Judge weighs request to withhold investigation records in deaths of Gene Hackman and wife

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SANTA FE, N.M. — A New Mexico court is weighing whether to block the disclosure of an array of records from an investigation into the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, at the request of the couple’s estate.

Santa Fe-based Judge Matthew Wilson scheduled a hearing Monday to consider a request from estate representative Julia Peters to seal photos, video and documents to protect the family’s constitutional right to privacy. The court put a temporary hold on the release of records pending the hearing.

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The partially mummified remains of Hackman and Arakawa were found in their Santa Fe home on Feb. 26, when maintenance and security workers showed up at the home and alerted police. Authorities have confirmed Hackman, 95, died of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer’s disease about a week after his wife’s death. Hackman may have been unaware Arakawa, 65, was dead.

Her cause of death was listed as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is a rare, rodent-borne disease.

New Mexico’s open records law blocks public access to sensitive images, including depictions of dead bodies. Experts also say some medical information is not considered public record under the state Inspection of Public Records Act.

Peters has emphasized the possibly shocking nature of photographs and video in the investigation and potential for their dissemination by media in the bid to block them from being released.

The Hackman family estate’s lawsuit also seeks to block the release of autopsy reports by the Office of the Medical Investigator and death investigation reports by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

The bulk of death investigations by law enforcement and autopsy reports by medical investigators are typically considered public records under state law in the spirit of ensuring government transparency and accountability.

Authorities unraveled the mysterious circumstances of the couple’s deaths and described their conclusions at a March 7 news conference without releasing most related written and photographic records.

One of the couple’s three dogs, a kelpie mix named Zinna, also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa. Two other dogs survived.

The written request to seal the records notes the couple placed “a significant value on their privacy and took affirmative vigilant steps” to safeguard it during their lives, including after they moved to Santa Fe and Hackman retired. The state capital is known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.

Arakawa had no children, while Hackman is survived by three children from a previous marriage. Privacy likely also will play a role as the couple’s estate is settled. According to probate court documents, Hackman signed an updated will in 2005 leaving his estate to his wife, while the will she signed that same year directed her estate to him. With both of them dying, management of the estate is in Peters’ hands.

A request is pending to appoint a trustee to administer assets in two trusts associated with the estate. Without trust documents being made public, it’s unclear who the beneficiaries are and how the assets will be divided.

Attorneys who specialize in estate planning in New Mexico say it’s possible more details could come out if there were any legal disputes over the assets. Even then, they said, the parties likely would ask the court to seal the documents.

Trump finds fault with both Putin and Zelenskyy as he tries to push for deal to end war in Ukraine

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By CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday, expressing frustration with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders as he struggles to forge a truce to end the war.

Although Trump insisted to reporters that “we’re making a lot of progress,” he acknowledged that “there’s tremendous hatred” between the two men, a fresh indication that negotiations may not produce the swift conclusion that he promised during the campaign.

Trump began voicing his criticisms in an early morning interview with NBC News while he was at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. He said he was “angry, pissed off” that Putin questioned Zelenskyy’s credibility.

The Russian leader recently said that Zelenskyy lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal and suggested that Ukraine needed external governance.

Trump said he would consider adding new sanctions on Russia, which already faces steep financial penalties, and using tariffs to undermine its oil exports.

The Republican president rarely criticizes Putin, and he’s previously attacked Zelenskyy’s credibility himself. For example, Trump has suggested that Ukraine caused the war that began with a Russian invasion three years ago, and he’s insisted that Zelenskyy should hold elections even though it’s illegal under Ukraine’s constitution to do so during martial law.

On his flight back to Washington on Sunday evening, Trump reiterated his annoyance toward Putin but somewhat softened his tone.

“I don’t think he’s going to go back on his word,” he said. “I’ve known him for a long time. We’ve always gotten along well.”

Asked when he wanted Russia to agree to a ceasefire, Trump said there was a “psychological deadline.”

“If I think they’re tapping us along, I will not be happy about it,” he said.

Trump soon pivoted to criticize Zelenskyy.

“He’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal, ” Trump said, referring to negotiations over U.S. access to critical minerals in Ukraine. “And if he does that he’s got some problems. Big, big problems.”

Trump and Zelenskyy were supposed to sign the deal when the Ukrainian leader visited the White House. However, their meeting ended with acrimony that played out in front of television cameras in the Oval Office.

Trump suggested on Sunday that Zelenskyy wanted to “renegotiate the deal” to get better security guarantees.

“He wants to be a member of NATO,” he said. “Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that.”

The U.S. has been pushing for a comprehensive ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine to peacefully end their 3-year-old war.

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting, and the feasibility of a partial ceasefire on the Black Sea was thrown into doubt after Kremlin negotiators imposed far-reaching conditions.

Trump’s comments on Putin come after weeks of intense pressure on Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire.

Russian drones hit Ukraine’s 2nd largest city Kharkiv

Meanwhile, Russian drones hit a military hospital, shopping center and apartment blocks in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, killing two people and wounding dozens.

Ukraine’s General Staff denounced the “deliberate, targeted shelling” of the military hospital late Saturday. Among the casualties were service members who were undergoing treatment, it said. Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said those killed were a 67-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman.

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According to Ukrainian government and military analysts, Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize pressure on Kyiv and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in ceasefire talks.

Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia fired 111 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Sunday. It said 65 of them were intercepted and another 35 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

Zelenskyy said Sunday that over the past week “most regions of Ukraine” came under Russian attack. Writing on X, he said “1,310 Russian guided aerial bombs, over 1,000 attack drones — mostly ‘Shaheds’ — and nine missiles of various types, including ballistic ones” had been launched against Ukraine.

Zelenskyy also repeated his assertion that “Russia is dragging out the war,” echoing comments he made Thursday in Paris that Russia is prolonging ceasefire talks “just to buy time and then try to grab more land.”

Russia’s Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, said its air defense systems shot down six Ukrainian drones. It also claimed Sunday that its troops had taken control of a village in Ukraine’s partly occupied Donetsk region. The Russian claim could not be independently verified, and Ukraine did not comment.

With reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president

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By CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.

He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”

The 22nd Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

Any attempt to remain in office would be legally suspect and it is unclear how seriously Trump might pursue the idea. The comments nonetheless were an extraordinary reflection of the desire to maintain power by a president who had violated democratic traditions four years ago when he tried to overturn the election he lost to Biden.

“This is yet another escalation in his clear effort to take over the government and dismantle our democracy,” said a statement from Rep. Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat who served as lead counsel for Trump’s first impeachment. “If Congressional Republicans believe in the Constitution, they will go on the record opposing Trump’s ambitions for a third term.”

Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist who runs the right-wing “War Room” podcast, called for the president to run again during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.

“We want Trump in ’28,” he said.

Kayla Thompson, a 30-year-old former paralegal in Wisconsin, said she would “absolutely” like Trump to serve another term.

“America needs him. America is headed in the right direction and, if he doesn’t do it, we’re probably headed backwards,” said Thompson, who was attending a campaign event Sunday with Elon Musk in Green Bay for a state Supreme Court race.

Jeremy Paul, a constitutional law professor at Boston’s Northeastern University, said “there are no credible legal arguments for him to run for a third term.”

NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump if one potential avenue to a third term was having Vice President JD Vance run for the top job and “then pass the baton to you.”

“Well, that’s one,” Trump responded. “But there are others too. There are others.”

“Can you tell me another?” Welker asked.

“No,” Trump replied.

Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

Derek Muller, a professor of election law at Notre Dame, noted that the 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804, says “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”

Muller said that indicates that if Trump is not eligible to run for president again because of the 22nd Amendment, he is not eligible to run for vice president, either.

“I don’t think there’s any ‘one weird trick’ to getting around presidential term limits,” Muller said.

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In addition, pursuing a third term would require extraordinary acquiescence by federal and state officials, not to mention the courts and voters themselves.

He suggested that Trump is talking about a third term for political reasons to “show as much strength as possible.”

“A lame-duck president like Donald Trump has every incentive in the world to make it seem like he’s not a lame duck,” he said.

Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, was asked whether he would want to keep serving in “the toughest job in the country” at that point.

“Well, I like working,” the president said.

Trump suggested that Americans would go along with a third term because of his popularity. He falsely claimed to have “the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years.”

Gallup data shows President George W. Bush reaching a 90% approval rating after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His father, President George H.W. Bush, hit 89% following the Gulf War in 1991.

Trump has maxed out at 47% in Gallup data during his second term, despite claiming to be “in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls.”

Trump has mused before about serving longer than two terms before, generally with jokes to friendly audiences.

“Am I allowed to run again?” he said during a House Republican retreat in January.

Representatives for the congressional leadership — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York — did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the AP.

Associated Press writers Tom Beaumont in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.

Global shares slump and gold hits a record high as investors fret over tariffs

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By JUNZHE JIANG, Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — Global shares slumped on Monday, with benchmarks in Tokyo and Taiwan falling more than 4%, while the price of gold hit a record high, trading at $3,154 an ounce.

Investors have pulled back and sought traditional safe havens like gold as worries build over a potentially toxic mix of worsening inflation and a slowing U.S. economy because households are afraid to spend due to the deepening trade war that has escalated under U.S. President Donald Trump.

The future for the S&P 500 sank 1%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7%.

European markets opened lower. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 1% to 8,576.54, and France’s CAC 40 declined 1.1% to 7,829.09.

Germany’s DAX fell 1.1% to 22,222.99.

Thailand’s SET lost 1.3% after a powerful earthquake centered in Myanmar rattled the region, causing widespread destruction in the country, also known as Burma, and less damage in places like Bangkok.

Shares in Italian Thai Development, developer of a partially built 30-story high-rise office building under construction that collapsed, tumbled 27%. Thai officials said they are investigating the cause of the disaster, which left dozens of construction workers missing.

Stock markets worldwide appear shaky as a Wednesday deadline approaches for more tariffs. Trump has dubbed it “Liberation Day,” when he will roll out tariffs tailored to each of the United States’ trading partners.

Many of the countries that run trade surpluses with the U.S. and depend heavily on export manufacturing are in Asia, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

“Asia is ground zero. Of the 21 countries under USTR (U.S. Trade Representative) scrutiny, nine are in Asia,” he noted.

Tokyo’s benchmark fell 4.1% to 35,617.56, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 1.3% to 23,119.58.

The Shanghai Composite index declined 0.5% to 3,335.75.

In South Korea, the Kospi fell 3% to 2,481.12, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 sank 1.7%, closing at 7,843.40.

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 4.2%.

On Friday, the S&P 500 dropped 2% to 5,580.94, for one of its worst days in the last two years. It was its fifth losing week in the last six.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 715 points, or 1.7%, to 41,583.90, and the Nasdaq composite fell 2.7% to 17,322.99.

Lululemon Athletica led the market lower with a drop of 14.2%, even though the seller of athletic apparel reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Oxford Industries, the company behind the Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer brands, likewise reported stronger results for the latest quarter than expected but still saw its stock fall 5.7%.

One of the main worries hitting Wall Street is that President Donald Trump’s escalating tariffs may cause U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending. Even if the tariffs end up being less painful than feared, all the uncertainty may filter into changed behaviors that hurt the economy.

A report Friday showed all types of U.S. consumers are growing more pessimistic about their future finances. Two out of three expect unemployment to worsen in the year ahead, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. That’s the highest reading since 2009, and it raises worries about a job market that’s been a linchpin keeping the U.S. economy solid.

A separate report also raised concerns after it showed a widely followed, underlying measure of inflation was a touch worse last month than economists expected.

The Fed could return to cutting interest rates, like it was doing late last year, in order to give the economy and financial markets a boost. But such cuts would also push upward on inflation, which has been sticking above the Fed’s 2% target.

The economy and job market have been holding up so far, but if they were to weaken while inflation stays high, it would produce a worst-case scenario called “stagflation.” Policy makers in Washington have few good tools to fix it.

In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil added 44 cents to $69.80 per barrel. Brent crude oil gained 46 cents to $73.22 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar fell to 149.13 Japanese yen from 149.84 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.0830.