Police fire tear gas at barricaded Paris high school as student protests show no sign of ending

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The two candidates battling for Michigan’s open Senate seat tangled here Thursday over the war in Iran, gas prices and tariffs in a debate that often veered into mean-spirited sniping. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed sought to portray his Republican rival, former Rep. Mike Rogers, as a weak-willed loyalist to President Donald Trump who has recently changed his positions on certain issues out of political necessity. Rogers tried to frame El-Sayed as a “con man” who is making promises he cannot pay for without raising taxes or other costs.

Crude oil prices had shot up on Thursday after reports President Trump was considering more strikes. They immediately dropped again after his new announcement.

The United States on Thursday charged ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores with conspiracy to commit torture, adding to drug trafficking and firearms charges. Prosecutors allege detainees, including US citizens, suffered waterboarding, rape and beatings. The pair remain in US custody following a January military raid.

OpenAI said Thursday it shut down Russian and Iranian influence operations that used ChatGPT to create fake journalist personas and support a purported think tank spreading anti-Ukraine propaganda. The Iranian operation involved seven profiles posing as Western journalists to place lengthy articles in media outlets worldwide, the AI company said.