By DARLENE SUPERVILLE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to take a seat at Wednesday’s opening night of the award-winning musical “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center, where he replaced the previous leadership with loyalists, had himself installed as chairman and pledged to rid the performing arts venue of programming he has complained is “woke” and too focused on leftist ideology and political correctness.

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The Republican president’s attendance at the sold-out showing of the Tony Award-winning tale of redemption in 19th century France comes as he has focused more than any recent predecessor on the arts center along the Potomac River that is a memorial to a slain Democratic president.

Presidents’ involvement in the Kennedy Center’s affairs had been limited to naming members to the board of trustees and attending the taping of its annual honors program in the fall.

But after returning to office in January, Trump stunned the arts world by firing the Kennedy Center’s longtime director and board and replacing them with loyalists, who then named him as chairman, and promising to overhaul its programming, management and even appearance as part of an effort to put his stamp on the national arts scene.

Trump’s appearance in the Opera House on Wednesday, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, will also mark his first time at a Kennedy Center performance as president. He avoided the venue after entertainment industry pushback to his policies in his first term in office, breaking with presidential tradition by never attending the annual Kennedy Center Honors taping.

His moves have upset some of the center’s patrons and performers.

In March, the audience booed Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, after they slipped into upper-level seats in the Concert Hall to hear the National Symphony Orchestra. Trump appointed Usha Vance to the Kennedy Center board along with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Fox News Channel hosts Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham, among other supporters.

Sales of subscription packages are said to have declined since Trump’s takeover, and several touring productions, including “Hamilton,” have canceled planned runs at the center. Artists such as actor Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens scrapped scheduled appearances, and Kennedy Center consultants including musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming have resigned.

Understudies may perform Wednesday night due to boycotts by “Les Misérables” cast members.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has adopted a more aggressive posture toward the arts. The White House has taken steps to cancel millions of dollars in previously awarded federal humanities grants to arts and culture groups, and Trump’s budget blueprint proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Trump has also targeted Smithsonian museums by signing executive orders to restrict their funding and by attempting to fire the director of the National Portrait Gallery.

Trump hosted the board at the White House for dinner in May and said congressional Republicans have pushed for more than $250 million for repairs and maintenance at the Kennedy Center. He claimed that “tremendous amounts of money” had been spent at the center but “they certainly didn’t spend it on wallpaper, carpet or painting.”

He characterized previous programming as “out of control with rampant political propaganda” and said it featured “some very inappropriate shows,” including a “Marxist anti-police performance” and “Lesbian-only Shakespeare.”

Trump cited some drag show performances as a reason to take control of the center, though next season’s theater lineup includes ”Mrs. Doubtfire,” which tells the story of a divorced man who disguises himself as a female nanny so he can spend time with his children.

Trump also visited the Kennedy Center in March to preside over a board meeting and take a tour.

The Kennedy Center, which is supported by government money and private donations, opened in 1971 and for decades has been seen as an apolitical celebration of the arts.

It was first conceived in the late 1950s, during the administration of Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, who backed a bill from the Democratic-led Congress calling for a National Culture Center. In the early 1960s, Democratic President John F. Kennedy launched a fundraising initiative, and his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed into law a 1964 bill renaming the project the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Kennedy had been assassinated the year before.

By ISABELLA O’MALLEY

Human-caused climate change boosted Iceland and Greenland ’s temperatures by several degrees during a record-setting May heat wave, raising concerns about the far-reaching implications melting Arctic ice has for weather around the world, scientists said in an analysis released Wednesday.

The Greenland ice sheet melted many times faster than normal during the heat wave, according to the analysis by World Weather Attribution, with at least two communities seeing record temperatures for May. Parts of Iceland saw temperatures more than 18 °F above average, and the country set a record for its warmest temperature in May when Egilsstadir Airport hit 79.9 F on May 15.

The findings come as global leaders put more focus on Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments that he would like to annex the mineral-rich island.

Burning fossil fuels for electricity and transportation releases pollutants such as carbon dioxide that cause the planet to warm unnaturally fast. The Arctic is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth.

Even in today’s climate, the occurrence of such a strong heat wave in the region is relatively rare, with a 1% chance of occurring in a year, the analysis said. But without human-caused climate change, such an event would be “basically impossible,” said Friederike Otto, associate professor of climate science at Imperial College London, one of the report’s authors.

The extreme heat was 40 times more likely compared to the pre-industrial climate.

Global impacts from a melting Arctic

Otto said this extreme weather event affects the world.

As the Greenland ice sheet melts, it releases massive amounts of fresh water into the salty oceans. Scientists say this could slow down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, an ocean current that circulates water from the Gulf of Mexico across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe and then the Arctic.

Such a slowdown could disturb global climate and weather patterns.

“The nature of weather in the Northern Hemisphere is directly tied to what’s happening in the Arctic, because that ice floor basically at the bottom of the atmosphere helps determine the weather patterns that we get,” said Waleed Abdalati, who heads an environmental sciences institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. He was not involved in the WWA analysis.

The Greenland ice sheet and other ice covering the Arctic can influence where and when wind blows, how much water content the wind has and whether precipitation falls as rain or snow.

Most of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet happens in June, July and August. The May heat wave means there will be a longer melting season this year.

Melting ice sheets and glaciers also contribute to sea level rise that is threatening to flood coastlines globally and inundate low-lying island nations in the Pacific Ocean.

Indigenous communities in Greenland are increasingly encountering dangerous travel conditions as sea ice that was once constantly frozen begins to thaw. Access to traditional hunting locations are lost, and sled dogs can no longer travel the same routes. Thawing permafrost can destabilize buildings and increases the risk of landslides and tsunamis caused by landslides.

Greenland dismisses interest from U.S.

Greenland was recently thrust onto the global stage with Trump’s interest in annexing it. The Arctic island is rich with oil, gas and rare earth minerals, and its proximity to the U.S., Russia and Europe has geopolitical appeal.

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Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has said Greenland “will never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by just anyone.”

Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, said it is essential that Greenlanders lead decisions about their territory. “Certainly an important part of this conversation is about climate change and climate impacts,” she said. She was not involved in the WWA analysis.

Moon said the climate impacts Greenland is experiencing, particularly the warming global temperatures, stem from well-identified sources such as highly polluting nations and industries. She said actions such as converting to solar or wind energy and switching to transportation that emits less pollution create positive climate impacts for people far away.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By BEN FINLEY

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — James McDonough served in the U.S. Army for 27 years, fighting in Vietnam and delivering humanitarian aid to Rwanda. For him, Saturday’s military parade in Washington for the Army’s 250th anniversary — coinciding with President Donald Trump’s birthday — is about the resilience of a vital institution and the nation it serves.

“The soldiers marching that day represent all of that history,” said McDonough, 78, of Crofton, Maryland. “They don’t represent a single day. They don’t represent a single person. It’s the American Army still standing straight, walking tall, ready to defend our country.”

Christopher Purdy, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, called the parade a facade that paints over some of the Republican president’s policies that have targeted military veterans and current service members, including cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a ban on transgender troops.

Purdy said the parade, long sought by Trump, will needlessly display U.S. military might on the president’s 79th birthday.

“It’s embarrassing,” said Purdy, 40, of Atlanta. “It’s expensive. And whatever his reasons are for doing it, I think it’s entirely unnecessary.”

Until recently, the Army’s long-planned birthday celebration did not include a big parade. Added under the Trump administration, the event, featuring hundreds of military vehicles and aircraft and thousands of soldiers, has divided veterans.

Some liken it to the military chest-pounding commonly seen in North Korea, a step toward authoritarianism or a perverse birthday party for Trump.

Others see it as a once-in-a-lifetime accounting of the Army’s achievements and the military service of millions of soldiers over centuries. The parade is not about Trump, they say, but the public seeing the faces of soldiers when so few Americans serve.

The Army expects up to 200,000 people could attend and says the parade will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million.

Trump, speaking at Fort Bragg this week, said Saturday would be “a big day” and noted “we want to show off a little bit.”

“We’re going to celebrate our greatness and our achievements,” he said. “This week, we honor 250 years of valor and glory and triumph by the greatest fighting force ever to walk the face of the Earth: the United States Army.”

‘Divisive politics have ruined it’

For Edmundo Eugenio Martinez Jr., an Army veteran who fought in Iraq, the parade is a missed opportunity to honor generations of veterans, many of whom paid a steep price and came home to little fanfare.

“Sadly, the timing and the optics and divisive politics have ruined it,” said Martinez, 48, of Katy, Texas. “And I’m not picking one side or the other. Both sides are guilty.”

‘It’s just suspicious’

Joe Plenzler, a retired Marine who fought in Iraq, said Trump wants to see troops saluting him on his birthday as tanks roll past.

“It’s just suspicious,” the 53-year-old from Middletown, Virginia, said of the timing.

“I absolutely love the Army from the bottom of my cold black Marine heart,” he said. “But if the Army’s birthday was a day later, we probably wouldn’t be doing it. I’d rather see that $50 million take care of the men and women who went off to war and came back with missing arms, legs and eyeballs, and with damaged brains.”

‘Part of American culture’

Joe Kmiech, who served in the Army and Minnesota National Guard from 1989 to 1998, supports the parade because the Army is “part of American culture and our fabric.”

He notes the Army’s pioneering contributions to engineering and medicine, from dams to new surgical techniques. Like many veterans, he has a strong familial connection: His father served in the Army, and so did his maternal grandfather, who fought in World War II.

“I didn’t vote for President Trump, but the commander in chief is going to be part of that celebration,” said Kmiech, 54, of Roberts, Wisconsin. “The distinction needs to be made that the parade is a celebration of our Army, not of a person.”

‘Stroking Trump’s ego’

For Gulf War Army veteran Paul Sullivan, Trump and the parade are inextricably linked.

“This Trump tank travesty is all about stroking Trump’s ego,” said Sullivan, 62, who lives outside Charlottesville, Virginia. “If Trump truly cared about our service members, he would sit down with them quietly and say, ‘What can we do with $50 million or $100 million to make your lives better?’ He’s not.”

‘We are a great nation’

McDonough, the veteran from Crofton, Maryland, disagrees that the parade is about Trump or too costly. He said the U.S. held a grand celebration in New York after World War II when the nation was deeply in debt.

“We certainly need to bring our debt down, and we certainly need to take care of our veterans,” he said. “But it’s a false dichotomy. It’s like saying if we bought two less aircraft carriers, we could do so much better to take care of our poor.”

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And McDonough said soldiers’ oath is to the Constitution, not to Trump.

The president “understands the importance of doing this, not only for the Army, but for the nation,” McDonough said.

‘A real dark turn’

Purdy, the veteran from Atlanta, said the parade’s brazen flex of military strength is not an American tradition, particularly absent a recent victory.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t celebrate the country,” he said. “But for us to be projecting this type of hard power, in such a real in-your-face way, that’s just not who we are.”

Trump is brushing aside old alliances and foreign aid that have helped maintain peace for decades, Purdy asserted.

“It signals a real dark turn if we’re just going to roll out the tanks,” Purdy said.

‘People are the Army’

Michael Nardotti, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said military hardware has long been in American parades, which can help recruitment.

More important, he said, is the tremendous value in the public seeing soldiers’ faces in a parade when active-duty troops make up less than 1% of the population.

“’People are the Army,’” said Nardotti, 78, of Aldie, Virginia, quoting a former Army chief of staff.

Nardotti said he’ll listen carefully to Trump’s speech.

“I hope it sends the right message,” he said.

By JENNIFER PELTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors in Harvey Weinstein’ssex crimes retrial are drilling down on one of the three charges against him: a rape accusation from a woman who also said she had a consensual relationship with him.

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The seven female and five male jurors started their fifth day of deliberations Wednesday by re-hearing Jessica Mann’s testimony that he raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

Mann’s accusation was an apparent focus of Tuesday’s deliberations, and the jury ended the day by asking to be re-read her testimony about what happened between her and Weinstein at the hotel. The group also indicated it wanted to continue privately reviewing her emails with Weinstein and some 2017 medical records concerning her reaction to news accounts of other women’s allegations against him.

Some jurors appeared to take fresh notes Wednesday, while others sat impassively as court stenographers read aloud the requested parts of Mann’s days-long testimony. The jury had already reheard some of the passages last week.

Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty to raping Mann and to forcing oral sex on two other women, Mimi Haley and Kaja Sokola. The Oscar-winning producer and former Hollywood powerbroker maintains that he never sexually assaulted or raped anyone, and his lawyers portrayed his accusers as opportunists who accepted his advances because they wanted a leg up in the entertainment world.

While all three women stayed in contact with Weinstein despite what they say were assaults, Mann had a particularly complex history with him. She testified that they had a consensual relationship that exploded into rape, yet continued afterward.

Weinstein was one of the movie industry’s most powerful figures until a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him became public in 2017, fueling the #MeToo movement and eventually leading to criminal charges.

He originally was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann and forcing oral sex on Haley. Sokola’s allegation was added last year, after New York state’s highest court overturned the 2020 conviction and sent the case back for retrial. Meanwhile, Weinstein is appealing a 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles.

After a couple of days of apparent interpersonal friction, the retrial jury worked through Tuesday with no further complaints.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Sokola, Mann and Haley have agreed to be named.