By AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he will sell F-35 advanced fighter jets to Saudi Arabia on the eve of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Washington visit, as he praised the kingdom for its long partnership with the United States.

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“I will say that that we will be doing that,” Trump said when asked if he would sell the jets to Saudi Arabia. “We’ll be selling F-35s.”

The crown prince, who is set to make a White House visit Tuesday, had been expected to arrive with a wish list that includes receiving formal assurances from Trump defining the scope of the U.S. military protection for the kingdom and an agreement to buy U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets, one of the world’s most advanced aircraft.

The Republican administration, however, has been wary about upsetting Israel’s “qualitative military advantage” over its neighbors, especially at a time when Trump is depending on Israeli support for the success of his Gaza peace plan.

Another long-standing concern, which also derailed a potential similar sale to the United Arab Emirates, is that the F-35 technology could be stolen by or somehow transferred to China, which has close ties to both the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

A long-time Twin, a lifelong Twins fan and the son of one of the Twins’ greatest managers of all time are three of the new coaches on Derek Shelton’s first staff at the helm of the Twins.

The 12-man coaching staff, which features a mix of returning coaches and newcomers, feels like his own, Shelton said Monday as he enthused about how the group came together “better than any group I imagined.”

“It was very encouraging that we highlighted and targeted a group of people and we were damn near spot on,” he said.

Shelton himself is the first manager that the Twins have hired with previous major league managerial experience since Gene Mauch in the mid-70s. Alongside him will be new bench coach Mark Hallberg, who spent the past six seasons on the San Francisco Giants’ coaching staff.

Hallberg spent his childhood in the Middle East — he was born in Saudi Arabia — as his parents worked in international schools. But despite living so far away, his Twins roots run deep. His grandfather took Hallberg’s father, Monti, to the 1965 World Series. And in 1991, as a young child in Saudi Arabia, he remembers waking up early to watch the Twins battle the Atlanta Braves in the Fall Classic.

The family would travel back and spend their summers in Wisconsin, and Hallberg attended Barron High School about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis. After college, he returned to Wisconsin and earned a Masters of Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in health and human performance from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

“The amount of passion, pride and humility I’m going to approach each day with when I walk in, just like I would do anywhere, but when it’s that connected to your home and where you grew up and helped shape you … this means a lot to me,” Hallberg said. “I’m going to give my best every single day.”

The Twins also added Mike Rabelo as assistant bench coach. Rabelo is the only coach Shelton brought with him from his time in Pittsburgh, noting he thought it was important to add someone to the staff that he had prior experience with.

St Paul Saints manager Toby Gardenhire against the Indianapolis Indians at CHS Field in St. Paul, Tuesday April 12, 2022. (Craig Lassig / Special to the Pioneer Press)

He also said he felt strongly about adding someone who would be familiar to the group and was impressed during the interview process by Toby Gardenhire, who had previously served as the Triple-A Saints’ manager, and his ideas for what he thought was going well and how the Twins could improve. Gardenhire will serve as the major league field coordinator.

“He has relationships with our young players, and we’re going to be a young group,” Shelton said. “He’s someone I’m going to be able to lean on.”

Another newcomer that Shelton has experience with is bullpen coach LaTroy Hawkins, who had a 21-year-playing career, the first nine of which were spent in Minnesota. Most recently, Hawkins had been serving as a special assistant in the organization while also appearing on the team’s television broadcast. He now joins returning pitching coaches Pete Maki and Luis Ramirez.

“It’s been really impressive … his willingness to learn and grow and how he has embraced all the new things and is applying them with the other experiences he had,” Shelton said.

Shelton said he targeted Hawkins and Grady Sizemore, who played for the Cleveland Indians when Shelton was a hitting coach, “right off the bat” because it was important to him to add coaches with major league playing experience.

Sizemore comes to the Twins after spending the past two couple of years with the Chicago White Sox, serving as their offensive coordinator last year after a brief stint as their interim manager in 2024. Sizemore will be the Twins’ first-base coach and work with the outfielders while Ramon Borrego will move from first base to third base and will continue to coach the infielders.

On the hitting side, the Twins have brought in Keith Beauregard from Detroit to work with assistants Trevor Amicone and Rayden Sierra. Shelton praised his energy, passion and his ability to break down swings and relate to players. Beauregard is the Twins’ third new lead hitting coach in as many years.

“My belief is to meet guys where they’re at individually and speak their language,” Beauregard said. “Our goal as a staff is to help these guys identify and build a profile that matches who they are.”

Shelton said he learned from his experience building a staff in Pittsburgh and this time around, he said, his staff has more diversity in terms of skill set and experience as the Twins.

“(I’m) really excited about this group,” Shelton said. “It’s diverse. It is thoughtful. It’s a learning group, and I think Twins fans are really going to grow to like this group of coaches.”

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By DYLAN LOVAN, Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice is arguing that a former Louisville police officer convicted of using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid should be let out of prison while he appeals his conviction.

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Federal prosecutors filed a brief Friday before the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, arguing that Brett Hankison should not be in prison. The same prosecutors asked the trial judge ahead of Hankison’s July sentencing to give him no prison time, but that request was denied and Hankison was sentenced to 33 months in prison.

Hankison, a former detective, became the first officer involved in the March 2020 raid to be convicted on criminal charges. But new prosecutors brought in by the Trump administration earlier this year sought leniency for Hankison, an about-face after the DOJ spent years prosecuting him through two trials.

Hankison, 49, is serving the sentence at a federal prison in New Jersey. His release date is February 2028, according to online records.

In the new filing, prosecutors argued that the trial jury struggled with the excessive force charge against Hankison, making a prison sentence “unwarranted.”

Hankison fired 10 shots into the windows of Taylor’s apartment the night of the deadly raid, but didn’t hit anyone. Some of his shots flew into a neighboring apartment, nearly striking two people inside. Prosecutors said at trial his shots also came close to a fellow officer.

At his sentencing in July, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings rebuffed the DOJ’s request for no prison time, saying the Justice Department treated Hankison’s actions as “an inconsequential crime.”

The former officer’s first federal trial on excessive force charges ended in a mistrial in 2023, and he was acquitted of state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.

Two other officers shot Taylor as they returned fire, after Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire when police broke down the door. Hankison was behind the officers and when the shooting started, he ran to the side of the apartment and fired through the windows.

Hankison said at trial he was trying to protect his fellow officers, who he believed were coming under fire from someone inside with a rifle.

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ’s veneer of political invulnerability has begun to crack as he struggles to find his footing on Americans’ concerns about affordability and fails to extinguish a push by renegade Republicans to release more files from the Jeffrey Epstein case.

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The twin challenges, coming shortly after Democratic victories in recent elections and before next year’s midterm campaigns that will determine control of Congress, represent a sobering situation for a president who has reveled in his unrivaled dominance in Washington.

He has overhauled the federal government with brute force, deployed troops in cities around the country, ignored concerns about the legality of military operations and launched remodeling projects like a gilded ballroom attached to the White House.

But Trump’s aggressive approach to his second term does not undo political realities, such as dissatisfaction with the economy that festers despite inflation that’s lower than during President Joe Biden’s term. Trump is expected to address the issue at a conference on Monday night.

In addition, there’s the inescapable fact that the president is a lame duck who is constitutionally prohibited from running again, despite his interest in remaining in office.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has frequently angered Trump, reminded his party about this on Sunday as he urged lawmakers to support legislation that would force the Justice Department to publish documents about Epstein.

“I would remind my Republican colleagues who are deciding how to vote — Donald Trump can protect you in red districts right now by giving you an endorsement,” Massie said on ABC News. “But in 2030, he’s not going to be the president, and you will have voted to protect pedophiles if you don’t vote to release these files, and the president can’t protect you then.”

The Epstein files have been a pressure point

Epstein, who died by suicide several years ago, was a convicted sex offender infamous for his connections to wealthy and powerful people, making him a fixture of outrage and conspiracy theories about wrongdoing among American elites.

Trump has opposed the Epstein bill in the House, describing it as a continuation of investigations that have shadowed him for years, until he abruptly reversed course on Sunday, saying “it’s time to move on” from the issue by announcing his support for the vote.

It was an acknowledgement that Trump had suffered a rare defeat in the Republican-controlled Congress, where party members have been reluctant to curtail his authority.

Even as he strains to impose his will on Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whom he split with over the weekend, Trump also is trying to stave off potential losses in next year’s midterms. If Democrats take control of Congress, they will be empowered to block Trump’s agenda and investigate his administration.

He’s been pushing state leaders to redraw congressional districts to improve his party’s chances. On Monday, he stewed that Indiana Republicans weren’t toeing his line, and he announced that he would endorse primary challenges against any lawmaker who doesn’t support redistricting.

“We must keep the Majority at all costs,” Trump wrote on social media. “Republicans must fight back!”

Voter concerns about the cost of living loom large

Holding the line will most likely require addressing Americans’ economic concerns, which have sometimes taken a backseat to Trump’s focus on establishing a foreign policy legacy and scaling up immigration enforcement.

Trump conceded Sunday night that some consumer costs are “a little bit higher.” Addressing affordability has prompted Trump to partially backtrack on tariffs, a core part of his economic agenda. His administration reduced levies on imports of products like coffee, beef and tropical fruit, an implicit concession that tariffs have increased costs despite the president’s promises to the contrary.

The president has also proposed a $2,000 dividend, funded by tariff revenue, for all Americans except for the rich. But there’s no guarantee that Congress will go along with the idea when the federal government continues to struggle with debt, and sending cash to people could increase the inflation that Trump has pledged to eliminate.

Democrats swept elections in New Jersey, Virginia and elsewhere this month, a sign of discontent with Trump’s handling of the economy.

Neil Newhouse, a longtime Republican pollster, said Democratic victories weren’t surprising but “what got our attention was the depth and the breadth of the wins.”

He warned that his party risks making the same mistakes as Democratic President Joe Biden, who oversaw high inflation while attempting to convince voters that the problem would soon pass.

“We can tell them prices are going down until we’re blue in the face,” Newhouse said. “Unless they’re seeing it at the grocery stores, it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference.”