When you are driving, it only takes one second of taking your eyes off the road and glancing at your phone for a tragedy to happen, law enforcement officials said on the heels of a distracted driving campaign in Minnesota.

“Everybody thinks it will just take a second to look at their phone and it’s no big deal and they’ve done it a hundred times and nothing bad has happened — but we have seen crashes that happen in an instant and not only alters the drivers life but the lives of everyone around them,” said St. Paul Police Cmdr. Jeremy Ellison.

After law enforcement agencies across the state joined together in April to target distracted drivers, more than 6,000 citations were given, according to the state Department of Public Safety’s Office of Traffic Safety.

The St. Paul Police Department gave out 1,326 of those, far more than the agency with the next highest number, the Minnesota State Patrol’s west metro district, which gave out 329.

“We are not out to write tickets, we’re out to save lives. But if drivers won’t take safety seriously, enforcement becomes necessary.” said Mike Hanson, director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “Every time you take your eyes off the road, you’re gambling with your life and the lives of others around you. No text, no call is worth a tragedy.”

In St. Paul, the police department worked to let the public know they were targeting distracted driving by posting videos on their Facebook page to alert the community about their efforts and by discussing the campaign at regularly scheduled community meetings, Ellison said.

During the campaign, St. Paul police placed spotters on the sides of roads looking for drivers using cell phones. When they spotted a distracted driver, they notified officers in squad cars, who pulled the drivers over.

The department also used a special vehicle from the state, a pickup that has cameras on the sides to capture video evidence of drivers using their cell phones, Ellison said.

During the campaign, one driver was stopped twice in 10 minutes for a hands-free cell phone violation.

The 32-year-old man was stopped on April 22 at Seventh Street and Bates Avenue and then seven minutes later cited again at Seventh Street and Payne Avenue, about a mile down the road, Ellison said.

In another instance, while traffic was stopped from congestion, the driver in a vehicle next to a St. Paul law enforcement officer was using her phone. The officer turned on his squad car lights and approached the driver who was still intently looking at her phone. She was startled to see the officer near her and was cited for the hands-free cell phone law.

In March, a 17-year-old was driving down Shepard Road in St. Paul when her phone dinged and she looked down. “In that instant, a pedestrian stepped into the roadway,” Ellison said. “Thankfully it was not a fatality but it had a big impact on her and the pedestrian. She felt terrible that it happened. That’s an example of everything seems to be fine and in an instant you look down and things change and tragedy strikes.”

In 2024, at least 29 fatalities and 137 serious injuries were attributed to distracted driving, state officials said. One in 11 crashes last year were due to distracted driving.

“It’s 100 percent preventable,” Ellison said. “Those text messages and changing the music or using GPS driving in hand, those are all things that can wait or should be done ahead of time before driving. We really need people to put their phones down.”

Minnesota hands-free cell phone law

“Hands-free” means you can’t hold you phone in your hand while driving.

The law allows a driver to use a cell phone to make calls, text, listen to music or podcasts and get directions, but only by voice commands or single-touch activation without holding the phone.

Accessing social media, streaming videos or Googling information on a device while driving are against the law in Minnesota, even in hands-free mode.

Visit HandsFreeMN.org for more information about the law.

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By KEVIN FREKING, LISA MASCARO and LEAH ASKARINAM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans narrowly advanced President Donald Trump’s big tax cuts package out of a key committee during a rare Sunday night vote, but just barely, as conservative holdouts are demanding quicker cuts to Medicaid and green energy programs before giving their full support.

Speaker Mike Johnson met with Republican lawmakers shortly before the meeting and acknowledged to reporters that there are still details to “iron out.” He said some changes were being made, but declined to provide details.

It’s all setting up a difficult week ahead for the GOP leadership racing toward a Memorial Day deadline, a week away, to pass the package from the House. The Budget Committee, which just days ago failed to advance the package when four conservative Republicans objected, was able to do so Sunday on a vote of 17-16, with the four hold-outs voting “present” to allow it to move ahead, as talks continue.

“The bill does not yet meet the moment,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leader of the House Freedom Caucus, in a social media post immediately after the late-night session. “We can and must do better before we pass the final product.”

The path ahead for Johnson is unclear as he tries to hold his narrow House majority together to pass the president’s top domestic priority of extending the tax breaks while pumping in money for border security and deportations — all while cutting spending.

FILE – Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump dances at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Republicans criticizing the measure argued that the bill’s new spending and the tax cuts are front-loaded in the bill, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded. In particular, they are looking to speed up the new work requirements that Republicans want to enact for able-bodied participants in Medicaid.

Johnson indicated he wants to impose the the work requirements “as soon as possible” but acknowledged it may take states longer to change their systems. Those requirements would not kick in until 2029 under the current bill.

“There will be more details to iron out and several more to take care of,” Johnson, R-La., said outside the hearing room.

“But I’m looking forward to very thoughtful discussions, very productive discussions over the next few days, and I’m absolutely convinced we’re going to get this in final form and pass it.”

More talks are ahead, but Johnson is looking to put the bill on the House floor before the end of the week.

Democrats have decried the cuts Republicans are proposing to Medicaid and food stamps to offset the costs of the tax breaks.

“This spending bill is terrible, and I think the American people know that,” Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., told CNN’s “State of the Union″ on Sunday. “There is nothing wrong with us bringing the government in balance. But there is a problem when that balance comes on the back of working men and women. And that’s what is happening here.”

The first time that Republicans tried advancing the bill out of the House Budget Committee last week, the deficit hawks joined with Democratic lawmakers in voting against reporting the measure to the full House.

Those same four Republicans — Roy and Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia — cast their “present” votes Sunday.

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Norman pointed to a recent downgrade of the nation’s credit rating in making his arguments for steeper reductions.

“We’ve got a lot more work to do,” Norman said. “We’re excited about what we did. We want to move the bill forward.”

At its core, the sprawling legislative package permanently extends the existing income tax cuts that were approved during Trump’s first term in 2017 and adds temporary new ones that the president campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay and auto loan interest payments. The measure also proposes big spending increases for border security and defense.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3 trillion to the debt over the next decade.

Johnson is not just having to address the concerns of the deficit hawks in his party. He’s also facing pressure from centrists who will be warily eyeing the proposed changes to Medicaid, food assistance programs and the rolling back of clean energy tax credits. Republican lawmakers from New York and elsewhere are also demanding a much larger state and local tax deduction.

As it stands, the bill proposes tripling what’s currently a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction, increasing it to $30,000 for joint filers with incomes up to $400,000 a year.

Rep. Nick LaLota, one of the New York lawmakers leading the effort to lift the cap, said they have proposed a deduction of $62,000 for single filers and $124,000 for joint filers.

Rep. Jodey Arrington, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said the bill remained under negotiation.

“Deliberations continue at this very moment,” Arrington said. “They will continue on into the week, and I suspect right up until the time we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House.”

If the bill passes the House this week, it would then move to the Senate, where Republican lawmakers are also eyeing changes that could make final passage in the House more difficult.

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is hoping separate phone calls Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make progress toward a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

Trump expressed his hopes for a “productive day” Monday — and a ceasefire — in a social media post over the weekend. His effort will also include calls to NATO leaders.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to the media on Monday that Putin and Trump will speak at 5 p.m. Moscow time (1400 GMT), about 10 a.m. Eastern, and called the conversation “important, given the talks that took place in Istanbul” last week between Russian and Ukrainian officials, the first such negotiations since March 2022.

Trump has struggled to end a war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and that makes these conversations a serious test of his reputation as a dealmaker after having claimed he would quickly settle the conflict once he was back in the White House, if not even before he took office.

The Republican president is banking on the idea that his force of personality and personal history with Putin will be enough to break any impasse over a pause in the fighting.

“His sensibilities are that he’s got to get on the phone with President Putin, and that is going to clear up some of the logjam and get us to the place that we need to get to,” said Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff. “I think it’s going to be a very successful call.”

Trump’s frustration builds over failure to end war

Still, there are fears that Trump has an affinity for Putin that could put Ukraine at a disadvantage with any agreements engineered by the U.S. government.

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Bridget Brink said she resigned last month as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine “because the policy since the beginning of the administration was to put pressure on the victim Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia.”

Brink said the sign that she needed to depart was an Oval Office meeting in February where Trump and his team openly berated Zelenskyy for not being sufficiently deferential to them.

“I believe that peace at any price is not peace at all,” Brink said. “It’s appeasement and as we know from history, appeasement only leads to more war.”

Trump’s frustration about the war had been building before his post Saturday on Truth Social about the coming calls, which he said would begin first with Putin at 10 a.m. Monday.

Trump said his discussion with Putin would focus on stopping the “bloodbath” of the war. It also will cover trade, a sign that Trump might be seeking to use financial incentives to broker some kind of agreement after Russia’s invasion led to severe sanctions by the United States and its allies that have steadily eroded Moscow’s ability to grow.

Trump’s hope, according to the post, is that “a war that should have never happened will end.”

His treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump had made it clear that a failure by Putin to negotiate “in good faith” could lead to additional sanctions against Russia.

Bessent suggested the sanctions that began during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden were inadequate because they did not stop Russia’s oil revenues, due to concerns that doing so would increase U.S. prices. The United States sought to cap Russia’s oil revenues while preserving the country’s petroleum exports to limit the damage from the inflation that the war produced.

No ceasefire but an exchange of prisoners

Putin recently rejected an offer by Zelenskyy to meet in-person in Turkey as an alternative to a 30-day ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including Washington.

Those talks ended on Friday after less than two hours, without a ceasefire in place. Still, both countries committed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, with Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, saying on Ukrainian television Saturday that the exchanges could happen as early as this week.

While wrapping up his four-day trip to the Middle East, Trump said on Friday that Putin had not gone to Turkey because Trump himself wasn’t there.

“He and I will meet, and I think we’ll solve it or maybe not,” Trump told reporters after boarding Air Force One. “At least we’ll know. And if we don’t solve it, it’ll be very interesting.”

Zelenskyy met with Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, and top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Rome on Sunday, as well as European leaders, intensifying his efforts before the Monday calls.

Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelenskyy, left, and Vice President JD Vance greet each other as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, looks on ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s formal inauguration of his pontificate with a Mass in St. Peter’s Square attended by heads of state, royalty and ordinary faithful, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The Ukrainian president said on the social media site X that during his talks with the American officials, they discussed the negotiations in Turkey and that “the Russians sent a low level delegation of non-decision-makers.” He also said he stressed that Ukraine is engaged in ”real diplomacy” to have a ceasefire.

“We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange,” Zelenskyy said. “Pressure is needed against Russia until they are eager to stop the war.”

The German government said Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French, British and Italian leaders spoke with Trump late Sunday about the situation in Ukraine and his upcoming call with Putin. A brief statement gave no details of the conversation, but said the plan is for the exchange to be continued directly after the Trump-Putin call.

In a post on X about the conversation, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Putin on Monday “must show he wants peace by accepting the 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and backed by Ukraine and Europe.”

The push came as the Kremlin launched its largest drone barrage against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, firing a total of 273 exploding drones and decoys, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. The attacks targeted the country’s Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

Witkoff spoke Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” and Brink appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

By JIANG JUNZHE, Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — Global shares fell Monday and U.S. futures and the dollar also weakened after Moody’s Ratings downgraded the sovereign credit rating for the United States because of its failure to stem a rising tide of debt.

The future for the S&P 500 lost 1.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8%. The U.S. dollar slipped to 144.92 Japanese yen from 145.65 yen. The euro advanced to $1.1254 from $1.1183.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury was at about 4.54%, up from 4.44% late Friday.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX retreated 0.1% to 23,733.96 while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.5% to 7,851.46.

Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.5% to 8,643.23.

Chinese markets fell after the government said retail sales rose 5.1% in April from a year earlier, less than expected. Growth in industrial output slowed to 6.1% year-on-year from 7.7% in March.

That could mean rising inventories if production outpaces demand even more than it already does. But it also may reflect some of the shipping boom before some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods took effect.

“After an improvement in March, China’s economy looks to have slowed again last month, with firms and households turning more cautious due to the trade war,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.1% to 23,332.72 and the Shanghai Composite Index was nearly unchanged at 3,367.58.

E-commerce giant Alibaba’s shares in Hong Kong skidded 3.4% following a report that U.S. officials are scrutinizing a potential Apple-Alibaba deal to integrate AI features into iPhones in China.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gave up 0.7% to 37,498.63 while the Kospi in Seoul dropped 0.9% to 2,603.43.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.6% to 8,295.10.

Taiwan’s Taiex was 1.5% lower.

In oil trading early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 47 cents to $61.50 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 50 cents to $64.91 per barrel.

Wall Street cruised to a strong finish last week as U.S. stocks glided closer to the all-time high they set just a few months earlier, though it may feel like an economic era ago.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7%. It has rallied to within 3% of its record set in February after it briefly dropped roughly 20% below it last month.

Gains have been driven by hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs against other countries after reaching trade deals with them.

The Dow industrials added 0.8% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

Trump’s trade war sent financial markets reeling because they could slow the economy and drive it into a recession, while also pushing inflation higher.

This week featured some encouraging news on each of those fronts. The United States and China announced a 90-day stand-down in most of their punishing tariffs against each other, while a couple of reports on inflation in the United States came in better than economists expected.

That uncertainty has been hitting U.S. households and businesses, raising worries that they may freeze their spending and long-term plans. The latest reading in a survey of U.S. consumers by the University of Michigan showed sentiment soured again in May, though the pace of decline wasn’t as bad as in prior months.

Charter Communications rose 1.8% after it said Friday that it has agreed to merge with Cox Communications in a deal that would combine two of the country’s largest cable companies.

Hope remains that this week’s better-than-expected signals on inflation could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to cut interest rates later this year if high tariffs drag down the U.S. economy.