The state has been hammered over the past week by heavy rains, resulting in rivers reaching record levels and sending residents in search of higher ground. More than a dozen counties have declared local disasters, with much of the latest damage concentrated along river corridors from Hamilton County heading into the northern Indianapolis suburbs.

Farther east in Delaware County, sheriff deputies on Friday found the body of a 58-year-old woman who they believe died after trying to drive through floodwaters. They also recovered the body of a teen who was first reported missing on Wednesday after jumping into a river. Earlier in the week, a 4-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on his home in Jennings County.

“My heart is with the families and loved ones of the five Hoosiers we have lost and every family whose life has been changed by these storms," Gov. Mike Braun said in a statement issued Saturday. “Please continue to take flooding seriously and stay away from floodwaters.”

Braun confirmed Saturday that President Donald Trump intends to approve his request for federal resources to help in response to the flooding and the recovery.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett was joined by emergency managers during a briefing Saturday as he urged residents along the White River to evacuate. He said the city was experiencing its most severe flooding in more than 30 years, noting that conditions were shifting rapidly.

Jacob Spence, director of Marion County Emergency Management, called it a once-in-a-lifetime type flood. "This is an unprecedented event, and unfortunately we're setting some new records,” he told The Associated Press.

The National Weather Service reported that more than 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain fell over a two-day period in some areas. The White River crested at more than 24 feet (7.32 meters) in the communities of Anderson and Noblesville, surpassing records set in 1913.

Flash-flood warnings and watches remained in place Saturday across a swath of central Indiana.

Forecasters expected the White River to crest Saturday evening in the Indianapolis area, where National Guard vehicles were among those helping with the rescue efforts. Rita Reith, a spokesperson with the Indianapolis Fire Department, put the number of rescues at 91 people and 45 pets as of early afternoon.

“The water is still rising, so heed the warnings,” said Todd Wilson, director of the city's public works department.

Authorities estimated that about 400 people evacuated parts of northern Indianapolis on their own, while the governor's office reported more than 350 evacuations have occurred in Delaware County and that a senior mobile home community in Tipton County was being evacuated. Rescues and welfare checks also were happening in Fayette County.

Residents posted videos on social media that showed vehicles stranded in high water, a power pole being toppled by rushing water and flooded intersections.

Earlier this week, severe storms wreaked havoc across other parts of the Midwest, causing tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding. Storm damage was reported from the Chicago area all the way to western Pennsylvania.

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Montoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The National Hurricane Center said Lala’s maximum sustained winds increased to 75 mph (120 kph), making it a Category 1 hurricane. The eyewall was forecast to move over or near the island’s southern end by the evening, lashing its worst winds at volcanic slopes thousands of feet above sea level.

Forecasters said higher elevations on the island, dominated by the towering Mauna Kea volcano, could get as much as 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) of rain.

That could cause life-threatening mudslides in a mountainous area where people live off the grid in improvised housing, and authorities urged them to find safe shelters quickly.

Bobby Camara, a 75-year-old lifelong resident of the Big Island, said he planned to “hunker down, cross my fingers, hope the lights don’t go out” at a care home just outside Hilo. He said gas stations were busy as people sought fuel for chain saws and vehicles.

“I think stocking up is part of life over here. ... You learn to be self-reliant,” Camara said.

Gov. Josh Green described it as an “enormous storm,” and warned of destructive flooding and even the possibility of wildfires kicked up by strong winds across the island chain. Electricity was knocked out for 10% of customers on the Big Island, according to poweroutage.us.

Mike Caputo, who lives in Keaau, near the island's east coast, said the main concern was flash flooding and fallen trees, especially albizia, a common tree.

“They’re not very sturdy, but they grow extremely large,” said Caputo, 50, a local fire captain. “They can make roads impassable. I made sure my trees were trimmed a few days ago.”

The Big Island was under a hurricane warning, and tropical storm warnings were issued for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau.

A Category 3 hurricane hit the northeast corner of the Big Island in 1871, according to research by a University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist. The latest forecast has Lala striking “very close to the southern tip of the Big Island,” said Vanessa Almanza, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Honolulu.

Shelters were opened, events were canceled and ranchers were urged to leave their cattle in pastures, rather than structures that might collapse. “It doesn’t take landfall to create destruction,” Almanza said.

The hurricane center predicted 8 to 12 inches (20.3 to 30.5 centimeters) of total rainfall across Maui and the lower elevations of the Big Island, and 4 to 6 inches (10.2 to 15.2 centimeters) across the island chain.

Officials urge taking the storm seriously

State Rep. Jeanné Kapela called for people to remain alert. The southern end of the island is remote and rural, with agriculture including coffee and cattle, but it's growing in population because of its affordability. Kapela was especially worried about people who live off the grid.

“If you feel now that your house doesn’t have a great roof or might not be able to withstand hurricane force winds, then first things first you go to a family or friend’s house and you kind of hunker down there,” she said in a text message to The Associated Press.

Many Hawaiians are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating floods in March. Growers still recovering are worried about more damage, according to Hawaii Farm Bureau director Brian Miyamoto.

Wildfire risks increase during windy weather

As winds ramped up across the islands, Almanza said dry and breezy conditions outside the storm would elevate fire concerns.

In 2023 the Maui town of Lahaina burned during extreme winds as a hurricane passed far to the south.

“Since the fire, everybody is way more aware of weather in general and our environment and things that are happening,” said Archie Kalepa of Lahaina, who is well known in the area for his surfing, paddling and other ocean skills.

Kauai, which is several islands northwest up the archipelago from the Big Island, is where Hurricane Iniki made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in 1992 — an El Nino year like this one, when a warming of the Pacific near the equator increases Pacific hurricane activity and affects weather patterns across the globe.

“It did $3 billion worth of damage. It destroyed thousands of homes, and it did kill six people,” said Steven Businger, the University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist. “We just can never know if a storm is going to turn.”

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Associated Press writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed.

Lanes are closed at Roger Williams Road as efforts are underway to repair the issue.

Officials expect fixes to take several hours.

Drivers are asked to use alternate routes and exercise caution in the area, watching for emergency vehicles.

Check back for updates.

And in southern Lebanon, 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, some of the deadliest since a shaky truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went into effect on June 20.

Here’s a look at the latest developments on Saturday in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Iran says Qatar is holding 3 of its pilots

Qatar's armed forces captured and were holding three pilots who went missing in March when their jets were downed, the Missing Persons Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff said. Qatar, however, denied it.

Until now, Tehran had said it had no information about their fate. This is the first known case in the war where Iran has said a regional country is holding its fighters. Qatar on March 2 said its air force shot down two Iranian bombers as Tehran lashed out against countries hosting U.S. military bases in the opening days of the war.

Saturday's statement alleged that Qatar had not allowed the pilots to meet or communicate with families or Iranian officials handling their cases. Iran asked the International Committee of the Red Cross president for help. The letter said a fourth pilot was killed while on the mission “targeting an enemy military base in Qatar," state media reported.

A spokesperson with Qatar's foreign ministry, Majed Al Ansari, later denied the claims and indicated on X that the pilots had been shot down and that Qatar's search and rescue teams found the remains of one. He said Iran was invited in April to visit and be briefed on those efforts, with no response.

A tanker is attacked in the Strait of Hormuz

The tanker owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil and gas company ADNOC was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the Emirati state-run WAM news agency said Saturday.

There were no injuries in the Friday evening attack, the agency reported. It was the third such attack on a vessel operated by ADNOC in the critical waterway in the last week. The United Arab Emirates in a statement called on Iran to stop the unprovoked strikes.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a bulk carrier was struck in the hull by an unknown projectile on Friday. It was not immediately clear if it was the same vessel.

Iran asserted control over the strait after the war started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. About one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through the waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf before then.

Talks between the U.S. and Iran have stalled while Iran is in discussions with Oman about how to manage the strait that runs between them and had been considered an international waterway.

Israeli strikes kill 11 in southern Lebanon

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 11 people Saturday.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said one strike targeted a home on the edge of the village of Ansar and killed seven people, including three children, and wounded two. The second, on the village of Deir al-Zahrani, killed four and wounded 17.

Israel's military said it killed a Hezbollah battalion commander and several other militants at a headquarters in southern Lebanon in response to the group’s actions against Israeli soldiers operating there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office in a separate statement said three soldiers were seriously injured. The military blamed an explosive drone.

The military said the commander's family was with him, and that “it should be emphasized that the family members were not the target of the strike.” Both the military and Netanyahu's office alleged the commander used the family members as human shields.

It was one of the deadliest days since the Lebanese government and Israel announced a “framework agreement” laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah's disarmament.

The militant group refused direct talks and was not part of the agreement.

Houthis in Yemen attack Red Sea port, killing at least 3

Yemen's military said the Houthis attacked the Red Sea port of Mokha under the control of the internationally recognized government. Port director Abdul-Malik al-Sharabi told journalists that Friday evening’s attack killed three people including two marines, and that port operations had been suspended.

Military spokesperson Col. Majed al-Nazili said in a statement that the Houthis fired six ballistic missiles.

The Houthis' attack was the latest on government-held areas and on neighboring Saudi Arabia, part of an escalation threatening to plunge Yemen back into civil war.

Analysts say the escalation reflects how Iran is scaling up pressure on the United States and its regional allies.

“As synagogue security was escorting him out, he struck a member of the congregation, damaged synagogue property, and then spit at and head-butted a member of the security team,” a statement from Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

A police sergeant working as a paid security detail at the synagogue immediately took the man into custody and no one was seriously injured, Tisch said.

Larry Montes, 46, of the Bronx, faces two counts of assault as a hate crime and one count of criminal mischief as a hate crime, among other charges, Tisch said.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the assault during the livestreamed service “horrifying."

“Every New Yorker must be able to observe their religion without fear of violence," he posted on social media.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer were among those who also condemned the attack.

Additional police security was added and Shabbat services continued Saturday.

“We might want to be focusing on the beauty of our liturgy and the sanctity of Shabbat, and somehow the feeling of the imperfect and cruel world keeps flooding in,” Rabbi Rebecca Thau told congregants.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract, which would make Witherspoon the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL, hasn’t been finalized.

On March 26, the Seahawks exercised their fifth-year option on Witherspoon, but elected to sign him to a long-term deal on the same day they started preseason play against the Dallas Cowboys.

Witherspoon, 25, was selected No. 5 overall by the Seahawks in the 2023 draft. In the same round of that draft, the Seahawks selected wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who in March agreed to a four-year, $168.8 million contract with $120 million guaranteed.

In three seasons with Seattle, Witherspoon has been selected to the Pro Bowl each season. He also made the second-team All-Pro team and helped the Seahawks win the Super Bowl last season.

Witherspoon appeared in all three of Seattle’s playoff games during its Super Bowl run, making 17 tackles and four passes defended.

In 43 regular-season games, Witherspoon has 249 tackles, 32 passes defended, 16 tackles for loss, 4 1/2 sacks and two interceptions.

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The primary lineup pushes Iowa from the traditional top spot and makes South Carolina the leadoff state, voting on Jan. 22, 2028, followed by Nevada on Feb. 1. New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia round out the early states, throughout February, according to the plan endorsed by the Democratic National Committee at its meeting in Texas.

DNC Chairman Ken Martin said that to win the general election, “You have to be battle-tested in a way that you already have campaigned in front of and for the support of various communities throughout the country.” That is why the calendar designed by the party matters, he said in an interview.

Some potential candidates in what is expected to be a large field have visited early-voting states such as South Carolina. Party leaders have said the order give candidates the best shot at winning back the White House after Republican President Donald Trump's second term.

“They have to show that they can go to the South and talk to Black voters and rural voters, as well as out west, talking ranching and mining issues, to a border state, to union members,” said party strategist Karen Finney, who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns. “Whoever survives will be battle-tested.”

Former presidential candidate Howard Dean, a onetime Vermont governor, recalled his tenure as national party chairman, when Democrats solidified Nevada and South Carolina as early states behind Iowa and New Hampshire. The latest change is even better, he said.

“These states look more like the country,” as a whole, he said, “whereas Iowa and New Hampshire don’t.”

Rita Hart, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, said bypassing her state in the early going would sideline important voter voices and give a political edge to Republicans, who are expected to keep Iowa atop their calendar.

Nonwhite voters claim top billing

As the first-in-the-South primary, South Carolina was more decisive than Iowa and New Hampshire for nominees Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. All three dominated among South Carolina’s large Black population, which can yield more than half the state’s Democratic primary electorate.

With Nevada and New Mexico following, that will require candidates to court more Latino voters early in the process.

Shifting from Iowa and New Hampshire does not mean little-known candidates cannot catch fire, as Pete Buttigieg did in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2020, when he was a 37-year-old former mayor. They just will not be able to do it with an almost entirely white audience.

“If you can’t go to every part of this country and make your case, you should not be running for president,” Finney said.

The progressive vs. establishment dynamics may shift

There is disagreement over how Democrats’ split between progressives and mainstream liberals may or may not surface in the nominating calendar.

“I think our primary voters up north are probably a little different than primary voters in South Carolina,” said Boyd Brown, a former DNC member from South Carolina. “It’s not the woke ideologies that we just can’t get away from” in other places.

Nina Smith, a former Buttigieg adviser who now works closely with progressive causes, disagreed. Smith said Black South Carolinians, especially, have gravitated to more moderate candidates – twice rejecting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in favor of Clinton and Biden.

But, she said, “Southern Black voters are more progressive than they’re given credit for” on policy but also “realists” about what is possible.

“Living through Jim Crow and other oppressive structures will force you to be take that approach,” she said.

Smith said that with South Carolina leading off and many Southern states following on Super Tuesday soon after the early lineup concludes, progressives will have to take the time to listen and then tailor their messages.

“A lot of Black voters don’t necessarily see themselves in the ideas and arguments that progressives put forward,” she said.

Unions will get a spotlight in the early-voting states

Nevada has the service industry unions because of Las Vegas; Michigan has the auto industry and associated manufacturing support industries; Virginia is home to more federal workers than any other state.

“Labor is still so important,” Dean said.

Beyond seeking the backing of organized labor, the campaigns and the party will look to unions for help in spreading Democrats' message to voters and getting people to the polls.

More scheduling efficiency for candidates

Campaigns struggle to balance many demands such as meeting voters in person, raising money and the logistics of travel. As a result, places such as Nevada have gotten short shrift in the past because candidates, most from the eastern part of the country, have concluded the investment of time is not worth it.

An expanded calendar offers more clustering opportunities.

A swing to the West could hit two early states — Nevada and New Mexico — and include a fundraising stop in California, full of Democratic donors. A South Carolina trip could mean fundraisers and public appearances in Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh, both in North Carolina. Virginia offers proximity to donors and national TV studios in Washington; the same options are available by adding a New York City stop on the way to New Hampshire.

Bre Maxwell is a DNC member from South Carolina who said the state’s smaller size and lower media costs are a financial equalizer, allowing not only the best-funded candidates to have an impact.

“They can campaign from the top to the bottom in a day,” Maxwell said.

It’s about primaries, with a clear look to November

Of the six early states, all but South Carolina have been competitive in general elections.

That means that even before Super Tuesday, the Democratic candidates will have spent significant time and resources in states worth a combined 43 Electoral College votes. That is not insignificant on the way to the 270 needed to win.

Television ads and news coverage can spill over, as well. Markets targeting parts of South Carolina also reach portions of North Carolina and Georgia.

After all, Brown said, the point is to put a Democrat in the White House.

“This is not a social or a debate club. It is a political party,” he said.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

The Democratic National Committee, gathered for a summer meeting, also signed off on a raft of policy positions, including one that calls for “concrete reforms” of ICE and another for abolishing the agency that's been at the center of several fatal encounters.

ICE has been at the heart of a progressive rallying cry since 2018 during the first Trump administration, and has been renewed among some in the party after two recent fatal shootings by the agency in July.

Saturday’s vote isn't binding and doesn't set the party's platform, which will be determined at the 2028 convention, but it reflects the party's differing views on a major issue. Candidates and lawmakers will continue to determine their own positions on the issue.

Michele Johnson, a DNC member from Louisiana who proposed the measure to abolish ICE, said it's time for Democrats to take a stand and pointed to the dissolution of ICE's predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as a precedent.

“I think one of the reasons why people are not trusting the party is because we sound so academic," she said. “We sound focus group tested, we sound poll tested because we’re worried about saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing and not just like, just stand on business, like take a position.”

Not every DNC member was convinced, though. Yvonne Reeves-Chong voted against the measure, saying it would only gain support from a part of the party's base, while drawing “fire” from another group of voters.

“I would strongly suggest we get to the business of winning races so we can make the policies that make a difference,” she said.

DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who's from Minnesota, where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot amid the immigration crackdown earlier this year, said in an interview that the takeaway is that Democrats find the administration’s handling of immigration, including by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, unacceptable.

“Clearly, the one thing that unites Democrats, regardless of their position on reform versus abolish or whatever other ways to change what’s happening, is people believe that what ICE is doing right now — and CBP and the federal government — should stop,” he said. “There has to be a better way.”

Immigration remained a stronger issue for Trump than the economy or Iran, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released this month, even after three people were killed in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the span of under a week in July.

Overall, the survey found that only 39% of U.S. adults approve of his performance on immigration, down from 49% at the beginning of his second term.

Well, bad news: Bedbug infestations are increasing. This is the time of year when they tend to be at their worst. And some scientists think the reviled pests might be capable of spreading an antibiotic-resistant infection called MRSA.

For centuries, the bugs have horrified homeowners and occasionally panicked the public. That happened in New York City in 2018, when at least a half dozen city buses were taken out of service after reports of bedbugs crawling on seats. It happened again in Paris in 2023, when reports of bedbugs at a movie theater, on trains and on buses popped up in the lead-up to the 2024 Olympics.

“They certainly are out there,” said Christopher Hayes, a North Carolina State University assistant professor who has been bitten by bedbugs more than 50 times in the course of research. “And if you're unaware, if you're not on top of your game, it's easy to bring them into your home."

Bedbugs really do come out at night

Bedbugs are reddish-brown bloodsuckers about the size of an apple seed. Some researchers estimate they date back to the time of the dinosaurs, but they are best known for their unfortunate ability to live with — and prey on — humans.

They can hide in narrow crevices in furniture and lurk in clothes, linens and mattresses. They are hard to see but can be detected through the small dark excrement stains they leave.

The pests can be year-round problems but they have traditionally thrived in the summer. They tend to emerge at night, crawling onto people and using a beaklike body part to pierce human skin and suck blood for several minutes.

The bite itself is painless. Some people develop itchy red welts a day or so later, but others have no reaction.

That's a problem, because people unaware that they are repeatedly being bitten can quickly find themselves victims of an infestation.

One of the more gruesome stories about bedbugs and human health was detailed in a 2020 medical journal case report from France.

It told of a 70-year-old man who lived by himself in an apartment and fainted on the street one day. He was brought to a hospital emergency department in a Paris suburb where he was diagnosed with dementia — and with anemia caused by a longstanding loss of blood.

He also had bedbugs feeding on his neck, head and shoulder. An investigation of his apartment detected thousands of them in his bed and on the floor, walls and curtains of his home.

They aren't thought to spread disease, but one experiment raises questions

Some good news about bedbugs is there hasn't been clear evidence that they have spread diseases from one person to another. The bugs' digestion and anatomy seem to prevent germs from being passed on efficiently, said Chow-Yang Lee, an entomologist at the University of California at Riverside.

But University of South Dakota researchers in 2023 published the results of an experiment — using blood capsules with an artificial skin — that demonstrated bedbugs could acquire MRSA during one feeding and spread it during a later one.

Follow-up research is needed to really prove bedbugs actually are spreading MRSA to people, said one of the study's authors, Jose Pietri, who is now at Purdue University. But “it changes the perspective of what bedbugs do, in terms of public health,” Pietri said.

Bedbugs are more resistant to pesticides

Bedbug populations in developed countries were decimated after World War II due to the widespread use of the pesticide DDT. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the pesticide for most uses in 1972, citing evidence that it was harming animals and was a potential risk to people.

Bedbugs had already started to develop resistance to DDT by then, and they have only been getting stronger and more common, said Lee, noting that insecticide resistance has driven a continued resurgence in bedbugs in recent decades.

Exactly how much more common isn't clear. Pest control companies generate annual rankings of U.S. cities with the worst bedbug problems. (Orkin currently ranks Chicago at No. 1, while Terminix says Philadelphia has the biggest problem.) But those lists are based on how many calls each company receives in a year, not a rigorous survey.

Many bedbug infestations happen in low-income or public housing, which may not hire the big companies that compile those rankings, Lee said in an email.

How to protect yourself from the pests

The best thing you can do is never get them in the first place, experts say. That means not bringing them into your home.

Travelers can pick them up in hotel rooms. So before you unpack for your stay, check the room for signs of bedbugs by pulling back the covers and bedsheets to look for bugs or fecal spots.

Do not place luggage on beds or on the floor near beds, and consider placing your bags in a light-colored trash bag or even in the bathtub. When you get home, open the luggage outside and take laundry right to the washing machine and dryer.

Sometimes, bedbugs enter homes by hitching a ride on secondhand furniture or other products. Visually inspect those items and treat them before you take them into your home, Hayes advised. Some experts advise vacuuming, steaming or heating furniture, and quarantining it in a garage or storage unit for a few days before bringing it inside the house.

If it's clothes, wash them and put them through the dryer for an hour. Shoes or other items? Consider putting them in a freezer for a week “to make sure that everything in there that could be alive is taken care of,” Hayes said.

How to get rid of bedbugs if you have them

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers do-it-yourself guidance for getting rid of the pests, but it's labor-intensive, involving sealing hiding spaces and treating infested items.

It also contains many warnings of what not to do.

"You can't just blast random chemicals and expect it's going to work because there's a fairly high likelihood that they'll be resistant to some of the first-line insecticides,” Pietri said.

It makes sense to hire professional exterminators who are experienced in getting rid of bedbugs, Pietri and other experts said. But it can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Insecticides are not the only option.

Silica dust treatments, for example, absorb the bedbug’s body moisture, killing them.

Sustained dry heating works wonders, killing eggs as well as adult bedbugs. But it has to be at least 122 degrees (50 degrees Celsius) and can damage furniture, paintings and other personal possessions, so it must be done by professionals.

“I think the biggest piece of advice is just people shouldn't panic,” Hayes said. “They just need to take action. If you think you have bedbugs, don't wait to deal with it.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Chad Hickman, 39, was found dead after a wide search in Missaukee County, police said. Police released the ages and genders of the victims on Saturday but did not specify whether they were related to each other or the suspect.

Officers responded Friday morning to reports of a shooting at a home about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, where they found the bodies of a 16-year-old boy, a 45-year-old man and 40-year-old woman, and a 13-year-old girl in critical condition, Michigan State Police said.

Authorities say Hickman fled that scene, leading to a large-scale search. Police found the body of a 53-year-old man at a second home, and then a 29-year-old woman, dead alongside Hickman, in the woods. All the victims died of gunshot wounds, police said.

“This situation is heartbreaking for the community and challenging for the investigators involved,” Lt. Ashley Miller said in a Friday statement. Miller said Saturday the investigation is ongoing.

Hickman was convicted in 2024 of misdemeanor fourth-degree child abuse, according to court records. He was sentenced to one year in jail. In the same case, the court dismissed felony assault and criminal sexual conduct charges.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday she was monitoring the situation. “My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the Missaukee community,” she said.

—

Associated Press journalist Hallie Golden contributed from Seattle. GaNun is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

“Just part of the ramp-up to baseball activity,” manager Aaron Boone said of Judge before Saturday’s game against the Blue Jays in Toronto. “Hopefully he’ll continue to progress through this week. We’ll see what else gets introduced.”

Judge hasn’t played since May 31, but the three-time AL MVP and eight-time All-Star has said he intends to return this season. He was cleared to begin light workout activity on Aug. 5.

Boone spoke to Judge and said the slugger responded well to throwing for the first time in his rehab. However, Boone didn’t know when Judge might be ready to rejoin the Yankees.

“We expect him back, but we’re in the early stages of baseball activity,” Boone said. “Hopefully things continue to go well.”

Judge is hitting .248 with 17 home runs, 38 RBIs and a .907 OPS. He had just one homer in his final 18 games before going on the IL.

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See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star, beloved worldwide for her 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart," died last month in a hospital in Portugal. She was 75.

Tyler was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery.

Locals and fans from around the United Kingdom and beyond took to the streets of Mumbles, near the city of Swansea, to see the hearse, which carried her coffin, draped in a Welsh flag. Dozens waited outside the singer's former home or left floral tributes there.

“She was always coming home and making sure that she came back to her fans in Wales," said Carys Edwards, 18. “Her songs really did touch a lot of people here in Wales; we loved her a lot."

Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins, a coal miner’s daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside Swansea. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers.

The singer earned three Grammy nods and in 2013 represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 19th. She was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II, thanks mainly to “Total Eclipse of the Heart."

The ballad shot to the top of the charts in Britain and the United States and has had more than 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017, 2024 — and most recently during this week's solar eclipse.

She was also known for other hits including “It's a Heartache” and “Holding Out For a Hero," from the soundtrack of the film “Footloose.”

A celebration of Tyler’s life for family and friends will take place at a church in Swansea on Monday, before the singer makes a final journey through her hometown of Skewen.

Although Orange County Public Schools provides free meals for students, those meals do not always cover nights, weekends, or other members of the household.

According to Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, about 1 in 7 people across its seven-county service area experience food insecurity. That represents roughly 650,000 Central Florida residents. Among children, the rate climbs to 1 in 5.

Orange County alone accounts for an annual gap of approximately 42.8 million meals, according to Second Harvest.

Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe said some families arrived hours before Saturday’s distribution began.

“None of us are exempt from what could happen, whether it’s a job loss, whether, you know, anything traumatic that happens in our life,” Uribe said.

Access to affordable, nutritious food also remains a challenge in parts of the region. Hebni Nutrition Consultants has identified 16 food deserts across Central Florida, including areas of Pine Hills, South Apopka, Parramore and Winter Garden.

A food desert is generally defined as a low-income area where residents have limited access to supermarkets or other stores selling affordable, healthy food.

During Saturday’s drive, families remained in their vehicles while volunteers loaded food directly into their trunks. Numbers placed on the windshields indicated how much food each household would receive.

Each distribution included a frozen chicken and a box containing oats, peanut butter and other groceries supplied by Second Harvest.

One woman attending the drive, identified as Nancy, said the food would help her family put meals on the table as work has become more difficult while caring for her mother.

Organizers said the demand was apparent before the event began. A similar food drive held in July ran out of food in just 45 minutes, prompting organizers to double the amount ordered for Saturday’s distribution.

Uribe said the drive was open to anyone who needed assistance.

“This is not a moment of judgment,” Uribe said. “This is a moment of community.”

The 24-year-old from the New York City suburb of Pelham touched in 23.49 seconds in her heat at the outdoor pool in Irvine, California.

Douglass lowered the mark of 23.55 set by teammate Gretchen Walsh at an international meet in Rome in June.

It's the second time Douglass has lowered the world mark in the sprint race. She first did it on June 19 at the TYR Pro Swim Series meet in Indianapolis, posting a time of 23.59. Nine days later, Walsh lowered it again.

Douglass is a five-time Olympic medalist. She earned silver in the 50 free at the 2024 world championships but didn't compete in the event at the 2024 Paris Games.

Walsh swam in the heat after Douglass and was timed in 23.78, making them the top two qualifiers for the evening final on the final day of competition in Irvine.

It was the first individual world record set at the meet that includes swimmers from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and China, among others.

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See AP’s full sports coverage here

Deputies say they showed up around 2 a.m. to the area of Indian Trails in reference to a verbal dispute when they heard someone had fired a gun in the area

Deputies say they found out a gathering was taking place at the home and found shell casings located in the street, and several bullet holes in the window and roof of a nearby car.

Deputies say they sent up a drone to look for a suspect, but did not find anything.

Deputies say no one was hurt.

Right now, an investigation is underway, and deputies say they’ll provide more details as they become available.

In July, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on hundreds of Brazilian exports, with duties reaching up to 37.5% in some products. The Trump administration has accused Brazil of unfair trade practices, but Lula has denied the accusations, insisting they are politically motivated ahead of the October election.

Lula is seeking reelection against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who met with U.S. officials, including Trump, in Washington weeks before the administration proposed higher tariffs on Brazilian goods.

“Yesterday, we invoked the reciprocity law to show that we are not to be taken lightly," Lula said in an interview with Brazilian podcasters. “We respect ourselves. I am very calm knowing what could happen, and I am prepared to debate the defense of Brazil anywhere in the world.”

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Thursday it is requesting diplomatic consultations with its U.S. counterparts on the issue, as a sign of Lula's aim “to privilege dialogue and negotiation in its international relations.”

The beginning of the proceedings does not necessarily mean Brazil will retaliate against U.S. tariffs.

“I don’t want any fight with the United States," Lula said Friday. “Unfortunately, they are spreading falsehoods."

Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to Washington in retaliation for Brazil’s denial of visas last month for two American diplomats who sought to visit ahead of the October election.

The U.S. government also has accused Brazil of stalling approval of Trump’s nominee for ambassador in Brasilia, while Brazilian officials say the U.S. should have first sought the government’s approval before submitting the nomination to Congress, as diplomatic protocol requires.

Since U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the Brazilian ambassador’s visa in response to Lula’s actions but did not order her expelled, U.S. officials have said the Trump administration does not want the dispute to escalate.

These officials, who have spoken on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations, have said on multiple occasions that Rubio’s limited response was intentionally designed to give Lula time and space to back down.

At the same time, they have said that the U.S. will respond quickly should Lula's government choose to escalate the matter and that declaring the Brazilian ambassador “persona non grata” and expelling her from the U.S. would be a logical next step.

Lula said once again Trump has treated him well, but warned any foreign governments “who come here to meddle in the election, will lose.”

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Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Lebanon's Health Ministry and state news agency said an airstrike that targeted a home on the edge of Ansar village killed seven people, including three children, and wounded two. The second, on the village of Deir al-Zahrani, killed four and wounded 17.

Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement” on June 26, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for the disarmament of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. It envisions steps toward an eventual peace agreement between the countries, which remain technically at war nearly 80 years after Israel’s establishment.

Hezbollah has refused direct talks and wasn’t party to the deal.

Prime minister says Israeli strikes undermine efforts at stability

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam criticized Israel's airstrikes on southern Lebanon, saying they intimidate “residents in their homes" and undermine efforts to stabilize the situation in the south.

“The seven martyrs of the Israeli airstrike on the town of Ansar are not military infrastructure and the children and women killed were not military targets,” Salam said on X. He added that it is the job of the Lebanese state to deal with any military infrastructure in the country.

President Joseph Aoun said in comments released by his office that the strikes are “a clear message to the negotiation track and to the American efforts aimed at implementing this agreement.”

Israel says it was responding to action against its soldiers

Intense Israeli airstrikes early Saturday also hit the strategic Ali Taher hill, which overlooks parts of the southern city of Nabatiyeh and main roads leading to it, NNA reported. Despite the truce, Israel’s military has continued near-daily attacks in the area north of the Litani River, with large areas to the south under Israeli military control.

The Israeli military said in a statement it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in the areas of Ali Taher and Ansar in response to an action against Israeli soldiers in the area.

The office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah violated the ceasefire by attacking Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon, seriously wounding three. It said the military responded by striking the Hezbollah headquarters which ordered the attack, learning only later that Hezbollah “deliberately put civilians” in that military compound. Israel's military later said the soldiers were hurt by an explosive drone.

The Israeli military issued another statement later Saturday saying the strike on Ansar killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, whom it described as a battalion commander with Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force unit. The military said Haj Hassan’s family was with him and was harmed, but emphasized that the family was not targeted.

Hezbollah refuses to disarm

Hezbollah supporters posted photographs on social media of the commander, his wife, three sons and one daughter and said they were all killed in the strike.

A Hezbollah official did not immediately respond when asked for comment on whether they carried out any attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah called on the Lebanese state to find ways to halt “this aggression” rather than pursuing U.S.-sponsored direct talks with Israel, arguing that would be “free gifts for the enemy despite the crimes and aggression it is carrying out.”

“The American side is a partner of the Israeli enemy in its crimes and massacres,” Hezbollah added in the statement.

Earlier this month, two Israeli soldiers were killed in an explosion in southern Lebanon, the first Israeli deaths since the truce. Hezbollah has not commented on the blast.

Lebanon and Israel have held seven rounds of talks; the most recent took place in Rome earlier this month.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has refused to disarm and accuses the Lebanese government of making too many concessions without guaranteeing an Israeli withdrawal.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets across the border two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks on Iran. More than 4,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since then, including hundreds of civilians. About 40 soldiers and three civilians — including a military contractor — have been killed on the Israeli side.

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Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

Crews say the fire was in the 30 block of East Princeton Street and was mostly contained to the garage and garage attic.

Crews say initial units quickly extinguished the fire and searched both units, confirming no one was trapped.

Crews say they were able to prevent significant damage to living areas.

Red Cross has been notified for those displaced, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Check back for updates.

The Florida Highway Patrol website shows the whole thing happened around 10:40 a.m. near mile marker 242 northbound.

That’s right near the exit for U.S. 192 / U.S. 441 in Kissimmee.

Troopers say three people were transported with non-life-threatening injuries, and one lane is currently open.

The crash is under investigation.

Check back for updates.

The ongoing vitriol centered around race, gender and sexuality makes for daily headlines. They are part of an undertone to fouls and physicality that have come with the evolution of women's skills, all of which overshadow the impressive play that can be seen during the WNBA’s 30th year.

Hall of Famer Dawn Staley, who is getting inducted again Saturday with the 1996 Olympic women’s basketball team, sees a positive side to the negativity. Staley said there are similar parallels between what the WNBA is going through and what the NBA went through in the early stages of its growth.

“All the big pieces and all the things that are happening from a racial standpoint, from an officiating standpoint are great. They’re great because the NBA went through it — the NBA went through all of it,” she said. “So this is just badges of honor. Will we get through it? We will get through it.”

What the NBA had to deal with was who could play in the league. It was an all-white league when it was launched and there was resistance to integration. The WNBA has been hit lately with a narrative on whether transgender women — people assigned male at birth who transition to align with their gender identity — should be allowed to play in the league. There has never been one.

There have been players in the league who were assigned female at birth and later came out as transgender or nonbinary.

Polarizing views have become a major topic of conversation.

WNBA players’ union president Nneka Ogwumike said she feels awful for the transgender fans who have supported the league for so many years.

“It really breaks my heart to think about how these conversations may be affecting people who have supported us for so long,” she said.

Using women's sports to make a point

WNBA players have used their platform to engage in social and political discussions, but Ogwumike believes there is an underlying agenda to the off-court questions players are constantly being asked about.

“It’s super unfortunate because we’re now in a time where I think there’s a lot of different agendas that are being used for something perhaps bigger and broader that people can’t see now that they’re using women’s sports for,” Ogwumike said. “It’s very concerning, but what I really do hate is that we are using a very nuanced conversation — and evolving conversation — to continue to marginalize these groups that we advocate for.”

Ogwumike understands the tough balance that’s going on with the news media and on social media.

"Even something as simple as you guys asking actual basketball questions. I think it’s very helpful,” she said. “I think it’s a very delicate line for me because it’s like, OK, you know, we want to act like your job is to cover this game, you know, and our job as athletes is to play it and to also give you what we can. But then it’s also like do I want to seem insensitive by not talking about the things that are going on?”

Staley agrees that it's unfortunate that all the great things happening on the court are put on the backburner in discussions.

“It’s an incredible product that we’re missing out on because we got distractions every time,” she said. “There’s something great happening, there are always distractions placed in your life, but you got to be able to handle them.”

Vitriol not new and now can't be ignored

There are so many more eyeballs on the WNBA now, with viewership 17% higher than last season’s record-setting year. Attendance is also strong again this season. Not all attention is good, though.

As the league continues to grow in popularity, social media attacks directed at players have skyrocketed and betting on the sport also has increased.

“I think it was more swept under the rug in the past, but now it’s not because you can’t,” Hall of Fame inductee Candace Parker said of the personal and threatening comments directed at players. “We can’t tell every player to just deal with it. That’s not how it works. I know I’m proud that some people think that they’re anonymous when they make comments online and they’re finding out that they’re not. There are going to be repercussions.

“Unfortunately, that’s the climate in our country right now, to be honest with you. And I think women always feel it more and it’s always been that way, from top to bottom.”

Chamique Holdsclaw said she had disagreements with teammates during her WNBA days from 1999-2010, but those were kept in the locker room and not brought out on social media, which was in its infancy.

“I’ve had teammates that I may not agree with their politics or beliefs," Holdsclaw said, "but we all know that as long as the locker room is good, we’re good.”

There isn't much kept in the locker room in today's WNBA, or any sports league, and leagues are coping with the repercussions of those public discussions.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid growing concerns about mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed carrier. The Lincoln has had its time at sea extended from its original May return date to support operations against Iran.

The lack of a U.S. carrier in the Pacific may be short-lived if the Navy deploys another in the next couple of months. But it shows how the open-ended operations with Iran are running some American sailors ragged, analysts say, while the Trump administration further retreats from the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on the Western Hemisphere.

“The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Instead, the U.S. is "doing the exact opposite" of its previously expressed goal of pulling out of the Middle East.

American allies in the Pacific are unsettled over the unpredictability of the Republican administration, Poling said, while Beijing “is quite happy with U.S. distraction, with the frustration of U.S. allies and partners."

China may take advantage of US carrier's absence

Beijing sees the U.S. military presence in the region as a threat to China’s rise and an obstacle to its ambition to seize Taiwan, the self-governing island it claims as its own. But the United States has argued that the Pacific region is too important economically to lose.

No one expects China to invade Taiwan because an American aircraft carrier has left the region. But the carrier's absence gives the Chinese another opportunity to show its strength, said Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner who is a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute.

“They’re using this as part of the narrative to demonstrate to the Philippines, to Japan, to Indonesia and others that the U.S. is not the big dog in the western Pacific anymore,” Clark said. “They would just prefer that countries in the region decide that China is the bigger power and the U.S. is not able to guarantee their security anymore.”

China conducted naval exercises this week with Indonesia and recently has shown signs of aggression toward Japan and the Philippines, two key U.S. allies that also have territorial disputes with Beijing.

China carried out military drills this month near the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. Both China and the Philippines have claims over the shoal. Last month, a Chinese guided-missile destroyer conducted a live-fire exercise off Japan’s southernmost island of Okinotori.

Adm. Frank Bradley, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, has been trying to reassure regional allies of Washington’s commitment. He was in Manila on Thursday, telling his Filipino counterparts that U.S. special operations forces are ready to step up joint exercises to strengthen the countries' alliance. He also is expected to travel to Japan.

Evan Sankey, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute who focuses on U.S. policy toward China, said aircraft carriers provide psychological assurance to U.S. allies. The absence of carriers in the region, he said, “adds to the general sense that the U.S. is distracted by events in the Middle East.”

Trump has relied on aircraft carriers for military actions

Trump has relied heavily on aircraft carriers to support military operations during his second term. For example, the USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, during which it supported the U.S. fight against Iran and the capture of Venezuela's then-leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The Ford had experienced a fire in a laundry space that forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep. Meanwhile, the Lincoln has spent a record uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Democratic lawmakers have been calling for investigations and greater visibility into conditions aboard the ship.

Warships and their crews can only handle so much, said Robert Farley, who teaches national security and diplomacy at the University of Kentucky and often writes about aircraft carriers.

“People don’t get enough rest. It's psychologically exhausting. And R&R is part of keeping the crew healthy,” Farley said. “Sometimes it’s framed as, ‘These people haven’t had a vacation.’ But we are dealing with well-known limits on the capacity of a crew to operate at top efficiency over time. And that just declines."

Clark, of the Hudson Institute, said the squeeze on the nation's aircraft carriers stems from the lack of preparation and planning for the Iran war.

“If we were going to mobilize to do this kind of conflict, and we anticipated it might go this long, we might have done some changes to the carrier schedule to make sure more would be available,” Clark said.

Clark said the Navy has 11 aircraft carriers and typically deploys two or three at a time. But it could soon deploy four if the USS Theodore Roosevelt leaves San Diego for the Middle East, allowing the Washington to return to Pacific.

But the massive warships will need maintenance, likely causing a bottleneck at the nation's only two carrier shipyards.

“We’ll end up with a maintenance debt that needs to be paid for the next few years,” Clark said. “We’ll probably have less carrier presence than we’ve had in the previous years because carriers will be lined up to get into the shipyard.”

There are questions about the use of aircraft carriers in modern warfare

Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow in the Quincy Institute’s East Asia Program, questions the future need for aircraft carriers as warfare rapidly changes.

Carriers can be more easily targeted with drones and missiles, particularly by an adversary such as China, Swaine said, while smaller ships and submarines can be as effective in striking targets as the fighter jets that launch off a carrier.

Top Navy officials have indicated a desire to move away from a heavy reliance on carriers. Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, told The Associated Press in February that he wants to convince commanders to use smaller, newer ships and other assets instead of consistently turning to huge aircraft carriers.

Authorities issued a tsunami warning and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground, but later lifted the warning when Indonesia’s meteorological agency said monitoring showed no significant sea-level changes that posed a threat to coastal communities. Some smaller tsunamis were reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit eastern Indonesia's Flores region at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) at 5:58 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was 68 km (42 miles) north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.

The quake triggers landslides and generates small tsunamis

The meteorological agency said the quake was followed by at least 235 aftershocks, with the largest recorded at magnitude 6.2.

The agency's sea-level monitoring stations acknowledged some small tsunamis reached coastal villages in Manggarai and East Manggarai regencies. Videos obtained by The Associated Press showed the coastal village of Riung in Ngada regency blanketed in mud and debris after what the agency described as a 1.61-meter (5.3 feet) tsunami. Fishing boats were stranded ashore, infrastructure damaged, and homes surrounded by sediment left by receding waters.

Waves measuring 0.94 meters (3.1 feet) were observed in Maurole, Ende Regency.

Tsunami waves exceeding 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) were detected in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, and Sape in Bima Regency.

A strong, land-based earthquake of 6.9 magnitude hit North Sumatra province in western Indonesia on Saturday afternoon, according to the USGS. It struck 172.5 kilometers (107 miles) beneath the earth’s surface, meaning it was too deep to cause significant damage or casualties, Indonesian authorities said.

The quake has caused buildings to collapse

East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko said power outages hampered the spread of information about the impact of the earthquake in cities and villages, complicating search and rescue efforts.

“We are continuing to collect reports of damage and casualties, but there are communication disruptions,” Darmoko said. He said quake-triggered landslides in Ende regency blocked the Trans-Flores highway, a roughly 700-kilometer (435-mile) paved mountain road spanning Flores Island, from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka.

The head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Suharyanto, said rescuers have recovered at least 47 bodies, mostly in Sikka, Manggarai and East Manggarai, and at least 50 people were taken to hospitals.

Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a single name, said the quake flattened at least 157 houses and damaged nearly 200 more, forcing about 2,000 villagers to abandon their homes and move to temporary shelters. The powerful temblor also destroyed more than 100 public facilities, including schools, medical centers and churches.

The death toll could rise because landslides triggered by the earthquake buried or cut off many remote villages across six regencies on Flores Island, said Fathur Rahman, who heads the Search and Rescue Office in Maumere, the capital of Sikka.

Some remote villages are completely buried, he said, and damaged infrastructure and a lack of heavy equipment were hindering rescue efforts.

Authorities deployed three helicopters and a rescue vessel to support logistics and emergency response operations, including potential evacuations. East Nusa Tenggara consists of numerous islands and presents significant transportation and access challenges.

Residents ran for their lives when the quake struck

The quake was felt across much of Flores island with initial reports indicating heavy damage.

Yohanna Embu, who lives in Sikka, said people ran in a panic to higher ground.

“Many buildings here were damaged ... I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said.

Students at St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka who were attending morning Mass fled when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, known locally as Ritapiret Seminary on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.

“Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” Tanga said. “At least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake.”

The quake also struck Labuan Bajo, a gateway town to eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, one of the country’s best-known attractions. Damage was reported in Bima, a city in neighboring West Nusa Tenggara province, and in parts of southern Sulawesi island.

Indonesian authorities initially issued a tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, and urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks. The agency located the shallow undersea quake near Flores island.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

Most notably, a powerful earthquake caused a tsunami in 1992 that killed about 2,500 people on Flores, part of a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia, while in 2018, a magnitude 7.5 quake spawned a large localized tsunami that wiped out coastal areas, killing more than 4,400 people.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

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Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show Ngada is a regency, not a village.

Takaichi, however, did not mention her country’s wartime past in Asia or express remorse for it in a speech at the ceremony, and the defense minister and other political representatives visited the shrine.

The Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates over 2.4 million people who died in wars, became controversial after enshrining 14 convicted World War II Japanese war criminals. China and South Korea say visits by Japanese officials to the shrine show a lack of remorse over Japan's wartime atrocities.

Japan invaded and occupied large parts of Asia before and during World War II, committing atrocities that included mass killings, forced labor and the sexual enslavement of women. Millions died during Japan's wars and colonial rule.

Japan has embraced a pacifist ethos in the decades since its defeat. But memories of Japan's colonial rule and atrocities still run deep, and leaders and the public in China and South Korea closely watch how Japanese leaders confront the country’s past.

Japan's leaders say they uphold their commitment to peace

Takaichi mourned the victims of major devastation in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okinawa, as well as those who perished in overseas battlefronts, and thanked them for their sacrifice as the “foundation of Japan's peace and prosperity today.”

“Japan, since the end of the war, has consistently contributed to global peace and prosperity. We will never let the tragedy of the war be repeated,” she said in her address at Nippon Budokan, located a short walk away from Yasukuni.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, three other Cabinet ministers and three executives from Takaichi’s governing Liberal Democratic Party visited the shrine earlier Saturday. A nonpartisan group of dozens of lawmakers also prayed there.

The secretary general of Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party, Shunichi Suzuki, said he prayed at Yasukuni on behalf of Takaichi and brought cash offerings that Takaichi made as party leader. He did not disclose the amount.

“I renewed my war-renouncing resolve and will continue to fulfill Japan’s postwar responsibility as a peace-loving nation," Koizumi, who has regularly visited the shrine, said on X after his visit Saturday. He is the son of a popular former prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who enraged China with a visit to Yasukuni on Aug. 15, 2006.

China and South Korea protest shrine visits

China’s Foreign Ministry protested the visits, saying the Japanese politicians’ true intentions were to “change the verdict on the war criminals, cover up Japan’s war crimes, distort the historical facts and pave the way for accelerating militarization.”

It urged Japan to do “serious soul searching” on history and make a clean break with militarism.

Tensions between Japan and China escalated in November when Takaichi said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a survival-threatening situation” for Japan requiring the use of force. The comments enraged Beijing.

South Korea's foreign ministry also criticized the Japanese politicians' visits and offerings as “an anachronistic act that disregards history." The ministry urged Japan to face its history and demonstrate remorse.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung struck a different tone in a speech Saturday marking the 81st anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. He stressed that his administration favors “pragmatic diplomacy."

“Korea-Japan cooperation is now more important than ever," he said.

Japanese emperors have shunned the shrine

Japanese emperors have shunned Yasukuni since its 1978 inclusion of war criminals as “martyrs,” and have expressed regrets over Japan’s wartime past, though in a nuanced way.

Emperor Naruhito, in an address Saturday at the ceremony, said he hopes the ravages of war will never be repeated while “reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse.”

Addressing concerns of fading memories of wartime history, Naruhito said he hoped the memories of the suffering during and after the war will be passed down to younger generations.

Pushback against remembering Japan's wartime history

Takaichi has resisted acknowledging Japan's wartime aggression. She has denied that coercion was used against Korean laborers and that women were held as sex slaves for Japanese troops. She was previously part of a campaign to remove references to wartime sexual slavery, known as “comfort women,” from school textbooks.

She has said she is from a postwar generation that bears no responsibility for Japan's past actions and has no intention of apologizing.

The country has faced revisionist pushback since the 2010s under nationalistic former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Takaichi says Abe is her political mentor.

Since 2013, Japanese prime ministers have stopped apologizing to Asian victims for wartime atrocities, under a precedent set by Abe.

People at Yasukuni remember relatives lost in the war

Descendants of the war dead also gathered at Yasukuni early Saturday to honor their fallen ancestors.

Mariko Shinoda, 56, whose grandfather died as a Kamikaze pilot, said she visited Yasukuni with her mother as a child every year on Aug. 15. Kamikaze pilots departed on their one-way missions saying, “Let’s meet at Yasukuni,” her mother told her.

“To me, Yasukuni is where every spirit gathers, and that’s where you get to see them on Aug. 15,” Shinoda said.

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Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

A top United Nations official, however, warned of a grave human rights crisis in Afghanistan, where girls over age 12 are barred from attending school.

The Taliban seized power on Aug. 15, 2021, as the U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew following a costly two-decade war. The U.S. withdrawal led to chaos at Kabul airport as crowds of people tried to flee the country in desperation.

Soon after taking power, the Taliban administration imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and later banned higher education for women, despite having pledged before the takeover that women would be allowed access to education, employment and public participation.

Women have also been banned from public spaces such as gyms and parks, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a male guardian.

Taliban hails ‘liberation’ from American forces

At the Loya Jirga, high-ranking officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of ordinary citizens for speeches marking what they said was Afghanistan's liberation from American forces.

“We pray to Almighty God to forever protect our homeland from occupation, aggression, wars, and insecurity, and to enable our people to enjoy peace, tranquility, and prosperity under the auspices of the Sharia-based government,” the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said during the ceremony.

Abdul Salam Hanafi, the deputy prime minister in charge of administrative affairs, said the Taliban rule ended an era of external interventions and internal strife in Afghanistan “over the past half-century,” restoring security.

“At least 300 Afghan youth were martyred or killed every day,” Hanafi said. “Three hundred sisters would become widows, several children would become orphans and 300 mothers would be grieving. Praise be to God, with the rule of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, this tragedy was removed from the Afghan nation.”

There were no women present at the ceremony.

Top Taliban official calls for more international engagement

Five years on, the Taliban government remains isolated internationally, with Russia being the only country to have recognized it formally.

Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said countries that have engaged with the administration have gained from doing so and called on others that have not established contacts to reconsider their approach.

“They should move towards a policy of engagement and mutual interaction,” he said.

Celebrations held under tight security

In Kabul, Afghans took to the squares carrying Taliban flags and chanting slogans in support of the government. Convoys of vehicles wound their way through the city, causing traffic jams.

Security was tight, with a heavy Taliban security force presence and several checkpoints on a main road leading to the Loya Jirga.

Celebrations were also held in provinces across Afghanistan, where Taliban flags and posters emblazoned with slogans in praise of the Taliban’s return to power were displayed along major roads and marketplaces.

UN warns of worsening human rights crisis

In a video message, Richard Bennett, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said the country was undergoing a deep human rights crisis.

“While the era of war has ended, it’s questionable whether there’s real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls,” Bennett said. “My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

“The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid,” he continued, noting that the U.N. continues to document arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and persecution of minorities in Afghanistan.

Bennett warned the international community against “normalizing” the Taliban’s policies, saying it would legitimize the discrimination and tell “victims their suffering is negotiable.”

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said despite “challenges and difficulties” the administration has in the past five years delivered security and infrastructure and created jobs.

2.4 million girls excluded from secondary education

Farahi, when asked, did not address the issue of the education of girls and women but said “the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past."

The U.N. agency on education and culture, UNESCO, estimates that some 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary education. The U.N. World Food Program said child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen due to funding shortfalls.

U.N. Women said this week that women and girls are facing the harshest restrictions in the world and that the bans are damaging Afghanistan’s future, with the lack of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives threatening the country’s social and economic foundations.

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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

State Troopers say the crash happened Friday night around 8:15 p.m.

Troopers say a 2019 Honda Insight was hit as it exited a parking lot on Wickham Road by a truck approaching the Capron Trail intersection.

Troopers say both cars ran off the road.

Troopers say a 42-year-old woman in the Honda Insight died at the hospital, and 2 people in the other car had non-life-threatening injuries.

Check back for updates.

In a booming music business, CDs were king, like Shakur's monumental “All Eyez on Me," which topped the Billboard album chart a few months earlier. It was the pinnacle of a brief hip-hop career whose legend would only grow in the following decades. His shooting was one of several momentous mid-1990s musical deaths, including those of Kurt Cobain and Shakur's archrival the Notorious B.I.G.

Starting Monday in Las Vegas, that September night will come under intense scrutiny again as 63-year-old Duane “Keffe D” Davis is tried in his killing. It is a moment that many fans and followers of the formerly cold case thought might never come.

Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated Shakur’s shooting. They have charged him with one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.

Davis has pleaded not guilty. His defense attorneys argue there is no evidence he directed the shooting and the state is relying on witnesses who weren't there.

Here's a look at key elements of the trial that is expected to last about a month.

What happened on the night Tupac was shot

Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight were in Las Vegas to watch Mike Tyson knock out Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Just outside the fight, Shakur, Knight and their entourage got into a brawl with a group that included Davis' nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.

Authorities, authors and Davis himself say the shooting was an act of retaliation. Davis' 2019 memoir “Compton Street Legend,” said the men had “crossed the line” when they beat up Anderson.

“We couldn’t let no record company studio gangsters do us like that,” says the book, which along with Davis interviews revived the cold case and led to Davis being charged. The co-authored memoir will be essential to the trial. Davis’ defense fought unsuccessfully to get it excluded.

Later in the night, Shakur and Knight were heading to a nightclub where Shakur was scheduled to perform. At a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, a white Cadillac pulled up beside them, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later. Knight survived with minor injuries.

Prosecutors say Davis called for shooting that was fueled by long gang feud

The long, lingering question of who shot Tupac may stay unanswered. But prosecutors hope to prove that Davis was the shot caller and provided the weapon.

He was one of four men in the Cadillac, authorities said. The other three have all died in the years since. Authorities say neither the car nor the gun used in the shooting were recovered.

Grand jury testimony portrayed the shooting as a culmination of a longstanding feud between rival record labels — Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records — and rival gang sects Mob Piru and South Side Compton Crips.

The key players at trial

The jury will consist of six men and 10 women who were seated Thursday. Four are alternates.

Attorney Michael Sanft will lead Davis' defense. He has said he took the case on a pro-bono basis. His previous high-profile clients include Michele Fiore, a Nevada politician convicted of wire fraud but pardoned by President Donald Trump before she was sentenced, and Andrew Cote, a former Las Vegas pastor found guilty of shooting and killing his 71-year-old neighbor and her 54-year-old boyfriend.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo will head the prosecution. He previously faced off with Sanft as the prosecutor in the Cote case.

Judge Carli Kierny was a public defender for 10 years in Clark County, Nevada, where she was elected as a judge in 2020. She is on the ballot again later this year.

Dozens of prosecution witnesses could include ‘Suge’ Knight

Prosecutors expect to call between 35 and 45 people to the stand. Along with police and technical witnesses, they are expected to include people who saw Shakur moments before he was shot and those who were associates of both Shakur and Davis at the time.

Knight, the West Coast hip-hop mogul who was once one of the most important and most feared men in music, is the only surviving eyewitness other than the defendant. He is on the witness list and may be summoned. He has said he wants no part in the trial. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing a Compton businessman in 2015.

Davis wrote in his book that moments before the shooting, he and Knight “looked each other dead in the eye” like “two rams locking horns.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs, Knight’s East Coast counterpart and fierce foe, will not be testifying.

The defense intends to call only a handful of witnesses. They have not said whether Davis will testify.

The three men who didn't live to take part in the trial

Law enforcement authorities long suspected that the gunman was Anderson, Davis' 12-years-younger nephew who was 22 at the time. He was sitting in the backseat of the Cadillac, behind his uncle. Anderson, who denied involvement in Shakur’s killing, died two years later in what police said was an unrelated shooting at a Compton car wash.

Deandrae “Freaky” Smith was in the backseat sitting next to Anderson. Denvonta Lee, a former associate of Smith who talked to him about the shooting soon after it happened, told a grand jury it was Smith who fired the shots but let Anderson take credit for Shakur's death. Smith died in 2004 at age 30 from what authorities said were natural causes.

Terry “Bubble Up” Brown was the driver of the Cadillac. He died in a 2015 shooting at a medical marijuana dispensary in Compton.

“I’d go home and I’d cry,” said Touzalin, an 18-year-old college student from Colorado. “I didn’t understand why all this weight was coming back or why my friends didn’t have to shave their faces and I had to.”

Touzalin and her mom, Anne Schultz, were finally diagnosed with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, a hormonal condition affecting 1 in 8 women worldwide. But unlike her mom, Touzalin is beginning young adulthood with new hope after taking part in a study testing blockbuster GLP-1 drugs as a treatment.

A small but growing body of research shows that these obesity medications may also work for the disorder known as PMOS — not only by promoting weight loss but also by improving insulin resistance, hormone balance and ovulation. These things are key to the disease, which used to be called polycystic ovary syndrome but was renamed earlier this year to shift the focus away from ovaries and cysts.

“We need to do a better job taking care of it,” said Dr. Melanie Cree, who has led three studies testing GLP-1 drugs for PMOS including the one Touzalin joined. “We are finding them incredibly effective and really exciting for improving symptoms in women with this condition.”

PMOS is a mysterious and maddening disease

Touzalin and her mom's long, frustrating journey with PMOS is common.

Diagnosis often takes years because symptoms overlap with other conditions, vary widely and may be dismissed by doctors. The disorder tends to run in families, and many but not all women affected carry excess weight. But there’s no known cause or specific treatment, just symptom management such as taking birth control pills to regulate periods and keeping weight in check with diet and exercise.

Two hormones are key drivers of PMOS: insulin, which acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells, and testosterone, which among other things helps maintain sexual desire, bone density and muscle mass.

Most women with PMOS, regardless of their body size, have insulin resistance, which means this hormone doesn't work as well as it should, said Cree, PMOS clinic director at Children’s Hospital Colorado. In many women, the high insulin can go directly to the ovaries, spurring them to make more testosterone and leading to problems like skipped periods, severe acne and even beard growth.

Schultz, 43, didn’t even know the condition existed when she first began having irregular periods and bloating around age 18. In addition to struggling with the same symptoms as her daughter, she had problems with her ovaries and numerous miscarriages, which are more common with PMOS.

Schultz received various diagnoses before learning she had PMOS around the same time as her daughter, who faced a similar medical runaround.

Schultz recalled talking about Touzalin's symptoms with a pediatrician who was seeing her for what they thought was primarily an issue with binge eating and ADHD.

Schultz told the doctor: “There's gotta be something else going on here.”

Touzalin said she felt “heard for the first time” when a nurse practitioner began piecing things together a few years ago. Cree definitively diagnosed her last year.

“It was like a godsend,” said Schultz, tearing up. “We finally had an answer and some kind of a path for her.”

In Cree’s study, Touzalin gave herself shots of semaglutide weekly for 10 months. The abnormal hair growth slowed and her periods normalized. For the first time, she felt full after eating and stopped gaining weight constantly.

“I became a happier version of myself,” she said. “I felt like a normal person.”

While research on GLP-1s for PMOS continues, insurers put up barriers

Touzalin’s results weren’t unique. Early data from the study, published in June in the journal Fertility and Sterility, said eight of 11 participants completing the trial lost at least 10% of their body weight. The median weight loss among them was about 42 pounds; the median drop in testosterone was 52%. Six women had more periods and four of them went to monthly periods.

In all three of Cree’s studies, women on GLP-1s lost more weight than those in control groups, and levels of testosterone, blood sugar and insulin dropped. While the study involving Touzalin looks at semaglutide shots, the other studies examined semaglutide pills in one and exenatide shots in the other.

Other studies globally have shown similarly positive results. Although the studies are small, some researchers say GLP-1s are already showing promising potential for targeting metabolic issues in PMOS. Others say the evidence remains uncertain, and more studies are underway.

As research continues, more and more doctors are prescribing the drugs “off label” for PMOS and seeing improvements in their patients. But insurance coverage is often a problem because the drugs are not approved to treat the condition.

“I use these medicines a great deal,” said Dr. Rana Malek, an endocrinologist with the University of Maryland Medical System.

Among patients with insulin resistance, she said she usually uses them to help with weight loss.

Doctors stress that results vary. GLP-1s don’t work for everyone and can have side effects, like nausea and constipation. If people stop taking them, weight can return.

Still, they can help a lot of PMOS patients, Malek said, and it’s frustrating that many can’t get them because of insurance issues. Not only are they unapproved for PMOS, some insurers don’t cover them for weight loss.

Touzalin recently ran into this barrier herself. After finishing her study participation, she no longer gets free GLP-1s and had to go off them in June.

Schultz is determined to get her back on them. She’s fighting with her insurer and has a backup plan to get medications through a drug company program. She’d also like to try GLP-1s for her own PMOS, but said her daughter comes first.

Touzalin hopes for a day when any PMOS patient can get the treatment if she needs it.

“It’s something that could help a lot of other people,” she said.

___

AP video journalist Brittany Peterson in Denver contributed to this story.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In Tuesday's primary, Wisconsin Democrats cast nearly 800,000 ballots, their highest total for a midterm in more than 20 years. That followed 1.5 million Democratic voters in Michigan the week before, a midterm record for the state.

The enthusiasm extends beyond the Midwest. Democratic turnout also surged earlier this year in Texas and Georgia, states that will have competitive Senate races in the fall. It is giving Democrats a string of strong showings heading into the midterms, when the president’s party is normally at a disadvantage. That is compounded this year by President Donald Trump’s weak approval ratings, persistent inflation and an unpopular war with Iran.

“The big news is that Democrats are getting huge turnouts,” said David Axelrod, who was a top adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama. “That’s been a steady story throughout this period.”

Competitive Democratic primaries have helped drive the surge, giving the party’s voters more reason to participate. Republican primary turnout remained closer to historic norms in Michigan, even with a competitive statewide contest.

Voter turnout in primary elections is an imperfect predictor of general election results, especially when one party has the more compelling early contests. Republicans say they are responding with a major effort to turn out their voters in the fall.

GOP leaders say they can energize voters by tapping into a major fundraising advantage over Democrats and sending Trump back out campaigning, including during a midterm convention in Texas next month.

“Primary turnout doesn’t win general elections,” said Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “House Republicans are entering November with the money, momentum, stronger candidates and a battle-tested operation built to turn out voters when it actually counts.”

Democratic turnout in some states is the highest in two decades

The scale of the Democratic turnout advantage varied across states, but the pattern extended across much of this year's competitive landscape for House, Senate or governor's races.

In Wisconsin, more than 790,000 people voted in the Democratic primary for governor, putting turnout at about 22% of registered voters. More than 1.5 million people voted in Michigan's recent Democratic Senate primary, which accounted for a little more than 18% of registered voters. It was the state's highest midterm turnout rate in a Democratic primary since at least 2002 — the same as in Wisconsin, according to an analysis of Associated Press election data.

In Minnesota, Democratic primary turnout was on par with the 2018 midterm election, with both years marking the state’s highest Democratic primary turnout in a midterm year so far this century.

For Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan, turnout in last week’s primary was in line with previous GOP midterm primaries in each state. In Michigan, turnout for the Republican governor’s race was about 11%. In Wisconsin’s Republican primary for governor, it is expected to be about 14%.

“Republicans in Michigan will close the enthusiasm gap by highlighting the massive differences between our nominees and the extreme, out-of-touch politicians the Democrats have nominated,” said Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for the Michigan GOP. “It's one thing to lead in enthusiasm before we know who is running. Now, the differences are clear.”

Other states that held elections earlier this year also saw significant Democratic primary turnout. In Georgia and Texas, the midterm turnout rate in the Democratic primaries was higher than it’s been since at least 2002. In Georgia, just over 1 million people voted in May in the Democratic governor’s race, a little more than 13% of registered voters. In Texas, about 2.3 million people voted in March in the Democratic Senate primary, a little more than 12%.

Competitive primaries fueled turnout. They may complicate Democratic unity

The robust primary turnout has been a “good sign for Democrats,” said Corwin Smidt, a political science professor at Michigan State University. But he cautioned that it is “not a very solid predictor” of how voters will break in November.

Smidt pointed to several factors behind the numbers, including high turnout in recent elections, which has created a larger pool of regular voters.

“Voting is a lot of habit-forming,” he said.

He also noted that many of the states with high turnout had what he described as “media spotlight candidacies.”

Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota all held marquee progressive versus moderate races in August that likely helped drive Democratic participation.

In Michigan, spending in the Democratic Senate primary topped $80 million, making it one of the most expensive races of the year so far, according to AdImpact. Progressive Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens after a campaign that drew national attention and energized younger voters and university communities.

But Stevens carried Wayne County, the state’s largest source of Democratic votes, and some of the congresswoman's supporters said before the primary that they would not back El-Sayed if he became the nominee.

In Wisconsin, the governor’s primary was repeatedly reshaped as moderate Democrats left and reentered the race while democratic socialist Francesca Hong consolidated progressive support. Hong lost narrowly to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a more moderate candidate.

The races highlight how competitive primaries helped drive attention and also how the winning candidates have work to do to bring their party together for November. Both Wisconsin and Michigan Democrats held unity breakfasts in the days after the primaries.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who backed El-Sayed and Minnesota Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan but did not endorse Hong, said in an interview this week that he expects Democratic voters to bridge their differences for the general election.

“At the end of the day, when it comes to taking on Trump and creating a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, there is going to be unity, because I think everybody knows how important that is,” he said.

A favorable environment, but a difficult map

Democrats have reason to believe the primary enthusiasm could last. The president’s party has historically lost ground in midterm elections, and Trump enters the fall deeply unpopular amid economic unease and an unpopular war.

Some 33% of American adults approve of his job performance, according to the most recent polling by The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs.

But a favorable national environment may not be enough. Democrats will need unusually strong turnout to overcome a congressional map that has become more favorable to Republicans.

The number of competitive House races has shrunk considerably this year after Republican-controlled states redrew congressional districts in their favor at Trump’s urging. Some Democratic-controlled states responded, but the new lines are expected to produce a net benefit for Republicans, who hold a slim House majority.

Republicans control the Senate 53-47, with Democrats needing to pick up four seats to win the majority. Democrats will have to generate energy similar to Republicans two years ago, Smidt said.

“If we have a national tide like we had in 2024, suddenly that opens the map a little more,” he said.

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Pamela Jo Martin and Samuel Jens of The Associated Press Election Services team contributed to this report from Washington.

Concerns about a weak economy and still-high inflation? His predecessor, Joe Biden, saddled him with that, he says, even though the Democrat has been out of office for 18-plus months and despite Trump once promising an immediate turnaround.

The problem-plagued revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool? That was marred by vandalism, the Republican president insists, even though the office of a prosecutor he put in the job has said the damage was due to shoddy workmanship.

The increasingly unpopular war in Iran that has kept oil prices high, Trump’s approval rating low and sent shock waves through the global economy? Actually, this was Trump making up for timid earlier presidents who, he argues, squandered nearly 50 years of opportunities to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Pithy slogans aside, all modern presidents shift responsibility onto others to some degree, frequently blaming the commander-in-chief who preceded them, Congress — or both. But Trump has taken it to a new level, effectively embracing a de facto political strategy of being in charge of everything but responsible for nothing when things go badly.

“Taking responsibility being a characteristic of presidential leadership — or any kind of leadership — is absolutely true,” said Nicole Anslover, a history professor at Florida Atlantic University and author of “Harry S. Truman: The Coming of the Cold War.”

Trump’s tendency to point fingers at others is increasingly in the spotlight before November’s midterm elections, when Republicans are trying to retain control of Congress. His unwillingness to accept blame sometimes leads him to deny that there are problems at all, and could leave GOP leaders in tight races with little reassurance for voters that their concerns are being addressed.

The White House counters that Trump is working to correct long-festering challenges, not simply throwing up his hands and ignoring them.

The president is "rightfully addressing the failures of his predecessors while taking action to deliver big wins for the American people,” spokesperson Taylor Rogers said, pointing to a series of policies that she said Republicans can run on, including tax cuts, efforts to lower prescription drug prices, cracking down on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, increasing domestic energy production and a strong stock market.

Ducking responsibility dates to Trump's first term

Truman famously kept a “The Buck Stops Here” sign on his desk as president. That came from “pass the buck,” which, according to Truman’s presidential library, dates to frontier times, when poker players would pass a buckhorn handle knife to the person whose turn it was to deal the cards.

“The president, whoever he is, has to decide,” Truman said during his farewell address in 1953. “He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.”

The understanding of the phrase has broadened over the years to include taking responsibility for the outcome of tough decisions. Trump used to espouse similar beliefs, saying back in 2013 that in running a business, “Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.”

Accepting the 2016 presidential nomination, Trump said, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” But as president, he has often suggested that the solution and blame rest elsewhere.

“The buck stops with everybody,” Trump said in 2019, during a lengthy government shutdown. In 2020, on the same day he declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, he said, “I don’t take responsibility at all" for a lack of COVID-19 testing.

Anslover said Truman took full responsibility for dropping atomic bombs on Japan even though he was not informed that the U.S. was developing such weapons until his predecessor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died.

John F. Kennedy saw his approval ratings rise after he acknowledged he was to blame for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. Ronald Reagan said he was sorry for any involvement he may have had in the Iran-Contra scandal even while saying he wasn’t sure he was to blame. “The buck stops here with me,” he said then.

At his final news conference in early 2009, George W. Bush listed a series of mistakes he had made, including failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. His successor, Barack Obama, said, “I screwed up,” after his nominee for health chief, Tom Daschle, withdrew because of unpaid back taxes.

Presidents before Trump "really usually take accountability,” Anslover said.

‘We inherited a total catastrophe,’ Trump says

The president acknowledged in a recent Punchbowl interview that voters are angry, but he said they are not mad at him but at congressional Republicans.

Trump believes his party can hold its congressional majorities after November, but he was clear that if Republicans lose, it won't be his fault — echoing his comments before the 2018 midterms that he would not accept blame if his party lost control of the House, which it did.

Trump's approval rating on the economy, once seen as among his strongest issues, has fallen throughout his time in office, from 40% in March 2025 to 32% in July, according to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump’s economic policies have made economic conditions worse, according to Pew Research Center polling.

“The public certainly expects the president to be concerned about, and focused on, making life more affordable,” Republican pollster Frank Luntz said.

Trump instead points to Biden, under whom inflation hit a four-decade peak of 9.1% in 2022 as the pandemic was still roiling the world economy, before declining to 2.7% by November 2024. Last month, pressured by the Iran war, it was 3.4%.

“When we took office, we inherited a total catastrophe,” Trump said at a recent rally, later adding, “I inherited those high prices, just so you understand."

Andrew Bates, a Democratic strategist and former Biden White House spokesperson, noted that Trump no longer mentions his campaign promise to “immediately end inflation” on Day One.

“He may not remember having made those promises, but swing voters sure as hell do,” Bates said.

Trump has shown the same pattern with Iran and the Reflecting Pool

The president has characterized the Iran war as “a little excursion" or “detour." To play down how long it has lasted, he frequently notes that U.S. wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan dragged on for years, though the Iran conflict — which he initially said would be over in four weeks to five weeks — is now in its sixth month with no clear end in sight.

Trump has sought to shift blame to the past on the Reflecting Pool, falsely suggesting that Biden and Obama spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” trying unsuccessfully to fix it.

But Trump's main defense has been vandalism. And, so far, at least four cases alleging that, including the most prominent case against an Olympic canoeist, have been dropped because of a lack of evidence.

Anslover said that, after 11-plus years in politics, Trump has proved he is not afraid to violate norms of presidential comportment. Lots of his core supporters do not seem bothered.

“For many Americans, it has either been a shift in how they view the presidency, or, like with so many things, they just feel empowered to say, ‘These are my priorities. My priority is not the facts,'" she said.

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Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.

PSG announced the signing in a statement without giving financial details. Sports Daily L'Equipe said the club was paying the Spanish champion 50 million euros ($58 million) for Torres. The French team said he will wear the No. 9 jersey.

The 26-year-old Torres scored Spain's winning goal during extra time of the World Cup final against a robust and physical Argentina side. Brought on as a second-half substitute, he pounced on a bouncing ball and drove a left-foot shot under the crossbar.

It was his only goal of the competition and he said it was “scored by 47 million people,” referring to Spain’s population.

The transfer to PSG is his second big move. Barcelona signed Torres from Manchester City during the January 2022 transfer window for a reported fee of 55 million euros. Before joining City in 2020, he played for Valencia.

More of a roaming forward than a prolific scorer he netted 65 goals in 207 games for Barcelona, including a career-high 21 in all competitions last season. But his contract was set to expire next year and Barcelona reportedly had to pay a fee to City if he was to extend it.

Torres had played briefly alongside PSG forward Ousmane Dembélé when the France star was at Barça.

The move reunites Torres with Spanish coach Luis Enrique, who gave the player his international debut in 2020 when he was in charge of Spain. Luis Enrique took over at PSG in 2023 and has led the team to back-to-back Champions League titles as well as the French league title in each of his three seasons in charge.

PSG boasts attacking options

Luis Enrique has multiple options in attack, with Ballon d'Or winner Dembélé, Désiré Doué, Bradley Barcola — who has been linked with a summer move to Liverpool — Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and new signing Maghnes Akliouche.

Dembélé set up Doué for PSG's winner against Aston Villa in the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday after Kvaratskhelia had given PSG the lead in a 2-1 victory.

It’s the first of a possible six trophies this season for PSG, which became the first team to win back-to-back Super Cup titles since Real Madrid (2016 and ’17).

PSG faces French Cup winner Lens on Sunday in the Trophée des Champions, which is a match between last season’s league and cup winners.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

That candidate — former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner — took to X on Friday to call on state lawmakers to come together for another special session to once again consider a couple of legislative proposals that were championed by DeSantis.

[RELATED: News 6 sits down to interview governor candidate David Jolly]

“I’m calling on the Legislature to return for a special session and get two major priorities across the finish line: health freedom and an AI Bill of Rights,” he wrote. “The Senate has acted. Governor DeSantis supports it. It’s time for the House to get it done.”

In fact, Renner’s campaign website states that if elected governor, he will call a special session “on Day 1″ to get lawmakers to reconsider the proposals.

The FL House needs to take a mulligan and get right with the voters. https://t.co/mtVzT6yplW

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 14, 2026

WHAT ARE THESE PROPOSALS?

Medical Freedom

Earlier this year, the Florida Senate approved a “medical freedom” bill that was backed by DeSantis, which would have made the following changes to state law:

• School Rules: Exempts children from immunization requirements in K-12 schools if the vaccine conflicts with their parents’ conscience (similar to the existing religious exemption)
• Vaccines on Kids: Before a vaccine can be administered to a child, the health care practitioner must provide the child’s parent with the appropriate CDC information statement
• Ivermectin Prescriptions: Allows pharmacists to provide ivermectin as a behind-the-counter medication with a prescription to adults, along with instructions on proper use
• Criminal Immunity: Grants immunity from civil/criminal liability or disciplinary action under state law to health care practitioners who properly prescribe or administer ivermectin to an adult patient

[RELATED: Florida surgeon general talks measles vaccine amid spread]

Despite passing the Senate, the bill ultimately died after failing to get approval in the House.

A.I. Bill of Rights

Another proposal would have implemented an “Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights,” which would have done the following:

• Contract Prohibitions: Prohibits government entities from contracting for AI tech or products unless certain requirements are met
• Chatbot Permissions: Requires consent for minors to create new chatbots or maintain existing ones
• Data Rights: Provides the right for users to know if AI tech companies are collecting personal info or biometric data
• Personal Information: Prohibits AI tech companies from selling or disclosing personal info
• Commercial Usage: Prohibits the commercial use of someone’s name, image or likeness created through AI without consent, and more

Like the medical freedom bill, this legislation also passed the Senate, though it failed to make it through the House this year.

[RELATED: Florida governor calls for artificial-intelligence bill of rights]

While DeSantis hasn’t explicitly endorsed any of the gubernatorial candidates running this year, he did say during a news conference this month that Renner would make for a “really good” governor.

Renner spoke with News 6 late last year after initially announcing his bid for Florida governor, though he notably lacked DeSantis’ endorsement.

In fact, DeSantis said at the time that he wasn’t supporting Renner, calling it an “ill-advised decision to enter the race.”

“When he ran, I said I didn’t advise him to run. It wasn’t because I didn’t think he’d be a good governor,” DeSantis explained on Thursday. “I think he’d be really good. He’s got a great record of policy, but... what’s your strategy to get known? How do you get known to people, right?”

[RELATED: 6 issues with Florida candidate for governor Paul Renner]

His explanation tied to a larger theme of how effective gubernatorial candidates may have a difficult time getting recognition.

“Being governor is different than winning governor,” he stated. “And honestly, what goes into winning it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be a good governor. Because a lot of it is recognition, and the way to get recognition in a really big state is you either have to pay for it by buying advertising or you have to generate a lot of free media, which is hard in a state this big.”

Renner is only one of several Republican candidates running in the Florida governor’s race this year. You can find a list of these candidates and their positions here.

[RELATED: Jay Collins discusses property tax relief, insurance reform and immigration]

Temperatures turn even hotter Saturday under mostly sunny skies with afternoon high temperatures surging into the upper 90s.

The heat index will be in the 105-110 ballpark during the hottest portion of the day.

Storm chances drop significantly Saturday, only a 20% chance late in the afternoon and early evening.

Sunday will be a repeat performance with highs again in the upper 90s.

The upper 90s stick around through at least the middle of next week.

Driver and Navarette were among the new cast members announced Friday night at Disney's D23 convention by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, along with Driver's “Girls” castmate Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier and Maya Boyd as Storm. The film is slated for release in May 2028.

The announcements were the biggest news to emerge from Disney Entertainment's D23 presentation that also brought updates on its forthcoming “Star Wars” titles and a song-and-dance that went sideways from the stars of “Frozen 3.”

Driver's name was often rumored and often dismissed as an “X-Men” possibility. Many thought he'd be playing the antihero Magneto. The rest of the cast appeared on stage at the Honda Center arena in Anaheim, California, while Driver appeared on a big screen.

“Kevin and I had been talking for years about my joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I think we finally found the perfect film,” Driver told the crowd of 12,000 via video. “So I’m very excited to be playing the role of Maaagneto!” he said before pausing, taking it back and saying, “even better, Nathaniel Millbury,” an alias for Mister Sinister.

Also on stage were previously announced cast members Samara Weaving, who is playing Emma Frost; Kit Connor, who is playing Scott “Cyclops” Summers; and Sadie Sink, whose role as Jean Grey was revealed by her appearance in this summer’s Marvel megahit “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

The castmates were as new to each other as they were to the fans.

“They’ve just met backstage for the very first time,” Feige said.

Navarette had also been heavily rumored to have a role after fast becoming one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors for her striking performance as a spellbound girlfriend in the indie horror hit “Obsessed” earlier this year.

The “X-Men” joining the MCU became possible with Disney's 2019 acquisition of Fox's film studio.

Director Jake Schreier is heading the reboot. and two writers from prestige TV — “Beef” creator Lee Sung Jin and “The Bear” co-showrunner Joanna Calo — are working on the script.

Gosling cosplays as Kade Auberon in 'Star Wars' presentation.

Ryan Gosling and director Shawn Levy headlined the “Star Wars” part of the night with a presentation on their film “Star Wars: Starfighter,” which is getting a May, 2027 release.

Gosling's appearance on stage was preceded by clips of him as a child cast member of “The Mickey Mouse Club.”

“I owe a lot to Disney," Gosling said. "Had they not looked far and wide and come to my hometown I would not be here today. Now, 30 years later, I'm back and it's changing my life again.”

Shawn Levy put on Gosling a leather jacket with his “Star Wars” character Kade Auberon's skull-and-bones symbol.

Gosling described Auberon as “a guy from the wrong side of the galaxy, whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built,” before showing clips from the film.

Disney announced earlier this summer at its San Diego Comic-Con presentation that Gosling will play the character Ghost Rider in the MCU, first in a “Black Panther” sequel, then in a “Ghost Rider” film that Levy will also direct. Both are set for release in 2028.

“Star Wars: Ahsoka” star Rosario Dawson also appeared to promote the Season 2 return of her Disney+ series, as did Hayden Christensen, who will return as a force-ghost version of her mentor Anakin Skywalker.

More Marvel with classic stars Downey, Evans, Atwell and Bettany

Marvel veterans also took the D23 stage as past and future “Avengers” stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and Hayley Atwell introduced a new trailer for “Avengers: Doomsday,” to be released Dec. 18.

The footage shows Downey, now playing Dr. Doom having shed his Iron Man suit, beating back Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and his hammer, and shows Evans, who is returning as Captain America, holding a baby. And it shows Ian McKellan as a long-haired, haggard, struggling version of Magneto.

Hugh Jackman appeared on the big screen to tell Feige he's willing to appear in “Doomsday” as Wolverine. Whether he'll be in the movie has led to heated fan speculation. His answer wasn't definitive, but most bets are now switching to yes.

Fans also got a glimpse of the soon-to-drop Disney+ series “Visionquest.” Paul Bettany, who returns to his Marvel role as Vision, and James Spader, who returns to playing Ultron, showed a trailer with oddly human and ordinary versions of their cybernetic characters. Bettany said it’s been a pleasure to play multiple versions of Vision, who has “rather inconveniently died several times.” But, he said, “I'm told in the Marvel Universe that no one is ever really dead.”

“Frozen 3” stars serenade fans, sort of

Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel sang an eerie new arrangement of “Frozen Heart” from their first film playing princess sisters Elsa and Anna as they introduced the forthcoming “Frozen 3.”

Or they tried to, anyway. The segment was plagued with malfunctioning audio, video, and a set of doors that failed to open.

They ad-libbed their way through it like pros.

“Should we go back and try it again?” Menzel asked at the song's end.

Bell described for the crowd everything that was supposed to happen and said, “You guys were gonna freak out.”

They found their way back to the script.

“Doesn't it kind of feel like the world of Frozen is a bit different?” Bell said. Menzel added, “Maybe a little bit more mysterious?”

“Yes, OK, we're back on track,” Bell said, to big laughs.

Their castmate Josh Gad followed with a rendition of “Oooh, Samantha,” a love song his snowman character Olaf will sing in “Frozen 3.”

The night's other big musical set pieces included songs and dance from the cast of “The Greatest Showman,” the stage musical adaptation of the 2017 Jackman film that is premiering on London's West End next year.

Home Depot reports its latest results on Tuesday, followed by Target and Lowes on Wednesday, and then Walmart on Thursday. The results will help give investors a more detailed picture of how businesses and consumers are handling stubbornly high inflation.

The rate of inflation remains solidly above 3%. The ongoing U.S. war with Iran prompted a surge in oil prices, which jolted gasoline prices. Higher prices on everything from gasoline to groceries and any goods that are shipped could prompt people to shift or cut spending.

Results from Home Depot and Lowes could provide more insight into the housing market and whether people are spending more or less on home improvements. Results and forecasts from retail giants Target and Walmart could provide more insight into how households are budgeting and spending.

Wall Street and economists will get more details about the Fed's interest rate policy when the central bank releases minutes from the July meeting on Wednesday.

The Fed once again held its interest rate steady in July amid worries about stubborn inflation, the jobs market and the direction of the economy. But three officials dissented in favor of higher rates during the meeting. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh described the policy discussion to reporters as a “good family fight.” Wall Street expects at least one rate hike before the end of 2026.

The Israeli military, which over the past three years has displayed staggering military and intelligence capabilities from Beirut to Tehran, has yet to fully remove the settlers from the area of the village, about an hour's drive from Tel Aviv.

The United States, which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, has issued a scathing rebuke, perhaps because one of the homeowners is a Palestinian American living in Ohio.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists.” Israel's defense minister dismissed them as radical misfits — “boys on the hills.”

In reality, they are the tip of the spear for a much larger movement, supported by successive Israeli governments and supercharged under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that is aimed at cementing Israeli rule over the territory and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Settlements built over decades now house over 500,000

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state.

Since then, the Israeli government has built nearly 150 settlements that are home to well over 500,000 Jewish settlers. Many of the settlements resemble fully developed suburbs, with apartment blocks, shopping malls, parks and industrial zones.

Radical settlers have established hundreds of additional outposts without government authorization, while still enjoying protection from the Israeli military and often other public services.

Netanyahu's government, the most nationalist and religious in Israel's history, has boasted of establishing over 100 new settlements. On Thursday, as the army deployed in Qusra, members of his Cabinet celebrated the rebuilding of a settlement that had been dismantled in 2005 as part of the Gaza withdrawal.

Israel's current government and much of its political class view the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and see the settlements as key to maintaining security.

Most of the international community views all settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

Separate laws for settlers and Palestinians

The roughly 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centers. Israel's military operates in all parts of the territory, and Palestinians suspected of militancy can be held without charge for months or years under what's known as administrative detention.

The settlers are Israeli citizens, with law enforcement typically handled by Israeli police and civilian courts.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said in 2024 that Israelis would no longer be subject to administrative detention, which has also been used against settlers accused of violence. On Friday, he announced plans to fully transfer law enforcement among settlers to the Israeli police.

The military's role “is to fight Palestinian terrorism” and “focus on protecting the borders and settlements against threats,” he said in a statement. “Not chase after boys on the hills.”

That would cement the status quo of what are already largely separate legal systems for Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, which major human rights groups say amounts to apartheid, something Israel denies.

Israel's police and military have been reluctant to confront the settlers

The Israeli police are overseen by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, himself a hard-line settler who has been convicted eight times for offenses that include supporting a terrorist organization. He was a defense attorney for Jewish extremists before entering politics.

The Israeli military says the settlers' actions in Qusra are “illegal, reprehensible and unacceptable,” and that it tries to maintain law and order in the West Bank. It says it dismantled two outposts in the area of Qusra and detained one Israeli.

But rights groups say the military frequently turns a blind eye to settler violence, and that when it intervenes it often focuses on protecting the settlers. Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, says around 94% of investigations into settler violence since 2005 have ended without an indictment, with just 3% leading to full or partial convictions.

US pressure has had little impact, and has eased under Trump

Settler violence intensified after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, triggered the war in Gaza. The following year, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on settlers and Israeli organizations accused of violence.

Other Western nations have announced sanctions against Ben Gvir and another hard-line Israeli Cabinet minister, Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of “inciting extremist violence” toward Palestinians.

The sanctions had little impact, as the settler community rallied around those targeted.

President Donald Trump rescinded the U.S. sanctions at the start of his second term and appointed Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israeli settlements, as his ambassador.

During his first term, Trump had upended decades of U.S. policy by moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem and supporting Israel's claims to other territories seized in war.

Netanyahu's opponents criticize the violence but support settlement growth

Netanyahu will need the backing of Ben Gvir, Smotrich and other settler supporters if he hopes to keep his job after October elections. He will also need to maintain good relations with the Trump administration.

His opponents have criticized what they characterize as the growing chaos in the West Bank. But most of Israel's political leaders — even critics of Netanyahu — support the growth of existing settlements and are opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Gadi Eisenkot, a former top general seen as Netanyahu's main opponent, criticized the government's handling of the events in Qusra, accusing it of undermining military commanders “in the face of anarchy and violent lawbreaking by an extremist minority.” He has also come out against plans to annex the West Bank.

But he has also told Israeli media that he has “never spoken about a Palestinian state,” and that he supports settlements that are “in line with Israel’s interests.”

Naftali Bennett, a staunch settlement supporter and another leading rival of Netanyahu, has condemned the violence, saying it amounts to “terrorism” by a minority.

“Precisely as someone who believes in our right to the land and in the settlement enterprise, we need to denounce this and eradicate the violence from within our own ranks — not wait for the Americans to tell us to do it,” he said in a recent interview with Israeli media.

When Bennett was prime minister, during the only brief period in the last 17 years that Netanyahu was out of office, his national unity government approved thousands of additional settler homes.

___

Associated Press writers Erin Cunningham in Jerusalem and Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel, contributed.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement comes as the Rohingya refugee crisis enters its ninth year, with hundreds of thousands of refugees still living in camps in Bangladesh after fleeing Myanmar in August 2017 when the military launched a crackdown following attacks by a Rohingya insurgent group on guard posts in Rakhine.

The operation drove more than 700,000 Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh, joining hundreds of thousands of others already living there for decades in the wake of waves of previous violence perpetrated by Myanmar’s military.

The scale, organization and ferocity of the operation led to accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide from the international community, including the U.N.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, does not recognize the Rohingya as one of the country’s 135 lawful ethnic minorities, instead referring to them as Bengalis to imply they are natives from Bangladesh and are illegally settled in Myanmar.

Myanmar said it had verified 426,545 of the 828,824 refugees on a list provided by Bangladesh as of the end of July, and determined that 308,797 of those verified were former residents of Rakhine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 113,507 people could not be verified and that 4,241 people were found to have been involved in what it called terrorist activities.

The statement said it will continue working with Bangladesh to receive verified former residents when the security situation in Rakhine becomes more stable.

The ministry also rejected claims that more than 1 million people were displaced from Rakhine, saying that more than 540,000 people crossed into Bangladesh after the violence in 2017 while more than 200,000 remained in northern Rakhine.

Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to a two-year repatriation process in 2018. However, security in Myanmar worsened following an army takeover in 2021 that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering widespread armed resistance. Plans to repatriate the refugees have not succeeded.

The renewed chaos brought about by fighting between the Rakhine-based ethnic Arakan Army group and the military over control of the region in 2023 forced more refugees to flee toward Bangladesh and elsewhere in a desperate move to save their lives. The Arakan Army controls much of Rakhine after capturing territory from the military in recent years.

In recent years, poor conditions in refugee camps, steep cuts to foreign aid and the lack of safe prospects for returning to Myanmar have led to an increasing number of Rohingya refugees attempting to make the dangerous ocean crossing to Malaysia and Indonesia on rickety boats.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in late July that Myanmar had agreed to take back 5,000 Rohingya refugees currently living in Malaysia as part of a repatriation program.

However, an official from Myanmar's foreign ministry, Han Win Aung, told The Associated Press at the time that the repatriation program was focused solely on verified Myanmar nationals currently held in detention centers in Malaysia and rejected reports that the government would accept Rohingya.

The National Hurricane Center said Lala should be at hurricane strength by the time it approaches the Big Island Saturday.

If it makes landfall there, it would be the first to hit the island since 1871. Back then, according to a University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist's research of newspaper accounts, a Category 3 hurricane hit the northeast corner of the island, said Vanessa Almanza, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

“First time since satellites,” Almanza said. “The latest forecast has it very close to the southern tip of the Big Island.”

A hurricane warning was issued for the Big Island, and a tropical storm warning was in effect for Maui County, which includes the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe.

Officials and residents braced for Lala regardless of whether Hawaii takes a direct hit. Shelters were scheduled to open, and various events were canceled.

“It doesn’t take landfall to create destruction,” Almanza said. “A lot of the impacts are felt outside of the hurricane.”

The National Hurricane Center predicted 8 to 12 inches (20.3 to 30.5 centimeters) of rainfall totals across Maui and the Big Island, with maximum totals as high as 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) in some spots on the Big Island. Four to 6 inches (10.2 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected across the island chain.

The center also warned that the storm could cause “life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain,” along with a dangerous storm surge and ocean swells “likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

“Suffice it to say, this is an enormous storm,” Gov. Josh Green said.

Officials urge taking the storm seriously

State Rep. Jeanné Kapela, who represents communities that are in the storm's possible track, traveled to the Big Island from Honolulu on Friday morning and called for people to be on alert.

The southern end of the island is remote and rural but growing in population because of its affordability. Kapela said she was especially worried about people who live off the grid in unpermitted structures. The area's agriculture includes coffee and cattle.

“We're encouraging residents to take this storm seriously, remain vigilant, and get somewhere safe before conditions deteriorate,” she said in a text message to The Associated Press as her flight took off. “We're hopeful the storm moves through quickly, but we're preparing for whatever comes.”

Green urged residents to be ready: “If you feel now that your house doesn’t have a great roof or might not be able to withstand hurricane force winds, then first things first you go to a family or friend's house and you kind of hunker down there."

Kapela also noted that many parts of the state are still reeling from devastating flooding in March, saying, “We know how quickly heavy rain and flooding can impact our rural communities.”

Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau, said growers are always concerned when there is a threat of a lot of water in a short amount time. But those still recovering from the spring floods, including on Oahu’s North Shore, were worried about suffering more damage.

Coffee farmer Bruce Corker said it was “sunny and beautiful” Friday in Holualoa, on the west side of the Big Island, and the island's only Costco seemed normal a day earlier. Still, he said, the prospect of “streams overflowing and high winds” was worrisome.

Wildfire risks increase during windy weather

As winds ramped up across the islands, there were no red flag warnings in place but Almanza said the dry and breezy conditions would still elevate fire concerns.

In 2023 the Maui town of Lahaina burned during extreme winds amid a hurricane passing far to the south of Hawaii.

“Since the fire, everybody is way more aware of weather in general and our environment and things that are happening,” said Archie Kalepa of Lahaina, who is well known in the area for his surfing, paddling and other ocean skills and has been watching the storm closely.

As of Friday afternoon, Tropical Storm Lala was located about 275 miles (440 kilometers) east-southeast of South Point, Hawaii, according to the National Hurricane Center. It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and was moving toward the west-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).

The wind speed threshold for a Category 1 hurricane is 74 mph (46 kph).

“I wouldn’t be afraid of what’s to come, just be prepared,” said Steven Businger, the University of Hawaii professor whose research found information about the hurricane that hit the Big Island 155 years ago.

Lala has the potential to make landfall with damaging winds, he said, but its path was trending south with every forecast.

“The Big Island is furthest south and furthest east, so it has the greatest probability of having a hurricane hit,” he said. “However, historically Kauai has seen the most landfalls.”

Kauai, which is several islands northwest up the archipelago from the Big Island, saw Hurricane Iniki make landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in 1992. That, like this year, was an El Nino year. Pacific hurricane activity increases during El Nino, a warming of the Pacific near the equator that affects weather patterns across the globe.

Iniki, the last hurricane to make landfall in Hawaii, was following a southern trajectory before it turned up and hit Kauai, the governor said.

“It did $3 billion worth of damage. It destroyed thousands of homes, and it did kill six people,” he said. “So we just can never know if a storm is going to turn.”

In a stunning turn, Mangione pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to a pair of stalking charges and admitted that he targeted and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as the executive walked to his company’s investor conference at a Manhattan hotel in 2024.

Neither Mangione nor his lawyers said why he pleaded guilty now, but they gave some clues.

Immediately after his plea, Mangione’s lawyers filed paperwork seeking to have the state case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds. That trial is scheduled to begin next month, but could be pushed back or canceled altogether depending on what the judge decides.

If it succeeds, Mangione’s defense team could concentrate on trying to convince the judge in his federal case, Margaret Garnett, to spare him from the life sentence that prosecutors say they intend to seek when he’s sentenced on Dec. 18.

Mangione was facing back-to-back trials and a pile of evidence

In their double jeopardy filing Friday, Mangione’s lawyers described him as a “pawn in parallel prosecutions," and defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo accused state and federal prosecutors of “trying to punish him twice for the exact conduct.”

Indeed, Mangione remains scheduled to go to trial on state murder charges beginning Sept. 8. His federal trial — now moot because of his guilty plea — was set for January.

Complicating matters, anything said in federal court — including Mangione's statements Friday admitting to killing Thompson — potentially could be used against him in state court, or vice versa.

But that's not all. Prosecutors say they have a trove of evidence that proves Mangione’s guilt, including: Video of him shooting Thompson and tailing him the day before; Mangione’s DNA and fingerprints on items at or near the crime scene; testimony from shooting witnesses; a 3D-printed 9mm pistol that police found in his backpack when he was arrested that authorities said matched the gun used to kill Thompson; and a notebook found with Mangione at the time of his arrest in which he expressed a willingness to kill a healthcare executive.

The defense previously argued all the items in Mangione's backpack were obtained in an unconstitutional search, but judges in both the federal and state cases disagreed.

Guilty plea allows defense to argue double jeopardy

Mangione's guilty plea, just three weeks before jury selection in his state murder trial, appeared to be part of a larger defense strategy to swiftly resolve both cases, minimize his legal consequences and, perhaps, give him a chance to live some of his life outside a prison cell. Earlier plea talks broke down in June.

Within minutes of his plea, Mangione’s lawyers petitioned the judge in the state case, Gregory Carro, to throw out those charges on double jeopardy grounds. Instead of two trials — and two potential sentences that could run back-to-back — they are fighting for just one and are sure to argue he deserves a far lesser sentence than life in prison.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, which is prosecuting the state case, will have a chance to respond to the defense's double jeopardy motion before Carro rules. In a statement, the office said it would fight efforts to terminate the state case, in part because Mangione's sentence in the federal case isn't yet known. Thompson's family members, in a statement, suggested they are also looking forward to the state case going to trial. Mangione has pleaded not guilty in the state case.

Compared with federal law and that of other states, New York has uncommonly strong protections for defendants facing multiple prosecutions — though they are not guaranteed.

Bragg's office contends that the state charges, including murder and firearms offenses, involve different legal elements and criminal conduct than federal charges, which alleged Mangione traveled across state lines to stalk and kill Thompson.

However Carro rules, his decision will be subject to appeal, meaning a final answer on whether Mangione faces a state trial could take a while.

An opportunity to argue for less than a life sentence

Mangione’s lawyers previously fended off the government’s attempts to seek the death penalty. Now they're fighting for a sentence that's less than the life term U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said federal prosecutors intend to seek. Life is also the maximum punishment in Mangione's state case.

Unlike other defendants, Mangione doesn't have a plea deal with prosecutors. There were “no accommodations or concessions, and we are free to seek the maximum penalty under the law," McDonald said.

Still, Garnett noted in court that the government’s calculation of federal sentencing guidelines would call for a sentence of 24 to 30 years in prison. Mangione's lawyers can submit their own calculation and both sides can argue for greater or lesser punishment in submissions to the judge. Such filings typically chronicle the impact of a defendant's crimes, as well as his history, upbringing and other aggravating or mitigating factors.

Mangione will also be interviewed by probation officers, Garnett said, adding that the report they produce will factor heavily in her sentencing decision. Judges are free to ignore sentencing guidelines, which are intended to reduce disparities in punishments levied for the same crimes.

Garnett told Mangione she is obliged to determine what she thinks is the correct guideline range and “more importantly what I think the appropriate sentence is in your case.”

“No one, not your lawyers, not the government’s lawyers, no one can give you any assurance of what your sentence will be since I am the one who will decide your sentence,” the judge said, “and I’m not going to do that today.”

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., denied the Tohono O’odham Nation's request for a court-ordered halt to border wall construction on its 2.8-million-acre reservation. Leon ruled the tribe hasn't established that a border wall will change its reservation boundaries without congressional authority.

The judge also rejected the tribe's claim that the planned border wall would illegally trespass on its reservation.

“And in any event, I find that the Government’s interests in securing the border, enforcing immigration laws, and ensuring public safety outweigh any surviving irreparable harms at this juncture,” Leon wrote.

The tribe released a statement late Friday strongly disagreeing with the decision.

"Too many critical issues were not adequately addressed, such as inevitable impacts construction will have on the Nation’s land and the permanent destruction of sacred sites," Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon M. Jose said. “The Nation will consider all possible options for moving forward, as this issue is simply too important to the O’odham.”

The O’odham reservation in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona abuts 62 miles of the Mexico border. The tribe has over 37,000 members, including thousands who live in Mexico.

Building the border wall would led to “significant devastation” on the reservation, including the destruction of mountain peaks that are sacred to the O’odham, tribe attorneys said.

“It would fray the ties between O’odham communities and families on opposite sides of the border, interfere significantly with O’odham religious rituals and practices, and destroy plant and animal resources sacred to the O’odham,” the lawyers wrote.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt issued a proclamation reserving a 60-foot strip of public land along the U.S.-Mexico border for a buffer zone called the “Roosevelt Reservation,” which was formed a decade before the reservation's establishment.

Tribe attorneys say it is “fanciful at best” to suggest that border wall construction can be confined to a 60-foot-wide corridor.

During a July 22 hearing, Leon appeared to be skeptical that U.S. laws tip in favor of the tribe’s bid for a preliminary injunction, calling it an “extraordinary” request. Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said he couldn’t find a previous court ruling under comparable circumstances.

“This is a novel case with novel issues,” the judge said.

The I AM Children’s Museum, proposed by 8 Waves, is seeking up to $25 million toward the roughly $30 million project.

A citizens task force recommended 12 projects for tourism development tax funding Tuesday. The Orange County Commission will make the final decision on how the money is allocated.

8 Waves Executive Director Sara Meyer said the museum would fill a gap in the region and serve as both a tourist attraction and an educational resource for local children.

“There is not a children’s museum here in Orange County,” Meyer said. “We have this incredible opportunity to be a cultural asset.”

The proposed museum near downtown Winter Garden would include indoor and outdoor exhibits, a trail connection and the restoration of a historic home. Organizers expect the attraction to draw about 250,000 visitors annually.

The project has also raised questions about traffic in the growing downtown area.

Meyer said 8 Waves is working with hotel partners on shuttle services to reduce the number of cars coming to the museum. Plans also call for a parking garage and golf cart access.

The organization says the project could also benefit Winter Garden’s economy by bringing visitors downtown to shop and dine.

But Meyer said the museum’s impact would extend beyond tourism.

She said the project would give students opportunities to experience early childhood education and create an educational resource for families in the community.

Tourists who stay in Central Florida hotels pay a tourism development tax, which generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually for local governments to invest in tourism-related projects.

The Orange County Commission will ultimately determine which projects receive the funding.

In an arrest affidavit, a Leesburg officer said he responded to a Walmart parking lot at 2501 Citrus Boulevard late Thursday night following a “traffic complaint.”

Upon arrival, they met with a victim, who claimed that his ex-girlfriend — later identified as Mya Rosealin Salas, 24 — had struck his vehicle with her own several times while following him, the affidavit says.

“The victim advised he was stopping in the Walmart parking lot to wait for officers’ arrival,” the affidavit reads.

Meanwhile, the officer spoke with Salas, who said she was six months pregnant and “had just caught her boyfriend at another residence other than where he had originally told her he would be,” the officer wrote.

According to the affidavit, Salas had found her boyfriend at another female’s home, which sparked a verbal argument. The victim claimed he tried to drive away to head to work, but Salas followed after, leading to a series of collisions as she repeatedly rammed his vehicle, police said.

“The victim advised (Salas) worked for the Groveland Police Department, and once she became an officer, her demeanor changed and she thought ‘she was above the law,’” the affidavit continues.

As a result of the incident, Salas was taken into custody and now faces charges of aggravated domestic battery and aggravated domestic stalking.

Caitlin Clark had 29 points and 10 assists in an entertaining duel with fellow No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers, and the Fever beat the Dallas Wings 98-87 on Friday night in a rare game that wasn't marred by on-court or off-court controversies.

“We love each other in that locker room and we know there are a lot of people out there that are trying to tear it apart,” White said, three days Indiana's coach denounced the “divisiveness” around the WNBA in a 2 1/2-minute pregame rant. “When we say we’re a family, we mean that. It doesn’t always mean we get along, It doesn’t mean we always agree. But at the end of the day, it means we circle are wagons and we have each other’s back.”

White had drawn the wrath of Fever fans — and even Indiana Lt. Gov Micah Beckwith — after what some saw as her downplaying a flagrant foul by Chicago's DiJonai Carrington on Indiana's Sophie Cunningham.

After White called the foul on Cunningham “egregious” during her table-pounding pregame speech on Tuesday and said she always backed her players, the Fever went out and beat the New York Liberty 106-92 as Clark and her teammates rallied around their coach.

All appeared to be forgiven on Friday as the Fever picked up their third straight win.

“I think our fans, you know the true Indiana Fever fans, are amazing. They’ve been incredible to me for a long time,” White said. “But more than anything, I’m thankful for this group of women and the men on our staff, and I’m thankful we can all lift each other up when need to be and they’ve been lifting me up. I’m happy about that.”

All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell continued scoring at a high clip, finishing with 23 points. All-Star center Aliyah Boston scored 10 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter, and even Indiana’s oft-criticized defense played well through the first half and in the closing minutes.

Friday’s game and next week’s game in Dallas could be a playoff preview.

Indiana has won eight of 10 and finished the night as the league's fourth-place team, a half-game ahead of the Atlanta Dream — its opponent on Sunday. The Wings have lost seven of 10 to fall into a tie for seventh with Washington.

Bueckers matched Clark with 29 points, but it wasn't enough for Dallas.

“Obviously, she is an incredible player, makes it really hard on us defensively,” Clark said. “We tried to throw a lot of different things at her. She’s so good in the mid-range. I felt like we had a few miscommunications, especially in that third-quarter spurt where she was completely wide open. That’s on our group to figure it out.”

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Jeanine Rising calls the mystery aircraft “5 O’Clock Charlie.”

“We started getting woke up at 5:00 in the morning by a plane buzzing overhead,” Rising said. “Almost every single night we’re getting buzzed at 5:00 in the morning.”

Rising has lived near Space Coast Regional Airport since 2012 and said she is accustomed to aircraft and even rocket launches. She said these early-morning flights are different.

Sometimes, Rising said, the aircraft passes only once. Other mornings, she hears three or four passes roughly 10 minutes apart, lasting about half an hour.

She said she has submitted several complaints to the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority but has not received an explanation.

So News 6 started looking.

Brevard County Mosquito Control Director Joseph Faella ruled out his agency’s aircraft, saying the reported time and frequency did not match mosquito control operations.

News 6 then reviewed Flightradar24 data.

On Friday morning, the tracking data showed aircraft N2190P passing over Rising’s area around 5:14 a.m. Rising said she was awakened by an especially loud pass at about 5:18 a.m.

News 6 also reviewed Thursday morning’s flights and found N4136P circling above the same area around the time Rising reported hearing the aircraft.

An employee at Volare, a flight school based at Space Coast Regional Airport, confirmed to News 6 that both aircraft are part of the school’s operation.

The employee said pilots fly during those early-morning hours to maintain “nighttime currency,” which refers to federal requirements for pilots to maintain recent nighttime takeoff and landing experience before carrying passengers at night.

Those requirements do not mandate that the flights take place specifically at 5 a.m.

Volare’s owner was not available Friday to answer questions about why the school uses those early-morning hours or whether the flights could be moved later.

News 6 also emailed and left a voicemail with the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority but had not received a response as of Friday evening.

Rising said she is simply looking for relief.

“Just get somebody to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to quit doing this,’” she said. “So I can get some sleep.”

New signs were posted this week along Minutemen Causeway as the new school year begins. The pathway is frequently used by students, families, pedestrians and cyclists, particularly before and after school.

Josh Peeler, who lives nearby, said he walks along the pathway with his family and dogs every day.

“The school is right up the street, so in the evenings when they are letting out it can be quite busy,” Peeler said.

Cocoa Beach High School and Roosevelt Middle School are located near the pathway. Residents say they have seen e-bike riders traveling quickly through the area and said older residents have been struck by e-bikes in the past.

“There’s definitely an older population that are biking and riding around and there’s the high school kids and families like our age,” Peeler said. “It’s a quite a good mix.”

The city says officers will be out along Minutemen Causeway starting this week. Officials say the goal is not to issue tickets but to educate riders about the rules and encourage safer behavior.

That includes slowing down around pedestrians and giving an audible warning before passing someone on the sidewalk.

Peeler said he supports the city’s approach.

“I agree just the monitoring and educating the kids,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be writing tickets for their speeding, but I think to avoid any serious accidents, I think it’s a good idea to have the education out there.”

Residents say they hope the new signs and increased education will help prevent crashes and make the pathway safer for everyone.

“I hope the outcome is no accidents ever,” Peeler said. “That’s the goal.”

Cocoa Beach officials say officers will continue focusing on education and making sure e-bike riders understand the safety rules rather than immediately issuing fines.

Officers responded just before noon to reports of a shooting at a home in Missaukee County, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, and found three people dead and another in critical condition, Michigan State Police said in a statement. The wounded person was taken to a hospital.

Suspect Chad Hickman, 39, fled before they arrived at the home, according to police. As officers conducted a large-scale search for him, they found a fourth person dead at another home.

In a post on the social platform X, police warned that Hickman was armed and dangerous and told community members not to approach him.

Hickman's vehicle was later found in a wooded area near Whitlock Lake, and that led authorities to his body as well as that of another dead person.

“This situation is heartbreaking for the community and challenging for the investigators involved,” Lt. Ashley Miller said in a statement.

She added that investigators would work through the night to process each scene.

Police asked people to avoid the areas where the shootings took place.

The names and ages of the people killed were not immediately released, pending family notification.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she was briefed on the shooting and monitoring the situation.

“My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the Missaukee community,” she said.

Oakley was handcuffed and arrested after an altercation with security while sitting near owner James Dolan during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Oakley initially brought a number of claims against MSG that were dismissed in February 2020. After appeal, Oakley's assault-and-battery claim remained.

But Judge Richard J. Sullivan of the Southern District of New York ruled that Oakley “has produced no evidence to support his claim that he was assaulted by MSG security guards.”

MSG had pointed to video evidence and previous testimony that Oakley was not assaulted.

“For more than nine years, Mr. Oakley’s lawyers have pursued claims they knew were false. Those claims have now been dismissed by the Court in their entirety — for the third time,” MSG said in a statement. “We are pursuing legal action against Douglas Wigdor, and his unscrupulous law firm, to hold them accountable for years of frivolous litigation and their blatant abuse of the judicial system.”

Oakley was a beloved Knicks forward in the 1990s, and he remains one of the few former players who has remained absent from MSG during the team's recent playoff runs, culminating with this year's NBA championship.

His removal from the game was a jarring scene, but Sullivan ruled that Oakley hadn't proven it was done with excessive force.

“Ample evidence — including videos from multiple angles and the unanimous testimony of every witness (even, to some extent, Oakley himself) — shows that Oakley had a reasonable opportunity to depart the Garden, that he instead resorted to physical violence, and that he was never pushed to the ground,” Sullivan wrote.

The judge added that “no rational jury could conclude that Oakley reasonably feared himself at risk of wrongful physical contact — let alone that MSG intended to stir such an apprehension.”

Wigdor still hopes a jury will get a chance to rule.

“We are disappointed with the Court’s rulings,” he wrote in an email. “We believe there are conflicting accounts and only a jury can decide what exactly happened. We are hopeful that the Second Circuit will agree for a third time and remand the case for an immediate jury trial.”

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Clark also had 10 assists while Boston had 12 rebounds. Kelsey Mitchell added 23 points, and Tyasha Harris — who hadn't made a field goal in the previous six games — was 5-of-5 shooting, all 3-pointers, to finish with 15 points.

Clark had her 20th career game with at least 20 points and 10 assists, the most in league history.

Mitchell scored at least 20 points for the 18th consecutive game to extend her WNBA single-season record, the second-longest streak in WNBA history (A’ja Wilson, 20 games).

The Fever won for the eighth time in 10 games and now hold a half-game lead over the Atlanta Dream for the No. 4 spot in the eight-team postseason field.

Paige Bueckers had 29 points, six rebounds and six assists to lead the Wings, who have lost seven of 10. Arike Ogunbowale added 20 points.

The Wings slipped into a tie for seventh with the Washington Mystics and will meet the Fever for the final time this season Thursday in Dallas.

And for a change, the only drama Friday happened on the court.

Bueckers and Clark traded baskets throughout a classic third quarter in which neither team could pull away.

Indiana opened the fourth on a 15-2 run, capped by Clark's second 3 of the game to turn a three-point deficit into a 78-68 lead. Dallas closed the deficit to 78-73, but Indiana scored four straight to retake an 82-73 lead with 4:37 left and Dallas never recovered as Harris' late 3s sealed the victory.

Up next

Wings: Host Golden State on Monday.

Fever: Visit Atlanta on Sunday.

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The Swiss star, who was given a spot in the final after falling in the semifinal a day earlier, finished in 1 minute, 54.81 seconds at Alexander Stadium.

Hodgkinson closed the gap down the stretch but Werro willed herself across the line for gold ahead of her British rival. Dutch star Femke Broeders-Bol took bronze.

“I was coming for the gold medal. It truly means a lot. I’m so happy with the finish of the race,” said Werro, who did her trademark lion's roar after winning.

Werro, sporting a small bandage on her right hip, took the lead in the first lap and never let up. Werro in late June ran the third-fastest women’s time ever: 1:53.80.

In one of Thursday's semifinal heats, Anais Bourgoin’s left hand made contact with Werro’s right foot and Werro tumbled on the last bend.

“It was not the best scenario to qualify like that,” Werro said. “It was just a little bit hard for me at this point as that fall was very dramatic in the semis. But I tried to convince myself that I have the second chance and I have to take it and do something great. I’m glad I had a second chance and I just took it.”

Hodgkinson had won the past two 800 titles at the European championships.

“Going into that last 100m I really thought I could catch her but sometimes you just don’t have enough and that was the case today,” Hodgkinson said. “Of course, I am very disappointed but it was a fantastic race.”

Werro broke the European championships record of 1:55.41 set in 1982 by Olga Mineyeva, European Athletics said.

Gold for Italians and Warholm

It’s back-to-back doubles for Italy’s Nadia Battocletti, who defended her 10,000-meter title three nights after retaining her 5,000-meter crown.

Battocletti, the silver medalist in the 10,000 at the Paris Olympics, made her move with 200 meters remaining and Maureen Koster of the Netherlands and Belgium’s Jana van Lent couldn’t keep up.

Battocletti crossed the line in 31 minutes, 41.17 seconds. Koster took silver, and Van Lent won bronze.

In the high jump, Gianmarco Tamberi won his fourth European championships title — and third in a row — after clearing 2.32 meters.

The charismatic Tamberi, who famously shared gold with his good friend Mutaz Barshim at the 2020 Tokyo Games, pulled off his jersey and thumped his bare chest in celebration Friday.

Ukraine's Oleh Doroshchuk (2.30) took silver, and Tamberi teammate Matteo Sioli (2.27) won bronze.

Norway star Karsten Warholm lowered his own European championships record in the 400-meter hurdles by winning in 46.63 seconds for his fourth consecutive title in the discipline.

“It’s not as easy as it looks out there, I don’t take any medal for granted but today was extra special for me as nobody has ever won four in a row,” the 30-year-old Warholm said. “I was so locked in today.”

Germany's Emil Agyekum took bronze, and Ismail Nezir of Turkey was third.

Married man ‘Mondo’ Duplantis into pole vault final

Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis is hoping to break the world record — as a married man.

Duplantis, who tied the knot with Desiré Inglander in June, needed just one successful attempt at 5.60 meters to qualify for Sunday night’s final.

The world record is 6.31, which the Louisiana-born Duplantis vaulted in March. That was his 15th world record. He first broke it in 2020 and has eclipsed his mark by 1 centimeter every time since.

The two-time reigning Olympic champion looked fully recovered from a thigh issue that forced him to stop competing at the London Diamond League meet one month ago.

“I’ve worked really hard the past few weeks to try and make sure I am ready for this competition, so I feel good out there. I feel hopeful and confident for Sunday,” he said. "The jump was clean, good. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Now it’s just about going up there and doing what I normally do in the final on Sunday."

The world record holder signed autographs and shook hands with fans. Organizers sold special ‘Mondo’ children’s tickets priced at 6.31 pounds — the figure representing his latest world record height — for Friday morning’s session.

Duplantis also revealed on Friday he usually keeps his wedding band “in between my laces (of) my spikes” while he competes.

He said his marriage proposal and wedding day were more nerve-wracking than vaulting himself into rarefied air going for a world record.

“When I attempt a world record, it's just like the cherry on top," he said. "I don’t really even get that nervous, it's more like I won the competition and whatever happens after that is really nice.”

Duplantis competes for his mother’s native Sweden and has won the past three European championship titles.

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The Justice Department announced last year that it had issued more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that provide gender-affirming care as part of an effort to investigate healthcare fraud. Federal judges have quashed many of the subpoenas as illegitimate efforts to intimidate providers into ending care.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the efficacy and long-term risks of the treatments are "uncertain," and the president has the power to align the Justice Department's enforcement priorities with his broader policy goals.

“Every President has law enforcement priorities, just as every President has signature policies (often, the former are components of the latter)," Judge Carlos Bea wrote.

Bea, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush, was joined in the opinion by Daniel Bress, a Trump nominee. They reversed a ruling that quashed the subpoena against telemedicine provider QueerDoc, sending the case back to the district court to consider other arguments.

The subpoena seeks QueerDoc's personnel files, billing documents, communications with drug manufacturers and records of patients who were prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy, among other information, according to the 9th Circuit decision.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Adrien Leavitt, who represented Washington state-based QueerDoc, said the ACLU would continue fighting the subpoena in district court. QueerDoc has also argued the subpoena is overbroad and burdensome. The Justice Department has said it has reason to believe the company may be misleading people about puberty blockers and hormones.

"We’re ready to continue defending one of the most fundamental principles of healthcare: every patient’s right to confidential medical care,” Leavitt said in a statement.

He said the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit was the first appeals court to weigh in on the subpoenas.

Trump has signed one executive order defining sex as only male or female — and as unchangeable — and another that seeks to end federal funding of gender-affirming care for patients under 19. The latter order also directs the Justice Department to “prioritize investigations” into violations of a drug safety law by “any entity that may be misleading the public about long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation.”

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It encompasses counseling, medications that block puberty and hormone therapy to produce physical changes as well as surgeries to transform chests and genitals, though those are rare for minors.

Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum.

The 9th Circuit majority called discussion around gender-affirming care "an unsettled scientific debate," and said the Trump administration could also justify its opposition to the treatment on ethical or philosophical grounds.

Pearce was arrested in February following a domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend, WNBA player Rickea Jackson. The incident took place in Doral, Florida.

Pearce's charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing police and resisting arrest, and misdemeanor stalking could be dropped if he cooperates in a pretrial intervention program requiring random drug tests, distance from Jackson and staying out of legal trouble for one year.

Pearce will be available to participate in preseason games and all team activities until the suspension takes effect on Aug. 30.

The second-year defensive end can be reinstated on Nov. 2, following Atlanta's Week 8 game at Tampa Bay. The Falcons will travel to Madrid to play the Cincinnati Bengals the following week.

The Falcons' pass rush has taken a hit recently following Jalon Walker's season-ending ACL tear. The group is left with Christian Harris, JD Bertrand, Samson Ebukam, Kendal Daniels and Bralen Trice. The Falcons also added Cameron Sample after Walker's injury.

Atlanta traded back to the No. 26 pick in the first round of the 2025 draft to select Pearce. The former Tennessee Volunteer has played a substantial role in transforming the Falcons' pass rush, leading the team with 10 1/2 sacks during his rookie season.

Other suspensions

Pearce was one players suspended on Friday.

The NFL also suspended Washington Commanders edge rusher Dorance Armstrong, Tennessee Titans safety Nazeeh Johnson and Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis.

Armstrong was suspended one game for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. He will miss the Commanders' season opener against Philadelphia on Sept. 13.

Armstrong opened training camp on the physically unable to perform list, but has since been activated. He was limited to playing seven games last season before tearing a knee ligament.

He’s entering his ninth NFL season and third with Washington.

Johnson was suspended six games for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancers. Mathis was issued a three-game suspension for violating the league’s substances of abuse policy.

Under league rules, the players are allowed to practice and play with their respective teams through Aug. 30, when NFL teams are required to set their 53-man rosters.

Johnson is eligible to return for the Titans’ home game against Cleveland on Oct. 25. Mathis can return for Buffalo’s home game against New England on Oct. 4.

Johnson has three previous seasons of NFL experience, all with the Kansas City Chiefs, and signed with the Titans on July 27, just before the opening of training camp.

The 28-year-old had six starts in 29 NFL games with the Chiefs since being selected by Kansas City in the seventh round of the 2022 draft. A shoulder injury limited Johnson to two games last season. He also missed the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL in his right knee.

The 28-year-old Mathis appeared in six games with the Bills last season. He spent his first three NFL seasons appearing in 23 games with Washington.

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A labor union and two female prison guards sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces employment anti-discrimination laws, for indefinitely suspending proceedings in their case as part of a wider effort to halt all federal-sector class claims pending before the agency's administrative judges.

The lawsuit cited an administrative judge’s order dated Dec. 10, 2025, stating that the sexual harassment case had been paused and that the “notification applies to all class cases in the federal sector.”

But in a court document filed Thursday evening, EEOC Chief Operating Officer Sharon Rose said the judge in the case issued the notification “in error” and that it was an “isolated incident.” Rose also told the court that the EEOC has transferred the case to another administrative judge, who on Monday issued an order scheduling further proceedings.

The court document also included a letter sent by Justice Department attorney James Harlow to the plaintiffs on Monday, offering the same explanation and asking them to drop their motion for a preliminary injunction.

“In short, Defendants agree that processing of federal-sector class complaints should not be suspended,” Harlow wrote in the letter.

Joseph Sellers, co-chair of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll’s civil rights and employment practice and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said Friday that the evidence belies the government's claim that the suspension was an erroneous isolated incident.

Sellers and other attorneys involved in the lawsuit say they are representing federal workers in at least five other class complaints that have been stalled for months, including cases against the FBI and the Department of Defense.

In two of those cases, administrative judges also issued scheduling orders Monday, according to the letter sent by Harlow, the Justice Department attorney. Harlow asked the attorneys to send him the name and number of any other federal-sector class complaints that may have been suspended “so we can investigate.”

Sellers said the fact that the EEOC judges only ordered the scheduling orders this week, after the lawsuit was filed, suggests that the suspension was not an error.

“The timing speaks for itself. We have evidence of a number of cases that were stayed. It is not an isolated incident as the EEOC seems to claim," Sellers said.

Sellers said the plaintiffs are willing to engage in discussion with the Justice Department to resolve the issue outside the court.

The lawsuit against the EEOC was filed by the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing federal workers, and two women who are correctional officers at Louisiana’s Federal Correctional Complex at Pollock.

The women are part of a pending class complaint claiming that management at Pollock failed to stop inmates from subjecting female workers to sexual harassment.

Under President Donald Trump, the EEOC has drastically overhauled its civil rights enforcement priorities, including prioritizing cases aimed at stamping out diversity and inclusion policies, dropping cases on behalf of transgender workers and abandoning longstanding tools for investigating systemic discrimination.

The changes have prompted several lawsuits against EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, who says she is pursuing an “even-handed” and “colorblind” vision of workplace civil rights.

Rose, the EEOC chief operating officer, said in her court statement that neither the commission nor Lucas had issued “a written or verbal directive to EEOC administrative judges” to indefinitely suspend class cases.

The EEOC referred questions Friday to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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In a pointed letter to Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, a lawyer for the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said any effort to compel him to appear before a Senate subcommittee, after a contentious July 29 hearing, would be to "impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci for political purposes.”

During the July hearing on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 100 times, prompting the Aug. 6 contempt vote and setting up a referral to the Justice Department for potential investigation over whether he had properly exercised his constitutional rights.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman who pressed for the contempt finding, said the constitutional protection did not apply because Democratic President Joe Biden had issued a preemptive pardon to Fauci, and he did not need to be concerned about potential prosecution.

Paul has long accused Fauci of misleading the public during the pandemic and the July hearing was the latest episode in his highly publicized confrontations with him. Paul has repeatedly called for Fauci to be prosecuted and imprisoned.

Johnson, chairman of the subcommittee on investigations, had sought to open a parallel avenue of congressional investigation about Fauci's role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.

His daughter, Amy Rydell, told The Hollywood Reporter that her father died Thursday of natural causes at a retirement community for the entertainment industry in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles.

“Hard to put into words how much I loved my dad,” she posted Friday on her Instagram account. "He was truly one of a kind. Funniest and most talented person I’ve ever known.”

‘On Golden Pond’ earned 10 Oscar nominations

“On Golden Pond,” which teamed Fonda with Hepburn and his daughter, Jane Fonda, was nominated for 10 Oscars. Henry Fonda and Hepburn won leading acting honors and the film won for screenplay, which Ernest Thompson adapted from his play of the same name. Rydell was nominated for directing but lost to Warren Beatty for “Reds.”

It earned over $119 million at the box office, making it the second-highest grossing film of 1981 behind “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

“On Golden Pond” was Henry Fonda’s final movie role. He starred as Norman Thayer, an emotionally brittle and distant father who becomes more accessible at the end of his life after his teenage grandson spends the summer with him and his wife, Ethel (played by Hepburn), at their cottage in New England. The film’s story resembled Fonda’s real-life relationship with daughter Jane, who said working on the movie together helped resolve some of their issues. The elder Fonda died at age 77 months after winning his only Oscar.

Rydell’s other Oscar-nominated films were “The Fox” in 1967, “The Reivers” with McQueen in 1969, “Cinderella Liberty” with James Caan and Marsha Mason in 1973, “The Rose” with Bette Midler in 1979, and “The River” with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek in 1984.

Born Mortimer Harold Rydell on March 23, 1929, in New York City, he studied with jazz pianist Teddy Wilson at the Julliard School of Music. During a stint in the Army, he spent two years in Japan developing entertainment for military personnel. He majored in English and philosophy at New York University.

Early acting career opposite Steiger, Cassavetes, Mineo

He turned to acting when he won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Among his early roles were on the CBS soap operas “The Edge of Night” and “As the World Turns.”

Rydell made his Broadway debut in “Seagulls Over Sorrento” with Rod Steiger. In 1956, he made his movie acting debut opposite John Cassavetes and Sal Mineo in Don Siegel’s “Crime In The Streets.”

Among his film acting credits were Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” in 1973 and Woody Allen’s “Hollywood Ending” in 2002.

Rydell moved into directing television, helming episodes of “Mr. Novak,” “Ben Casey," “I Spy,” “The Wild Wild West,” “The Long, Hot Summer,” “The Fugitive” and “Gunsmoke.”

He made his feature-film directorial debut with 1967’s “The Fox” starring Sandy Dennis, and it was a hit.

Two years later, Rydell directed McQueen in the comedy-drama “The Reivers.”

Teaming with Sydney Pollack

Rydell and Sydney Pollack, who became friends during their acting days, formed Sanford Productions in 1971. Among their efforts were the films “Jeremiah Johnson” starring Robert Redford and “Scarecrow” with Al Pacino and Gene Hackman, which won the Cannes Film Festival’s top honor, the Palme d’Or.

Rydell directed Wayne in 1972’s “The Cowboys.” He reunited with Caan for the 1976 flop “Harry and Walter Go to New York.”

He scored a major hit with 1979’s “The Rose,” with Midler in her Oscar-nominated role as a self-destructive rock star loosely based on Janis Joplin.

Rydell re-teamed with Caan and Midler in “For the Boys” in 1991, but it wasn’t successful.

“He was an actor of note before he became a director, and I was so lucky to have met him when I did; he taught me so much on The Rose and later on For The Boys,” Midler posted on Instagram. “Two Oscars nominations both because of him. He was the actor’s whisperer; just a few words was all it took to understand what was needed. Devoted to Meisner. So many happy memories.”

TV movies and series among his credits

Rydell directed the pilot of the hit ABC drama “Family” in 1976.

Among his TV movie directing credits were “McBride and Groom,” “Crime of the Century” with Isabella Rossellini and Stephen Rea, and “James Dean,” which earned actor James Franco a Golden Globe award. Rydell also appeared in the movie as Warner Bros. chief Jack Warner.

He directed the movies “Intersection” in 1994 and “Even Money” in 2006.

In 2009, Rydell, Oscar-winning actor Martin Landau and screenwriter Lyle Kessler taught a film workshop at UCLA. Rydell and Landau were co-artistic directors of The Actors Studio West, teaching and coaching actors, writers and directors.

“All great art rests on telling the truth,” Rydell told UCLA’s student newspaper The Daily Bruin. “The real pursuit of an artist is to tell the truth.”

Besides his daughter, he is survived by son Christopher. The siblings who went into acting were from his first marriage to actor Joanne Linville. He had another son, Alexander, from his second marriage to producer Esther Rydell.

“Really just a dream start,” Scheffler said. “Probably one of the best starts I’ve had on tour, to be honest with you. I couldn’t tell you a time where I’ve been lower early in the round.”

The top-ranked Scheffler had 11 birdies and two bogeys in 100-degree heat at TPC Southwind in the playoff opener. He had an 11-under 129 total.

“The tournament is halfway over,” Scheffler said. “I had two good rounds to start and hopefully continue that over the weekend.”

Scheffler tied the tournament course record.

“I wouldn’t say golf’s ever easy,” Scheffler. “I did some good things out there. I hit some iron shots in there close and was able to hole a few putts as well.”

He has played the TPC Southwind more times (seven) without winning than any other course on the PGA Tour.

Viktor Hovland and Sungjae Im were tied for second at 8 under. Hovland had a 64, and Im shot his second 66.

“It was really nice, really solid,” Hovland said. “Hit a lot of fairways, and I think that’s a big deal for my game, but also especially at this golf course. I think it’s really difficult to score if you’re missing fairways.”

Ludvig Aberg was 7 under after a 65.

Jordan Spieth shot 69 to get to 6 under. He was part of a four-way tie for the first-round lead. Spieth is outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the BMW Championship next week.

Scheffler entered the week with a 794-point lead over Matt Fitzpatrick in the FedExCup standings. Fitzpatrick was 3 under after a 67.

So much emphasis is on getting into the top 50 because that locks up all the $20 million signature events for next season.

Rory McIlroy played alongside Scheffler the first two days. He followed an opening 74 with a 70, leaving him tied for 60th at 4 over.

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The cats are being rescued from the former Luján Zoo, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, after years of uncertainty over their fate. Four Paws, the international animal-welfare organization overseeing the transfer, described it as one of the largest relocations of captive big cats in the world.

“We are putting everything into making this go as smoothly as possible so we can celebrate that 30 lives have improved because of this effort,” said Luciana D’Abramo, program director for Four Paws.

Once loaded into their crates and placed aboard cargo and passenger jets, nine tigers and six lions will be flown to Lionsrock, a Four Paws sanctuary in South Africa that houses more than 80 big cats across natural enclosures sprawling 60 hectares (148 acres). The remaining eight tigers and seven lions will travel to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Colorado, a vast refuge on the grasslands northeast of Denver where rescued lions, tigers and other animals roam expansive habitats.

But getting there is no easy feat: The big cats bound for Colorado will fly through Chile, while the others will travel to Johannesburg via Frankfurt or Amsterdam before a four-hour drive to Lionsrock.

The Four Paws handlers trained many of the lions and tigers to enter the crates voluntarily. But some of the big cats required sedation, including two tigers that veterinarians hoisted in canvas slings Friday and carried by hand to their transport crates.

Argentine authorities shut down the Lujan Zoo — famous for letting visitors handle and pose for pictures with tigers and lions — over safety and animal welfare concerns in 2020. D’Abramo said about 200 big cats were living there when it closed. Only 112 remained when Four Paws first arrived in 2023 seeking a solution.

By the time the organization was allowed to take over the site two years later, that number had fallen to 62. Some of the captive animals can barely walk because of obesity, muscle loss or poor nutrition. Others suffer from dental and kidney disease, complications from declawing and injuries that never healed properly.

“That alone shows the level of overcrowding and the conditions in which these animals have endured,” D’Abramo said.

The organization retrained longtime zoo employees in modern animal-welfare practices and began improving the cats’ diets and medical care. This transfer leaves more than 20 lions and tigers at Luján while Four Paws searches for their long-term homes.

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Begay, one of the last two living Code Talkers, made the long trip from his home on the Navajo Nation to the Arizona State Capitol for the event. He was joined by family members and dozens of descendants of other Code Talkers.

“I am so damn proud,” said Begay, in a wheelchair and wearing a cap dotted with pins and a golden shirt that featured military patches and his service ribbons. “We used our language in World War II and won the battles.”

The Marine Corps recruited over 400 Navajos during World War II to communicate confidential information using their then-unwritten language. It was the largest code-talking program in the military at the time. In 2021, Arizona became the first state adopting Navajo Code Talker Day as a state holiday.

Between 1942 and 1945, they sent thousands of secret messages on battle tactics and enemy troop movements — using the same language Begay spoke while growing up and herding sheep on the Navajo Nation. Ultimately, the Code Talkers helped save the lives of thousands of Allied soldiers.

The program remained secret for decades and in 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation designating Aug. 14 as the official day to honor the Navajo Code Talkers and all Native Americans who served in the war.

“The U.S. was being defeated. Without that code, that war could have been different," said Dawn Manuelito, a granddaughter of one of the first 29 Navajo Code Talkers who developed the code. “Our language saved this country."

Navajo soldiers were sworn to secrecy

When the Code Talkers were discharged after the war, they couldn't tell anyone about their mission. The program remained classified until 1968 and then efforts began to formally recognize the soldiers for their contributions.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon sent a letter of appreciation to the Navajo Tribal Council. Code Talker veterans participated in the bicentennial parade in Washington in 1976, and a joint congressional resolution resulted in Reagan's proclamation.

In the proclamation, Reagan also acknowledged that members of the Choctaw, Chippewa, Creek, Sioux, and other tribes used their tribal languages as effective battlefield codes in the two world wars.

At least 20 tribes have had members participate in the code talking programs, according to the National Museum of the American Indian.

During World War II, over 40,000 Native American men and women enlisted in the U.S. armed forces. Of the hundreds of Code Talkers deployed, the Comanches participated in operations in Europe, including the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

Advocates work to keep the legacy alive

Following President Donald Trump’s executive order to end federal diversity and equity programs, the Defense Department deleted thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups, including the Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans.

Tribes condemned the action. The Pentagon restored some webpages, saying the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously removed.

“They left their home, their sheep, their loved ones, to serve a country. They came back home and most of them have PTSD, like my dad. But they continued to do the best they can — and the Trump administration wiped them out of the map,” said Ronald Begay, 70, the oldest son of Thomas H. Begay. “It just makes your blood boil."

Laura Tohe, the Arizona poet laureate and daughter of a Navajo Code Talker, said her father went to a boarding school where students were punished for using their native languages. But when he joined the Marines, Tohe said, he and other men were told that the military would use their language to devise a code.

“It's a huge contradiction,” Tohe said. “Despite the complicated and dark history and relationship that we have with the U.S., these men were willing to step up because many of them felt like it was their responsibility to serve."

There's no dedicated museum to honor the group. Attempts to build one on the Navajo Nation haven't come to fruition.

New Mexico officials announced on Friday that the state would invest $20 million in a museum in Farmington.

Only two Navajo Code Talkers remain

Thomas H. Begay grew up speaking only the Navajo language with his parents. At 13, like many Native American Code Talkers, he first learned English when he was sent to boarding school.

Begay left the Marines in 1946 and joined the U.S. Army a year later. He worked as a communication specialist and was a paratrooper during the Korean War. That experience convinced him to leave the military in 1953.

The other surviving Navajo Code Talker is Peter MacDonald. He joined the Marine Corps at 15. He was two years too young, so he lied about his age.

After the war, MacDonald worked as an engineer for a defense contractor and eventually became a powerful and controversial politician on the Navajo Nation. In November 2017, MacDonald, along with other World War II veterans, met Trump in the Oval Office and shared the history of the Navajo Code Talkers.

——

Associated Press writer Savannah Peters contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jason Arday, who was 37 when he became Cambridge's youngest Black professor in 2023, resigned after he came under intense media pressure, with weeks of allegations about plagiarism in his academic work and questions surrounding claims about his athletic and fundraising accomplishments.

The Times and Telegraph newspapers, along with the BBC and Sky News, reported that Arday, 41, was found “unresponsive” inside a home in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon.

News of his death comes the same week as the release of his memoir, “Great and Unfortunate Things,” a highly anticipated work that Simon & Schuster had decided to release despite the doubts about his credibility. In a statement issued through his publisher, Arday's family said that they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”

“The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone,” the family said, adding that for three years Arday was “subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse ... by those who would leave no stone unturned in their quest to undermine him.”

The Metropolitan Police said only that a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead in Battersea, without naming the man, in accordance with its policy.

“At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious," the police statement said.

Cambridge Vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice, who earlier announced that the university will investigate the circumstances around Arday's employment, said she was “desperately saddened” by the news.

“Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time," she said.

In resigning as professor of sociology of education, Arday wrote in a statement that "the relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.”

He said his stepping down should not “be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me.” He has denied plagiarism, but admitted to some mistakes when working on his doctorate.

Supporters, including more than two dozen academics and politicians, had described the plagiarism allegations as a “smear campaign” designed to undermine Arday and other Black people who hold “positions of influence.”

Arday’s appointment at Cambridge highlighted his personal story of overcoming dyslexia, developmental delays and autism that he said left him non-verbal until the age of 11 and illiterate until his late teens.

Cambridge has opened investigation into plagiarism accusations

In his memoir, Arday wrote of himself as born to achieve and born to struggle. He remembered a family “legend” that the 1980s hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” was on the radio at the time of his birth. He described how a midwife noted his long fingers and told his mother that it was a sign he was meant for greatness. In his early 20s, he recalled, he was on a relief mission in Brazil when an aid worker placed a hand on his arm and also predicted an extraordinary life.

“But I also believe you're destined for very sad and difficult things as well,” she warned him.

Questions about Arday's qualifications were raised publicly last month by Nathan Cofnas, a one-time Cambridge philosophy researcher who left the university after his critique of diversity, equity and inclusion programs sparked widespread protests.

On July 24, the Times of London published an analysis of Arday’s 2015 Ph.D. thesis highlighting what it said were multiple examples of passages that were “identical or near-identical” to an earlier paper written by another researcher.

British media also raised questions about Arday’s claims that he had raised 5.5 million pounds ($7.4 million) for charity through feats such as running 30 marathons in 35 days and 600 miles in six days.

Dozens of Cambridge academics had signed a letter calling for an independent inquiry into how Arday was appointed. Cambridge initially stood by Arday, saying that the plagiarism allegations had been investigated by Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded Arday’s doctorate.

The university then changed its stance and said it opened an investigation “following new information about Professor Arday’s qualifications and honorary appointments.”

Prentice, the university's vice-chancellor, said this week that Cambridge will run a review of its hiring processes. She stressed that “our staff of color are highly valued, for their scholarship, their achievements and the contributions they make to the institution and the wider academic community.”

“This particular case is an aberration and should not be used to cast aspersions on their work or the legitimacy of their roles at Cambridge," she said Thursday.

DeLind immediately recognized the stolen “Torero” print, one of 30 known to exist signed by Picasso.

“I was overwhelmed,” DeLind said Friday. “I was at a loss for words. It was an overwhelming moment for me.”

The sticker from his DeLind Fine Art Appraisals was still on the back of the framed print, just as it had been placed there in 2018.

“It was indeed mine,” DeLind said. “It came back full circle.”

Milwaukee landlord Tim Dertz told WISN-TV that he found the print while cleaning out an apartment of someone who had been evicted.

“It was kind of in a weird spot hanging on a wall,” Tim Dertz told the station. “It looked like it had been there for a long, long time because it had tons of dust across the top of it.”

Dertz said he showed it to an antique dealer friend who recognized it as a Picasso and said it appeared to be the one DeLind reported stolen in 2018. Dertz handed it over to police, who then contacted DeLind.

“When they called me, I was in disbelief,” DeLind said.

The Milwaukee Police Department said in an email Friday that the statute of limitations for theft and property crimes is generally six years but the case remains under investigation. Caroline Clancy, a spokesperson for the FBI in Milwaukee, declined to comment.

The year it was stolen the piece was appraised at between $35,000 and $50,000, DeLind said. He guessed that the value hasn't changed much since then, but now given its story it may be worth closer to $50,000.

The artwork remains in possession of Milwaukee police while the client who had commissioned it for sale with his art gallery works it out with his insurance company, DeLind said.

DeLind said his former business partner, who died in February, was distraught over the theft in 2018 and called police every year on the anniversary of the crime asking that they publicize it again in the hope the Picasso could be found.

“He would have been over the moon about this,” DeLind said. “It was special to him.”

Manager Blake Butera said Friday that Abrams has begun working out at second. He said the transition will be more “multiday than multiweek” and that Abrams will swap spots with second baseman Nasim Nuñez.

“Just thought this was the best thing for our team going forward,” Butera said. “We think with those two up the middle and Nasim playing more shortstop gives us the best chance.”

Butera said Abrams was amenable to the move while noting that shortstops take pride in playing the position — something Abrams also acknowledged.

“That’s just where I’ve been playing my whole life,” said Abrams, who led off and played shortstop Friday night against the New York Mets. “I believe I can be a great shortstop.”

Abrams, an NL All-Star starter, is having a career year offensively, with 28 homers, a major league-best 91 RBIs, a .284 average and an .898 OPS.

Abrams also leads NL shortstops with 19 errors, just three shy of his career high from 2023 and 2025. His .958 fielding percentage would also be a career worst.

“He said that a few times — like, look, the competitor in me wants to say I can do this at shortstop but also understand we have to do what’s best for the team and the organization going forward,” Butera said.

Nuñez has nine errors and a .965 fielding percentage at second base. He leads the majors in range factor at the position.

The Nationals also used first-round picks on shortstops Seaver King and Eli Willits in 2024 and 2025. Willits, selected first overall, is Washington’s no. 1 prospect, per MLB.com, while King ranks fourth.

“We’re thinking about all those things,” Butera said. “But ultimately, right now, what we’re trying to do is do what’s best for this team and this organization to win as many games as possible the rest of the year and also set ourselves up for next year.”

Abrams hasn’t played second base since his rookie season in 2022, when he made 13 appearances at the position for the San Diego Padres.

“It’s not too big of a change,” he said.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Search and rescue teams from Venezuela, Argentina and Israel joined the search for survivors following the 7.4 magnitude quake that struck the South American nation on Monday, killing at least 287 people. At 96 hours since the temblor hit, the window for survival was narrowing Friday afternoon.

The mayor of Pereira, Mauricio Salazar, told radio station FM on Friday that “contact was made with a woman who was asking for help amid the rubble” of a collapsed hotel at around 4 a.m. He suggested other people may have survived but were still trapped.

Authorities in Cali also reported apparent signs of life, saying at least three people were trapped under collapsed buildings. The search and rescue effort has been extended through Saturday.

Residents who lost their homes must start over again

With the overall search for survivors winding down, Colombia faced another challenge: rebuilding a nation shattered by a disaster that affected more than 100,000 people.

Tens of thousands of houses were damaged or destroyed, according to the government. Authorities have also reported damage to thousands of schools, medical facilities and community centers in more than 400 cities.

“There is no place to live, we lost everything,” Ebert Jonathan Morales, 38, said Friday in a shelter in Cali.

Morales is one of the 102,263 people whose lives were upended by the quake. The government says nearly 4,000 people were injured and hundreds remain missing. Private groups estimate the number of missing is in the thousands.

Morales said he, his wife and four children are trying to rebuild from scratch.

“The earthquake destroyed several neighborhoods in the city. Many houses were damaged, and buildings collapsed,” he said. “We are going to stay here until the government gives us some help, some support.”

The government focuses on providing shelter

The devastation has tested Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella, who was inaugurated just days before the earthquake shook the country's west. De la Espriella acknowledged Thursday night that “the situation is complex” and announced a plan to partner with private companies to rebuild, as well as subsidies for families who are homeless.

“We will not overcome this tragedy alone as a government,” he said. “We need the private sector to rebuild Colombia together.”

Monday’s earthquake was the most powerful to hit Colombia this century. Government aid has yet to arrive in some areas, where many people are relying on volunteers and neighbors for help.

“A neighbor is giving me shelter,” Olga Castro, a mother of five in Cali, said. “At least we survived, but right now we are practically on the street because we don’t have a home anymore.”

De la Espriella said national and international funds raised in response to the disaster will focus on the reconstruction of hospitals, schools, homes, roads and airports.

Rebuilding the country requires a “serious technical assessment” to determine which buildings can be used, which can be repaired and which must be demolished and rebuilt, said Yezid Alvarado Vargas, a professor in construction engineering at Javeriana University, in Bogota, Colombia.

“Before even discussing reconstruction, we must guarantee temporary housing, food, healthcare, continuity of basic services and economic support for families who lost their homes or livelihoods,” Alvarado said.

In Bogota, Colombia’s capital, around 500 volunteers gathered at a reception center to sort food, toiletries and pet food before distributing the supplies in the most affected areas. From youngsters to the elderly, everyone diligently participated in the challenging relief efforts.

“We all have to help. Today is for you, tomorrow might be for me,” volunteer Jorge Muñoz, 85, said. One of the oldest helpers at Bogota's Vive Claro aid collection, Muñoz has witnessed the devastation caused by other earthquakes, including one in 1999 that killed more than 1,180 people.

National and international aid keeps coming

Authorities have converted schools, parks and public buildings into shelters, providing tents, mattresses and food to the displaced. In other hard-hit cities, residents improvised shelters in the streets, while hundreds of volunteers rush to help those in need in hard-to-reach areas.

“These are isolated, neglected territories, historically lacking in institutional support, already plagued by violence, and now they are hit by an earthquake of this magnitude,” said María Mercedes Liévano, director of Save the Children in Colombia.

“It’s a crisis on top of a crisis, leaving the population in a situation of extreme vulnerability,” she added, citing communities including Buenaventura, the country’s main port, and Choco, the earthquake’s epicenter.

Many buildings in Pereira have limited or no access to electricity and water, and volunteers have been delivering hygiene kits to displaced families in the city's shelters, said Pamela Londoño, a technical adviser with Project HOPE. Of the five or six shelters in the city, at least one is already full and no longer accepting new residents. The nonprofit is also assessing medical supply needs.

Other areas are also suffering, such as the town of Roldanillo, where approximately 60% of residents do not have access to clean water.

“The main concern is the lack of basic services for multiple communities,” Londoño said. “This is a really critical situation.”

De la Espriella visited several cities to track relief efforts and aid distribution, including Quibdo, in the Choco region, and Pereira. Authorities are still waiting for tons of supplies and humanitarian aid from countries that have pledged their support, including Peru, China, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

“My heart, my strength and my spirit are with all the victims and with all these territories that have been forgotten and now devastated by nature,” he said. “We must rebuild them. There is a great task ahead and I am committed to it.”

The Trump administration announced Friday an additional $11 million in humanitarian aid — including food, health, protection and shelter assistance — bringing the total U.S. assistance following the earthquake to $26.5 million.

The U.S. “continues to coordinate with Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella and the Colombian government to assess and respond to earthquake-related needs,” the State Department said in a statement.

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Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia and Batschke reported from Santiago, Chile.

The Maryland Tax Court said the tax violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act as well as the First Amendment and the commerce and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

The legal fight has been watched by other states that are considering taxes for online ads. Maryland estimated the tax, approved in 2021, could raise about $250 million a year to help pay for a sweeping K-12 education measure.

In Friday's decision, the tax court ordered the state to repay the tax money already collected by Apple, Google and Peacock TV.

The law taxed revenue that large companies make on digital advertisements shown in Maryland. Companies making more than $100 million in global annual gross revenues were taxed at a 2.5% rate. The rate increased for companies with larger revenues, topping out at a 10% rate for companies making $15 billion or more in global gross annual revenues.

Supporters of the law contended that Maryland needed to overhaul its tax methods in response to significant changes in how businesses advertise. But attorneys representing Big Tech companies including Meta and Amazon challenged the law in multiple legal venues, arguing in part that they were unfairly targeted.

Last year, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled part of the law violated the Constitution because it blocked Big Tech companies from telling customers about the tax. That, Judge Julius Richardson said, violated the right to free speech.

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Joseline Pena-Melnyk, both Democrats, issued a statement saying they “respectfully disagree” with the tax court ruling and expect the legal process to continue.

They said the tax was enacted to keep the state's tax system in pace with a changing economy.

“We remain committed to ensuring that Maryland’s tax system is fair, sustainable, and reflects today’s economy,” they said. “We will continue working with the Attorney General and Comptroller as this matter proceeds through the courts.”

The tax court said Congress — not the state legislature — is tasked with regulating interstate commerce, and that the tax law was inappropriately based on global revenue rather than revenue from in-state advertising.

The federal Internet Tax Freedom Act bars the taxation of e-commerce if similar services are not taxed. At least for now, the tax court found, there isn't much of a difference between digital advertising and print or billboard ads, which means the bar on taxation applies.

Some locations that may experience flooding are Lake Weir, Silber Spring Shores, Belleview and Summerfield.

1.5-3.5 inches of rain has fallen across south central Marion county. An additional 1-2 inches is possible in this area.

Do not drive through flooded roadways if you encounter flooding.

Central Florida’s dangerous heat wave isn’t going anywhere.

The fourth heat advisory of the week was issued Friday, as heat index values will exceed 108 degrees. While a few storms are possible, don’t expect them to bring much of a cool down.

FRIDAY

Temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 90s this afternoon, with oppressive humidity making it feel even hotter. A Heat Advisory is in effect for all of East Central Florida from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

There will still be a chance for some afternoon and evening showers and storms, with rain chances around 30 to 50 percent. Most storms should develop as sea breezes collide inland before activity fades around sunset.

A few storms could become strong, producing frequent lightning, wind gusts up to 50 mph, and heavy rainfall.

WEEKEND

The overall weather pattern changes very little through Saturday and Sunday. High pressure and a layer of Saharan dust will help limit afternoon storm coverage, with rain chances generally between 20 and 40 percent Saturday and even lower for many areas Sunday.

That means the heat will once again take center stage. Coastal highs will generally reach the low to mid 90s, while inland communities climb into the mid to upper 90s. Heat index values could again reach 108 to 112 degrees, and additional Heat Advisories are likely.

NEXT WEEK

The heat wave is expected to continue into at least the first half of next week. Afternoon highs will remain in the mid to upper 90s, with warm and muggy nights offering little relief.

Rain chances should stay below normal through early next week before a front sagging south across the eastern U.S. could help increase storm chances around Tuesday or Wednesday.

No cause of the Wednesday crash has been released because the investigation has just begun. A safety investigation team from the Army Combat Readiness Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama, is trying to determine what happened, the Army said.

“The stand-down will remain in effect until we have a better understanding of the root cause of the accident," the Army said in its statement Friday.

The military has taken similar action after past crashes. Three years ago, the Army grounded all aviation units until they completed some additional training after 12 soldiers died in separate crashes in Alaska and Kentucky.

The Army made no mention of stopping the combat missions that Apache helicopters are regularly flying in the war in Iran. These helicopters have been employed around the Strait of Hormuz as part of the measures to maintain open navigation channels. One Apache crashed after running into an Iranian drone.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Deontre T. Huey, 34, of Killeen, Texas, and Warrant Officer Seth L. Olmstead, 25, of Belton, Texas, were killed in the Texas crash, the Army said. They were the only two people on board when the helicopter crashed in a grassy field near Salado, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from Fort Hood.

Huey entered the Army in 2014 and Olmstead entered in 2023. They were assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division.

“Our hearts and deepest condolences are with the families of the Soldiers we lost Wednesday,” said Lt. Gen. Kevin D. Admiral, III Armored Corps and Fort Hood commanding general. “The Army is a family, and a tragedy like this is felt throughout our formations and our community.”

Aviation safety expert John Cox said it’s encouraging to see the Army take this step because “you’re guessing until you get some hard answers” and this move signals the Army is making safety a priority.

“I am very much glad to see them doing that. It says that they’re being proactive,” said Cox, who is CEO of Safety Operating Systems and a longtime pilot.

The National Transportation Safety Board criticized the Army’s safety culture sharply during the investigation of last year’s collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet in the skies near Washington, D.C. The NTSB said the Army did a poor job recognizing some of the safety risks in the busy airspace around the nation’s capital before that crash in January 2025 that killed 67 people.

Fort Hood is a massive base with 214,968 acres (86,995 hectares) that is used to train and deploy heavy forces. In November 2015, four soldiers were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training exercise. And nine Fort Hood soldiers died in 2016 when a rain-swollen creek swept their vehicle into rushing waters.

The Apache attack helicopter has been a core part of Army aviation since the first one was delivered in 1984. More than 5,000 Apaches have been deployed by the U.S. military and its allies over the decades.

The former LSU coach and athletic director passed away in a Baton Rouge hospital, LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette said.

“Few people have had a greater impact on LSU than Skip Bertman,” LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry said in a written statement. “As the greatest college baseball coach of all time, and later as our athletics director, Skip developed a championship standard and culture that still guide us today.”

The LSU Tigers, now synonymous with college baseball's elite and known for fielding numerous major league prospects, had never won a national title when Bertman, a native of Miami, took over the program in 1983.

The College Baseball Hall of Famer's legacy now includes Alex Box Stadium, which opened in 2009, holds about 11,000 and routinely is filled to capacity. The field at the stadium was named for Bertman in 2013. The Tigers also have won three national championships under two of Bertman's successors, most recently in 2025.

“Coach Bertman was so far ahead of his time while leading the LSU Tigers, and as a young coach just starting my journey, I watched, studied, and admired his incredible skills of leading, motivating, teaching, coaching, and ultimately cultivating what became ‘The Powerhouse’ of college baseball,” said current LSU coach Jay Johnson, who guided the Tigers to national titles in 2023 and 2025. “The impact he made and legacy he has left on the state of Louisiana and college baseball is beyond remarkable and will never be duplicated.”

Since 2013, the College Baseball Foundation's annual award for the nation's top coach has been named the Skip Bertman Coach of the Year Award. Bertman won it six times between 1986 and 2000.

Bertman coached a total of 18 seasons, retiring in 2001 with a record of 870-330-3 and 11 College World Series appearances. He then served as athletic director until 2008 and athletic director emeritus after that. He continued to live in Baton Rouge, support the university and attend LSU events for the rest of his life.

Bertman coached the Tigers to their first five College World Series championships in 1991, ’93, ’96, ’97 and ’00. His tenure as coach also included seven Southeastern Conference championships. His NCAA Tournament winning percentage of .754 is the highest in history.

Bertman also was head coach of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, which at that time included only amateur players and won a bronze medal in Atlanta.

Bertman played baseball at Miami before going into coaching, starting at the high school level in Miami Beach. His final job before taking over at LSU was as an assistant at Miami under Ron Fraser.

Bertman was preceded in death by his wife, Sandy, and daughter, Lisa.

Funeral arrangements were pending Friday.

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See AP’s full college sports coverage here

Speaking at The Plaza Live, Dyer pointed to a 19% citywide reduction in crime last year as one of Orlando’s biggest achievements, noting the city recorded just 10 homicides — the fewest in 50 years and the largest decrease in homicides of any major U.S. city.

“These numbers are more than just statistics,” Dyer said. “They represent secure neighborhoods where residents can sleep better knowing they’re supported by officers working day and night to protect us all.”

On housing, Dyer said Orlando has added nearly 24,000 residential units over the last six years — equivalent to every home in Altamonte Springs. The city’s “Orlando Unlaunched” initiative is modernizing zoning, streamlining approvals and converting vacant city-owned lots into affordable housing.

Dyer also highlighted the Vision Zero traffic safety program, crediting more than 100 safety projects with a 40% drop in deadly and serious injury crashes since 2020 — representing 60 lives saved.

Closing the address, Dyer urged residents to pay close attention to Amendment 3 on the November ballot, warning that if passed, Orlando could lose up to $80 million annually in property tax revenue — threatening police, fire, parks and other essential services.

“Our decisions at the ballot box in November will shape how cities and counties provide the services we all depend on,” he said.

Audio of the incident shortly after midnight Friday shows how he found a solution to ensure the planes that were both called American 2482 maintained proper separation as one plane arrived from Chicago shortly after the other had taken off in Phoenix.

“I’ve been working air traffic for 25 years. I’ve never seen two aircraft pretty much merge with the same call sign. That’s pretty incredible,” the controller said after the departing plane had safely cleared the area.

If both pilots thought the controller was telling them to fly at the same altitude as they headed toward each other, they might have collided, so it was crucial they knew which plane he was directing.

Quick thinking ensured the controller’s instructions were clear

The audio posted by ATC.com shows how the controller quickly started referring to “American 2482 on the arrival” and “American 2482 on the departure” to keep the two planes straight.

The controller kept the arriving plane safely above the departing plane even as their flight paths converged and made sure that the pilots of both airlines saw each other when they were still miles apart. He also directed the departing plane not to climb too high, so a gap would remain between the planes.

The arriving pilot complimented the controller for his “nice work” once the two planes had passed each other safely.

“It could have been disastrous, but I’m glad it worked out,” the controller replied.

Expert says airline must have missed that the flights would overlap

Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo said it’s likely that someone inside the airline’s dispatch center failed to catch that both planes would be in the air at the same time with identical flight numbers when both the dispatcher and the pilots signed off on the flight plan.

“You can drop the ball and that shouldn’t happen, but it’s nice to see that the system is resilient and we have all the safeguards,” said Arroyo, who has only seen this type of issue a couple times in his four decades with United Airlines. Arroyo started his career as a dispatcher before becoming a pilot.

Flight 2482 is a round-trip route that often flies back and forth between Chicago and Phoenix. Typically the same plane goes back and forth, but the flight out of Chicago was delayed by weather, so American found a second plane in Phoenix and that flight left on time. The result was that both planes briefly shared the same airspace before the arriving flight landed.

The government and airline will determine how this occurred

The Federal Aviation Administration and American Airlines will investigate how this happened, and they both emphasized how glad they were that everyone remained safe.

“The diligence and professionalism of air traffic controllers and our pilots ensured required separation was always maintained and the issue was identified and addressed. Both flights continued safely and without incident,” American Airlines said in a statement.

In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment’s length and even said that the deployment — which includes a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days — is “not nearly long enough.”

"That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump said when asked about the lengthy deployment. The acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, said the Lincoln “will return home soon” in a social media post on Friday.

Trump strode into office for a second term vowing to avoid lengthy and expensive military entanglements. And after launching the Iran war, alongside Israel, Trump and his advisers said the conflict would last a matter of weeks. The war is now more than five months old.

But on Friday, during his crime address in Garden City, New York, he acknowledged that he's used the U.S. military “a little bit more than I wanted to," while asserting anew that the U.S. operation against Iran is going well. He even said, seemingly in jest, that “pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”

“I’ll never apologize," Trump added about the war and its impact on oil prices. “I did the right thing.”

Democrats demand Pentagon briefing on USS Lincoln

Extended deployments of carriers during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as the increasing strain on the ships and their equipment.

Several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the Lincoln, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were “completely misrepresented.”

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment before being elected, took to social media to criticize Trump’s comments, saying on X that “President Trump does not care about our servicemembers or their families."

Top Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have requested a classified briefing on the ship’s food inventory, sanitation issues and healthcare availability, as well as an assessment of how much longer it would be deployed before relief arrives.

Republicans have been less outspoken about the situation on the Lincoln. The GOP chairmen of the House and Senate armed services committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war. Hegseth said the U.S. military can maintain the blockage of Iranian ports “indefinitely.”

Another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, and is expected to replace the USS Lincoln, one of two aircraft carriers currently deployed in the Middle East.

After reports emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns, the Navy said it has “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship,” though officials have declined to provide data, citing operational security and patient privacy concerns.

A Navy official said a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August but the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say whether it was being considered a suicide attempt.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, has also pushed back on reports about poor conditions.

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AP writers Collin Binkley in Garden City, New York, and Michelle L. Price and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that the USS Abraham Lincoln has spent more than 240 days of uninterrupted time at sea and its overall deployment has exceeded 260 days.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press highlighted Maisa Lopes Eliaser as one of dozens of spouses or parents of U.S. troops who had been detained after President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back protections for military families amid its push for mass deportations. Following the AP’s reporting, a group of Congressional Democrats launched an investigation into deportations of military service members and their families.

Eliaser was placed on a deportation flight Wednesday to her native Brazil when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on the plane received a phone call about her midflight, she told the AP. She said she was then asked by an ICE officer whether she wanted to continue on to Brazil or go back to the U.S.

“Who made the call? We don’t know,” said Eliaser’s husband, Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo. “But someone made the phone call, and then she came back.”

While other detainees were led off the plane in Brazil, Eliaser stayed on board and returned to Louisiana. ICE officers told her that she was “famous” because there were videos about her case, she said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy officer, directly contacted the ICE field office involved in Eliaser’s detention, according to his spokesperson. He has also spoken out on behalf of two other detained military family members in the past year.

In a statement to the AP, Kelly said the policy of detaining military family members is “wrong and makes no sense at all.”

“We need real solutions to fix our broken immigration system,” Kelly wrote in a statement. “Going after military families instead of real criminals doesn’t solve anything.”

DHS previously told AP that Eliaser, 32, had been issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on April 15, after overstaying the tourist visa she used to enter the U.S. in 2019.

Jaramillo, a 43-year-old aviation operations specialist who has served in the Army for more than a decade, took leave of his duties training soldiers in Fort Polk, Louisiana, to care for Eliaser's 5-year-old son after she was detained on July 8.

“This family’s reunion is proof of what’s possible when people set politics aside and do right by those who serve,” Danitza James, who heads Repatriate Our Patriots, a nonprofit that supports military families facing deportation and helped with Eliaser’s case, said at a news conference. “We won’t stop until every military family facing detention gets the same chance at justice.”

Eliaser, who was detained in July while at an immigration appointment, has another appointment scheduled for Monday in an effort to reopen her case and advance her green card application. Jaramillo is a U.S. citizen and the couple have been married since 2024.

Jaramillo said he has been told that there will be no further issues with Eliaser’s case, but the couple is still concerned.

“We are really, really, really scared about it, but you know, we have to go,” Jaramillo said. “I told the person who gave me the appointment, ‘Hey sir, don’t play with me, I’ve been through a lot.’”

Eliaser said she is still struggling to sleep and is afraid she will be sent back to the detention facility, where she said she was treated like “an animal.”

“It felt like I was in a nightmare,” Eliaser said. “I could not believe what was happening until I returned to my house. Day by day, I’m trying to recover from this trauma.”

There have been similar interventions in other high-profile cases over the past year. Annie Ramos, 22, was detained by immigration authorities as her husband, an Army staff sergeant, was preparing to deploy. She was released after a public outcry. Around the same time, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and combat veteran, told the AP that she personally contacted DHS to call for the release of Deisy Rivera Ortega, the immigrant wife of an Army sergeant who did three tours in Afghanistan, after learning about her case from advocacy groups. She was eventually released from custody.

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and its deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days. Several Democratic lawmakers are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the carrier, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were “completely misrepresented.”

Extended deployments of carriers during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as the increasing strain on the ship and its equipment. While renewed hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war.

Hegseth told reporters that the U.S. can maintain the blockade “indefinitely.”

A new aircraft carrier is heading west from the Asia-Pacific

The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, a Navy statement said. The carrier, along with a cruiser and a destroyer, have since been spotted crossing the Singapore Strait.

A Navy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive ship details, confirmed that the Washington was in the Strait of Malacca, which links the Pacific and Indian oceans and puts the carrier on a course to head into the Indian Ocean. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the Washington would replace the Lincoln as one of the two aircraft carriers now stationed in the Middle East.

The move would leave the waters of the Pacific without a U.S. carrier presence for an unknown period of time. The Trump administration sees China, the dominant power in the region, as “a settled force” that only needs to be deterred from dominating the U.S. or its allies and not the top global adversary that it was under the Biden administration.

The Lincoln originally deployed Nov. 21 from San Diego, and it arrived in the Middle East in January, ahead of the launch of the Iran war on Feb. 28. The Navy conceded that the conflict created a “highly contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions.” That, in turn, led to shortages and loss of mail aboard the aircraft carrier, the Navy said in a statement.

“Leadership prioritized mission-critical supplies: first food, then hygiene items, then mail,” the statement said, before assuring that sailors aboard the ship now have access to clean water and “healthy meal options.”

Democrats call for scrutiny, while the Pentagon defends conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln

Democratic lawmakers are calling for investigations, more information and greater visibility into conditions aboard the ship, which was originally set to return home in May.

“The Lincoln’s prolonged deployment is especially significant because it is occurring in the context of continuing military operations against Iran and the possibility that substantial US naval forces will be required in the region for an extended period,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a letter to Navy leadership asking for a response to several questions.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran, said on social media that he is looking to take a bipartisan delegation on an official oversight visit to the ship and that the way sailors are being treated is “not just disgusting; it’s dangerous.”

Hegseth told reporters during ​a visit to Panama that he wants the Lincoln's sailors home and crews rotated as quickly as possible but pushed back against reports of problems aboard.

“We make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and ​I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than ​anybody. What they do in those high seas in those austere ⁠conditions with less port calls — it’s incredible.”

Navy leaders, including acting Secretary Hung Cao, last week held a tense town hall for families of troops aboard the USS Lincoln, at which the commanders of the Navy’s air and surface forces promised to do everything they could to relieve the aircraft carrier. MS NOW reported earlier on the meeting.

When reports of food shortages aboard the ship first surfaced in April, the Navy pushed back, calling those reports “false.”

Reports of mental health concerns and more aboard the ship

Reports have since emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns. The Navy said in its statement that it has “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship,” but officials declined to provide data, citing operational security and patient privacy concerns.

The Navy official said that a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August but that the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say if it was being considered a suicide attempt.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, pushed back on reports about poor conditions.

“The Sailors and Marines of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group remain resilient and resolved after more than 260 days at sea, 10,000 aircraft flights, and 1.5 million pounds of ordnance expended,” the command said on social media.

Other carriers also have had long runs that have raised concerns about morale. The USS Gerald R. Ford returned home in mid-May after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, during which it supported the U.S. war with Iran and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

During its deployment, the Ford experienced a fire in a laundry space that forced the carrier to turn around and return to the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep.

Concerns about the demands of battle and the dangers of overextending ships and their crew predate the Iran war, with a number of mishaps on ships battling Houthi rebels in Yemen in 2024 and 2025, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman on a longer-than-expected deployment.

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Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. ___

This story has been corrected to show that the USS Abraham Lincoln has spent more than 240 days of uninterrupted time at sea and its overall deployment has exceeded 260 days.

Mangione, 28, said he made a gun with the aid of a 3D printer, traveled to New York and used a ruse — posing as an investor at a multibillion-dollar firm — to contact the company for details on the event.

"On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione told the Manhattan federal court, which he entered shackled at the feet but not handcuffed in his beige jail uniform.

Listening in the audience, Thompson's wife, Paulette, took several deep breaths and repeatedly wiped tears from her eyes.

Prosecutors plan to seek a life prison term at Mangione's sentencing, set for Dec. 18. When U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett asked whether he understood that he could spend the rest of his life behind bars, Mangione answered neutrally: “Yes.”

In a statement, Thompson’s family called the plea “an important step toward justice” and noted that Mangione still faces other cases, including a New York state murder prosecution. It carries the potential for a separate long sentence.

Mangione still faces a state murder case

Federal prosecutors didn’t give Mangione any deal or incentive to plead guilty, they and his lawyers said. Nor did Mangione plead guilty to avoid a potential death sentence. That possibility was taken off the table when a federal murder charge was tossed out this winter.

Mangione’s lawyers didn’t explain why he choose to plead guilty now, but after he entered the plea at Friday’s hastily scheduled hearing, they quickly sought to have the New York case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds. The state’s double jeopardy protections can kick in if a prior prosecution ends in a guilty plea.

“Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said outside court, arguing that her client shouldn’t face two prosecutions over a “single tragic event.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is handling the state prosecution, said it remains committed to its case and would contest the defense’s efforts to shut it down.

Mangione alludes to back pain in explaining his actions

Surveillance video of the ambush showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson, 50, from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

That detail — and revelations that Mangione's private writings lambasted health insurers as greedy, according to authorities — made the case a fulcrum for debate about the industry and made Mangione a cause célèbre for some of its critics.

A University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, Mangione told the court Friday that he pursued Thompson “after years of enduring severe pain from a broken back, navigating the obstacles of the health insurance system and witnessing similar experiences of countless others.”

Friedman Agnifilo later said her client “believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life.”

Authorities say Mangione's grievances are no excuse for killing

Mangione never was a UnitedHealthcare customer, according to police and the company.

“To those who idolize Luigi Mangione, I say this. Violence is not a cause. Murder is not a message. And a killer is certainly not a hero,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said outside court Friday.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald, whose office handled the federal case, added: “There can be no celebrity in assassination."

Thompson led one of the United States' largest health insurers, but he wasn't well known outside the industry. Trained as an accountant, he worked at parent company UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, in 2021. He and his wife had two sons, who were in high school when their father was killed.

Thompson's violent death “devastated everyone who knew and loved him,” the company said in a statement Friday, thanking law enforcement for bringing Mangione to justice.

His defense had lost some disputes over evidence

Mangione was arrested five days after the shooting, when he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. Police had released various images of the suspected shooter, including one showing his face as he checked into a hostel.

Although his lawyers got the federal murder charge dismissed, Garnett also delivered some setbacks to the defense, ruling in January that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione’s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him. They included a 3D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to kill an insurance executive.

Similarly, the judge in the state case threw out terrorism charges against Mangione but agreed to let the gun and notebook be used as evidence. The case has been heading toward a September trial, but his lawyers' new bid to dismiss it could complicate the timeline.

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Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed.

In a release, troopers said the incident first happened on Aug. 8, when a street-racing incident sparked a multi-vehicle crash along Southwest 49th Avenue Road, close to Southwest 82nd Place.

The Florida Highway Patrol says two cars were speeding recklessly in the northbound lanes when one of the cars struck an SUV that was entering the intersection.

The crash resulted in the death of the elderly woman, identified as a passenger in the SUV. Meanwhile, the 48-year-old driver suffered serious injuries, troopers noted.

Afterward, one of the other drivers involved in the street race — identified as 21-year-old Misaiah Enriquez — fled the scene, though he was later arrested by the U.S. Marshals Task Force in Miami, the release states.

He is being extradited back to Marion County, where he will face charges of vehicular homicide, fleeing or eluding law enforcement at high speed, reckless driving, and a pending charge of racing on the highway.

Meanwhile, another driver — identified as Cesar Estrada-Garcia, 28 — voluntarily turned himself in at the Marion County Jail on Friday morning, investigators revealed.

Troopers said Estrada-Garcia faces charges of racing on the highway; vehicular homicide; reckless driving causing a crash involving serious injury; reckless driving causing injury; and reckless driving causing property damage. He is held without bond.

Macdonald made it clear he was not ducking inquiries about Arnold, who is facing eight felony charges stemming from allegations he orchestrated the abduction and beating of three men in February. The 23-year-old became a free agent in June, when the Detroit Lions released him a few days after the kidnapping, armed robbery and conspiracy charges were levied.

“I understand the situation,” Macdonald said Friday. “So, I’m glad that we had the opportunity to talk about it.”

Macdonald explained why the reigning Super Bowl champions felt compelled to add Arnold, who prosecutors in Florida said arranged for men to be pistol-whipped after he wrongly suspected them of stealing $100,000 in cash and luxury goods from him.

Police called Arnold the “primary conspirator” in the Feb. 4 attack, and a judge set his bail at $1 million.

Defense attorney R. Timothy Jansen said in Hillsborough County court earlier this summer that Arnold is “absolutely denying these allegations.” Denise White, the CEO of EAG Sports Management, an agency that represents Arnold, said there’s “no credible evidence” against him, only accounts from others who may have an incentive to get a lighter sentence.

“We also understand that it’s a serious situation with a legal matter,” Macdonald said. “There’s a process behind it, so we respect that. And, that’s how we’ll operate, too, is just letting that process play out. And, let the league decide if and when his return to play is. And we’ll just kind of understand that that’s at play.”

Macdonald said the timetable for the NFL ruling on Arnold’s eligibility for the 2026 season is still being worked out. To Macdonald’s understanding, Arnold visited at least eight teams, and it is unclear when he will join the Seahawks.

“We have an agreement with him, and we’ll see,” Macdonald said. “But I just really don’t know how we’re going to do it.”

Should Arnold be permitted to play for the Seahawks this season, he could bolster what was arguably the NFL’s best defense last season. No team allowed fewer points per game (17.2), and Seattle finished in the top seven in the league in sacks and interceptions.

Arnold should add depth to a secondary that lost cornerback Riq Woolen to free agency and has been without second-year safety Nick Emannwori, who had offseason ankle surgery, during training camp.

Arnold has played in 25 NFL games, including playoffs, since the Lions took him with the 24th pick of the 2024 draft out of Alabama.

“We think his skill set fits in our secondary,” Macdonald said. “He plays with a lot of energy, physicality. ... And then, personality-wise, I think there’s an opportunity there if he’s the best version of himself that he could be a fit for us.”

A number of Seahawks players have already spent plenty of time around Arnold.

Backup quarterback Jalen Milroe and fullback Robbie Ouzts were college teammates of Arnold for three seasons at Alabama. Cornerback Josh Jobe overlapped with Arnold for one season with the Crimson Tide.

Macdonald also said the Seahawks' decision-makers held informal, one-on-one conversations with some team leaders. He also spoke highly of his discussion with Arnold during his visit on Sunday.

Macdonald did not get into specifics, but said the Seahawks leaned on people who could vouch for Arnold’s character before deciding to offer him a deal.

“It’s overwhelmingly positive. It really is,” Macdonald said. “And, again, it’s a serious situation, that there’s allegations there that are serious. But, if you separate that from the person that they talk about on a daily basis and their history with him, it’s been really overwhelmingly positive.”

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See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Even as the Israeli army took positions around him and the homes of two other Palestinian families that settlers had blockaded for most of this week, the settlers remained close enough that Abu Rida feared they would again return after the army left and try to take over the home owned by his Palestinian American brother in Ohio.

“I just don’t know when this will end,” he said.

The standoff in Qusra between Palestinian families and Israeli settlers who apparently want to push them out entered a new stage Friday as activists supporting the Palestinians marched toward the besieged homes to replenish their dwindling food and water supply. But Abu Rida said he was growing tired of the pattern, with Israeli forces removing the settlers, only for them to return and reestablish their positions after the troops withdrew.

“It’s like a kids’ game, like cat and mouse,” Ziv Stahl, the executive director of the Israeli rights group Yesh Din, said. “It’s clearly not a matter of capability but a matter of will.”

The siege of the homes is the latest episode in a wave of settler violence convulsing the occupied West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up the main part of a future Palestinian state. Israel's military said the village — roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Palestinian city of Nablus — was a closed military zone.

More than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlements to be illegal and obstacles to peace.

Both Israel’s military and Israel’s police referred questions about the situation in Qusra to the other.

The West Bank has become more dangerous for Palestinians as Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has approved more than 100 new settlements. Extremist settlers routinely enter Palestinian towns, clashing with villagers, burning homes, mosques and cars.

Netanyahu is courting blocs of ultranationalist voters ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult reelection campaign in October. He and members of his cabinet have largely dismissed concerns about settler violence as overblown and attributed it to fringe groups of a few hundred youths. Yet rights groups and Palestinians say the government's policies have made it more difficult to restrain settlers, who are rarely punished for attacks.

Qusra siege reflects broader violence

The standoff in Qusra began on Sunday when dozens of settlers arrived and blocked the doors to the three houses, preventing occupants from leaving, according to the families inside.

Israeli troops intervened multiple times and arrived in large numbers Thursday.

Abu Rida and his teenage son were temporarily moved by the army on Thursday but allowed to return hours later. He told his brother in Toledo, Ohio, that he planned on staying to defend the home.

Loui Ridi, the home's owner who spells the family name differently, has been in constant contact with his brother and watching the siege unfold on security cameras until they went offline Thursday.

He plans to travel to the West Bank next week in hopes of delivering more food and “to do whatever I can to protect my brother and my house," Ridi told The Associated Press on Friday.

“We want it to be resolved and permanent, not just for a couple of days,” he said.

For many, the scene unfolding in Qusra — now in its sixth day — reflected broader failures by Israeli authorities to curb the violence in the West Bank.

Itamar Weil, an Israeli human rights activist from the group Bnei Avraham, said the army had threatened to use tear gas against the activists and forced them to leave, even as settlers remained in the valley below Qusra.

“The army used to prevent settlers from carrying out this kind of violence,” he said. “Now, with a government that fully supports them, they’re not doing their job. They should be protecting both sides from violence, but instead they’re removing activists while barely doing anything about the settlers.”

Palestinian officials have reported 1,476 attacks by Israeli settlers in 2026, including several earlier instances in which settlers staged takeovers of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of other West Bank towns.

A total of 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank this year, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry. Israel says some were involved in terrorism, which it defines broadly to include militancy and rock-throwing. Three Israelis were killed by Palestinians, including two in a July clash during which four Palestinians were also killed.

Katz strips army of enforcement power against settlers

Before calm was restored in Qusra, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Friday that he would transfer all enforcement powers against Israeli civilians in the West Bank from the army to Israel’s police.

“The (Israeli military’s) role is to fight Palestinian terrorism, focus on protecting the borders and settlements against threats, deal with the borders and the territory itself and security threats to the settlements and the State of Israel, and not chase after boys on the hills,” Katz said in a statement.

Historically, the army has been able to arrest Palestinians and bring those accused of crimes before military courts. But when it comes to Israeli civilians, in most circumstances it can only use temporary detention for those suspected of crimes, leaving arrests, investigations and prosecutions to police and civilian courts.

Katz’s move comes after he ended the use of administrative detention against Israeli civilians in November 2024. The military had used the policy as a tool to contain settler violence, allowing it to detain suspects without charge and remove them from the West Bank.

Much like with that move, rights groups said transferring all powers to the police was unlikely to restore order or ensure Palestinian safety.

Some 2.8 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank alongside more than 560,000 Israeli civilians who live in settlements that the international community largely considers illegal and an obstacle to peace.

Though the Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy and policing power in the territory’s largest cities, agreements that date back to the 1990s give Israel security control over large swaths of the territory, including agricultural areas and communities such as Qusra.

Stahl, Yesh Din's executive director, said Katz's announcement wouldn't change or help stem the violence because police will still require army escorts to operate in Palestinian areas.

“Unless (Katz) means he’s going to apply Israeli law and have the police control the West Bank, the military is still the main body in charge,” she said.

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Associated Press reporter John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) recently shared on social media that she chose to freeze her eggs, bringing renewed attention to the topic of reproductive health.

“This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

What egg freezing involves

The process starts with extracting eggs from the ovaries and preserving them until a woman is ready to become pregnant. When that time comes, the eggs are thawed, fertilized, and transferred through in vitro fertilization (IVF) — but pregnancy is not guaranteed.

Dr. Mindy Christianson, Section Chief of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, says there is still a lot that remains unknown.

“One of the downsides of freezing eggs is that there’s still a lot of unknowns,” Christianson said. “We don’t know if they’re going to successfully fertilize. We don’t know if the embryos are going to grow.”

A conversation that can reduce stigma

Danielle Melfi, CEO of RESOLVE — a national patient advocacy organization supporting people facing infertility — says public figures sharing their stories help open doors for others.

“Someone sharing their story creates room for other people to ask questions, to maybe have that conversation with their doctor, with their friends and family,” Melfi said. “It’s really helpful in breaking down that stigma.”

The cost barrier

One round of egg freezing can cost thousands of dollars, plus ongoing storage fees. In many cases, insurance does not cover the procedure.

Melfi says the timing makes the financial strain particularly difficult.

“When you think of the time in your life when women are often making the decision to freeze their eggs, they’re thinking about it in their late 20s, their early to mid-30s,” she said. “That’s when they’re moving up in their career. They’re seeing if they can pay rent or buy a mortgage.”

Experts say: Start with a conversation

Despite the challenges, experts encourage anyone considering egg freezing not to let the unknowns be a barrier to getting information.

“The take-home message for people interested is: don’t be afraid to make a consultation to learn more about it,” Christianson said.

Experts note that national violent crime rates have been declining since 2022, and pinpointing an exact reason is difficult. They say multiple factors contribute to decreases in crime rates seen in the FBI report, which is based on data reported voluntarily by many but not all law enforcement agencies across the country.

“The homicide drop is historic and crystal clear. But right now, what’s driving it is about as clear as a glass of milk,” said Adam Gelb, president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, a think tank based in Washington.

“Rates are falling in cities with very different public safety strategies, economic conditions, and political leadership," Gelb said. "The consistency across the map should make us cautious about handing credit to any one leader, party, policy, or program before the evidence catches up.”

President Donald Trump announced the decreases in the annual crime numbers during a visit to a New York police academy Friday.

Trump proclaimed his role in lowering violent crime rates, taking a swing at his predecessor and at so-called sanctuary cities, while touting what he said was his overwhelming support of law enforcement and his tough-on-crime moves such as deploying the National Guard in Washington and elsewhere.

“We ended the war on police, and we declared a very strong war on crime,” Trump said during the Long Island appearance.

Regardless of the contributing factors, criminologists who have been tracking violent crime and property crime in a few dozen cities had been predicting that the homicide rate might drop to 4 per 100,000 residents, which would have dropped the rate to the lowest since 1900, when those rates began to be tracked.

The rate came close when the numbers from thousands of departments were calculated, reaching 4.1 homicides per 100,000 people. That rate is tied with 1955 and 1956, according to Friday's report, as the lowest rate since 1900.

The report showed murder and nonnegligent manslaughter decreased 18.1% between 2024 and 2025, while overall property crime declined by 12.4% during the same period.

Motor vehicle theft, which had spiked in 2022 and 2023 following a social media challenge that helped people exploit a manufacturing issue in some models of Kia and Hyundai vehicles, dropped by almost 23% to the lowest levels in more than 20 years.

In an unusual move just a few months before the midterm elections as many Republicans continue to tout the drop in crime, the FBI report also noted that violent and other crime has continued to drop during the first six months of 2026. The federal agency normally waits until all of the yearly data is reported to suggest a drop in crime.

Groups like the Council on Criminal Justice have also said 2026 could see an even larger decline than 2025, with homicides dropping 18% in those cities during the first six months of this year, compared with the same timeframe in 2025.

Crime surged during the coronavirus pandemic, with homicides increasing nearly 30% in 2020 over the previous year, the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records. Violent crime across the U.S. dipped to near pre-pandemic levels around 2022.

The FBI collects standardized crime data from law enforcement agencies across the country through its Uniform Crime Reporting Program, though not all agencies participate. The 2025 report includes data from more than 17,000 agencies, or more than 87% of the agencies in the FBI's program, serving communities including almost 329 million Americans.

Trump was visiting the Nassau County police academy in suburban Long Island, where he was expected to promote new FBI crime statistics being released Friday showing a decrease in violent crime for 2025. But despite the setting and an array of uniformed local police officers behind him on stage, the event was overwhelmingly a political one, with Trump lashing Democrats and promoting his record and his party's candidates.

Trump's visit aimed at boosting Republicans in closely contested races across his home state, but just how much his presence will help is in question as he faces lagging approval ratings and a deeply unpopular war in Iran with no end in sight.

Trump briefly touched on the new crime statistics, but before long he was returning to familiar attacking lines, calling his opponents “Radical left Democrats” and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, “Sleepy Joe."

“We call them Dumb-ocrats now because their policies are so dumb. Fighting to defund the police. Does that play well in this room?” Trump said at one point, turning around to look at the officers behind him.

Trump slams Democrats and promotes policies on crime, tariffs and more

He criticized the state’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and insulted the state’s Attorney General, Letitia James, as “a real slob” and “a disgrace.”

James successfully sued the president and his companies for financial fraud. The Justice Department last year secured a mortgage fraud indictment against James, but the case was dismissed after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who charged her and another Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, was illegally appointed.

He touted his deployment of the National Guard to cities around the U.S., including in the nation's capital. Trump repeatedly said that “young, beautiful girls in the White House" have thanked him for making Washington safer. It was not clear who he was referring to, but he said, “These young, these gorgeous, beautiful girls are — they want to be safe.”

“Two years ago, we were in a hellhole, and now we have one of the safest cities,” he said.

The new FBI statistics released Friday showed the homicide rate in the United States dropped to the lowest it’s been in 75 years. The report on 2025 crime statistics also showed that overall violent crime dropped 9.3% last year. Experts note that national violent crime rates have been declining since 2022, and pinpointing an exact reason is difficult.

Trump also promoted his tariff policies, along with his tax cuts and spending law passed last year and suggested that the tax breaks on overtime would be popular with police officers. Many of his lines, especially the political attacks, didn’t get as much of a reaction from the uniformed officers as it did from the crowd of regular Trump supporters in the audience, who enthusiastically cheered and booed on cue.

To the side of the stage during his remarks were the new U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, who each spoke to warm up the crowd before the president. Their appearance at an event that in part was designed to help Republican candidates broke longstanding norms in which the nation’s law enforcement generally tried to steer clear of participating in overtly political events.

Also seated among the guests of honor was actor Kelsey Grammer.

Trump narrowly won Nassau County in 2024, flipping the county in the largely Democratic state to Republicans for the first time in more than two decades.

It's home to one of the largest police forces in the nation and two Democratic House seats that Republicans now see as winnable this fall, and it's home turf for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican challenging Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Crime becoming a theme in New York races

It's the second time this year Trump has visited New York in support of Blakeman and other Republicans. He stopped by the Hudson Valley area in May for a speech in which he said Blakeman would curb “out of control” crime.

Crime has emerged as a significant issue in the governor's race, with both candidates claiming to have the better track record of making New Yorkers safe. Hochul visited a different Long Island police department in July to announce a statewide investment in policing technology.

Blakeman, who briefly took the stage during Trump's remarks, said he was honored Trump was visiting.

In a Fox Business interview on Thursday, Blakeman downplayed concerns that Trump's visit would be unpopular with voters in New York City.

“When the most powerful person in the world comes to visit you and shows that you have a relationship together, I think that’s a very good thing,” Blakeman said, adding that even voters who disagree with Trump might appreciate a governor with a direct line to the president.

Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said the governor “has invested billions in public safety to protect New Yorkers — ‘MAGA all the way’ Bruce Blakeman is bringing Donald Trump to tour the county where he let violent crime spike to decade highs and Trump’s unaccountable ICE agents abuse their power.”

For GOP, safety is seen as a winning issue

Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist, said Trump's visit stands to boost Blakeman along with Republican challengers looking to unseat a pair of Democratic incumbents in Nassau County districts. Michael LiPetri Jr. is challenging Rep. Tom Suozzi in New York's 3rd Congressional District, while Jeanine Driscoll is opposing Rep. Lauren Gillen in the 4th Congressional District.

The focus on crime is seen as a cornerstone issue for Republicans that appeals to Trump's base along with suburban swing voters, Gorman said.

“On the strategic level, crime is an issue that Republicans feel comfortable going on offense with, where the country kind of broadly agrees with them,” he said.

Trump is touting the issue as he faces low approval ratings on a number of other issues, including the economy and the Iran war. An AP-NORC poll from August 2025 found that Trump’s handling of crime was among his strongest issues, though his approval on the issue had fallen by 10 points by December 2025.

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Price reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from its record set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 107 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.3%.

Stocks gave up modest gains from early in the morning after oil prices swung higher. The price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 1.7% to $88.52 as uncertainty continues about when the war with Iran will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again.

Also raising uncertainty was a report showing shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month than the month before. That surprised economists, who were forecasting another month of growth.

On the bright side for financial markets, such a pullback in spending could take pressure off inflation. Inflation remains much higher than anyone would like, but reports earlier this week suggested the pace of increases in prices is decelerating.

If inflation keeps trending that way, it could encourage the Federal Reserve to hold off on hikes to interest rates. Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they do so by intentionally slowing the economy and making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money.

The downside of such data, including last week’s surprisingly weak report on the U.S. job market, is that they raise the risk of a slowing economy. The Fed has no good tool to fix both a stagnating economy and high inflation at the same time, which is why what’s called “stagflation” is seen as a worst-case scenario.

Some on Wall Street cautioned against overreacting to the weak data on U.S. retail sales, even if it was broad based. It could simply be a snap back after retail sales in earlier months were boosted by unusual factors such as big tax refunds, the World Cup and even an earlier Prime Day event at Amazon, according to Jennifer Timmerman, senior investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

U.S. consumers nevertheless appear to be getting more discouraged about the economy. A preliminary survey by the University of Michigan suggested sentiment among them is weakening by more than economists expected.

The survey said drops occurred across the political spectrum and showed up particularly among older, lower-income and other groups who can be hurt most by inflation.

On Wall Street, Reddit jumped 12.6% after learning its stock will join the S&P 500 index on Tuesday. Many professional investors and funds closely track the index, either mimicking it or at least measuring their performance against it. That can push many to buy a stock automatically when it enters the index.

Applied Materials fell 5.1% even though the company, whose technology helps make semiconductors, reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Gary Dickerson said global hunger for artificial-intelligence technology helped it deliver another record quarter.

But its stock had already more than doubled this year and built expectations very high, which helped pressure the stock on Friday.

AI stocks in general have been swinging sharply on worries that their prices shot too high because of AI euphoria and that their strong growth in revenue may not be sustainable.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 13.23 points to 7,785.76. Despite the loss, it nevertheless closed out a third straight winning week, its longest such streak since a nine-week run that ended in May.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 107.58 to 53,732.41, and the Nasdaq composite sank 73.86 to 26,729.16.

In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher and followed the price of oil. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.69% from 4.63% late Thursday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia.

London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2% after Nigel Farage regained the seat in Parliament he quit a month ago, beating trash-can wearing comic candidate Count Binface in a special election.

South Korea’s Kospi again had one of the world’s sharpest moves and jumped 2.4% for its third straight gain of at least that much. Seoul has been at the center of the world’s swings for AI stocks because its market is dominated by two tech giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

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AP Business Writers Michelle Chapman and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Retail sales fell 0.6% last month, marking the biggest decrease since May 2025, compared with a revised gain of 0.2% in June, according to the Commerce Department data released Friday. Economists were projecting a small increase.

The decline followed a notable bump in spending in both April and May as Americans dipped into their government tax refunds.

The drop in spending for July, however, raised concern among some economists about the resiliency of consumers who have powered the economy forward despite nagging inflation and soaring gasoline prices. Yet, it may be too early to declare a retreat by one of the strongest and most consistent forces in the U.S. economy of late.

Still, the weak sales report follows unexpectedly sluggish jobs figures last week, and both suggest the economy could be slowing after strong consumer and business spending in the first half of the year.

Separately, consumers turned more pessimistic about the economy this month, likely driven by stubbornly high prices, according to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, released Friday.

While most economists still expect solid economic growth in the July-September quarter, many have lowered their forecasts in the wake of the retail sales report.

Prices in July, which were not adjusted for inflation, were impacted by falling sales at gas stations. Fuel prices remained low until later in the month when evidence of a stalemate between the U.S. and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz began to grow. Business at gas stations fell 0.9% last month, according to the report.

Gas prices have been rising since the final week of July and ticked higher again overnight to $4.08 per gallon, up from $3.85 a month ago, according to motor club AAA. That's 92 cents more per gallon than Americans were paying last year at this time.

Gas prices typically begin to recede in August as the driving season comes to a close and the AAA said this week that the high cost of fuel for Americans this late in the year is unprecedented.

Excluding sales at gas stations and auto dealers, retail sales in July fell 0.2%.

Business at motor vehicle and parts dealers saw a 1.8% drop from a 1.9% increase in June, which was helped by auto makers' promotion incentives.

Electronics and appliance sales declined 0.5%. Online sales fell 2.2% from June when they were fueled by spending surrounding Amazon’s four-day Prime Day event that began in late June, earlier than previous years.

The drop in online sales weighed heavily on the so-called control group—which excludes food services, autos, building materials and gas station sales and is used to calculate economic growth. That figure fell 0.4% last month.

“American consumers are showing signs of fatigue, “ Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote Friday. “July retail sales were disappointing on all levels.”

But the weak sales seemed to be concentrated in a few areas.

Among some of the bright spots in the report: clothing and accessories stores, furniture and home furnishing stores as well as building material and garden supplies merchants all posted gains last month.

The data offers only a snapshot of consumer spending and doesn’t include activities like travel and hotel stays. But the lone services category – restaurants – registered a healthy 0.5% increase

“Though the latest numbers warrant a downgrade to the spending forecast, it’d be premature to write off the consumer,” Bernard Yaros, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics said.

He noted the job market is “broadly balanced,” and wealthy households, boosted by strong gains in the stock market, continue to spend.

New data this week showed that inflation declined slightly in July as gas and grocery prices slipped, though it is still rising more quickly than before the Iran war.

Consumer prices increased 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Inflation had fallen to 2.4% before the Iran war. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

The modest decline marked the second straight decrease after sharply higher gas prices pushed inflation to 4.2% in May, a three-year high.

Given the volatile economic environment, economists are closely watching how families spend behind Christmas.

Shopping has been steady, though Americans have dialed in on sales as they grow more careful with their money.

Off-price retailers, consumer electronics and office supply retailers have had a “strong early start” to the back-to-school season, said Elizabeth Lafontaine, director of research at Placer.ai.

“Consumers have looked to take advantage of early deals to check off their lists,” Lafontaine said.

Walmart, Target and other retailers have been pushing discounts for the fall season, seeking to lure inflation-weary shoppers.

Target, for example, says that 95% of prices for school supplies are at or below last year’s levels.

Retailers begin reporting quarterly earnings next week.

Stephen Yalof, CEO of the outlet mall operator Tanger, noted an increase in foot traffic this summer because of the World Cup festivities.

More Americans were shopping too, Yalof said, because more people are vacationing close to home to save money.

“We’re rewarding with value, and we’re getting customers to come in … and shop more frequently,” Yalof told The Associated Press.

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AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report from Washington.

The closure comes after residents raised concerns to city leaders about the ramp, which requires drivers to pass through a tunnel beneath the Plaza Hotel — a building now flagged for public health and safety issues.

“I wouldn’t have driven under if I knew that,” said Reina, a visitor. “They need to put out signs and stop people.”

News 6 was on scene as Daytona Beach inspectors and building owner Jonathan Eid went inside the closed hotel. Eid declined to speak with reporters on camera.

The Plaza Hotel has been closed since 2022, when back-to-back hurricanes caused extensive damage to the property. News 6 interviewed Eid shortly after the storms.

“The mixture of the rain and the flood water, the salt water infiltrated about 161 [to] 170 of our guest rooms,” Eid told News 6 at the time.

On Tuesday, the building was officially declared non-compliant due to numerous code violations and public health and safety concerns. The Plaza Hotel operates as a condo-hotel with nearly 600 unit “owners,” several of whom attended a special magistrate meeting this week to voice their frustrations.

“We keep ending up in the same boat — paying more money and chasing a ghost,” said one unit owner at the meeting.

Unit owners told the magistrate they have paid Eid thousands of dollars but have seen little to no repairs, leaving the building uninhabitable. They also said they have been paying significant homeowners association dues toward a milestone inspection that never took place.

Records obtained by News 6 show the property completed its first state-required milestone inspection for condo buildings but failed to complete a second required inspection by its July deadline.

“Tens of millions of dollars have been paid through the insurance companies, through assessments that were sent to us and through our monthly HOA fees,” said another unit owner.

The city says Eid will need to pull a new permit for tunnel work before the ramp can reopen. The special magistrate has given Eid until Sept. 2 to bring the rest of the building into compliance. If he fails to meet that deadline, he will face fines of $1,000 per day.

This comes after the judge ordered the Florida attorney general earlier this month to rewrite the ballot measure, which he said was full of “political taglines” aimed at making the amendment seem more appealing to voters.

However, the judge reasoned, the purpose of the summary is to explain what the amendment does — not advocate for its adoption.

This week, Attorney General James Uthmeier released the reworked copy, which reads as follows:

“This amendment increases the homestead exemption, for all non-school taxes, to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, and adjusts for inflation thereafter. It requires the Legislature to prescribe a uniform procedure for counties and municipalities, for their respective levies, to increase the homestead exemption up to full assessed value, and allows special districts, subject to referendum approval, to do the same.

Persons who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026, will receive the existing homestead exemption upon qualifying for a homestead exemption, with the increased homestead exemption beginning with the fifth year of exemption, to the extent permitted by the U.S. Constitution.

This amendment reduces the annual cap on assessment increases for nonhomestead properties from 10% to 5%.

This amendment requires counties and municipalities to use property taxes solely for public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, retirement benefits for employees, and operations and administration. Other expenditures may be approved by county officers or county or municipal governing bodies unless prohibited by general law, notwithstanding Article VII, Section 9(a) of the Florida Constitution, which allows counties and municipalities to levy property taxes for their respective purposes."

Constitutional Amendment 3 - Increased Homestead Exemption

WHAT DOES THE AMENDMENT DO?

As the reworked amendment language states, the proposal aims to expand the homestead exemption in Florida, lowering property taxes for many homeowners across the state.

[RELATED: More than $500 fire assessment notice sparks concerns in Ocoee]

Because property taxes are a local issue under the state Constitution, this means lawmakers must approve an amendment to make any meaningful changes.

As such, a list of changes made by the proposed amendment is as follows:

• Homestead Exemptions: Provides a new homestead exemption for non-school taxes for the first $150,000 of assessed value of homestead properties in 2027; and the first $250,000 of assessed value in 2028 and thereafter.
• Out-Of-State Homeowners: Creates a five-year homestead exemption on the first $50,000 of assessed value of homestead properties ($25,000 for school levies, $50,000 for non-school levies) for owners who are not permanent residents as of Dec. 31, 2026
• • Such property owners may receive the same homestead exemption as permanent Florida residents after five years.
• Assessment Increases: Reduces the non-homestead property assessment increase limitation from 10% down to 5% annually.
• Tax Restrictions: Limits the use of ad valorem revenue by local governments to the following purposes:
• • Public safety, including law enforcement, EMS and fire services
  • Education and public schools
  • Infrastructure, including roads, bridges and stormwater controls
  • Natural resource projects, including flood control measures
  • Issue local bonds for approved uses or to make debt service payments
  • Meet obligations and retirement benefits of local government employees
  • Fund the operations and administration of county officers and commissioners

DIFFERENCES FROM THE ORIGINAL PLAN

Florida Gov. DeSantis has been a vocal proponent of property tax reform, pushing legislation this year titled the “Save Our Homes” Act.

[RELATED: DeSantis discusses ‘Save Our Homes’ plan]

While the amendment still cuts property taxes for homeowners, it diverts from DeSantis’ original vision in a few key ways:

• Full Elimination: Rather than just expanding the homestead exemption, DeSantis’ plan called for fully phasing homestead property taxes out.
• Local Funding: The original plan also included a state fund that would have provided local governments with state grants to help cover core services while property taxes were phased out.

[RELATED: Florida sheriff rails against new state property tax proposal]

Regardless of the changes, Florida voters will get the opportunity to decide on the latest amendment later this year. The general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

If approved by at least 60% of voters, HJR 1F will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

The main opposition leader claimed he had been questioned by the army, and police said one person was killed at a polling station during Thursday's vote. Police identified the person as a party official and said they had arrested nine suspects.

While the counting was suspended, riot police and soldiers in armored vehicles were deployed to parts of the capital, Lusaka, including the main vote tallying center, though there were no immediate reports of any major unrest.

It was an unusual set of developments for the southern African country of 22 million people, which has held largely peaceful elections since it returned to multiparty democracy in 1991.

“The violence is targeted at poll staff and in some instances has resulted in the theft of marked ballot papers in ballot boxes,” the Electoral Commission of Zambia said in a statement announcing vote counting had been halted.

It did not say who was responsible for the violence or the alleged theft of ballot papers.

Counting restarts after security threat is ‘contained’

Electoral commission head Mwangala Zaloumis later announced counting would start again and said the violence affected a small number of polling stations in Lusaka.

“Following a review of the security situation and consultations with the relevant law enforcement agencies, I’m pleased to inform you and to inform the nation that the security threat to the electoral process has been contained,” she said at a press briefing.

The main opposition candidate, Brian Mundubile, said in a video statement that his alliance of parties had “received deeply troubling reports from several parts of the country” and called into question the credibility of the election.

He later said on social media that he was being interrogated by the army.

The president calls for peace and patience

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, who ran for a second five-year term, called for Zambians to “remain peaceful, patient and patriotic as we await the official outcome from those entrusted with managing the vote” in a statement on X.

Thursday's election was seen as a test of Hichilema's economic recovery plan after the copper-rich nation was plunged into a debt crisis in 2020. Hichilema was elected in 2021 and oversaw the restructuring of Zambia's sovereign debt while reining in inflation and stabilizing the currency.

But critics say that economic stability has not trickled down to many people in Zambia, where poverty is widespread and frustration has grown over the high cost of living and electricity shortages.

The government was under scrutiny before the election

There was also criticism of Hichilema ahead of this election by the opposition and independent rights groups, which said his government was squeezing dissent. Mundubile’s alliance accused the government of being behind a law enforcement agency raid on its offices days before the election and claimed the action was designed to hurt the alliance’s campaign.

Hichilema, 64, was one of 14 candidates in the presidential election, but his biggest challenge was thought to come from Mundubile, a 55-year-old law graduate who emerged this year as the leader of the opposition alliance.

Zambians also voted for members of Parliament and local government councilors. About 8 million people were registered to vote at more than 13,500 polling stations. Final results were expected by Monday, according to the electoral commission.

The opposition claims election interference

Mundubile had said the suspension of the vote counting could lead to “an opportunity for interference with or manipulation of the results.”

“Put the records before the nation and allow every number to be reconciled. The people of Zambia voted. Their decision must be respected,” he said.

Mundubile said he had received information that members of the military had taken control of vote counting stations in at least one town and boxes containing ballots had been taken away from stations in other places, though he did not provide any evidence for those claims.

Zambia gained independence from Britain in 1964 and was a one-party state from 1973 to 1991. It has held largely peaceful votes and transfers of power between parties and political alliances since then.

Hichilema himself was once imprisoned on charges of treason when he was an opposition leader in 2017 during a bitter rivalry with then-President Edgar Lungu. He was held for four months after his motorcade did not give way to Lungu’s on a road and claimed he was tortured during his imprisonment.

Hichilema was released after international condemnation of the arrest and beat Lungu in an election in 2021.

Mundubile served in Lungu's government and rose to lead the opposition alliance challenging Hichilema after Lungu died last year.

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AP video journalist Alfonso Nqunjana contributed to this report.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Joining the S&P 500 is considered an achievement for a company because the index is a widely followed measure of the broader U.S. stock market’s health. A company is selected for the index based on several criteria that demonstrate stability, including market size and consistent profitability.

Reddit's stock surged 12.6% Friday.

Aside from status, inclusion means more investments. The index tracks 500 of the biggest U.S. stocks, and trillions of dollars in investments benchmark themselves against it. Those investments include mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Essentially, those funds will have to buy the stock once it becomes part of the index that the fund is tracking or mimicking.

Investors are depending more than ever on funds that simply mimic indexes such as the S&P 500. It’s a lower-cost way to invest, allowing savers to keep more of their investments. Partly because of that, such index funds have usually proven to be better performers than funds that try to pick and choose individual stocks.

Reddit will join the benchmark index as of Tuesday. A stock must trade publicly for at least 12 months to join the S&P 500. The operator of the index, S&P Dow Jones Indices, stuck to that guideline recently when it declined to fast-track SpaceX into the index after the space exploration company's massive initial public offering in June.

Reddit's inclusion comes weeks after it posted strong financial results for the second quarter. That included its highest-ever quarterly revenue. The company has been posting profits almost every quarter since it went public in 2024.

Wall Street expects profits to more than double overall in 2026 on a surge in revenue.

A jury deadlocked in June over whether to convict Jonathan Rinderknecht of intentionally sparking the fire that killed 12 people as it incinerated much of the Pacific Palisades and other neighborhoods in Malibu. Ten out of 12 jurors wanted to acquit him on all three felony charges, leading the judge to declare a mistrial. Federal prosecutors vowed to try again, and a second trial is set to start in the fall.

In a new indictment filed Thursday, prosecutors reduced their case against Rinderknecht to two charges and narrowed their scope.

Prosecutors allege that Rinderknecht used a barbecue lighter on Jan. 1, 2025, to spark a fire that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up Jan. 7 to become the Palisades fire, which destroyed more than 6,800 buildings.

All three charges in the first trial blamed Rinderknecht for setting both the Jan. 1 fire and the Palisades Fire. In the new indictment, only one charge references both fires. The other only focuses on the destruction caused by the first fire.

Rinderknecht’s attorney and a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on the new indictment. U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang is holding a status conference for an arraignment on Wednesday.

Throughout the first trial, prosecutors argued that Rinderknecht was the only person in the area when the Jan. 1 fire began and presented a digital trail seeking to show he was motivated by a desire to take revenge on society over rampant economic inequality. They also presented hours of recorded interviews with Rinderknecht in which he offered inconsistent recollections about his movements that night.

Rinderknecht's attorneys argued that prosecutors lacked direct evidence showing that he started the fire and that they failed to consider fireworks as a potential cause of the first fire.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill made the ruling Thursday, writing that Idaho's “Defense of Life Act" and “Fetal Heartbeat Act” — which together create a near-total ban on abortion — violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. Physicians who violate the laws can lose their license and face up to five years in prison.

Both laws include narrow exceptions, including abortions done to prevent the death of a pregnant woman or in some cases of rape or incest where the pregnant person has filed a police report.

The case isn't about bodily autonomy or reproductive choice, Winmill wrote in the 81-page decision, but rather the “limit of the state's power to make a woman suffer for the sake of an unborn child.”

The state can't pick and choose which life-threatening conditions justify abortion, he wrote.

“A pregnant woman’s health is not a state resource to be allocated at the legislature’s whim,” Winmill wrote.

Idaho's attorney general plans to appeal

Dr. Stacy Seyb, a Boise maternal-fetal medicine specialist who sued over the law in 2024, said the ruling will allow him to practice medicine without fear of prosecution, and to offer patients with serious medical conditions the option of ending a pregnancy without having to leave the state.

Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador said he would appeal, and is “confident this decision will be overturned.”

“The Supreme Court made clear that abortion policy belongs to the people and their elected representatives, not a single federal judge," Labrador wrote in a statement.

A doctor says the ban forced patients out of state

In the lawsuit, Seyb said he wanted to provide abortions to patients facing serious health risks, including those at high risk of self-harm from mental illnesses. He also said he should be able to provide abortions when the fetus has been diagnosed with a fatal or grave condition, when a miscarriage is inevitable, or in multi-fetal pregnancies where reducing the number of fetuses would increase the likelihood that the others would survive.

Attorneys for county prosecutors and the Idaho Attorney General argued that Seyb misunderstood the state's abortion ban, and that the ban already allows most health-preserving abortions. But Winmill said there is a gap between life-saving abortions and abortions performed to prevent non-lethal harm, and noted that Seyb said he has to refer patients in that gap to other states for care — including several with grave pregnancy complications who had to be flown to Utah for treatment.

Judge: Idaho can't force women to bear permanent damage for a fetus

Winmill said just like the state can't force a mother to donate a kidney to her toddler, it can't force a pregnant woman to suffer serious harm for a fetus.

The judge also said there is no reason to treat mental illness differently than other health conditions. Barring a pregnant woman from life-saving care for mental illness threats is “an affront to human dignity,” Winmill wrote.

Seyb noted suicide and overdose are among the leading causes of death for pregnant and post-partum people in the U.S., and that between 2018 and 2021 mental health conditions were the most common underlying cause of maternal death in Idaho according to the state's Maternal Mortality Review Committee.

In cases where there is no elevated health risk for the mother — including situations where the fetus will die shortly after birth or in multi-gestation pregnancies where aborting one fetus will help the others survive — there is no fundamental right at stake, Winmill found.

That's because in these cases, the law is rationally related to the state's interest in preventing abortions based on mistaken fetal diagnoses and affirming the dignity of people with profound disabilities, Winmill wrote.

And physicians could still face civil penalties for performing abortions under another state law, which allows extended family members of an aborted fetus to sue the provider for at least $20,000.

Abortion is on the ballot this fall in Idaho and other states

Idaho voters will decide this fall whether to roll back the state's abortion ban. If approved, the voter-led initiative would allow abortion until fetal viability, which is generally considered to be after 21 weeks.

Voters in Virginia and Nevada, where abortion is legal through at least 24 weeks, will consider state constitutional amendments creating a right to abortion. In Missouri, voters are being asked to override a constitutional amendment passed in 2024 in order to bring back an abortion ban.

Trump’s solicitor general petitioned the high court to suspend last week’s decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Chief Justice John Roberts set a deadline of Tuesday for a response by plaintiffs challenging the ballroom project.

The divided appeals court panel ruled last week Trump must stop the White House ballroom’s construction because Congress has not approved the project. The panel’s majority said Trump doesn’t have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom where the White House’s East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall.

The lower court suspended its own ruling for two weeks to give Trump's Republican administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to rule on its stay petition before the appeals court panel’s decision takes effect on Aug. 21.

"This case involves an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex, including a totally secure ballroom space, at the East Wing of the White House, which is vitally required by national security,” Sauer wrote.

Friday's court filing includes the administration's first confirmation that a threatened missile attack on Air Force One prompted the Secret Service to secretly fly Trump out of Turkey last month on an alternate military aircraft. In arguing for the need for a secure ballroom space, the filing cites “the threat of a missile attack against Air Force One on July 8” in a list of recent assassination attempts against Trump.

The filing also asserts that the project is “on time and under budget” with approximately $400 million in private donations obviating the need for any taxpayer dollars to be spent. However, Democrats in Congress have said it appears that funds from Trump's “ big, beautiful ” tax cuts bill appear to be paying for ballroom work. The administration also has requested additional funding from Congress for the project, but lawmakers haven’t approved it.

In April, a district court judge ordered a stop to aboveground construction of the planned ballroom. But the judge stressed that the White House was free to proceed with underground work, including the construction of any bunkers, military installations and medical facilities.

The D.C. Circuit panel’s 2-1 decision upheld an order to pause aboveground construction on the project, siding with historic preservationists who sued to stop construction of the ballroom.

“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” wrote the majority's two judges, both appointed by Democratic presidents.

A third judge disagreed, finding that the preservationist group that challenged the project had no legal right to sue.

“The district court elevated the aesthetic displeasure of a single passerby over the government’s security interests in the ballroom,” wrote Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump.

The Trump administration argues that the president, not Congress or the courts, has unimpeded authority to renovate the White House. The current state of the project, essentially an open construction site, makes it harder to protect the White House, the Justice Department contends.

The administration also says the National Trust for Historic Preservation does not have the legal right, or standing, to sue over the ballroom, which is part of Trump’s plans to quickly remake Washington. The solicitor general said the ballroom project “should be a matter for the President and the political process, not construction-by-injunction.”

In response to the petition, the trust accused the White House of trying to “outrun the courts" by accelerating construction work, pointing to the administration's plans to install 1 million pounds of rebar and pour another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete in the next week alone.

“The Administration’s transparent efforts to evade the rule of law, frustrate judicial review, and limit the availability of meaningful relief in the courts must stop here,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.

During an appeals court hearing in early June, an administration lawyer defended a broad view of presidential control over iconic public facilities. The government could bulldoze the Statue of Liberty and the White House, Justice Department lawyer Yaakov Roth said in response to a hypothetical question, and the descendants of immigrants who came through Ellis Island and the enslaved people who built the White House would not have standing to sue.

The D.C. Circuit panel upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush. Leon concluded that a pause wouldn’t jeopardize national security. He also exempted any construction work that is necessary for the safety and security of the White House.

The ballroom has been under construction for 10 months. The administration says the work is roughly 65% finished.

“Given those developments, the injunction promises chaos in service of nothing,” Sauer wrote.

Around 9:30 a.m. Friday, a small plane went down in a rural area near Cloud Street, just west of State Road 33, according to the Groveland Fire Department.

The plane was carrying two occupants. One was transported by trauma helicopter to a hospital with burn injuries. The second occupant refused treatment, officials said.

The cause of the plane crash is unknown.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, after it launched an offensive as the U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew from the country after two decades of war. The withdrawal led to chaotic scenes at and around Kabul’s airport with thousands wanting to leave.

“Thank God, the past five years have passed in safety,” said Mohammad Qasim, 30, reflecting on the anniversary that comes against a backdrop of economic hardship in a conflict-stricken country. “Our wish and hope from the government is to create job opportunities for the youth.”

“We, along with the entire nation, call upon the government to create employment opportunities for the youth and to encourage them to pursue education,” he added.

Taliban curbs women's rights despite pledge

Before the takeover, the Taliban stated that, upon assuming power, it would allow women access to education, employment and public participation, albeit in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic principles.

Soon after it seized power, the Taliban imposed an indefinite ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and, a few months later, also banned higher education for women until “further notice.”

Women also were banned from entering gyms, parks and public baths, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a “mahram,” or male guardian.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has repeatedly said the administration is working to establish conditions under which girls and women can attend classrooms or university campuses in line with Islamic Sharia laws. The restrictions, nevertheless, remain in force.

While the United Nations has acknowledged that the country has become more stable since the takeover, it has warned that lasting stability cannot be possible unless the Taliban rulers — who remain isolated internationally — lift restrictions on women and girls, protect basic rights and address terrorism concerns.

“A reduction in conflict has brought tangible benefits for many Afghans and created opportunities to focus on recovery, development and regional economic cooperation,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, said in a statement ahead of the anniversary. It added, however, that the restrictions on women and girls impede Afghanistan’s recovery and its reintegration with the international community.

UN says Afghanistan in world's most severe women's rights crisis

In a statement this week, the U.N.'s agency on women’s rights said Afghan women and girls are living under the world’s most severe restrictions, which not only violate their rights but also threaten the country’s social and economic future.

“Half a decade after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has systematically dismantled the rights of half its population, making it a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world,” U.N. Women said.

“In the past year alone, this exclusion of women and girls from education, employment, public life, justice systems and healthcare has only intensified, entrenching what remains the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis,” it said.

Fazila Soroush, a 39-year-old Kabul-based entrepreneur and an advocate for women’s rights, said the government had “demonstrated its worth to the people through its actions in every area.”

“We consider it essential that the officials of the Islamic Emirate who had announced the closure of schools and universities until further notice, now make a clear and practical decision regarding this matter,” she said.

In the streets of Kabul, preparations for the anniversary celebrations were underway. Vendors sold the Taliban’s white with black scripted flags while painters were busy writing slogans in praise of Islamic laws on walls, including: “The Islamic system has been achieved at the cost of the martyrs’ blood” and “Our commitment stands firm: Consolidation and implementation of Islamic Sharia.”

Taliban says it brought security and stability

Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said in the five years the administration has delivered security, stabilized the currency, improved infrastructure and formed industrial parks that have created jobs.

“Naturally, challenges and difficulties exist, yet we can highlight several accomplishments,” Farahi told The Associated Press.

Farahi, when asked, did not address the issue of the education of girls and women but said “the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past.

“The Emirate continues its efforts to further organize and improve services for our citizens in the fields of education and other sectors,” he stated.

The deputy minister rejected a U.N. report that documented terrorist networks in Afghanistan, saying “these are merely enemy propaganda, spread to portray the country as unstable.”

Asked to comment about its international isolation, Farahi insisted the Taliban government was engaged with some 40 countries. The Taliban government currently is only formally recognized by Russia.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has fulfilled all the requirements necessary for official recognition. It is now up to the international community and others to step forward and take the appropriate action,” he said.

UN points to broader educational crisis

The bans have left an estimated 2.4 million girls excluded from secondary education, UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said this week — a 200,000 increase from last year. The restrictions have reversed two decades of progress that Afghanistan had made in education, the agency said.

Pointing at a broader educational crisis, the agency said 53% of primary school-aged children are out of school. Schools lack basic infrastructure such as water, sanitation or heating, while natural disasters have also led to hundreds of school closures.

Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Program said child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen as funding shortfalls force cuts in food distributions and other support.

Speaking Friday from Kabul, the special representative for the U.N. women's agency Sarah Ferguson urged donors not to abandon Afghan women and girls, saying the agency is getting only a quarter of what it needs. She said more than half the 74 women's organizations surveyed in April in Afghanistan said they were close to suspending or halting work because of aid cuts.

In Kabul, Dost Mohammad Khan expressed support for the Taliban administration, saying the past five years have brought stability. He said, however, that the country needs trained professionals such as doctors and engineers, urging the authorities to keep “all sectors operational.”

“We also call upon the Islamic Emirate to permit women to attend school under the sharia dress code and we urge the public to heed the directives of the Emirate also,” said the 38-year-old.

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

The four whales, named Caspian, Peekachu, Rain and Secord, were the second group of belugas sent to Chicago's Shedd Aquarium from Marineland, in Ontario near Niagara Falls, after an initial four arrived in July.

They are among a total of 30 whales and four dolphins that will be transported from Marineland after the Canadian government approved of the rescue plan, which might have saved them from mass euthanasia.

Marineland announced in early 2023 that it was for sale and closed to the public in late summer 2024. Twenty whales — 19 belugas and one killer whale — have died at Marineland since 2019, according to provincial government data obtained through freedom-of-information laws and official statements.

As part of the rescue efforts, the whales have been making their international trips in custom-built slings and temperature-controlled transport containers. A team of experts flew to Canada to meet the whales’ previous caretakers months prior and pored over years of their health records in preparation for the trip.

“This is a very complex and unprecedented rescue effort. This has never been done before,” said Charlie Jacobsma, the director of animal behavior and training at the Shedd Aquarium.

The new arrivals first interacted with other whales already at the aquarium through gates to find the best aquatic roommates, he said. The whales for now live in the same space as three other belugas, and they trade “signs of affiliation” and sounds with each other.

“Belugas are very social animals,” he said. “It was really special to be able to see some of our animals pairing up with these new animals.”

Dr. Karisa Tang, Shedd’s lead veterinarian, said all the belugas are taking the adjustment to their new home “day by day.”

Tang said the whales are monitored “hour by hour, minute by minute,” including their food intake, interactions with other animals and signs of their mood, like “relaxed swimming.” Caretakers look for signs of soreness or bruises on their bodies.

Belugas have “great personalities” and expressive faces, she said.

“Every single day it is an absolute joy to work with belugas,” she added. “There’s something about them that seems magical.”

Under the plan, the belugas and dolphins are being relocated to five marine parks: Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, SeaWorld locations in San Antonio and San Diego, and Oceanografic Valencia.

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Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

The attacks caused no casualties but underlined the dangers faced by vessels moving cargo through the critical waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open oceans, as Iran keeps a firm grip on the passage.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

2 oil tankers hit by drones as they transited Strait of Hormuz

Two tankers owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil and gas company ADNOC were attacked Thursday evening while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the company said. It added that the attack caused no injuries and that “the situation has been brought under control.”

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said two vessels were reported to have suffered minor damage when attacked by drones while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. It did not identify them as the ADNOC ships, but it appeared to be the same incident.

The UAE's Foreign Ministry blamed the attacks on Iran and said they were a “flagrant violation” of the United Nations' principles of freedom of navigation.

“Targeting commercial shipping and using the Strait of Hormuz as a tool of economic coercion or blackmail represents acts of piracy by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the Foreign Ministry said.

There was no immediate response from Iran.

Activists bring food and water to Palestinians under siege by Israeli settlers

Activists from Israel and other countries marched through the occupied West Bank, bringing food and water to Palestinians who have been under siege by Israeli settlers for days.

Three Palestinian families in the town of Qusra have been unable to leave their homes for nearly a week after settlers surrounded the area. Israeli troops intervened multiple times, but the settlers have kept returning.

The standoff in the northern West Bank town of Qusra is the latest in a wave of settler violence in the territory, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up part of a future Palestinian state.

Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the army to prepare a plan to transfer power to the police to enforce civilian-related matters, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Yemen says it disrupted a Houthi attack as fighting continues

Yemen’s military said its forces thwarted Houthi attacks early Friday in southwestern Yemen amid ongoing fighting with the Iran-backed rebels.

Forces affiliated with Yemen’s internationally recognized government said in a statement that dozens of Houthis were killed and injured in fighting that disrupted plans to attack military reinforcements in Taiz province with drones, explosives and artillery.

The Associated Press was unable to independently verify that toll.

A fire broke out Friday at the port in Mokha, where Houthis launched missiles targeting the port’s infrastructure, according to a spokesman for Yemen’s joint military forces. The spokesman, Wadah al-Dubaish, could not immediately say if anyone was killed or wounded.

The Houthis said Friday they targeted Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, with a drone strike in the city of Najran near Yemen's border. There was no immediate comment from Aramco or Saudi Arabia.

Recent Houthi attacks on government-held areas across Yemen have raised fears that the country’s civil war could reignite and open another front in the Middle East.

Kushner will head to Middle East for talks on Gaza

U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East next week to try to advance plans for an end to the conflict in Gaza after a deal recently announced by the Trump administration ran into Israeli opposition.

An official with the Board of Peace, the body Trump established to oversee the fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, said Kushner, board high representative Nickolay Mladenov, and executive board member and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would arrive in Israel on Sunday.

The group will then travel to Cairo, where meetings of a Palestinian technocratic group set to assume control of Gaza under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal have been taking place for the past several months, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because planning for details of the trip has not yet been finalized.

The trip was reported earlier by Axios.

— Matthew Lee in Washington

Catania’s airport will remain closed until Saturday afternoon, which falls on the Ferragosto holiday that marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season when millions flock to the sea and mountains, deserting Italian cities.

While Etna’s activity often interrupts flights at the airport, located 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of the volcano, this is the longest emergency since 2002.

“Volcanic ash can be a great risk for aircraft,” said Boris Behncke, a researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology’s Etna Observatory. “It can be sucked into the motors, and force them to stall. This is why everyone is so very cautious with aircraft when there is a volcanic ash emission."

Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe. The latest activity has been unusual for its persistence and sustained ash emissions. Northerly winds have spread light amounts of ash to Malta and northern Africa.

“There have been many shorter interruptions — and stronger eruptions — over the past few decades, but this event is different because the ash emission from Etna’s summit has been much more persistent,” Behncke said.

The closure has forced planes to be rerouted to other airports on the island, which has pushed up taxi fares and car rental prices, according to the Corriere della Sera daily. The Codacons consumer association has announced it will file a complaint with Italy’s competition authority following complaints about price gouging.

The SAC airport operator said 36% of nearly 2,000 flights scheduled to arrive in Catania from Aug. 6-12 had been canceled, while more than 600 were diverted to Palermo, Trapani and Comiso in Sicily and Lamezia Terme in Calabria. Flights were able to depart Catania over the weekend, but the airport was officially closed to both incoming and outgoing flights Monday. Comiso also was briefly closed.

The Italian train company Trenitalia has added six trains along the Palermo-Messina-Catania route to help ease the travel pressure.

Italy's federation of travel agencies and tour operators has called for a task force to coordinate responses to disruptions caused by Mount Etna and said it would ask for a review of how airlines handled the cancellations and passenger assistance.

“Operators are working around the clock to provide assistance, cancellations and alternative travel arrangements, but they cannot bear the burden of structural shortcomings and the management responsibilities of others," FIAVET President Gian Mario Pilieri said in a statement.

Whataburger is officially back in Orlando — and fans proved they’ve been ready for this moment since the chain closed its Orlando-area locations in 2009.

The grand opening on East Colonial Drive drew a crowd that started lining up the day before, with some people hoping to score one of the biggest perks of the morning: free Whataburger for a year, awarded to the first two customers in line and the first two customers through the drive-thru.

Serina Parke, who said she was first in line, arrived at 5 a.m. the day before after trying Whataburger on a trip to Texas and finding out the chain was returning to Central Florida. “I visited Texas for my very first Whataburger… and I said, I’m going to be the first one in line,” Parke said.

Nick, who said he was among those waiting early in the drive-thru line, described turning the long wait into a hangout. “We watched a lot of movies… we brought, like, our laptops, iPads, phones,” he said.

Beyond the crowds and giveaways, company leadership framed the opening as a milestone moment for the brand — and part of its broader Florida expansion. Debbie Stroud, president and CEO of Whataburger, noted the timing lines up with a major anniversary. “It’s an incredible milestone for the Whataburger brand… it’s our 76th birthday,” Stroud said, adding that Whataburger has seen strong support as it reenters the region.

The regional marketing manager said the turnout matched what the company expected from its fanbase. “The reception from the community has been outstanding… our fans have shown out,” Juan Valenzuela, Senior Manager of Field Marketing and Events, said.

What also stood out to customers was the promise that the Orlando location is open 24/7 — a move that’s become increasingly rare as many major retailers and restaurants across the country step away from round-the-clock hours. For Whataburger fans, it means late-night patty melts, early-morning breakfast, and the chain’s well-known “just like you like it” customization any time of day.

The grand opening also included a community component. Whataburger partnered with local charity Blessings in a Backpack, presenting the organization with a $2,500 check — a nod to the company’s emphasis on being involved locally as it grows in Central Florida.

From longtime loyalists wearing orange-and-white stripes to newcomers trying Whataburger for the first time, the return felt like more than a restaurant opening — it was a homecoming, fueled by nostalgia, nonstop hours, and a fanbase that showed up early to prove it.

Billed as a live, interactive 60-minute game show experience, Great Big Game Show puts guests on a soundstage-style set complete with lights and sound effects, then splits them into teams for a fast-paced series of mini games. The experience is designed to feel familiar to fans of classic television competitions, while still surprising players with new twists and formats.

During our visit to the Orlando (I-Drive) location, the competitive energy showed up almost immediately. Friends who arrived laughing and joking quickly transformed into serious teammates — and not-so-subtle rivals — as the score climbed and the pressure built.

Five games, five different challenges

Our session featured a rotating lineup that tested different skills and personalities — from risk-taking to wordplay to quick decision-making.

We started with “Spin Out,” a wheel-based game where the stakes escalate as you go, turning every spin into a calculated risk. Next came “Block Chain,” a trivia-driven round that rewarded teams who could think fast and stay locked in under pressure.

Then we moved into “Letter Roll,” a word and phrase game that felt tailor-made for the teammate who’s great at solving puzzles out loud. “Major Miners” followed — a buzzer-style showdown that plays with popular answers and can flip momentum in an instant.

We wrapped with “Chip Shot,” a hands-on round where each chip triggers a different outcome and the results can swing wildly based on where it lands. It’s the kind of game that gets everyone yelling directions, cheering, and groaning at the same time.

While International Drive is packed with attractions, Great Big Game Show stands out because it’s fully interactive and group-driven. It’s easy to imagine it as a go-to for birthdays, a night out with friends, family outings and even office team-building — especially because the competitive format brings out unexpected dynamics.

According to manager Sunshine, groups can play in teams and the experience is built to accommodate different ages and comfort levels, including kid-friendly versions of trivia.

One of the biggest takeaways: one hour doesn’t cover everything. Great Big Game Show offers 18 mini games to choose from, meaning the lineup can change from visit to visit — a strong selling point for repeat players. The company has also expanded beyond its early beginnings, growing to 20-plus locations with more expected.

How to book Great Big Game Show in Orlando

For those ready to compete, Great Big Game Show says its main booking hub is online.

“A Great Big Game Show dot com is definitely our big one,” Sunshine said. “But you can find A Great Big Game Show on Instagram. On TikTok. We’re all over the place.”

Running now through Labor Day, Sept. 7, “Red, White & Chill: America’s 250 Celebration” brings a red, white and blue twist to the venue with festive décor, brand-new themed ice sculptures inside the ICEBAR, and a specialty summer drink menu available for the duration of the event.

The themed cocktail lineup includes the Firecracker Margarita, Liberty Lemonade, Star Spangled Smash, ‘Merica Mule, Freedom Flight, and the Summer Sparkler mocktail.

“There is truly no better place to cool off than at ICEBAR Orlando,” owner Thom Kerr said in a statement. “Whether guests are planning a date night, a vacation stop, happy hour or a night out with friends, our Red, White & Chill is sure to deliver the ultimate patriotic party and unforgettable experience all summer long.”

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Limited-time $25 package (nightly, 5–9 p.m.)

For a limited time, guests can also book a Red, White & Chill Package for $25 (listed retail value: $45). It includes:

• One ICEBAR entry
• Jacket and gloves rental
• One premium ICEBAR drink
• One appetizer of choice in the room-temperature Fire LoungeThe package is available nightly from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Reservations: https://icebarorlando.com/red-white-chill-americas-250-celebration-orlando/.

Where to go

ICEBAR Orlando is located at 8967 International Drive, Orlando, FL 32819. More info: https://ICEBAROrlando.com/ or 407-426-7555.

Lawrence Mayor Brian DePena was charged Friday with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

DePena, 61, is accused obtaining a COVID-19 small-business loan worth $1.5 million for his tire sales business. Rather than using the money for the business, DePena allegedly spent more than $880,000 to pay off high-interest mortgages on various businesses and put $90,000 into his mayoral campaign fund ahead of the 2021 election. DePena has been mayor since 2021 and previously served on the Lawrence City Council.

Ted Docks, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, accused DePena of “cashing in on a public health crisis and blatantly defrauding a government program meant to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic.”

“When elected officials misuse federal funds for personal gain, they’re breaking the trust of their constituents — and breaking the law,” Docks said in a statement. “Together, with our partners, the FBI will continue to doggedly pursue anyone who defrauds the federal government. You’ll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and that ‘easy money’ won’t seem so easy after all.”

DePena made an initial appearance in federal court in Boston Friday afternoon. DePena was released after agreeing to several conditions, including turning over his passport and not seeking any loans without court approval.

After leaving court, DePena's lawyer Carlos Apostle repeatedly responded with “no comment” to questions. DePena, who is a citizen of the United States and Dominican Republic, responded with “God bless” when asked if he would resign. He made no other comments.

In 2020 and 2021, DePena obtained a government disaster loan for Tenares Tire Services Inc., a tire sales and automotive services in Lawrence. During the pandemic, the Small Business Administration offered loans to qualified business that were suffering financial losses.

He used a loan of $150,000 for the business. A year later, prosecutors say, DePena's mayoral campaign was running short of cash, he owed back taxes and was under pressure to pay back high-interest loans on several of his properties in Lawrence. He then requested several increases to the government loan and allegedly used $1.5 million to cover those expenses unrelated to his tire business.

If convicted on the wire fraud charge, DePena faces up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. He faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 if convicted on the money laudering charge.

Volusia County Fire Rescue and the City of DeLand Fire Department responded to the fire on Central Parkway near Flamingo Road around 3 a.m. Upon arrival, deputies made contact with an adult woman outside the home who told them two adults — a man and a woman — were still inside, VCFR said.

Firefighters entered the residence and rescued both individuals, along with a family dog. All three victims were transported to area hospitals for treatment. One burn victim was airlifted.

Two individuals suffered burn injuries and are currently receiving medical care. Their conditions were not immediately available.

Firefighters said the adult male died of his injuries. A second dog rescued from the home also did not survive.

House Majority PAC’s move is expected to raise the group’s campaign advertising in the Cleveland area to roughly $7 million, the group announced in an email obtained by The Associated Press.

Miller’s decision to press on even after calls from within his own party to step aside also prompted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ main campaign arm, this week to move Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter on to the group’s list of priority candidates.

The House Ethics Committee said last week it had opened an investigation into domestic abuse allegations against Miller. The embattled Ohio congressman also last week spoke with Trump, who did not suggest he exit the race but suggested it would be difficult.

President Donald Trump won Ohio’s 7th District in 2024 by 11 percentage points, though Democrats see the swath of suburban Cleveland and rural northeast Ohio as within reach in light of the renewed accusations from Moreno, the daughter of Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno.

Miller, whose deadline to drop from the race passed Monday, has denied the abuse claims and said he would inject $1 million of his own into his campaign.

Officials with the National Republican Congressional Committee, the GOP's House campaign arm, said Friday they would support Miller's reelection campaign.

While discussions between Iran and Oman, as well as between Iran and Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar, persist at an uneven and unpredictable pace, the U.S. administration quietly has expanded its outreach to include perhaps unlikely interlocutors in Europe.

Just this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in person in Washington with the foreign minister of Austria on Tuesday and held a call with the foreign minister of Greece on Wednesday.

Those interactions were not notable beyond the normal course of relations between the U.S. and two close European allies. The official State Department readouts of the discussions were bland and vague and did not mention Iran by name as a topic of conversation.

But it then emerged that both foreign ministers — almost immediately after their talks with Rubio — spoke Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

The apparent new tack to break the negotiation logjam comes as the U.S. and Iran are both pushing for control of the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil shipping corridor. President Donald Trump faces little wiggle room in his next steps as the economic fallout from the war and dwindling stockpiles of key weapons pose political problems for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections.

A desperate push is on to break the diplomatic logjam between the US and Iran

The entry by Austria and Greece is likely less of a formal mediation attempt, analysts say, and more reflective of a desperate push to halt the conflict because of the impact it has on an increasing number of countries, beyond those in the Middle East.

“Everyone is just urging both sides to stop this reckless game of chicken,” said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.

It also shows how much Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced countries, which otherwise were neutral bystanders to the larger conflict, to exercise any diplomatic sway they may have on their Iranian and American counterparts to kick-start a lasting resolution.

Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned that any efforts by Greece, Austria or any other non-mediating country could prove to be futile.

“While the calls to both sides may entail encouraging both Iran and the U.S. back to the negotiating table, such efforts fall short of mediation, which is a very complex endeavor and requires trust to be built by the mediator with both sides," Yacoubian said.

She added that it’s not something that any country can “just jump into.”

Rubio discussed Iran with his Austrian and Greek counterparts

The State Department said Friday that it could not comment on the timing of calls by other countries' foreign ministers and maintained that Rubio had made no requests of either to get in touch with Iran or pass messages to Araghchi.

One European diplomat, who was briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive diplomatic conversations, said the timing of the calls was not an accident.

The State Department did allow, however, that Iran had been a topic of conversation in Rubio's discussions, which occurred as Trump is facing serious political headwinds over a war for which he has offered shifting objectives.

No longer purely about making Iran incapable of producing a nuclear weapon, the immediate goal has become reopening the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil usually passes through and which was open before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.

“That’s goal number one: keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country,” Vice President JD Vance said in an interview Thursday on Fox News Channel. But he did not say anything about the strait being open and toll-free for transiting ships, as he had in the past.

The second goal, Vance said, is to ensure that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.

The two European countries have key connections to the war's fallout

Austria and Greece may not be obvious choices to assist on the Iran portfolio, but Vienna is home to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will play a key role in any resolution to the Iran’s nuclear program, and hosted the final negotiations that resulted in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Greece is a major maritime nation in the Mediterranean and has significant shipping interests in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

In statements from the Austrian, Greek and Iranian foreign ministries, it was clear that Iran had been a top topic in all of the conversations this week.

The Greek foreign ministry said Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis had been briefed by Araghchi on “regional developments, and in particular on the ongoing talks regarding the Strait of Hormuz.” It said Gerapetritis “underlined the importance of freedom of navigation and maritime security.”

The Austrian foreign ministry offered Austria’s services as a venue for further potential talks with Iran and said Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger had stressed to Araghchi “the urgency of restoring stability in the region through serious diplomatic efforts.”

“There can be no military solution,” it said. “A diplomatic solution remains possible. Our priority is to safeguard freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran’s foreign ministry, expectedly, took a different tack in explaining the calls.

It said Friday that in Araghchi’s calls with his European counterparts they discussed “mechanisms for the future management of the Strait of Hormuz,” which he said had been disrupted by the “unlawful aggression by the United States and the Israeli regime against Iran.”

In both calls, he accused the U.S. of violating the interim deal signed by both sides in June to end the immediate hostilities and begin broader talks to end the war.

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Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writers Derek Gatopolous in Athens and Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

For drivers already stretching their budgets, the combination of high prices and reduced fuel efficiency is creating a painful reality at the pump.

“Oh, my God. Where can I start? They are too high, and the income is too low. Honestly, I spend about $300 a month just on gas,” Estel Lopez, a Central Florida driver, told News 6.

Some drivers say they’ve had no choice but to rethink their daily routines.

“My mom has a smaller car, so she’s doing most of the pickups for me because it’s less gas,” Lopez added. “Instead of like, I used to go to work in the morning and on my break, go back home. Now, I don’t do that because I can’t. It’s a lot of money.”

Elvis Diaz, another Central Florida driver, put it simply.

“They’re a little too high. Very high,” Diaz said.

Traditionally, warm weather can actually improve fuel economy; engines heat up faster and run more efficiently. But extreme heat changes the equation.

Keeping the air conditioning running is a non-negotiable for most Central Florida drivers during the brutal summer months, even though it comes at a cost. Reports find that running the AC in extremely hot weather can reduce fuel efficiency by up to 25%.

“No way. I can’t not have the AC,” Lopez said.

Diaz, however, believes proper vehicle maintenance is one of the most effective ways to protect fuel efficiency, regardless of the weather.

“I don’t think it affects the vehicle as much as the maintenance does. Like inflating the tires and using the proper fuels and so forth,” he said.

Summer also brings another cost factor: gas stations switch to a pricier “summer blend” of gasoline, which burns cleaner but costs more to produce. That blend remains in effect until mid-September.

The U.S. Department of Energy offers several recommendations for drivers looking to get the most out of their fuel this summer:

• Roll the windows down at lower speeds; use the AC at highway speeds.
• Avoid setting the AC temperature lower than needed or running it more than necessary.
• Park in the shade or use a sunshade to keep the cabin cooler before getting in.
• Before turning on the AC, drive with the windows open briefly to let hot air escape — this reduces demand on the system and helps the vehicle cool faster.
• Don’t idle with the AC running before driving. Most AC systems cool more efficiently while the vehicle is moving.
• Review your owner’s manual to understand how your specific AC system works and how to maintain it.
• For plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle drivers, pre-cooling the cabin while still plugged into a charger can help extend range. Using a warmer AC temperature setting will also conserve battery power.

Club owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG) said in a statement it entered into a “definitive agreement” for the sale to 1892 Holdings.

The investor group is led by Amit Bhatia, who is married to a daughter of Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, and has taken a stake of more than 30% in the 20-time English champion, according to Sky News. The deal reportedly values Liverpool at around $6 billion.

Boston-based FSG paid 300 million pounds ($400 million) to take over Liverpool in 2010 and also owns the Boston Red Sox. FSG said in July that it had been approached by the Bhatia-led consortium regarding a “strategic minority investment” in the club.

“As we considered this opportunity, it became clear that Amit and the consortium shared our long-term philosophy and appreciation for what makes Liverpool special,” FSG president Mike Gordon said in the statement.

It marks the first foray into soccer by Bezos, who, according to Forbes, is the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of around $280 billion. He founded Amazon in 1994 and has been executive chairman since 2021.

Saverin is a Brazilian businessman worth around $36 billion, according to Forbes.

Bhatia, a British-Indian entrepreneur, was the co-owner of second-tier English team Queens Park Rangers for 18 years before stepping down recently.

“We are making this investment because we believe deeply in Liverpool and its leadership, and we look forward to supporting the club’s continued success for years to come,” Bhatia said in the statement.

Under the leadership of FSG and its principal owner John Henry, Liverpool ended a 30-year wait to be English champion in 2020 and added another Premier League title last year. That tied Manchester United on 20 English top-flight league championships.

The club was European champion for a sixth time — a record for an English team — in 2019.

The Premier League is one of the biggest competitions in sports, with its teams now largely owned by oil-rich gulf states or private equity.

Can Liverpool now start spending heavily?

Liverpool now has three of the richest people in the world as minority owners.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the club can simply start spending recklessly in the transfer market on new players.

That’s because the Premier League has financial rules in place to protect the competitive balance of the competition and ensure the financial sustainability of clubs.

In broad terms, a club’s on-pitch spending is related to 85% of its “football-related revenue and net profit/loss from player sales,” the Premier League says.

Instead, the difference will come in how Liverpool — already one of the top teams in world soccer — is marketed more around the world under Bezos and Saverin, especially.

The deal is likely to bring more commercial revenue into the club, thereby improving its profits.

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See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Those two massive sociological forces had already joined up, Voltron-style, early in the 20th century with the development of the drive-in restaurant – that classic scene evocative of “Happy Days” where customers sat in their cars while servers (ideally on skates) brought out food that was consumed on site from window trays.

But the real innovation dates to the late 1940s and is the brainchild of either (depending on which source you trust) an In-N-Out Burger in California in 1948 or Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri in 1947. (In comparison, the first reported drive-thru in Europe didn’t open until 1985 in Dublin.)

By the mid 1960s, this had mushroomed into a robust American market, spawning imitators and innovators. Jack in the Box pioneered the drive-thru exclusive restaurant with no indoor seats and no parking — and a talking mechanical clown to take your order. In Western states, residents of a certain age will recall the Wienershnitzel chain with its distinctive A-frame structures specially built with a tunnel down the middle for cars.

The innovation sparked unexpected knock-on developments. Restaurant menus shifted heavily toward sandwiches, fries, chicken strips and other portables that could be consumed on the go. The cars themselves adjusted over the years to accommodate larger and larger drink holders. What sociological (and nutritional) impact this has all had on the actual consumers would be the subject of a much longer essay.

The innovation hasn’t stopped. Modern drive-thrus have evolved into tightly coordinated multi-lane affairs. At Chick-fil-As around the country, actual humans with electronic tablets now stand – breathing in exhaust fumes all day – to ensure a seamless ordering process with no mechanical speaker garbles.

The drive-thru, with its distinctly American creative spelling, has become woven into the fabric of the culture. It has been enshrined in the Smithsonian Museum of American History and has played a memorable role in recent and successful Presidential campaigns.

As one historian put it, somewhat pointedly: “The drive-in was less a pure novelty than an expression of great American passions that go hand in hand: speed, efficiency and, sometimes, laziness.”

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Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.