When Rocco Baldelli made the pitch to his team last month, imploring them to be more aggressive on the base paths, the Twins manager admits he didn’t know what would come of it. Three weeks later, he could safely say “it’s gone even better than I expected.”

One of the worst base-running teams in the majors over recent years, the Twins’ new style of play has catapulted them to among the best. Since Baldelli had this discussion with his team, the Twins have swiped 30 bases, second in the majors to just the New York Mets. Their baserunning runs above average is first in the majors in that time period, per FanGraphs.

While no individual game result holds all that much importance as the fourth-place Twins, who will return to Target Field to host the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, play out the rest of their season, there’s plenty within those individual games that does matter. Changing their style of play dramatically, for example, is something that will carry on well beyond the final few weeks of this season.

“It’s exciting to be able to showcase your speed or just baseball IQ, really, because you don’t have to have speed to steal bases,” third baseman Royce Lewis said. “It’s just having baseball IQ, knowing when to go, when to get a jump on a guy, on a pitcher, just paying attention to the game more.”

Lewis has seven stolen bases this season, a new career high. All but one have come since Baldelli’s talk with his team.

Everyone’s getting in on the action — it’s not just some of the team’s more traditional base-stealing threats such as Byron Buxton or Luke Keaschall. Right fielder Matt Wallner stole three stolen bases late last month in a span of two games.

“When you’ve got a guy like Wallner, who you’re obviously worried about when he’s in the box, now you have to worry about when he’s out of the box and that gives a lot more opportunity to guys that are in the box, now,” utilityman Austin Martin said. “(Pitchers are) putting the pressure on themselves, worried about the running game; then they make a mistake over the plate. So, it all correlates with each other. I’ve honestly been impressed with how well we’ve done it.”

And it goes beyond just stealing bases.

Baldelli has said multiple times that he wants his team to be the best at going from first to third in the game, for example. The Twins want players dialed in on how they can make smart and aggressive decisions on the bases. And sure, it may come with a few more outs on the bases, but it’s a learning process.

Implementing this style of play has helped players stay “more engaged in the game,” Martin said, as they become more reliant on their own instincts to make decisions on the bases rather than a sign from the dugout.

“It challenges them to think. It puts the onus on them,” Baldelli said. “(Giving) guys an opportunity and space to make decisions on their own has really brought out a lot of really good things.”

And, players say, it’s simply a more fun style of play.

“We’ve got the green light, and three weeks later we’re the best baserunning team in the league,” Martin said. “It just goes to show what we’ve had in the clubhouse and how it’s kind of been suppressed a little bit. Now that guys are playing with more free rein, just feeling like they’re allowed to just play the game their way, I think it’s showing a lot of production.”

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA, Associated Press

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The majority of a panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices on Thursday voted to convict former president Jair Bolsonaro of attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat, in a ruling that will deepen political divisions and likely prompt a backlash from the United States government.

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The far-right politician who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022 was found guilty on five counts by three members of a five-justice panel. The latest to rule was Cármen Lúcia on Thursday, a day after another justice, Luiz Fux, disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.

There is only one pending justice to vote.

Once all five justices have voted, the panel will decide on Bolsonaro’s sentence, which could amount to decades in prison. The 70-year-old former president is currently under house arrest.

His lawyers have said that they will appeal the verdict to the full Supreme Court of 11 justices.

Bolsonaro, who has denied any wrongdoing, has not attended the court and has sent his lawyers.

The trial has been followed by a divided society, with people backing the process against the former president, while others still support him. Some have taken to the streets to back the far-right leader.

Bolsonaro’s trial got renewed attention after U.S. President Donald Trump linked a 50% tariff on imported Brazilian goods to his ally’s legal situation, calling it a “ witch hunt.” Observers say the U.S. might announce new sanctions against Brazil after the trial, further straining their fragile diplomatic relations.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, said Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organization, and voted in favor of convicting him.

Despite his legal woes, Bolsonaro remains a powerful political player in Brazil.

The far-right politician had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a separate case. He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva next year.

The ruling may push Bolsonaro’s allied lawmakers to seek some amnesty for him through Congress.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

BRASILIA (AP) — Brazil ‘s Supreme Court is to deliver Thursday the final two votes by its justices on former President Jair Bolsonaro alleged coup attempt — votes that could send the far-right politician to prison within weeks and deeply impact the nation’s politics.

Three out of the five judges have voted so far, with the score 2-1 in favor of a guilty verdict on all five charges for the ally of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Justice Cármen Lúcia will be the first to vote. If she follows — as she has in the past — the ruling by the main judge in the case, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, she would tip the scales for Bolsonaro’s conviction. Justice Cristiano Zanin will be the last to vote.

The 70-year-old Bolsonaro faces accusations he attempted to illegally hang onto power after his 2022 electoral defeat to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Prosecutors charged Bolsonaro with a total of five charges, They include attempting to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, as well as being implicated in violence and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.

Since the trial began in 2023, Lúcia has followed de Moraes in almost every decision. Zanin, who is Lula’s former attorney, has also sided with de Moraes in most convictions so far, but disagreed with him on penalties he deemed too harsh for other participants in the coup plot.

Justice Luiz Fux on Wednesday disagreed with his two peers who voted a day earlier, on Tuesday, saying there was not enough evidence against Bolsonaro in any of the charges. Fux took more than 13 hours to explain his vote before the panel of justices — and despite what appeared to be upset looks from other justices, there were no challenges to his lengthy delivery.

On related issues, Fux ruled against two allies of the former president. He helped form a majority decision against former aid-de-camp Mauro Cid and former chief of staff Walter Braga Netto on the charge of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.

If Bolsonaro is found guilty, a full debate on sentencing is expected for Friday. After that, the embattled former leader could face increased pressure to pick a political heir to likely challenge Lula in the general elections next year. A conviction could also compel allied lawmakers to seek some amnesty for the former president through Congress.

In 2023, Brazil ’s top electoral court barred Bolsonaro from running in elections until 2030 over what the court said was his abuse of power.

Fux had previously also lobbied that the Supreme Court throw out the Bolsonaro case, arguing that it was not within its jurisdiction. That stance gives the far-right former leader a higher chance in a future appeal and also opens way for him to score political points with supporters.

Legal experts say the panel’s jurisprudence requires at least two dissenting votes in a trial like Bolsonaro’s so that he could appeal to the full, 11-justice Supreme Court.

Sá Pessoa reported from Sao Paulo.

By MAKIYA SEMINERA, AP Education Writer

A federal judge has issued a nationwide block on a Trump administration directive that prevented children in the U.S. illegally from enrolling in Head Start, a federally funded preschool program.

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Head Start associations in several states filed suit against the policy change by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The ruling by a federal judge in Washington state on Thursday comes after a coalition of 21 Democratic attorney generals succeeded in temporarily halting the policy’s implementation within their own states.

With the new ruling, the policy is now on hold across the country.

In July, HHS proposed a rule reinterpretation to disallow immigrants in the country illegally from receiving certain social services, including Head Start and other community health programs. Those programs were previously made accessible by a federal law in President Bill Clinton’s administration.

The change was part of a broader Trump administration effort to exclude people without legal status from accessing social services by making changes to federal eligibility rules.

Those immigrants would be barred from accessing the impacted programs because they would be reclassified as federal public benefits — an alteration that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said could disincentivize illegal immigration. People in the country unlawfully are largely ineligible for federal public benefits, which include food stamps and student loans.

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and BILL BARROW, Associated Press

Charlie Kirk began plotting a way to mold young minds into conservatism at an age when he was still sorting out his own path. Looking to channel his political inclinations into action after a rejection from West Point, Kirk was 18 when he launched a grassroots organization from an Illinois garage that would grow alongside the rise of President Donald Trump and fuel the “Make America Great Again” movement.

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Kirk admitted later he had “no money, no connections and no idea what I was doing” when he started Turning Point USA in 2012. But his rhetorical gifts for countering progressive ideas by inflaming cultural tensions and making provocative declarations instantly resonated with college audiences during the Obama years and Trump’s first presidency.

As video clips of his early campus appearances spread online, it helped him secure a steady stream of donations that transformed Turning Point into one of the country’s largest political organizations, attracting young people to star-studded gatherings and making it a presence at high schools and colleges around the country.

“No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump said on Wednesday after Kirk was assassinated while speaking at a college in Utah.

In the early stages, Kirk described his group as a student organization that advocated for free markets and limited government. He needled peers who bashed capitalism and backed presidential candidate and democratic socialist Bernie Sanders yet “shamelessly enjoy the fruits of the free market,” like Starbucks, Amazon and Netflix.

Over time, Turning Point began holding mass rallies that drew tens of thousands of young voters each year to hear top conservative leaders – Trump included – speaking on glitzy stages with massive screens, pyrotechnics and lighting shows befitting a stadium concert.

Alongside Turning Point’s growth, Kirk’s fame skyrocketed, and he leveraged his nonprofit, celebrity status and a successful podcast into considerable personal wealth.

It is not immediately clear who will lead Turning Point after Kirk’s death.

“You don’t replace a Charlie Kirk,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. “He was unique.”

FILE – Minnesota State University Mankato students applaud Charlie Kirk as he finished his speech at an event on Oct. 5, 2021, in Mankato, Minn. (AP Photo/Jackson Forderer, File)

Turning Point spreads conservative ideas across college campuses

Kirk’s bread-and-butter remained anchored on college campuses.

His final appearance Wednesday at Utah Valley University was the opening event of his latest series, titled the “American Comeback Tour.”

In his college stops, Kirk would often sit beneath a tent, as he was when he was shot. He was often behind his “Prove Me Wrong” table, where he held forth.

He mainly drew young conservatives — many sporting “Make America Great Again” hats — who said they often felt unwelcome or out of place at school. And he had hundreds of Turning Point employees and volunteers there to recruit students into becoming GOP voters and activists themselves.

The real draw, however, was Kirk arguing with students. He seemed to relish jeers when he had a less friendly audience.

Kirk frequently repeated Trump’s false claims that former Vice President Kamala Harris was directly responsible for all immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally. He called George Floyd, a Black man whose death by a Minneapolis police officer sparked a national debate over racial injustice, a “scumbag.”

He espoused culturally conservative views, advocating for gun rights, condemning abortion, holding up women as wives and mothers — and men as heads of households. And he mastered the art of the “what about?” retort, turning questions back on progressives and liberals who challenged him.

Kirk was sometimes kept away from schools. In 2018, Turning Point said a Chicago university denied requests for him to speak on their campus citing safety concerns, and a Florida high school would not allow him to speak to students two months after a teenager with an assault rifle had killed 17 people there.

Tommy Richardson, a 36-year-old from Mesa, Arizona, arrived at the Turning Point headquarters after Kirk’s death was announced. He praised Kirk as a charismatic leader who helped shape his generation of conservatives and “was a champion of everything we believe.”

“That’s a huge legacy that will have repercussions for the political landscape for decades to come,” he said.

FILE – From left, Republican National Committee deputy press secretary Raffi Williams, Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA, and Sen. Ben Sasse R-Neb., participate in a panel discussion in National Harbor, Md., Feb. 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Kirk helped mobilize youth for Trump

In 2024, Kirk used his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee to praise Trump as an economic master and argue that Gen Z voters could not afford another Democratic administration.

“Democrats have given hundreds of billions of dollars to illegals and foreign nations, while Gen Z has to pinch pennies just so that they can never own a home, never marry, and work until they die, childless,” he said.

Speaking directly to his generation, the multimillionaire influencer said, “You don’t have to stay poor. You don’t have to accept being worse off than your parents. You don’t have to support leaders who lied to you and took advantage of you for your vote.”

According to AP VoteCast, a survey of the 2024 electorate, 47% of voters aged 18-29 opted for Trump, while 51% went for Harris. But that was a much narrower gap than in 2020, when Joe Biden outpaced Trump 61% to 36%.

“I want to express my tremendous gratitude to Charlie Kirk. He’s really an amazing guy. Amazing guy. And his whole staff for their relentless efforts to achieve this very historic victory,” Trump said at a Turning Point gathering in Arizona last December.

Vice President JD Vance said Kirk’s influence continued past the inauguration.

“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance said on X late Wednesday. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”

FILE – Charlie Kirk, center, conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, speaks to supporters of President Donald Trump at a rally, Nov. 6, 2020, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

Young conservatives call him mentor and inspiration

Several young politicians and figures credit Kirk with inspiring or boosting their public careers.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he was one of the first “to believe in me.” When she ran for Congress from New Hampshire in 2022, Kirk endorsed her in the Republican primary. She lost the general election.

Kirk “believed in the potential and promise of young people,” she said. “He inspired millions of them to get involved in politics and fight for our nation’s conservative values.”

Vance said Kirk first reached out through a private message on Twitter after a Fox News appearance in 2017 when he was an author and not a politician. They became friends, and Kirk was one of the first people Vance called when he thought of running for the U.S. Senate in early 2021. Kirk introduced him to people who eventually ran his campaign — and to Donald Trump Jr.

“Don took a call from me because Charlie asked him too,” Vance posted on X.

Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican congresswoman, said Kirk recruited her as national Hispanic outreach director when she was planning to attend medical school.

“He’s part of the reason I’m in office right now,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said of Kirk from outside the Capitol Wednesday.

Kennedy Peterson, 20, was among the young people who came to Turning Point headquarters after Kirk’s death was announced Wednesday.

“From the day that he started with the Campus Victory Project, I think that his intentions were to create a world that he thought was better than what we have now,” Peterson said.

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Washington, and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix, contributed to this report.