Category: Associated Press

NEVADA CITY, Calif. — Crews found the bodies of eight backcountry skiers near California’s Lake Tahoe and were searching for one more after they were caught in an avalanche, the nation’s deadliest in nearly half a century, authorities said Wednesday.

Authorities said the skiers had little time to react.

“Someone saw the avalanche, yelled avalanche, and it overtook them rather quickly,” said Capt. Russell “Rusty” Greene, of the Nevada County sheriff’s office.

Six from the guided tour were rescued six hours after the avalanche hit Tuesday morning during a three-day trek in Northern California’s Sierra Nevada, as a monster winter storm pummeled the West Coast.

Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said investigators would look into the decision to proceed with the trip despite the forecast for relentless weather.

Authorities have told the families the mission has moved from rescuing people to recovering bodies, Moon said during a news conference.

The victims, including three guides, were found fairly close together, Greene said. The dead and missing include seven women and two men, ranging in ages from 30 to 55. The crews have not yet been able to remove the victims from the mountain because of the extreme conditions, the sheriff said.

Three to six feet of snow has fallen since Sunday, when the group started its trip. The area was also hit by subfreezing temperatures and gale force winds. The Sierra Avalanche Center said the threat of more avalanches remained Wednesday and left the snowpack unstable and unpredictable in an area known for its steep, craggy cliffs.

Rescuers were guided by beacons and a cell phone in dangerous conditions

Rescuers reached the survivors just before sunset on Tuesday.

The skiers all had beacons that can send signals to rescuers and at least one of the guides was able to send texts, but it wasn’t clear if they were wearing avalanche bags, which are inflatable devices that can keep skiers near the surface, Greene said.

While they waited to be rescued, the survivors used equipment to shelter themselves and fend off temperatures dipping below freezing. The survivors located three others who had died during the wait, Moon said.

Rescuers used a snowcat to get within 2 miles of the survivors, then skied in carefully so they didn’t set off another avalanche, the sheriff said.

One of those rescued remains in a hospital Wednesday, Moon said.

The area near Donner Summit is one of the snowiest places in the Western Hemisphere and until just a few years ago was closed to the public. It sees an average of nearly 35 feet of snow a year, according to the Truckee Donner Land Trust, which owns a cluster of huts where the group was staying near Frog Lake.

The avalanche is the deadliest in the U.S. since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier, Wash. Each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches in the U.S., according to the National Avalanche Center.

It was the second deadly avalanche near California’s Castle Peak this year, after a snowmobiler was buried by one in January.

Skiers were heading for the trailhead when the avalanche struck

Greene said authorities were notified about the avalanche by Blackbird Mountain Guides, which was leading the expedition, and the skiers’ emergency beacons. The sheriff’s office said Tuesday night that 15 backcountry skiers had been on the trip, not 16 as initially believed.

One skier had pulled out at the last minute, Moon said.

Authorities were waiting to release the victims’ names to give the families time. “They’re still reeling,” Moon said. “I could not imagine what they’re going through.”

The skiers were on the last day of the backcountry trip and had spent two nights in the huts, said Steve Reynaud, an avalanche forecaster with the Sierra Avalanche Center. He said the area requires navigating rugged mountainous terrain. All food and supplies need to be carried to the huts.

Reaching the huts in winter takes several hours and requires backcountry skills, avalanche training and safety equipment, the land trust says on its website.

The area near Donner Summit was closed for nearly a century before it was reopened by the land trust and its partners in 2020. Donner Summit is named for the infamous Donner Party, a group of pioneers who resorted to cannibalism after getting trapped there in the winter of 1846-1847.

Blackbird Mountain Guides said in a statement that the group, including four guides, was returning to the trailhead when the avalanche occurred.

When asked what went through her mind as her staff and volunteers responded to the scene, Moon said she was hoping they would be able to make it there safely. Once they did, she said she was “immediately thinking of the folks that didn’t make it, and knowing our mission now is to get them home.”

DNA from gloves found a few miles from the Arizona home of Nancy Guthrie did not match any entries in a national database, authorities said Tuesday, the 17th day of her disappearance.

“There were no DNA hits in CODIS,” the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said, referring to the national Combined DNA Index System.

“At this point, there have been no confirmed CODIS matches in this investigation,” the department said, suggesting that other DNA samples had been put through the system.

CODIS is a storehouse of DNA taken from crime suspects or people with convictions. Any hits could identify possible suspects in Guthrie’s disappearance.

The sheriff’s department said it’s looking to feed DNA evidence into other “genetic genealogy” databases. It did not elaborate.

Investigators, meanwhile, were seen inspecting exterior cameras at a neighbor’s house Tuesday. Vehicles were also arriving and departing from Guthrie’s Tucson-area home while a thick line of news media watched from the street.

The 84-year-old mother of NBC Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie was reported missing from her home on Feb. 1 after spending the previous night with family, police said. Her blood was detected on the porch.

A porch camera recorded video of a man with a backpack who was wearing a ski mask, long pants, a jacket and gloves. The FBI said the suspect is about 5 feet, 9 inches tall with a medium build.

Gloves were found about 2 miles from Guthrie’s home. The FBI has said that the gloves appeared to match those worn by the man in the video.

“There is additional DNA evidence that was found at the residence, and that is also being analyzed,” the sheriff’s department said.

In addition, the department said it’s working with experts to try to locate Guthrie by detecting her heart pacemaker.

Parsons Corp. said its BlueFly device, which weighs less than a pound and has a range of up to 218 yards, can detect signals from wearable electronics and medical devices. The company said the technology has been used from the air and on the ground in Arizona. It declined further comment about the search.

The sheriff’s department released numbers to show how the public is reacting to Guthrie’s disappearance and the appeal for any information. There were 28,000 phone calls from Feb. 1-16, a 54% increase over the same period a year ago. Not all calls were tips.

Savannah Guthrie posted an Instagram video Sunday in which she issued an appeal to anyone with information about what happened to her mother.

“It is never too late to do the right thing,” she said. “And we are here. And we believe in the essential goodness of every human being, that it’s never too late.”

ILULISSAT, Greenland — When he was growing up in a village in northern Greenland, Jørgen Kristensen’s closest friends were his stepfather’s sled dogs. Most of his classmates were dark-haired Inuit; he was different. When he was bullied at school for his fair hair — an inheritance from the mainland Danish father he never knew — the dogs came to him.

He first went out to fish on the ice with them alone when he was 9 years old. They nurtured the beginning of a lifelong love affair and Kristensen’s career as a five-time Greenlandic dog sled champion.

“I was just a small child. But many years later, I started thinking about why I love dogs so much,” Kristensen, 62, told the Associated Press.

“The dogs were a great support,” he said. “They lifted me up when I was sad.”

For more than 1,000 years, dogs have pulled sleds across the Arctic for Inuit seal hunters and fishermen. But this winter, in the town of Ilulissat, around 186 miles north of the Arctic Circle, that’s not possible.

Instead of gliding over snow and ice, Kristensen’s sled bounces over earth and rock. Gesturing to the hills, he said it’s the first time he can remember when there has been no snow — or ice in the bay — in January.

The rising temperatures in Ilulissat are causing the permafrost to melt, buildings to sink, and pipes to crack but they also have consequences that ripple across the rest of the world.

The nearby Sermeq Kujalleq glacier is one of the fastest-moving and most active on the planet, sending more icebergs into the sea than any other glacier outside Antarctica, according to the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO. As the climate has warmed, the glacier has retreated and carved off chunks of ice faster than ever before — significantly contributing to sea levels that are rising from Europe to the Pacific Islands, according to NASA.

The melting ice could reveal untapped deposits of critical minerals. Many Greenlanders believe that’s why President Donald Trump turned their island into a geopolitical hot spot with his demands to own it and previous suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.

In the 1980s, winter temperatures in Ilulissat regularly hovered around -13 Fahrenheit in winter, Kristensen said.

But nowadays, he said, there are many days when the temperature is above freezing — sometimes it can be as warm as 50 degrees.

Kristensen said he now has to collect snow for the dogs to drink during a journey because there isn’t any along the route.

Although Greenlanders have always adapted — and could make dog sleds with wheels in future — the loss of the ice is affecting them deeply, said Kristensen, who now runs his own company showing tourists his Arctic homeland.

“If we lose the dog sledding, we have large parts of our culture that we’re losing. That scares me,” he told AP, pressing his lips together and becoming tearful.

The sea ice is disappearing

In winter, hunters should be able to take their dogs far out on the sea ice, Kristensen told AP. The ice sheets act like “big bridges,” connecting Greenlanders to hunting grounds but also to other Inuit communities across the Arctic in Canada, the United States, and Russia.

“When the sea ice used to come, we felt completely open along the entire coast and we could decide where to go,” Kristensen said.

This January, there was no ice at all.

Driving a dog sled on ice is like being “completely without boundaries — like on the world’s longest and widest highway,” he said. Not having that is “a very great loss.”

Several years ago, Greenland’s government had to provide financial support to many families in the far north of the island after the sea ice did not freeze hard enough for hunting, said Sara Olsvig, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents Inuit people from across Arctic nations.

The warming weather also makes life more dangerous for fishermen who have swapped their dog sleds for boats, because there is more rain instead of snow, said Morgan Angaju Josefsen Røjkjær, Kristensen’s business partner.

When snow falls and is compressed, air is trapped between the flakes, giving the ice its brilliant white color. But when rain freezes, the ice that forms contains little air and looks more like glass.

A fisherman can see the white ice and try to avoid it, but the ice formed from rain takes on the color of the sea — and that’s dangerous because “it can sink you or throw you off your boat,” said Røjkjær.

Climate change, Olsvig said, “is affecting us deeply,” and is amplified in the Arctic, which is “warming three to four times faster than the global average.”

The glaciers are melting

Over the course of his lifetime, the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier has retreated by about 25 miles, said Karl Sandgreen, 46, the head of Ilulissat’s Icefjord Center, which is dedicated to documenting the glacier and its icebergs.

Looking out of the window at hills which would normally be covered with snow, Sandgreen described mountain rock revealed by melting ice and a previously ice-covered valley inside the fjord where “there’s nothing now.”

Pollution is also speeding up the ice melt, Sandgreen said, describing how Sermeq Kujalleq is melting from the top down, unlike glaciers in Antarctica which largely melt from the bottom up as sea temperatures rise.

This is exacerbated by two things: black carbon, or soot spewed from ship engines, and debris from volcanic eruptions. They blanket the snow and ice with dark material and reduce reflection of sunlight, instead absorbing more heat and speeding up melting. Black carbon has increased in recent decades with more ship traffic in the Arctic, and nearby Iceland has periodic volcanic eruptions.

Many Greenlanders told AP they believe the melting ice is the reason Trump — a leader who has called climate change “the greatest con job ever” — wants to own the island.

“His agenda is to get the minerals,” Sandgreen said.

Since Trump returned to office, fewer climate scientists from the U.S. have visited Ilulissat, Sandgreen said. The U.S president needs to “listen to the scientists,” who are documenting the impact of global warming, he said.

Teaching children about climate change

Kristensen said he tries to explain the consequences of global warming to the tourists who he takes out on dog sled rides or on visits to the icebergs. He said he tells them how Greenland’s glaciers are as important as the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

International summits, such as the United Nations climate talks in November in the Amazon gateway city of Belem, play a role, but it’s just as important to “teach children all over the world” about the importance of ice and oceans, alongside subjects like math, Kristensen said

“If we don’t start with the children, we can’t really do anything to help nature. We can only destroy it,” Kristensen said.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — The person who opened fire Monday during a youth hockey game at a Rhode Island ice rink was specifically targeting family members, killing an ex-wife and son as many fans dived for cover while a handful rushed the shooter to stop the attack, authorities said.

Pawtucket Chief of Police Tina Goncalves said the shooter’s ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and adult son Aidan Dorgan were killed and three others were injured: Rhonda Dorgan’s parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan, and a family friend Thomas Geruso, all of whom remained in critical condition Tuesday afternoon, Goncalves said

Police identified the shooter as 56-year-old Robert Dorgan, who died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Dorgan also went by the names Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorgano, authorities said.

Goncalves said there was “no indication” there would be violence at the ice rink in Pawtucket on Monday afternoon, adding that Dorgan had been to many hockey games to watch family members play before without incident.

Gender identity apparently was a contributing factor to Dorgan’s wife filing for divorce in 2020 after nearly 30 years of marriage.

Court filings show Rhonda Dorgan initially wrote “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits” as reasons for filing but crossed that out and wrote “irreconcilable differences which have caused the irremediable breakdown of the marriage.”

Court documents show that two shared the same last name even prior to getting married. Authorities have not provided additional details about the same name.

Under the name Roberta Dorgano, Dorgan posted on X that Rhonda Dorgan “hates the person who stole her husband” while posting about the couple’s marital troubles in 2018. A year later Dorgan wrote on social media: “Transwoman, 6 kids: wife – not thrilled,” and encouraged people to not let being transgender stop them from creating a family.

A day before the shooting, Dorgan responded on X to anti-transgender posts by actor Kevin Sorbo and Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones by saying that constant criticism of transgender people is “why we Go BERSERK.”

Brutal attack ended when fans rushed to stop shooter

Goncalves on Tuesday credited several “good Samaritans” who intervened and quickly stopped the attack

At least three bystanders were able to contain Dorgan in the middle of the stands as the crowd fled and ran around them, but said Dorgan was still able to reach for a second firearm and died of a self-inflicted gunshot, Goncalves said.

The hockey game was livestreamed by LiveBarn, a streaming platform for youth sporting events, whose videos have been shared on social media showing players on the ice as popping sounds are heard. Chaos quickly unfolds as players on benches dive for cover, those on the ice frantically skate toward exits and fans flee their seats.

LiveBarn’s social media account has been issuing warnings to those who shared the video that they do not have permission to do so.

Michael Steven, who recorded video after the shooting, recalled crying parents trying to locate their children outside the arena and young people being taken out on stretchers.

“It happens far too often in our nation,” Steven told reporters.

Members of the community held a vigil at Slatersville Congregational Church in North Smithfield in the evening Tuesday.

“It’s absolutely mind-boggling that this could happen to people we know and love and support through everything,” said Amy Goulet, whose son is a hockey player in the community.

Shooter known for bad temper, coworker says

Dorgan was an employee of General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, a ship building facility in Bath, Maine, that contracts with the U.S. Navy, David Hench, a spokesperson for the shipyard, said Tuesday. Coworkers said Dorgan often used the first name Roberta at work.

A colleague, Destiny Mackenzie, recalled that Dorgan used the women’s bathroom and said the two of them would often talk about family. Mackenzie said Dorgan’s ex-wife never came up in conversation but a hockey-playing son was a frequent topic.

“What was supposed to be some seniors’ only chance at playoff games is now ruined,” she wrote in a message to The Associated Press. “Images that these kids and family’s now have to live with. That’s who I send my condolences to is those families.”

Mackenzie said Dorgan had a bad temper that sometimes led to screaming matches with colleagues.

Another coworker said Dorgan appeared to be split on the issue of transgender acceptance, one second being proud of transitioning and the next, embarrassed. That coworker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of workplace reprisals, said they knew Dorgan owned guns but was unsure how many.

Dorgan briefly served in the Marine Corps, enlisting on April 26, 1988, according to military records provided by the service. Less than three months later, on July 13, Dorgan was separated from the service with the lowest military rank.

Maj. Jacoby Getty, a Marine Corps spokesman, told The Associated Press that the rapid discharge indicated Dorgan’s character “was incongruent with Marine Corps’ expectations and standards.”

Getty declined to provide more detail.

Monday’s shooting came nearly two months after the state was rocked by a shooting at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, as well as left a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor dead. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.

“Our state is grieving again,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement. “As governor, a parent, and a former coach, my heart breaks for the victims, families, students, and everyone impacted by the devastating shooting at Lynch Arena in Pawtucket.”

GENEVA, Switzerland — Iran announced the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday for live fire drills in a rare show of force as its negotiators held another round of indirect talks with the United States over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear program.

It was the first time Iran has announced the closure of the key international waterway, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes, since the U.S. began threatening Iran and rushing military assets to the region. It was not immediately clear if the strait had been closed, but such a rare and perhaps unprecedented move could further escalate tensions that threaten to ignite another war in the Middle East.

As the talks began, Iran’s state media announced that Iranian forces had fired live missiles toward the strait and would close it for several hours for “safety and maritime concerns.”

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meanwhile warned that “the strongest army in the world might sometimes receive such a slap that it cannot get back on its feet.”

Iranian diplomat sees ‘new window’ in talks

Iran’s foreign minister later adopted a different tone, expressing optimism about the talks and saying “a new window has opened” for reaching an agreement.

“We are hopeful that negotiations will lead to a sustainable and negotiated solution which can serve the interests of relevant parties and the broader region,” Abbas Araghchi told a U.N. disarmament conference after leading the Iranian delegation at the talks held in Geneva.

He added that Iran “remains fully prepared to defend itself against any threat or act of aggression,” and that the consequences of any attack on Iran would not be confined to its borders.

He made no specific mention of the military drills or the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump, who scrapped an earlier nuclear agreement with Iran during his first term, has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to agree to constrain its nuclear program. Iran has said it would respond with an attack of its own. Trump has also threatened Iran over the killing of protesters.

Vance says talks went well ‘in some ways’

Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, led the U.S. delegation at the latest indirect talks, held inside the residence of the Omani envoy to Geneva. Oman, a longtime regional mediator, had hosted an earlier round on Feb. 6.

There was progress in the talks but many details remained to be discussed, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Iranian delegation said they would present more detailed proposals in the next two weeks to narrow gaps, the official said.

“In some ways, it went well,” Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with Fox News Channel after he spoke with Witkoff and Kushner. “But in other ways, it was very clear that the president has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually acknowledge and work through.”

The U.S. also hosted talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday, days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the all-out Russian invasion of its neighbor.

Araghchi, who led the Iranian side, also said he met with Director-General Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday in Geneva. The Iranian minister said they discussed the agency’s role in helping to achieve an agreement.

A live fire drill

Iran said its Revolutionary Guard started a drill early Monday in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman, which are crucial international shipping routes. It was the second time in recent weeks that Iran has held a live fire drill in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran often carries out military drills in the strait that can impede maritime traffic, but the announced closure went a step further. Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Iran last closed the strait during the war with Iraq in the 1980s, when it mined the waterway.

He said the latest announcement was a clear message to the international community that any strike on Iran would have global impact.

Khamenei meanwhile stepped up his warnings to the U.S. over its buildup of military forces in the region.

“Of course a warship is a dangerous apparatus, but more dangerous than the warship is the weapon that can sink the warship,” Khamenei said, according to Iranian state TV.

He also warned the U.S. that “forcing the result of talks in advance is a wrong and foolish job.”

U.S. increases military presence

Last week, Trump said the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, was being sent to the Mideast. It will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying guided-missile destroyers, which have been in the region for three weeks.

U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Lincoln on the same day last week that Iran tried to stop a U.S.-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Gulf Arab nations have warned any attack could spiral into another regional conflict in a Mideast still reeling from the Israel-Hamas war.

The Trump administration is seeking a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons. Iran says it is not pursuing weapons and has so far resisted demands that it halt uranium enrichment on its soil or hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

The U.S. and Iran were in the middle of months of meetings when Israel’s launch of a 12-day war against Iran back in June halted the talks. The U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites during that war, likely destroying many of the centrifuges that spun uranium to near weapons-grade purity. Israel’s attacks decimated Iran’s air defenses and targeted its ballistic missile arsenal as well.

Before the June war, Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinians in Gaza are preparing to welcome the Muslim holy month of Ramadan under a fragile ceasefire deal, but many say the challenges of their daily lives and the losses of the Israel-Hamas war are dampening the typically festive spirit.

“There is no joy after we lost our family and loved ones,” said Gaza City resident Fedaa Ayyad. “Even if we try to cope with the situation, we can’t truly feel it in our hearts. … I am one of those who cannot feel the atmosphere of Ramadan.”

In Gaza, the first day of the holy month is Wednesday. During Ramadan, observant Muslims fast daily from dawn to sunset. In normal circumstances, the month often brings families and friends together to break their fast in joyous gatherings. For Muslims, it’s a time for increased worship, religious reflection, and charity.

Circumstances in Gaza are far from normal. Israel’s military offensive has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and caused widespread destruction and displaced most of the territory’s residents. Israel launched the offensive after Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage in their attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

As Gaza residents visited markets this week, some lamented that economic woes cast a pall on the month.

“There is no cash among the people. There is no work. It’s true that it is Ramadan, but Ramadan requires money,” said Gaza City resident Waleed Zaqzouq. He said merchants should consider people’s financial hardships.

Before the war, “people lived a dignified life,” he said. “The situation has completely changed in the war, meaning people have been devastated and worn down.”

The Oct. 10 U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal attempted to halt more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, there has been almost daily Israeli fire in Gaza.

Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. But it does not distinguish between civilians and militants.

Militants have carried out shooting attacks on Israeli troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Gaza’s winter has highlighted the grim conditions of the displaced residents and the many needs of the enclave and its people. Severe cold has caused child deaths in Gaza, and torrential rain has flooded displacement camps and collapsed already badly damaged buildings.

“There is much that has changed from this Ramadan to Ramadan before the war,” said Raed Koheel, who lives in Gaza City. “In the past, the atmosphere was more delightful. The streets were lit up with decorations. All streets had decorations. Our children were happy.”

Still, amid the hardships, some in the Gaza Strip have worked to bring a taste of Ramadan’s festivities.

Surrounded by ruins and crumbled buildings in Khan Younis, calligrapher and artist Hani Dahman dipped his brush in paint and wrote “Welcome, Ramadan” in Arabic as children watched.

“We are here in Khan Younis camp, trying to bring happiness to the hearts of children, women, men and entire families,” Dahman said. “We are … sending a message to the world that we are people who seek life.”

Strands of Ramadan decorations were hung among the ruins. Mohammed Taniri watched the decorations take shape.

“When they provide such beautiful, simple decorations, it brings joy to the children,” he said. “Despite all the hardships, they are trying to create a beautiful atmosphere.”

NEW ORLEANS — People leaned out of wrought iron balconies, hollering the iconic phrase “Throw me something, Mister” as a massive Mardi Gras parade rolled down New Orleans’ historic St. Charles Avenue on Tuesday.

Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, marks the climax and end of the weekslong Carnival season and a final chance for indulgence, feasting, and revelry before the Christian Lent period of sacrifice and reflection. The joyous goodbye to Carnival always falls the day before Ash Wednesday.

In Louisiana’s most populous city, which is world-famous for its Mardi Gras bash, people donned green, gold, and purple outfits, with some opting for an abundance of sequins and others showing off homemade costumes.

The revelers began lining the streets as the sun rose. They set up chairs, coolers, grills, and ladders — offering a higher vantage point.

As marching bands and floats filled with women wearing massive feathered headdresses passed by, the music echoing through the city streets, people danced and cheered. Others sipped drinks, with many opting for adult concoctions on the day of celebration rather than the usual morning coffee.

Each parade has its signature “throws” — trinkets that include plastic beads, candy, doubloons, stuffed animals, cups, and toys. Hand-decorated coconuts are the coveted item from Zulu, a massive parade named after the largest ethnic group in South Africa.

As a man, dressed like a crawfish — including red fabric claws for hands — caught one of the coconuts, he waved it around, the gold glitter on the husk glistening in the sun.

Sue Mennino was dressed in a white Egyptian-inspired costume, complete with a gold headpiece and translucent cape. Her face was embellished with glitter and electric blue eyeshadow.

“The world will be here tomorrow, but today is a day off and a time to party,” Mennino said.

The party isn’t solely confined to the parade route. Throughout the French Quarter, people celebrated in the streets, on balconies and on the front porches of shotgun-style homes.

One impromptu parade was led by a man playing a washboard instrument and dressed as a blue alligator — his papier-mâché tail dragging along the street, unintentionally sweeping up stray beads with it. A brass band played “The Saints” as people danced.

In Jackson Square, the costumed masses included a man painted from head to toe as a zebra, a group cosplaying as Hungry Hungry Hippos from the tabletop game and a diver wearing an antique brass and copper helmet.

“The people are the best part,” said Martha Archer, who was dressed as Madame Leota, the disembodied medium whose head appears within a crystal ball in the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disney amusement parks.

Archer’s face was painted blue and her outfit was a makeshift table that came up to her neck — giving the appearance that she was indeed a floating head.

“Everybody is just so happy,” she explained.

The good times will roll not just in New Orleans but across the state, from exclusive balls to the Cajun French tradition of the Courir de Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday Run — a rural event in Central Louisiana featuring costumed participants performing, begging for ingredients and chasing live chickens to be cooked in a communal gumbo.

Parades are also held in other Gulf Coast cities such as Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla., and there are other world-renowned celebrations in Brazil and Europe.

One of the quirkiest is an international Pancake Day competition pitting the women of Liberal, Kan., against the women of Olney, England. Pancakes are used because they were thought to be a good way for Christians to consume the fat they were supposed to give up during the 40 days before Easter.

Contestants must carry a pancake in a frying pan and flip the pancake at the beginning and end of the 415-yard race.

ATLANTA — Georgia high school students on Tuesday testified in court about the horrors of being shot during their algebra class, and recounted through tears seeing a classmate in a pool of blood, then seeing blood on their own bodies and fearing they might die.

Various students took the stand at the trial of Colin Gray, the father of Colt Gray, who investigators said had carefully planned the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school northeast of Atlanta that left two teachers and two students dead and several others wounded.

This is one of several cases around the nation where prosecutors are trying to hold parents responsible after their children are accused in fatal shootings.

A ninth-grade girl saw a hole in her wrist and began screaming moments after the gunfire began in her Algebra I class, she testified Tuesday.

“I was also worried that I was going to die and how that would affect my parents because my dad has a heart problem,” she said.

As paramedics carried her out of the school building, she saw Colt Gray on the floor with his hands behind his back and screamed obscenities at him as she passed by him.

“I remember yelling at him that we were kids, because we were kids,” she said. The faces of she and others who testified were not shown during a video livestream of the testimony because of their young ages.

Other students said the trauma was not limited to their physical wounds, as they spoke of being depressed, anxious and slow to trust people even now, more than a year later.

“Just seeing what I saw that day, it just sticks with me … and not being able to trust certain people, trust people,” said one girl who sustained a gunshot wound to her left shoulder.

Many of the students said they were still in counseling to deal with nightmares, fears of loud noises and anxiety at school and at home. “Even to go on a walk around my neighborhood, anxiety would fill my head, and I feel like somebody driving past me would shoot me,” a female student testified.

Colt Gray, who was 14 years old at the time of the shooting, faces 55 counts, including murder in the deaths of four people and 25 counts of aggravated assault. His father Colin Gray faces 29 counts, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Colin Gray should be held responsible for providing the weapon despite warnings about alleged threats his son made, a prosecutor said as the father’s trial began Monday.

“This case is about this defendant and his actions in allowing a child that he has custody over access to a firearm and ammunition after being warned that child was going to harm others,” Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said in his opening statement.

Prosecutors argue that amounts to cruelty to children, and second-degree murder is defined in Georgia law as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children.

But Brian Hobbs, an attorney for Colin Gray, said the shooting’s planning and timing “were hidden by Colt Gray from his father.”

“That’s the difference between tragedy and criminal liability,” he said. “You cannot hold someone criminally responsible for failing to predict what was intentionally hidden from them.”

With a semiautomatic rifle in his book bag, the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board, Colt Gray boarded the school bus, investigators said. He left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the gun and then shot people in a classroom and hallways, they said.

Smith told the jury that in September 2021, Colt Gray used a school computer to search the phrase, “how to kill your dad.” School resource officers were then sent to the home, but it was determined to be a “misunderstanding,” Smith said.

Sixteen months before the shooting, in May 2023, law enforcement acted on a tip from the FBI after a shooting threat was made online concerning an elementary school. The threat was traced to a computer at Gray’s home, Smith said.

Colin Gray was told about the threat and was asked whether his son had access to guns. Gray replied that he and his son “take this school shooting stuff very seriously,” according to Smith. Colt Gray denied that he made the threat and said that his online account had been hacked, Smith said.

That Christmas, Colin Gray gave his son the gun as a gift and continued to buy accessories after that, including “a lot of ammunition,” Smith said.

Colin Gray knew his son was obsessed with school shooters, even having a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., prosecutors have said. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent had testified that the teen’s parents had discussed their son’s fascination with school shooters but decided that it was in a joking context and not a serious issue.

Three weeks before the shooting, Gray received a chilling text from his son: “Whenever something happens, just know the blood is on your hands,” according to Smith.

Colin Gray was also aware his son’s mental health had deteriorated and had sought help from a counseling service weeks before the shooting, an investigator testified.

“We have had a very difficult past couple of years and he needs help. Anger, anxiety, quick to be volatile. I don’t know what to do,” Colin Gray wrote about his son.

But Smith said Colin Gray never followed through on concerns about getting his son admitted to an inpatient facility.