready to bring in the largest container ships that call there,” U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said during a virtual press briefing Tuesday afternoon.

Some shipping companies rerouted their cargo to other ports following the deadly bridge collapse in March. The disaster halted most maritime traffic through Baltimore’s busy port as crews worked around the clock to clear an estimated 50,000 tons of fallen steel and concrete from the Patapsco River — a roughly $100 million effort that involved federal, state and local agencies, officials said.

Companies that steered clear of Baltimore during the cleanup efforts will likely come back now that the channel has been returned to its original depth and width, officials said. The city’s port processes more cars and farm equipment than any other in the country.

All that rerouted commercial traffic “belongs in Baltimore today,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “We have every indication that that is what is taking place, but we will be reinforcing that expectation as we speak with players up and down the supply chains.”

Crews were able to reopen portions of the deep-draft channel in phases, restoring some commercial traffic in recent weeks. Some cruise ships and large container ships have already passed through, officials said.

But thousands of longshoremen, truckers and small business owners have seen their jobs impacted by the collapse and its economic ripple effects, which extend well beyond the Baltimore region.

Officials estimated the salvage operations will cost up to $75 million, while the Coast Guard response has cost $24 million to date.

Rebuilding the bridge could cost nearly $2 billion, officials have said. They hope it’s completed by 2028.

The Biden administration approved $60 million in immediate federal aid, which Buttigieg referred to as “a down payment on the work ahead.” All of that aid has been committed, said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian.

President Joe Biden has pledged that the federal government will cover the full cost of rebuilding the bridge, though officials said the funding is still awaiting approval from Congress.

In a statement Tuesday, Biden praised the work of everyone involved in the recovery effort to date.

“Baltimore can count on us to stick with them every step of the way, and we will continue to have your back until the bridge is rebuilt,” he said.

The cargo ship Dali crashed into a critical support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early hours of March 26, collapsing the span and sending six members of a roadwork crew plunging to their deaths. The ship had lost power shortly after leaving Baltimore for Sri Lanka. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation found it experienced power outages before starting its voyage, but the exact causes of the electrical issues have yet to be determined. The FBI is also conducting a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the collapse.

The Dali remained stuck amid the wreckage for almost two months, with a massive steel truss draped across its damaged bow. On May 20, the ship was refloated and guided back to port. That allowed officials to open a channel that was 50 feet (15 meters) deep and 400 feet (122 meters) wide, big enough for most of the largest commercial vessels.

The full federal shipping channel is 700 feet (213 meters) wide. Officials said two-way traffic can resume now that it has reopened. They said additional safety requirements have also been lifted because of the increased width.

So when I had the opportunity this spring to visit Alabama’s shoreline instead of Florida’s, I jumped at the chance to see what life was like on the northern side of the Gulf of Mexico. Would the path slightly less beaten provide the same summery perks Florida is famous for? I packed my camera and favorite straw hat and went to find out.

‘Bama bound

Getting there was surprisingly easy.

My friend and I flew into Pensacola International Airport from O’Hare International Airport, which took just over two hours on a full flight. Pensacola is typically the airport of choice because it’s cheaper and offers plenty of flights.

We picked up our rental and began the leisurely hour journey, passing through small towns and crossing several bridges as we drove parallel to the water. We quickly waved goodbye to Florida, heading over Perdido Pass into Alabama’s Orange Beach.

Orange Beach and its neighbor, Gulf Shores, are two small beach towns on Perdido Key with combined populations of roughly 22,000 locals — which swells to millions with annual visitors. With a strictly tourism-driven economy, 85 percent of the area’s real estate is vacation rentals — or about 15,000 hotel and condo units, according to Kay Maghan, public relations manager for Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism.

We stayed at Turquoise Place, a luxury resort along Orange Beach with spacious condos in two buildings. Our unit had a fully equipped kitchen, a full-size laundry room and an ocean-view balcony with a hot tub and gas grill. Elsewhere on the property were pools, a water slide and a lazy river.

After settling down, we had dinner at The Gulf, an outdoor restaurant and bar with walk-up service made of cobalt blue shipping containers. Its patio shares a sea wall with the gulf and showcases plush couches and string lights that pair perfectly with my spicy blackberry jalapeño margarita, mahi-mahi tacos and a half pound of chilled peel-and-eat shrimp.

We watched as the sun went down as a watercolor masterpiece and stopped for a nightcap at 8 Reale OBAL, a speakeasy bar that will cost you a small pirate’s booty. With drinks averaging $25, the swanky spot is concealed behind a storefront posing as a jewelry store. We entered a code — provided daily on its Facebook page — and walked through a heavy vault door. The copper ceilings and navy velvet chairs showed off a secretly bougie side of Orange Beach — one that allegedly lured in Morgan Freeman the day after we left.

Up-close adventures

We began the next day on the beach, which stays cool courtesy of fluffy sugar-white sand washed down from the Appalachian Mountains, known as crushed quartz crystal.

The shoreline glittered with shells, partial sand dollars and colorful umbrellas as gentle waves rolled in the distance. Across the gulf were various water activities, including fishing, boating and parasailing. We watched cunning pelicans soar past, holding massive, doomed fish.

The mood was calm and friendly; even at the day’s peak, it never felt overcrowded, rowdy or messy.

Next was our hourlong lesson with Sandcastle University. Using buckets, measuring spoons, a cup, a plastic knife, and a straw, our instructor, Catie, astonished us with her simple techniques for building a turreted tower. The basics were a door and windows; the frills were staircases and cobblestone etching. For a 34-year-old, this was exceptionally fun.

We stopped for a quick lunch at longtime mainstay DeSoto’s Seafood Kitchen, known for its authentic Royal Reds — a premier variety of Alabama shrimp. Be prepared to twist a few heads off, but the buttery reward is worth it.

After some golden coconut shrimp and peppery au gratin potatoes, we began the 40-minute drive west to Fort Morgan, a seaside military fort built in the early 1800s and used during the Spanish-American War and both World Wars. A National Historic Landmark, it features spacious grounds with networks of connected rooms, tunnels and budding stalactites. The up-close access to history is amazing. In the distance, ships and oil rigs lay beyond the sea birds resting on cement blocks as waves splash against them.

We sought shade in the nearby Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge and took a relaxing 1-mile loop walk through the Jeff Friend Trail, which put us in the thick of a serene jungle. Surrounded by towering long-leaf pines, ferns and saw palmettos, we glimpsed only a tiny lizard, but heard a symphony of bird songs, squirrel chatter and plenty of mysterious fluttering from the bushes. Dirt trails led to a waterfront boardwalk before it curved into a lily-pad-filled bog.

The last stop for the evening was the lovely Jesse’s On The Bay. Upstairs, a fine-dining restaurant serves dry-aged steaks and fresh seafood. Downstairs, a bar called The Cold Hole serves cocktails.

Just steps from the bay, we watched the sun go down in a fiery blaze while sipping colorful drinks — the best way to end the day.

Cruising the coast

Saturday began with a free, heart-pumping 5-mile bike ride through Gulf State Park. Our tour guide, Corey, led us past grassy marshes, through ridges and across creeks. The oak canopies dripping with Spanish moss evoked the Southern gothic aesthetic you’d expect from Tennesee Williams.

In the evening, we sailed into the gulf on a yellow catamaran with Sail Wild Hearts. We enjoyed complimentary snacks and yacht rock as we savored our last magnificent sunset. A family of dolphins jumped beside us.

Before we left, we ate at Big Fish Restaurant and Bar — an unassuming fine dining gem on the end of a single-story strip mall — and CoastAL, a beachy brunch spot with fresh seafood, pastries and massive cinnamon rolls. I had been looking forward to Big Fish for its beloved sushi, which did not disappoint. Straightforward and simple, the cucumber salad, pork gyoza and classic tuna roll were everything I’d hoped for. Get there early or be ready to wait.

With phenomenal food, views, access to nature and soft beaches, plus all the Southern hospitality you’d expect, Alabama’s Gulf Coast was a lovely antidote for Chicago’s fickle spring. It was a well-balanced mix of commercial and local, hometown and upscale. I could have spent longer exploring the area and would happily return.

For those who can’t make it for a summer vacation, a trip in mid-April is also a good bet. The weather is perfect and there are fewer crowds.

Linze Rice is a freelancer.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her Los Angeles home. (O.J. Simpson was later acquitted of the killings in a criminal trial but was eventually held liable in a civil action.)

Related: The O.J. Simpson case forced domestic violence into the spotlight, boosting a movement

On this date:

In 1630, Englishman John Winthrop, leading a fleet carrying Puritan refugees, arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where he became its governor.

In 1776, Virginia’s colonial legislature adopted a Declaration of Rights.

In 1942, Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl living in Amsterdam, received a diary for her 13th birthday, less than a month before she and her family went into hiding from the Nazis.

In 1963, civil rights leader Medgar Evers, 37, was shot and killed outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. (In 1994, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of murdering Evers and sentenced to life in prison; he died in 2001.)

In 1964, South African Black nationalist Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison along with seven other people, including Walter Sisulu, for committing sabotage against the apartheid regime (all were eventually released, Mandela in 1990).

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Loving v. Virginia, unanimously struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriages.

In 1978, David Berkowitz was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of the six “Son of Sam” .44-caliber killings that terrified New Yorkers.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

In 1991, Russians went to the polls to elect Boris N. Yeltsin president of their republic.

In 2004, former President Ronald Reagan’s body was sealed inside a tomb at his presidential library in Simi Valley, California, following a week of mourning and remembrance by world leaders and regular Americans.

In 2016, a gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub, a gay establishment in Orlando, Florida, leaving 49 people dead and 53 wounded; Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group during a three-hour standoff before being killed in a shootout with police.

In 2020, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by one of the two white officers who responded after he was found asleep in his car in the drive-thru lane of a Wendy’s restaurant in Atlanta; police body camera video showed Brooks struggling with the officers and grabbing a Taser from one of them, firing it as he fled.

Today’s Birthdays: Sportscaster Marv Albert is 84. Singer Roy Harper is 84. Actor Roger Aaron Brown is 76. Actor Sonia Manzano is 74. Rock musician Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick) is 73. Country singer-musician Junior Brown is 72. Singer-songwriter Rocky Burnette is 71. Actor Timothy Busfield is 67. Singer Meredith Brooks is 66. Actor Jenilee Harrison is 66. Rock musician John Linnell (They Might Be Giants) is 65. Actor John Enos is 62. Rapper Grandmaster Dee (Whodini) is 62. Actor Paul Schulze is 62. Actor Eamonn Walker is 62. Actor Paula Marshall is 60. Actor Frances O’Connor is 57. Actor Rick Hoffman is 54. Actor-comedian Finesse Mitchell is 52. Actor Mel Rodriguez is 51. Actor Jason Mewes is 50. Actor Michael Muhney is 49. Blues musician Kenny Wayne Shepherd is 47. Actor Timothy Simons is 46. Actor Wil Horneff is 45. Singer Robyn is 45. Rock singer-musician John Gourley (Portugal. The Man) is 44. Actor Dave Franco is 39. Country singer Chris Young is 39. Actor Luke Youngblood is 38. Actor Ryan Malgarini is 32.

The arrests took place in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles and the individuals, who entered the U.S. through the southern border, are being held on immigration violations, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The nature of their suspected connections to the IS was not immediately clear, but the individuals were being tracked by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, or JTTF. They were in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which made the arrests while working with the JTTF, pending proceedings to remove them from the country.

The individuals from Tajikistan entered the country last spring and passed through the U.S. government’s screening process without turning up information that would have identified them as potential terrorism-related concerns, said one of the people familiar with the matter.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a statement confirming the immigration-related arrests of “several non-citizens” but did not detail specifics. The agencies noted that the U.S. has been in a “heightened threat environment.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the U.S. is facing accelerating threats from homegrown violent extremists as well as foreign terrorist organizations, particularly in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

He said at one recent congressional hearing that officials were “concerned about the terrorism implications from potential targeting of vulnerabilities at the border.” The Biden administration in August said that it had detected and stopped a network attempting to smuggle people from Uzbekistan into the U.S. and that at least one member of the network had links to a foreign terrorist group.

“The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security,” the agencies said.

The vote received support from 61% of the delegates, but it failed to get the required two-thirds supermajority. The action reversed a preliminary vote last year in favor of the official ban.

But it still leaves the Southern Baptist Convention with its official doctrinal statement saying the office of pastor is limited to men. Even the opponents of the ban said they favored that doctrinal statement but didn’t think it was necessary to reinforce it in the constitution.

Opponents noted that the SBC already can oust churches that assert women can serve as pastors — as it did last year and again Tuesday night.

The vote was perhaps the most highly anticipated of the annual meeting, reflecting years of debate in the United States’ largest Protestant denomination. It is the final day of the SBC’s two-day annual meeting in Indianapolis.

Since 2000, the SBC’s nonbinding statement of faith has declared that only men are qualified for the role of pastor. It’s interpreted differently across the denomination, with some believing it doesn’t apply to associate pastors so long as the senior pastor is male.

The proposed amendment, which received preliminary approval last year, would formally exclude churches that have women in any pastoral positions, from lead pastor to associates, or even affirms them in that role. Supporters believe it is biblically necessary, estimating hundreds of Southern Baptist churches have women in those roles.

The rejected amendment would have said any church deemed in “friendly cooperation” — the official term for SBC affiliation — must be one that “affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.”

Opponents argued the convention already has the power to remove churches over this issue, and the amendment will have unintended consequences, including disproportionately affecting Black Southern Baptist congregations, which tend to have women on their pastoral staffs.

But the motion went swiftly to a vote after only brief debate.

Ryan Fullerton, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, said the measure is “not about preventing women from exercising their gifts” in the church, in roles on church staff such as “children’s ministers.” But he said the Bible is clear that the office of pastor is for men.

He said there is “confusion about gender” in the wider culture and cited what he called “the ravages of the LGBTQIA agenda.”

But Spence Shelton, pastor of Mercy Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, argued that it was unnecessary.

He said there is no doubt that Southern Baptists are “complementarian,” as they describe the view that men and women have equal value but different roles that complement one another.

But he noted that the convention voted to affirm the ouster of a historic Virginia church Tuesday and two other churches last year, including the California megachurch Saddleback, which all have women pastors and affirmed they could hold top pastoral positions.

The reason for ousting them was that they don’t have a faith and practice consistent with the Baptist Faith and Message, the document approved in 2000 that includes the affirmation that the pastoral position is reserved for men.

“Y’all, we have shown the mechanisms we currently have are sufficient to deal with this question,” Shelton said.

Mike Law, pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia and author of the amendment, cited a report that there are about 1,800 women pastors working in the denomination. He cited Bible verses limiting the pastoral office to men.

“Our culture may see this prohibition as harsh, but our God is all wise, and wrote this word for the flourishing of both men and women,” he said.

“This amendment is not about women in ministry,” Law added. “It’s specifically about women in the pastoral office.” He did not spell out the difference in his brief floor speech.

The denomination can’t tell its independent churches what to do or whom to appoint as a pastor. But they can say which churches are in and which are out.

Last year, Southern Baptists refused to take back Saddleback, one of the convention’s largest congregations, and a small Kentucky church over the issue.

Both churches, which had women in top pastoral positions, appealed their ouster to the 2023 annual meeting and were overwhelmingly rejected by the delegates. A similar scenario played out in Indianapolis on Tuesday, when messengers voted overwhelmingly to kick out First Baptist Church of Alexandria in Virginia, which has a woman in an associate position and also asserted that women can hold the top job.

Supporters of the amendment say it probably won’t result in an immediate, large-scale purge, but opponents expressed concern it would burden SBC volunteers and staffs with numerous investigations of churches.

Delegates also elected a North Carolina pastor and longtime denominational statesman to be the next president of their convention in a contest between six candidates that went into two run-off votes.

Clint Pressley, who is senior pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, will be the next Southern Baptist Convention president after winning 56% of votes in the final run-off race.

The SBC president — one of the most prominent faces of the conservative evangelical network of churches — presides over the annual meeting and appoints members to the denomination’s committees.

Pressley’s nearest opponent, Tennessee pastor, Dan Spencer, received 44 percent of the votes after four other candidates were eliminated in earlier rounds.

Pressley has said he favors a measure being voted on later Wednesday to amend the SBC constitution to ban churches with women pastors.

Pressley earned a master of divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisiana, one of the SBC’s official seminaries. He has led Hickory Grove since 2011 after pastoring churches in Alabama and Mississippi. Pressley was first vice president of the SBC in 2014-15 and served on numerous other denominational boards.

Messengers early Wednesday rejected a proposal to abolish the SBC’s public policy agency, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. The measure reflected the views of some that the the staunchly conservative commission wasn’t conservative enough.