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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence, positioning himself for a possible return to elected office, told an audience in early-voting South Carolina that he will spend the coming months “pushing back on the liberal agenda” he says is wrong for the country.

“We’ve got to guard our values … by offering a positive agenda to the American people, grounded in our highest ideals,” Pence told an audience of several hundred on Thursday at a Columbia dinner sponsored by a conservative Christian nonprofit. “Now, over the coming months, I’ll have more to say about all of that.”

Pence, whose relationship with President Donald Trump frayed as Trump pressured Pence to block certification of the presidential election results, praised Trump’s tenure as “four years of promises made, promises, kept.”

The choice of South Carolina for Pence’s first public address since the end of the Trump administration has definite political overtones, helping him develop exposure for a potential 2024 presidential bid. The state holds the first presidential primaries in the South, and candidates of both major parties typically spend more than a year in South Carolina ahead of those votes, introducing themselves and trying to secure support.

Republican candidates use South Carolina as a proving ground to test their “pro-life” mettle. Thursday’s event, hosted by Palmetto Family Council, also gave Pence a backdrop for some of the issues for which he long advocated as an Indiana congressman-turned-governor, such as restrictions on abortion and support for the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Palmetto Family — which lobbies for what it considers to be “biblical values,” such as heterosexual marriage — most recently helped push through a ban on most South Carolina abortions, a law now being challenged in federal court.

“We will stand with the right of every American, of every faith, to live, to work, to speak and to worship according to the dictates of their conscience,” Pence said.

Pence, who since leaving office has been doing work with the Heritage Foundation and Young America’s Foundation, has not indicated if he plans a future run. As vice president, he made numerous trips to South Carolina, meeting several times with Gov. Henry McMaster for coronavirus-related forums and campaigning in the state for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace.

But the question of whether Pence’s former boss will run again still looms large for the possible Republican field. Trump has not explicitly stated his plans but has teased a possible bid, saying Thursday on Fox Business that he’s “100%” thinking about running in 2024 — and would even possibly consider Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his running mate.

Earlier this month, another possible GOP contender, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, said when asked about 2024 by The Associated Press that she would stand down if Trump opted to run again. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has launched an aggressive schedule, visiting states that will play a pivotal role in the 2024 primaries and signing a contract with Fox News Channel. DeSantis has been courting donors, including in Trump’s backyard, with a prominent speaking slot before the former president at a GOP fundraising retreat dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort where Trump now lives.

On Thursday, Pence highlighted accomplishments of the Trump administration, including three successful confirmations of U.S. Supreme Court justices, withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

He also recalled fondly their 2016 campaign, saying that Trump told him at the close of that year’s GOP convention in Cleveland that the two of them would campaign hard, “and then he looked over at me, and he hit me in the shoulder, and he said, ‘And then it’s going to be great.’”

“And I’ve got to tell you, it was,” Pence went on. “It was four years of consequences, four years of results, and four years of promises made, promises kept.”

Earlier this month, Trump told Republican donors he was “disappointed” in Pence.

South Carolina Democratic Chair Trav Robertson said Pence was coming to the state to “try and salvage his relationship” with Trump supporters irked that Pence didn’t support efforts to block certification of the 2020 presidential election.

On Thursday, Pence pledged to reveal more of his ideas soon, promising that he would be challenging the Biden administration’s “avalanche of liberal policies” as he ramps up speaking engagements around the country.

“We have the winning agenda,” Pence said. “And now it’s incumbent upon us to take that winning agenda to the American people.”

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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

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Stocks gave back some of their recent gains Friday, though the market still closed out April with its biggest monthly gain so far this year.

The S&P 500 fell 0.7% as investors backed away from technology, financial and communication stocks. Despite the decline, the benchmark index ended April with a 5.2% gain, its best month since November 2020, when President Joe Biden was elected.

Under Biden, the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its best first 100 days under a new president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933, according to LPL Financial, with a 9.9% return as of April 29. The Dow delivered a 6.1% return during former President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office.

The gains have come as large-scale coronavirus vaccination programs help people return to jobs and normal behaviors after more than a year of restrictions.

“It’s been a very solid month for global equities across the board,” said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors. “Periods of pullbacks are definitely expected when you have valuations run so much.”

The S&P 500, which hit an all-time high a day earlier, fell 30.30 points to 4,181.17. The index eked out a gain of less than 0.1% for the week. The Dow fell 185.51 points, or 0.5%, to 33,874.85 and the Nasdaq lost 119.86 points, or 0.9%, to 13,962.68.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fared worse than the broader market. It fell 29.01 points, or 1.3%, to 2,266.45.

The rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations, massive support from the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve, and increasingly positive economic data have been driving expectations for a strong rebound for the economy and robust corporate profit growth this year. That’s helped stocks push higher and kept indexes near their all-time highs.

The Commerce Department delivered more encouraging news Thursday when it said the U.S. economy grew at a brisk 6.4% annual rate in the last quarter and is likely to accelerate further as more vaccinations are administered and COVID-19 cases continue to fall.

“The broad story is one of case counts on the whole being lowered across the majority of the world and vaccines ramping up generally across the world and that’s getting us back to normal,” said Jason Pride, chief investment officer of private wealth at Glenmede.

There’s also the trillions of dollars in government support that has gone out to help the U.S. economy recover from the pandemic. The Commerce Department said U.S. household incomes surged 21% last month, driven largely by the $1,400 payments that went out to most Americans as part of President Biden’s economic package. Consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in nine months.

The Biden administration is also pushing for more infrastructure spending to help further boost the economy. The big policy and spending proposals have investors looking further up the road to what a “new normal” looks like after the pandemic, Pride said.

The market still has some key concerns, including how government spending will impact taxes and inflation. To pay for his plans, Biden has proposed to nearly double the tax rate that Americans who make more than $1 million in a year pay on profits from stocks and other investments. The president also wants to impose a 21% minimum tax on corporations’ foreign earnings in a bid to stop companies from stashing profits in countries with low tax rates.

Treasury yields have stabilized after jumping earlier this year as concerns about inflation rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 1.62% from 1.64% late Thursday, and was down from 1.68% at the start of the month. Analysts still expect yields to rise again.

“The longer term trend in yields has turned higher,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at All Star Charts. “We need to see German and Japanese yields move higher as well if U.S. Treasury yields are going to resume their ascent.”

Investors have also gotten strong corporate earnings which have helped justify higher stock prices. Amazon initially rose after the e-commerce giant reported that its profits more than tripled in the latest quarter. It ended 0.1% lower Friday. Earnings from other Big Tech companies have also blown away expectations. Apple and Google parent company Alphabet each reported this week that their profits more than doubled in the first quarter. Facebook came close; its earnings nearly doubled.

More than half of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results, which show earnings growth of 54% percent so far for index, according to FactSet.

Investors will get another big dose of earnings reports to start off May, including results from drugmakers Eli Lilly, Merck as well as Pepsi, Colgate-Palmolive, the railroad CSX and drugstore giant CVS. Investors will also get April’s jobs report next week.

The S&P 500 notched a gain of about 28% between November and April. Now the market enters the six-month stretch of May through October that has historically included among the weakest months of the year for stocks, hence the Wall Street adage “sell in May and go away.” Still, stocks have posted gains during the May-October period eight of the past 10 years, according to LPL Financial.

Most markets outside the U.S. also rose in April, though the gains were more modest than those for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. One exception was India, where the market fell 1.5% amid an explosion in coronavirus cases that has catapulted the death to more than 200,000.

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Worshippers lined up at churches across Greece on Orthodox Good Friday as the government kept pandemic restrictions in place through the Easter holiday while preparing to restart services for tourists.

Seating restrictions were put on church services and priests had instructions to get tested daily for COVID-19, while police maintained checkpoints along highways to enforce a domestic travel ban.

Many restrictions in effect since early November will be scrapped, however, starting Monday, when restaurants and cafes will be allowed to serve customers outdoors.

Tourism-related businesses and services are set to start operating again on May 15.

In the northern city of Thessaloniki, churchgoer Yiannis Gaitanidis said he was happy to attend a Good Friday service since Greece’s churches were closed to the public last Easter,

“Church attendants found us seats so that we could observe social distancing,” Gaitanidis said. “Every religious icon is disinfected each time a person approaches it.”

Orthodox churches use different reference dates to calculate when Easter occurs, which can be up to four weeks later than the holiday marked by other branches of Christianity.

Easter processions set for late Friday in Greece will have limited attendance and mostly take place on church grounds, while Saturday night services will start earlier due to curfew restrictions.

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LONDON (AP) — Not long ago, London was booming. Now it fears a bust.

Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic have hit Britain’s capital in a perfect storm. In 2021, the city has fewer people, fewer businesses, starker divisions and tougher choices than anyone could have expected.

On May 6, Londoners will elect a mayor whose performance will help determine whether this is a period of decline for Europe’s biggest city — or a chance to do things better.

“It’s going to be rough, definitely,” said Jack Brown, lecturer in London studies at King’s College London. “Those two quite seismic changes” — Brexit and the virus — “will be a lot to cope with.”

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Plagues, fires, war — London has survived them all. But it has never had a year like this. The coronavirus has killed more than 15,000 Londoners and shaken the foundations of one of the world’s great cities. As a fast-moving mass vaccination campaign holds the promise of a wider reopening, The Associated Press looks at the pandemic’s impact on London’s people and institutions and asks what the future might hold.

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London’s newly elected mayor will lead a city of more than 8 million that is facing the usual big-city troubles — too little affordable housing and transit, too much crime and pollution — as well as a host of unprecedented problems.

A year of coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions have emptied the city’s office towers, shut down its nightlife, shuttered its pubs and restaurants and banished international tourists. Returning to normal will take a long time.

“We’ve lost about 300,000 jobs already, and more than a million Londoners are currently furloughed,” said Mayor Sadiq Khan, who is seeking re-election. “So the challenge is how we avoid (the) mass unemployment of the 1980s.

“It’s really important to have the same ambition that our forefathers and foremothers had after the Second World War, because that’s scale of the challenge,” said Khan, whose priorities include coaxing people back into the city center and easing the economic inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic.

If opinion polls are right, Khan, 50, is likely to win a second term in Thursday’s election, which has been delayed a year because of the pandemic. Both he and his main challenger are made-in-London success stories.

Khan, a lawyer and member of the center-left Labour Party, is the son of Pakistani immigrants. His father was a bus driver, his mother a seamstress.

Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey’s grandparents, meanwhile, are part of the “Windrush generation” of post-World War II immigrants to Britain from the Caribbean. He was raised by a single mother in public housing in Ladbroke Grove, an area where pricey Victorian houses sit near run-down social housing blocks.

The 49-year-old former youth worker is a passionate advocate of the city that he says gave him chances to thrive.

“More than any other place in the world, if you come from a working-class background, London offers opportunities like no other,” said Bailey, who believes London’s biggest challenge is crime.

Bailey wants to see more youth workers, more police officers on the beat and greater use of stop-and-search powers to take knives and other weapons off the street. Stop-and-search is a hugely contentious policy because young Black men have been disproportionately targeted but Bailey says it’s essential.

“The thing that’s making the Black community angry above all things is the rate at which our young people are dying,” he said.

Both Khan and Bailey — and more than a dozen other candidates, from Liberal Democrat and Green contenders to anti-lockdown activists, YouTube prankster Niko Omilana and a bucket-headed comedian called Count Binface — know they are running in a city transformed by the virus and by Britain’s exit from the now 27-nation European Union.

Brexit poses a challenge to London by ending the free flow of people from the continent and imperiling the city’s status as Europe’s financial hub. The pandemic has challenged the very existence of megacities and the crowded spaces in which people live, work and travel.

After three decades of growth, London’s population fell in 2020 as people moved out in search of more space during lockdown or returned to their regions or home countries. It remains to be seen whether they will ever come back.

Three lockdowns, now gradually being lifted, kept office workers at home and turned central London into a ghost town. Millions no longer commute downtown to work or play, as coronavirus restrictions forced people to stay local.

Across London — a “city of villages” whose neighborhoods retain distinct characters — the pandemic has led people to reassess their priorities.

“If you go into central London … there’s nobody there, almost,” said Mark Burton, who runs a community arts venue in Walthamstow, a once-gritty, now-gentrifying area in the city’s northeast. “Whereas out here, there’s a vibrancy around the cafes.”

Burton thinks Khan has done a pretty good job as mayor, though he wants more support for cycling and community ventures.

Across town in Ladbroke Grove, Nicholas Olajide likes Bailey’s pledge to cut crime. He, too, thinks the pandemic has given the city a new sense of itself.

“I think it has awakened a sense of community in people,” Olajide said. “Before, London was going the way whereby we were no longer a community, no longer our neighbors’ keeper. But I think that has brought us back together. People staying home and caring about their neighbors, working from home — it has brought families closer together.”

Sian Berry, the Green Party candidate for mayor, says the pandemic has exposed the yawning gaps in London society and left people wanting “a new start.”

“It’s a very exciting place to live, London, but it’s polluted, it can be a strain, and living costs are far too high,” she said. “Each neighborhood in London has its own spirit, too, and we need to be nurturing that.”

Brown, the historian, is optimistic about London’s ability to bounce back, noting that it has been through tough times before in its 2,000 years of existence.

“London’s ancient history really is one of getting set on fire every now and then — the whole city burns down — and then everybody gets the plague,” he said. “This happens in a cycle for years and years and people keep coming back.

“The very long history of London is one of incredible resilience. It’s even a little uncaring sometimes. It doesn’t always take everyone with it. But the place itself, its economy, its appeal, kind of endures,” he said.

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Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka contributed to this story.

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Read other installments in the AP’s “London: Beyond the Pandemic” series: https://apnews.com/article/london-beyond-the-pandemic-837183578755

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NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Elliot Page is revealing how happier he feels after having top surgery and how important he believes it is to support health care for transgender people.

“I want people to know that not only has it been life changing for me, I do believe it is life-saving and it’s the case for so many people,” the actor tells Oprah Winfrey on her new show for Apple TV+.

During the interview, Page teared up when Winfrey asked him what has brought him the most joy.

The Oscar-nominated star of “Juno,” “Inception” and “The Umbrella Academy” said it was the little things — like wearing a T-shirt, having a towel around his waist after a shower or touching his chest — that made him “feel comfortable in my body for probably the first time.”

The full interview from “The Oprah Conversation” will be released Friday.

Page urged officials to support health care for transgender people and allow them access to sports. Some lawmakers are seeking to ban transgender youth from playing sports that match their gender identity. “Children will die,” Page said. “And it really is that simple.”

He said the surgery has given him newfound energy “because it it such a freeing, freeing experience,” adding: “This is incredibly new. I feel like I haven’t gotten to be myself since I was 10 years old.”

Page came out as transgender in December, an announcement that was widely greeted as a watershed moment for the trans community in Hollywood. He told Winfrey the decision was “imperative” in light of the violence against transgender youth.

“It felt important and selfish for myself and my own well-being and my mental health,” he said. “And also with this platform I have, the privilege that I have, and knowing the pain and the difficulties and the struggles I’ve faced in my life, let alone what so many other people are facing, it absolutely felt crucial and important for me to share that.”

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