WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on three boats accused of smuggling drugs in Latin American waters, killing 11 people in one of the deadliest days of the Trump administration’s monthslong campaign.

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The series of strikes conducted Monday brought the death toll to at least 145 people since the administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels since early September.

Like most of the military’s statements on the 42 known strikes, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. It said two vessels carrying four people each were struck in the eastern Pacific Ocean, while a third boat with three people was hit in the Caribbean Sea. The military did not provide evidence that the vessels were ferrying drugs but posted videos that showed boats being destroyed.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

There was no snow falling a year ago in downtown St. Paul on the afternoon of Feb. 21, yet Warroad goalie Payton Rolli found herself being pelted on the ice regardless.

Her Warriors were facing Orono in the semifinals of the Class A state tournament. The Spartans’ strategy for dethroning the three-time defending state champs from the west shore of Lake of the Woods was a simple one: Shoot the puck.

Over the course of three periods and three overtimes, Orono sent 62 pucks at Rolli, including 15 in the second overtime. She stopped 61 of them in what was, eventually, a 2-1 win. For Rolli, the workload was daunting.

“It just kept going. It was such a long game, and it didn’t seem like it was going to end soon at all,” Rolli said this week. “They scored the first goal, it took us a period to get another goal back, and then we were just back and forth throughout the whole game. It was a really good game, but I think all of us were really tired by the end.”

Rolli’s poise and reflexes in the marathon win caught the eye of more than one college scout in attendance that day. Her coach said any scout that didn’t make a few notes about Rolli after that show should maybe explore other employment.

“She was good,” said David Marvin, who has coached Warroad to five state titles, and will be seeking a fourth in the past five years this week in the program’s 11th straight trip to St. Paul. “In that game she stopped 61 out of 62, so Ray Charles would’ve noticed her. She caught everybody’s eye.”

Warroad opens the 2026 tournament with an 11 a.m. quarterfinal Wednesday versus Luverne at Grand Casino Arena.

Born in Wyoming, Rolli began playing goalie as a nine-year-old in Minot, N.D., with her father working in the oil business. The family moved to Warroad three years ago and Rolli backstopped the Warriors’ 2024 state title. She had already made recruiting visits to Maine and several schools in Boston, but opted to stay in-state and go to college in the place where her parents met after Minnesota Gophers coach Brad Frost made an offer.

“Her numbers are really, really good. We had watched her off and on, but certainly the state tournament last year was where she really kind of peaked our interest,” Frost said. “She is appropriately aggressive. She anticipates well. She’s not huge, but she’s not small, so she’s got good enough size. I think the biggest thing we’re looking forward to is to be playing at a higher level and being coached to see where she can get to.”

She will be the first Gopher from Warroad since 2005 Ms. Hockey winner Gigi Marvin.

Rolli arrives in St. Paul with a 1.26 goals against average and a .934 saves percentage after going 21-5-1 this season. She has 10 shutouts, including blanking Crookston and East Grand Forks in Warroad’s pair of Section 8A playoff wins, and is one of five finalists for the Jori Jones Award, which goes to the state’s top prep goalie.

On-ice hiccups have been rare for the Warriors this season, who last lost on Jan. 22 at Edina in a game that was scheduled for the Hockey Day Minnesota rink in Hastings, but was moved inside at the last minute due to frigid temperatures. Marvin said perhaps Rolli’s biggest asset is an ability to reset her mind and body quickly when things don’t go according to plan.

“Sometimes we score and sometimes we don’t, so it’s pretty good to get big saves until we can get something on the board,” Marvin said. “One thing I’ve always liked about Payton is that if something does beat her, she’s able to turn the page. She focuses and goes from there. So I feel pretty good about going to St. Paul this week with number one in our net.”

Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinals in St. Paul

No. 1 Warroad (21-5-1) vs. No. 8 Luverne (19-9), 11 a.m.

No. 4 Dodge County (20-6-1) vs. No. 5 Proctor/Hermantown (18-6-2), 1 p.m.

No. 2 Breck (25-1-1) vs. Saint Cloud (18-9), 6 p.m.

No. 3 Blake (21-6) vs. No. 6 Mankato East (24-2-1), 8 p.m.

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By SARA CLINE

NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) — As people head back to work Tuesday after the long holiday weekend, beads will be flying, crawfish boiling and parades rolling in New Orleans as the city celebrates Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, marks the climax and end of the weekslong Carnival season and a final chance for indulgence, feasting and revelry before the Christian Lent period of sacrifice and reflection. The joyous goodbye to Carnival always falls the day before Ash Wednesday.

Among the final parades in Louisiana’s most populous city, which is world-famous for its Mardi Gras bash, is one hosted by the Zulu Social Aide & Pleasure Club.

Marchers and float riders in the Zulu parade wear African-inspired garb and toss “throws” — trinkets that include plastic beads, candy, doubloons, stuffed animals, cups and toys. This parade’s signature “throw” is hand-decorated coconuts, coveted items that many revelers hope for.

Later in the day Rex, the King of Carnival parade will roll along St. Charles Avenue, lined by paradegoers and stately oak trees covered in Spanish moss and beads.

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Carnival events are popular for their spectacular and enormous floats, and also the intricately crafted outfits worn, such as Black masking Indians, whose beaded and bejeweled costumes are topped with feathered headdresses, or paradegoers walking the French Quarter in homemade costumes that capture the unique spirit of the Big Easy.

The good times will roll not just in New Orleans but all across the state, from exclusive balls to the Cajun French tradition of the Courir de Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday Run — a rural event in Central Louisiana featuring costumed participants performing, begging for ingredients and chasing after live chickens to be cooked in a communal gumbo.

Parades are also held in other Gulf Coast cities such as Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, and there are other world-renowned celebrations in Brazil and Europe.

By WILL GRAVES, AP National Writer

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin likes to invoke the adage from tennis great Billie Jean King that “pressure is a privilege.” Even if, at times, it doesn’t quite feel like it.

And it might not at the moment for the American skiing star as she prepares for her third and final race at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

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Shiffrin heads into Wednesday’s slalom still looking for her first medal at Tofane and her first Olympic medal in a staggering eight years. A bafflingly slow performance in the slalom during women’s combined last week cost Shiffrin and teammate Breezy Johnson a spot on the podium.

The winningest ski racer in history felt faster and more confident during the giant slalom a few days later, with her 11th-place finish more a testament to what she described as the “greatest show” GS had put on in quite some time than her actual performance. Shiffrin was just three-tenths of a second off the podium, a razor-thin margin in an event where the time gap between the winners and the rest of the field is usually far greater.

Shiffrin’s meticulous preparation for her signature discipline — she’s already wrapped up a record ninth World Cup series title in slalom with two races remaining — included reacclimating herself to the singular rhythm of an event where tempo is everything.

You’d think after 71 slalom wins — including seven this year alone — that would be no big deal. At this point in the 30-year-old’s career, it’s not.

“No matter how many runs of slalom I do it never gets easier,” said Shiffrin, who collected her first Olympic gold in the event as a teenager in Sochi a dozen years ago. “It only gets like you become more aware of how challenging it is.”

And that’s just the physical part. The mental side is another matter entirely.

United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin visualizes the course ahead of the second run of an alpine ski, women’s giant slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

Shiffrin carries the burden of expectations that are part of the deal — fairly or unfairly — when you cut and paste your name all over your sport’s record book. She has been characteristically transparent while discussing wrangling with those expectations, even though in many ways they’re well outside of her control.

She arrived in the Dolomite Mountains confident those forgettable days in Beijing four years ago, when she failed to medal in any of the six events she entered, were behind her. The uncharacteristically slow run in the women’s combined left her mystified and subdued. The aggressiveness she displayed in the GS left her upbeat and optimistic.

Still, when she stands in the starter’s house during the final women’s alpine race of these Olympics, the standard set for her will be different from everyone else, including reigning gold medalist Petra Vlhova of Slovakia.

“I can imagine what she’s feeling right now,” Vlhova said. “But … she’s strong and I believe she can make it. It takes a lot of energy but I believe that she can do it.”

Vlhova has taken her own winding path back to this moment. She shredded multiple ligaments in her right knee in January 2024 and didn’t return to competition until the women’s combined on Feb. 10. She didn’t finish her run, but it also, in a way, didn’t matter as she hits what she described as the “restart” button.

During Vlhova’s absence, Shiffrin has cemented her legacy. Her career World Cup wins in all disciplines currently stands at 108 and counting, including eight in her last nine slalom starts dating to the end of last season.

United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin at the finish area of an alpine ski, women’s giant slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

She is, by every measure, the best skier in the field. Yet the course is a little flatter and perhaps a little easier than what they usually encounter. There’s a very real chance things could be just as tight on Wednesday as they were during the GS. Maybe even closer.

It means Shiffrin’s margin for error during her two runs might be smaller than usual, and she knows it. Her run in the women’s combined, when she was 15th, her worst ranking in a slalom race she’s started and finished since 2012, caught her off guard.

A dedicated student of her craft, Shiffrin believes her skis got misaligned a few times. The flat light on a gray afternoon played a factor, too. So did a mentality that she admitted didn’t match the moment, something she’ll try to address as she aims to end her fourth trip to the Olympics on an up note.

“I’m kind of going into it with my eyes open that we can see a very similar situation and I will try to handle it differently in my head,” she said.

Such is the challenge that is unique to this once-every-four-years spectacle. There is little debate that Shiffrin is the Greatest of All Time. Her struggles under this specific spotlight, however, have put her in a strange and perhaps unenviable spot.

She has tried to handle it with grace. U.S. Skiing and Snowboarding president Sophie Goldschmidt called Shiffrin “the ultimate role model” and, even as she grappled with how a spot on the podium in the combined got away, she made it a point to give longtime teammates Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan their flowers after earning their first Olympic medals.

Whatever happens, those who know Shiffrin well believe she will leave it all out there. If she does that she can make peace with the result, whatever it may be.

“She has a lot of experience,” Vlhova said. “She knows how to deal with it and as I said, I believe that she can make it.”

AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed to this story.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics