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Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the last name of Chiyo Miyako.

TOKYO (AP) — The world’s oldest person has died in southern Japan at the age of 117.

An official in the town of Kikai says Nabi Tajima died in a hospital on Saturday shortly before 8 p.m. She had been hospitalized since January.

Tajima was born on Aug. 4, 1900, and reportedly had more than 160 descendants, including great-great-great grandchildren. Her town of Kikai is in Kagoshima prefecture on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

She became the world’s oldest person seven months ago after the death of Violet Brown in Jamaica, also at the age of 117. Video shown on Japanese television showed Tajima moving her hands to the beat of music played on traditional Japanese instruments at a ceremony to mark the achievement.

The U.S.-based Gerontology Research Group says that another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, is now the world’s oldest person in its records. She is 116 years old.

Guinness World Records certified 112-year-old Masazo Nonaka of northern Japan as the world’s oldest man earlier this month, and was planning to recognize Tajima as the world’s oldest person.

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Oldest human fossil from Saudi Arabia changes timeline for migration out of Africa

Havana Chapman-Edwards, a first-grader at Fort Hunt Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, was the only student from her school to walk out on Friday.

Her mom, Bethany Edwards, said the staff and faculty did not address the idea of a walkout. Edwards decided to drive to the school and sign Havana out from the front office so she would not be stopped.

Edwards said Havana was sad about being alone — until she saw footage from other schools:

“When we walked out and saw no one else had, I was crushed initially because she was so upset. But watching her sit in silence and then we turned on CNN live to watch the other schools. She said ‘I am going to tell my friends I did this, and then next time there will be more of us. That means we are winning.’ I knew then that she understood what it means to be a leader, even in the most simple terms.”

Havana wore an orange spacesuit throughout her walkout.

“By wearing her astronaut suit, she wants show the world that black girls are beautiful and strong and have just as much of a right to be leaders as anyone else. She wants to be a warrior for girls all over the world who don’t have a voice,” her mom added.

Although Mr. Trump called Mr. Cohen last Friday, four days after the raid, to “check in,’’ according to people familiar with the call, he and Mr. Cohen have spoken little since Mr. Trump entered the White House. The two men did have dinner together at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, a few weeks ago, but since the raid Mr. Cohen has told associates he feels isolated.

Mr. Trump has long felt he had leverage over Mr. Cohen, but people who have worked for the president said the raid has changed all that.

“Ironically, Michael now holds the leverage over Trump,” said Sam Nunberg, a former aide to Mr. Trump who worked with Mr. Cohen and Mr. Stone. Mr. Nunberg said that Mr. Cohen “should maximize” that leverage.

“The softer side of the president genuinely has an affection for Michael,” Mr. Nunberg said. For instance, Mr. Trump attended the bar and bat mitzvahs of Mr. Cohen’s children. “However, the president has also taken Michael for granted.” Mr. Nunberg added that “whenever anyone complains to me about Trump screwing them over, my reflexive response is that person has nothing to complain about compared to Michael.”

Mr. Stone recalled Mr. Trump saying of Mr. Cohen, “He owns some of the finest Trump real estate in the country — paid top dollar for it, too.” In Mr. Trump’s worldview, there are few insults more devastating than saying someone overpaid.

For years, Mr. Cohen has described himself as unflinchingly devoted to Mr. Trump, whom he has admired since high school. He has told interviewers that he has never heard Mr. Trump utter an inaccuracy or break a promise. He has tweeted about Mr. Trump nearly 3,000 times.

In a Fox News interview last year, Mr. Cohen declared: “I will do anything to protect Mr. Trump.’’ He told Vanity Fair in September that “I’m the guy who would take a bullet for the president,” adding, “I’d never walk away.”

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At a Republican fund-raiser at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, Mr. Cohen went so far as to approach the first lady, Melania Trump, to try to apologize for the pain he caused her with the payment to Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who has claimed to have had the sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.

Over the years, Mr. Trump threatened to fire Mr. Cohen over deals that didn’t work out, or snafus with business projects, people who were present for the discussions said. He was aware that Mr. Cohen benefited in other business projects as being seen as affiliated with the Trump Organization, and it irked him.

“He clearly doesn’t think that Michael Cohen is his Roy Cohn,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer, referring to Mr. Trump’s former mentor and the president’s ideal for a pit bull-like defender. “I think his abusive behavior to Michael is animated by his feeling that Michael is inadequate.”

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Prosecutors have argued that Mr. Cohen did little actual legal work for Mr. Trump and instead focused on extensive political, media and real-estate dealings for the president.

Michael D’Antonio, another Trump biographer, recalled Mr. Cohen calling him soon before the book was published.

“He wanted to know if I was going to call Trump a racist and he wanted to know” if it would include an old allegation from Mr. Trump’s wife, Ivana Trump, that he had committed marital rape, Mr. D’Antonio said.

Mr. Cohen also wanted the title of the book, which was originally “Never Enough,” changed, Mr. D’Antonio said. He recalled saying to Mr. Cohen, “When has it ever been enough for Donald?”

“And Cohen started laughing, and he said, ‘I don’t have a problem with the title personally,’” Mr. D’Antonio recalled. Nonetheless, he said, Mr. Cohen said he would call the publisher to get the title changed, and then threatened a lawsuit when he couldn’t.

In 2007, Mr. Cohen was dispatched, along with Ivanka Trump, to scout a golf course development project in Fresno, Calif., that didn’t materialize. The next year, he served as chief operating officer of Affliction Entertainment, a Trump mixed-martial arts venture of boxing, wrestling and karate that featured a Russian Army veteran named Fedor Emelianenko. (“His thing is inflicting death on people,” Mr. Trump said at the time.)

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He has also scouted business opportunities for Mr. Trump in the former Soviet bloc, including a 2010 trip to Georgia on Mr. Trump’s behalf.

Mr. Cohen has been active in Mr. Trump’s political ventures. When Mr. Trump pondered running for president in 2012, it was Mr. Cohen who went on an early trip to Iowa to meet with Republican operatives and who set up a website called ShouldTrumpRun.org. He even initially sought to pay some of the costs for the site with money raised for his own abortive run for New York State Senate.

Mr. Trump never ran in 2012, but Mr. Cohen raised $500,000 in four hours for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign that year during one of their “national call days” — and had campaign officials credit it as money that his boss had raised, one former Romney official recalled. When Mr. Trump ran for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen was given no official role on the campaign.

He fought with the initial campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, later blocked him from coming on board. Mr. Trump never ordered his aides to make a place for Mr. Cohen.

Some of Mr. Cohen’s efforts to help only led to embarrassing rebuffs in front of those in charge. A month before the election, Mr. Cohen approached Mr. Trump outside his Trump Tower office with photographs of Bill Clinton and a mixed-race man alleged — without any evidence — to be the former president’s illegitimate son. Mr. Trump knocked the papers away, angrily telling Mr. Cohen to “get that out of my face,” said one former campaign official who witnessed the incident.

Particularly hurtful to Mr. Cohen was the way Mr. Trump lavished approval on Mr. Lewandowski in a way he never did for Mr. Cohen. When Mr. Cohen told Mr. Trump that he believed that Mr. Lewandowski had been behind a negative story about Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump dismissed the comments as simple jealousy, and didn’t pay attention, according to two people familiar with the incident.

Mr. Cohen raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump in the campaign, at a time when the candidate was struggling to attract support. Mr. Cohen tried to soften the edges as Mr. Trump faced a torrent of criticism for decades of racially divisive remarks, forming a “diversity coalition” to give Mr. Trump cover composed of African-Americans, Muslims and other groups.

“Nobody else around Donald Trump would have thought to do that for him,” said Darrell Scott, an African-American pastor from Ohio and a friend of Mr. Cohen who helped created the coalition.

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Witness an earthquake simulation at the Nevada Seismological Lab.
Jason Bean Sam Gross

A small earthquake rattled windows and nerves Thursday night in metro Detroit. 

The 3.6-magnitude quake struck at 8:01 p.m. and was centered near Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada, according to the United States Geological Survey. Amherstburg is about 20 miles from downtown Detroit. 

“They happen from time to time, right in that magnitude” in the region, said David Gurney, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in White Lake. “They are rare, but not unheard of.” 

There were no immediate reports of damage. 

In Taylor, Jeff Ward, 58, was on his couch watching TV when the ground started shaking. 

“This was kind of like a rumbling,” he said. “I live close to I-94, so I thought it was a truck maybe on 94, but then it kept going, and the house started shaking.” 

Ward said he wondered initially whether the shaking was caused by a meteor like the one that exploded across the sky back in January. 

Social media quickly erupted with comments about the earthquake.

“Never thought I’d experience my first earthquake in Michigan!” Twitter user @ashleyyymc1 wrote. 

Another Twitter user, @cole_hinzmann, said: “Just when you thought Michigan’s weather couldn’t get any worse, boom, earthquake.”

Ian Lee, National Weather Service meteorologist, said about an hour after the quake that the agency hadn’t received any reports of damage. 

Thursday’s quake was the latest in a series of small tremors to hit the Mitten State in recent years. 

On May 2, 2015, there was a magnitude-4.2 earthquake with an epicenter about 5 miles south of Galesburg, or 9 miles southeast of Kalamazoo. It was widely felt across lower Michigan, northern Indiana, northwestern Ohio, even into Illinois, Wisconsin and Ontario.

It was recorded as the strongest quake in Michigan in more than 67 years.

Just weeks later on June 30, 2015, another quake — this one a 3.3 magnitude —  struck 13 miles southeast of Battle Creek. 

In 2011, an earthquake with an epicenter in Virginia caused the upper floors of the Renaissance Center in Detroit to sway. 

We’re hearing reports of some Metro Detroiters feeling an earthquake. Anyone else feel it? Where from?

— Detroit Free Press (@freep) April 20, 2018

Anyone else on the east side of Detroit/Grosse Pointe just feel/hear something weird? An explosion or earthquake?

— Susan Rose (@susanrose516) April 20, 2018

Never thought I’d experience an Earthquake in Michigan

— Braydon Marcissuk (@Braydon_m25) April 20, 2018

Um am I the only one that felt that EARTHQUAKE??? In Michigan???

— Lex ☀️ (@Alexiabates02) April 20, 2018

Contact Ann Zaniewski: 313-222-6594 or azaniewski@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AnnZaniewski. 

Cuba’s parliament has picked Raúl Castro’s right-hand man, Miguel Díaz-Canel, as the sole candidate to succeed him, ending the family’s long rule.

Mr Castro took over as president from his ailing brother Fidel in 2006.

An improvement in relations with the US which began under Barack Obama has been partially reversed since Donald Trump entered the White House.

Mr Castro is expected to remain a powerful influence in the communist state even after he steps down.

The National Assembly has voted on the nomination but the result will not be announced until Thursday, when he is expected to formally pass the presidency to Mr Díaz-Canel.

However, he will stay on as head of the Communist Party until its next congress in 2021.

The next Cuban leader will inherit a country in economic stagnation and with a young population impatient for change, BBC Cuba correspondent Will Grant reports.

There is also the complex task of leading without the same revolutionary past embodied by Raúl and Fidel, who died in retirement aged 90 in November 2016.

• Cuba after the Castros
• Did Fidel Castro’s name kill his son?
• Watch: Cuba prepares for the end of the long-running Castro era

Who is Díaz-Canel?

He may have had a relatively low profile when he was first appointed vice-president of Cuba’s Council of State in 2013 but he has since become Mr Castro’s key ally.

For the past five years, he has been groomed for the presidency and the handover of power. But even before being named first vice-president, the 57-year-old had already had a long political career.

He was born in April 1960, little over a year after Fidel Castro was first sworn in as prime minister.

He studied electrical engineering and began his political career in his early 20s as a member of the Young Communist League in Santa Clara.

While teaching engineering at the local university, he worked his way up the ranks of the Young Communist League, becoming its second secretary at the age of 33.

Raúl Castro has praised his “ideological firmness”.

Carrying on the Castro model

Analysis by Will Grant, BBC News, Havana

In some respects, Miguel Diaz-Canel is a departure from the past. He is in his 50s and he wasn’t even born until after the revolution took power.

Yet, he still represents an extension of the Castro model – especially politically.

The message of political continuity which the Cuban government has stressed from the moment the handover was announced has taken much of the wind out of the sense of renewal.

At least two of Raúl Castro’s inner circle, men in their late 80s, have remained on the Council of State.

The biggest challenges, at least in the short term, are economic. He must tackle a complex dual currency system while trying to make sure inflation doesn’t rise for ordinary Cubans.

He must also try to stimulate a stagnant economy. Many are watching to see if he reverses the freeze on new private business licences to at least signal some support for the concept of private enterprise on the island.

All of this, without the same popular backing of the Castros. He may have his work cut out.

Will the new president bring real change?

He is unlikely to make any major changes in the short term, especially while Mr Castro remains a political force to be reckoned with.

Any changes are likely to be gradual and slow-paced. Yet Mr Castro did bring in reforms after he took over as president, most strikingly the thaw in relations with the US which had seemed unthinkable under his brother Fidel.

The new leader will have to consider how to overcome the problems caused by the economic collapse of Cuba’s ally, Venezuela, and what kind of relationship the Caribbean island wants with the US under Mr Trump.

Last year, the new American president reimposed certain travel and trade restrictions eased by the Obama administration but did not reverse key diplomatic and commercial ties.

• Four takeaways from Trump’s Cuba policy

But what most Cubans will judge the new leader on is whether their day-to-day lives improve.

“Right now, we don’t know what the future holds,” Adriana Valdivia, 45, a teacher in Havana, told Reuters news agency.

“Raul is finished and Fidel is history. I can’t see a way out to help Cubans live better, salaries are the same and don’t make ends meet, and now Trump is tightening the screws with the blockade, imagine that.”

“Politics is not my strong point,” said Diadenis Sanabria, 34, who works in a state-owned restaurant in the Cuban capital.

“But I don’t think a change of chief is going to change my life.”

How representative is Cuba’s National Assembly?

Often regarded as a rubber-stamp body, it is officially meeting to swear in its 605 members, who were elected last month.

It also votes on the composition of the all-powerful Council of State, whose president serves as both head of state and government.

Cuba has long maintained it has one of the most inclusive and fairest election systems in the world but critics say that assertion is laughable as the process is fully overseen by the ruling Communist Party.

All 605 candidates stood unopposed in March.