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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — As he seeks to retain his U.S. Senate seat this fall, Ohio Republican Jon Husted has been unable to escape the shadow of a $60 million bribery scandal that has roiled state politics for more than five years. Husted was recently called to testify as a defense witness in the related criminal trial of two former energy executives, testimony he might have to reprise after a hung jury led to a mistrial in the case in March. A judge in Akron scheduled the retrial to begin Sept. 28, meaning Husted could be back on the witness stand a week before early voting begins for the November elections. The former lieutenant governor and Ohio secretary of state has never been charged with or accused of any wrongdoing. But the vast public record that has emerged from the scandal has raised questions about Husted’s dealings with key players who have been indicted or imprisoned in the scheme, which revolved around legislative approval of a $1 billion bailout for the state’s two nuclear power plants. It’s too early to know whether Husted’s association with the trial will be a political liability for the first-term senator, who in the fall is expected to face Sherrod Brown, a Democrat ousted from the Senate in 2024. In a potential sign of concern, Senate Republicans’ main super political action committee, the Senate Leadership Fund, recently announced plans to spend $79 million on Husted’s behalf. That’s roughly one-quarter of its planned national spending in eight tightly contested Senate races. Asked in 2022 what role he played in the bailout legislation, known as House Bill 6, Husted answered, “None.” He has reiterated that stance many times since, even as evidence disclosed in the case has raised questions about his involvement. Husted calendars that came to light during the recent trial involving executives for the utility, Akron-based FirstEnergy, showed a number of additional meetings or phone calls that he had with former CEO Chuck Jones, with the state’s former top utility regulator, who has since died, and with then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. They formed the triangle of influence at the heart of scheme as laid out by federal prosecutors. Husted’s calendars were obtained by the Ohio Capital Journal through a public records request and have been reviewed by The Associated Press. Jones and former FirstEnergy lobbyist Michael Dowling were charged for their alleged roles in the bribery scandal and will be retried in the fall. Householder is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2023 of orchestrating the scheme, which FirstEnergy has admitted to underwriting. The interactions noted in Husted’s calendars were around the time the bailout bill was being developed and passed. Evidence presented in various cases showed Jones and Dowling discussing a push by Husted for additional subsidies in the legislation. Husted has consistently denied that he played a role in creating the legislation as well as having any knowledge of criminal activity surrounding the bill. In an NBC4 interview in January, Husted said, “My role was very clear. I wanted the nuclear power plants to remain operational.” He said it was “about keeping those plants open and keeping the lights on for millions of Ohioans.” In June 2019, Jones texted Dowling screenshots of a conversation he had with Householder that suggested Husted was working on FirstEnergy’s behalf to extend the term of the nuclear plant subsidies from six years to 10 years. Jones urged Householder to “negotiate hard” for 10 years of subsidies or he would be forced to revisit the issue again before his speakership ended. “Ugh, that adds $600M,” Householder wrote about an additional amount that has not been previously reported. The bill called for charging Ohio ratepayers $150 million a year in nuclear subsidies. “Husted called me 2 nights ago and was supposed to get it in the Senate version,” Jones replied. “He’s not a legislator,” Householder replied about Husted, who was by then the lieutenant governor. “I know but he said Senate leaders would listen,” Jones replied. “He didn’t deliver.” The texts were part of evidence gathered in Householder’s criminal trial. When Husted has been asked previously about the exchanges, he has been adamant that they do not prove he was part of the deal-making. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We weren’t involved,” Husted said when asked about the texts during an unrelated news conference in 2024. “Texts to other people — texts to other people shared amongst themselves — have nothing to do with me. And I wasn’t involved in that conversation.” A longtime Ohio lobbyist told federal agents that FirstEnergy and FirstEnergy Solutions, the subsidiary that owned the nuclear power plants helped by the bailout, funneled dark money to nonprofits that benefited Husted and Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican. According to the notes from his Department of Justice interview obtained by The Associated Press and not previously reported, lobbyist Neil Clark identified one of the groups as Freedom Frontier. That was the very group that received a $1 million contribution in 2017 marked internally by FirstEnergy as “Husted campaign.” The donation was brought to light through documents filed in a lawsuit by FirstEnergy shareholders and obtained through a records request by cleveland.com. Husted was a candidate for governor at the time. Dark money refers to political contributions flowing to certain nonprofit organizations whose donors do not have to be publicly identified. Coordinating between those groups and candidate campaigns is generally prohibited by federal law. Internal FirstEnergy communications from 2017 and 2018, which is evidence in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, include discussions involving Jones, Dowling and others about attending Husted events as far back as 2016. They also reflect Dowling’s concerns about dark money contributions becoming public. Jones and Dowling also discussed strategies to contribute under alternate names. In July 2018, for instance, as the two were planning a DeWine-Husted fundraiser in Naples, Florida, they discussed contributing under one name while covering event costs under another — so there would be “no cost billed to (the) campaign.” Husted declined a request for further comment about the details that have emerged as the various cases surrounding the bribery scandal play out. “Sen. Husted has commented extensively with the media and given testimony under oath and doesn’t have anything additional to add,” said Josh Eck, his spokesperson. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

STUTTGART, April 19 (Reuters) – Top seed Elena Rybakina had her eyes on the prize, literally, as she overpowered Karolina Muchova 7-5 6-1 to win the Stuttgart Open on Sunday and drive away with a Porsche car for the second time in her career. While the Kazakh claimed her second title of the season, it was the tournament’s traditional Porsche award that truly captured Rybakina’s attention more than the silverware itself. The first Porsche she won in 2024 had given her a push to get a driver’s licence last year and she was all smiles when she drove her newly won second sports car down the ramp before parking it on the red clay of the arena. Victory elevated Rybakina into exclusive company, making her just the fourth active player to win at least five WTA-level titles on multiple surfaces, joining an elite group that includes Venus Williams, Elina Svitolina and Iga Swiatek. “It’s an amazing tournament, we love coming back here… It really feels like home and you just want to come back every year,” Rybakina said. “Super happy for the second win here in Stuttgart and this beautiful car.” RYBAKINA COMES OUT SWINGING Rybakina surged to a swift 3-0 lead in the opening set with a flurry of aggressive shot-making against a largely defensive Muchova. She was nearly untouchable behind her first serve, consistently pushing Muchova onto the back foot, while the Australian Open champion also mixed in confident net play, forcing her Czech opponent to cover every inch of the court. However, Muchova showed resilience, clawing her way back from 5-2 down to level at 5-5. But as she served to force a tiebreak, untimely errors crept in and Rybakina pounced to clinch the opening set when Muchova’s return sailed long. That proved to be the spark Rybakina needed as she shifted gears decisively in the second set, reeling off five consecutive games – echoing her dominant win over Mirra Andreeva in the semi-final – before Muchova got on the board. Serving for the title, Rybakina closed it out in style, serving to love and wrapping up a Tour-leading 25th victory of the season in 78 minutes. “Elena, honestly, too good. You played really well,” Muchova said. “I tried to stop you, but you clearly wanted a Porsche for the second time really bad. So, (you) made it very tough for me. Congrats!” (Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

April 19 (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google is in talks with Marvell Technology to develop two new chips aimed at running AI models more efficiently, The Information reported on Sunday citing two people with knowledge of the discussions. One of the chips is a memory processing unit designed to work with Google’s tensor processing unit (TPU) and the other chip is a new TPU built specifically for running AI models, the report said. Google has been pushing to make its TPUs a viable alternative to Nvidia’s dominant GPUs. TPU sales have become a key driver of growth in Google’s cloud revenue as it aims to show investors that its AI investments are generating returns. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Google and Marvell did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. The companies aim to finalize the design of the memory processing unit as soon as next year before handing it off for test production, according to the report. (Reporting by Angela Christy in BengaluruEditing by Tomasz Janowski) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian strikes killed at least two people in Ukraine, officials said Sunday, as Ukraine’s military struck a drone factory in southwestern Russia. A 16-year-old boy died and four others were injured in a “massive” nighttime drone strike on Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, according to the head of the city’s military administration. Rescuers found the teenager’s body as they cleared away rubble, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi reported on Telegram on Sunday morning. He said the drone strike also injured three women and one man. Several houses were set on fire, he added. On Sunday morning, Russian drones also attacked the southern city of Kherson, local officials reported. A man died of his wounds after a drone hit a van driving through the city centre, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the regional administration. A second man was hospitalized with blast injuries, regional authorities said. Russia launched 236 drones into Ukrainian territory overnight into Sunday, Ukraine’s air force reported. Of those, 203 drones were shot down while 32 hit targets in 18 separate locations, it said. Meanwhile, Ukraine hit a drone factory in the city of Taganrog, Ukraine’s General Staff reported. The site lies some 55 kilometers (35 miles) east of Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine in southwestern Russia. According to the military, Ukrainian drones sparked a fire at the Atlant Aero factory, which designs and produces strike and reconnaissance drones, as well as components for more powerful UAVs that can carry guided bombs weighing up to 250 kilograms (550 pounds). Three people were injured in a nighttime air attack on commercial infrastructure in Taganrog, according to the Russian regional governor, Yuri Slyusar. He did not specify what facility was hit, but said warehouses were set on fire following the strike. Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova said the strike damaged “commercial enterprises” in the city, as well as a vocational school and multiple cars. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its forces shot down 274 Ukrainian drones during the night, as well as guided aerial bombs and a Ukrainian-made Neptune missile. The ministry did not say how many struck targets. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI and Justice Department are scrambling to rebuild a depleted workforce after a wave of departures over the past year, with leaders easing hiring requirements and accelerating recruitment in ways that some current and former officials see as a lowering of long-accepted standards. The FBI has turned to social media campaigns to attract applicants, offered abbreviated training for candidates from other federal agencies and relaxed requirements for support staff seeking to become agents, according to people familiar with the changes and internal communications seen by The Associated Press. At the same time, the Justice Department has opened the door to hiring prosecutors right out of law school to help fill vacancies in U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. Some current and former agents also say the FBI is promoting into positions of leadership employees with less experience than would be customary for the jobs. The moves reflect a broader effort to stabilize a workforce strained by retirements and resignations prompted in part by concerns over the Trump administration’s politicization of the department, along with the firings of lawyers, agents and other employees deemed insufficiently loyal to the Republican president’s agenda. Critics of the changes say they amount to a reduction in standards for a law enforcement institution that has long prided itself on professional expertise and is responsible for everything from preventing terrorist attacks to building complex public corruption prosecutions. “It’s a sign of, among other things, the difficulty the department is having right now in keeping and recruiting people,” said Greg Brower, a former U.S. attorney in Nevada who left the FBI in 2018 as its chief congressional liaison. The FBI defended the changes as a necessary modernization of its hiring pipeline, saying it is streamlining, not lowering, standards and removing what it says were “bureaucratic” steps in the application process. It said applicants were still evaluated “on the same competencies.” “The Bureau holds high standards for potential and current employees, and there is a rigorous application and background process to join the FBI,” the FBI said in a statement. The FBI has long been seen as the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency, with a recruitment process anchored around physical fitness tests, a writing assessment, interview and training academy at Quantico, Virginia. Elements of the regimen have been periodically tweaked to fit the bureau’s needs, including over the past year under the leadership of FBI Director Kash Patel. With a mantra to “let good cops be cops,” Patel announced last fall that transfers from other agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration would be able to complete a nine-week training academy instead of the traditional academy that spans more than four months. The change rankled some current and former officials who say the FBI’s protocols, professional culture and diversity of cases it handles help to distinguish it from other agencies. For support staff employees looking to become agents, the bureau more recently said it would waive requirements of a written assessment and an interview with a three-member panel of FBI agents meant to assess life experience and judgment, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the moves and an internal written message seen by the AP. The FBI said onboard employees would still need recommendations from a senior leader and to complete Quantico training. “We are not lowering standards or removing qualifications in any way. What we are doing is streamlining the process to remove duplicative, bureaucratic steps to the application system for onboard employees,” the FBI said in a statement, adding, “These are changes based on a wide variety of feedback from successful agents with over 20 years’ experience.” Patel boasted in January of a 112% increase in applications, and the FBI says it has a “clear path” to add around 700 special agents this year and that its current Quantico class is one of its largest in years. But some people familiar with the matter say an applications uptick does not necessarily correspond to a surge in high-caliber recruits that can offset the attrition the bureau has endured. At the other end of the employment spectrum, the FBI also faces turnover among senior leaders, including special agents in charge, the title given to leaders of most of the bureau’s 56 field offices. Some were fired by Patel over the past year and others retired. Many offices are now led by someone who has been in the job for under a year. Facing what current and former officials say is difficulty in filling some of the positions, the FBI has moved quickly to promote agents up the ladder, people familiar with the matter say. That includes elevating assistant special agents in charge to special agents in charge and opening the door for employees to be considered for leadership roles without the significant headquarters experience the FBI historically regarded as necessary for a holistic view of bureau operations. As a conservative podcast host before becoming director, Patel had talked about shutting down FBI headquarters and transforming it into a museum of the “deep state” and told colleagues on his first day as director that he would move hundreds of employees from Washington into the field. “As a field agent, you have a field agent’s mentality, you have a field agent’s view,” said Chris Piehota, a retired FBI senior executive. Without adequate headquarters experience, he added, you don’t know “the business side of the FBI, the logistical side of the FBI or the political jungle” that can accompany the job. The Justice Department, meanwhile, has lowered hiring prerequisites for some federal prosecutors. Department officials recently suspended a policy that U.S. attorneys offices only hire prosecutors with at least one year of experience practicing law. The department did not explain the reason, but said in a statement that it is “proud to empower young and passionate prosecutors and offer attorneys at every level the opportunity to invest their talents into keeping their communities safe.” It comes as parts of the agency are struggling to keep up with the workload amid critical staffing shortages, with the department recently acknowledging that it has lost nearly 1,000 assistant U.S. attorneys. In Minnesota, for example, the federal prosecutors’ office has been gutted by resignations amid frustration with the administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement and the department’s response to fatal shootings of civilians by federal agents. Justice Department headquarters in Washington has endured staffing losses, too. The number of lawyers in the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section, which prosecutes organized crime groups and violent gangs, is down significantly, though the section is looking to hire additional attorneys. A National Security Division section that works espionage cases has reported a 40% drop in prosecutors. The department said in a statement that it has seen an increase in criminal complaints and indictments despite a loss in prosecutors, underscoring the “bloated, ineffective and weaponized” institution it says the administration inherited. Officials have enlisted military lawyers to serve as special prosecutors in some offices. The administration has also used social media to recruit applicants. One recent post from the FBI’s Omaha, Nebraska office said: “A calling bigger than yourself. A mission that matters. If you’re ready for the challenge, there’s a place for you on the FBI team. Chad Mizelle, who served as chief of staff to Trump’s first attorney general, Pam Bondi, recently urged lawyers to contact him on X if they want to become prosecutors, “and support President Trump and anti-crime agenda.” Mizelle’s post raised eyebrows not only because federal prosecutors have not generally been solicited over social media, but also because support for the president has not been a prerequisite for career employees. “We need good prosecutors,” wrote Mizelle, who left the department in October. “And DOJ is hiring across the country. Now is your chance to join the mission and do good for our country.” Brought to you by www.srnnews.com