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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The best way for the Edmonton Oilers to shake off a tough loss was to let Connor McDavid take over the game. One night after his team squandered three separate leads in an overtime defeat at Utah, McDavid delivered the kind of performance Edmonton needed. He scored three goals for his 15th career hat trick and added two assists in a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday that moved the Oilers into sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division. “He knows our team needed a win,” coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We’re playing a little short-handed and he’s going to be the guy. Tonight every shift he was really dialed in and played extremely well. I’ve seen him play a lot of good games and that was one of his best.” McDavid was sharp right from the start, scoring a power-play goal on his third shift. He assisted on a power-play goal by Vasily Podkolzin late in the first period and then added two more goals and an assist on his first seven shifts of the second to put away the game. When McDavid is playing the way he did against the Sharks, the strategy for his teammates is simple. “Get him the puck,” Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard said. “When you see him playing the way he was tonight, and honestly, most of the season, you want to get him the puck. He makes things happen when not many other people can.” McDavid got the best of his matchup against his Canadian Olympic teammate and fellow Hart Trophy contender Macklin Celebrini, who scored on the power play to give San Jose a 1-0 lead. McDavid answered that goal less than two minutes later, and the Sharks couldn’t slow him down the rest of the night. “He’s the best player in the league and he’s also the fastest so if you don’t really slow him down or get in his way he’s just going to skate by you,” Celebrini said. “It’s simple as that. You’ve seen it his whole career. I loved watching it when I was a fan but it’s super frustrating when you play against it.” McDavid’s 133 points this season are six more than Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov in the race for Art Ross Trophy and the second-most McDavid has had in a season to his 153 in 2022-23. He needs three goals in the final three games for his second career 50-goal season, although his focus remains on bigger goals. Edmonton is two points ahead of Vegas in the division race, but the Golden Knights have a game in hand. “We’ve got to punch our ticket,” McDavid said. “We’ve got three games left. We’ve still got to punch our ticket to the playoffs. Those individual things are nice but not at the top of mind.” After making back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final the past two springs, the Oilers have sputtered their way through much of this season. But Edmonton has gone 6-1-1 over the past eight games to move into first place in the Pacific Division. With high-scoring teammate Leon Draisaitl possibly returning from injury for the start of the postseason, the Oilers are trying to get back into top form in time to make another deep run. “It’s been kind of an up-and-down year for us, honestly,” McDavid said. “We still feel like our best hockey is ahead of us. We’re kind of finding it right now, which is a good time to do it.” ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Pro-Iran groups have used artificial intelligence to create slick internet memes in English to try to shape the narrative during the war against the U.S. and Israel and foster opposition to it. Analysts say the memes appear to be coming from groups linked to the government in Tehran and are part of a strategy of leveraging its limited resources to inflict damage on the U.S., even indirectly. That includes how Iran has used attacks and threats to control the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and maintain a stranglehold on the world’s economy. A ceasefire raised hopes Wednesday of halting hostilities, but many issues remained unresolved. “This is a propaganda war for them,” Neil Lavie-Driver, an AI researcher at the University of Cambridge, said, referring to Iran. “Their goal is to sow enough discontent with the conflict as to eventually force the West to cave in, so it is massively important to them.” It’s not the first time memes have been used in a conflict, and they have evolved to include AI images in recent years. AI imagery bombarded Ukrainians after the Russian invasion in 2022. Last year, the term “AI slop” became widely used to describe the glut of imperfect images posted online during the Israel-Iran war to try to destroy the country’s nuclear program. In the conflict that began Feb. 28 with joint U.S.-Israel strikes, the memes have used well-honed cartoons that lambast U.S. officials. The memes are fluent not just in English but in American culture and trolling. Published on various social platforms, they are racking up millions of views — though it’s not clear how much influence they have had. They have portrayed U.S. President Donald Trump as old, out of step and internationally isolated. They have referenced bruising on the back of Trump’s right hand that prompted speculation about his health; infighting in Trump’s MAGA base; and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s fiery confirmation hearing, among other things. “They’re using popular culture against the No. 1 pop culture country, the United States,” said Nancy Snow, a scholar who has written more than a dozen books on propaganda. The pro-Iran images circulating online include a series that uses the style of the “Lego” animated movies. In one, an Iranian military commander raps, “You thought you ran the globe, sitting on your throne. Now we turning every base into a bed of stone,” as Trump falls into a bullseye built of “Epstein files,” the U.S. government’s investigative records on disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The animations show levels of sophistication and internet access that indicate ties to government offices, said Mahsa Alimardani, a director of WITNESS, a human-rights group working on AI video evidence. “If you’re able to have the bandwidth needed to generate content like that and upload it, you are officially or unofficially cooperating with the regime,” she said — pointing to severe restrictions Iran has imposed on the internet as part of a crackdown on nationwide protests earlier this year. State media has reposted some of the memes, including some from the account behind the “Lego”-style videos, Akhbar Enfejari, which means Explosive News. Akhbar Enfejari described themselves as Iranians producing and uploading from within Iran in an effort to disrupt decades-long dominance of Western control of the airwaves. “They’ve long dominated the media landscape and, through that power, imposed narratives on many nations,” the group told The Associated Press on the messaging app Telegram. “But this time, something feels different. This time, we’ve disrupted the game. This time, we’re doing it better.” After the ceasefire was announced, Akhbar Enfejari posted: “IRAN WON! The way to crush imperialism has been shown to the world. Trump Surrendered.” In addition to the memes coming from pro-Iran groups, Iranian government accounts have trolled the U.S., including in a post Wednesday from Iran’s Embassy in South Africa that said, “Say hello to the new world superpower,” with a picture of the Iranian flag. Both the U.S. and Iran declared victory after agreeing to a ceasefire. Analysts say the deep grasp of U.S. politics and culture is the fruit of more old-school methods of propaganda: a decades-long Iranian government program to promote narratives against the U.S. and Israel. “This meme war comes from institutions that are very aware what the American public is aware of and pop cultural references that can appeal to them,” Alimardani said. Analysts say the U.S. and Israel do not appear to be engaging in the same kind of campaign — and given the restrictions Iran has put on internet access in the country, getting such messages to ordinary Iranians would be difficult. Early in the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video that used AI to make it seem like he was speaking in Farsi, in which he urged Iranians to overthrow their government. The White House has published a steady stream of memes, but those are aimed at a U.S. audience and feature clips from American TV shows and sports. The U.S. government-run Voice of America, which for decades beamed news reports to many countries that had no tradition of a free press, does still broadcast in Farsi, though it is has been operating with a skeleton staff since Trump ordered it shut down. “This world order is really changing overnight and the U.S. is not going to end up necessarily as the state that everybody listens to,” Snow said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

COTONOU, Benin (AP) — Voters in Benin will vote Sunday to elect a new president as outgoing leader Patrice Talon steps down after a decade in power with a mixed legacy of economic growth, but also a growing jihadi insurgency in the north and a clamp down on the opposition and critics. Romuald Wadagni, the 49-year-old finance minister and governing coalition standard-bearer, is considered Talon’s anointed successor. Wadagni is being challenged by Paul Hounkpè, the sole opposition candidate. In the parliamentary election in January, the opposition failed to cross the 20% electoral threshold required to win seats, leaving Talon’s two allied parties in control of all 109 seats in the National Assembly and in good position before Sunday’s vote. Renaud Agbodjo, leader of The Democrats, was barred from competing after failing to secure a sufficient number of parliamentary endorsements — a threshold critics say was engineered to keep rivals out. With the main opposition sidelined, Wadagni is widely considered a favorite due in part to his strong economic track record and broad support from influential figures across historically rival camps, said Fiacre Vidjingninou, political analyst at the Lagos-based Béhanzin Institute. “Ten years at the Finance Ministry have given him something rare in African politics: a quantified record — verifiable and difficult to dismantle in a serious debate,” Vidjingninou said. The first round of the vote is set for April 12. In order to secure an outright victory, the winner would need to secure at least 50% of the votes. If that doesn’t happen, a runoff will be conducted on May 10 between the top two candidates. Nearly 8 million people are eligible to vote in the election. Wadagni is campaigning heavily on the country’s economic performance during his decade as finance minister. Benin’s economy grew 7% last year, according to the International Monetary Fund, making it one of West Africa’s steadiest performers. Under Talon, the country sustained robust growth for nearly a decade, driven by agriculture, trade and a major port expansion in the economic hub Cotonou that turned Benin into a key transit point for landlocked neighbors. Infrastructure has also expanded. However, the gains have been unequally shared, with poverty remaining widespread in rural areas and in the poorer northern region. While Benin has historically been among the most stable democracies in Africa, opposition leaders and human rights organizations have accused Talon of using the justice system as a tool to sideline his political opponents, after taking office in 2016 and changing electoral rules. In November, a constitutional reform extended presidential terms from five to seven years, established a partially presidential-appointed senate, and further raised the bar for opposition parties to enter parliament. Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have denounced a sustained crackdown on dissent under Talon, citing arbitrary detentions, tight restrictions on public demonstrations and mounting pressure on independent media outlets. Protests over the rising cost of living sprang up in recent years, but the government and security forces clamped down on them. Last December, a group of military officers attempted to topple Talon’s government in a failed coup, the latest in a series of recent military takeover attempts across Africa. Most of the coups and attempted coups follow a similar pattern of disputed elections, constitutional upheaval, security crises and youth discontent. Among the coup leaders’ key complaints was the deterioration of security in northern Benin. For years, the country has faced spillover violence in its north from neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger in their battle against the al-Qaida-affiliated extremist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM. The tri-border area has long been a hotbed for extremist violence, a trend worsened by the lack of security cooperation with Niger and Burkina Faso, both now led by military juntas. Last year, an attack by Islamic militants on military posts killed 54 soldiers. Vidjingninou said that while the foiled coup in Benin has weakened the narrative of stability of the outgoing administration, the climate of instability might work in favor of the governing party candidate. “In a context perceived as unstable, cautious voters tend to choose continuity and familiarity over the risk of the unknown,” he said. Roch Gbenou, a civil servant living in Cotonou, said two key issues stand out for him before Sunday’s vote: Equal distribution of wealth, and restoration of democratic freedoms, which “appear to have been substantially restricted” in recent years. Gbenou, however, said that he has little hope for the election, because “it will ultimately only serve to legitimize a choice already made,” suggesting it won’t be a credible process. Mathias Salanon, a retired police officer, said that he believes Talon has done well and hopes the next president will stabilize the economic and political situations of the country. “In more than 50 years of my life I have not seen such a fierce will to develop the country as during President Patrice Talon’s 10 years,” he said. For Sofiath Akadiri, another resident of Cotonou, the most important campaign issues for her are access to health care, education and jobs. “We also need social justice and the restoration of democratic norms,” she said. ___ Mark Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

Several dozen people lined up outside a presidential administration building on a sunny spring weekend in central Moscow as police stood nearby and watched them closely. The people were lodging complaints about the government’s intensifying crackdown on the internet that has seen regular shutdowns of cellphone internet connections, blocked popular messaging apps and cut access to thousands of other websites and digital services. It was the latest sign of the growing anger and frustration over the restrictions that have disrupted the daily lives of Russians, hurt businesses and drawn criticism even from Kremlin supporters. Knowing that any unauthorized demonstrations are harshly suppressed, activists have tried to organize authorized rallies, plastered posters on walls and notice boards, and filed lawsuits. Industry leaders pleaded with authorities to repeal the measures. Even the leader of Armenia delivered a not-so-veiled barb at Russia during a televised meeting with President Vladimir Putin on April 1. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that in Armenia, “our social media, for example, is 100% free. There are no restrictions whatsoever.” An unsmiling Putin stared at Pashinyan with slightly raised eyebrows. The clampdown not only serves to control what websites Russians can see, but also has thrown digital life into disarray, making it difficult to order taxis and deliveries, pay for goods and services electronically, and stay in touch with friends and family. Politician and Kremlin critic Boris Nadezhdin spoke for many Russians who are upset about the internet clampdown when he said in an interview with The Associated Press: “This infuriates a huge number of people.” For years, Russia has sought to take the internet under total government control and potentially cut it off from the rest of the world, blocking tens of thousands of websites, messaging apps and social media platforms that refuse to cooperate with the authorities. Internet users have gotten used to circumventing the restrictions by using virtual private networks, or VPNs, even as the government has been actively blocking those, too. But last year, the restrictions reached a whole new level: sweeping shutdowns of cellphone internet connections -– and sometimes broadband, too -– leaving only a handful of websites and apps on government-approved “white lists.” Officials claimed the drastic measures were needed to thwart Ukrainian drones relying on Russian cellphone internet for navigation as Kyiv tries to strike back during Moscow’s 4-year-old full-scale invasion. But the shutdowns hit remote regions that have never been targeted by Ukraine’s drones, with ordinary people and businesses decrying the measures as detrimental. The Kremlin has gone after the country’s two most popular messaging apps — WhatsApp and Telegram — while simultaneously promoting a state-backed “national” app called MAX, widely seen as a surveillance tool. At first, voice and video calls on WhatsApp and Telegram were blocked. Then, sending messages became effectively impossible, too, without using a VPN. Last week, Digital and Communications Minister Maksut Shadayev said his ministry received orders to further decrease the use of VPNs. Unconfirmed media reports said his ministry proposed a flurry of new measures against VPNs. The ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent by AP. Lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan, co-founder of the RKS Global digital rights group, told AP the goal of the authorities is to drive internet users into a “digital ghetto” of Russian, government-controlled apps and platforms. “The internet is no longer this universal digital good,” he said. In recent weeks, a growing number of business leaders in Russia have voiced concern about the sweeping restrictions and urged authorities to take a more moderate approach. Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, told Putin at a recent forum of the group that cellphone internet shutdowns “made life difficult for both businesses and citizens.” “Given the high level of mobile technology penetration in our lives, we hope that a systemic, balanced solution will be found,” said Shokhin, a government minister in the 1990s and a member of the ruling United Russia party since the 2000s. Putin was onstage with Shokhin and spoke immediately after him but didn’t address the issue. A similar plea came from CEOs of two of Russia’s four cellphone operators at a telecommunications conference last week. Sergei Anokhin of Beeline and Khachatur Pombukhchan of Megafon said that instead of cellphone internet shutdowns, operators could just identify suspicious users and restrict them, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. “This would make life significantly easier for people, for clients,” Pombukhchan said. Prominent IT entrepreneur Natalya Kasperskaya lambasted Roskomnadzor, blaming its intensifying efforts to block VPNs for a brief outage last weekend of banking and other services. “There’s no technical way to block VPNs without disrupting the entire internet,” she wrote in a post on Telegram. “So, comrades, take screenshots of interesting websites, withdraw as much cash as possible, and get ready to listen to radio reports about foreign enemies who have blocked our once-beloved RuNet,” — referring to the Russian internet. Roskomnadzor denied involvement, and Kasperskaya later apologized in a separate post, but she called for dialogue between the authorities and the IT sector, stressing that “technical decisions sometimes cause downright shock and a desire to at least get an explanation.” Activists from Moscow to Vladivostok in the Far East have tried to organize rallies against internet restrictions since late February. Knowing that unauthorized demonstrations are harshly suppressed and government critics are routinely jailed, they acted cautiously and sought authorization for the gatherings in accordance with strict protest laws. In most cases, those were rejected, and some activists were even arrested on various charges. But people managed to hold small pickets in a few cities. In others, activists plastered flyers and banners on walls and public notice boards decrying the restrictions. Opposition politician Nadezhdin, his supporters and other activist groups have filed for permission to hold rallies in dozens of cities on April 12, when Russia marks Cosmonautics Day, honoring the 1961 flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. “We’re filing for authorization (and saying) we’re marking Cosmonautics Day,” Nadezhdin says with a subtle smile. “Our slogans will be (about the fact that) cosmonautics is impossible without science, technology and progress, and progress, science and technology development is impossible without connectivity, without communication, without the internet.” Nadezhdin says he is determined to increase pressure on authorities despite the crackdown. Public frustration over the restrictions is “enormous,” and people are ready to take part in protests that are authorized and safe, he added. Moscow-based opposition politician Yulia Galyamina echoed his sentiment in a video she recorded last weekend near the presidential administration, where she and others filed their formal complaints, saying the discontent “is truly widespread.” “The more there is public outcry over the blocking of the internet, Telegram in particular, and depriving us of the possibility to communicate with each other, interact, express our political position, the bigger the effect will be,” she said. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A former minister, a comedian and a political heiress are among 35 candidates for Peru’s ninth president in just 10 years. The election Sunday takes place during a surge in violent crime and corruption, fueling widespread discontent among voters, who largely view candidates as dishonest and unprepared for the presidency. Many of the contenders have responded to people’s crime concerns with wide-ranging proposals, including building megaprisons, restricting food for prisoners and reinstating the death penalty for serious crimes. “You can’t trust anyone anymore, nothing’s going to change,” construction worker Juan Gómez, 53, said as he carried two heavy bags with potatoes and rice to feed his five children. “(Criminals) come on motorcycles, put a gun to your head… you look around and there’s no police officer. What are you going to do? You just let them rob you.” Here’s what to know about Sunday’s election. Voting is mandatory for Peruvians from the ages of 18 to 70. More than 27 million people are registered, and of those, about 1.2 million are expected to cast ballots from abroad, mainly in the United States and Argentina. A candidate needs more than 50% of votes to win outright. However, a runoff in June is virtually assured given the deeply divided electorate and the pool of candidates, the largest in the Andean country’s history. A major preoccupation is surging crime, which has led to frequent protests. Homicides have doubled and cases of extortion have increased fivefold this decade, according to official data. “You get on the bus, and you have to sit far from the driver; you don’t know if you’ll make it home alive,” retiree Raúl Zevallos, 63, said. “Criminals drive by on motorcycles, shoot, kill the driver, and you could die, too.” More than 200 public transportation drivers were killed in Peru in 2025. The same year, a national survey carried out by the state’s National Institute of Statistics and Informatics found that 84% of respondents in urban areas feared becoming victims of a crime in the following 12 months. Thirty-five people are on the ballot, including Keiko Fujimori, a conservative former congresswoman and daughter of the late President Alberto Fujimori. This marks her fourth attempt to become president. Keiko Fujimori has promised to crack down on crime with an iron fist, but she has also defended laws that experts say make it difficult to prosecute criminals. The laws, which her party backed in recent years, eliminated preliminary detention in certain cases and raised the threshold for seizing criminal assets. If elected, she has said judges presiding over criminal cases will be anonymous and prisoners will have to work to earn their food. Also running is Rafael López Aliaga, the conservative former mayor of Peru’s capital, Lima. He has proposed building prisons in the country’s Amazon region, allowing judges to conceal their identities and expelling foreigners who are living illegally in Peru. Meanwhile, comedian-turned-politician Carlos Álvarez has tried to garner support by promising to convene the leaders of El Salvador, Denmark and Singapore to tap their expertise in security. Peruvians will also choose a bicameral Congress for the first time in more than 30 years, following recent reforms of the legislature that will concentrate a great deal of power in the new upper chamber. The president won’t be able to dissolve the new Senate, though the chamber will be able to remove a president from power. Under the new bicameral structure, impeaching the president will be easier, with the Senate only needing 40 of the 60 senators to approve it. Previously, 87 of 130 lawmakers in the unicameral chamber had to vote in favor of removal, and they frequently exercised that power, contributing to the country’s revolving door of presidents in the last decade. The bicameral system is returning even though 80% of voters rejected it in a 2018 referendum. Lawmakers amended the Constitution in 2024 to make it possible. Alejandro Boyco, a researcher at the Institute of Peruvian Studies, said the Senate will appoint and sanction high-ranking officials, including the country’s Ombudsman, Constitutional Court members and some Central Bank directors. Senators will also review and amend bills from the lower chamber. “They’ve concentrated too much power in a 60-people chamber,” Boyco said. “They are not going to be immune to being corrupt.” ___ Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america Brought to you by www.srnnews.com