By Arit John, CNN

(CNN) — If Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has his way, the Democratic path to winning back the US House will run through his state.

Shapiro has committed to helping Democrats flip four Republican-held seats. He’s endorsed in three of the districts, including one where his chosen candidate is locked in a competitive primary. And in a bid to rebuild Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party, Shapiro recruited an ally as state chairman and donated $925,000 from his campaign account this cycle, including $400,000 in April, according to his campaign.

Winning those seats while running up the score in his own reelection would bolster Shapiro’s political resume if he decides to run for president in 2028. But there is also some political risk for Shapiro, who is betting he can help Democrats oust longtime Republican incumbents and boost his pick in the 7th District.

“Josh is not someone who puts his name behind something without a lot of oomph … he’s not someone who is going to want to be embarrassed,” said one Pennsylvania Democratic strategist who asked to be anonymous to speak candidly.

The governor surprised some Democrats and frustrated others when he recruited and endorsed Bob Brooks, the president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, to take on Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.

Brooks supporters argue he’s better positioned to win over working-class voters in the district than the other three candidates in the race: former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, former nonprofit executive and energy engineer Carol Obando-Derstine, and former Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure.

“I think the world of Josh Shapiro, and I think he’s a wonderful governor, and I just could not understand why he would want to involve himself in such a competitive primary,” said former Rep. Susan Wild, who recruited and is backing Obando-Derstine. “Invariably, you’re going to be pissing off several different candidates’ bases.”

The real challenge will come in November, when Democrats hope to defeat Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan, Scott Perry, and Mackenzie.

Bresnahan and Mackenzie were elected in 2024 after defeating Democratic incumbents in close races. Fitzpatrick and Perry are longtime Democratic targets who have withstood past efforts to unseat them.

Democrats hope that the favorable midterm environment will help get their candidates over the edge in all four races. They also note that President Donald Trump won’t be on the ballot to help boost turnout. Instead, Shapiro — who won his 2022 race by 15 points — will be at the top of the ticket.

“Governor Shapiro is fighting to keep getting stuff done for our Commonwealth and to put a stop to Trump’s chaos, cruelty, and corruption that is harming Pennsylvania families,” Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder said in a statement. “That means winning this November – and the Governor is going to keep showing up, delivering his message, and working to elect leaders up and down the ballot who will actually fight for Pennsylvanians and help put an end to Washington’s corruption and disastrous policies.”

A crowded primary in the Lehigh Valley

Democrats’ best pick-up opportunity in the state may be the 7th District. Mackenzie beat Wild in 2024 by just 1 percentage point. Wild, who flipped the district in 2018, chose not to run again.

Brooks, who has been endorsed by a broad range of state and national politicians, has made Shapiro’s support the centerpiece of his pitch to voters. His campaign website’s “red box” — where campaigns signal strategies to super PACs and outside groups — stresses that it is “most important that likely Democratic primary voters learn that Brooks is endorsed by Governor Josh Shapiro.” The governor held a fundraiser for Brooks last December and appea

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — The path to identifying Rex Heuermann as the Gilgo Beach serial killer began with Shannan Gilbert.

Gilbert, a 23-year-old sex worker, had gone missing in May 2010 after a visit to a client in Oak Beach, a Long Island, New York, community near Gilgo. Spurred by her mother, police began to search for her – and ultimately uncovered the remains of nearly a dozen people, mostly young female sex workers, along a stretch of Ocean Parkway.

Yet when Heuermann pleaded guilty to murdering eight women earlier this month, Gilbert was not among the victims.

In fact, Gilbert is one of at least four people whose remains were found along the parkway who have not been connected to Heuermann’s killing spree. Aside from Gilbert, the deaths of a mother-daughter pair have been tied to a different suspected killer in an ongoing murder case. Meanwhile, the remains of an Asian person found in 2011 have still not been identified.

“Gilgo Beach can be described as a dumping ground,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly said late last year in announcing an arrest in the mother-daughter killings. “There are a number of bodies that are not connected to the Gilgo Beach killer. It’s a wasteland out there. It’s probably a good place to drop a body.”

Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect, is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at a hearing June 17. He pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women – Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, Sandra Costilla – and admitted to killing an eighth, Karen Vergata. Costilla was the only victim whose remains were found elsewhere.

Here’s a closer look at the four other people found dead along Long Island’s Ocean Parkway in 2010 to 2011 and the status of their investigations.

Shannan Gilbert

Featured in the non-fiction book “Lost Girls,” and later in a Netflix film starring Amy Ryan, Gilbert may be the best known of the Gilgo Beach victims – even though officials have not connected her death to Heuermann.

In the early morning hours of May 1, 2010, Gilbert, a sex worker who advertised on Craisglist, was driven to a home in Oak Beach to meet a client, according to Suffolk County police. In the house, Gilbert called 911 and repeatedly said, “There is somebody after me,” according to audio released in 2022.

She fled the home and asked for help from multiple neighbors, who also called 911, and then went into a nearby marsh, according to police.

Her skeletonized remains were found in December 2011 in the marsh, partially entangled in overgrown shrubbery, the Suffolk County Office of the Medical Examiner wrote. Her cause and manner of death were listed as “undetermined.”

However, an independent autopsy performed by former New York chief medical examiner Michael Baden concluded there was “insufficient information to determine a definite cause of death, but the autopsy findings are consistent with homicidal strangulation.” He noted that part of her neck bone was missing from her remains – parts that may be fractured during a homicidal strangulation.

Suffolk County police cleared the driver and client of any criminal

By Alejandra Jaramillo, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday brushed off remarks by Prince Harry asking the US for more action to end the war in Ukraine, saying the British royal does not speak for the United Kingdom.

“I know one thing, Prince Harry is not speaking for the UK, that’s for sure. I think I am speaking for the UK more than Prince Harry. But I appreciate his advice very much,” Trump said, before quipping: “How’s he doing? How’s his wife?”

“Please give him my regards,” Trump added.

Harry recently visited Ukraine, where he called on the US to increase support for Kyiv and urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “choose a different course.”

King Charles III and Queen Camilla are scheduled to visit Washington next week, including stops at the White House and the US Capitol.

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By Jessie Yeung, CNN

(CNN) — Anxiety is growing at Everest Base Camp, more than 5,300 meters above sea level.

Hundreds of climbers and sherpas have gathered, eager to summit the world’s most famous mountain as the annual spring climbing season kicks off – but there’s one problem.

A massive serac, or a block of glacial ice, is hindering the route and keeping alpinists in limbo as they wait for it to gradually collapse and clear the way.

Specialized high-altitude workers known as “icefall doctors” have been on site for weeks already, working to map the serac and its position in the notorious Khumbu Icefall, a steep portion of a glacier that makes up one of the most treacherous sections of the Everest route.

At the start of the season, the “doctors” typically “fix” the route by setting up ropes, ladders and other equipment for climbers to use. But this year, they haven’t yet been able to do this because of the unstable serac.

“Icefall doctors are trying everything in their power. They’re using latest technology, 3D imagery, drones, everything to try and get a clear picture as to timing and how feasible it would be for the serac to actually collapse, for it to be safe enough to go up,” said Adriana Brownlee, co-owner of expedition company AGA Adventures, which guides climbers on their Everest attempts.

“There’s been a few ideas flown around about salt and everything, but we just need to let nature take its course,” she added. “If the mountains say no, it’s no, at the end of the day.”

That has left climbers gathering at base camp, with more people arriving as the days go on – raising concerns of potential traffic jams near the summit when the route does eventually open.

Bianca Adler, who is hoping to become the youngest Australian to summit Everest at just 18, reached the base camp on April 20. Before the final summit push, climbers need several days to do “rotations” – climbing up and down several camps on the way in order for their bodies to adjust to the high altitudes.

She was initially planning to begin her rotations in the coming days, but that has been delayed by the serac.

In the meantime, she and other climbers are filling their time by training – doing smaller hikes, climbing nearby ice towers and practicing walking over metal ladders used to cross deep crevasses.

“These icefall doctors have been working on the mountain for over 20 years and they’re really experienced in their job. I trust that they’re doing their best to make sure that everyone has a safe climbing season,” she said.

CNN has reached out to Nepal’s Department of Tourism and the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, which oversees the icefall doctors, for comment.

‘Just respect the mountain’

There’s good reason for caution: seracs have caused fatal disasters in the past.

In 2014, a gigantic serac on a hanging shoulder collapsed, causing an avalanche in the Khumbu Icefall, killing more than a dozen sherpas who were fixing the route ahead of the climbing season. It was, at the time, the deadliest single accident on Everest – before an earthquake caused another avalanche the following year.

Just a few years later, in the fall of 2019, mountaineer Garrett Madison abandoned an Everest expedition due to another serac causing unsafe conditions in the Khumbu Icefall.

It’s not as simple as just trekking across the chunk of ice. When groups of people walk over the icefall, the vibrations of their movement could destabilize the serac, said Gelje Sherpa, the other co-founder of AGA Adventures, who

Por Elizabeth Wolfe y Rebekah Riess, CNN

Las fuerzas del orden de tres estados frustraron los planes de un expolicía con experiencia que, según afirman, expresó su deseo de hacer daño a personas negras y amenazó con perpetrar un tiroteo masivo en un festival de Nueva Orleans.

Christopher Gillum, de 45 años y residente de Carolina del Norte, fue reportado como desaparecido el martes por su familia, y la policía rápidamente descubrió que estaba armado y representaba un posible riesgo para sí mismo y para los demás, según informó el Departamento de Policía de Burlington.

Al día siguiente, Gillum fue arrestado a más de 960 kilómetros de distancia, en Florida, acusado por la policía de Louisiana de proferir amenazas terroristas.

“Las autoridades obtuvieron información de que Gillum planeaba viajar a un festival en Nueva Orleans para perpetrar un tiroteo masivo y luego morir a manos de la policía”, informó la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Okaloosa, que arrestó a Gillum.

Todavía no está claro cómo las autoridades se enteraron del supuesto complot, los detalles de la amenaza y qué pudo haber motivado al veterano agente de la ley con más de una década de experiencia policial.

Si bien las autoridades no han confirmado a qué festival apuntaba Gillum, su arresto se produjo justo un día antes de que la ciudad de Nueva Orleans diera comienzo a su Festival Anual de Jazz y Patrimonio, que atrae a unos 400.000 asistentes cada año.

La Policía Estatal de Louisiana ha declarado no tener conocimiento de otras amenazas creíbles, pero la ciudad de Nueva Orleans y sus residentes son plenamente conscientes de la realidad de los ataques públicos.

Otro atentado planeado contra la ciudad fue frustrado en diciembre, casi un año después de una agresión mortal que dejó 14 muertos en el Barrio Francés.

Gillum ahora espera ser extraditado de Florida a Louisiana. Esto es lo que sabemos:

La familia de Gillum lo reportó como desaparecido el martes, según informó a The Associated Press el teniente Clint Lyons de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Alamance en Carolina del Norte. Lyons señaló que Gillum tiene antecedentes de autolesiones.

Según declaró un agente de la ley a CNN, su familia indicó que poseía una pistola Glock y que había expresado interés en hacer daño a personas negras.

A pesar de sus comentarios sobre las personas negras, Lyons declaró a la AP que no existían motivos penales para detener a Gillum en ese momento “porque no había ninguna víctima”.

Según Lyons, Gillum había abandonado el estado antes de que la policía pudiera redactar la documentación necesaria para internarlo involuntariamente en un centro psiquiátrico.

Los investigadores del condado de Alamance contactaron el martes a la policía de la ciudad de Burlington para alertarlos sobre el caso.

A medida que avanzaba la investigación, las autoridades “encontraron motivos para creer que Christopher Gillum representaba un peligro para sí mismo y para los demás”, indicó el Departamento de Policía de Burlington en un comunicado.

Según la policía de Burlington, los investigadores utilizaron lectores de matrículas para determinar que Gillum se dirigía a Florida y comenzaron a contactar con otros organismos policiales para intentar localizarlo.

Posteriormente, enviaron un boletín de inteligencia a agencias como la Policía Estatal de Louisiana y el Departamento de Policía de Nueva Orleans.

Según informaron los investigadores, estos utilizaron una extensa r