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After CBS announced that they would be pulling the plug on the Kevin James comedy Kevin Can Wait after two seasons, fans of the show were disappointed as expected. As for the show’s stars, they may have been bummed that the show is ending, but it didn’t show with their reactions of gratitude and love. Kevin Can Wait stars James and Leah Remini took to Instagram to give an overwhelming amount of thanks to the cast, crew, and fans of the show. “I want to say thank you to all the fans for the love and support,” James wrote on an Instagram post with a picture of a hanging Kevin Can Wait jacket. “I was so blessed to be able to work every day with the most amazing cast, crew, writers and support team!” He added jokingly, “I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world… Okay, maybe a season 3. Love to all.” His on-screen partner in crime Remini posted a photo of her and James saying: “I want to say thank you to the amazing cast, crew, producers, and the writers of [Kevin Can Wait]. You accepted me with open arms. For me to get to work with [Kevin James] again day in and day out was a Godsend. I laughed everyday, and I will miss that the most.”

Fox’s Lethal Weapon has pulled the trigger on hiring a new co-lead, tapping American Pie‘s Seann William Scott to replace fired star Clayne Crawford, TVLine has learned. With Scott — who will be playing a new character — in place, Fox has renewed Lethal Weapon for a third season. Additionally, Warner Bros. confirms in a statement that it has officially “decided not to renew” Crawford’s contract. The recasting caps a tumultuous two weeks for Fox’s sophomore drama that began with an explosive Deadline report that detailed Crawford’s alleged bad behavior on the show’s set. The Rectify alum later released a statement in which he elaborated on the two incidents that led Warner Bros. to reprimand him. In one of the kerfuffles, an actor — allegedly co-lead Damon Wayans — “felt unsafe because a piece of shrapnel from an effect hit him,” Crawford explained. “It was an unfortunate event that happened in spite of all precautions and procedures being followed. I take responsibility for the incident, because I was in charge of the set.” He concluded by issuing an apology to “all the crew and cast for any negative attention Lethal Weapon is receiving because of these incidents.” And then last week, TVLine broke the news that Warner Bros and Fox had decided to part ways with Crawford, and were actively searching for an actor to replace him. A studio source tells TVLine that the decision to fire Crawford was not made lightly, but was nonetheless necessary due to the actor’s pattern of abusive behavior on he Lethal set. “Seann is a fantastic addition to this already amazing cast,” said Michael Thorn, Fox’s president of entertainment. “Lethal Weapon is packed with action, drama and pure fun and we can’t wait to see Damon and Seann together on screen.”

James Corden got the wedding invite of a lifetime! The British comedian, who hosts "The Late Late Show With James Corden" in Los Angeles, is attending Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding next weekend, according to a new report on TMZ. Corden is an old friend of the 33-year-old royal. Before making it big in the U.S., he was known for his boys nights in London with the Prince and his celebrity pals like David Beckham. The host had previously implied he wouldn't be invited, but had been gunning for an invite to his bachelor party. However, Corden underestimated his relationship with Harry, who is now sixth in line to the throne (following the birth of his newest nephew, Prince Louis Arthur Charles), as both he, and his producing partner Ben Winston, made the cut. They are among the 600 guests who will witness the historical vows at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Not only will they be there for the ceremony but they have also been invited to both receptions following. The first reception will be a luncheon at St. George's Hall hosted by the Queen. The more exclusive event will take place in the evening at Frogmore House. Only around 200 guests are invited to the evening reception, which is given by Prince Charles. Corden is not just friends with Harry, he also has a relationship with Prince William and Kate Middleton. Following the birth of their thid child last month, the 39-year-old reportedly gifted them a limited edition, 23-book Beatrix Potter collection and plush characters toy set, valued at $750.

Jeff Bezos made headlines in January when his company announced that it would be partnering with JP Morgan and Warren Buffet to reduce the cost of healthcare services here in America. Apparently the first step towards this goal is teaching Alexa how to play doctor. According to internal documents obtained by CNBC, Amazon is reportedly putting together a "health and wellness" team within the Alexa division. The team will be led by 5-year Amazon veteran, Rachel Jiang, and will be tasked with improving Alexa's performance in health-care related fields, such as diabetes management or tips for new parents. This is no small task as the program will have to be HIPAA compliant. That's the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which has a number of data privacy requirements. Should the team successfully navigate HIPAA's regulatory waters, the service will likely revolutionize how people interact with their doctors. Rather than trawling through WebMD to figure out what ails them, Alexa users will potentially be able to upload sensitive medical documents directly to their primary care physicians. This is similar to the agreement that Fitbit and Google Health recently announced, which would enable the fitness trackers to transmit data directly to doctors.

The sound of eruptions from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano rang through the air as Leilani Abaya gathered her belongings to flee the volcanic activity and lava that has destroyed more than two dozen homes. "We had trash bags and we were just, you know, literally grabbing anything and everything that was the most important to us at that time," Abaya, a mother of two, said Wednesday. She has lived in Leilani Estates on Hawaii's Big Island for about six months and joined nearly 2,000 others who have been ordered to evacuate. "There was a few times while we were down there where the sounds coming from the eruption was so enormous that it just stopped all of us that was there in our tracks," she said. The erupting Kilauea volcano has been spewing lava for more than a week, and the island suffered a series of earthquakes that included a strong 6.9-magnitude temblor on May 4. A total of 36 structures, at least 27 of which were homes, have been destroyed, officials said. President Donald Trump on Friday approved a major disaster declaration ordering federal assistance to be provided for recovery efforts. Hawaii Gov. David Ige said the help would go toward public facilities such as roads, public parks, schools and water pipes damaged in the eruption or earthquakes. Lava from the volcano, which has been erupting since 1983, has reshaped the landscape, adding more than 443 acres of land to Kilauea's southeastern shore as of the end of 2016, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But whether the area affected by the current activity can be rebuilt remains uncertain. "We really don't know the extent of the damage and whether or not people can actually rebuild," Hawaii state Rep. Joy A. San Buenaventura, who represents the Puna district where Leilani Estates is located, told NBC News Thursday. Another question, she said, "is whether or not you should rebuild" in areas more likely to see lava flows. The current eruptive period is not over. The USGS warns Kilauea could see explosive eruptions in the coming days or weeks that throw "ballistic blocks" for a half-mile or more. A geothermal plant is threatened and residents of Lower Puna have been advised to be ready to leave. Two new fissures opened in the area Saturday, bringing the total to 17, the USGS said. One of those new fissures produced a lava flow that traveled around 250 yards before stalling. The area affected by fissures and lava have occurred in lava-flow hazard zone 1, or the area that the USGS says has the highest likelihood of experiencing lava flows; zone 2 could also be affected before the current eruption ends, Janet Babb, a geologist with the agency's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said. There are nine zones on the Big Island in all, with zone 9 having the least risk. Lava flows approached the nearby town of Pahoa in 2014, and threatened to cover the main Highway 130. The lava changed direction and did not go onto the highway. The lava cools to rock, and it isn't always cleared: When a section of the scenic Chain of Craters Road in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park was buried by lava in the 1980s, it stayed blocked until 2014 when a 5-mile section was bulldozed as an emergency access road to connect Kalapana in case it was cut off. (The iconic "road closed" sign sticking up from the hardened lava was removed and saved.) But a section of that road was covered in lava again in 2016. Sections of cooled lava were cleared from a transfer station in Pahoa after the 2014 flow, and hardened rock was removed from Cemetery Road in 2015, despite the covered road reportedly becoming a tourist attraction. "It's hard, and it builds up very, very high," said Carolyn Loeffler, owner of Loeffler Construction in Hilo, which did not do work on the areas affected by the 2014 flow. "You generally need hydraulic hammers attached to your equipment," she said. Building on areas affected by lava flows on Hawaii have to go through a review and permitting process to ensure that building is safe, said Barett Otani, information and education specialist for the Hawaii County Department of Public Works. Lava engulfed the community of Kalapana, which is southwest of Leilani Estates and near Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, in 1990. The lava flow buried 100 homes, as well as some other structures, beneath 50 to 80 feet of lava, according to the USGS. But by 2012, people had returned and new homes had been built in Kalapana Gardens. Honolulu magazine spoke with residents therethat year, including Kent Napper and Nancy Lowe, who built a small two-story house there. "Where else in Hawaii can you buy land with an ocean view like this for $10,000?" they told the publication. In 2014, NBC News spoke to Chris Adkins, a tax return examiner in Hilo, who was building a home on a lava field in Kalapana. He bought a 0.6-acre lot for $6,500. "I'll have no mortgage, no homeowner's association. It's all a matter of perspective," he said then. Herman Ludwig, owner of Ludwig Construction in Hilo, whose company cleared hardened lava from the area around the transfer station affected in 2014, said that the hardened lava left behind requires heavy equipment, but is little different than removing other types of rock. "Most of our island is like that," Ludwig said. One can build houses on the rock left behind, "but the lava might come back again," he said. No state highways have been covered by the lava flow in the current eruption, but Highway 130 was closed in the area due to cracking, state Department of Transportation spokesperson Tim Sakahara said. If roads are covered by lava flow, crews decide whether to go through, over or around the rock left behind, he said.

Kristen Black took a semester off from college to have her baby. She was determined to go back and continue her studies to become an optometrist, her dream job. Black, 21, did just that when she re-enrolled at Arkansas State University this spring as a biology major. She and her boyfriend found a daytime sitter for their little girl, Izzy, now 8 months. Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today’s most popular stories on The Washington Post As a requisite, Black had to take an introductory physics course. Her professor, Bruce Johnson, was known for holding extra study hours twice a week to help students with their homework. Most of the 80 students who took the class attended the study hours, because the subject matter is challenging. He booked a big room for the sessions. But Black couldn’t attend because she had to pick up Izzy from the babysitter. A few weeks ago, she felt as if she needed to go to a study session. She wanted help before an upcoming test. She asked Johnson whether she could bring Izzy. “I was like, ‘I’m struggling with this section, but I can’t come because I have to get my baby,’ ” Black said. He told her it was fine to bring the baby. About halfway into the two-hour study session, Johnson walked around the room and stopped at Black’s desk. Izzy smiled at Johnson, who himself has four kids and seven grandchildren. “Anytime someone that cute smiles at you, it melts you,” Johnson said in a phone interview this week. Then Izzy leaned over. Johnson asked if he could pick her up. He did an airplane ride with her and cooed at her for a minute. “I thought, ‘I can’t keep everybody waiting,’ ” he said. “So I put her on my hip and went up to the white board.” Izzy was happily on his hip for about 20 minutes as he helped students work through the concept of the ideal gas law. Black snapped a photo. “I was able to take notes while he was holding her,” Black said. “It was the sweetest thing ever.” He gave Izzy a marker with the cap on to play with while he was writing on the board. Black thanked him for his kind gesture. Johnson told her: “We’ll do what we can to get you through this class.” She sent the photo to her mother, who was blown away that her daughter’s professor was so kind-hearted. “It means a lot to have teacher genuinely care about his students,” Black said. “He’s a great teacher.” Black also happened to show the photo to the university’s chancellor, Kelly Damphousse, who put it on Facebook. Johnson, 58, who describes himself as a quiet man, said other students have brought kids to class from time to time during his 24 years teaching at the university. “When you see somebody with children who is going to school, they are amazing to me,” Johnson said. “I can’t say enough about what they’re doing and sacrifices they’re making.”

HONOLULU — A man who was on death row in Delaware until being retried and found not guilty of murder is back behind bars in Hawaii less than a year later. Isaiah McCoy enjoyed the limelight that came with sharing his story after he left Delaware's death row a free and exonerated man. He gave speeches to innocence projects, anti-death penalty groups and lawyers associations. Now, he's in a federal detention center in Honolulu, where prosecutors accuse him of sex trafficking. They say McCoy forced young women into prostitution. McCoy spoke to The Associated Press at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center. He says he's again accused of a crime he didn't commit. He says he'll use his knowledge of the criminal justice system to represent himself at his upcoming trial.

Some people know they’ve found The One when they discover their date loves the same music or roots for the same sports team. For Jeremy Jacobson, a good hint came when he and his future wife visited a tourist area of Beijing and she wasn’t tempted to buy any tchotchkes. The year was 2004, and Jacobson, then a Seattle-based engineer who was in China on business, had already embarked on the aggressive savings path that would lead him to early retirement in late 2012, at age 38. “I was car-free and biking by that point,” Jacobson, now 43, recalls. His future wife, Winnie Tseng, now 39, shared his frugal ways, allowing the couple to bypass the persuasion phase that many would-be early retirees go through when one needs to convince the other to save upwards of half of their income. Tseng was working in tech in Taiwan when she met Jacobson in Beijing. The couple married in 2010 and nowadays are reaping the rewards of their formerly spartan lifestyle. They have travelled the world with their 3-year-old son, Julian, and recently settled in Taiwan to allow him to attend pre-school. Here’s how they pulled off their life of travel and leisure. Jacobson, who worked for Microsoft, arranged a work transfer to Taiwan in 2005. The move allowed him to be with Tseng and also to turbo-charge his savings, thanks to the country’s lower cost of living. He brought Tseng back to Seattle after a couple years, where the couple pinched their pennies together. They slashed their spending on three major expenses to get the biggest bang for their savings buck. Roughly 62% of Americans’ average annual spending goes toward housing, food and transportation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Significantly reducing your spending on these three expenses will get you to early retirement a lot faster than giving up your daily latte or using Groupons for dining out. “We lived a lifestyle that a lot of people refused to live,” Jacobson says. It helped that both Jacobson and Tseng came from lower-income families and grew up living with, and on, less. Years before Jacobson met Tseng, he did acquire more conventional trappings of a middle class life, but by the time he had met her, he had already sold his house, car and motorcycle. To further cut expenses, the couple lived in a 900 square foot apartment, well under what they could afford on Jacobson’s $135,000 salary. (Tseng stopped working when they came to the U.S.) They ate all of their meals at home and entertained friends with potluck parties, which hardly felt like a sacrifice since Tseng is an accomplished cook. The couple’s frugal ways allowed them to save $100,000 a year. Jacobson maxed out his 401(k) and IRA and put the remainder into a taxable brokerage account. They invested in low-cost Vanguard index funds, and by the time Jacobson retired in late 2012, they had amassed a nest egg of more than a million dollars. It was this brute savings and not, as some people assume, a lottery windfall or inheritance that got them to the point where they never have to work for pay again. Slash Your Taxes The Internal Revenue Service taxes Americans based on their worldwide income, but Jacobson and Tseng manage to pay next-to-nothing in taxes. For tax purposes, the couple is based in Washington, one of a handful of states with no state income state. Jacobson is registered to vote in Washington and maintains a driver’s license from the state, even though they’re now living full time in Taiwan. They live off a combination of their savings and ad and referral income from their blog, GoCurryCracker. Most of their investment income comes from capital gains, dividends and tax-free municipal bond interest. Long-term capital gains aren’t taxed for married couples making up to $77,200 in 2018. Depending on their type, dividends are either not taxed in lower income brackets or taxed at ordinary income rates. The couple made about $57,000 in revenue from their blog last year, but since they live abroad, they take advantage of the foreign earned income exclusion that exempts up to $104,100 of work income per qualifying person from federal income taxes. The family posts their spending on their blog. Their total outlay for 2017 was $93,648, or about $7,800 per month. It’s much higher than previous years, due to a combination of one-time expenses like the Alaskan cruise he treated his mother and grandmother to and rising ongoing expenses like the fact that his son is eating more and attending school. But Jacobson isn’t concerned: the family can afford to live off their savings alone, and the blog income provides a buffer. Their investment income is spitting out around $5600 a month. Though the family is settled for now in Taiwan, they resume their world travels during school breaks; they recently got back from a trip to Vietnam during Chinese New Year. As Jeremy writes on his blog, “We are doing our best to be completely normal in every way that doesn’t involve going to work.”

Lorenzen Wright made headlines as the seventh overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft – but he also won the hearts of so many because of his impact on thousands of kids who were inspired by him. That ended in July 2010 during a call to 911. The chilling recording captured the 34-year-old's dying word: "Goddamn." A dispatcher then heard repeated gunshots – 11 in all – unaware where it was happening or who was on the other end of the line. "You can just listen to that tape and know he was in trouble," says Toney Armstrong, former director of police at the Memphis Police Department, who oversaw the investigation. "We literally threw everything we had at this investigation. We really wanted to solve it. We really, really wanted to solve this case." As Memphis mourned, months turned into years and the city became obsessed with solving the murder of its favorite son. Then, seven long years after the murder, police got the break they needed. Who wanted Wright dead, and how does a beloved basketball player's life end that way? HOMETOWN HERO Perched on the banks of the Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee, has always been a city of contrasts: famous for its place in music history and infamous for its place in the American civil rights movement. Dr. Bill Adkins: Memphis is a city that, unfortunately, has been divided by race for many, many years. Pastor Bill Adkins has been a long-time advocate for unity in the City of Memphis. Dr. Bill Adkins | Lorenzen's mentor: It's a lot better than it used to be. But there are still divisions. Decisions … unfortunately, still made along racial lines. But in a city divided, both racially and economically, there is something that brings people together. Dr. Bill Adkins: Basketball in Memphis became -- a instrument of change … which brought races together. …You know, Memphis basketball was literally everything. And Lorenzen was a big part of that. Once celebrated as one of Memphis' favorite sons, the memory of Lorenzen Wright still haunts this town. James Brown | CBS News special correspondent: Put in perspective how big the Lorenzen Wright story is here in Memphis. Marc Perrusquia: It's huge. I mean, Lorenzen Wright was a true hometown hero. He was beloved. Marc Perrusquia has been writing for the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, for almost 30 years. Marc Perrusquia: We talk about big murders in the history of Memphis. You got Martin Luther King, OK, you can't trump that one, but he comes very close. James Brown: That significant? Marc Perrusquia: That significant. Born in Oxford, Mississippi, Lorenzen Wright moved to Memphis to play basketball at Booker T. Washington High School. Being 6' 11" tall at 17 years old, he turned a lot of heads. Dr. Bill Adkins: I decided to go take a look for myself. James Brown: What did you see? Dr. Bill Adkins: Oh, yeah, I saw this huge kid that could run the floor like a gazelle. …I mean, he could run the floor better than any big man I ever saw in my life. Lorenzen went on to dazzle fans at the University of Memphis, but not for long. LORENZEN WRIGHT [NEWS INTERVIEW] Thinking about what I'm going to be doing next year, whether I'm going to be at the University of Memphis or you know, in the NBA. In 1996, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers. Dr. Bill Adkins: When he stepped up to that podium -- everybody just cheered. I mean, every -- every water hole, ever sports bar in this town had it on the TV screen. Everybody was watching. Everybody was cheering.

The buzz about pollination drones is more important than ever, and companies like Walmart want in on the action. When several types of bees and bumblebees made the endangered-species list thanks to declining bee populations it's easy to see why companies are looking towards robotics as a possible solution. After all, bees supply more than just honey. Without busy bees pollinating plants, domestic crops such as various fruit and vegetables could be hit hard. More than 75 percent of the world's food crops rely at least in part on pollination by insects and other animals. Between $235 billion and $577 billion worth of annual global food production relies on direct contributions by pollinators, according to a 2016 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The European Union went so far as to recently ban all outdoor use of pesticides containing harmful neonicotinoids to protect bee populations overseas. Now Walmart wants to get in on the act of giving bees a helping hand while investing in advanced robotics. Walmart filed a patent in March for autonomous robot bees that can pollinate like their real insect counterparts. Tiny cameras on the robots -- also called pollination drones -- not only detect and spot the locations of the crops that need pollinating, but the sensitive sensors on the drones will assure that successful pollination occurs. Five other patents were also filed that same month by Walmart for additional farming drones, including one drone that monitors the ongoing health of various crops and another that can hunt down plant pests, hopefully erasing the need for use of harmful pesticides that endanger bees in the first place. INC. TODAY'S MUST READS: I've Studied Hundreds of Organizations. Here's Why Most Can't Innovate Walmart is no stranger to utilizing advanced robots. This year, the large chain starting using using sophisticated scanner robots built by Bossa Nova Robotics to monitor store inventory. Walmart may be one of the largest companies to currently invest in robotic bees like those in the patent, however researchers are hoping to offer more kinds of pollination drones for additional companies to fund. Back in 2013, Harvard University researchers introduced autonomous flying microrobots called RoboBees that were the size of a penny and used two wafer-thin wings that flapped 120 times per second to fly. More recently in 2017, a student studying at Georgia's Savannah College of Art and Design created Plan Bee -- a pollination drone that could be controlled by a smart device. Hopefully more companies will follow suit in robotic bee investing, until then Walmart may be the front runner in looking towards the future when it comes to replacing dwindling bee populations with advanced technology instead of relying on environmental friendly legislation.

While you were enjoying that slab of Chili's Grill & Bar baby back ribs, hackers may have been feasting on your payment card information. The chain's parent company Brinker International announced Saturday that a data incident at some Chili’s restaurants may have resulted in a credit and debit card data breach. The list of impacted restaurants has not been released, but officials said the incident happened between March and April. "We sincerely apologize to those who may have been affected and assure you we are working diligently to resolve this incident," Brinker International said in a statement. More: With gas prices going up, what's it cost to fill up your car The company, who said it learned of the breach on Friday, is now working with third-party forensic experts to determine the details of what happened and how many customers are affected. Preliminary investigation indicates that malware was used to gather payment card information, including credit and debit card numbers, as well as names of cardholders who made in-restaurant purchases. "Law enforcement has been notified of this incident and we will continue to fully cooperate. We are working to provide fraud resolution and credit monitoring services for those guests who may have been impacted," Brinker International said.

MEFALSIM, Israel — As Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch the plaque being unveiled at the new embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, 50 miles away the Israeli army will be readying for its nightmare scenario: thousands of Palestinians bursting through the fence with Gaza. Demonstrations are planned across the Palestinian territories to protest the U.S. decision to shift its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognize the city as Israel’s capital, seen as a major blow to the Palestinian cause. But they are expected to be largest in Gaza, where six weeks of demonstrations dubbed the “March of Return” will reach a climax this week. Israeli snipers have already killed at least 49 Palestinians in the unrest at the fence, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and shot 2,240 more. Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today’s most popular stories on The Washington Post “We really believe that’s what they will do, the motivation is very, very big,” an Israeli army official from the southern command said of the potential for protesters to break through the fence as he drove an armored Land Rover along it during demonstrations Friday. He pointed out fresh rolls of barbed wire, ready for areas perceived as weak spots. The embassy move has added extra friction to what was already a highly charged week. Scuffles broke out in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday as Israelis celebrated the “reunification” of the city, an annexation not recognized internationally. The opening of the embassy on Monday is followed by Nakba Day — when Palestinians mark the anniversary of mass expulsions and flight that displaced an estimated 700,000 people when Israel was founded 70 years ago. This year, organizers of demonstrations in Gaza and the West Bank are spreading them over two days to coincide with the embassy opening. But Israel is not letting the threat of violence dull its party. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs gathered 1,000 guests for a celebratory event on the ministry grounds on Sunday. Among them wereTreasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. “President Trump is making history,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rounds of applause. “Our people will be eternally grateful for his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.” As guests sipped wine in front of a stage with a backdrop of American and Israeli flags, the mosques in Gaza were urging people to attend protests. The Israeli military says it will deploy two additional battalions of soldiers on the edges of the barricaded strip, roughly doubling the number of forces. A second and third defense line of troops will be set up and reservists have been called in. Another extra battalion will be deployed in the occupied West Bank. In Jerusalem, protests are planned at the same time as the embassy opening, with one in an Arab neighborhood just a few blocks away. More than 1,000 police officers are working with the U.S. Embassy to coordinate security for Monday’s event, a police spokesman said. “This one-sided move strengthens Israel’s occupation and takes us further from peace,” said Ayman Odeh, leader of the Arab faction in Israel’s parliament. Hamas has thrown its weight behind the demonstrations in Gaza, which have deflected Palestinians’ frustration with their leadership as residents of the blockaded 140-square-mile territory struggle to make ends meet. More than 70 percent of Palestinians living in Gaza are refugees or descendants of refugees from areas in Isreal, and the demonstrations have rallied for their U.N.-endorsed right of return. “Our people have the right to break the walls of this big prison,” Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, said in a briefing with foreign journalists. “We went out to knock the wall of the prison and declare it clearly that we won’t accept to die slowly.” Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005, though the United Nations still classifies it as occupied because of the level of control wielded by Israel, which restricts the movement of people and goods. Egypt has also only sporadically opened its border. “What’s the problem if hundreds of thousands storm this fence which is not a border?” Sinwar said. Palestinians have burned tires, thrown stones, tried to break the fence and sent kites carrying burning coals over it. The military has also said there have been cases where explosives were thrown or planted, and one shooting incident. But the use of live ammunition on largely peaceful crowds has drawn condemnation from human rights groups. On the boundary with Gaza on Friday, near the Israeli kibbutz of Mefalsim, the Israeli official, who declined to be named in line with the military’s protocol, said Palestinian casualty numbers appear broadly accurate, except for on one point — injuries by rubber bullets. “We saw something about rubber bullets,” he said, “but we didn’t shoot one.” Under the rules of engagement, a protester can be shot in the head only during “terror activities,” he said. That does not include stone throwers, he added. Otherwise the instructions are to shoot below the knees of ringleaders. Videotaped incidents that show otherwise are investigated, he said. Israel says that Hamas is using the demonstrations as a cover to carry out attacks, pointing out that some of those killed are known militants. The death toll at recent demonstrations has shrunk, with one Palestinian killed on Friday, and no deaths the previous week. “I think it’s the experience of the forces,” the officer said. “If you do it one time, you get better, you learn what not to do if you don’t want people killed.” ” Hospitals in Gaza are preparing for bloodshed, setting up tents with extra beds outside. Next to the sniper positions at the border fence the Israeli officer hands over a pair of binoculars. The Gazans largely stand stoically facing the border fence. “Do you see a stone thrower?” he asks. After a minute or so, a man picks up a stone and throws it, but it falls short of the fence. Black smoke from burning tires billows across. A few minutes later, the crack of a bullet rings out. A warning shot, the officer says. For many, including the army officer, the big question is what happens next? Israel is investing more than $800 million in a below- and aboveground barrier around Gaza, due to be completed next year. But few seem to be talking of a long-term solution to an increasingly explosive situation, as Gaza is also being squeezed by salary cuts by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. On Saturday, protesters burned the main cargo terminal to Gaza, causing $2.8 million in damage and further choking off supplies. “There is a wild tiger that was besieged and starved through 11 years, and now it was set free and no one knows where it’s going and what it will do,” Sinwar said.

Republican leaders are scrambling to lock down enough votes for the GOP farm bill, with members still divided over the measure's sugar support program and work requirements for food stamps. The legislation, a top priority for retiring Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) because it contains elements of welfare reform, is scheduled to hit the floor this week. But House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said Republicans are shy of the 218 votes needed to pass the bill. Still, the Texas Republican expressed confidence that he can flip enough members by working the phones over the weekend, clearing up any questions and concerns, and pointing out that some amendments will get a floor vote. "We believe we'll get there. We've got several folks that are still reading the bill and coming to their own conclusions. We've got a lot of undecideds," Conaway said Thursday. "I'll be working with them over the weekend to get them to where they need to be, and get whatever information they need to so they'll understand exactly what the bill does." "I believe we'll be there next week and we'll have it on the floor," he added. Conaway also met with President Trump at the White House on Thursday afternoon, following reports that he may veto the bill if it doesn't include stricter work requirements for food stamp recipients. But Conaway said no veto threat was discussed. In fact, he said, Trump was supportive of his effort - a sentiment that could go a long way with some of the conservatives who are still skeptical over certain components of the farm plan. "It went really well. The president is very smart and it became crystal clear right off the bat though that he has a real heart for the folks living in rural America... He wants to help them and he said that multiple times," Conaway said. "He's also a really strong proponent of the work requirements being improved in SNAP, because he believes that work is a pathway to prosperity and that our program should help people get on that path and not trap them in some sort of public assistance program." Ryan and his leadership team have been aggressively working to build support for the farm bill over the last few weeks, holding listening sessions, inviting Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to a GOP whip team meeting and dispatching Conaway to an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) event aimed at highlighting the proposal. As a way to attract more support, Republican leaders are expected to allow a structured debate process that enables some germane amendments to receive a floor vote. The five-year farm bill authorizes a number of farm, agricultural and food programs that are set to expire at the end of September. But the bulk of the measure's funding - and one of the areas that has been a lightning rod in the debate - goes toward the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. This year's farm bill would impose tougher work requirements on millions of food stamp recipients and shift the program's funding toward job training - a change that Ryan and the GOP say will help lift people out of poverty and get people back on their feet. Under the measure, all able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 59 have to be working or enrolled in a training program for at least 20 hours per week in order to qualify for food stamps. People who are elderly, disabled or pregnant would be exempt from the requirements. But the contentious idea has sparked a bitter intraparty fight in the House. Moderate Republicans worry that the new requirements are too tough and will prevent 1 million people from getting food assistance. "I have concerns regarding SNAP," said Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), who is facing a tough reelection bid. "Those from New Jersey who have come into my office have said they would be unable to fulfill the requirements." Democrats have also slammed the idea as cruel, and claim it is nothing more than a messaging bill since it stands little chance of passing the Senate. Democrats walked away from the normally bipartisan farm bill process earlier this year when Republicans decided to include the SNAP revamp. "The farm bill is another example of the division and dysfunction in the Republican Party. ... They eschew compromise and they continue to pander to the hard-line elements of their caucus," Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the House minority whip, told reporters this week. "It is my understanding they don't have the votes on their side of the aisle." While the SNAP overhaul has helped woo some conservatives who would normally oppose the farm bill - and GOP leaders have highlighted the changes as a key selling point - other hard-liners say that the changes don't go far enough, and have been pushing for actual funding cuts to SNAP. "I like that it's actually doing something on SNAP. But it seems to me, if we're going to do something, we should be really aggressive on it," said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a Freedom Caucus leader. "I've got to see if this is good enough." "I'm just wondering how many new federal workforce development programs we need," Jordan added. One way to get more wavering Republicans on board with the farm bill is to allow them to vote on some amendments. So far, nearly 100 amendments have been submitted to the House Rules Committee, which will meet this week to set the rules for floor debate. Conaway, however, has suggested that lawmakers shouldn't be allowed to offer amendments if they aren't willing to support the final bill. "If you're a no already on the bill no matter what, then why would you get a poison pill amendment added to make it worse for everybody else?" Conaway said earlier this week. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), a member of the Freedom Caucus, told The Hill he plans to offer a slate of amendments related to federal nutrition programs, including one that would send SNAP money to states based on their actual enrollment numbers, not just on the number of people who are eligible. If there is an open debate and amendment process, Davidson said, he would be more willing to support the final farm bill. "I whipped undecided, because I thought it was important to have a meaningful amendment process," Davidson said. SNAP isn't the only sticking point that has emerged in the farm bill. Members have also been fighting over the bill's federal sugar program, which aims to keep sugar prices high by imposing restrictions on sugar imports and controlling how much sugar is produced in the U.S. The program also offers non-recourse loans to domestic sugar producers. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), a member of the Rules Committee, is pushing for a sugar reform amendment that would give the Agriculture Secretary more flexibility to allow sugar imports and ensure taxpayers don't foot the bill for bailouts of the sugar industry. The idea has gained some steam among conservatives. But Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, is fiercely pushing back against the amendment, which he warned would be a poison pill if it gets adopted. Conaway has even vowed to vote against his own legislation if the sugar reform language were included. Yoho was making the rounds on Thursday during floor votes to encourage his Republican colleagues to oppose the provision. "We prefer they don't support it, because if they do, it throws the farm bill in jeopardy," Yoho told The Hill. It's unclear, however, whether the Foxx amendment will even get a vote. Ryan said that while he supports sugar reforms, he also wants the legislation to be able to pass the House. And given Trump's new tariff policies and trade negotiations, some Republicans are reluctant to further shake up the agriculture industry. "There are a lot of things people would like to change, but when you look at market conditions for farmers, when you look at where prices are and the impact of current trade negations, this is not the time to make big changes," Davidson said.

BOSTON (AP) -- The assignment for Boston Celtics forward Marcus Morris in his first start this postseason was easy to explain but nearly impossible to execute. His job: Guard LeBron James, and keep the four-time NBA MVP from running the Celtics out of their own gym in the Eastern Conference finals for the second year in a row. "He's obviously the best player in the game," said Morris, who during the week boasted that he was up to the challenge and on Sunday explained why he wanted it. "Because I'm a competitor. He's the best player, and I'm going to be able to tell my kids this one day." Morris scored 21 points and added 10 rebounds while pestering James into a playoff-high seven turnovers -- and a playoff-low 15 points -- and the Celtics opened a 21-point, first-quarter lead to scorch Cleveland 108-83 in Game 1. BOX SCORE: CELTICS 108, CAVALIERS 83 Jaylen Brown scored 23 points and Al Horford had 20 for Boston, which ran off 17 points in a row in the first and never allowed the Cavaliers within single digits again. The Celtics led by 28 when Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue pulled James for good with 7:09 left. Game 2 is Tuesday night. "I have zero level of concern at this stage," said James, who was 5 for 16 from the floor and missed all five 3-point attempts. "I've been down before in the postseason, but for me there's never any level of concern -- no matter how bad I played tonight, with seven turnovers, how inefficient I was shooting the ball," he said. "We have another opportunity to be better as a ball club coming in Tuesday night, and we'll see what happens." Kevin Love had 17 points and eight rebounds, and James added nine assists and seven boards. The Cavaliers missed their first 14 3-point attempts of the game and shot just 32 percent in the first half. By that time, Boston led 61-35 -- the biggest halftime playoff deficit in James' career. "I think we're very alert to the fact that we'll get a heavyweight punch on Tuesday night," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. "It's another great challenge, another great opportunity to experience something for this team." With injured stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving on the bench in street clothes, the Celtics continued their stunning run this season with what may have been the most surprising turn of events yet. A year after dropping the first two games at home against Cleveland in a five-game East final, the Celtics pounced on James, and the favored Cavaliers were never really in it. "The last couple of playoffs, and our meeting at the end of year, they blew us out of the water," Boston guard Marcus Smart said. "We've got a different team, just like they do, and a lot of younger guys. So for them to see that, and have that feeling like we did tonight, is huge." TIP-INS Cavaliers: Kyle Korver's 3-pointer with nine minutes left in the third period was their first after missing 14 in a row. It cut the deficit from 28 points to 65-40. ... Tristan Thompson had eight points and 11 rebounds. Celtics: The Celtics improved to 8-0 at home this postseason. They do not have to win on the road to reach the NBA Finals. ... Boston's 36-18 lead at the end of one quarter was the second-largest in a playoff game in franchise history. GET HYPED The Celtics took the floor to a hype video that began with the broadcast of Hayward's injury in the first quarter of the first game, at Cleveland. A variety of commentators predicted the team's demise, including Hall of Famer Charles Barkley saying: "Their season's over." As more players went down to injury -- including Irving, who came over from the Cavaliers last summer but was done for the season in March -- the prophesies grew even gloomier. But there the Celtics were, back in the Eastern Conference finals against the Cavaliers for the second year in a row -- with Hayward, Irving, Daniel Theis and Shane Larkin all injured and Stevens down to an eight-man rotation. It was more than they needed. Starting in place of Aron Baynes, Morris backed up his boast that he could cover James better than anyone except Kawhi Leonard. The Cavaliers star had seven of Cleveland's nine turnovers after accruing eight in the entire four-game, second-round sweep of the Raptors. "Our confidence level is very high," said Morris, who recorded the first postseason double-double of his career. "The younger guys to the older guys, we think we can compete and play with anybody. At the end of the day, all the talking is done off the court." FAST START Horford made his first seven shots and scored 10, including eight straight, during the 17-0 run that turned a three-point deficit into a 21-7 lead. After James wiggled his way to a layup -- Cleveland's first points in 4 minutes, 43 seconds -- Boston ran off eight more points in a row; Brown had six of them, and he finished the quarter with 13 points and five rebounds. Cleveland scored seven straight points early in the third and finished the quarter with six in a row to make it 78-64. But Boston made the first three baskets in the fourth and, after running off nine in a row to make it 96-68 with 7:09 left, the Cavs conceded. UP NEXT Game 2: Tuesday night, Boston.

Tiger Woods had a rough finish, but what a weekend it was. Woods fired a 3-under 69 on Sunday at the Players Championship to finish the week at 11 under. After making the cut on the number, he's currently in lie to tie for 11th. And for a moment Sunday, a win seemed possible as Woods (for a time) lit up TPC Sawgrass' Stadium Course again. While Woods' Saturday heroics (he shot 65 in Round 3) were the product of a hot start, the Sunday show was more of a slow burn. The day began sluggishly with a par-par start in a scoreable stretch. But the 14-time major champion then went to work. Woods drained a 15-footer for birdie at the par-3 third, nestled his second at the par-4 fourth to 4 feet and nestled in the putt and buried an 18-footer at the par-4 fifth for three straight birdies. He had quickly rocketed to a tie for fourth at 11 under. He couldn't get an 11-footer to drop at the par-4 sixth for a fourth straight birdie, and then Woods had to grind. He made a 7-footer for par at the par-4 seventh and rolled in a 6-footer for par at the par-3 eighth to keep the momentum. After his 7-footer for birdie fell at the par-5 ninth, he had gone out in 4-under 32. The start of the back nine brought a hint of a charge, even if it was brief. Woods pushed a 7-foot birdie effort at the par-4 10th, but he gave himself a tap-in birdie at the par-5 11th after nearly draining a 23-footer for eagle. He hit a pretty wedge to 4 feet at the par-4 12th and rolled in the putt. At that point, Woods had moved into a tie for second at 14 under and was within five. Moments later, Simpson would bogey and Woods was four back. The whiff of an incredible comeback was suddenly in the air as Woods was mounting a huge charge. The excitement would be short-lived. Simpson would birdie No. 11 to move back to 19 under. Woods launched a 354-yard drive down the difficult par-4 14th, but he spun a 111-yard wedge off the front of the green, putted up to 9 feet and lipped out that remainder for a demoralizing bogey. The swift move to six behind seemed to kill any of Woods' slim hopes of putting Simpson in the crosshairs. Then came the day's worst moment. Woods made a disappointing par at the par-5 16th and proceeded to dunk his tee shot in the water at the par-3 17th - as he came up woefully short. The deflating shot was followed by a nice recovery from the drop zone, but he couldn't coax in the 12-footer for bogey. It was a tough double bogey to take. He then missed a good look for birdie at the 18th, relegating him to a 3-under 69 in a round where he was 6 under with six to play. While a deflating finish, Woods can be proud of this weekend performance. There are still some kinks to work out on his finishes, but Woods is well on his way in this comeback.

Tesla says it doesn't know if the Autopilot feature was engaged on one of its sedans that crashed into the back of a fire department truck on a Utah roadway. The South Jordan Police Department says the Tesla Model S hit a fire department mechanic truck stopped at a red light Friday. Police say witnesses indicate the Tesla "did not brake prior to impact." The cause of the crash is under investigation. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla said Sunday it has not received any data from the car and "does not know the facts of what occurred," including whether the Autopilot was engaged. Police say the Tesla's driver suffered a broken right ankle and the driver of the Unified Fire Authority mechanic truck didn't require treatment. EARLIER: SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — A Tesla sedan with a semi-autonomous Autopilot feature rear-ended a fire department truck at 60 mph (97 kph) apparently without braking before impact, but police say it's unknown if the Autopilot feature was engaged. The cause of the Friday evening crash, involving a Tesla Model S and a fire department mechanic truck stopped at a red light, was under investigation, said police in South Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The crash, in which the Tesla driver was injured, comes as federal safety agencies investigate the performance of Tesla's semi-autonomous driving system. The Tesla's air bags were activated in the crash, South Jordan police Sgt. Samuel Winkler said Saturday. The Tesla's driver suffered a broken right ankle, and the driver of the Unified Fire Authority mechanic truck didn't require treatment, Winkler said. There was no indication the Tesla's driver was under the influence of any substance, and information on what the driver may have told investigators about the circumstances of the crash likely wouldn't be available before Monday, Winkler said by telephone. There was light rain falling and roads were wet when the crash occurred, police said in a statement. "Witnesses indicated the Tesla Model S did not brake prior to impact," the statement said. Tesla's Autopilot system uses cameras, radar and computers to keep speed, change lanes and automatically stop vehicles. The company, which is based in Palo Alto, California, and has a huge battery factory in the Reno, Nevada, area, tells drivers the system requires them to keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel so they can take control to avoid accidents. "Tesla has not yet received any data from the car and thus does not know the facts of what occurred, including whether Autopilot was engaged," a Tesla spokesperson said in a statement Sunday. Police said they had been in contact with the National Transportation Safety Board about the crash. NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said he didn't know whether the agency would get involved with the crash. The NTSB and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating at least two other crashes involving Tesla vehicles. In March, a Tesla Model X SUV crashed on a California highway, killing the driver, and investigators are looking into the performance of the semi-autonomous driving system in that crash.

Meghan McCain says she's still waiting for the public apology from the White House aide who joked about her father's brain cancer diagnosis. Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) daughter told ABC News on Sunday that White House staffer Kelly Sadler has not yet followed through on her reported promise to publicly apologize. The Hill reported Thursday that Sadler had brushed off the senator's opposition to President Trump's nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, by saying "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway." John McCain, 81, is currently in Arizona battling an aggressive form of brain cancer. Meghan McCain, who is a co-host on "The View," said that Sadler called her and her family on Thursday to apologize. "When I had a conversation with Kelly, I asked her to publicly apologize and she said she would," Meghan McCain said. "I have not spoken to her since and I assume that it will never come." Meghan McCain suggested on Friday that Sadler should be fired. "I don't understand what kind of environment you're working in when that would be acceptable and then you could come to work the next day and still have a job," Meghan McCain said. "And that's all I have to say about it." White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to address the issue during a press briefing on Friday, saying it was a staff matter. "I'm not going to validate a leak, one way or another, out of an internal staff meeting," Sanders said during her Friday press briefing as reporters peppered her with questions. Sanders declined to confirm or deny reports about a public apology from the White House during the briefing. The Hill has reached out to the White House on Sunday for a response to Meghan McCain's request. Sanders reportedly scolded her staff on Friday after Sadler's remark was leaked to the media. "I am sure this conversation is going to leak, too. And that's just disgusting," she said according to a report by Axios on Saturday.

The grand jury witnesses arrive one by one at the windowless room in the federal courthouse on Constitution Avenue in downtown Washington. They are struck first by how commonplace the setting feels — more classroom than courtroom, two witnesses said. One of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s prosecutors stands at a lectern. The jurors, diverse by age and ethnicity, are attentive and take notes. The questioning is polite yet aggressive, surprising witnesses with its precision and often accompanied by evidence — including text messages and emails — displayed on a large old-fashioned overhead projector. The investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which hits its one-year mark Thursday, has formed the cloudy backdrop of Donald Trump’s presidency — a rolling fog of controversy, much of it self-inflicted, that is a near-constant distraction for the commander in chief. Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today’s most popular stories on The Washington Post The Mueller operation, like the former Marine Corps platoon commander who leads it, is secretive and methodical. Ten blocks west in the White House, President Trump combats the probe with bluster, disarray and defiance as he scrambles for survival. The president vents to associates about the FBI raids on his personal attorney Michael Cohen — as often as “20 times a day,” in the estimation of one confidant — and they frequently listen in silence, knowing little they say will soothe him. Trump gripes that he needs better “TV lawyers” to defend him on cable news and is impatient to halt the “witch hunt” that he believes undermines his legitimacy as president. And he plots his battle plans with former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, his new legal consigliere. “We’re on the same wavelength,” Giuliani said. “We’ve gone from defense to offense.” The probe is a steaming locomotive, already delivering indictments or guilty pleas involving 19 people and three companies, while soliciting interviews with most of the president’s closest aides and outside associates. Players have departed, including most of Trump’s original legal team, while others have joined — including, most recently, Cohen, adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and her attorney, Michael Avenatti. “This has moved at a lightning speed,” said Christopher Ruddy, a Trump friend and chief executive of Newsmax. “They’re not messing around. They’re going very quickly. The number of indictments, pleas and other moves is just amazing. I think it will come to a head quicker than other investigations.” This portrait of the president and the special counsel investigation nearing its first anniversary is based on interviews with 22 White House and Justice Department officials, witnesses, Trump confidants and attorneys connected to the probe, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer candid assessments. “Everyone seems resigned to just buckle up and get through whatever we’ve got to get through for it to reach its conclusion,” one White House official said. Many Trump aides and associates say they are confident the president himself will ultimately be exonerated. But they privately express worries that the probe may yet ensnare more figures in Trump’s orbit, including family members. There is particularly worry about Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and a senior adviser. Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the election and connections to Trump’s campaign and associates already has resulted in a guilty plea from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is cooperating, and an indictment of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is scheduled to go on trial in Virginia in July and in Washington in September on conspiracy, bank fraud and tax fraud charges. The special counsel also is examining whether Trump obstructed justice in a variety of areas, from his request of then-FBI Director James B. Comey to drop the Flynn investigation to his firing of Comey to his role dictating a misleading statement on behalf of Donald Trump Jr. about his 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer. Mueller and his prosecutors are probing other areas as well, including the relationship between former Trump political adviser Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose organization released hacked Democratic Party emails, according to people familiar with the probe. The sprawling investigations amount to a political anchor as Trump leads the Republican Party into the fall midterm elections. Though few candidates see it as a decisive issue, the probe still sows doubt among some voters about the credibility of Trump’s election and about his conduct in office. Public opinion surveys have found wide support for the Mueller investigation. An April Washington Post-ABC News poll found 69 percent of Americans backing the probe and 25 percent opposing it, though other surveys this spring have shown a modest decline from earlier polls in support of continuing the investigation. Among the political class, there is a guessing game about whether the special counsel completes its work this summer — sufficiently in advance of the November elections — or presses well past it. The longer Mueller’s work continues, legal analysts said, the more difficult it may be for the special counsel to maintain public confidence, especially with Trump, Vice President Pence and other administration officials calling for the probe to wrap up. “You don’t have much longer than 18 months to 24 months to get to the heart of the matter and resolve the things that need to be resolved,” said Robert W. Ray, who served as independent counsel toward the end of the Whitewater investigation during the Clinton presidency. “That’s about the length of time that public sentiment is with the investigation.” The Mueller probe has also brought a national reckoning about the boundaries of presidential power. Trump is at war with the leadership of his own Justice Department and FBI, has threatened to defy a subpoena to testify, and even toyed with ordering the firing of Mueller. “We want to get the investigation over, done with,” Trump said last month. “Put it behind us.” ‘Like a classroom’ Mueller — the 73-year-old former FBI director with a hangdog visage and rigid bearing — looms over the investigation but is an intermittent presence in the windowless room in the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse. Three witnesses who described their experience of being subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury said Mueller was not present for their initial interviews, which instead were conducted by one of his prosecutors standing at a podium — peppering them with questions and presenting the case to members of the jury, who scribbled notes. The cramped room, complete with inelegant furniture, one witness said, “looked like a classroom from an underfunded junior college in the 1970s.” The range of witnesses Mueller has called in has been breathtaking. He has interviewed everyone from White House counsel Donald McGahn — at least twice — to Avi Berkowitz, the 29-year-old personal assistant to Kushner. One prominent witness who was called to appear in front of the grand jury recounted entering through a rear entrance, to avoid the press gathered at the front of the building. But another, former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, said he was not given that option and, regardless, preferred to enter and exit in full view of reporters. “If they had asked me to go through a back door, I would have said, ‘No, I prefer to see the paparazzi,’” he said, recalling the phalanx of cameras that swarmed him during his appearance in early March. Yet aside from a few witnesses who have shared glimpses of their experiences with Mueller’s team, the exact contours of the investigation remain opaque — even for Trump’s lawyers, who have been in regular contact with Mueller’s investigators. Only last week, for instance, did the public learn that Mueller had been probing payments made by Fortune 500 companies to Cohen since at least last fall. Mueller and his team seldom issue public statements and speak mainly through indictments and court filings. In pressing for an interview with Trump, investigators would not provide a written list of questions, which could increase the chances of a leak and constrain prosecutors in their inquiries. Instead, investigators verbally provided the president’s lawyers with only the subject areas that prosecutors wished to discuss. A Trump attorney then formulated a list of 49 potential questions the legal team believed Trump might be asked — a list that soon leaked to the New York Times. “The biggest challenge for the White House is that the special counsel is conducting an investigation properly, which is not commenting publicly, only making known its activities by virtue of bringing cases or executing legal process in a manner that is publicly observable,” said Jacob S. Frenkel, who worked in the independent counsel’s office in late 1990s. Even Giuliani, who said he was brought in to end the probe and initially predicted it would wrap up within two weeks, now seems uncertain of where Mueller’s investigation will conclude. © Provided by WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Giuliani met with Mueller five days after his hiring, on April 24, to try to understand issues ranging from the scope of a possible Trump interview to whether Mueller believes that Comey, whose firing by Trump triggered the probe, is a credible witness. “From our point of view, it’s a two-track possibility for what’s next,” Giuliani said, referring to the possibility that Trump may sit for an interview with Mueller or, if he refuses, that Mueller may subpoena him. “But we don’t know which track it’ll end up being.” ‘This Russia thing’ Few achievements make Trump more proud than the 306 electoral college votes he won on Nov. 8, 2016. The president relishes showing off a county-by-county map of the election results — the United States bathed in red — and giving visitors a tour of the trophy he inherited, the Oval Office. But every time he hears about “this Russia thing,” as he memorably phrased it in an NBC interview last year, he feels the legitimacy of his victory is under attack. He characterizes the Russia probe as a “hoax” orchestrated by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats — a reminder of the majority of voters who didn’t choose him and those who are eager to evict him. The only option, the president has said, is to hit back. “Let me tell you, folks, we’re all fighting battles,” Trump bellowed at the National Rifle Association annual convention earlier this month. “But I love fighting these battles.” It would be easy to interpret the president’s tweets — and even his behavior — as an admission of guilt. But Trump’s advisers and friends say he believes he has done nothing wrong. What some legal analysts call obstruction of justice, Trump’s associates call punching back. “His view is, ‘If I’m defending myself, you mean that’s obstructing justice?’ ” Giuliani said. “He’s right. He’s being president, but he’s not going to just sit there.” Ruddy, who often talks with Trump during the president’s getaways to his Mar-a-Lago estate, said he would counsel him to wall himself off and emotionally disconnect from the investigation. “People will say he’s acting like he’s guilty,” Ruddy said. “No. This is Donald Trump’s personality. He just has to respond. He’s been so emotional . . . It takes a toll on him, and the way he deals with it is to lash out.” Trump’s attacks on Mueller and his probe are also helping to undermine the investigation in the court of public opinion, and especially with the president’s base. “I don’t see any downside at this point for the president and his team to make a full-throated public defense of their situation,” said Mark Corallo, a former adviser on Trump’s legal team. “There are very few outside the Beltway who are in the we-need-to-prosecute-and-impeach-this-guy camp.” Giuliani’s hiring marked the latest stage of the Russia fight. Already, Trump’s legal team was in flux. Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer dealing with the probe, had repeatedly counseled Trump that if he cooperated fully it would be over soon — first by Thanksgiving, then by Christmas, then early in 2018. But Cobb is now exiting, to be replaced by Emmet Flood, one of Clinton’s former impeachment attorneys. Also gone is John Dowd, who had been Trump’s personal lawyer and grew frustrated with his difficult client. Trump liked Giuliani’s more aggressive approach, including his earlier television defenses of him. And the president, feeling increasingly isolated in the West Wing, with few true confidants on the staff, saw in Giuliani a loyal contemporary. But within the White House, Giuliani — who already has a strained relationship with Kelly — has created tensions with other senior staff members, in part over his frequent media appearances, which he does not coordinate with them. In a freestyling interview earlier this month with Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, Giuliani disclosed that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for a $130,000 payment to Daniels near the end of the 2016 campaign in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. The revelation drove headlines for days, frustrating the president, who told reporters that Giuliani was “a great guy” but needed to “get his facts straight.” But for now, Trump and Guiliani are inextricably bound. The two men huddled for five hours May 6 at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, Giuliani said, eating a Cobb salad (Giuliani) and a well-done burger (Trump) with half a bun in service to his health. “I do that, too, sometimes,” Giuliani said about the half-bun. “It’s a good way to do it.” That afternoon, the lawyer said he counseled his client to focus on his job as president and leave the legal matters to him. But Trump could not be restrained. The next day at 7:27 a.m., he fired off a presidential missive on Twitter: “The Russia Witch Hunt is rapidly losing credibility ...”

They sit in courtroom pews, almost all of them young black men, waiting their turn before a New York City judge to face a charge that no longer exists in some states: possessing marijuana. They tell of smoking in a housing project hallway, or of being in a car with a friend who was smoking, or of lighting up a Black & Mild cigar the police mistake for a blunt. There are many ways to be arrested on marijuana charges, but one pattern has remained true through years of piecemeal policy changes in New York: The primary targets are black and Hispanic people. Across the city, black people were arrested on low-level marijuana charges at eight times the rate of white, non-Hispanic people over the past three years, The New York Times found. Hispanic people were arrested at five times the rate of white people. In Manhattan, the gap is even starker: Black people there were arrested at 15 times the rate of white people. Sign Up For the Morning Briefing Newsletter With crime dropping and the Police Department under pressure to justify the number of low-level arrests it makes, a senior police official recently testified to lawmakers that there was a simple reason for the racial imbalance: More residents in predominately black and Hispanic neighborhoods were calling to complain about marijuana. An analysis by The Times found that fact did not fully explain the racial disparity. Instead, among neighborhoods where people called about marijuana at the same rate, the police almost always made arrests at a higher rate in the area with more black residents, The Times found. In Brooklyn, officers in the precinct covering Canarsie arrested people on marijuana possession charges at a rate more than four times as high as in the precinct that includes Greenpoint, despite residents calling 311, the city’s help line, and 911 to complain about marijuana at the same rate, police data show. The Canarsie precinct is 85 percent black. The Greenpoint precinct is 4 percent black. In Queens, the marijuana arrest rate is more than 10 times as high in the precinct covering Queens Village as it is in precinct that serves Forest Hills. Both got marijuana complaints at the same rate, but the Queens Village precinct is just over half black, while the one covering Forest Hills has a tiny portion of black residents. And in Manhattan, officers in a precinct covering a stretch of western Harlem make marijuana arrests at double the rate of their counterparts in a precinct covering the northern part of the Upper West Side. Both received complaints at the same rate, but the precinct covering western Harlem has double the percentage of black residents as the one that serves the Upper West Side. The Times’s analysis, combined with interviews with defendants facing marijuana charges, lawyers and police officers, paints a picture of uneven enforcement. In some neighborhoods, officers expected by their commanders to be assertive on the streets seize on the smell of marijuana and stop people who are smoking. In others, people smoke in public without fear of an officer passing by or stopping them. Black neighborhoods often contend with more violent crime, and the police often deploy extra officers there, which can lead to residents being exposed more to the police. “More cops in neighborhoods means they’re more likely to encounter somebody smoking,” said Jeffrey Fagan, a Columbia Law School professor who also advised The Times on its marijuana-arrest analysis. But more officers are historically assigned to black neighborhoods than would be expected based on crime rates, according to a study by Professor Fagan. And research has found “there is no good evidence” that marijuana arrests in New York City are associated with reductions in serious crime. Officers who catch someone smoking marijuana are legally able to stop and search that person and check for open warrants. Some defense lawyers and criminologists say those searches and warrant checks are the real impetus for enforcing marijuana laws more heavily in some neighborhoods. The analysis by The Times shows that at least some quality-of-life arrests have more to do with the Police Department’s strategies than with residents who call for help, undermining one of the arguments the police have used to defend mass enforcement of minor offenses in an era of declining serious crime. The analysis examined how marijuana arrests were related to the marijuana-complaint rate, race, violent-crime levels, the poverty rate and homeownership data in each precinct. It also considered the borough where an arrest took place to account for different policing practices across the city. The arrests represent cases in which the most serious charge against someone was low-level marijuana possession. Government surveys have shown that black and white people use marijuana at roughly the same rate. Marijuana smoke wafts down streets all over the city, from the brownstones in upper-middle-class areas of Manhattan to apartment buildings in working-class neighborhoods in other boroughs. Mayor Bill de Blasio said in late 2014 that the police would largely give summonses instead of making arrests for carrying personal marijuana, and reserve arrests mainly for smoking in public. Since then, the police have arrested 17,500 people for marijuana possession on average a year, down from about 26,000 people in 2014, and issued thousands of additional summonses. Overall, arrests have dropped sharply from their recent peak of more than 50,000 during some years under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. About 87 percent of those arrested in recent years have been black or Hispanic, a proportion that has remained roughly the same for decades, according to research led by Harry G. Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College. “What you have is people smoking weed in the same places in any neighborhood in the city,” said Scott Levy, a special counsel to the criminal defense practice at the Bronx Defenders, who has studied marijuana arrests. “It’s just those neighborhoods are patrolled very, very differently. And the people in those neighborhoods are seen very differently by the police.” Responding to The Times’s analysis, the Police Department said pockets of violent crime — and the heavier deployments that result — push up marijuana arrests in some neighborhoods. J. Peter Donald, an assistant commissioner in the department’s public information office, also said more people smoke in public in some neighborhoods than others, driving up arrests. He said 911 and 311 complaints about marijuana had increased in recent years. “N.Y.P.D. police officers enforce the law fairly and evenly, not only where and when they observe infractions but also in response to complaints from 911 and 311 calls, tenant associations, community councils and build-the-block meetings,” Mr. Donald said in a statement. Appearing before the City Council in February, Chief Dermot F. Shea said, “The remaining arrests that we make now are overlaid exactly in the parts of the city where we are receiving complaints from the public.” He asked, “What would you have the police do when people are calling?” Police data do show that neighborhoods with many black and Hispanic residents tend to generate more 311 and 911 complaints about marijuana. Criminal justice reform advocates said that is not because more people are smoking marijuana in those areas. Rather, people in poor neighborhoods call the police because they are less likely to have a responsive landlord, building superintendent or co-op board member who can field their complaints. Rory Lancman, a councilman from Queens who pressed police officials for the marijuana data at the February hearing, said with the police still arresting thousands of people for smoking amid a widespread push for reform, the police “blame it on the communities themselves because they’re the ones calling on us.” The city’s 77 precincts, led by commanders with their own enforcement priorities, show erratic arrest patterns. In Sunset Park, Brooklyn, for example, the police made more than twice as many marijuana arrests last year as in 2016, despite receiving roughly the same number of annual complaints. And in a precinct covering a section of northwestern Harlem, arrests dropped to 90 last year from almost 700 a year earlier, even though complaints fell only slightly from one year to the next. Criticism of marijuana arrests provided fuel for Mr. de Blasio’s campaign for mayor in 2013, when he won promising to “reverse the racial impact of low-level marijuana arrests.” The next year the new Brooklyn district attorney, Ken Thompson, defied the Police Department and said his office would stop prosecuting many low-level marijuana arrests. Yet the disparities remain. Black and Hispanic people are the main targets of arrests even in mostly white neighborhoods. In the precinct covering the southern part of the Upper West Side, for example, white residents outnumber their black and Hispanic neighbors by six to one, yet seven out of every 10 people charged with marijuana possession in the last three years are black or Hispanic, state data show. In the precinct covering Park Slope, Brooklyn, where a fifth of the residents are black or Hispanic, three-quarters of those arrested on marijuana charges are black or Hispanic. The question of how to address those disparities has divided Democratic politicians in New York. Cynthia Nixon, who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination for governor against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, has vowed to legalize marijuana and clear people’s arrest records. Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Cuomo have been reluctant to support the same measures. In Criminal Court in Brooklyn on a recent Monday, the people waiting in the crowded pews to be arraigned on marijuana charges were almost all black men. In interviews, some declined to give their full names for fear of compounding the consequences of their arrests. They had missed work or school, sometimes losing hundreds of dollars in wages, to show up in court — often twice, because paperwork was not ready the first time. Their cases were all dismissed so long as they stayed out of trouble for a stretch, an indication of what Scott Hechinger, a senior staff lawyer and director of policy at Brooklyn Defender Services, said was the low value the court system places on such cases. Eli, 18, said he had been smoking in a housing project hallway because his parents preferred him to keep it out of the apartment. Greg, 39, said he had not even been smoking himself, but was sitting in his car next to his wife, who he said smokes marijuana to relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. “They do it because that’s the easiest way to arrest you,” Greg said. Rashawn Nicol, 27, said officers found his female friend holding a lit blunt on a third-floor stairwell landing in a Brooklyn housing project. They backed off arresting her once she started crying, he said, but said they needed to bring their supervisor an arrest because he had radioed over a noise complaint. “Somebody’s got to go down for this,” Mr. Nicol said an officer told him. So they let her go, but arrested him. Several people asked why the police hound residents for small-time infractions like marijuana in more violent neighborhoods, but are slow to follow up about serious crimes. “The resources they waste for this are ridiculous,” Mr. Nicol said

PAHOA, Hawaii — A new fissure emitting steam and lava spatter spurred Hawaii officials to call for more evacuations on Sunday as residents braced for an expected eruption from the Kilauea volcano. The Hawaii County Civil Defense issued an alert after the fissure was discovered along a road west of a major highway on the Big Island. Residents on that road were told to evacuate, and two nearby community centers were serving as shelters for people and pets. The new opening was still showing signs of activity Sunday afternoon. Popping, exploding and sloshing sounds could be heard from the fissure as far as 1,500 yards (1,400 meters) away. But the behavior from the fissure was not terribly vigorous, the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said. "The appearance of the fissures in the past couple of days does not change the overall picture or concern," observatory scientist Steve Brantley said. "The amount of lava that has erupted from the fissure so far is very, very small." The fissure measures about 1,000 feet (300 meters) long. Brantley said it was emitting intermittent lava spatter but there was no substantial lava flow. The fissures, ground deformation and abundant volcanic gases indicate eruptions on the eastern flank of Kilauea are likely to continue. Most of the lava outbreaks have occurred in and around the Leilani Estates neighborhood, where molten rock has burst through the ground, destroying more than two dozen homes and resulting in evacuation orders for nearly 2,000 people. The U.S. Geological Survey has reported nearly 20 active fissures. One that opened Saturday night was spattering, but no flow had formed. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported the fissures opened just east of the Puna Geothermal Venture energy conversion plant, where steam and hot liquid are brought up through underground wells and the steam feeds a turbine generator to produce electricity. Plant workers last week as a precaution removed 50,000 gallons of a flammable gas stored at the site. Geologists warn that Kilauea's summit could have an explosive steam eruption that would hurl rocks and ash miles into the sky.

Islamic State, which has claimed the deadly knife attack in Paris this weekend, released a video on Sunday of a young man it claims was the attacker pledging allegiance to the jihadi group. The IS propaganda agency Amaq posted the video online using Telegram, featuring a young man wearing a hood with only his eyes exposed as the lower part of his face is covered by a black cloth. Speaking in French, he vows allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The attack in central Paris on Saturday night by a knifeman, later shot dead by police, left one person dead and four wounded. "The author of this knife attack in Paris is a soldier of the Islamic State and the operation had been carried out in retaliation against the states in the coalition," said a "security source" at Amaq, referring to the international forces including France which are fighting jihadists in Syria and Iraq. The attacker killed at the scene by French police has been identified as Khamzat Azimov, a 20-year-old French citizen born in Chechnya who had been on two watchlists for suspected Islamist extremism.