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The head of the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Thursday accused Maryland authorities of negligence ahead of last year’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, near the Port of Baltimore.NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told a press briefing that the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) should have “conducted a vulnerability assessment” of the bridge in case a ship collided with it.On March 26, 2024, the Singapore-flagged M/V Dali lost power and plowed into a support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse and killing six road workers who had been filling potholes overnight.If the assessment had been completed “the MDTA would have been aware that this critical, essential bridge was above the AASHTO threshold of risk for catastrophic collapse from a vessel collision,” Homendy said, referring to a guide by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).An NTSB investigation determined the assessment would have found the bridge “was almost 30 times greater than the risk threshold” for bridges deemed critical and essential.Homendy also warned that many other bridges across the United States were at risk of a similar catastrophe.”The 30 owners of 68 bridges over navigable waterways frequented by oceangoing vessels are likely unaware of their bridges’ risk of catastrophic collapse from a vessel collision,” she said.Homendy urged the bridges’ owners to reassess “the potential need to implement countermeasures to reduce the bridges’ vulnerability.”The list of bridges at risk includes the nearby Chesapeake Bay Bridge outside Baltimore. Preparations for rebuilding the Key Bridge — an estimated $2 billion endeavor — are already underway, according to the MDTA, with the new bridge expected to reopen to traffic by 2028.

US President Donald Trump demanded Thursday that courts stop blocking his agenda, edging closer to a constitutional showdown after a judge suggested the administration ignored an order to block summary deportations.A federal judge, in a strongly worded order, gave the Justice Department until Tuesday to explain why it went ahead with flights to prison in El Salvador of Venezuelan migrants, some of whom say they committed no crime and were targeted only for their tattoos.Trump, in a scathing attack on the judiciary that would have been unthinkable coming from most presidents, demanded that the Supreme Court intervene.”It is our goal to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and such a high aspiration can never be done if Radical and Highly Partisan Judges are allowed to stand in the way of JUSTICE,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post aimed at Chief Justice John Roberts.”STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” Trump wrote in all capital letters.”If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!”Roberts, who was nominated by Republican George W. Bush, a day earlier issued a rare rebuke by the country’s top justice to remarks of the president after Trump called for the impeachment of the judge who ruled on the immigration case.”For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a brief statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”James Boasberg, the chief judge of the US District Court in Washington, on Saturday had issued an emergency order against the deportation of Venezuelans as they sought legal recourse.He said that two flights in the air needed to turn around. El Salvador’s President Nayyib Bukele, who has offered to take in prisoners on the cheap in Latin America’s largest prison, responded on social media: “Oopsie… Too late.”In a new order on Thursday, Boasberg said that an acting field office director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement explained that the Trump administration was considering justifying its actions by saying the issue was a matter of “state secrets.””This is woefully insufficient,” Boasberg wrote, saying that “the Government again evaded its obligations.”He said that a regional official in charge of immigration enforcement was not in a position to attest to cabinet-level arguments against a federal court.He gave the Trump administration until Tuesday to explain why it did not violate his restraining order.

The NBA’s Boston Celtics are being sold to the head of a California private equity firm for $6.1 billion, a record price for a US sports franchise, the club’s owners confirmed Thursday.Boston Basketball Partners LLC said in a statement it had agreed to sell the iconic team to William Chisholm, managing director and co-founder of Symphony Technology Group.”If approved, the new ownership group will buy a majority of the team this summer at an initial valuation of $6.1 billion,” the statement said, confirming the purchase price reported by US media.That’s the highest ever offered for a North American sports team, surpassing the $6.05 billion paid for the NFL’s Washington Commanders in 2023.The sale of the Celtics, the current NBA champions, still requires the approval of the NBA Board of Governors.The team is one of the most storied in the league’s history, with a record 18 championships.Chisholm, a Massachusetts native, said in a statement he has been “die-hard fan Celtics fan my entire life.””I understand how important the Celtics are to the city of Boston — the role the team plays in the community is different than any other city in the country,” Chisholm said. “I also understand that there is a responsibility as a leader of the organization to the people of Boston, and I am up for this challenge.”The new ownership group also includes current Celtics co-owner Robert Hale; Bruce Beal Jr, president of Related Companies; and the global investment firm, Sixth Street.The Grousbeck family and Steve Pagliuca purchased the Celtics for $360 million in 2002.Wyc Grousbeck will continue in his roles of chief executive officer and Governor, overseeing team operations, through the 2027-28 season.Chisholm said he was looking forward to learning from Grousbeck along with Celtics president Brad Stevens and head coach Joe Mazzulla.The Boston Globe reported that three other buyers had been under consideration: Celtics co-owner Pagliuca; Stan Middleman, a co-owner of Major League Baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies; and The Friedkin Group.Pagliuca released a statement after news of the pending sale broke, saying he “worked tirelessly to put together a strong bid” and was “saddened” that his offer to buy the team was not selected.”We made a fully guaranteed and financed offer at a record price, befitting the best sports fans in the world, and with all the capital coming from individuals who are fully committed to winning on and off the court,” Pagliuca said in his statement.”We had no debt or private equity money that would potentially hamstring our ability to compete in the future. We have felt it was the best offer for the Celtics.”I will never stop being a Celtic, and if the announced transaction does not end up being finalized, my partners and I are ready to check back into the game and bring it home, to help continue what the Celtics do best — win,” he added.Three NBA teams were sold in 2023: the Phoenix Suns for $4 billion, the Milwaukee Bucks for $3.5 billion and the Dallas Mavericks for $3.5 billion.

Do American students really rank at the bottom of international comparisons and does the United States really spend more per pupil than any other country? Those are the false claims made by President Donald Trump and his backers to justify shutting the Department of Education. Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to close the department, which was created in 1979. While it cannot be shuttered without the approval of Congress, the department will likely be starved of funds and staff by the order.The Trump administration had already sought to gut the department in early March by shedding almost 1,800 jobs, or about half of its staff, which according to Education Secretary Linda McMahon would help “our scores go up.”  – Do US students really rank last? False -“No matter how you cut it, the US is not scoring at the bottom of the international rankings,” Nat Malkus, senior fellow and the deputy director of education policy at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, told AFP. “The US ranks in the middle of the pack on most international assessments.”Fifteen-year-old US students placed above average in reading and close to average in math on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test.Two other international tests, the PIRLS in 2021 for reading and the TIMSS in 2023 for science and mathematics, also place American kids within the average of the countries tested.National tests did show a drop off after 2019, but that was partly attributed to disruptions caused by Covid shutdowns, with similar patterns seen in other countries.But the picture is nowhere near as catastrophic as many of Trump’s conservative supporters claim.Nationally, in 2024, 76 percent of fourth-grade students (ages 9-10) and 61 percent of eighth-grade students (ages 13-14) met or exceeded the expected baseline in mathematics, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results. In reading, they were 60 percent and 67 percent above the minimum, respectively.It is also false that students “have fallen behind” since the creation of the DoE, a claim made by Republican Representative Byron Donalds of Florida.For example, the average math proficiency of fourth-graders has increased by 24 points since 1990, and the average reading proficiency has not changed since 1992, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).Malkus at the AEI said the “Department could improve how it supports US education” but cannot “be held responsible for student outcomes.”- Highest cost per student in the world? False -Trump has claimed “we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, and we’re ranked at the bottom of the list.” He says his “dream” is to “move education into the states so that the states instead of bureaucrats working in Washington can run education” — as proposed in the conservative “Project 2025″ program that has guided the new administration. But that’s already the case. Each US state runs its own education system, with the DoE primarily responsible for administering student loans offered by the federal government, assisting disadvantaged students and enforcing rights. While it does spend more per student than most countries, the United States ranked fifth in 2019 and sixth in 2021 in the OECD ranking for spending per primary and secondary student, far behind Luxembourg and Norway. And that spending is the responsibility of the states, with the federal government representing only about 13 percent of total funding.”In the US only 4 percent of total federal spending is devoted to education, compared to about 10 percent on average in the countries in the OECD,” said Fernando Reimers, a Harvard professor specializing in international education.Several Democratic states, parents associations and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have all filed appeals against the dismantling of the department.The AFT said in a press release that shutting the department will hurt “ten million students who rely on financial aid to go to college or pursue a trade” as well as “millions of students with disabilities and students living in poverty.” 

The United States said Thursday it refused a request from Mexico for water due to shortfalls in sharing by its southern neighbor, as President Donald Trump ramps up a battle on another front.The State Department said it was the first time that the United States has rejected a request by Mexico for special delivery of water, which would have gone to the border city of Tijuana.”Mexico’s continued shortfalls in its water deliveries under the 1944 water-sharing treaty are decimating American agriculture– particularly farmers in the Rio Grande valley,” the State Department’s bureau handling Latin America said in a post on X.The 1944 treaty, which governs water allocation from the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers, has come under growing strain in recent years due to the pressures of climate change and the burgeoning populations and agriculture in parched areas.The treaty sets five-year cycles for water deliveries by Mexico, with the latest set to end in October 2025.US farmers and lawmakers complain that their southern neighbor has waited until the end of each cycle and has been coming up short in the latest period, as Mexico struggles with drought, while the United States has sent its share of water regularly.A year ago, the last sugar mill in southern Texas shut down, with operators blaming a lack of water deliveries from Mexico.After 18 months of negotiations, the United States and Mexico reached an agreement in November, days after Trump’s election, to improve deliveries.Hailed by the then administration of Joe Biden, the understanding calls for Mexico to work with the United States to deliver water in a more timely way, including earlier in each five-year cycle.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday before the State Department announcement that the water issue was “being dealt with” through the two countries’ boundary and water commission.”There’s been less water. That’s part of the problem,” she told reporters.- Water worries on both sides -Tijuana, a sprawling city on the border with the US state of California that has become a hub for manufacturing, depends on the Colorado River for about 90 percent of its water and has suffered waste from creaky infrastructure.The Colorado River, also a major water source for Los Angeles and Las Vegas, has seen its water levels shrink due to drought and heavy agricultural consumption in the southwestern United States, with around half of its water going to raise beef and dairy cattle.In southern Texas, farmers have voiced fear for the future of cotton, citrus and other farming products without more regular water deliveries from across the border in Mexico.US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Wednesday announced $280 million in relief funds for Rio Grande Valley farmers.”Texas farmers are in crisis because of Mexico’s noncompliance,” Senator Ted Cruz of Texas wrote on X, praising the State Department’s water decision.”I will work with the Trump administration to pressure Mexico into complying and to get water to Texas farmers.”The water dispute comes as Trump takes a tough approach to Latin American nations, especially on migration.Trump has vowed to end arrivals of undocumented migrants, who largely come from Central America and Venezuela but transit through Mexico.Trump deployed troops to the border and announced painful tariffs on Mexico, although he has since put them on hold until April 2.

Hollywood filmmaker Carl Rinsch was hired by Netflix to make a new science-fiction series. Instead, federal prosecutors say, he embezzled more than $11 million from the streaming giant and spent it on luxury cars and crypto. Rinsch, known for the 2013 film “47 Ronin” starring Keanu Reeves, was indicted this week on charges of wire fraud and money laundering and could face decades in prison if convicted in connection with the alleged scam. The indictment was filed in a federal court in New York and unsealed on Tuesday. The 47-year-old filmmaker was arrested the same day. “Carl Rinsch allegedly stole more than $11 million from a prominent streaming platform to finance lavish purchases and personal investments instead of completing a promised television series,” FBI Assistant Director Leslie Backschies said in a statement.Although Netflix is never named in the filing, Rinsch was previously reported to be in a dispute with the company over a planned series initially titled “White Horse” and later renamed “Conquest.”The indictment says the show was meant to focus on a scientist who created a group of powerful clones “banished to a walled area in a Brazilian city, where they began developing advanced technology and came into conflict with humans and each other.”It features still photos from “six short-form episodes” that were apparently completed by Rinsch to pitch the show. He ultimately entered into a deal with Netflix to create a full season of episodes.That deal was reached “in or about 2018,” the indictment says. Netflix then paid “approximately $44 million” for the show’s production between 2018 and 2019, during the peak of the streaming boom.Those funds were transferred to Rinsch’s production company, and his request for an additional $11 million to purportedly finish the project was granted.But Rinsch allegedly quickly transferred the money through a number of accounts for his own personal use.Among the purchases Rinsch allegedly made were luxury clothing and furniture, a Ferrari and five Rolls-Royces, dodgy stock market buys, investing in cryptocurrency, and paying for lawyers to sue the streamer and handle his divorce.”The FBI will continue to reel in any individual who seeks to defraud businesses,” Backschies said.Netflix declined to comment when contacted by AFP about the case. 

Our earliest years are a time of rapid learning, yet we typically cannot recall specific experiences from that period — a phenomenon known as infantile amnesia.A new study published in Science on Thursday challenges assumptions about infant memory, showing that young minds do indeed form memories. The question remains, however, why these memories become difficult to retrieve later in life.”I’ve always been fascinated by this mysterious blank spot we have in our personal history,” Nick Turk-Browne, professor of psychology at Yale and the study’s senior author, told AFP.Around the age of one, children become extraordinary learners — acquiring language, walking, recognizing objects, understanding social bonds, and more. “Yet we remember none of those experiences — so there’s a sort of mismatch between this incredible plasticity and learning ability that we have,” he said.Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, hypothesized that early memories are repressed, though science has since largely dismissed the idea of an active suppression process. Instead, modern theories focus on the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for episodic memory, which is not fully developed in infancy.Turk-Browne, however, was intrigued by clues from previous behavioral research. Since babies cannot verbally report memories before acquiring language, their tendency to gaze longer at familiar things provides important hints.Recent rodent studies monitoring brain activity have also shown that engrams — patterns of cells that store memories — form in the infant hippocampus but become inaccessible over time — though they can be artificially reawakened through a technique that uses light to stimulate neurons.But until now, pairing observations of infants with brain imaging had been out of reach, as babies are famously uncooperative when it comes to sitting still inside a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) machine — the device that tracks blood flow to “see” brain activity.- Psychedelic patterns -To overcome this challenge, Turk-Browne’s team used methods his lab has refined over the years — working with families to incorporate pacifiers, blankets, and stuffed animals; holding babies still with pillows; and using psychedelic background patterns to keep them engaged.Still, inevitable wiggling led to blurry images that had to be discarded, but the team accounted for this by running hundreds of sessions.In total, 26 infants participated — half under a year old, half over — while their brains were scanned during a memory task adapted from adult studies.First, they were shown images of faces, scenes, or objects. Later, after viewing other images, they were presented with a previously seen image alongside a new one.”We quantify how much time they spend looking at the old thing they’ve seen before, and that’s a measure of their memory for that image,” said Turk-Browne.By comparing brain activity during successful memory formation versus forgotten images, the researchers confirmed that the hippocampus is active in memory encoding from a young age.This was true for 11 of 13 infants over a year old but not for those under one. They also found that babies who performed best on memory tasks showed greater hippocampal activity.”What we can conclude accurately from our study is that infants have the capacity to encode episodic memories in the hippocampus starting around one year of age,” said Turk-Browne.- Forgotten Memories -“The ingenuity of their experimental approach should not be understated,” researchers Adam Ramsaran and Paul Frankland wrote in an accompanying Science editorial.But what remains unresolved is what happens to these early memories. Perhaps they are never fully consolidated into long-term storage — or perhaps they persist but become inaccessible.Turk-Browne suspects the latter and is now leading a new study testing whether infants, toddlers, and children can recognize video clips recorded from their own perspective as younger babies.Early, tentative results suggest these memories might persist until around age three before fading. Turk-Browne is particularly intrigued by the possibility that such fragments could one day be reactivated later in life.

The United States fell to its lowest happiness ranking ever partly due to a rise in the number of Americans eating their meals alone, an annual UN-sponsored report said Thursday.Finland ranked as the world’s happiest country for the eighth straight year in the World Happiness Report, with locals and experts thanking its grand lakes and strong welfare system for boosting its mood.Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, once again ranked as the unhappiest country in the world.The United States fell to 24th place, its lowest score since the report was first published in 2012, when it recorded its highest showing at number 11.”The number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53 percent over the past two decades,” the authors said, noting that sharing meals “is strongly linked with well-being”.In 2023, roughly one in four Americans reported eating all their meals alone the previous day, the report said.”The increasing number of people who eat alone is one reason for declining well-being in the United States,” it said.It also noted that the United States was one of few countries to see a rise of so-called “deaths of despair” — from suicide or substance abuse — at a time when those deaths are declining in a majority of countries.The report surveyed people worldwide in 2022-2024, before US President Donald Trump’s shakeup of national and global affairs since returning to the White House in January.Nordic countries all stayed among the 10 happiest, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland, which slightly extended its lead over runner-up Denmark.Meanwhile, Costa Rica and Mexico entered the top 10 for the first time, at the sixth and 10th spot respectively.The happiness ranking is based on a three-year average of individuals’ self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, as well as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption.- Finns ‘relatively satisfied’ -“It seems that Finnish people are relatively satisfied with their lives,” Frank Martela, an assistant professor specialised in well-being and happiness research at Aalto University, told AFP.It could largely be explained by Finns living in “quite a well-functioning society”, he said.”Democracy is functioning well, we have free elections, free speech, low levels of corruption and all of these have shown to predict higher levels of national well-being,” Martela said.He added that the Nordic countries also all have relatively strong welfare systems — with parental leave, unemployment benefits and mostly universal healthcare — which also contribute to higher levels of well-being on average.Eveliina Ylitolonen, a 23-year-old student in Helsinki, said she believed that Finns’ focus on enjoying beautiful nature could help explain the consistently high level of happiness in the Nordic country, known for its deep forests and over 160,000 lakes.”Nature is an important part of this happiness,” Ylitolonen told AFP.Jamie Sarja-Lambert, a professional video gamer who moved to Finland from the United Kingdom, agreed.”Seems like everyone is a lot more in touch with nature, going outside and socialising, more of a community,” he told AFP.This year, the authors of the happiness report said new evidence indicates that engaging in acts of generosity and believing in the kindness of others are “significant predictors of happiness, even more so than earning a higher salary”.They also noted that in general “people are too pessimistic about the kindness of their communities”, and that “the return rate of lost wallets is much higher than people expect”.Nordic countries also “rank among the top places for expected and actual return of lost wallets”.

Donald Trump promised a new “Golden Age” for America. In the Oval Office, at least, he has lived up to his promise with a blingy makeover.The Republican has decked out the inner sanctum of the US presidency with gilded trophies and gold-plated, Trump-branded coasters, and filled almost every available inch of wall space with portraits of his predecessors.Almost every day seems to bring something new. This week Trump unveiled a copy of the Declaration of Independence — the historic document triggering America’s freedom from the British monarchy 250 years ago.Far more than during his first term, it’s as if the 78-year-old former reality TV star and billionaire property mogul is creating something that is part-studio and part-exclusive real estate.”President Trump is very good at playing the role of Donald Trump,” Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media, told AFP.”The show is the point. Part of the show is the bling. It would be surprising if Trump did not remake the Oval Office into a TV set that reflected his brand.”- Presidential portraits -But there’s also a serious political message behind Trump’s frenetic redecoration.The Oval Office is the most potent symbol of American power, a backdrop to his frequent news conferences and televised meetings with foreign dignitaries — including a recent meltdown between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.It was, therefore, no coincidence when the gallery of presidential portraits got a new addition: the 19th-century president James Polk.Under Polk, the 11th US president, the United States saw its biggest period of territorial expansion by taking in huge swaths of the west coast, the southwest and Texas. It was a clear piece of political symbolism at a time that Trump is alarming allies by openly talking about annexing Greenland, reclaiming the Panama Canal and taking over Gaza.- ‘Would Biden do this?’ -Each president picks most of their decor from similar sources including the White House art collection, but they still manage to stamp a very personal touch on the Oval.The difference from Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden could hardly be greater — as the 47th president himself is well aware.”Do you think Joe Biden would do this? I don’t think so,” Trump said Tuesday as he pulled back light-protecting drapes on the Declaration of Independence in an interview with Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle.”Trump also pointed out gold cherubs newly installed above the doorways. “They say angels bring good luck,” he said.Biden’s Oval was a relative model of restraint with five portraits around the famed fireplace, including wartime president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s directly above the hearth.Trump has nine — and that doesn’t count others near his desk, including Republican icon Ronald Reagan’s.While Biden had a sprawling Swedish ivy plant that reputedly dated back to John F. Kennedy on the mantelpiece, Trump has seven ornate gilded vessels, some of which are more than 200 years old.And while both Trump and Biden had a bust of civil rights leader Martin Luther King on display, Trump has brought back the bust of Britain’s World War II prime minister Winston Churchill that he had during his first term.- Framed mugshot -The ostentatious display should probably not come as a surprise for a man who announced his first presidential run by descending on a golden escalator at Trump Tower in New York. The billionaire has long branded everything he can with his name, from buildings to bibles.And Trump’s makeover rarely shies away from promoting both his own brand and an image of strength that has been central to his political career.Recently, one item that has been on permanent display is a large map identifying the “Gulf of America,” which the Trump administration has renamed from the Gulf of Mexico.Trump is even planning to pave over the famed Rose Garden that the Oval Office overlooks, to give it the patio-like feel of his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.”The grass just doesn’t work,” Trump told Fox, adding that it gets “soaking wet.”One of Trump’s proudest touches, though, is a very unconventional portrait that hangs near those of his illustrious forebears.Right outside the Oval Office in a gold frame hangs a photo of Trump — his 2023 mugshot, as featured on the cover of a tabloid newspaper, from when he was booked in Georgia for alleged attempts to interfere with the 2020 election.

An Oklahoma man convicted of killing a woman during a home robbery was put to death by lethal injection on Thursday, the third execution in the United States this week.Wendell Grissom, 56, was sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of Amber Matthews, 23, who was shot in the head while trying to protect a friend’s two young daughters.Grissom was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the execution process began at the state penitentiary in McAlester, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said in a statement.It said the execution was carried out using a three-drug protocol: Midazolam, which causes sedation, Vecuronium Bromide, which halts respiration, and Potassium Chloride, which stops the heart.According to court documents, Grissom, a truck driver, and another man, Jessie Johns, broke into the home of Dreu Kopf, a friend of Matthews, with the intention of committing a robbery.Grissom shot and wounded Kopf and killed Matthews while she was hiding in a bedroom in an attempt to shield Kopf’s two children.Johns was sentenced to life in prison without parole.There have been three executions in the United States this week and a fourth — in Florida — is scheduled for later on Thursday.Edward James, 63, is to be executed by lethal injection for the 1993 rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl, Toni Neuner, and the murder of Betty Dick, 58, her grandmother.Jessie Hoffman, 46, was put to death by nitrogen gas in the southern state of Louisiana on Tuesday.Hoffman, who was convicted of the 1996 rape and murder of Molly Elliott, a  28-year-old advertising executive, was the first person executed in Louisiana in 15 years.Only one other US state, Alabama, has carried out executions by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The method has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane.Aaron Gunches, 53, who was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of Ted Price, his girlfriend’s ex-husband, was executed in Arizona on Wednesday.Gunches had abandoned legal efforts to halt his execution.The vast majority of US executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 have been performed using lethal injection, although South Carolina executed a man by firing squad on March 7.There have been nine executions in the United States this year, following 25 last year.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”