Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who served as the law center’s chief financial officer, was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday. She was expected to make her initial court appearance in Riverside, California, later in the day.

Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, California, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. She was charged in the government’s existing case against the SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama.

Beirich’s lawyer, Michael Proctor, accused prosecutors of trying to punish his client for her “decades-long record of success dismantling hate groups.”

“A free and fair society does not use the justice system to silence its political opponents,” Proctor said.

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charge at a new briefing in Washington, but did not name Beirich.

An SPLC spokesperson had no immediate comment.

Beirich led the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, which incurred the anger of conservatives with its annual report on organizations that it classified as hate groups. Critics accused the law center of unfairly tarnishing right-wing groups with the same label that it applied to white supremacists.

Beirich co-founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism in 2020 after leaving the SPLC. She has testified before Congress about far-right extremism and is frequently interviewed about the subject by news outlets. Her current organization did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.

A superseding indictment filed in June appears to refer to Beirich as “Employee-2” and by her former title as director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

The indictment alleges that $4.1 million in donations were used to pay informants inside extremist groups. Prosecutors said some of the money was used for recruiting new members and purchasing Ku Klux Klan robes and materials for cross-burning ceremonies.

The indictment said “Employee-2” oversaw the payment of donor money to SPLC informants or “field sources” The indictment alleges that “Employee-2” was in a romantic relationship with one of the sources who infiltrated a neo-Nazi group at the direction of the SPLC and that they shared a house and bank accounts.

The paid informants included KKK members and white nationalists who initially approached the SPLC for help leaving the extremist organizations but were offered monthly payments and expense reimbursements.

____

Chandler reported from Montgomery, Ala. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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

Israel says it struck a Hamas commander, but unclear if he was killed

An Israeli drone strike hit a man in the city of Beit Lahiya who was described by Israel’s military as a Hamas commander. It was the first targeted strike Israel has announced since Aug. 3.

Targeted strikes have come under closer scrutiny since U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal aimed at advancing peace efforts in Gaza that would include halting such strikes.

Though Hamas accepted the plan to decommission its weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected it earlier this week, saying Hamas must fully disarm before Israel accepts the terms. Board of Peace officials have urged Israel to stop the strikes as a way of moving the deal forward.

The Israeli military did not provide details about the man targeted or say whether he was killed. Officials at Shifa and Nasser hospitals said four injured people were brought in Wednesday.

The Health Ministry in Gaza has reported 45 people killed since Aug. 1.

Three Pakistanis among the dead in Houthi attack on ship

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday condemned an attack by Houthi rebels on a ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, saying three Pakistanis were killed and another wounded. The attack Tuesday killed six people total.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down by Iran and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, there has been a renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb strait at Yemen’s southern tip, which is an alternate route for Saudi Arabia to ship its oil.

The attack came as part of a growing number of Houthi strikes against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

Trump insists blockade gives US control of Strait of Hormuz

Claiming the U.S. has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said Wednesday: “I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!”

Trump’s social media post referred to the U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports. A vital route for one-fifth of the world's traded oil before the war, the strait has been largely closed to other traffic since the start of the war because of Iran’s attacks on shipping.

Those attacks have continued despite the blockade and U.S. strikes.

Iran has said the strait will only reopen if the U.S. meets a list of demands, including lifting the blockade.

Pakistan presses to defuse tensions between US and Iran

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Iranian Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam in Islamabad on Wednesday as Pakistan seeks to resume peace negotiations between Iran and the U.S.

Their meeting came a day after Pakistan sent Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to Tehran for talks with Iran’s top leaders.

An interim deal to end the fighting reached in mid-June is set to expire Monday. The ceasefire collapsed last month as the U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes over more than two weeks before pausing.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told reporters Wednesday the June deal remains valid and the deadline could be extended.

“We are not closing the chapter,” Andrabi said.

Turkey condemns Colombia's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights

Turkey condemned the decision by Colombia's new government to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, calling it a move to “legitimize Israel’s occupation” of the territory.

Colombia, shortly after the swearing-in of conservative Abelardo de la Espriella as president on Friday, became just the second country to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the territory, which Israel captured during the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981.

The United States was the first during Trump's first term, reversing a longstanding U.S. policy.

The United Nations recognizes the territory as part of Syria.

Kuwaiti authorities thwart plot against unnamed facility

Kuwait's Interior Ministry said a “terrorist plot” against an unspecified facility was thwarted Wednesday when a Kuwaiti citizen affiliated with the Islamic State group was detained shortly before carrying out his plan.

The ministry said the man had received training on making explosives and activating drones to be used in the planned attack.

The ministry said a vital facility had been targeted but gave no further details.

Now-retired Marion County Record reporter Phyllis Zorn said in her lawsuit that the raid violated press freedoms and protections from unreasonable law enforcement searches guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. She also said it almost immediately led to health problems, causing the return of potentially life-threatening seizures that had been controlled for years with medication.

Zorn's attorney, Randy Rathbun, and an attorney for the city Marion, Jennifer Hill, filed a joint statement Tuesday — the third anniversary of the raid on the newspaper's offices — that Zorn's lawsuit was being dismissed. It was among the lawsuits filed in federal court against local officials over the raids of the newspaper's offices, the home of Publisher Eric Meyer and the home of a former City Council member.

Rathbun did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday seeking comment. Another attorney for the city, Scott Ufford, declined to comment about the settlement but confirmed the amount.

Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody said he was investigating whether the paper had committed identity theft or other crimes in accessing a local restaurant owner's state driving record, but authorities who examined the raids said they were not legally justified. Meyer, Zorn and others saw the raids as retaliation for hard-hitting local coverage and efforts to gather information about Cody's past in law enforcement.

The raids put a national spotlight on Marion, a town of about 1,900 residents about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City, and Cody later resigned. Meyer's 98-year-old-mother, also the paper's co-owner, who lived with him, died the day after the raids, and he blames stress from the raid at their home for her death.

Marion County agreed in November to pay a little more than $3 million to parties in the five lawsuits, including $600,000 to Zorn, to settle claims against its officials. While some of the remaining legal claims against the city and past and present officials have been settled or dismissed, some still remain, and a pretrial Zoom hearing is scheduled for Oct. 15.

Questions about Cody's conduct after the state launched an investigation of the raid led two special prosecutors to file a felony obstruction of justice charge against him in state district court, alleging that he persuaded a witness, the local restaurant owner, to withhold information from authorities. He pleaded not guilty, and a trial set for the end of this month has been postponed.

The City Commission is holding a workshop Tuesday evening to hear from companies proposing ways to operate a paid parking program.

In its proposal to the city, one company warned that introducing paid parking in a community where parking is currently free could bring a “very high level of drama and citizen pushback,” adding that the intensity of the reaction could surprise city leaders.

Some beachgoers interviewed by News 6 Tuesday said they are already opposed.

“Don’t do it. Don’t let them do it,” Pamela Trent said.

Trent, who is moving to Flagler Beach from Nashville, said she worries parking fees could discourage people from visiting local businesses.

“You want to come down here and spend your money,” Trent said. “I can spend $50 on a local restaurant. But if I have to spend $50 to park my car, I’m not coming down here.”

Trent was using $50 as an example. The city has not approved a final parking rate or paid parking plan.

Carson Holly, 17, said free access to the beach is part of what makes Flagler Beach appealing, especially for younger people looking for places to spend time without having to spend money.

“We have less and less third spaces where we can just go somewhere and we don’t have to pay a fee or pay money or anything and just come hang out,” Holly said.

Supporters of paid parking have argued that charging for spaces could help increase turnover in heavily used parking areas, making it easier for visitors to find available spots.

That leaves commissioners weighing whether paid parking could improve access and parking availability while generating revenue - or undermine the laid-back, small-town beach atmosphere some visitors say draws them to Flagler Beach in the first place.

Tuesday night’s workshop is a discussion of the proposals. City leaders have not yet given final approval to a paid parking program.

The grand jury, which had been meeting in secret, returned the indictment on July 20, and it was unsealed Wednesday, when 32-year-old Nick Reiner entered a not guilty plea.

The director, actor and Hollywood luminary Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner, were stabbed to death in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14. Nick Reiner was arrested hours later and charged two days later.

The grand jury indictment is a major step toward trial and allows prosecutors to skip California’s preliminary hearing process, where evidence is publicly aired.

“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”

The unsealed indictment reveals few new details in a case that has been shrouded in secrecy. But the lying in wait allegation along with other circumstances mean Reiner is eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors say they haven’t decided whether to seek it.

The indictment did not say how or why Reiner was lying in wait. It also includes an allegation that he used a knife in the killing. Authorities previously said the couple was stabbed. Many of the most basic questions about the killing remain unanswered publicly.

Prosecutors have said nothing about possible motives, and leaks in the case have been virtually nonexistent on both sides.

The Los Angeles County chief medical examiner told The Associated Press he would like to make their autopsy reports public, but a court order has prevented him from doing so.

The LA County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Reiner, declined to comment on the indictment.

The unclassified assessment, obtained by The Associated Press, was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and reported earlier by NBC News. A Pentagon official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the department will submit the report in the coming months but had nothing more to announce.

Civilian casualties from U.S. military operations have drawn concerns, including from lawmakers in Congress, after a U.S. missile struck an Iranian primary school in the opening days of this year’s war, killing up to 168 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is said to have slashed the size of an office focused on reducing civilian harm, the AP has reported.

The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the U.S. campaign against the Houthis. The militants were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route that leads to the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean, as well as Israel.

Those strikes targeted hostile forces in or near Yemen’s rebel-held capital city of Sanaa as well as the Ras Isa port, the report said. A total of 153 civilians were killed and 243 were injured.

The strike on the port was the most deadly, killing 80 people and injuring 171 others. It sent massive fireballs billowing skyward and turned tanker trucks into burning wrecks. The Houthis aired graphic footage of the aftermath on their al-Masirah satellite news channel, showing corpses strewn about the port.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said at the time that the "strike was not intended to harm the people of Yemen.”

“U.S. forces took action to eliminate this source of fuel for the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists and deprive them of illegal revenue that has funded Houthi efforts to terrorize the entire region for over 10 years,” U.S. Central Command said in its statement in April 2025.

The command determined that the three strikes “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm, the review said. The information was based on U.S. intelligence sources, imagery and open-source reporting.

It was determined that condolence payments were not appropriate for the three strikes, according to the Pentagon’s review, which did not explain why that was the case.

Such payments may be one of several responses when U.S. military operations injure or kill a civilian, the review stated, adding that they’re not required by law and not an admission of wrongdoing.

Such payments are not unheard of. Following an errant drone strike in Afghanistan that killed 10 people, seven of them children, in 2021, the Pentagon said it was committed to offering condolence payments to relatives.

The U.S. military first launched attacks against the Houthis in 2023, during the Biden administration, after the militants started launching drones and missiles at commercial ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis said the attacks were aimed at stopping Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and supporting the Palestinians, though they occurred as the Houthis tried to strengthen their position in Yemen.

The U.S.-led campaign against the Houthi rebels turned into the most intense running sea battle the Navy had faced since World War II, U.S. military leaders and experts told the AP in 2024. American fighter jets and Navy destroyers shot down Houthi drones and missiles that were launched at commercial vessels and U.S. warships.

The Houthis now are carrying out a growing number of strikes against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

Fears are growing that the renewed violence could reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce and open a new front in the Middle East war.

The lawsuit alleges that Trump's deal to post first on his own company's site about U.S. policy decisions on war, tariffs and other issues violates the Constitution and that official announcements should be made available to everyone at the same time. The suit comes after his media company, Trump Media & Technology, rolled out a new subscription service earlier this month charging Wall Street firms as much as $100,000 a month to get his posts faster so they can trade off them.

“A president selling priority access to news he himself generates for the benefit of a private company he controls is so blatantly corrupt and unconstitutional that it would have been hard to even fathom just a few years ago,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, a plaintiff in the case along with news outlet The Intercept.

Trump Media said selling fast access to traders is common in its industry, and that the plaintiffs are just trying to silence the president.

“Information from President Trump is disseminated by countless platforms and news outlets, many of which offer subscription APIs," it said in a statement, using the acronym for the fast access service. "Now, left wing activists are trying to wrongfully weaponize the courts to censor him again and harm our shareholders.”

The early access service comes as the publicly traded Trump Media loses hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter and its stock has dropped below $10 from $62 shortly after going public two years ago.

The plaintiffs argue that Trump's deal giving exclusive Truth Social access to his posts for six hours before being distributed elsewhere violates two parts of the Constitution — the First Amendment right to access a president's comments on equal terms with other members of the press and public and the Fifth Amendment prohibitions on charging unreasonable conditions for government benefits.

The suit asks that Trump Media be forced to end both the new paid service, called Truth API, and its exclusive access deal with his company in general.

Even before the new API service was started earlier this month, ethics watchdogs criticized Trump's posting on Truth Social as a brash attempt to profit off the presidency, similar to other money making venture s, especially ones related to cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year, the president filed a required annual financial disclosure report that showed he took in more than a $1 billion last year from new crypto businesses that his administration regulates.

Among other moves since he was reelected, Trump's digital finance company, World Liberty Financial, got a $500 million investment from a company tied to the government of the United Arab Emirates and sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of special souvenir Trump meme coins to his fans and possible federal favor seekers, including a billionaire fighting a federal law suit that was later paused, then settled.

In addition to the president, the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York names his deputy chief of staff Daniel Scavino and his executive assistant Natalie J. Harp as defendants.

Discussion

At 300 PM GMT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Cristobal was located near latitude 36.7 North, longitude 43.0 West. Cristobal is moving quickly toward the east near 25 mph (41 km/h). A turn toward the east-northeast and a slower forward motion is expected later today and tonight.

Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph (75 km/h) with higher gusts. Slow weakening is forecast, and Cristobal is forecast to dissipate on Thursday.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles (150 km) from the center.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1008 mb (29.77 inches).

Watches and Warnings

There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Land Hazards

None.

The crowds brought lawn chairs, umbrellas and hats as they eagerly awaited the celestial spectacle, which began early in the evening. It was the country's first total solar eclipse in more than a century.

Across a wide band of northern and central Spain and Portugal, millions of people expected to have some of mainland Europe's best views of the eclipse. It also passed over slivers of Greenland and Iceland.

Totality — when the moon completely covers the sun’s light — was expected to last less than 2 1/2 minutes, reaching its maximum duration off Iceland’s west coast. By the time it got to a small patch of Portugal and then to Spain, just before sunset, totality dwindled to a minute or so. The total eclipse then ended over the Mediterranean.

The event unfolded against the backdrop of scorching summer temperatures and wildfires, and Spanish officials rolled out a large public safety campaign.

The eclipse was expected to draw at least an additional half-million visitors, authorities said. Demand for hotel rooms along the path of totality, including in the northern cities of A Coruña, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela, soared.

In Medinaceli, a Roman-era hilltop town in northeast Spain, sky watchers secured grassy viewing points hours early and crowded restaurants and bars.

“It's the first time in my lifetime that I’ll get to see a total eclipse in Spain,” said 24-year-old physics student Óscar Pérez, who traveled from Germany to the central Spanish town to witness the event. “I’m not sure where the next one is, so it’ll be great to see it.”

Rural areas prepared for an influx of visitors

The Spanish Interior Ministry said 350 official viewing sites were set up across the sparsely populated interior, often referred to as “Empty Spain.” Authorities limited or restricted access to another 123 sites because of environmental conditions or obstacles that could hinder an evacuation in the event of a wildfire.

Only weeks ago, the most destructive wildfire in Spanish history devoured 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Ávila, in central Spain. Several smaller wildfires remain active elsewhere in southern and central parts of the country.

More than 33,500 law enforcement officers were deployed to observation areas and access points, the ministry said.

“High temperatures, the accumulated dryness of vegetation and the intense pressure on natural areas due to projected travel necessitate extreme preventive measures,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.

Much of Spain was on alert Wednesday as temperatures climbed above 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in many areas where the eclipse was observed.

Authorities' top priority was to prevent even a single spark that could lead to a fire, as happened in Ávila in late July. They urged visitors not to light fires, litter or park in areas with dry vegetation.

Eclipse glasses sold fast

Special eclipse glasses are essential for safe viewing, even if only a sliver of the sun remains visible. The glasses are made with special filters that block solar radiation that can damage the eyes.

For months, supermarkets, department stores, museums and planetariums across Spain have sold or distributed the glasses, with many pharmacies running out of stock ahead of Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening in downtown Madrid, a long line formed outside a photo shop where a sign read, “We carry eclipse glasses.”

One woman emerged triumphantly and reassured those waiting: “He has boxes and boxes of them!”

A ship circles waters near Greenland hoping to catch a glimpse

Sverre Rud, captain of the MS Spitsbergen, was circling the waters of Rypefjord in eastern Greenland trying to make sure he was perfectly positioned for his 126 passengers to view the spectacle. All day, people came up to Rud to ask if he has nailed the right spot, with no clouds.

“I will do my best,’’ Rud said. “I will pull out my superman powers.’’

The eclipse may have been startling for the passengers, who had been experiencing 24 hours of daylight on a 17-day cruise in locations mostly north of the Arctic Circle.

Suddenly, for two minutes it was dark.

Even so, the mood on the polar ship had been pure anticipation.

“Everyone is very enthusiastic,” Rud said. “When we were down for breakfast earlier, it was almost like a little bit of a Christmas Eve feeling here."

Hotel costs skyrocket in Spain and Iceland

Rooms in Reykjavík, Iceland's capital, averaged more than $1,000 for Wednesday night as Icelanders prepared for their first total solar eclipse since 1954 and the first visible from the capital since 1433.

Prices were roughly double 2025 rates, according to data group Lighthouse Intelligence. Many tourists made bookings years in advance. But cloudy skies prevailed across much of the island.

Authorities expected up to 20,000 additional overseas visitors during an already busy peak tourist period. Iceland is home to fewer than 400,000 people.

The 70-room Hotel Keflavík in the Reykjanesbaer municipality was fully booked, with guests hoping to see around one minute and 45 seconds of totality.

“Eclipse time, of course, has been very demanding, and many people came to us early, like last year,” said hotel owner and manager Steinþór Jónsson.

Jónsson said he had seen nothing like it since 1986, the year the hotel opened, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held their summit in Reykjavík.

“When I opened the hotel, we had Reagan and Gorbachev meeting. It was very hectic here,” he said with a smile. “Besides Reagan and Gorbachev, the eclipse is the biggest.”

___

Associated Press journalists Teresa Medrano in Madrid; Danica Kirka and Brian Melley in London; and James Brooks in Snæfellsnes, Iceland, contributed.

Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won the Minnesota Democratic Senate primary Tuesday in the latest victory for an insurgent progressive over the party’s establishment. Flanagan defeated centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig with a pledge to fight the influence of corporations and confront Trump.

Here's the latest:

Lawsuit seeks to stop Trump from making money off early access to his posts on US policy

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court alleges that Trump’s deal with his media company to post first on his Truth Social platform violates the Constitution.

The suit brought by two media groups comes after Truth Social started charging Wall Street firms as much as $100,000 a month for a new service allowing early access to the president’s posts so they can trade off them.

Truth Social says the lawsuit is an attempt by left wing activists to silence the president.

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The duel over the National Guard in DC has entered its second year

The latest volley was a letter coming from the Justice Department to the district council challenging their view that the use of the military is unnecessary because crime was already falling.

That letter counters letters the council sent last month to governors who have troops in town supporting Trump’s 2025 surge. The June letter asked governors to bring their people home, citing $3 million a day costs and the lack of a crime emergency.

Wednesday’s missive disputed that: “D.C. is a much safer place no matter what you say.”

The president activated the guard and pulled in federal law enforcement with a crime emergency declaration on Aug. 11, 2025. The deployment was recently extended until January 2029 and will cost an estimated $1.4 billion.

Trump-supporting pastor warns immigration enforcement risks Latino vote

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is warning Republicans that deporting vulnerable people who don’t have a criminal record could lose them the Latino vote in the midterm elections.

Rodriguez is a conservative pastor from California and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

In an op-ed for the Christian Post on Wednesday, he said that not everyone the administration is arresting and deporting is a criminal. Many, he said, are “construction workers, healthcare professionals and Sunday school teachers who have been rooted in this country for 20 years or more.”

“This does not mean open borders,” he said. “It means the mechanisms of enforcement must be proportional, just, and morally defensible.”

Rodriguez said there is “still time to course correct.”

“When indiscriminate enforcement becomes the story, it hands the moral high ground to the progressive Left and confirms their most damaging narrative about the Right.”

Forget left vs. center

Primary results in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Connecticut have reiterated that Democratic voters are hungry for change, even as they remain divided over the party’s ideological future.

Progressives secured a major victory in Minnesota but fell short in Wisconsin, while a longtime Connecticut congressman was ousted by a younger challenger.

The results followed similar outcomes this year in places such as Michigan that showed an appetite for turnover that cuts across the party’s ideological divisions.

They also highlighted the growing influence of younger voters, who have been particularly drawn to progressive candidates.

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US resumes leadership role in anti-abortion group abandoned during Biden administration

The Trump administration says it will resume a leadership role in an international bloc opposed to abortion that had been established in Trump’s first term but then abandoned by President Joe Biden.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday the U.S. would serve as the “secretariat” for the Geneva Consensus Declaration. The Geneva consensus was created in 2020 with great fanfare from then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “to secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

Critics, however, saw it as a way for the U.S. to further push Trump administration goals to limit family planning initiatives and ban abortion.

Participation in Geneva Consensus was one of the first Trump administration actions rescinded by Biden when he took office in early 2021.

Wisconsin gubernatorial primary winner David Crowley ties opponent to Trump

The winner of Wisconsin’s Democratic primary race for governor immediately tied his Republican opponent to President Trump in his first public comments since his razor-thin victory.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told supporters Wednesday he intends to build a broad coalition to defeat Republican Tom Tiffany, who’s voted 100% in line with Trump.

“The biggest difference between me and the congressman is I’m loyal to the people of Wisconsin. I’m not loyal to MAGA,” Crowley said referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

Tiffany began the general election campaign with a message connecting Crowley to Francesca Hong, a the democratic socialist Crowley narrowly defeated.

“I’ve said all along that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these Democrat candidates,” Tiffany said in a statement.

Sen. Tim Scott says he voted for Sen. Darline Graham and endorses her in runoff

Scott, who also serves as chair of the chamber’s political arm, said on social media Wednesday morning that he’d voted for Darline Graham in Tuesday’s special Republican Senate primary.

Graham has been serving in an interim role since her brother Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death last month. Scott called his fellow South Carolinian “a conservative stalwart” who “represents our beloved state with class, humility, and dignity.”

Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman will go head to head in an Aug. 25 GOP runoff. The winner of that contest faces Democrat Annie Andrews in November.

Rubio sets up task force to combat ‘birth tourism’ as Trump fights birthright citizenship

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the creation of a State Department task force to combat “birth tourism,” a Trump administration phrase for foreign women coming to the United States with the intention of giving birth to a child on U.S. soil in order to secure their child’s American citizenship.

Trump and his administration have fought unsuccessfully in courts to end “birthright citizenship,” which gives U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Despite those legal setbacks, Trump has continued the fight to end the practice.

In a social media post Wednesday, Rubio said the new task force would “review the activity of visa holders, dismantle illegal birth tourism networks, and put an end to this heinous abuse of our nation’s laws.”

He said that since the task force was created last month, it had already taken action to revoke the visas of more than 600 people suspected of being involved in birth tourism schemes.

Many details about what happened remain unknown

Presidents have regularly tested the confines of their office, pushing their security advisers to visit war zones as a show of American presence and their own leadership. Usually, this happens in the form of trips that aren’t announced until the president is deemed to be out of harm’s way.

What’s different this time is that Trump was covertly separated from the rest of his travelers — including the press pool meant to provide independent coverage of the president — and, instead of informing the public about what occurred once the risk had passed, the White House still hasn’t fully revealed what took place.

Presidents often take secret trips — but not like this

Commanders in chief have sometimes kept overseas trips covert for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept classified until after for safety reasons. But the fact that Trump’s whereabouts were concealed at the time and for weeks afterward is believed to be unprecedented.

“We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” said Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”

“But this was an ongoing secret that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”

After hiding in the catering vehicle and being moved to the other plane, Trump stopped in Britain, sneaked back aboard the presidential plane undetected, and even later scoffed when asked about potential danger.

“If I go, you go. Right?” he told reporters then — gliding past the fact that if the plane had been shot down, the president wouldn’t have been aboard.

Inflation paused, but higher costs remain an issue for Americans

U.S. inflation slowed last month and a measure of underlying price pressures also cooled, suggesting higher oil and gas prices from the Iran war are only having a limited impact on broader costs in the economy.

Consumer prices rose 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. But inflation is still higher than before the Iran war began in February, when it was 2.4%. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

Inflation has been pushed higher by a series of shocks to the economy, including President Trump’s tariffs imposed last spring, higher gas prices stemming from the Iran war, and a surge in investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure that has boosted computer chip prices. The key question for the inflation-fighters at the Fed — not to mention for consumers struggling with high gas and grocery prices — is how quickly those one-time effects will fade.

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Trump’s vaccine order hands some MAHA voters a win. It also gives Democrats an attack line

President Trump pivoted the nation’s attention back to vaccines this week with an executive order that aims to scale back the childhood immunization schedule and space out shots into separate visits.

After acting to overhaul the nation’s vaccine policy and guidance, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional changes to focus on less controversial subjects, raising questions over the political impetus behind and implications of the Republican president’s renewed focus on vaccines.

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view — against medical groups’ guidance — that childhood vaccines should be administered in smaller doses over a long period of time. The executive order sought to bear out that discredited theory.

While the move could endear Trump to some “Make America Healthy Again” voters who want more flexibility on immunizations, it’s also already attracting attacks designed to hurt Trump’s aligned candidates in November’s midterm elections.

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Progressive Democrats get another win in Minnesota US Senate primary

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won the Minnesota Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday in the latest victory for an insurgent progressive over the party’s establishment.

Flanagan defeated centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig with a pledge to fight the influence of corporations and confront Trump.

“For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many versus the money,” Flanagan said as she celebrated her victory in Minneapolis. “Well guess what? The many just won.”

The outcome was another sign of progressive energy among Democratic primary voters. It comes a week after Abdul El-Sayed won a bitter and divisive primary in Michigan that fired up the left and fueled anxiety among party leaders that Democrats will alienate moderate swing voters.

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Trump says Secret Service and the military wanted him off Air Force One in Turkey due to threat

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted didn’t scare him.

Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

He also downplayed the risk to the people — White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters — he left on the plane.

“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.

“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”

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The NFL announced the headliners for the halftime show Wednesday. The game will air on Netflix in the U.S. on Sept. 10. The Jonas Brothers will be part of the entertainment lineup for the league's international schedule this season involving seven countries and four contents.

“We couldn’t be more excited to perform at halftime during the NFL’s first-ever regular season game in Australia,” the Jonas Brothers said in a statement. “Playing at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of such passionate Australian fans is an incredible honor.”

The Jonas Brothers — featuring Nick, Joe and Kevin — have sold more than 20 million albums and recently landed a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tim Tubito, the NFL's senior director of global game presentation and entertainment, said the league's first regular season game in Australia is a landmark for the NFL.

“The Jonas Brothers are global entertainers whose music connects across generations, making them the ideal artists to help us celebrate this historic game in Melbourne," Tubito said. "We look forward to delivering a memorable halftime performance for our fans in Australia and those watching around the world.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

The devastation has tested Colombia’s new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, and his government as it scrambles to respond to the disaster and civil society as it pushes to provide aid to the most affected communities.

Colombian forensics authorities said Wednesday that more than 200 people died in the 7.4 magnitude earthquake. The government has been slow to provide updated tolls, and the true number is likely higher.

De la Espriella said Tuesday that at least 181 people died and 2,595 more were injured. Local and federal authorities have reported hundreds missing, while civilian-run databases put that number at more than 4,100.

Teams continued to pick through the rubble in the hardest-hit cities of Cali, Pereira, Manizales and Quibdo, as time ticked away for victims to be found — and rescued — alive. Aid agencies consider the first 48 to 72 hours crucial for retrieving survivors, though that threshold can be extended if those trapped have access to food and water.

On Wednesday afternoon, Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, told reporters that rescue teams continue to find signs of people alive under the rubble and are racing to save them.

“The next 20 hours are the most critical to find and rescue people alive,” he said. “Every minute is vital.”

Survival takes many forms in hard-hit areas

In Pereira, rescuers pulled Daniela Largo alive from the rubble late Tuesday, capping a complex 12-hour rescue in which crews carved a small opening in the debris to free her pinned arm and a doctor administered IV fluids to stabilize her. Wrapped in a blue blanket, the young woman was carried to an ambulance as firefighters embraced and onlookers cheered.

Across the coffee-growing region, among the areas worst affected by the quake, authorities have converted sports arenas, schools and other public buildings into shelters for thousands of displaced Colombians. In Pereira and Cali, families have been sleeping in parks — some fearing aftershocks or the collapse of their damaged homes, others without homes to return to.

Colombia’s geological service has documented 130 aftershocks since the quake.

“We have the most important things: a roof over our heads, food, water and, in my case, medical care,” said Edith Penagos, 48, who was staying with her teenage son in one of the white tents set up in a Pereira park.

Rodrigo León Loya, a seismologist and geosciences professor at the University of the Andes, said the probability of an earthquake of a similar magnitude occurring in the same area is low but he would not rule out more seismic activity.

“Let’s remember that Colombia is full of active fault lines,” he said. “The question isn’t whether it can happen again. The question is rather when an earthquake of similar magnitude will occur at another of Colombia’s seismic sources.”

Aid groups provide humanitarian relief

In many areas, including the epicenter of the quake Choco, the official response to the disaster has been complicated by the ongoing crises of deep poverty and civil warfare that has created waves of forced displacement for decades. The true impact of the earthquake in the jungled northwest remained largely unknown because cell service has been lost and many of the likely affected communities are remote, accessible only by river.

“This earthquake compounds an already severe humanitarian situation, and there is a need for increased support for the humanitarian response,” said Giovanni Rizzo, Colombia director for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Many aid organizations were already on the ground in Choco supporting a 2016 peace accord between the government and leftist rebels, and responding to violence in the region involving other armed groups that has persisted since then.

Those humanitarian workers were able to quickly pivot to disaster relief, said María José Torres, the U.N. resident coordinator in Colombia.

“We have a presence on the ground. Therefore, our ability to be there, present with the people, I think, has increased exponentially,” Torres said in a statement Tuesday.

Regional partners promise to help

At the same time, aid from other countries and nonprofits abroad continued to roll in.

On Wednesday, the State Department said it would send two search and rescue teams to Colombia that helped with rescue efforts in Venezuela just weeks before. The U.S. has also offered over $15 million in aid.

Mexico meanwhile said it had sent two military aircraft carrying 19.5 tons of nonperishable food and 19 members of Mexican security forces to Pereira, and it plans to send another 39 tons of aid in the coming days. A further 255 military specialists and 20 dogs are on standby to be sent to Colombia if needed.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele offered to send two planes loaded with 100 tons of aid.

On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV thanked those contributing to recovery efforts, and said he is praying for those killed, injured or otherwise affected by the earthquake.

“I want to express my solidarity with my Colombian sisters and brothers who have suffered the effects of the recent earthquake,” he said.

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Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia, and Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Gabriela Aoun in San Diego and Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed.

The 30-year-old Walls, whose homers were his first of the season, went 4 for 5 in his second two-homer game. He last went deep as a righty and lefty on April 18, 2023, against the Cincinnati Reds.

Walls hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot to right-center, in the fourth. He added a solo shot in the sixth inning. The homers ended a 105-game regular-season drought dating to July 27, 2025.

Walls is the fifth player this season to homer from both sides of the plate, joining the White Sox’s Drew Romo, Colorado’s Willi Castro, Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds, and Minnesota’s Josh Bell.

Martinez (12-3) struck out five, and allowed four runs on eight hits with a 101-pitch effort for his second career complete game. He previously worked an eight-inning complete-game with the Reds in 2024, but took the loss.

The AL East-leading Rays jumped out to an early lead off Junior Caminero’s 412-foot, two-run shot to center field in the first inning.

Caminero also scored in the third on Chandler Simpson’s sac-fly, but Liam Hicks was thrown out attempting to tag from first for a double play that ended the inning.

Yandy Diaz had a solo homer, Carson Williams had a three-run blast and Victor Mesa Jr. has a two-run shot for Tampa Bay, which banged out 11 hits in the win.

Lawrence Butler had a two-run homer for the Athletics in the fifth inning. Mason Barnett (1-3) took the loss, allowing six runs on five hits in four innings.

The Athletics' Jacob Wilson had his MLB-record 113-game errorless streak extended by a postgame scoring change. Wilson was initially charged with a throwing error in the eighth inning, but the ruling was changed to a fielder's choice.

Up next

RHP Drew Rasmussen (11-5, 2.75 ERA) goes for Tampa Bay in the finale of the three-game series Wednesday. The A's have not announced a starter.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Crowley overcame Francesca Hong in dramatic fashion in Tuesday's primary, stunning pundits and pollsters who had long placed Hong as the front-runner. That means Crowley's challenger, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, must pivot to face a Democrat known for working across the aisle with Republicans as the county executive in Milwaukee, the state’s largest source of Democratic voters.

Crowley immediately leans into Tiffany's ties with Trump

After a unity event with Hong and others on Wednesday, Crowley pledged to build a broad coalition — including Hong's progressive, populist backers — to take on Tiffany by zeroing in on the Republican's support for the Make America Great Again movement.

“This isn’t establishment versus progressive. This isn’t insider versus outsider,” Crowley said. “This is Democrats defeating a MAGA extremist in Congressman Tom Tiffany and that’s what we should be focusing on moving forward.”

It will be easier for Tiffany to pivot away from his ties with Trump and unpopular federal policies because he’s running for governor and not Congress, said former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, a Trump supporter.

“He’s got to be on point, on message every time that comes up, and say, ‘That’s not what’s on the ballot,’” Walker told The Associated Press. “What’s on the ballot is who’s going to be governor the next four years.”

But former Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, who opposes Trump, said Crowley makes the path “way harder for Tiffany.”

“It's going to force the campaign back to the issues that people care about like affordability, the war in Iran and the cost of healthcare,” Schultz said.

Tiffany represents a broad swath of Wisconsin’s rural, conservative north woods. Trump won the state in 2024 and 2016, but lost in 2020. All three elections were decided by less than a percentage point. Crowley’s win on Tuesday was even more narrow — less than half a point, further cementing Wisconsin’s reputation for close elections.

Democrats look for a trifecta in Wisconsin

Democrats savored the shift in focus from their chaotic primary to the general election against Tiffany, an opponent they’ve long seen as vulnerable. They hope to capitalize on Trump’s low approval ratings to retain control of the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to earn full control of Wisconsin state government for the first time since 2010.

Just as Crowley highlighted his Republican opponent's ties to Trump, Tiffany began the general election campaign with a message connecting Crowley to Hong.

“I’ve said all along that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these Democrat candidates,” Tiffany said in a statement Wednesday. “His record in Milwaukee County shows exactly what Wisconsin would get: mismanage the government, run up the bill, and raise your taxes to pay for it.”

And it may be tough for Crowley to connect with the young people who were among the nearly 40% of primary voters who supported Hong, Republican strategist Rusty Schultz predicted.

“Making sure they come out in November will be no small feat,” he said.

Crowley's surprise win came after he had dropped out of the race

Crowley, 40, has been the head of Wisconsin's largest county since 2020. Prior to that, he served just over three years in the state Assembly. In 2023, as county executive, Crowley helped spearhead a bipartisan deal in the Legislature that sent more state aid to Milwaukee and local communities.

Crowley dropped out of the governor’s race on July 8, saying he didn’t see a path to victory. He rejoined it on July 18, less than a month before Tuesday’s primary. With the backing of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow moderate who crisscrossed the state with him in the final week, Crowley pulled out the narrow win on the argument that he was the better matchup against Tiffany.

“Obviously Hong was the never-ending gift in terms of one gaffe after another, wasn’t really ready for primetime,” Walker said. “But Crowley didn’t get any real scrutiny either.”

Crowley shared a meal with Hong, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and others at a unity event outside Madison before embarking on a statewide tour. Evers, who is not seeking a third term as governor, had another commitment and did not attend.

Crowley became the first Black person to win a major party nomination for Wisconsin governor. Now he's vying to become the first Black governor of the state.

“This historic moment is not lost on me. But I'm not even thinking about that because we've still got work to do,” Crowley said. “The job is not done. The job is not finished. My job is not to become the first, and if I do become the first, my job is to make sure I'm not the last.”

He would have preferred Thursday’s matchup with the Packers take place in Green Bay rather than Pittsburgh. Rodgers wanted to have one final moment in the place where he spent his first 18 seasons and won four MVP awards and a Super Bowl.

“I was really hoping this one was going to be in Green Bay, not just to get back at Lambeau one more time, but to head out to Chives for a dinner and maybe head out to Green Bay Country Club for a quick nine or something,” Rodgers said Wednesday in a Zoom session with Packers reporters. “I was really hoping it was going to be in Green Bay, for a lot of reasons.”

This will be the second time Rodgers has faced his former team since leaving the Packers in 2023, though there’s no indication yet on whether he will play Thursday. Both games were in Pittsburgh, so Rodgers will head into retirement after this season having never played against the Packers at Lambeau Field.

“It would have been strange, being in that locker room and stuff,” Rodgers said. “But I would have found my way over, like many former players have over the years, found my way over to Flea’s (Packers head athletic trainer Bryan Engel’s) office and hang out back there and see some of the guys and see some of the trainers and equipment staff and all the people I really care about that still work there.

"Yeah, I was definitely bummed out that we weren’t in Lambeau for this one.”

Rodgers’ Steelers lost 35-25 to the Packers last October. Jordan Love, the quarterback Green Bay selected in the first round of the 2020 draft to become Rodgers’ eventual successor, threw for 360 yards and three touchdowns that night.

When he was asked what he missed the most about Wisconsin aside from football and the fans, Rodgers talked about the house he owned during his Packers years, the meals he enjoyed at Chives and the rounds of golf he played. Then he turned the subject back toward football.

“The falls there are just awesome, when the weather gets that cool little nip,” Rodgers said. “I loved the night games at Lambeau, especially the Sunday nights, Monday nights and occasional Thursday nights. Just so much fun. There’s nothing like that crowd. I’ve been other places, I knew that when I was in Green Bay, but there’s nothing like that fan base and the way they travel and the crowds at home.

“Players around the league, they talk about how special it is to play at Lambeau, and sometimes you might miss that or forget about that when you’re playing because it becomes so normal to have such an amazing crowd and they’re tailgating and they’re loud and they rarely sell their tickets to other teams’ fans. There’s a lot of great things about Wisconsin. I grew up there, really, and became a little more mature as an adult over the years there and had a great time and still have a lot of close friends there, a lot of fond memories.”

Rodgers did play his other former team as a visiting player last season when he made his Steelers debut and led Pittsburgh to a 34-32 victory over the New York Jets in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Rodgers was with the Jets from 2023-24 after they acquired him from Green Bay, though he missed virtually all of 2023 after tearing his Achilles tendon in the season opener.

The Steelers host the Jets on Aug. 21 in their second preseason game.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

The S&P 500 added 0.4% and was on track for its first gain since setting its all-time high on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 2:25 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

Stocks in the artificial-intelligence technology business helped lead the way after strong profit reports bolstered hopes they can continue to deliver big-enough growth to justify the huge gains their prices have made.

Super Micro Computer, which sells servers and other equipment, jumped 19.6% after reporting earnings per share for the latest quarter that were 84% higher than analysts expected. It also gave forecasts for upcoming profit and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations.

CoreWeave, which offers AI computing power to customers over the cloud, leaped 19.4% after reporting better revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, along with a milder loss. CEO Michael Intrator said demand is accelerating from customers as big businesses adopt AI.

CoreWeave gives its customers access to AI chips from Nvidia, and Nvidia climbed 3.1%. It was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500.

It’s a return to strength for AI stocks, which have been veering on a roller-coaster ride. After surging to records, AI stocks came under pressure on worries that they shot too high. Investors wanted to see big spenders on AI prove that their investments are yielding enough in profits and productivity to make them worth it. That in turn could lead to continued demand for chips and other AI infrastructure.

Wall Street also got some support from easing yields in the bond market. Treasury yields fell after a report showed that U.S. consumers paid prices for gasoline, groceries and other costs of living last month that were 3.4% higher than a year earlier.

That’s higher than anyone would like, but it’s not as bad as June's 3.5% inflation rate.

The deceleration could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to hold off on hikes to interest rates. Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but it would do so by making it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow and forcing a slowdown in the economy. Higher interest rates also would undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

The Fed’s members have been notably split about whether they should have already begun hiking interest rates. But Wednesday’s update on inflation pushed traders to pull back on bets the Fed will hike its main interest rate at its next meeting in September.

Traders are betting on just a 40% chance of it, down from the coin flip’s chance seen the day before, according to data from CME Group.

That helped pull the yield on the 10-year Treasury down to 4.68% from 4.70% late Tuesday. It, though, still remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran, which sent oil prices and worries about inflation spiking.

Oil prices swung between modest gains and losses Wednesday, and the price for a barrel of Brent crude slipped 0.2% to $88.74.

Higher yields have already pulled long-term mortgage rates to their highest levels in a year. That's hurting the housing industry, and losses for homebuilders on Wednesday helped keep the market in check. D.R. Horton fell 3.1%, and PulteGroup lost 2.3%. Builders FirstSource, which sells countertops and other building materials, dropped 3.9%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi jumped 3.7% for one of the world’s bigger gains. It’s been at the center of the jarring swings for AI stocks because it’s 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.

All six other children who were at the home have been reunited with their parents, and none were injured, according to authorities in Hopkins, a suburb of Minneapolis.

Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson said another parent called police after witnessing the attack while bringing a child to Brown Bear Childcare.

“There’s no worse scenario than this, where you drop off your child somewhere you think is safe, and you get that phone call,” Johnson said at a news conference.

The police chief declined to release the victims’ identities or say how they died. He said he didn’t know the relationship between the two adults who owned the daycare, but the child who died is believed to be theirs.

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EDITOR’S NOTE — In the U.S., the national suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

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Police and sheriff vehicles lined the otherwise quiet street where the daycare is located. The brown, two-story house has a mural on the garage door of a tree-lined lake and a moose. Photos on the daycare's Facebook page show kids playing with toys inside and in the backyard, with colorful decorations and artwork on the walls.

Amanda Marx, a nurse who lives across the street, didn’t realize anything was wrong until she noticed police officers trying to break down the home's front door.

She said officers moved behind the home before reappearing and calling for crime scene tape. Later, several young children emerged — one being carried by an officer.

Marx said she and her 7-year-old son always referred to it as the “garage house” due to the colorful mural. The longtime resident said she’d never met the home's owners and was unaware they were running a daycare. She didn’t recall any prior disturbances.

“I’m just trying to figure out how to explain to my 7-year-old why there’s crime scene tape on our deck,” she said.

Records show the daycare has been licensed by the state since 2019 and has a capacity of 10 children. It was found to be in compliance during visits in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Johnson said killings are a “rarity” in Hopkins and that his officers were shaken by the scene they found inside the home.

“I could see on the look on their faces that this was one of those ones that you’ll remember for your entire career, if not life,” Johnson said.

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Rico reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed.

Defendant Tyler Robinson's attorneys say the bullet traveled above the crowd and prosecutors have not proven that he knew others who attended Kirk's event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 were in danger — a potentially aggravating factor under state law that would make it a capital crime.

“The only evidence presented supports that the bullet traveled above, not through, the crowd,” defense attorneys wrote in documents filed late Tuesday as the defense tries to block the case from proceeding to trial.

The defense lawyers also disputed claims that Robinson targeted Kirk over his political views. Prosecutors allege Robinson told his roommate that he killed the activist because he “had enough of his hatred." But the defense said that was not enough to prove what motivated Robinson, after searches of his apartment, computers and telephone failed to produce anything beyond that one statement.

Prosecutors last month presented what they call “overwhelming” evidence against Robinson, including DNA tests that tie him to the suspected murder weapon and apparent confessions by the defendant.

His defense attorneys during that hearing questioned the reliability of the prosecution's evidence, but they didn't offer any alternative theories for Kirk's assassination. The defense made no mention of DNA in Tuesday's filing.

Robinson has not yet entered a plea in the case. He turned himself in a day after Kirk was killed.

His defense attorneys previously tried to get the death penalty taken off the table after prosecutors were found to be in contempt of court for talking about the case to the media. State District Judge Tony Graf rejected that request.

Prosecutors have until Aug. 18 to respond to the defense arguments. The Associated Press left telephone and email messages with the Utah County Attorney’s Office seeking comment.

In documents filed last month, prosecutors said the fact that Robinson loaded his rifle with four bullets showed that he knew he could miss Kirk, “thereby putting others in danger.”

But defense attorneys said “it is just as likely that the shooter did not believe he would miss.”

Robinson faces possible sentence enhancements if prosecutors can prove he targeted Kirk because of his political views. They contend that Kirk’s strong opposition to same-sex marriage and gender transitioning stood in contrast to Robinson, who was in a romantic relationship with a roommate, Lance Twiggs. Twiggs told investigators that he had been considering transitioning around the time that Kirk was killed, according to prosecutors.

Twiggs also told investigators that Robinson sometimes talked about politics, including President Donald Trump. But Twiggs said he never heard Robinson talk about Kirk before the shooting. The defendant also did not talk much about gender issues or LGBTQ+ rights, Twiggs said.

The AP emailed Twiggs’ attorney seeking comment.

Closing arguments in the preliminary hearing are scheduled for Sept. 1. Graf will then decide if the case can go to trial and on what charges.

Preliminary hearings typically don’t last so long. Legal experts said the slow pace reflects a cautious approach by Graf and the large volume of evidence. Lawyers for Kirk’s family have asked Graf to make his decision on Sept. 1 so they case can proceed.

With Michael Penix Jr. still not cleared for team drills as he continues his recovery from surgery on his left knee, the Falcons' expected quarterback competition has been put on hold. Tagovailoa, the former Miami Dolphins starter who signed a one-year deal with Atlanta, has a clear path to the starting job as long as Penix is limited to individual work and seven-on-seven drills in practice.

Stefanski said Tagovailoa and other first-team players will play “a series, maybe 10 plays. We'll see which comes first.” Stefanski said the playing time could vary for some starters.

When asked if Tagovailoa's start means he has won the starting job for the season, Stefanski said: “As you guys know, I’m not there, we’re not there. ... We just will cross that bridge when we get to it. Obviously, I feel very good about where Tua is, where all of our guys are.”

Cooper Rush, who was signed at the start of training camp to give the team another veteran at quarterback, will play behind Tagovailoa. Undrafted rookie Jack Strand will finish the game.

Stefanski said Tagovailoa is “looking forward to getting his first action in a game in the system. There’s a lot of newness for him as well, in terms of that type of thing. It’s his first time in (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) as a Falcon.”

Tagovailoa said Tuesday he believes preseason games are important as he adjusts to the Falcons' playbook.

“Preseason plays a big role, I would say, for your team collectively,” Tagovailoa said. “You don’t have the coaches out there. You gotta go out there, you gotta make the calls, whether it’s right or wrong. You gotta live with them, and then from there you come in the next day, you watch film, you talk about it, and you go from there.”

Added Tagovailoa: “With the walk-throughs that we’ve had, you start to get more and more comfortable with the terminology. ... So getting comfortable, but it’s still something that I need to look over, need to continue to study and continue to process.”

Quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said Tuesday Tagovailoa “is becoming more comfortable with the system” after being limited by lower back tightness at the start of training camp. “Really the last three or four days he’s really come on when you’re acclimating a quarterback into a new offense,” Van Pelt said.

While some teams hold out starters for most or all preseason games, Stefanski's decision to give his first-team players at least one series is consistent with the first-year Atlanta coach allowing players to be tackled in full-pads drills. Some coaches opt for “thud” tackles where players are not taken to the ground.

Stefanski said his goal is to have players “physically ready ... and mentally ready” for a 17-game regular season “and then more.”

“I just believe in making what we do out in the grass as close to football and as close to game-like as you can,” he said. “In order to do that, you have to practice hard. That’s just what comes with the territory of what we believe in.”

Stefanski said Penix will continue to be held out of team drills next week when the Falcons travel to Indianapolis for joint practices with the Colts.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

The screen door, despite — or thanks to — its modest making, is fundamental to the American home, to the suburban and rural soundscape and to what remains of our collective innocence.

The door that is barely a door. Made of lightweight aluminum or wood, with a wire mesh and a latch lock that gives under a thumb nudge, it is about as shabby as a barrier gets. Its mission to let the breeze in and keep the mosquitos, pesky flies and assorted vermin out appears simple, but its impact goes beyond that.

Semi-transparent, a screen door is an invitation, allowing a peek inside. It says someone is there. In architectural terms, it means this threshold wants breaching.

The screen door creates a liminal space, a quasi-open passage where one can see, hear and even smell what nature and the local community offer on the other side.

Its sieve-like surface gives way to the semi-private backyard. It allows a grandmother to leave the sturdy, opaque real backdoor wide open, almost forgotten, until it is time to go to bed. In the meantime, she can listen to songbirds, contemplate her flowerbeds or keep an eye on her grandchildren at play.

Fittingly, there exists what appears to be an apparently apocryphal origin story of the screen door. It says it was invented by a woman in Iowa in the late 19th century. Accurate or not, it is one of those modern myths worth embracing.

As if it were a symbol of good behavior, the screen door resists being slammed. Its closing mechanism cushions the blow, gently pushing back against the tug of a human hand, wheezing as it finally gives in.

At best, the creaking of a screen door announces a loved one’s arrival. It demands our trust in the outside world. It tempers our anger, quells our suspicions.

Once shut, the quiet says you are home.

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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.

Scientists reported Wednesday on the radiation-shielding vest worn around the moon by a female test dummy in 2022. No one was aboard that Artemis I debut flight, which paved the way for humanity’s long-awaited return to the moon in April by a flyby crew of four.

Radiation remains one of the biggest threats to astronauts as NASA works toward a moon base. Shielding garments could keep lunar crews safe when solar storms strike and even allow them to venture beyond their shelters if necessary, the U.S., German and Israeli team reported in the journal Science Advances.

A version of the vest was previously tested on the International Space Station. It didn't travel with the Artemis II astronauts since it was a short 10-day mission with limited room, but may wind up a carry-on for future moon crews.

Meant to be worn only during high-radiation and potentially cancer-causing solar events, the vest covers the most vulnerable human organs and tissue: lungs, stomach, bone marrow, breasts and ovaries. Women are believed to be especially susceptible to radiation-induced cancer.

Artemis I carried two female manikins that spent nearly a month flying to the moon and back. Dubbed Zohar and Helga, the manikins — each a life-size 3 feet from head to lower torso — were strapped into the passenger seats of NASA’s Orion capsule.

Zohar wore the 57-pound (26-kilogram) AstroRad vest, developed by the U.S.-Israeli startup StemRad and Lockheed Martin. The companies had already tested a prototype on the space station for comfort and function, modeling it after gear worn by nuclear disaster teams.

Helga flew vest-less, but like its companion contained thousands of radiation sensors.

The study's lead author, StemRad’s Jordan Houri, called it “the largest experiment ever conducted to determine astronaut radiation exposure beyond low-Earth orbit.” NASA, the German Aerospace Center and the Israel Space Agency provided the funding. Radiation exposure is much less for space travelers closer to home, thanks to Earth's protective atmosphere and magnetic field.

Artemis I encountered no major solar outbursts. But based on measurements gathered as NASA's Orion capsule zipped through the inner Van Allen radiation belt, Houri and his team simulated how much protection the vest would provide during extreme solar particle events like those in 1972 and 1989 that detonated magnetic sea mines and collapsed a power grid.

Lucky for NASA, the 1972 solar outburst occurred in between that year's two moon landings, keeping the crews of Apollo 16 and 17 safe from potentially lethal radiation exposure.

The latest findings showed the vest could reduce an astronaut’s radiation dose by about 60% in a solar storm as fierce as the one in 1972 and by nearly 40% in a calamity mirroring 1989. That’s equivalent to 193 days and 131 days, respectively, of unnecessary deep space radiation exposure, the scientists noted.

While none of the Apollo moonshots exceeded two weeks, the moon-base stays envisioned by NASA will likely last weeks, if not months, driving up the risk of enduring a dangerous solar storm. Mars expeditions will last even longer — months, years and possibly entire lifetimes if SpaceX CEO Elon Musk achieves his goal of building a city on the red planet.

The scientists are using their observations to trim more weight from the vest without sacrificing protection. They’re also investigating how to make radiation shielding from items already aboard a spacecraft — recycling that could save the lives of crews.

Houri doesn't anticipate a need for further deep-space testing anytime soon, since Zohar and Helga “provided us with an exceptionally large, high-fidelity dataset.”

Zohar and her vest are now on display at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, where their journey to the moon began.

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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.

Everyone wanted a pope-themed hat.

“When things go bananas ... that’s when it gets really fun,” said Brooks Boyer, Chicago's chief revenue and marketing officer.

Fun is the overarching theme when it comes to stadium giveaways, and business has been good at major league ballparks this year.

An array of creative promotions — everything from the New York Mets handing out fake glasses and mustaches for a Bobby Valentine Disguise Night to the Texas Rangers giving away a Nolan Ryan bloody lip jersey — has played at least a small role in an MLB-wide average attendance of 29,618 through Tuesday's games, the highest such number for a full season since 2017.

Bobbleheads remain popular — like the Brandon Nimmo Bull Riding bobblehead in Texas, or the butter-churning Nick Kurtz “Big Amish” bobblehead with the Athletics — but it's not just those iconic figurines that are drawing big crowds. The Brewers handed out 25,000 bar dice sets to fans 21 and over on Saturday, and they had a crowd of 40,625 at American Family Field.

The pitch clock and other innovative rules introduced by MLB in 2023 are often credited for spurring fan interest. But it's clear from the long lines — and occasionally astronomical resale prices on eBay — what a clever giveaway can do for ticket sales, too.

“I definitely think across the league, there’s been an increase in demand and desire, and even necessity, to do things that are outside of the box," said Meagan Hermosillo, the director of marketing and promotions for the Arizona Diamondbacks. "For us, we can’t really do a standard bobblehead or a standard anything. It has to have some kind of unique factor if we want it to move the needle.”

Chicago's pope hats took creative — and careful — planning

The White Sox ended up giving the pope hats — shaped like the Pope’s miter, with the team’s sock logo in the middle — to everyone in the crowd of 38,113 for Tuesday night's 5-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The tribute to Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native and longtime White Sox fan, helped push the club's season-long attendance to 1,460,383, surpassing its total of 1,445,738 for all of 2025.

The team leaned into the theme. There were signs posted in the ballpark that read “LEO KNOWS MUNE” and “LEO KNOWS KONERKO,” referring to current White Sox first baseman Munetaka Murakami and former slugger Paul Konerko. Sister Mary Jo Sobieck threw out a ceremonial first pitch, and former White Sox pitcher Donn “The Pope” Pall kicked off the game with the “play ball” announcement.

“I thought it was a great idea, knowing that the Pope is from Chicago and he's a Sox fan, which is great,” said Edward Lopez, 58, a truck driver from the south side of the city.

Lopez was supposed to go to the game with his girlfriend, but she wasn't able to make it. So he went through two different gates to make sure he secured two pope hats.

“It was worth it,” he said.

Promotions for the White Sox go through a committee led by senior director of marketing and promotions Mike Downey. They throw out ideas and concepts, and they also look at samples from different vendors.

The team also is handing out wooden domino sets to 10,000 fans on Aug. 22 and magic wands to 20,000 fans on Sept. 4, a nod to the viral wand-waving dugout displays of injured reliever Mike Vasil.

“We’ve always looked to have our giveaways be something that we know people would wear or use or value because it adds value to the ticket,” Boyer said. “So it starts with that.”

While planning the pope hat night, religious sensitivities were part of the conversation for the promotions committee.

“We haven’t done items that would be Pope Leo’s likeness,” Boyer said. “We wouldn’t do that without the permission of the Vatican. ... We’ve been very careful. There is a little bit of nuance and finesse that needs to be done. And items, you know a lot of items may not be for everybody.”

Teams are eagerly jumping on larger cultural moments for eye-catching promotions

The Baltimore Orioles handed out a Tupac Shakur bobblehead in May. The New York Yankees gave out a “ KPop Demon Hunters ” bobblehead on Tuesday night, and they have a George Costanza calzone bobblehead — paying tribute to a 1996 “Seinfeld” episode — coming up on Aug. 27. Every MLB team except Toronto had a Star Wars Night this season.

Following in the footsteps of the minor leagues in many cases, it's not enough anymore to just feature a popular player for a giveaway.

“You can see that teams are doing a much better job with their understanding (of) who they’re trying to target,” said Jim Strode, an associate dean and professor at Ohio University’s College of Business. “When I think of the ‘Seinfeld’ one, I’m thinking, you know, they’re targeting Gen X, they are targeting some, you know, younger baby boomers to try to get out to the ballpark.”

There is also what Lauren Anderson, the director of the Warsaw Sports Business Center at the University of Oregon, described as the “collector chase game.” There were multiple fans looking to buy additional pope hats at Tuesday night’s game, and there were several listings for the giveaway and the “KPop Demon Hunters” bobblehead on eBay on Wednesday.

“You want something that’s unique and cool and something that you can, you know, I’m one of 5,000 people to get these, I’m one of 10,000,” Anderson said. “I mean, there is also a bit of the game of people want something that’s limited so they can flip it and sell it, like on an eBay."

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AP Baseball Writer David Brandt contributed to this report.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

What seemed at first like an easy idea — slapping a new tax on people who own luxury second homes in the Big Apple but live elsewhere most of the year — has instead created a lot of confusion in the city’s notoriously convoluted world of real estate arrangements.

“It seems very simple but the more you dig into it, the more nuances you look at, the more complicated it gets,” said Gary Bingel, a state and local tax expert and partner at EisnerAmper, an accounting firm.

It has also prompted pushback from both the city's very wealthy and the merely moderately wealthy.

President Donald Trump, whose gilded Manhattan penthouse could be subject to the tax since his primary residence is now in Florida, said he was looking into whether federal intervention could “avert this disaster, before it is too late.”

A group of homeowners sued over the city’s rollout of the tax, arguing that officials had not done enough to figure out who would have to pay the tax and instead made it property owners' responsibility. A judge temporarily paused the process this week, but the city moved to appeal, allowing the tax effort to continue until it’s sorted out in court.

Securing a new tax on multimillion-dollar second homes, known as pied-à-terres, was an early win for Mamdani in his quest to raise taxes on the city's highest earners to pay for his ambitious liberal agenda.

The so-called pied-à-terre tax would levy a new surcharge on one-, two- and three-family homes valued at more than $5 million, as well as condos and co-ops valued at $1 million or more, if those dwellings are not a person's primary residence.

The idea, according to officials, would bring $500 million to the city's coffers annually, paid primarily by bigwigs who get to enjoy city life but don't pay city income taxes.

That's where things start to get hairy.

It's common for high rollers to place their properties in trusts, obscuring ownership while allowing the property to pass more easily to family members. Limited liability companies can similarly shield an owner's identity, also making it hard for government officials to tell who actually lives in any given apartment.

From there, there are numerous arrangements that can complicate who would be subject to the tax. For example, letting a distant family member stay at a second home without formal documentation, or if someone owns one or more properties and rents them out, but the tenants don't have documentation that the unit is their primary residence.

“Those situations make it difficult to prove people are in there,” said Mark Limardo, a partner at the law firm Herrick in Manhattan who focuses on taxes. “The concept is simple, but the ownership rules and the documentation rules have made it very complicated.”

Outcry and litigation

City Hall, for its part, argues that it shouldn't be difficult to provide proof that someone actually lives in the city and says that its finance department is experienced in parsing tangled webs of paperwork.

Mamdani, no stranger to razzing wealthy people, debuted the tax with a video singling out hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin by standing outside a Manhattan penthouse the billionaire purchased for around $239 million. The clip sent Mamdani's supporters swooning, but Griffin later said it was “frightening” that a public official would call attention to one of his homes, especially after the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the same neighborhood.

The city then published an expansive online list of property owners who it said could be subject to the tax, listing their names, addresses and property values. The list, which the city is legally required to publish, inflamed tensions between the mayor and the city's wealthy, many of whom argued the roll amounted to doxing or public shaming.

The administration has mailed notices to a much smaller group — about 17,000 properties — that it suspected would be subject to the tax, telling them they could apply for exemptions. Mamdani announced the mailers in a celebratory social media post that read: “If you have a second home in New York City worth more than $5M, check your mailbox when you’re back in the five boroughs — because you’ve got mail.”

He later pushed back the deadline for exemption requests following public outcry from people who claimed to have received the letters in error or had trouble navigating the process.

Stewart Sterk, a real estate law professor at Cardozo School of Law in New York, predicted last week's lawsuit wouldn't be the last, saying he expected many of the targets of the tax to file individual cases over denied exemptions, given the vast number of apartments at play and the various arrangements people have connecting them to their properties.

“This is going to be a subject of litigation for quite a while,” he said.

Such refuge was probably never more welcome than on the heels of this past summer.

It was just over a month ago that Kelce exchanged vows with Taylor Swift in a star-studded wedding that tied together one of the best tight ends in NFL history with the biggest pop star on the planet. At the intimate gathering in cavernous Madison Square Garden, Adam Sandler served as the surprise officiant, Stevie Nicks performed to a crowd of sports and entertainment icons, and fans lined the New York City sidewalks outside the historic venue hoping to catch a glimpse of it all.

“The wedding was the best night of my life,” Kelce said Wednesday, speaking for the first time at camp. “I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and had fun with us. That's about all I got for that night. It was a crazy night.”

The guest list included actors Bradley Cooper, Zoë Kravitz, Hugh Grant and Ethan Hawke; models Gigi Hadid and Karlie Kloss; comic Chris Rock; film director Steven Spielberg; and plenty of NFL players, including retired quarterback Tom Brady and several of Kelce's teammates with the Chiefs, like his best friend and quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.

The Swift-Kelce relationship began with his failed attempt at giving her a friendship ring at a concert. Kelce invited Swift to watch him play at Arrowhead Stadium, she took him up on the offer, and the rest of their courtship has been a celebrity fairytale.

Right down to the nuptials at Madison Square Garden, which has always captured Kelce's imagination, and where Swift has played to plenty of sold-out shows; she also turned up there to watch the Knicks play the Spurs in the NBA Finals in June.

“I always told myself I'd go for a playoff game when the Knicks were rocking, and my wife went when I was stuck in minicamp,” Kelce said with a wry smile. “It was kind of cool to live out my childhood dream to be in that venue. I can't thank the owners of MSG enough for allowing us the opportunity to do that, knowing we wanted a private event.”

Besides the wedding, Kelce has been busy pursuing several business opportunities since the end of last season, including his decision to buy a small share of David Blitzer's stake in his hometown Cleveland Guardians.

That puts him into rivalry territory with Mahomes, who owns his own small stake in the Kansas City Royals.

Yet on the field, the quarterback and tight end continue in lockstep, and never has it been more important for them to lift each other up. Mahomes is coming off a season-ending knee injury that required surgery in December, and Kelce is trying to prove that at age 36 — he turns 37 in October — he can still get it done in a young man's game.

“I still got a lot of love for this game. I still think I can go out and play at a high level,” Kelce said. “I want to go out there and prove to myself that I can play at a better level than last year. I think that's the biggest thing for me.”

There are few things that Kelce has not accomplished over 13 seasons on an NFL field. He's won three Super Bowl rings, was voted first-team All-Pro four times, and he has been invited to the Pro Bowl each of the last 11 seasons.

He contemplated retirement prior to last year, but the fact that Kansas City had just been blown out by Philadelphia did not sit well with him. So, Kelce came back for another go-around, catching 76 passes for 851 yards and five touchdowns while playing in every game — numbers that would represent a career year for most tight ends.

The Chiefs scuffled to a 6-11 finish, though. And if Kelce wasn't going out on a Super Bowl loss, he certainly wasn't quitting after a season like that.

“The fact that we didn't make the playoffs,” he said, “I moved on pretty quick.”

He moved onto wedding planning, to be sure. But also into preparing for the upcoming season, which most believe will be his last, one way or another. Kelce was ever-present throughout the offseason, whether it was voluntary workouts or mandatory minicamp, and he has been a constant source of energy during the hot, humid practices that are the hallmark of training camp.

“This is always going to be my sanctuary. I think St. Joe has a special place in my heart,” Kelce said. “You need to have these days. You need to have this time of grinding with the guys, being around them all day, starting to create that chemistry and standard for how we are going to do things. This year it's ramped up even more.

“I think that's a big thing,” Kelce added, “just enjoy these moments with these guys I've built this culture with.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

The trial scheduled to begin next week is expected to last six to eight weeks. Meta faces 29 states in the federal multidistrict lawsuit filed in 2023, but the Oakland trial will only include the first four — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.

Eight states, including Tennessee where a trial is ongoing, filed lawsuits in their own state courts.

The 2023 lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oakland, California, claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.

“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms,” the complaint says. “It has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.”

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers asked prospective jurors about their own social media activity, knowledge about other lawsuits Meta faces, and any strong feelings they may have about social media companies and their role regarding the allegations.

The trial is the latest in an avalanche of lawsuits against Meta Platforms and other social media companies including Google's YouTube, TikTok and Snap, over claims their platforms harm young people, illegally collect their data and are deliberately designed to addict them.

Last week, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial.

The penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

The states are seeking heavy penalties and changes to the way Meta operates its platforms to make them safer for children. Meta has repeatedly said it has introduced dozens of features to do so. It is appealing the New Mexico decision.

“We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people,” the Menlo Park, California, tech giant said in a statement. “We’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better.”

This sale agreement is $12.5 billion, according to a person familiar with the terms who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because neither side revealed specific details of the latest stunning development with one of North America's marquee sports teams.

ESPN first reported that Kushner and Iger are buying the NBA's most valuable franchise. The Lakers were valued last year at $10 billion — a record for a pro sports team — when Mark Walter purchased a controlling stake from the Buss family, which had owned the team since 1979.

“As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honored for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world,” Iger and Kushner said in a statement. “We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss. Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.”

Kushner, a venture capitalist, and former Walt Disney Company CEO Iger had been working together on landing a possible NBA expansion team for Las Vegas. By buying the Lakers, they don't have to wait until the possibility of expansion in the 2028-29 season at the earliest.

Lakers icon Magic Johnson, a partner in Walter's ownership of baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, praised the deal on social media.

“Laker fans, you couldn’t have two better owners,” Johnson wrote. “I’ve known Bob personally for over 40 years — he has always loved the Lakers and basketball and he will bring championships back to LA.”

The sale still will need approval from the NBA’s board of governors, and that process can take several weeks. The next board meeting is set for September in New York.

The $12.5 billion price tag is not only a record for U.S. pro sports but a new summit in skyrocketing NBA franchise values. Only three years ago, Michael Jordan sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets for a $3 billion valuation, while the Boston Celtics were sold last year to private equity mogul Bill Chisholm at a valuation of just over $6 billion.

Walter’s agreement to purchase a controlling stake in the Lakers at the $10 billion valuation last summer obliterated that mark, and now Iger and Kushner have pushed the bar even higher.

The 66-year-old Walter’s shocking decision to sell after just 10 months of official ownership is reverberating throughout the team’s massive fan base, which appeared to be uniformly excited about the purchase last year. Walter has stewarded the Dodgers into the most successful stretch in franchise history, with three World Series championships in the past six seasons as the most aggressive spenders in baseball.

Multiple media outlets last month reported that Walter’s business empire is under scrutiny from both federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission in tax fraud investigations.

The Lakers are 17-time NBA champions who won their most recent title in 2020. They've made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, and their current roster is built around NBA scoring champion Luka Doncic, who is signed through the 2028-29 season. The Slovenian superstar has become passionate about Los Angeles and the Lakers less than two years after his arrival.

“Being a Laker means everything to me, and I’m excited to get back on the court and bring a championship to LA,” Doncic wrote on social media after hearing of the sale. “I’ve gotten used to big changes over these last few years, but I know that no matter what, there is no limit to the potential of this iconic franchise. I look forward to meeting Josh and Bob so we can get to work building something special in LA together.”

The 41-year-old Kushner has been a minority owner of two NBA teams, but he jumped into the international sports spotlight this summer when his capital holding company, Thrive Eternal, was set to be the “anchor investor” in FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in future World Cup profits. Infantino abandoned the idea on July 31.

Kushner’s older brother is Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Josh Kushner currently owns a minority stake in the Miami Heat, and he previously owned a stake in the Memphis Grizzlies.

The 75-year-old Iger became one of Hollywood’s most well-known executives while he ran Disney for two lengthy stints between 2005 and last March, when he stepped aside. Iger and his wife, former sports journalist Willow Bay, became the controlling owners of NWSL team Angel City FC in 2024 with a deal that valued the club at $250 million.

Walter’s purchase of the Lakers was approved by NBA owners last October. He originally bought a 27% minority stake in the team in 2021 before purchasing control of the team last year.

The Lakers' 17 championships going back to the franchise’s origin in Minneapolis are the second-most in NBA history behind Boston’s 18. It is a global brand, always at or near the top of the league’s merchandise-sales rankings.

This record sale price comes just weeks after LeBron James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, left the Lakers after eight seasons to become a free agent. James ultimately decided to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Walter and his team had already begun to make extensive changes to the Lakers, who were often perceived as an antiquated franchise in many aspects during their decades of Buss family ownership.

The Lakers had beefed up their basketball operations department with new hires in the front office around longtime general manager Rob Pelinka. They also boosted the business side with extensive searches for new revenue, including sales of new jersey patches and additional prominent sponsorship deals.

When Walter bought his controlling interest in the Lakers, the deal specified that Jeanie Buss would stay on as the team’s governor. With new ownership, it’s unclear whether Buss will have a continuing role in the team she inherited along with her siblings from her father, Jerry Buss, who died in 2013.

Along with the Dodgers, Walter and his various partners also have ownership interests in the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, English Premier League club Chelsea, the Professional Women’s Hockey League and the new Cadillac Formula 1 racing team.

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AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

A 4-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell on a home in Geneva, Indiana, during Tuesday's storms, the Jennings County Sheriff's Office said. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine said a resident of Roseville died during a health emergency when first responders, faced with flooded roads, couldn’t reach them. Officials in Portage, Indiana, were investigating whether the severe weather played a role in a reported house explosion that killed a person.

Lightning struck a prison complex southwest of Cleveland on Tuesday, injuring 16 incarcerated people who were hospitalized, according to the Ohio Department of Corrections. DeWine said four remained hospitalized as of Wednesday, including one with severe injuries.

Authorities in Ohio and western Pennsylvania reported numerous water rescues. DeWine sent 40 Ohio Army National Guard members to help in two counties east of Columbus.

In Athens County, Ohio, nearly 300 people called 911 for help on Tuesday, including 42 involving vehicles stuck in floods, with more calls Wednesday as high waters flowed toward the Ohio River, said the emergency management director, Teresa Fouts-Imler.

Floodwaters barged into Kaitlyn Rodgers’ home in Crooksville, Ohio, early Tuesday morning, reaching knee deep as it stranded her and her husband and four children. With the currents too strong to make it out themselves, they were rescued by firefighters in a boat in the predawn darkness.

"Water just started pouring into the house," she said. “Because of my house being very old, when the water was coming up I was very worried about the electric outlets that were on the floor, because there was water literally coming out of them so I was afraid that my children were going to get shocked.”

She added, “It was just very scary.”

The storms pummeled a wide swath of the Midwest

Storm damage was reported from the Chicago area to western Pennsylvania, and the National Weather Service said threats of severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall will continue over the next few days in the Midwest, Ohio Valley and central Appalachians.

Nearly 700,000 customers were without power mid-day Wednesday in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, down a few thousand from the morning, according to poweroutage.us.

In Columbus, Ohio, Mayor Andrew Ginther declared an emergency on Wednesday, to give the capital city time to grapple with continuing power outages and clean-up from significant storm damage, he said at a news conference. Trees and wires were down in many areas.

The National Weather Service said it confirmed three tornadoes in counties south of Chicago.

Tornado warning sirens howled Tuesday as the skies darkened in the Chicago area. All flights were temporarily stopped at Chicago’s two major airports, and officials warned of delays as the backlog was cleared.

Heavy rains and high winds damaged homes, inundated neighborhoods

Photos posted on social media from the Chicago area and across the state line in Indiana showed flooded roads, trees tangled in power lines and homes with gashes in their roofs.

“No power. It was very scary. We were down in the basement,” said Javid Jenkins of Homewood, a Chicago suburb. “We’re built for snow. We’re built for cold. We’re not built for this.”

Jenkins, 54, said he was driving around for gas to fire up a generator to preserve food in his refrigerator.

Forecasters said a wind gust of 99 mph (159 kph) was recorded in Gary, Indiana. Elsewhere there were numerous reports of gusts of 80 mph (128 kph) or more at personal weather stations.

Preliminary information indicated that the intense system that swept from Iowa into Indiana over several hours qualified as a derecho, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday evening. Derechos are prolonged straight-line wind events that unleash heavy rainfall and travel far distances. The damage they cause is sometimes comparable to the destructive forces of tornadoes or hurricanes.

“Total devastation. No roof,” said Kerry Hourigan, standing outside her home of 25 years in Tinley Park, another Chicago suburb. “Stupid thing, but my focus was I just bought a new barbecue grill, and I have no idea where that is. It’s disappeared.”

Meteorologist Scott Baker said the Midwest was on the outer edge of a “ring of fire,” bringing waves of excessive moisture, instability and storms.

Dayton, Ohio, set a daily rainfall record with 2.07 inches (5.25 cm), shattering a mark set in 1915, the weather service said. Forecasters said multiple rounds of rain would cause flood hazards in the Ohio Valley through early Friday.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press writer Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed.

The clashes were part of a government operation against what it calls members of “ Fitna Al Hindustan, ” a term Pakistani authorities use for Baloch separatist groups that Islamabad alleges are backed by India. New Delhi denies supporting militants in Pakistan.

The military said two soldiers were also wounded. The car bombing took place in the province's district of Surab.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but least populous province and has long faced a separatist insurgency led by the outlawed ethnic Baloch Liberation Army. The BLA has carried out numerous attacks in recent years, often targeting security forces, Chinese interests and infrastructure projects.

Balochistan has also seen attacks by Pakistani Taliban who are a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban.

Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down the much smaller U.S.-led operations against the Islamic State group.

U.S. troops pulled out of bases in most areas of Iraq last year but maintained a presence in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region. Bases there have regularly come under attack since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met with Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads the U.S. Central Command, on Wednesday. Al-Zaidi said in a statement afterward that he had affirmed Sept. 30 as the “fixed and final date for ending the military mission of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Iraq and completing the departure of its forces.”

A U.S. official confirmed that the U.S. expects to complete its pullout by Sept. 30, but declined to say how many troops remain in Iraq or where they would be redeployed.

“The United States, Iraq and coalition partners have achieved tremendous success in defeating ISIS and now the Iraqi security forces, including the Peshmerga and other Iraqi Kurdistan Region security forces, will lead the fight against terrorists in Iraq,” the official said.

Two Iraqi Kurdish officials said a drawdown of U.S. troops and military equipment from Erbil began about three weeks ago.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The U.S. presence in Iraq grew to more than 170,000 troops at the peak of counterinsurgency operations in 2007. In December 2011, the final combat troops departed. But in 2014, the rise of the Islamic State group and its capture of a wide swath across Iraq and Syria brought U.S. forces back at the Iraqi government's invitation.

After IS lost its hold on territory it once claimed, coalition military operations ended in 2021. The U.S. maintained about 2,500 troops in Iraq for training and to conduct counter-IS operations with Iraq’s military.

Iraq also wants to disarm non-state groups

Iraq's prime minister has also set a Sept. 30 deadline for non-state armed groups in Iraq to give up their weapons, saying they will have no justification to carry arms once the foreign troops withdraw.

Some Iraqi militias have justified their existence by pointing to the U.S. military presence, which they describe as an occupation, although the current U.S. mission came at the invitation of the Iraqi government after IS militants rampaged across the country in 2014, seizing large swaths of territory.

It seems unlikely that the Iraqi government will meet its deadline for disarming non-state groups. Some of the country’s most powerful Iran-backed militias and have said they have no intention of giving up their weapons.

The state-run General Electricity Company said in a statement that a power substation in the city of Zawiya that links power plants to homes and businesses was completely burned down.

The city of about 250,000 people has been rattled by a series of drone strikes that hit oil and power facilities. Zawiya is home to critical energy infrastructure, including Libya’s largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the drone strikes.

The attacks come as tensions are rising between the government of Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, who governs western Libya, and warlord Mohamed Bahroun, who controls the city of Zawiya. Much of western Libya is ruled by local militias loosely allied to Dbeibah’s government in Tripoli.

The country has been divided for years between rival administrations, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Dbeibah governs western Libya and the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad governs the eastern part of the country.

The power company said the attack resulted in outages across southern parts of the city, which is located about 47 kilometers (29 miles) west of the capital Tripoli. Footage shared by the company showed massive flames and fireballs erupting from the facility.

Dbeibah denounced the attacks on energy and power installations as “a serious crime and an escalation that will not go unanswered.”

“We will reach those responsible for this attack, and the accountability will be firm. No one will be protected by their position, status, or influence,” he said in a statement.

On Monday, a drone strike hit a fuel-laden tank at Zawiya's refinery, igniting a massive blaze which firefighters battled for over 15 hours. The refinery was repeatedly attacked over the weekend and on Tuesday, according to the state-run National Oil Corporation.

The power plant was hit by two drones on Tuesday, with one damaging its firefighting system while the second landed close to the facility’s main fuel storage, setting it on fire, the electricity company said.

After Tuesday’s attack on the power plant, the U.S. company General Electric withdrew its teams from the facility “until security conditions and a suitable and safe work environment are ensured,” the electricity company said. GE performs maintenance and upgrading services for the plant.

GE previously withdrew its staff from the plant over security concerns, prolonging the loss of more than 700 megawatts of the station’s production capacity, estimated at 1300 megawatts, the electricity company said.

The violence came as Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Dbeibah and Mohammad Younes Menfi, chairman of the Presidential Council in Tripoli on Tuesday, before traveling Wednesday to the eastern city of Benghazi to meet with powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter.

Turkey is the main foreign backer of Dbeibah's government, but in recent years has also reached out to the rival authorities in eastern Libya in an attempt to mend ties, and as part of regional efforts to unify the North African country.

Libya, an oil-rich country on the Mediterranean, has been wracked by conflict since a NATO-backed uprising-turned-civil war toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Milagros “Millie” Ortiz died in January after a collision involving an OPD patrol vehicle at South Semoran Boulevard and Hoffner Avenue.

“We want justice for my mother,” said Judy Santiago, Ortiz’s daughter in July. “There has to be accountability.”

The lawsuit targets OPD.

While stopped at a red light, Orlando Police Officer Andrew McKuhen reportedly spotted another driver making an illegal U-turn.

As the officer began entering the intersection, the video shows he activated the patrol vehicle’s emergency lights, which appeared steady rather than flashing.

A witness does not recall hearing a siren.

Seconds later, the emergency lights turned off entirely and remained dark as the officer accelerated through the intersection and into the path of an SUV carrying Ortiz home from a bingo game.

Ortiz, who was sitting in the front passenger seat of her friend’s Jeep, later died at a hospital.

“We think $92 million, representing a million dollars for each year of her life, is equitable,” said attorney Benjamin Crump.

Crump and the Ortiz family have scheduled a news conference Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.

Orlando police have declined to comment while the agency conducts an internal investigation.

In marquee Senate primaries in Michigan and Minnesota, progressive candidates defeated two members of Congress with significant backing from party leaders. Wisconsin voters narrowly rejected a democratic socialist but still chose a 40-year-old county executive who is seeking to become the state’s first Black governor. And in Connecticut, voters ousted one of the longest-serving Democrats in Congress for a challenger who campaigned on generational change.

The results so far this month deliver no clear ideological mandate. Instead, they add to mounting evidence from this year’s primaries of a Democratic appetite for turnover that is cutting across the party’s traditional divisions.

“The through line between these races isn't ideology. It's impatience with this political system that feels disconnected from the urgency voters feel,” said Lis Smith, a national Democratic strategist. "The demand for change is much broader than the demand for socialism.”

The immediate challenge for Democrats is whether they can harness the frustration fueling revolts against their own party and turn it against Republicans in November. Beyond that looms the 2028 presidential race, when a new generation of leaders will compete to shape a changing Democratic Party.

“If leaders in our party don’t recognize that we need to make changes, then the changes are going to come from the ground up,” Luke Bronin, a former mayor who defeated 14-term Connecticut Rep. John Larson in Tuesday’s primary, said in his victory speech. “That’s a message our party needs to hear.”

Progressives are ascendant, but Wisconsin shows their limits

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong hoped to ride the wave of recent progressive victories, including Abdul El-Sayed’s upset in neighboring Michigan’s U.S. Senate primary a week earlier, to the Democratic nomination for governor in Wisconsin.

Instead, she narrowly lost to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a more moderate Democrat who had the backing of outgoing Gov. Tony Evers.

Hong’s defeat also came after a number of her past comments resurfaced, including support for defunding the police and a call to cancel Thanksgiving, which she said was a joke. Unlike El-Sayed, Hong didn't receive the backing of some of the nation’s most prominent progressive leaders, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The result illustrates a tension for the party’s ascendant left flank. Candidates running on populist economic messages have found growing success with Democratic voters. But some positions associated with the progressive movement’s recent past remain vulnerabilities — particularly among voters worried about electability in November.

“A lot of Democrats are traditionalists on things like culture issues. This is not about culture, it's about economics. It's about corruption,” said David Axelrod, who was an adviser to President Barack Obama. “The closer that candidates hew to those issues, the larger the base they're going to be able to accumulate.”

That tension was evident Tuesday for Sarah Atkins Hoggatt, 61, who said she agreed with Hong on some issues but worried that Hong’s deeply progressive politics and the democratic socialist label would make it harder for her to defeat Republican Tom Tiffany. She voted for Crowley.

“I didn’t vote my heart,” Atkins Hoggatt said.

Progressives scored a much clearer victory in Minnesota, where Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan resoundingly defeated centrist Rep. Angie Craig. Craig had the backing of House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several senators from battleground states.

Flanagan had her own powerful allies, including Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and outgoing Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith. She also sought to turn Craig’s advantages against her, highlighting her support from wealthy donors and attacking her vote for a Trump-backed immigration bill that became a liability after immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

As in Michigan, the winning progressive candidate was significantly outspent.

“For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many versus the money,” Flanagan said as she celebrated her victory in Minneapolis. “Well guess what? The many just won.”

The contrasting results in Minnesota and Wisconsin underscore why November will provide a more consequential test of the progressive movement’s gains. El-Sayed and Flanagan must now prove that the messages that powered their primary victories can resonate with a broader voting pool in the general election.

Democrats are hungry for change

Flanagan is 46 years old. Crowley is 40. And El-Sayed is 41. But nowhere was the demand for generational change more explicit Tuesday than in Connecticut.

Bronin, 47, defeated the 78-year-old Larson — who was first elected to Congress in 1998. A central theme of Bronin’s campaign was the need for a new generation of leadership in Washington.

Larson became the seventh Democratic House incumbent to lose a primary this year, many of them to younger challengers. The defeated incumbents and the Democrats replacing them span ideological lines, making the wave of losses difficult to explain simply as a shift to the left.

The push for generational turnover has taken on greater urgency since Democrats’ defeats in 2024, when concerns about President Joe Biden’s age ultimately ended his reelection campaign and forced the party into an uncomfortable reckoning over a generation of leaders who had remained in power for decades.

Bronin himself has connected his challenge to that experience. Earlier this year, he argued that Democrats needed “new members of Congress, new Democratic leaders who have the energy and courage and clarity of mission that this moment demands.”

That sentiment was evident among voters in Larson’s district. Dan Schnaidt, a 73-year-old Democrat, said he appreciated Larson’s service but believed it was time to move on.

“It’s time for new blood, for new ideas,” Schnaidt said.

The generational divide extends to the electorate

While Hong fell just short in Wisconsin, the strength of her insurgent campaign highlighted another force reshaping Democratic politics: younger voters.

Cody Chandler, a 35-year-old software engineer, voted for Hong and called her “probably the most exciting candidate I’ve seen.” Unlike in elections past, Chandler said, he voted for the candidate he most wanted to win rather than the one he considered most electable.

Jesse Heer, a 32-year-old Madison business owner, also backed Hong, citing her focus on affordability.

That support showed up geographically. Hong won Madison, home to the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus, by nearly 7 percentage points, though it wasn't a big enough of a margin to help her win the nomination.

A similar pattern helped propel El-Sayed to victory a week earlier in Michigan.

El-Sayed won Washtenaw County, home to the University of Michigan, by nearly 25 percentage points and Ingham County, home to Michigan State University, by 23 points. He also won Grand Rapids, with its large population of younger, college-educated voters, by nearly 26 points.

Jordan Snyder, a 20-year-old Michigan voter who supported El-Sayed, said she backed him because of his progressive positions and because she viewed him as someone she could trust, rather than “someone who I feel could be bought and sold.”

“People are feeling like a lot of the people that they’ve trusted that have been in government haven’t really been living up to expectations,” Snyder said.

——-

Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, Tim Sullivan in Hudson, Wisconsin and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

“At its current pace, it's on track to eclipse the West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. That outbreak horrified the world and jolted efforts to develop a vaccine.

The outbreak in eastern Congo, considered the fastest-growing in history, has killed over 2,000 people out of more than 4,300 cases. The outbreak was declared on May 15, but health authorities now say sequencing showed it began months earlier, in February.

It is unlike recent Ebola outbreaks because the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for it has no approved vaccines or treatments, though efforts to address that are underway.

WHO says this outbreak ‘had a big head start’

Experts say this outbreak is moving faster than efforts to track and manage it in a remote part of eastern Congo facing ongoing conflict, near the borders with South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.

Most new cases and deaths are being reported in communities outside the reach of health workers in a region of poor infrastructure and ill-equipped health centers. Some workers have gone on strike over lack of pay. Misinformation about the virus circulates in communities where some are wary of outsiders, keeping some people from clinics.

“The outbreak had a big head start, still way ahead of us. and we’re playing catch-up,” Tedros said.

Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO's director for health emergency alert and response operations, said the agency expects the peak of the outbreak to be reached in six months.

“But ... that’s the moderate scenario,” Mahamud said. “There is a one-case scenario where this outbreak may last nine months to 12 months."

This Ebola outbreak has killed more people at a faster rate than any other, including the 2014-2016 outbreak that had at least 28,000 cases. That one took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

Two vaccines for this type are being tested

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted from bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen and from contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Clinical trials of two possible treatments for this type of Ebola began last month in Ituri, the most affected of the five provinces where cases have been reported.

Two vaccines developed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus are now being tested in people for the first time, Tedros said Wednesday.

WHO also plans to test whether an existing Ebola vaccine could protect people against the virus after studies in animals showed promising results.

The origins of the outbreak are becoming increasingly clear.

A study published in Nature Medicine on Monday added evidence that the outbreak began when the virus jumped from an infected animal to a person, rather than stemming from earlier outbreaks. Researchers found the virus is genetically different from versions seen in Bundibugyo Ebola outbreaks in 2007 and 2012.

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Dazio reported from Berlin and Banchereau from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed.

Invest 92L

Invest 92L is the area that will be watched most closely over the coming days. It is currently in the central tropical Atlantic and is expected to move into the Caribbean by the weekend.

Conditions are primed for development with a depression forming likely soon. However, it will face some obstacles as it moves west, including dry air and wind shear, which could limit how much it strengthens.

The system is still several days away from the Caribbean, and there is no threat to Florida at this time. Its eventual strength and track will depend on how well it can organize along the way.

While there is no threat to Florida at this time, this one system in particular will be worth watching as it heads toward the Caribbean.

Tropical Storm Cristobal

Cristobal is currently about 880 miles west of the Azores, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. The storm is racing east at about 25 mph and is expected to gradually weaken before dissipating Thursday.

This area will remain a fish storm with no landfall likely.

Eastern Tropical Wave

Another tropical wave fresh off the western coast of Africa, is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms and could gradually become better organized as it moves westward across the Atlantic.

Development chances remain relatively low, with a 30% chance of formation over the next seven days.

The next name on the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season list is Dolly.

“Maybe I never loved you / But anyway, I thought I did / I married you, we had a kid,” she sings in a ballad you could imagine Simon addressing to her ex-husband, James Taylor. “And maybe you never loved me / Although God knows you said you did.”

Simon announced last month that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease while recording “Comes in Waves,” and that she also had surgery to remove a cancerous skin growth. But this album feels less like an ending than a continuation of themes and events that have inspired and defined her from early in her career — yearning, discontent, desire, uncertainty, her marriage to Taylor and the loss of her father, the publisher Richard Simon, who died when Carly was in her teens.

“Howl” is the album's lead track, first single and table setter — a midtempo rocker addressed to a heartbroken friend (or to herself?) whom Simon urges to “Get it out of your system / Bang your fists and beat your brow.”

The other songs unfold as if to dramatize the album's title, as Simon's mood shifts from defiance to regret to melancholy to resolve and a willingness to try again, a cycle cushioned (to a fault) by the literal-minded production and arrangements of David Spencer, Frank Filipetti and son Ben Taylor among others.

“Comes in Waves” includes a remaster of Simon's decades-old political song “Share the End,” and elsewhere echoes moments from her previous records. “Maybe I Never Loved You,” inspired by the late playwright Tim Mayer, feels like Simon's version of “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes),” the Hoagy Carmichael standard she covered on her 1981 “Torch” album. “The Father-Daughter Dance” suggests the pain of a ballad about her father from the early 1970s, “Embrace Me, You Child.”

Simon also teases courtship (“Peaches”); celebrates parenthood (“Mother of Pearl,” a tribute to daughter and “child of divorce” Sally Taylor); and savors life's “wild ride” (“Love the Way I Do”).

The catchiest song is by a departed friend, the late Judy Belushi, widow of comedian John Belushi: “Four in the Morning” has a close-up, tiptoeing pace fitting for lyrics about an unhappy wife who slips away from her snoring husband.

Simon, who turned 83 this year, doesn't hit all the notes of her best known records, but she has lost none of her gifts for taking hold of a melody, and putting her whole self into the words. Her musical journey has always been personal, and longtime Simon fans are the most likely to enjoy catching up with her. Others may feel like they had to be there.

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“Comes in Waves,” by Carly Simon

Three stars out of five

On repeat: “Love the Way I Do,” “Four in the Morning”

Skip it: “Share the End”

For fans of: Carly Simon, most of all, and of pop torch singers in general.

The series released the locations and dates for the first eight races of the upcoming season. This will be the 17th time IndyCar has started a season at St. Petersburg.

“The start to this year’s 2026 season was action-packed, and it’s gratifying to know the stage is set for a return to that frantic pace in 2027,” IndyCar President J. Douglas Boles said. “St. Pete has become an ideal host to begin our season."

IndyCar will open 2027 racing three straight weekends with the series going to Phoenix Raceway on March 13 and the streets of Arlington in Texas on March 21. This will be the second straight year and only the fifth time in the IndyCar series' 118 years that a season starts with races on three consecutive weekends.

The series takes a break before two races in April at Barber Motorsports Park on April 4 and Long Beach on April 18. Then it's off to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the road course race May 15 and the 111th Indianapolis 500. The final race announced will be June 6 on the streets of Detroit.

Mark Miles, president and chief executive officer of Penske Entertainment, said it’s been another year of growth with 2026 being "proof of concept that our sport is fueled by an expanding presence across marquee events and destinations, and we look forward to carrying that momentum into 2027.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing

The chance for McCarthy to lead his hometown team brought the first-year Pittsburgh Steelers coach to tears when he was hired in January. The image last April of Heidenreich walking onto the draft stage in full Naval dress uniform outside Acrisure Stadium — just a few miles from the Mount Lebanon neighborhood where he grew up — felt like something out of a movie.

Their respective homecomings have provided plenty of “fairy tale” narratives during an eventful offseason for the typically low-key Steelers. And while there will be a little bit of “hey, is this really happening?” on Thursday night when they walk onto the field for the first time as the Steelers host Green Bay in the preseason opener, they're both aware of the reality check that awaits under the lights.

“Naturally, there’s some people that might assume that it was like you said, like a hometown pick or whatever, whatever someone wants to say,” Heidenreich said. “But I’m here to play football, and that’s it.”

Good thing, because evolving from a seventh-round flyer following a record-setting career at Navy — where he set program marks for career receiving yards and receiving touchdowns — into an NFL roster spot will take some doing. Nobody knows that more than the 6-foot, 206-pound Heidenreich, who politely dismissed comparisons between himself and San Francisco 49ers running back and 2023 NFL Offense Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey.

Both are on the smaller side, sure. And yes, both are shifty. But one came to the league as a Heisman Trophy finalist and a first-round pick. And it wasn't Heidenreich.

“He’s a fantastic player and one of the best to ever do it,” he said. “And he’s just someone that I look up to and really try to do my best to model him in certain ways. But yeah, I do see the (comparisons) and I know people get pretty fired up one way or the other about them.”

Heidenreich wants no part of that discussion. He's too focused on trying to carve out a niche in Pittsburgh, where his best chance to avoid getting cut for the first time in his life will be as a contributor on special teams.

While the chance for reps at running back might be difficult to come by — though Heidenreich has basically attached himself to backfield coach Ramon Chinyoung since camp started — his elusiveness could make him an intriguing option as a kick returner.

Whether Heidenreich gets any opportunities against the Packers in front of dozens of friends and family members who will make the short drive to Acrisure Stadium is uncertain. He tweaked his hamstring recently, which limited him for a stretch, though his No. 29 was noticeable during a walkthrough on Tuesday.

Either way, it figures to be a “pinch-me” type of moment when he jogs onto the field and looks up, a point of view that will be markedly different from the one he enjoyed as a fan.

“It’s an honor to just get out there and play in that stadium," he said. “I think that’s the best way for me to put it. It’s something that I have dreamed of for a long time."

How long the dream lasts now that he's exchanged his fandom for a uniform with his name across the back is up to him.

“Preseason is really important,” he said. “So I've got to put my best foot forward and be locked in when I get there.”

The same goes for McCarthy, though perhaps for different reasons. He's walked onto the turf a handful of times during his career, but has never stood on the home sideline. He figures the significance will start to hit as he makes the drive in.

The fact that he gets to begin what is likely the final chapter of his head coaching career against the team where it all began makes it just a little sweeter.

“Obviously, having a personal and professional connection to Green Bay, that’s part of my life,” he said.

Of course, all the nostalgia will wear off once the ball is kicked. Then the more pressing needs of the moment — like figuring out how much progress his group has made during his first camp and seeing what he has to work with in young quarterbacks Will Howard and Drew Allar — will take over.

And in a way, it will be a relief. While he has embraced all the trappings of being the hometown boy made good, the Steelers didn't hire him to curry favor with the fanbase but to win games. The process starts in earnest on Thursday.

“I just want to see these young guys play," he said. "I want to see how they play connected to each other. The pre-snap of the operation, having an understanding of what’s in front of them ... This is what these games are for."

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

The number of people on board Tuesday was unclear as estimates reached as high as 153 people on a government agency-operated ferry whose capacity, authorities said, was just 90.

“Some of us survived by standing on top of the capsized hull,” one of the two crew members who survived, Anyway Chambati, told state broadcaster ZBC News. “Before it went down, passengers were screaming at us that the boat was flooding, water was pouring into the engine room and goods were spilling out.”

Chambati said he was in charge of ticketing and that he counted 153 people on board, including crew and infants, before the disaster.

Multiple witnesses told ZBC that passengers urged the captain to turn back as waves grew perilous, only to be dismissed. When water surged into the vessel, chaos erupted as frantic travelers scrambled for life jackets beneath their seats.

"We argued with him right at the harbor. We told him the waves were too dangerous," one woman said. “A bag fell overboard before we had even left, and we pointed it out, but he refused to listen.”

Passengers told the broadcaster that bags, dishes and beer bottles began toppling overboard within minutes of setting off.

“About 30 minutes in, we begged again to abort and return, more goods were falling, the wave was getting worse and water was gushing into one side of the boat, but (the captain) just said, ‘My boat has never sunk anyone.’ He even refused to call for help,” another survivor told the broadcaster.

The woman described some people floating in the water and clutching sacks of goods while help did not arrive for nearly an hour.

The captain was among the dead, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the incident a state of disaster to enable the government to mobilize “extraordinary measures and resources” to assist victims.

Police on X said bodies had been retrieved from the lake that forms part of the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, but they did not update how many people were injured or missing.

Zimbabwe’s disaster management agency has said the ferry was carrying at least 114 adult passengers and five crew members, and that 77 people had been rescued.

But the real number was not clear because the figures only included those who bought tickets, and children below ticketing age could have been on board. The state broadcaster reported that children were among the dead.

The ferry is used to take people from rural communities around the lake to the town of Kariba on the shore.

Mutsa Murombedzi, a local member of Parliament, posted a video Tuesday of what she said were people on shore waving at the ferry when it set off. Some of the people expressed concern whether the aging ferry could handle strong waves, according to the video.

Kariba is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume and was created in the late 1950s and early 1960s by building a dam on the Zambezi River. The huge lake is now more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) long and up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) wide in places.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The Knicks will travel to Philadelphia to face the 76ers on Oct. 30 on the opening night of NBA Cup games, the league announced Wednesday.

The teams are already scheduled to meet in the Oct. 20 season opener at Madison Square Garden, when the Knicks will get their NBA championship rings before James plays his first game since signing with the 76ers last month.

This is the fourth season of the NBA Cup, the league's in-season tournament. Games in the group stage will be played Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Nov. 13, Nov. 20, Nov. 24, Nov. 25 and Nov. 27, when the Knicks will host Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Miami Heat.

The Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the title game last year, then became the first NBA Cup champions to refuse to hang a banner to acknowledge the achievement. They will hang the banner they really wanted — their first since 1973 — on opening night after beating the Spurs again for the NBA championship in June.

The Knicks-76ers matchup in East Group B will open a Prime Video doubleheader, followed by the Lakers at Golden State in West Group C.

Quarterfinal play will be Dec. 4 and 5, with the semifinals on Dec. 8 and/or Dec. 9, all at team sites. The championship game will be Dec. 11 at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the first time it has been staged outside Las Vegas.

The league will release the entire 2026-27 schedule on Thursday at 3 p.m. EDT. It revealed the schedule for opening night and Christmas on Tuesday.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

With longtime chair Teresa Jacobs retiring, two sitting board members are competing to run a $7 billion organization at a moment of falling enrollment, tightening budgets and rising tension over what schools should be. The seat is officially nonpartisan. The race between District 3’s Alicia Farrant and District 1’s Angie Gallo has been anything but.

The clearest divide starts with a simple question: is the district, as it stands right now, a success? Orange County carries an A rating from the state, yet roughly half its students still read below grade level even as it graduates about 97% of them.

Asked whether that adds up, Farrant said it does not. “If a little 50% are reading on grade level and yet we’re graduating 97% of the children, that doesn’t add up to me,” she said, arguing the district needs “courageous leadership” willing to close those learning gaps rather than paper over them.

Gallo looked at the same numbers and saw progress. “I would say yes,” she said, noting that Orange County outperforms the state in reading and math proficiency. “We are actually raising the ceiling and the floor at the same time. So we’re really narrowing those achievement gaps.”

The work isn’t finished, she added, but the district has made “phenomenal progress” recovering from pandemic learning loss.

Both agree the district’s greatest strain is its teachers, who are fighting over a raise of around 1% while health care costs are projected to climb roughly 10%. Their fixes point in opposite directions.

Gallo wants to solve it locally, and specifically: a quarter-mill referendum whose dollars would flow directly into teacher and support-staff salaries. “We’re going to have to fix this problem locally, because I’ve been counting on Tallahassee for 20 years to fix the problem, and they just haven’t,” she said, adding that the district is also working to bring down pharmaceutical costs to ease the health care burden.

Farrant framed the answer as discipline rather than new revenue. “There are so many ways that we could really try to trim that fat and cut back on areas that maybe we’re spending a little frivolously,” she said, pointing to programs funded in flusher years. “Now I think we need to really look at what is essential, what do we need, and how can we use the extra funds to really help our teachers.”

[ELECTION 2026: Make sure you’re eligible to vote|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

That disagreement sharpens into the central fault line of the race: whether to ask taxpayers for more money. Both candidates support the one-mill renewal already on the November ballot, which they call necessary. It’s the additional quarter-mill that splits them.

Gallo said she would champion it. “I will be spearheading it if elected,” she said. Told that voters have watched the district close schools and cut teachers, and asked whether that makes a new tax a hard sell, she bet on public goodwill. “When you talk to the voters in Orange County, they love our teachers, and they’ve always been very supportive,” she said. “Our teachers deserve a living wage. I think it has a good shot.”

Farrant drew a hard line the other way. “I’m not into adding taxes. I don’t think we need to put that burden on the taxpayers,” she said.

Pressed on how the district closes its gap without new money, she pointed back to the cuts themselves. “How can I go to the taxpayers and say, we’ve closed schools this year, we’ve lost 6,000 students, but we need your money? There’s got to be other ways.” The savings, she said, have to come at the district level rather than the school level — “and some of those decisions, we’ll feel it.”

The race has also turned, at moments, to the culture-war fights that have consumed board meetings in recent years — and to the fact that the chair sets the agenda.

Farrant is on record pushing to pull certain books, and has weighed in on bathroom policies and LGBTQ+ History Month; asked how much of her time as chair those issues would command, she pivoted to academics.

“We should be spending our time focused on education, wholesome, foundational education,” she said, blaming district leaders and fellow board members for pushing cultural topics on students. She tied it directly to enrollment, claiming the majority of parents she’d spoken with who left the district “left because of the culture wars going on in the schools.”

Gallo drew the line at zero. “100% of what I’m going to be focusing on is what we’ve discussed previously, 0% on the cultural wars,” she said. “I’m here to represent all students, to support all students. I support our LGBTQ plus community.” She said she was running precisely because those fights had crowded out bigger problems at the board dais.

At its sharpest, the contest got personal, over whose children actually attend district schools. Gallo, a native Floridian who says she and both her children graduated from public schools, noted pointedly that “not all of my opponent’s children are currently in public schools,” framing her own two decades in public education as the contrast.

Farrant called the focus out of bounds. “I first find it kind of inappropriate that anybody would focus on my children or where they attend school,” she said, adding that her children grew up in Orange County schools and her two oldest graduated from Boone High School, her husband’s alma mater. “I would not be in this position if it did not affect my children.”

What voters are left with is two members of the same board offering opposite theories of the job — one defending the district’s direction and willing to ask the community to invest more in it, the other convinced the answer is to cut to the essentials and change course.

The nonpartisan primary is Aug. 18. Either way, Orange County is about to hand one of them the gavel — and the agenda — for a $7 billion district.

The Maumelle High student felt unusual movement inside his headgear following warmups last week and brought his helmet to an assistant coach for inspection. A slithering 2-foot cottonmouth was discovered behind some padding.

The pit viper was so reluctant to exit the helmet that animal control officers had to submerge the helmet in water and forced the snake out, grabbing it with tongs. Animal services technicians identified the snake as a deadly cottonmouth. It was released in a wooded area.

Cottonmouths are the second-most venomous snakes found in Arkansas.

Animal services director Chris Davis said the player wore the helmet for nearly an hour and was fortunate he wasn't bitten.

“It was unreal," Davis said. “You had to kind of be there and take pictures to say this was real.”

The player grabbed a different helmet and continued practice. But the situation caused the head coach to reiterate to his team that players should examine their equipment carefully before using it, checking for insects — or maybe something larger and more dangerous.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Cutting-edge drones developed by Kyiv since Moscow's full-scale invasion over four years ago have repeatedly targeted Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and oil tankers.

Ukraine's air and sea drones have succeeded in limiting the movements of Russia’s once-dominant Black Sea navy, Kyiv officials say, in one of the country’s biggest accomplishments of the war.

But Ukrainian officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is bent on pressing ahead with the war, despite his bigger army’s slow and costly progress on the battlefield and U.S. diplomatic efforts to find a settlement.

Putin is planning “an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday night on social media, citing Ukrainian intelligence reports.

Those reports have said recently that Russia is expanding production of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, both of which are hard for Ukrainian air defenses to counter.

Ukraine also is trying to scale up its weapons manufacturing through agreements with partner countries.

Russia shows no sign of a new mobilization

Neither Putin nor other senior Russian officials have hinted at a possible major call-up of forces to fight in Ukraine. Some officials have accused Kyiv of trying to rattle the Russian public with talk of a mobilization.

Russian lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov brushed off reports of a possible autumn mobilization. “It is the enemy deliberately spreading rumors about mobilization in order to destabilize the situation inside Russia,” he was quoted as saying by pro-Kremlin online outlet Tsargrad in comments published Monday.

After the widely unpopular partial mobilization of some 300,000 men four years ago, Russia has relied on volunteers attracted by relatively high pay. However, the decree declaring the partial mobilization that Putin signed in September 2022 is open-ended, allowing authorities to resume it if needed.

Ukraine says it hit Black Sea port infrastructure

The Ukrainian military “carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post Wednesday. The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure, he added.

Russia relocated most of its naval ships to Novorossiysk after Ukrainian strikes on the main Black Sea base at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula earlier in the war.

Hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar region overnight, said Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

An 8-year-old child was one of three people killed in the attack on the region, Kondratyev said. He added that 24 others in the region were wounded. Dozens of residential buildings were damaged, Kondratyev said, and debris from downed drones fell on the grounds of four industrial plants.

The strikes damaged two of Novorossiysk’s three grain terminals, with one of them halting operations, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones.

Struck Russian port is also a key oil hub

Novorossiysk also is home to the Grushovaya oil terminal, one of the largest international hubs in southern Russia for petroleum products. No reports indicated it had been hit.

In February, the U.S. State Department expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they affected U.S. oil interests in ⁠Kazakhstan.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwestern Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk. The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major U.S. energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.

With the militaries of European countries boarding and detaining sanctioned Russian oil tankers at sea, hurting the country’s trade and heaping economic pressure on Moscow, Putin on Wednesday threatened retaliation for what he termed “piracy.”

Speaking on a visit to a Russian warship taking part in a naval exercise in the Pacific, Putin said Western countries are breaking international maritime law by seizing ships they say are part of Moscow’s “ shadow fleet ” of sanctions-dodging merchant vessels.

“It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

On the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones over Sevastopol overnight, said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city’s Russian-installed head. He added that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged.

Russian drones kill 2 and destroy a shopping mall in Ukraine

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 138 long-range drones as well as an unspecified number of missiles during the night, with damage recorded at 16 locations.

In the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, a large-scale Russian drone attack overnight killed two people and wounded two others, said regional head Oleksandr Prokudin.

The attacks also destroyed a shopping mall in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to authorities.

Missiles and long-range drones hit fuel reservoirs and infrastructure used for unloading and storing military cargo in the port of Chornomorsk in Ukraine’s Odesa region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

A bulk cargo vessel carrying military equipment and a tanker loaded with oil for the Ukrainian armed forces also were hit in Odesa, it said.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

“I don't know what I'm going to do without you,” the post said in Spanish, shared on Messi's Instagram. “I don't know how to keep going. All I ever did was play soccer, and now I have serious doubts about whether I'll keep doing it for much longer.”

Jorge Messi — who played a fundamental role in the soccer star's career, serving as his agent and managing his business affairs — died Saturday. He was 68.

Lionel Messi led Argentina to a runner-up finish in this summer's World Cup. In the team’s first match, against Algeria, he was visibly emotional after scoring the first of his three goals. He said later that he wept for “a reason unrelated to sports.”

“You asked me to play in this last World Cup so many times and just before it started was when you took a turn for the worse," the post said. “It was the first time you weren't going to be at the tournament. But mom kept telling me that you were going to get better and that you'd be well enough to travel. I kept telling you that we were going to make it to the final so you could travel.”

The post added that Messi “wanted to win it” for his father.

“I couldn't,” the post continued. “My legs had nothing left. This time I tried to push beyond what my body could handle, but I couldn't. I never managed to feel right.”

Messages of support for the Messi family have poured in over recent days. Messi had returned to his native Argentina and missed his MLS club Inter Miami's recent Leagues Cup match against Monterrey.

Inter Miami concludes the group phase of the tournament Wednesday night against León, though coach Guillermo Hoyos said Tuesday there is no timetable for Messi's return.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

The Putri Yasmin ferry was traveling from Bali to the neighboring island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara province when the fire broke out at about 4:15 a.m. The ferry was also transporting 44 vehicles and 53 motorcycles.

The Search and Rescue Office in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, received an emergency report almost half an hour later and immediately deployed personnel and rescue vessels.

“Our top priority is the safety of all passengers and crew members,” said Muhammad Hariyadi, who heads the Mataram Search and Rescue Office.

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed people wearing life jackets crowding an inflatable life raft in choppy waters during a rescue operation at sea, as thick black smoke billows from the ferry.

The rescue agency said that as of Wednesday afternoon, rescuers evacuated 211 people from the burned vessel, including 2 Australian tourists, and recovered the body of a 19-year-old Indonesian woman.

Initial reports had said the ferry was carrying 131 people, including 17 crew members, based on the ship’s manifest.

However, hours after the incident, officials said more people were aboard than listed. It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers on a boat or ferry to differ from the manifest.

Authorities have not yet explained why the number of people evacuated exceeded the total listed on the initial passenger manifest. Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said officials will look into the discrepancy.

“The findings will be thoroughly reviewed as part of the ministry’s evaluation,” Purwagandhi said. “This is a serious issue that will be thoroughly investigated.”

He said investigators were determining the cause of the fire.

Syamsurizal, head of the Lembar Port Authority in Lombok, said that survivors told authorities the blaze appeared to have started in a cargo truck before quickly spreading through the ferry. The heat forced some passengers to jump into the sea, he said.

“The response operation is ongoing, and authorities are continuing to account for all victims,” said Syamsurizal, who like many Indonesians uses a single name. He said at least two injured passengers were rushed to a nearby hospital.

Hariyadi said the rescue effort was supported by six vessels, a helicopter, two inflatable boats and two private yachts. He said rough seas with waves reported as high as 4 meters (13 feet) complicated rescue efforts.

Wednesday's incident happened less than two weeks after another Indonesian ferry, the Mutiara Sentosa 2, caught fire in waters off the main island of Java, leaving at least five people dead.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

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Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan and Andi Jatmiko in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

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 mild decrease is the second straight decline after sharply higher gas prices pushed inflation to 4.2% in May, a three-year high. Yet even with the pause, prices are still rising more quickly than average wages, underscoring the struggle many Americans have had paying for groceries, gas, and healthcare. And many costs grew last month, including airfares, computers, and used cars.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation slipped to 2.5% in July from a year ago, down from 2.6% in June. July’s figure matches a post-pandemic low reached in January and February, before the Iran war.

Core prices rose 0.2% from June to July. Monthly increases at about 0.2% would be low enough over time to bring inflation closer to the Fed’s 2% goal.

“America still has an inflation problem, but there are encouraging signs that price pressures outside of the gas pump are easing,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said.

Inflation report could make Fed rate hike less likely

Cooler inflation could also ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise their key interest rate to combat rising costs. Fed officials are sharply split over their next steps. Roughly half the members of the central bank's rate-setting committee support raising borrowing costs this year, while another half think rates are already high enough to slowly push inflation back to their 2% target.

“We're clearly not out of the woods, however it makes the Fed’s decision a little bit easier, because now you see that inflation is creeping down,” said Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade North America.

Still, oil prices remain elevated and gas prices rose in late July and August, suggesting overall inflation could accelerate next month. On Wednesday, gas averaged $4.04 a gallon nationwide, 16 cents higher than a month ago, according to the motor club AAA.

Inflation has been pushed higher by a series of shocks to the economy, including President Donald Trump’s tariffs imposed last spring, higher gas prices stemming from the U.S attack on Iran, and a surge in investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure that has boosted computer chip prices. The key question for the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve — not to mention for consumers struggling with high gas and grocery prices — is how quickly those one-time effects will fade or whether they will lead to persistently rising prices.

Some companies, however, are still struggling with higher costs from Trump's tariffs.

Julie Robbins, CEO of Earthquaker Devices, an Akron, Ohio-based maker of pedals used to create effects for guitars, said her company has paid $200,000 in tariffs this year and has had to raise prices twice to offset the costs.

Only a small amount of those tariffs have been refunded after the Supreme Court struck down Trump's emergency duties. Robbins is worried they will have to raise prices again as the White House has sought to impose new tariffs to replace the ones that lost due to the Supreme Court decision.

Her company's electric bills have also risen in recent months and the rising costs of fuel have pushed up her shipping costs.

“I am just seeing more and more costs going up all the time,” Robbins said. “The money we paid on tariffs, that easily could have paid for two or three more employees.”

Gas, grocery prices fell, while computers, airfares rose

Wednesday's report showed that gasoline prices fell 2.9% from June to July, and even grocery prices declined slightly, falling by 0.1%. Yet gas prices are 25% higher than a year ago. And groceries are 2.7% more expensive than a year earlier.

Hotel room prices dropped 2.8% from June to July, likely reflecting the end of the World Cup tournament. Clothing costs rose just 0.1%, though they are up 3.9% in the past year.

Other things are growing more expensive: Computer prices jumped 3.5% from June to July, reflecting a decision by Apple to sharply raise prices for its computers and tablets as AI spending pushes up the cost of semiconductors. Smartphone prices rose 1.1%.

Airline fares rose 2.2% from June to July as jet fuel prices spiral higher along with oil.

Price increases have stayed above the Fed's 2% target for more than five years, suggesting there is more than temporary factors at play.

The cost of services such as healthcare, restaurant meals, and car maintenance rose 3% in July from a year earlier, and they aren't particularly sensitive to gas prices or AI investment. Rising costs for services often reflect higher wages, as companies charge more to offset the cost of higher pay. But incomes aren't growing fast enough to sustain inflation, economists note.

It's a confounding situation that has left many economists — and Fed officials — seeking more information to determine where inflation is headed.

“You've got all these things that are just not the way the economy used to behave,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG, said.

For many consumers, years of sharply rising grocery prices have led them to adopt a wide range of coping strategies, from comparison shopping, to couponing, to cutting back on favorite foods.

Retailers, including Walmart, have responded by rolling back food prices, a trend that could have lowered July's inflation figures. Yet many other businesses are still passing on higher costs.

Paint company Sherwin-Williams is planning an 8% price increase in September to offset higher raw material costs, CEO Heidi Petz said late last month.

“We are seeing the impact of higher oil and related cost pressures, and we expect continued volatility throughout the balance of the year,” she said.

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AP Writer Anne D'Innocenzio contributed to this report from New York.

Michigan Avenue in Osceola County, a stretch long known for pedestrian and bicycle crashes, is set for major improvements after years of funding delays stalled the project.

“Very dangerous street,” said William Pentz, a pedestrian who regularly navigates the road.

With limited crosswalks, crowded bus stops and speeding drivers, crossing Michigan Avenue has long been a gamble for pedestrians and cyclists. A traffic study identified the corridor as having a high number of crashes and fatalities.

Glen McNealy, another pedestrian who uses the road regularly, said the dangers are hard to avoid, even when following the rules.

“It’s really busy, and it’s pretty hazardous to people,” McNealy said. “[Drivers are] speeding. They’re on their phones usually. The guy that almost hit me was on his phone.”

McNealy said he always waits for a crosswalk rather than crossing mid-block, but even that hasn’t kept him out of harm’s way.

“I’ve almost been hit there two times in the crosswalk while I’m where I was supposed to be, with the light,” he said.

While the improvement project was stalled because of funding in 2021, the county now says it is fully funded thanks to a Department of Housing and Urban Development grant awarded in 2023 and federal funds from the Local Agency Program.

Planned changes at six intersections along 2.74 miles of Michigan Avenue, between U.S. 192 and Osceola Parkway, include upgraded pedestrian crosswalks, new sidewalks and updated traffic signals.

McNealy said greater visibility for pedestrians at crossings would make a real difference.

“Oh, it’d be excellent because I’ve seen people almost get hit too. People cross like when they’re not supposed to in certain areas. I wait for the crosswalk, but like I said, that’s even dangerous,” he said.

Construction is set to begin next year. For more information on the project, click here.

The 30-foot (9-meter) model of a Dutch Kitchenette opened to the public last month as part of the 150th anniversary celebration of Coppes Napanee, one of two companies still in existence that manufactured the popular Hoosier cabinets more than a century ago. The cabinet name was coined after its largest producer, the Hoosier Manufacturing Co.

Dubbed the world’s largest Hoosier cabinet, the replica built against a brick background is equipped with stairs leading to a loft that visitors to the town of Nappanee can look out from. It overlooks Coppes Commons, the site of the original Coppes Napanee factory that has been converted to an indoor marketplace, artisan hub and museum. The company still produces custom cabinets next door.

Wesley Mast, owner and president of Coppes Napanee, said he typically hears two types of responses when visitors first see the giant cabinet.

“There’s the one extreme where people are like, ‘Why? Why such a big cabinet?’” Mast said. “And my response is always like, ‘Why not?’

“The other response we get is like, ‘That’s so cool. Where did you get this idea? I love it.’”

Mast said the cabinet “brings us another level of attention and branding and makes this place more of a destination than just a pass-through.”

The Hoosier cabinet is a freestanding kitchen workstation and storage area that centralized and sped up food preparation. The cabinets were popular from the 1890s through the 1930s but waned after World War II as built-in, wall-to-wall cabinetry became the norm in new home construction.

A century ago, “this was the kitchen,” Mast said. “This was kind of the first piece of furniture that went into the house as a kitchen and was considered all-in-one, the kitchen itself in just one piece.”

There were 5,000 dealers of Hoosier cabinets across the country, said Mary Figueroa, curator of History at the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, which has four Hoosier cabinets in its collection.

Prior to the Hoosier cabinet, a kitchen area would have some shelves, a separate work table and a corner cupboard. “But this was a piece of furniture that kind of consolidated all of that, allowed women to save their steps and have everything that they could possibly need to make a meal right at their fingertips,” Figueroa said.

The Hoosier cabinet had space for storing items such as flour, sugar, spices, loaves of bread and other pantry supplies. They were nicknamed “kitchen pianos” because everything that was needed was within close range. They had built-in flour sifters and came with small cookbooks with recipes involving meats, soups, breads or desserts, among other things. Advertising for the cabinets even made the promise to “strengthen your marriage” and “make you more beautiful” because of the time and steps that it saved for women, Figueroa said.

Nappanee is located in Elkhart County, a region known as a top U.S. hub for recreational vehicle manufacturing, wood products production and home to the third-largest Amish settlement in the nation. It is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) north of Indianapolis.

And now, add Nappanee as a potential tourist attraction for the colossal cabinet.

“It’s bringing awareness,” Figueroa said. “I mean, you can’t miss it.”

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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.

Cadillac said the move was part of a “planned leadership transition as the organization evolves from its initial build phase into the next stage of racing performance," though it hadn't previously signaled it intended to move on from Lowdon, who played a key role setting up the General Motors-backed team.

It comes a week before the F1 season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix after the mid-season break.

Cadillac has yet to score a point in F1, with a best finish of 13th, and had been expected to struggle as a new team. The cars' brakes have repeatedly overheated in recent races, forcing retirements.

“We’re grateful to Graeme Lowdon for his leadership and the role he played in forming the Cadillac Formula 1 Team from the ground up,” chief executive Dan Towriss said. “His contributions helped establish a strong foundation in our build-up phase, and we thank him for his commitment and wish him well.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The Mozarteum Foundation on July 15 unveiled 320 statuettes, barely 50 centimeters (less than 20 inches) high, showing Mozart with his dog. They were designed by German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl.

Within two weeks, more than 80 of the polymer figures had disappeared. By Wednesday, a total of 210 were missing.

“The worst thing for an artist is when his work dissolves,” Hörl told the German news agency dpa. He said he did not believe visitors stole the works but rather that it was an “organized theft.”

Hörl intended to sell the statues for about 100 euros ($114) once the exhibition was over, meaning whoever ran away with 210 mini-Mozarts has not become an overnight millionaire.

The mini-Mozarts populated not only the garden of the composer's former house, but also his living quarters as well as several pavilions.

While the organizers put aside some spare statuettes in case of theft, there were too few to compensate for the actual losses. And in a further stroke of bad luck, the manufacturer of the statues was away on holidays, so there was no quick fix.

The exhibition of statuettes, now more widely spaced, is scheduled to remain on display until Aug. 30.

For Hörl, who is known from his sculptures made from polymer, the theft of his artworks is nothing new. At an installation in Bayreuth, Germany, a complete array of statues of Richard Wagner was stolen within 10 days.

“That’s just the nature of public space. That means when you work as an artist in a public space, you mustn’t complain about what is happening there,” Hörl said. “It ranges from destruction to theft. That’s just how it is.”

Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg, where the Mozarteum Foundation offers concerts, maintains Mozart museums and supports research on him.

“I didn’t want to do a monument of Mozart. There are already enough of these. But I wanted to show his human side, that he was a normal human being despite his genius,” Hörl told The Associated Press.

To give the statues a human touch, Hörl depicted the composer with his favorite dog, Pimperl. Mozart and his family were known to take long walks with their dogs in the Mirabell Garden, next to where they lived.

“There’s a part of me which says, ‘you didn’t write that,’” he recalls of composing his debut album, “Life Is a Dream.” “What’s it called? Impostor syndrome.”

Thankfully, it did not stop him from finishing the collection of 12 compositions he crafted over six decades.

Conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and recorded at London's Alexandra Palace in April, it will be released by Decca Records on Aug. 21.

“My first love, or vocation really, is music,” said the 88-year-old actor. “That sounds very official, but I was raised with a lot of music (of the) postwar years, and it influenced me. And I started playing the piano when I was quite young.”

He picked up the instrument at 4 and began composing years later, writing his first piece, a waltz, in 1960. He was 22 at the time.

“I find more freedom with music,” he says, compared to acting, which he labels “a discipline, you have to know your stuff. But music for me is a freewheeling kind of art form.”

And he's had his fair share of experience. Prior to the release of “Life Is a Dream,” Hopkins had composed scores for a number of films.

“The opening of ‘Shadowlands’ is my first adventure in composing music,” he said, referring to the 1993 film he starred in as “The Chronicles of Narnia” author C.S. Lewis. Then he composed for a few other movies, including 1996’s “August,” 2007’s “Slipstream” and 2020’s “Elyse.”

Hopkins' childhood informed ‘Life Is A Dream’

“It's about my childhood,” he says of the album, which shares its title with the Pedro Calderón de la Barca play. “It's basically the memories of my childhood and growing up in Wales, and my developments in life, my adolescent years,” and so on.

But he says “there’s a great sadness in it all because — don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a wonderful life — but underneath it all, there is the knowledge that life is one long goodbye. From the moment we’re born, we begin to die,” he starts to laugh. “Sounds so cheerful!”

That tension — or better put, wisdom — carries throughout the release. Take the first single as an example. “1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra: II. Bracken Road” is the middle composition in a three-part suite about a particular summer in South Wales. He says it contains a “melancholy and sadness,” a sense that arises with its cello.

“It’s the welcomed sound of nostalgia, of the strange, whimsical pain of life,” he describes the song. “All music is actually based in pain. Sounds pretty preposterous, but it is. It’s about the yearning.”

The same can be said about the song “Stella Aria” — named after his wife, director and actor Stella Hopkins — that deals with “the loneliness in all of us,” he says, but is part of a path to “sheer happiness.”

Hopkins has been reflecting for quite some time now — both in his memoir, “We Did OK, Kid,” released last fall — and on this album. “I look at my own life now, and especially this year; I’m going to be 89 at the end of the year. And I look back and I’m thinking, ‘good God, I couldn’t have planned any of this.’ From the moment I decided to become an actor, 70 years ago, I thought … ‘Why did I do that?’ I didn’t know, because I was pretty useless in school? I didn’t know what else to do. So I tried for a scholarship, became an actor instead of a musician. And suddenly I’m given a huge plate of success by some force of nature.”

“I'm without fear of mortality,” he adds. “I'm just so grateful I’ve lived this long.”

How Bradley Cooper was instrumental in the album

In a surprising turn of events, actor Bradley Cooper “passed me on to Dudamel,” says Hopkins, after witnessing Hopkins' composition a few years before with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Seal. Dudamel was on board.

But when it came time to record at Alexandra Palace earlier this year, “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘How the hell did I write this?' I have no idea,” said Hopkins. “And Dudamel said, ‘This is wonderful.’ … He is one of the most astonishing people I’ve met. He’s so full of life and so full of energy and love, and it’s quite extraordinary.”

It's a shared affection.

“The same depth of imagination, humanity and emotional truth that has defined his extraordinary work on stage and screen is present in his music,” Dudamel said in a statement. “Anthony approaches music with the heart of a storyteller and the instincts of a poet, creating sound worlds that are both deeply personal and universally resonant.”

Live performance may be on the horizon

After his debut album, live performances may be next. Top of Hopkins' list is Carnegie Hall.

“That’s where I want to go. That’s what I want,” he says.

The 1947 film “Carnegie Hall” was a formative film for him, and he has the distinct memory of his mother saying, “You play at Carnegie Hall one day.”

It is yet another dream in a life full of them.

With the improvements, the search giant hopes to give users a reason to buy new models and expand the number of people using its AI tools.

“Google continues to tout new software features, primarily around AI, as the reason to upgrade," said Forrester senior analyst Andrew Cornwall. He noted the company has added a way to extract photos from videos, a teleprompter, video stabilization, and an improved speech-to-text feature.

While the Pixel phones are not as popular as Apple's iPhone, Google has been steadily increasing the amount of AI on its Pixel phones since 2023.

Apple, meanwhile, has been lagging behind. It announced new AI advances in June, focusing on how the technology can help with people's day-to-day lives, with a focus on privacy and security — using Google's Gemini AI model to do so.

Google said in a presentation to reporters last week that the new phones will double the previous storage size, starting at 256 gigabytes, and feature 30 hours of battery life and faster wireless charging. The company has eliminated the 128 gigabyte Pixel 11, which had been its lowest-priced option at $800.

Beginning Wednesday, U.S. customers can order the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL, starting at $900, $1,100 and $1,300, respectively. The Pixel Pro Fold, meanwhile, starts at $1,900. That's a $100 increase for each phone from last year's prices.

New features include live translation for videos, podcasts and voice messages. In the Pro models, a tool called HiLight lets you assign a color to your favorite contacts and have the phone light up in that color when they call and your phone is placed face down. It complements Pixel's “Flip to Shhh” feature that puts the phone in “do not disturb” mode when it is placed face down.

Google is also offering a free six-month subscription to its AI Pro plan to anyone who buys the more expensive Pixel 11 Pro or Pixel 11 Pro XL models. The company is hoping to hook more people on the AI Gemini tool kit, which it assembled to compete against OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Camera upgrades include a new mode called Magic Capture, which automatically takes a series of photos and video with a single tap of the shutter button. Google said the cameras also feature improved light sensitivity and, for Pro models, Instant Night Sight captures shots in dark environments faster, so you don't have to hold your phone still while waiting for exposure.

Google also introduced a tracking device for the first time. Called Pixel Tag, it will cost $30 for one or $100 for a four-pack and is compatible with phones running Android 9 or higher.

Here are the games scheduled to air on News 6 WKMG-TV during the 2026-27 NFL season.

PLEASE NOTE:

• All times are Eastern and are subject to change.
• Several weekends consist of a CBS “single header,” which means News 6 can only air one game, per NFL rules.

PRE-SEASON

FRIDAY, AUG. 28

Cincinnati at Philadelphia -- 8 p.m.

REGULAR SEASON

WEEK 1

SUNDAY, SEPT. 13

Buffalo at Houston -- 1 p.m.

Green Bay at Minnesota -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 2

SUNDAY, SEPT. 20

Jacksonville at Denver -- 4:05 p.m.

WEEK 3

SUNDAY, SEPT. 27

New England at Jacksonville -- 1 p.m.

Baltimore at Dallas (Rio de Janeiro) -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 4

SUNDAY, Oct. 4

Jacksonville at Cincinnati -- 1 p.m.

Denver at San Francisco -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 5

SUNDAY, OCT. 11

Indianapolis at Pittsburgh -- 1 p.m.

WEEK 6

SUNDAY, OCT. 18

Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay -- 1 p.m.

LA Chargers at Kansas City -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 7

SUNDAY, OCT. 25

Cincinnati at Baltimore -- 1 p.m.

WEEK 8

SUNDAY, Nov. 1

Baltimore at Buffalo -- 1 p.m.

Kansas City at Denver -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 9

SUNDAY, NOV. 8

Denver at Carolina -- 1 p.m.

WEEK 10

SUNDAY, NOV. 15

Kansas City at Atlanta -- 1 p.m.

WEEK 11

SUNDAY, NOV. 22

Jacksonville at NY Giants -- 1 p.m.

Pittsburgh at Philadelphia -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 12

THURSDAY, NOV. 26

Chicago at Detroit -- 4:30 p.m. Thanksgiving Day

SUNDAY, NOV. 29

Tennessee at Jacksonville -- 1 p.m.

WEEK 13

SUNDAY, DEC. 6

LA Chargers at Tampa Bay -- 1 p.m.

Buffalo at New England -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 14

SUNDAY, DEC. 13

Chicago at Miami -- 1 p.m.

WEEK 15

SATURDAY, DEC. 19

Chicago at Buffalo -- 8:20 p.m.

WEEK 16

SUNDAY, DEC. 20

Jacksonville at Houston -- 1 p.m.

Dallas at LA Rams -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 17

SUNDAY, DEC. 27

New England at NY Jets -- 1 p.m.

San Francisco at Kansas City -- 4:25 p.m.

WEEK 18

SUNDAY, JAN. 3

Buffalo at Miami -- 1 p.m.

WEEK 19

SUNDAY, JAN. 10

TBD -- 1 p.m.

TBD -- 4:25 p.m.

POST-SEASON

AFC WILDCARD WEEKEND

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, JAN. 16-17 -- TBD

AFC PLAYOFF GAMES

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, JAN. 23-24 -- TBD

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

SUNDAY, JAN. 31 -- 6:30 p.m.

PLEASE NOTE:

• All times Eastern and are subject to change.
• Several weekends consist of a CBS “single header,” which means News 6 can only air one game per NFL rules.

The country has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia despite its fairly restrictive gun laws. The two recent shootings, both in Nonthaburi province northwest of the capital Bangkok, have intensified calls for tighter controls on firearms.

A student opened fire at his high school and family home on Friday, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 20 before apparently taking his own life, according to police. Three days later, a former lawmaker was arrested after a shooting at a government office that killed one person and injured another.

Government spokesperson Lalida Persvivatana said the government is working to strengthen gun regulations and crack down on illegal firearms.

The ultimate goal is “to find ways to remove guns from people’s daily lives as much as possible and make Thai society safer,” she said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered an urgent review of gun regulations, including a suspension of new permits to purchase firearms and a review of existing permits, according to a statement from the Government House.

He also instructed the Interior Ministry to propose amendments to Thailand's gun control laws within 60 days. The changes are expected to bolster the collection of firearms data, tighten controls on the gun trade and increase penalties for offenders.

Penalties for unlawful possession of firearms in Thailand include prison terms of one to 10 years and fines of up to 20,000 baht ($600). While the licensing laws are strict, critics say there are weaknesses in enforcement.

The measures announced Tuesday include the immediate suspension of welfare gun programs, which allowed public officials, including civil servants, police and soldiers, local officials and lawmakers, to buy guns at a discount through government subsidies. Gun control experts say the poorly regulated resale of the guns contributed to their proliferation.

Thailand’s high rate of gun ownership is second only to Pakistan in Asia, and far surpasses its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Data collected in 2017 by the groups Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org found that Thai civilians owned about 15 guns per 100 people, compared with less than one per 100 people in neighboring Malaysia.

Thailand had 3.49 deaths by firearms per 100,000 people, according to 2023 statistics published by World Population Review. That puts it well behind parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, but it is relatively high in Asia. Only the Philippines is higher in Southeast Asia.

While mass shootings are still rare in Thailand, the country has seen an uptick in high-profile attacks in recent years.

Michael E. Picard, a security analyst who researches arms trafficking in Southeast Asia, told The Associated Press that he hasn't seen much evidence of the effectiveness of gun control measures enacted after previous mass killings in 2020 and 2022 that each left more than two dozen people dead.

In reaction to last week's school shootings, in which the gun used was reported to be legally registered to the shooter's grandfather, he said increasing safe storage requirements for gun licenses would be an important step.

More broadly, if bribes are paid to get a gun permit, corruption in the government agency that administers licenses needs to be rooted out, he said.

The welfare gun programs also need to be scrapped, Picard suggested, adding that "the government should buy back, safely store, or organize an amnesty for the millions of welfare guns out there."

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office says the incident happened in the area of Plymouth Sorrento Road and West Ponkan Road on Tuesday around 8:30 a.m. Deputies responded after getting a call about a man and a woman fighting inside a vehicle. Then the vehicle crashed, but the two people got out of the vehicle and kept fighting.

Deputies say a bystander tried to intervene in the fight and was shot. They say he was taken to an area hospital, where he were pronounced dead.

“Daryl Alexander Hill, 56, was simply trying to help someone who appeared to be in distress... when he was shot and killed,” the sheriff’s office later said in a statement.

On Tuesday evening, deputies revealed that Raul Lionel Vazquez, 26, was taken into custody and now faces a charge of second-degree murder.

[RELATED: Deputies release footage of Vazquez being taken into custody]

Meanwhile, Ryan Harper said he was driving with his wife and children on their way to school when they encountered a line of cars near the intersection.

Harper said a friend who was also at the intersection told him a man was beating a woman.

“And all of a sudden, we heard a loud bang,” Harper said.

Harper said he was in the middle of the intersection when he saw debris from the crash and a body lying in the roadway.

“It’s pretty traumatizing for us all,” Harper said. “So not the best way of going back to school on day one.”

Deputies said everyone involved remained at the scene.

Detectives are investigating what sparked the fight and what led to the shooting. Investigators were also examining two damaged vehicles at the scene.

Harper said the incident was especially difficult for his family and that he expected to have a difficult conversation with his young son after school.

“I think everybody’s shaken up by it a little bit,” Harper said.

Authorities had not released additional information about the shooting.

We will make updates as more information becomes available.

Speaking on a visit to a Russian warship that was taking part in a naval exercise in the Pacific, Putin described the Western moves to detain vessels linked to Russia as a breach of international maritime law.

“It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

He added that the Russian response wouldn't necessarily come in the waters where the Russian ships were seized, noting that Moscow could retaliate “in any area where we see it as necessary and appropriate,” including in the Pacific.

The Pacific Fleet chief, Adm. Viktor Liina, reported to Putin that the navy was ready to start inspections of the commercial ships serving the “unfriendly nations.” He noted that many of the ships operated by British, French and other European carriers fly the flags of other nations, effectively making them a “shadow fleet.”

“We have enough assets for inspection and detention of vessels of the unfriendly nations and their shadow fleet,” Liina told Putin. “We are ready to start performing the task.”

Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade international sanctions imposed after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

France and the U.K. have detained tankers suspected of being of Russia's “shadow fleet” shipping oil in violation of international sanctions. The EU has sanctioned hundreds of “shadow fleet” ships.

Russia has recently started deploying warships to escort its commercial vessels.

Dmitry Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president in 2008-2012 to let Putin observe term limits and is now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, noted that many ships belonging to European carriers fly the so-called “flags of convenience” just like Russian carriers do.

“It means that by applying a symmetrical approach, which is only fair, Russia has the right to attack any merchant vessel belonging to hostile nations, whether in our waters or in neutral waters, provided there are reasonable grounds to suspect it is carrying cargo in the enemy’s interest, and that applies to any cargo,” Medvedev said. “There are a great many such vessels, and our military is capable of dramatically expanding operations well beyond the Black Sea basin.”

Zhu died in Beijing at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

Once sent into rural exile to do manual labor for praising reforms in other communist countries, Zhu pushed through a dizzying array of changes as premier, China’s top economic post, from 1998 to 2003 under former President Jiang Zemin.

Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state industry bosses as he pushed state-owned companies to become efficient and profitable. That cost millions of layoffs, but helped propel China to overtake Japan as the second-largest economy behind the United States in 2010.

Building on former leader Deng Xiaoping’s 1979 reforms, Zhu is credited with supplying the resourcefulness and tenacity to push through history-making changes such as China’s WTO membership, which helped to transform China into the world’s biggest exporter.

Those changes helped to keep economic growth above 8% a year from 2000 to 2010, peaking at 14.2% in 2007.

A spiky personality who fought corruption and conservatives

Named premier in 1998 at age 69, Zhu became a popular figure by criticizing official bungling and graft and accepting blame when the government fell short. His demanding style earned him the nicknames Boss and Zhu Fengzi, or Madman Zhu.

“I have prepared 100 coffins here — 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself,” Zhu said in 1998, according to the party newspaper People’s Daily.

Zhu ranked No. 3 in the party hierarchy behind Jiang and Li Peng, chairman of the ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress. But he was a technician without his own power base. Zhu complained that allowed officials to ignore his orders.

Zhu made his name as a deputy premier in the 1990s by crushing inflation. He enforced price controls and cut off loans to money-losing state companies, rebuffing resistance by local leaders — a pattern Zhu would repeat as he fought conservatives over the pace of reform.

Zhu led efforts to secure WTO membership following marathon negotiations that began in the 1980s. That status would enshrine free trade as a national commitment, giving Zhu a tool to force local officials to stop protecting favored companies.

Zhu’s campaign was nearly derailed when he went to Washington in 1999 with market-opening concessions to win U.S. endorsement of the WTO bid. The Clinton administration rejected the offer as inadequate, while his political enemies at home accused him of offering too much, but Zhu survived and China went on to join the body in December 2001.

Zhu launched China’s home ownership boom in 1998 with an initiative to sell apartments owned by state companies. Families rushed to buy, and within a decade the majority of urban housing was privately owned.

Still, Zhu was less an advocate of free enterprise than a skilled bureaucrat who carried out party orders to whip state industry into shape.

Zhu showed no interest in privatizing the economy. He played a key role in drafting plans in the 1990s to turn banks, airlines, oil companies and other enterprises into profit-oriented corporations but to retain government ownership.

Zhu stood out for admitting official failings

Born Oct. 23, 1928, in Mao Zedong’s home province of Hunan, Zhu paid an early price for his willingness to take risks and speak out.

After a start as an economic planner, his career went into a 22-year eclipse when he was labelled a “rightist” in 1957 for praising reforms in Hungary and Yugoslavia. He was banished to the countryside during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution to do manual labor.

Rehabilitated in 1979, Zhu rose swiftly, becoming deputy Shanghai party secretary in 1987 and mayor the next year.

As mayor in 1989, Zhu gained a reputation for moderation when he placated protesters and pledged not to call in the military.

“He managed to defuse, with considerable subtlety, a tense political situation that could have developed into localized violence or worse if the military had felt it necessary to intervene,” wrote Australian diplomat Shelley Warner in the 1991 book “The Pro-Democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces.”

Zhu’s boss, Jiang, would soon be called to Beijing by Deng and made party leader. Zhu was named deputy premier in 1991 and joined the party’s ruling Standing Committee in 1993.

Zhu broke with the leadership’s stance of infallibility by admitting and taking blame for official failings.

In 1998, after summer floods killed 4,150 people and officials were accused of embezzling money meant for anti-flood dikes, Zhu complained some barriers were no stronger than bean curd.

Three years later, he apologized on national television for his Cabinet’s failure to protect the public after an explosion in a schoolhouse in southern China killed at least 42 people, most of them children.

Zhu enlivened the party’s bland image by cracking jokes in public, sometimes at his own expense. Laughter erupted at a 1999 news conference when he said a recent photo “made me look like a dead man.”

One of Zhu’s proudest triumphs as deputy premier was to craft a tax system that required local officials to hand more revenue to Beijing. He said in 1996 that he deserved a Nobel Prize in economics for that.

Zhu rarely appeared in public after leaving office as premier.

Zhu was married to Lao An, a fellow Hunan native. Their son, Yunlai, also known as Levin Zhu, is a former CEO of China International Capital Corp., a government-owned investment bank.

Their daughter, Yanlai, led a charity organization supporting schoolchildren that was backed by Zhu Rongji.

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A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that Zhu died at 98. He was 97 years old.

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McDonald is a former Associated Press journalist. AP writer Kanis Leung contributed to this report from Hong Kong.

Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, is vying to become Wisconsin’s first Black governor and pitched himself as the candidate best positioned to win in November against Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.

Crowley narrowly defeated democratic socialist Francesca Hong, who was hoping to ride the wave of recent victories by progressive candidates, including Abdul El-Sayed in neighboring Michigan’s U.S. Senate race last week.

El-Sayed's win was the movement’s first major success in a purple state. It also fed fears in the party’s leaders that such candidates, farther afield and often carrying political baggage of past stances such as defunding the police, would struggle to beat Republicans and imperil the party’s hopes of recapturing control of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House.

Crowley didn’t address supporters Tuesday night but was expected at a unity event later Wednesday.

“Now, David is focused on bringing people together, earning the support of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and anyone who believes Wisconsin is at its best when we work together and deliver results,” Crowley's campaign manager Garren Randolph said in a statement.

Hong’s loss in Wisconsin may have doused the momentum, but it’s far from snuffing it out. A democratic socialist coming close to victory in a battleground state sends a clear message: There’s unignorable angst among the party’s voters.

“We have built something that will change politics forever,” Hong told supporters as the outcome of the race hung in the balance late Tuesday. “The work we have done will be remembered forever. I know we don’t have the final results right now, but what I do know is we are ready to keep fighting.”

Her campaign manager Becky Cooper said after Hong conceded that she was “proud of the race we ran.”

“Our team campaigned clean, our souls are intact and we really made meaningful change for the progressive movement,” she said.

The Associated Press declared Crowley the winner once Hong’s concession removed the possibility of a recount in the exceptionally close race.

Hong could have requested a recount since Crowley’s margin of victory was less than 1 percentage point. But because it was wider than 0.25 points, Hong’s campaign would have had to pay for it.

Sanders and other top progressives stayed out of the Wisconsin race

Progressives had wanted to notch a clear win, but national progressive leaders, most notably Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sat out the race and did not endorse.

The movement is not entirely aligned. Not all candidates are democratic socialists or have endorsements from Sanders, but they are often tilling similar voter anger with politics and the party: over military aid to Israel, the amount of money wielded in campaigns, the Trump administration’s immigration raids and the high cost of daily life.

In New York City in the June primary elections, two democratic socialist candidates and a progressive came out on top, booting two Democratic incumbents from Congress in the process. All three were backed by the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, himself a democratic socialist who framed the upsets as a question of electing “better Democrats.”

Democrats in Wisconsin are hoping to capitalize on low approval ratings for Trump in a state he won in 2016 and 2024 to retain control of the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to earn full control of Wisconsin state government for the first time since 2010.

Wisconsin Democrats are hoping to unite after tight primary battle

Both Hong and Crowley said in the waning days of the race that they expected Democrats to come together and unite to defeat Tiffany, a congressman from conservative, rural northern Wisconsin.

“Our ultimate goal is to make sure we don’t have a MAGA extremist occupying the governor’s office,” Crowley said Sunday.

Democrat David Zimmerman, a 79-year-old retired industrial engineer professor in Madison, voted for Crowley on Tuesday. He said Hong’s chance of beating Tiffany in November “worries me a lot.”

“I think she’s going to have trouble winning,” he said.

The photo finish is just the latest twist in a chaotic primary that saw two major candidates drop out amid scandals. Crowley had also dropped out in early July, but he got back in 10 days later with Gov. Tony Evers’ endorsement.

Both of them crisscrossed the state in the final week, making the case that Crowley was the better matchup against Tiffany in a swing state known for close elections where independent, moderate voters often decide the outcome.

Democratic socialist shook up Wisconsin race, fueled by national movement

Hong, a single mother and former line cook, tapped into Democratic anger with the party’s mainstream and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

The 37-year-old known for sprinkling her comments with profanity and leaning into her edgy and sometimes humorous social media profile excited the liberal wing of the party. Hong called for free childcare and healthcare and a moratorium on artificial intelligence data center construction. But she also wrestled with her past support for defunding the police, saying at the race’s only debate that she would not support cutting law enforcement funding.

She also drew criticism for past social media posts in which she called for canceling Thanksgiving because “we should stop celebrating colonialism” and disparaged Valentine’s Day as “another day capitalism tells you how to show love.”

Hong has since downplayed the posts as her attempt at making jokes.

Chaotic Democratic primary saw candidates drop, come back in

Evers’ decision not to seek a third term created an open race for governor that initially had seven Democrats file to run.

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez appeared to be making a move to consolidate mainstream Democratic support in July, but she dropped out in the middle of the month amid a campaign finance scandal. That led Crowley, who had dropped out a week earlier and endorsed Rodriguez, to get back in the race, this time with Evers’ backing.

Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who was seen as an early front-runner after nearly beating Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022, bowed out less than two weeks before the election amid questions about inappropriate behavior.

In one more twist, reporting the results of about 28,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee was delayed until early Wednesday morning after a human error related to uploading the data, the city’s election leader said shortly before midnight Tuesday.

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Associated Press reporter Jesse Bedayn contributed from Austin, Texas.

Ocala police said a 45-year-old man was found shot at King’s Food Mart, located at Southwest Fort King Street and Martin Luther King Avenue. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Police initially responded to the scene Tuesday after reports of a shooting at the store. Police said a suspect has since been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting.

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact the police department at (352) 369-7000 or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers of Marion County by calling (352) 368-7867.

Highs will reach the low to mid 90s, while humidity pushes heat indices as high as 108 to 112 degrees.

Rain chances will remain below normal Wednesday, with a 20 to 50% chance of afternoon and evening showers and storms. Most areas will stay dry, but a few stronger storms could produce frequent lightning, wind gusts of 30 to 50 mph, and locally heavy rainfall.

WEEKEND

The heat becomes even more persistent Thursday through Saturday. Highs will remain in the low to mid 90s, with heat indices near or above Heat Advisory criteria.

Widespread Moderate to Major Heat Risk, along with areas of Extreme Heat Risk, is expected each day. Additional Heat Advisories are likely, especially through Friday.

Storm chances will stay limited, generally 40% or less, as dry air in the middle and upper levels of the atmosphere suppresses widespread rain. A few afternoon storms will still develop where sea breezes and outflow boundaries collide, bringing the usual risks of lightning, gusty winds, and heavy downpours.

After acting to overhaul the nation’s vaccine policy and guidance, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional changes to focus on less controversial subjects, raising questions over the political impetus behind and implications of the Republican president’s renewed focus on vaccines.

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view — against medical groups’ guidance — that childhood vaccines should be administered in smaller doses over a long period of time. The executive order sought to bear out that discredited theory.

While the move could endear Trump to some “Make America Healthy Again” voters who want more flexibility on immunizations, it’s also already attracting attacks designed to hurt Trump’s aligned candidates in November’s midterm elections.

Jayme Franklin, a 28-year-old conservative activist who appeared with the president to promote his executive order on Monday, said she thinks the action is “going to go a long way” for MAHA mom voters like herself.

But Shaughnessy Naughton, president of the left-leaning political action committee 314 Action, which aims to elect doctors to office, said she sees the order as “one more data point” in support of Democrats’ cause.

“Our organization and our candidates are certainly going to hammer that message home — that if you want healthcare that’s accessible and affordable, if you want medical advice that is science-based, we need to have accountability in Washington,” she said.

Trump has long called for shots spread out in separate visits

Trump’s doubt in the number and cadence of vaccines dates back at least to 2014, when he posted to social media the disproven claim that combination shots can cause autism and said if he were president he would spread them out.

While he’s since shown pride in his first-term Operation Warp Speed effort to disseminate COVID-19 vaccines quickly and praised certain other shots like the polio vaccine, he also has repeatedly called for reforming the childhood vaccine schedule. While his administration released an assessment comparing U.S. childhood vaccine schedules to peer nations', several of his suggestions have come without any new scientific evidence.

“This is based on what I feel,” Trump said last September when he called for splitting the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine into three single-disease vaccines.

On Monday, he again pushed for separating the MMR shot into three, ordering the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to work on developing that option for children, since it doesn’t currently exist in the United States. Public health experts have warned that spacing out shots could increase the risk of infection with a vaccine-preventable disease before a child returns for the next visit.

Most Americans don’t see reevaluating vaccine safety as a top issue

Trump’s views have aligned him with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist before he entered politics.

The president credits Kennedy’s diverse coalition of MAHA followers — whose priorities range from regulating pesticides to ending vaccine mandates — with helping him win back the White House in 2024.

Even as the Trump administration has handed several wins to the MAHA coalition, including changing the federal dietary guidelines and loosening restrictions on peptides, some in the movement have grown impatient as their other priorities remain unfinished. It’s unclear whether Trump’s action to loosen vaccine recommendations, an issue some MAHA supporters are passionate about, will be enough to shore up those voters ahead of the midterms.

Franklin, who runs a conservative magazine, said she had talked with Trump about making vaccine recommendations more flexible at a MAHA roundtable earlier this year. She was pleased when the administration informed her that her requests were coming true.

“I think it just really shows he loves to hear from everyday Americans on how his policies and his administration affect the lives of people who are raising kids in this country,” she said.

But political strategists and Trump’s own pollster Tony Fabrizio have warned that efforts to shave down vaccine recommendations may not matter much to most voters this fall.

Polls show most Americans believe children should be vaccinated to attend school, though Republicans are less likely to see vaccines as important. And as rising prices on things like groceries, gas and healthcare tighten Americans’ budgets, many view the economy as a top issue they care about.

“Nothing in America matters more than affordability,” pollster Frank Luntz said. “And anytime the administration or Republicans goes off affordability, they’re not talking about what Americans really care about.”

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said with most Americans viewing vaccines positively, Trump’s announcement “does not strike me as the most persuasive political message.”

Recent polling from the healthcare research nonprofit KFF suggests that even among MAHA supporters, only 10% rank reevaluating vaccine safety as their top priority for the federal government. Higher-ranking priorities included lowering health costs (42%) and restricting chemical additives in the food supply (21%).

Democrats are seizing on Trump’s message

Asked about the timing of the order with the midterms approaching, a White House official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters said that the move was a longstanding presidential priority and that other health issues voters care about were still being addressed.

To that effect, on the day Trump signed the order, the Food and Drug Administration announced an effort to require more transparency from food manufacturers about new ingredients or additives in foods — something many in the MAHA movement had been calling for.

The administration has also touted its efforts to lower drug prices and crack down on federal health program fraud, which it argues will save taxpayers money.

Still, Democratic candidates, including doctors linked to Naughton’s group 314 Action, seized on Trump’s order in messages to voters this week.

Dr. Richard Pan, a physician running as a Democrat for the U.S. House in Northern California, reposted the American Medical Association's condemnation of Trump's vaccine falsehoods, among other fact checks. He told The Associated Press he thinks voters are deciding between electing people who choose not to hold the administration accountable and those who “stand for the science.”

Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina, pleaded with voters not to take health information from Trump in a video posted on Instagram in collaboration with the left-leaning Courier Newsroom.

“Do whatever you can to help elect scientists up and down the ballot in November, including sending me to the U.S. Senate,” she said to the camera. “I cannot think of a more urgent time for us to have a pediatrician in the room where these conversations are happening.”

Green is the developer and founder of what he calls the Green District Smart City. He points to his own upbringing as motivation.

“Growing up in such rough neighborhoods … God had a different plan for me so here I am doing God’s work,” Green said.

Green first tried to get the project off the ground in 2023, but said it ran into hurdles over hotel heights and was ultimately shut down. He says he understands why residents are cautious.

“There’s sensitivity in Parramore… luxury buildings, tall buildings equals what… gentrification,” Green said.

Now, Green says he’s taking advantage of Florida’s Live Local Act, which can bypass many city and county building restrictions — as long as affordable housing units are included.

Under the current concept, the development would include affordable housing along with four large hotels, shopping, restaurants and entertainment.

Transportation is also a major part of the pitch. Green says the plan calls for shuttles and other options aimed at connecting residents, workers and tourists to major destinations.

“We’ll have a ton of shuttles. We think transportation is pretty big… what if you worked at Universal Studios or Disney? Or what if you’re a tourist and you want to stay downtown… how do you get there?” Green said. “So we’re going to solve that problem…”

Green says his long-term vision would stretch from Jackson to Central — about 20 acres — with up to $2 billion invested in Parramore.

“We wanna make our community safe, sound and smart,” he said.

As for timing, Green says his goal is to break ground in summer 2027.

Green also says he’s aware some Parramore residents fear they could be pushed out, but promises the project will include outreach and resources aimed at helping current residents remain in the neighborhood.

“We’ll have community meetings, community engagement to show folks how they can get involved and how they can get on the list to get the needed housing, the needed jobs and the needed support,” Green said.

Right now, the master plan is undergoing review — a step before final approval.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a ballistic missile fired from the North's eastern coastal Wonsan area around 6 a.m. flew more than 700 kilometers (435 miles). The Japanese Defense Ministry also detected the launch, saying the weapon landed in waters outside its exclusive economic zone, between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

The launches, within days of each other, were seen as part of North Korea’s extended run of weapons tests as the country has refused to return to talks with the U.S. and South Korea for years. Experts say North Korea often uses its rivals’ military training as a pretext to boost its own testing activities.

South Korea's military said it remains ready to repel any provocation by Pyongyang in cooperation with the United States. South Korea's national security council called North Korean ballistic missile launches “acts of provocation” and urged the North to halt them immediately.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters that Japan strongly protested the North Korean launch through their embassies in Beijing. “It’s a serious problem that affects the safety of the Japanese people,” he said.

The latest launch came two days after South Korea and the United States announced they will kick off their annual large-scale military drills on Aug. 17 to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.

North Korea has previously responded to the Ulchi Freedom Shield training and other major South Korea-U.S. military exercises with provocative weapons tests and harsh rhetoric. The U.S. and South Korea have repeatedly said their training is defensive in nature.

After last year's Ulchi Freedom Shield training exercises began, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the drills showed the U.S. and South Korea's “will to ignite a war” and claimed they have grown more provocative than before, which has prompted North Korea to respond with “proactive and overwhelming” countermeasures.

On Aug. 6, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected the launch of a short-range ballistic missile from North Korea in what was the North’s first ballistic weapons testing activity since late June. North Korea didn’t confirm the reported launch, though it usually releases details of weapons tests a day later.

Multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from launching ballistic missiles. But North Korea has ramped up ballistic and other weapons testing activities to expand its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s high-stakes diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Experts say Kim likely hopes to use his enlarged arsenals to wrest concessions from the U.S., such as relaxing international economic sanctions on the North.

In recent years, Kim has boosted his diplomatic footprint by strengthening cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine. He's also recently taken steps to bolster ties with China, the country's traditional ally and economic pipeline. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the North Korean capital Pyongyang in June for the first time in seven years.

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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

There’s a good chance dealers will be looking to offload their remaining inventory of a discontinued vehicle, which can present an opportunity for you to negotiate on price. It’s also possible that a discounted vehicle might become a high-value classic many years from now. Edmunds’ auto experts have highlighted five of the most notable models that won’t be around after 2026. All of the following prices include destination fees.

Ford Escape

After 25 years and four generations, the Escape is departing dealership showrooms. Ford’s small SUV doesn’t fully measure up to top rivals like the Hyundai Tucson and Toyota RAV4, but there are enough positive attributes to make it worth considering, especially if you can get one at a discounted price.

The Escape has comfortable seating, a smooth ride quality and easy-to-use controls. It’s also available with two powertrains to help you save on gas: a hybrid that delivers an EPA-estimated 39 mpg combined or a plug-in hybrid that can go up to 37 miles on all-electric power before switching over to its gas engine.

2026 Escape starting price: $31,845

Volkswagen ID.4

The ID.4 was one of the first electric SUVs to challenge the Tesla Model Y when it was released in 2021. Its ample driving range and long list of standard features made it a viable choice for an EV, but over time, the ID.4 has been outclassed by competitors such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or undercut on price by less expensive options such as the Chevrolet Equinox EV.

However, picking up a 2026 ID.4 makes a lot of sense. Based on Edmunds’ analysis of transaction data, you’ll likely be able to get about $10,000 off the sticker price. For the best value of a 2026 ID.4, check out the Pro trim with standard rear-wheel drive. It comes generously equipped with heated front seats, wireless charging, a 12.9-inch touchscreen and several driver assist features.

2026 ID.4 starting price: $46,570

Jaguar F-Pace

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a new Jaguar, then the 2026 F-Pace is your last chance at a gas-powered version because the company is transitioning to an all-electric ultra-luxury brand. The F-Pace is the last surviving model from Jaguar’s internal-combustion-engine past, and it won’t be replaced.

Although the F-Pace has soldiered on for 10 years without a redesign, it still boasts an attractive design, potent optional engines and sharp handling. The Jag can’t fully compete with newer small luxury SUVs, but scoring a good deal might be enough to tempt you. As a potential future classic, check out the performance-oriented SVR 575 Edition that comes with a muscular 567-horsepower V8 engine.

2026 F-Pace starting price: $58,375

Toyota GR Supra

The GR Supra is Toyota’s flagship sports car and the modern successor to the iconic Supra from the 1990s. After a seven-year run, 2026 will be its final year. Like its predecessor, the GR Supra boasts a powerful 382-horsepower engine, an engaging driving experience and an available manual transmission. The car’s swoopy styling remains one of the more distinctive shapes on the road too.

The GR Supra’s end isn’t necessarily because of slow sales. Toyota built it as part of a manufacturing partnership with BMW, which sold the related Z4 roadster. With Z4 production ending, there wasn’t a way to keep the Supra going. While it’s possible that a Supra successor is in the works, this GR Supra could easily qualify as a future classic.

Starting price: $59,595

Tesla Model S

The Model S will forever hold a place in automotive history as one of the earliest mass-produced electric vehicles. The 2026 model year is its last, however. The Model S’ longevity has rendered it a bit of an afterthought for a luxury EV, but it is a roomy electric sedan that’s ideal for daily driving and long road trips.

A base Model S has all-wheel drive, an EPA-estimated range of 410 miles, and enough power to get you from zero to 60 mph in a Tesla-cited 3.1 seconds. Another reason to buy the Model S over the competition is Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature, which enables automated driving on most roads as long as the driver is ready to take control if needed. Tesla is no longer selling new Model S sedans from its website, but used versions are available.

Used 2026 Model S pricing: starting around $110,000

Edmunds says

If you’re in the market for one of these vehicles, act fast because the remaining inventory will likely be limited.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds.

Michael Cantu is a contributor at Edmunds.

British actor Will Poulter, Ohio-born and Brooklyn-based writer-director Adam Meeks and Annette Deao, the program director of an adult recovery court in west-central Ohio, were close enough before, having made the indie film “Union County” just last year. But nothing is quite so bonding as spending hours upon hours together packed inside a Chevrolet Traverse as they bring their film, a raw but hopeful portrait of addiction and recovery, out nationwide Friday, to independent movie theaters across the state.

A very Ohio road trip

In a lengthy interview with The Associated Press at the Cleveland Cinematheque, it becomes immediately clear that nothing is even remotely “Hollywood” about this tour.

There are no publicists, studio representatives or glam squads. One day, they all showed up to a regional news station wearing essentially the same thing (white T-shirts). Their “driver” is one of the film’s producers. They’ve made stops at family homes, including Deao’s 185-year-old renovated barn, Meeks’ uncle’s garage where he’d been storing various props and costumes from the movie “just in case.” And they're serious about finding Ohio’s best cuisine, counting Hoyo’s Kitchen, a Somali food stall inside Columbus’ North Market, as a particular highlight.

In the car, chosen primarily to accommodate two men who are over 6 feet tall, Deao supplied the snacks, a healthy smorgasbord of mandarin oranges, mangoes and coconut chocolate covered almonds. Meeks helped with the playlist (including Ohio’s own Afroman). And Poulter brought the sugar-free energy drinks, which Deao did not approve of.

“Will’s a bad influence,” laughed Meeks.

Seated together, the three seem more like relatives than temporary colleagues — they are light and jovial and excited by the response to the film from their screenings at the Gateway Film Center in Columbus and The Nightlight in Akron. The regional pride, Poulter said, has been palpable, not just for the fact that it was made locally but for how it represents the human element of the opioid crisis.

The real drug court behind ‘Union County’

“When it comes to this subject matter, sometimes there’s a tendency to sort of pair the subject of devastation and tragedy with visuals that match. You look for bleak winters and depressed landscapes,” Poulter said. “This film really celebrates the beauty of both the people in the community and the natural beauty of the place.”

“Union County” was made with the help of the recovery community: Many of the faces you see on screen are not even actors — they’re participants in the program, telling authentic stories of progress, setbacks and everything in between in real court sessions (participation was voluntary). Deao and Logan County Common Pleas Judge Kevin P. Braig play versions of themselves too. The main narrative is fictionalized, about foster brothers Cody (Poulter) and Jack ( Noah Centineo ) and their trials through recovery, but it’s also based on real stories from people Meeks met through Deao.

Poulter, who played a pharmaceutical sales representative in the acclaimed miniseries “Dopesick” just a few years prior, was interested in exploring the crisis from another vantage point, one in which recovery is achievable. He was moved by this program that, he said, was “characterized by so much humanity and dignity and celebration and positivity and hope and all of these things that cut against the grain of the stigma that still exists.”

By emphasizing successful recovery, Poulter said the film offers “something of a counternarrative to how addiction is often made the subject matter in TV shows and films.”

The story of the film began in the summer of 2017, when Meeks had gone back to the place he was born for a stay with his extended family; his family had moved away when he was 6. Upon returning, he was struck by how addiction had touched nearly everyone in some way.

“I was kind of like falling in love with this place while also kind of seeing the sort of circumstances at the time for what they were,” Meeks said.

The counselor turned breakout movie star

In a quest to learn more about regional recovery efforts, his uncle introduced him to a judge at the adult recovery court; Meeks was moved by the session he sat in on, but the story for the short and feature films really opened up after he met and got to know Deao, who has been working with addicts through the drug court program for over 20 years.

“People want to know about what it was like to try to earn the trust of the participants and convince people to be a part of it or something and so much of it was this kind of baseline trust that people had in Annette and the decisions that she made and the space that she created,” Meeks said. “There was a lot of like, ‘If you’re a friend of Annette’s, you’re a friend of ours.’”

Deao was also, it turns out, a good actor.

“At the end of filming on the short, Adam came to me and says, ‘You know, I thought you’d be good, but I really didn’t think you’d be that good,’” Deao said. “And then I said, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I studied theater and music.’ He just about fell over.”

At several screenings, it’s been Deao who received the most applause, which was only a surprise to her. It also, Meeks said, makes her turn “bright red” every time.

“Annette is the heart and soul of the community with whom we made this film, but she’s also the heart and the soul of our film,” Poulter said. “It’s amazing to see her get the response that she gets and couldn’t be more deserving … There’s really no overstating what an amazing contribution she makes, not just to our film but daily to the community she works in.”

Mostly, Deao is just happy that they seem to have gotten it right.

“Everyone has been so generous and so kind and so encouraging that we got it right,” she said. “I just haven’t had one feeling at all that we missed something, that it wasn’t presented right.”

And they’re all already getting a little wistful about the end of the road trip.

“I have not laughed this much in years,” Deao said. “This has been so healing for me.”

After a brief stop in the projector booth, the group was off again — not to go back to their hotel rooms to spend time alone before another Q&A — but to have dinner, together, again.

He would watch Philadelphia 76ers games in the 1960s, and probably unlike most kids growing up in that area around that time he had no aspirations of becoming the next Wilt Chamberlain or Billy Cunningham.

Crawford was the son of a baseball umpire — Shag Crawford worked in the National League for about 20 years. And that's why, when watching basketball, Joey Crawford was drawn to the referees. It was the family business.

“My father was a pro and he would be pointing out Mendy Rudolph, Richie Powers, Earl Strom," Crawford said, referring to some of the game's most prominent referees of that era. “I’d just be watching them. And my father, he's hitting me with the sledgehammer: ‘You’re not gonna play professional baseball, you're not gonna play professional baseball.' He wasn’t going to let me be that guy. So, I just earmarked refereeing.”

He was 13 years old. His mind was made up. Refereeing would be his path.

Little did he know it would take him to the Hall of Fame.

More than a decade after his final NBA game, Crawford is getting enshrined in this year's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class. The Hall is reserved for the best of the best, the elite, and for referees the club is especially elite — with fewer than two dozen people getting enshrined because of their work with whistles.

“With Joey, especially if you were away from home, you had a chance to win,” said longtime NBA coach Mike D'Antoni, another member of the Hall's Class of 2026. “He was going to call the game the way it should be called, whether it’s home or away.”

Crawford's numbers are legendary: He officiated more than 2,500 regular-season games, nearly 400 more in the postseason and 50 of those were in the NBA Finals. He was a lightning rod for critics, doesn't deny that he had issues with his temper particularly in his earlier years, and wound up becoming one of the game's most beloved figures.

And he became a bit of a showman along the way, unafraid to put a funny personality on display. Doc Rivers, who is going into the Hall as part of this class as well, loves the story of how he was tasked with guarding a rookie named Michael Jordan in a game that Crawford was officiating.

Rivers argued that Jordan traveled.

“You didn’t give me that call when I was a rookie,” Rivers told him.

Crawford's response: “You were not that good.”

“It shut me up completely. I had nothing else to say," Rivers said. “I thought Joey was fantastic about understanding the room and the person he was dealing with and how to get out of a situation.”

Crawford remembers his final game — Nov. 8, 2015, Cleveland beating Indiana — not because of anything that happened on the court before he limped off in the third quarter, his long-problematic knees leaving him unable to finish, but rather for what happened in the referee locker room afterward.

“It was my last game. I knew it. Blew my leg out. And I knew I wasn’t going to ref again," Crawford said. “Richard Jefferson was on the Cavs. He knocked on the door and asked security if he could come in.

"He looked at me and said, ‘You’re done, aren't you?' I said I was and he says, 'You know, a lot of people hate you. But I tell a lot these players, everybody should have a Joe Crawford experience.' Every time I tell the story, I start to well up, because you come to the realization that everybody doesn’t hate you. And I’ve given people reasons to. I look back on them and I’m not fond of those times.”

Crawford was charged in a 1998 tax scandal involving airline tickets that he and other referees were accused of selling and not reporting the income. He wound up resigning, only to be reinstated by then-Commissioner David Stern. And in 2007, Crawford had a now-infamous incident with San Antonio star Tim Duncan — calling two technicals on the Spurs legend for laughing from the bench. That got him suspended.

Crawford always wondered if those things would keep him out of the hall. He now has his answer.

“The game is about the players," Crawford said. "I don’t care what anybody says, the players are the key to this. And I’m not taking the political line here. But if you’re a ref, which I am — I am a ref through and through — we know it's not about us. Our job is to get the play right. Technology has changed, the money has changed, but the job hasn't. But I hope, in my way, I helped make refereeing better.”

That's exactly what he did. Turns out, no backup plan was required.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

In other contests, experience was rewarded in two governors’ races and voters went for generational change in voting out a House incumbent.

For Republicans, a contest to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham pitted his sister, Darline Graham, against far more experienced candidates. But she also had the endorsement of President Donald Trump, and she secured a spot in a runoff election later this month.

Here are some takeaways from the night’s elections.

In Wisconsin, verdict anything but clear for Democrats’ direction

Crowley eked out a stunningly narrow, surprise win that did not become clear until the predawn hours of Wednesday, but that seemed to settle little in the party’s national battle between party establishment candidates and an insurgent, populist movement from the left.

Crowley’s win by less than a percentage point over state Rep. Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist, showed neither side of the party debate was winning the argument convincingly.

A week earlier, Michigan’s Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat came down to roughly 15,000 votes — a margin of a percentage point — as progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed edged four-term U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, who had the support of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.

In both Midwestern battleground states, presidential elections have been decided by tiny margins in recent cycles, making midterm statewide elections proxies for the 2028 race for the White House.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2024 and its state legislature has long been in the hands of the GOP, but Democrats have been bullish about reversing that trend. The pressure will now be on Crowley to knit together the divergent wings of the party against Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November.

Democrats in neighboring Minnesota weren’t as torn. They solidly supported progressive Lt. Gov Peggy Flanagan over centrist Rep. Angie Craig. But there are obvious differences — Minnesota has been reliably Democratic for several elections, albeit by smaller margins. And Flanagan has already won statewide elections before.

Nonetheless, Republicans are hopeful the divisive, bitter primary gives their candidate, sportscaster Michele Tafoya, a chance in November.

Family name + Trump nod = runoff spot for Graham in South Carolina

Darline Graham advanced to a runoff Tuesday night in the primary for her brother’s seat. She was appointed to fill the remaining months of his current term after his death last month. While little was known about her, the family name and the goodwill toward her brother propelled her candidacy.

Trump then endorsed her in the GOP primary to occupy the seat for the next six years. He also praised her Tuesday night after returning to Washington. The role Trump chooses to play in the next two weeks could be decisive in a state where he is quite popular.

A who’s who of conservative South Carolina politicians also competed for the rare prize of a Senate seat, and Rep. Ralph Norman, a durable conservative who finished second, will face off against Graham in two weeks. Both candidates will need to consolidate votes from the other challengers to win.

Another veteran Democrat goes down in race over generational change

Connecticut Rep. John Larson became the latest Democratic stalwart to lose his primary. The 78-year-old, who served 14 terms in the House, was defeated by former Hartford mayor Luke Bronin.

Larson’s loss didn’t have the ideological overtones that have dominated some other Democratic House primaries, where younger, socialist candidates ousted veteran House members in Denver and New York City. But there was a definite generational cast, with his 47-year-old challenger arguing voters deserved a different choice in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.

Larson is the 10th member of the House to lose a primary this year, in a sign of bipartisan fury with each party’s veterans.

While that tally includes three Republicans, the rest are Democrats. After Joe Biden’s collapse during the 2024 presidential election — and the deaths of four Democratic House members over the past 18 months — it’s clear that Democratic voters are casting a very critical eye on elderly party members.

Minnesota Republicans reject MyPillow founder, a Trump favorite

Trump backed MyPillow founder Mike Lindell’s campaign for his party’s nomination for Minnesota governor. Lindell has been a prolific peddler of lies about American elections, including Trump’s own false claims that fraud cost him the presidency in 2020. Lindell has claimed that elections in the United States have been “rigged” for decades.

Democrats were eager to have Lindell at the top of the ticket, hoping he’d drag down the entire state GOP. Instead, Minnesota Republicans chose a more traditional nominee, House Speaker Lisa Demuth.

It’s yet another loss for Trump in Republican governors' primaries, after his preferred candidates fell short in Georgia and Iowa. And it improves Republicans’ odds in Minnesota in what’s shaping up to be a difficult year for the party, especially after Trump’s immigration crackdown roiled the state’s biggest city in January.

Experience and resume still mattered in some races

While much of this year’s midterm campaign cycle has been animated by new candidates with provocative progressive messages and by the fact that being an incumbent seemed like a liability, Democratic voters in Connecticut and Minnesota gravitated toward the familiar in their respective choices for governor.

Connecticut’s two-term Gov. Ned Lamont defeated his progressive challenger in the state’s Democratic primary while Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who first won her seat 20 years ago, easily won her state’s nomination for governor.

Their victories ran counter to any trend toward younger, more progressive candidates who had scored surprising wins in several House primaries, and notably, in the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan last week. Lamont began his political rise as an insurgent challenger to incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman but is now considered establishment. Klobuchar has a reputation as a bipartisan consensus-builder.

There are six pieces of silverware up for grabs for PSG this season, with the No. 1 priority being a third straight Champions League title to cement its status as one of the greatest club teams in soccer history.

The first trophy could be lifted inside Red Bull Arena in Salzburg, Austria, in the annual match between the most recent winners of the Champions League and Europa League. It starts at 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT).

PSG is bidding for a second straight Super Cup win after beating Tottenham in a penalty shootout last year.

Villa won the Super Cup in 1983 after beating Barcelona over two legs. The manager, Unai Emery, has experienced three straight losses in the Super Cup — the first two with Sevilla and the third with Villarreal.

Referee is Somali official barred from World Cup

The game will be refereed by Omar Artan, the Somali who was barred by the United States from officiating at the World Cup days before the start of FIFA's tournament because of vetting concerns. U.S. officials claimed Artan had connections to terror organizations, though without providing proof.

UEFA responded by picking Artan — a referee judged the best in Africa last season — to take charge of the Super Cup in a powerplay by European soccer's governing body amid its increasing disconnect with FIFA.

That disharmony has increased since, with UEFA leading the campaign to oust Gianni Infantino from the FIFA presidency over his recent — aborted — plan to sell an interest in the World Cup.

Team news

Villa will be without new signing Johan Manzambi, with the Swiss World Cup star out due to a knee injury, while key players Emi Martinez, Ollie Watkins and Ezri Konsa won't play as they haven’t returned to full training after the World Cup.

PSG coach Luis Enrique must decide whether to include France internationals Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola and Spain’s World Cup-winning midfielder Fabián Ruiz, as they only returned to training on Monday.

PSG could pick left back Lucas Digne, who recently joined from Villa.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

What the case was about

Buc-ee’s accused Prometheus Esoterica — an Orlando-area oddities shop — of using Buc-ee’s branding on merchandise, including the well-known beaver logo, in a way that could mislead customers about an affiliation.

What the settlement document says (key points)

The parties stipulated in the filing that:

• Buc-ee’s has long used the BUC-EE’S mark and beaver logo and has grown to 50+ stores across several states, including Florida.
• Prometheus Esoterica sold items (including t-shirts and decals) featuring the beaver logo, both online and in-store, with prior knowledge of Buc-ee’s marks.

• The document characterizes the conduct as trademark violations, including infringement/counterfeiting and related claims.

What Prometheus Esoterica is now barred from doing

The injunction permanently prohibits the defendant from:

• Using Buc-ee’s trademarks (or anything confusingly similar) on merchandise or otherwise
• Assisting others in using the marks or attempting to evade the order through business or entity changes

What happens next (compliance + enforcement)

Under the settlement, the defendant must:

• Destroy all items and materials bearing the marks and remove related postings or ads.
• File a sworn compliance report within 30 days.
• Each side covers its own fees, but violations can trigger additional enforcement—including potential attorneys’ fees and contempt proceedings.

You can read through the full settlement below:

Buc Ees Settlement by Anthony Talcott

In a release on Tuesday, the congressman — U.S. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida) — unveiled the legislation, dubbed the “Dollar-for-Dollar Deficit Reduction Act.”

Under the proposal, any debt-limit increase or suspension would have to be matched by equal or greater spending reductions over the current fiscal year and the following 10 years.

Steube argued that repeated debt-limit increases without spending reductions shift costs to future generations.

“Congress cannot keep raising the credit limit on the American people without cutting up the credit card,” Steube said. “Every time we raise the debt limit without cutting spending, we hand our children and grandchildren the bill for our own recklessness.”

A companion version is being led in the U.S. Senate by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyoming). Barrasso criticized what he called “out-of-control spending” and said the bill would move the country toward “financial stability.”

The bill would also establish a procedural hurdle — a point of order in both the House and Senate — against bringing debt-limit legislation to the floor if it does not include matching spending cuts. It requires a Congressional Budget Office cost estimate to be publicly available at least 24 hours before a vote.

Additional provisions would require the Treasury secretary to notify key tax-writing committees when the U.S. is nearing the debt ceiling and when “extraordinary measures” may be needed. The legislation also seeks to block budget maneuvers, including counting net interest savings as spending cuts or shifting costs beyond the 10-year window.

Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

He also downplayed the risk to the people — White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters — he left on the plane.

“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane," Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.

“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn't really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”

His comments confirmed a report that first appeared in The Washington Post saying that Trump, following a NATO summit last month, was spirited onto a different plane because of a credible threat from Iran. The action was kept secret for weeks, until the newspaper's story.

“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk," Trump said Tuesday, who did not provide many details about the action. But he said the incident did not scare him.

“I don’t worry about anything, to be honest," Trump said. "Whatever it is. You know my attitude? Whatever!”

Presidents often take secret trips — but not like this

Commanders in chief have sometimes kept overseas trips covert for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept classified until after for safety reasons. But the fact that Trump’s whereabouts were concealed at the time and for weeks afterward is believed to be unprecedented.

“We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” said Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”

“But this was an ongoing secret that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”

After hiding in the catering vehicle and being moved to the other plane, Trump stopped in Britain, sneaked back aboard the presidential plane undetected, and even later scoffed when asked about potential danger.

“If I go, you go. Right?” he told reporters then — gliding past the fact that if the plane had been shot down, the president wouldn't have been aboard.

Many details about what happened remain unknown

The president's flight out of Turkey made headlines at the time because he had arrived aboard a luxury jet gifted by Qatar, which was not equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems found on older presidential jets.

Trump ended up traveling in a smaller government aircraft from Turkey to the United Kingdom, only to secretly reboard the decoy jet, then descend from it and climb back aboard the Qatari plane.

Presidents have regularly tested the confines of their office, pushing their security advisers to visit war zones as a show of American presence and their own leadership. Usually, this happens in the form of trips that aren't announced until the president is deemed to be out of harm's way.

What’s different this time is that Trump was covertly separated from the rest of his travelers — including the press pool meant to provide independent coverage of the president and his actions — and, instead of informing the public about what occurred once the risk had passed, the White House still hasn't fully revealed what took place.

Graff said the presence of the White House press corps is as much about protecting “the presidency and democracy” as it is about covering the story.

“This shows that the White House just fundamentally doesn’t understand how important that role is,” he said.

Officials have gone to great lengths to keep presidents safe on covert trips before

In 2023, a motorcade pulled away from the White House around 3:30 a.m. on a Sunday, and President Joe Biden later boarded an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 normally used for domestic trips to smaller airports, and flew to Poland. Biden then took a secret, 10-hour overnight train ride to Kyiv meant to show solidarity with Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.

A press pool at the White House had been expecting a quiet Sunday for Biden in Washington. However, two journalists went to Ukraine with him and documented the trip, capturing images of Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy walking together.

In Trump's first term, he made a secret Thanksgiving trip to Afghanistan in 2019, when officials kept a separate press pool and decoy plane in Florida to maintain the illusion that the president was spending the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

Instead, Trump and another group of reporters flew to the U.S. military base at Bagram, where the president served turkey to troops, gave a speech and met with Afghanistan's then-president, Ashraf Ghani, while journalists documented what was occurring.

When President George W. Bush made his first trip to Iraq in 2003, news was not released until he was in the air on the way back to the United States. President Barack Obama made a furtive nighttime visit to Afghanistan in 2010, when he was meant to be spending the weekend at Camp David.

Other risky trips featured presidential misdirection

President Bill Clinton went secretly from India to Pakistan in 2000, attempting to calm tensions in the disputed Kashmir region. He was seen talking with officials in front of a military plane that he appeared to board. Instead, Clinton ducked around the front of the aircraft to another jet parked nearby.

Both planes took off for Islamabad, as did a third jet painted with the familiar baby blue markings of Air Force One.

Joe Lockhart, a White House press secretary for Clinton, noted that reporters knew the president was on one of the planes, “but not which one.” He said he and other officials had briefed the press pool ahead of time and “although they didn’t know all the details, it was made clear” that Clinton “was not going to travel on the plane they were on.

“There was no attempt to hide anything, much less lie about it later,” Lockhart wrote on social media.

Bush was visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, during the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and, after all commercial air traffic was grounded, officials wanted to move him to an undisclosed location.

The full White House traveling press pool flew with Bush from Florida to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where officials reduced the number of reporters and staff on the plane. Bush and the smaller traveling party next flew to Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base before eventually returning to Washington.

Bush's location remained secret throughout the day. However, the White House did not suggest that the president was somewhere he was not — unlike when Trump was whisked out of Turkey.

“You can imagine the different ways that this could have gone wrong, where, for a period of time, no one would have been able to independently corroborate the status of the U.S. president, or who was in charge of the U.S. government,” Graff said. “And that’s an incredibly dangerous moment for the world.”

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

4 crew members and 2 allied fighters killed, Yemen says

Six people were killed Tuesday by Houthis firing missiles on a vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, Yemeni authorities said.

Yemen's coast guard said the dead included four crew members and two members of the government-allied National Resistance Forces. Houthis fired three ballistic missiles at the Yemeni commercial vessel, according to the Transportation Ministry of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

They are the first known deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping off Yemen in the latest bout of fighting in the Arab country.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down by Iran, there has been a renewed focus on the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb strait at Yemen’s southern tip, which is an alternate route for Saudi Arabia to ship its oil.

The deadly vessel strike came amid Houthi attacks on the government-held port city of Mokha on the Red Sea and other areas of the country. Dozens of government troops and civilians have been killed in attacks since last week, according to the Yemeni military.

The strikes are part of an escalation by the Houthis against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea.

The Houthi attacks could reignite Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 truce, and open a new front in the Middle East war.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis’ chief negotiator and spokesperson, accused Saudi Arabia in a social media post of exploiting the ceasefire to tighten an air and sea blockade it imposed in 2015.

He said the Houthis are open for negotiations but any settlement must include lifting the blockade.

US fires on ship it said was trying to break blockade of Iran

The U.S. military said Tuesday that its forces fired on a Panamanian-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman that tried to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports. The move came as U.S. President Donald Trump tries to keep economic pressure on the Islamic Republic.

U.S. Central Command said the vessel had ignored warnings to stop, prompting an American helicopter to fire missiles into the engine room of the M/V Vela Nova, disabling the ship. The statement did not say whether the ship’s crew suffered any casualties.

Trump on Tuesday night insisted that the U.S. military has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz, despite the fact that Iran has kept up its attacks on ships in the waterway, largely impeding traffic there.

“Iran is going fine, going just absolutely fine,” he told reporters after a trip to Ohio. “We totally control the Strait of Hormuz. We have control over it. Nobody else. Only us,” Trump said.

Central Command said it has redirected 55 commercial vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled three noncompliant vessels and boarded two. The U.S. Navy currently has more than 15 warships, including two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship, stationed in the waters of the Arabian Sea.

Iran has refused to back down on demands that the U.S. end its blockade of Iranian ports, lift sanctions on the Islamic Republic and fulfill other conditions.

Iran effectively closed the strait after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28. Attacks on the key waterway — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — and uncertainty around its future have kept energy prices a major focus of U.S. politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Pakistani official returns to Iran hoping to ease tensions with US

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi traveled Tuesday to Tehran for meetings with Iran's foreign minister and other officials.

Naqvi's visit aimed to encourage Iran to resume negotiations with the United States under an interim peace deal brokered by Pakistan in June, two officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted photos from his meeting with Naqvi on his private Telegram channel.

It is Naqvi's sixth trip to Iran as part of Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts to ease tensions between Iran and the U.S.

—Munir Ahmed in Islamabad

Israel criticized at UN meeting over West Bank violence

Five European nations on the Security Council called a meeting Tuesday as Britain’s new U.N. Ambassador Sarah MacIntosh condemned escalating violence across the West Bank, calling settler attacks on Palestinian villages, some alongside Israeli soldiers, “appalling.”

Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour said Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory is already “underway -- brutally and relentlessly.” He urged international action to chart a path for Palestinian self-determination and “freedom.”

Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon responded by saying: “Israel condemns all violence against Israelis and Palestinians” and “does not tolerate extremism — we confront it.”

Danon said “extremist attacks" by Israelis are declining and accused council members of ignoring “rising” attacks by Palestinians.

Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia

In Syria, a court sentenced former President Bashar Assad along with his younger brother to death for crimes against humanity and war crimes during Syria’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead.

Assad and his brother Maher, who fled to Russia after insurgents marched into Damascus in December 2024, were sentenced in absentia at the Fourth Criminal Court in the Syrian capital.

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This story has been corrected to state that Bashar and Maher Assad fled to Russia in 2024, not 2014.

The vote took place during a hastily convened meeting of Luxon’s center-right National Party lawmakers at Parliament in Wellington, which was held behind closed doors and ran for more than three hours. Luxon then emerged flanked by his lawmakers to give a brief statement and departed without taking any questions from reporters.

“There was a confidence vote in my leadership this morning at our caucus meeting,” he said. “I had the full support of our caucus and our caucus is united and it is determined to win this election.”

Luxon didn’t say how many lawmakers had voted for him to continue in the job, although such ballots are usually a secret.

Hours later, he said in a statement that the vote was prompted by a leadership challenge from his defense minister, Chris Penk, adding that he had removed Penk from his ministerial portfolios. On Wednesday night, Luxon's office distributed a statement from Penk, in which the challenger said he would quit Parliament altogether.

It was Luxon's second confidence vote since April

The vote was the second Luxon had called about his own leadership since April and leaves lingering questions coming so close to the election scheduled for Nov. 7.

The April vote followed drops in polling for National, while this week’s followed recent public remarks Luxon had made on various issues that some in his party saw as gaffes.

On Tuesday, the leader took the rare step of disclosing on social media that he faced renewed rumblings about his leadership, and announcing he would call a meeting of his lawmakers Wednesday to resolve it.

“It is my firm belief that division and disunity are a major distraction only 90 days out from the election,” he wrote on X. “I also believe this distraction is unfair to the New Zealand people, and dedicated National Party candidates, supporters and volunteers, when there is so much at stake.”

National has led a right-wing coalition government since New Zealand’s 2023 election. Luxon, a former airline executive who entered Parliament in 2020, had led the party since 2021.

Defense minister launched showdown

Details of who had prompted the leadership rumblings at first remained a mystery.

Nobody publicly confirmed plans for a leadership bid or expressed intentions to oust their leader, and those whose names were reported speculatively by news outlets denied it.

Several hours after the vote, Luxon named Penk as his challenger and said his now former minister’s position was “untenable.”

Penk, 47, was also the minister for building and construction, and responsible for the security services and space portfolios. A former lawyer who served in Australia’s navy, Penk entered Parliament in 2017.

He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, but in the statement Luxon's office attributed to him, Penk said he had “reflected on my political future with my family tonight” and would not seek reelection in November, effectively ending his political career.

“I am proud of the progress I have contributed to as a Minister this term,” Penk's statement said. “However, I have decided it is the time for me to seek other opportunities to serve New Zealand.”

The statement did not criticize Luxon or reference his leadership bid.

Meanwhile, Luxon’s political opponents lambasted him and his party.

“Backstabbing and infighting just means more delay and more distraction for New Zealand,” said Chris Hipkins, the opposition leader and leader of the center-left Labour party. “If National can’t govern itself, how can New Zealanders trust it to govern the country?”

Luxon’s remarks in recent weeks prompted fresh speculation

Among the recent remarks that appeared to prompt renewed leadership murmurings were comments Luxon made to a business audience earlier this month, when he said some business leaders in the country had a “parent-child mentality” and too often looked to the government for direction. Luxon, who was once an executive at Unilever when he lived in the United States, has always sold himself as a business expert and has sometimes pointed out where he sees New Zealand as falling short of global trends.

When elected, he pledged to use his experience to reverse New Zealand’s economic woes of recent years. This month’s remarks were lambasted, including by some in his own party, as being out of touch while the economy remained sluggish.

He later apologized for the comments. In another episode, he was forced to divulge that he had used a military aircraft to return to Wellington after a political party fundraiser.

Luxon also surprised his lawmakers this month when he promised a referendum on New Zealand’s electoral system if reelected – apparently without first telling his caucus. The episodes were seen among some in his party as an unwelcome distraction ahead of the election and revealing of Luxon’s relative political inexperience.

___

This version has corrected that Luxon entered Parliament in 2020, not 2000.

Ademi was just 9 when he last saw his father, Adem Ademi, a prominent surgeon who disappeared along with 22 other intellectuals in April 1999, just months before the end of the war. Some 1,600 people are still missing from the conflict, believed scattered in unmarked mass graves, and Ademi's family had endured years of anguish and disappointments at failed efforts to find his father's remains.

They are now cautiously optimistic because the newly found graves are near to where Ademi was last seen. Excavations near the village of Kalluder e Vogel in the northern municipality of Zubin Potok, started in late July after the discovery of human remains there. Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that the authorities believe the victims could be the missing intellectuals, who allegedly were caught as they were trying to flee Kosovo to avoid being rounded up by Serb troops.

“Always, when we hear about the beginning of the excavations, there is a mixed feeling, a feeling of hope and a feeling of pain,” Ademi said. “No matter how many years pass, the feeling of pain will always exist … but at the same time there has always been hope, a feeling that finally the truth will be revealed.”

Kosovo’s missing include roughly 1,200 ethnic Albanians, around 400 ethnic Serbs and dozens of Roma, according to the Humanitarian Law Center rights group.

Some 13,000 people died in Kosovo's war, which saw ethnic Albanians launch a rebellion to gain independence from Serbia. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Belgrade still does not recognize.

Tensions still simmer. In May 2023, Serbia and Kosovo reached an agreement which included commitments by both sides to clarify the fate of the missing, but Kosovo and Serbia have accused each other of stalling efforts to work together.

“It is obvious that authorities are not willing to cooperate,” said Bekim Blakaj, from the Humanitarian Law Center.

The European Union wants Kosovo and Serbia to normalize ties in order to move forward in their plans to join the bloc.

Police in Kosovo said last month they arrested two ethnic Serbs on suspicion of war crimes in connection with the mass graves, several days before the latest excavations started. The two men remain in custody.

Several top Serbian political and military officials have been tried and convicted of war crimes in Kosovo at a U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Erblin Ademi clutched the photo of his father holding him as a little boy.

“Every human being has the right to have a grave where they can be visited, where they can be honored, where they can be remembered,” Ademi said. “We are very hopeful that this will be the end, no matter how long the whole process will take, we will wait until we can honor them as they deserve.”

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This story has been updated to correct the name of the village to Kalluder e Vogel, not Upper and Lower Kalluder.

Company spokeswoman Shino Yamada confirmed Wednesday that Okuda had died but said the date and cause of his death were not immediately available. Major Japanese companies are on summer break this week.

Okuda served as president then chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. from 1995 through 2006. In his 45-year career at Toyota, Okuda is especially remembered for having led the development of the gas-electric hybrid Prius, introduced in 1997, a model with the fuel-efficient technology that was ground-breaking at that time.

The Prius became a symbol of the auto industry ’s push for green driving. Okuda was instrumental in helping drive Toyota’s reputation for fuel-efficiency at a time when gas prices were already surging, with models such as its bestseller Camry, as well as the hybrids.

Born in central Japan, the area where Toyota has its headquarters, Okuda graduated in 1955 from the prestigious Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, with a degree in business.

Reputedly outspoken and always ready with a quick laugh, Okuda was unusual in not being from Toyota’s founding Toyoda family, as the leadership at the world’s top automaker tended to be.

He was key in leading Toyota’s global expansion while at the helm, not only in sales, but also production, setting up manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Europe.

Okuda, a black belt in judo, was vocal about his concerns over the possible backlash that Toyota might face, as its growth meant the inevitable dethroning of the American so-called “Big Three,” General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, once synonymous for U.S. manufacturing grandeur.

He liked to emphasize how the auto industry was global and connected, using the term “harmony” to drive home that message.

Toyota and other Japanese automakers like Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. were raking in huge profits, while the Americans were sinking into losses. That helped ring in “Japan-bashing” sentiments starting in the 1980s.

As is still the case today, the cheap yen viewed as giving Toyota and the other Japanese manufacturers an unfair advantage. A cheap yen raises the value of overseas earnings when translated into yen.

Okuda was an adviser on Toyota’s board when Toyota added an American, Jim Press, to its board for the first time, in 2007.

He was also a proponent of promoting younger managers, when that was still relatively rare in Japanese corporate circles, although that usually meant empowering men in their 50s instead of their 60s.

“A company must change when things are going well. There’s no point in trying to change after things start going bad,” he told reporters in 2005.

That emphasis on staying nimble encapsulates Toyota’s basic principle of constantly improving, known as “kaizen,” which, along with just-in-time production, centering on the idea of avoiding huge inventory, is at the core of Toyota’s founding philosophies.

Okuda served as the head of major business lobbies such as the Japan Business Federation, known as Keidanren; the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association; the Prime Minister’s Economic Strategy Council of Japan and the Japan Federation of Employers’ Associations.

Toyota did not immediately have details on surviving family. Funeral arrangements were being made by the family, and plans may be coming later on a more public formal ceremony, according to the company.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

Drought conditions had forced Mohamed and her family to leave Saakoow, a town in the Middle Jubba region more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) away. They moved from village to village before arriving in Baidoa, now a major hub for people fleeing drought, insecurity and food shortages, on Aug. 3.

“We are very hungry and in a desperate situation,” Mohamed said. “We have nothing to eat and can only place our hope in God, as He is the one who sustains us through this ordeal that culminated in our trip.”

The family's journey is one example of a deepening humanitarian emergency in Somalia, where years of drought, conflict and economic pressures are pushing more families from rural communities into displacement camps as hunger rises and humanitarian funding shrinks.

About 2 million people are facing emergency levels of food insecurity, more than double the number recorded last year, according to Plan International, which has provided assistance to more than 200,000 people in Somalia this year. The humanitarian group and Somalia’s Disaster Management Agency are calling for increased international assistance, with concern that the crisis could be compounded by another climate shock later this year.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has projected a greater than 90% probability of El Nino conditions developing from mid-2026 and intensifying during Somalia’s October-to-December rainy season, bringing the severe risk of flooding.

Somalia is highly vulnerable to extreme weather and has experienced repeated cycles of prolonged drought followed by destructive flooding. The shocks have eroded livelihoods, displaced communities, contributed to disease outbreaks and worsened food insecurity.

In Baidoa, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing prolonged drought have gathered in sprawling displacement settlements on the outskirts of the city.

One of them, Habiba Adan, fled her settlement in Awdiinle in the Bay region after four consecutive years of drought destroyed crops and killed livestock. She eventually moved to Baidoa with her two older daughters and now lives in a displacement camp.

Adan would like to return home, but she said continuing drought and failed harvests there have left families with little prospect of rebuilding their lives.

“The drought we are experiencing has stretched for four consecutive years, and this year, most crops have again been decimated,” Adan said. “Farmers were only able to harvest enough to sow their fields for the next season, leaving our future bleak. Here in these camps, we lack food and essential support. We have no food, water, or money, and we sit idly.”

According to Plan International, the city is hosting about 1.6 million people, nearly half of them displaced. It says one in five families lacks reliable access to water, among the most immediate challenges facing displaced families. They are increasingly forced to buy trucked water at steep prices that many simply cannot afford.

Families have nothing left after years of drought

Reena Ghelani, the global CEO of Plan International, visited Baidoa last week, meeting drought-displaced families and visiting a malnutrition ward in the Bay region.

Ghelani said many of the families she met had tried to remain in their communities through successive years of drought, leaving only when their resources were exhausted.

Many fled “after waiting and waiting year after year of drought and just surviving,” Ghelani said. “And now they say there’s nothing left. They have no water. They have no stocks. The animals have died. There is literally nothing left anymore.”

She said rising prices are placing additional pressure on families already struggling to find enough food.

Children are suffering from malnutrition

Data released in May by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitoring system, showed that about half of children under 5 in Somalia were facing acute malnutrition.

Plan International, citing Save the Children, said the number of children receiving treatment for the most dangerous form of malnutrition in Baidoa had nearly tripled over six months.

Dr. Omar Abdikarin, a nutritionist in Baidoa, said patients are arriving for treatment from the Bay as well as the neighboring Bakool and Gedo regions.

“Malnutrition is prevalent in this region, and the majority of patients treated at this hospital suffer from malnourishment,” Abdikarin said.

The health risks extend beyond malnutrition. Ghelani said she encountered children affected by outbreaks of diphtheria, measles, malaria, cholera and acute diarrhea.

The prospect of heavy rainfall later this year presents a new threat to communities facing multiple crises. Intense rainfall and flooding could wash away homes and farmland, contaminate drinking water and force families to move again. Aid agencies warn that the expected El Nino conditions will compound the crisis for countless families before they have had time to recover from prolonged drought conditions.

For families arriving in Baidoa such as Mohamed's, the most urgent question is where to find clean water and food.

Mohamed said her husband had left for farms on the outskirts of the city, in search of work or something for their children to eat. A day after arriving in the city, she was still waiting to find out whether her husband would return with good news.

___ Faruk reported from Mogadishu, Somalia.

___

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The report, “Powering India’s Secondary Steel Transition,” found renewable electricity could reduce annual power costs by about 22 million to 24 million rupees ($250,000 to $275,000) per unit, or up to 34%.

The report was jointly produced by a consortium of environmental groups and industry bodies including the Confederation of Indian Industry, WWF-India, the nonprofit group Climate Catalyst and the think tank JMK Research.

Electricity accounts for up to 40% of operating costs for many small steel producers, making it one of the industry’s largest expenses. Profit margins at many of India’s smaller steel companies have been affected by rising fuel costs resulting from the Iran war.

India, the world’s most populous nation, is among the largest emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases contributing to global warming.

The steel sector accounts for as much as 12% of India’s annual emissions. Decarbonizing the sector is essential to meet the country's goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070.

Shifting to clean power also could help shield Indian steel companies from European carbon taxes that took effect at the start of this year.

“With rising pressure on all industries to reduce their carbon emissions, a high-emitting sector like steel has to look at ways to reduce emissions at the least cost possible,” said Prabhakar of JMK Research, one of the report’s authors, who uses only one name. “With the huge growth in renewables in India, shifting to renewable electricity is low-hanging fruit for reducing carbon pollution.”

Steel firms can save with joint clean power investments

The report found the most practical option for small steel producers is to jointly invest in and own a renewable energy project from which they can draw electricity based on their investment and electricity needs.

This approach lowers the upfront financial burden for individual companies and creates projects large enough to be commercially viable, the report said.

“A cluster-based approach can fundamentally change how small steelmakers access renewable energy,” Prabhakar said. “Aggregating demand through industrial associations makes projects more bankable, enables optimal plant sizing and reduces the investment risk borne by any single unit.”

Renewable energy adoption remains limited among India’s smaller and medium-sized steel companies despite the country’s clean power capacity tripling over the past decade. The report estimated only about 11% of smaller steelmakers use renewable power, compared with roughly 22% of India’s overall electricity mix.

Helping small and medium steelmakers access clean energy is essential to India's ambitious climate goals, said Vinoth Balakumar of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

“The companies are ready to change and have realized that, to maintain profits, they could try to shift to renewable electricity,” he said.

Low awareness, red tape and high costs slow clean power shift

Owners of small steel companies said they are willing to shift to clean power because many of their domestic and international customers prefer steel with a lower carbon footprint. But high costs, government regulations and, in some regions, a lack of awareness about the benefits of renewable electricity are slowing the transition.

“When capital costs are really high, it makes it less viable for smaller companies,” said Sanjay Tripathi, a steel company owner in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

In the western state of Gujarat, the country’s second-largest generator of renewable energy, steelmakers said inadequate transmission and grid infrastructure prevent them from using all the solar power they have invested in.

“We are being asked to reduce our solar power production by up to 80% at times by state government authorities,” said Dhirubai Patel, who owns a steel company in Rajkot, home to one of India’s largest steelmaking clusters in Gujarat.

Patel and several other steel manufacturers in the city invested in a solar power plant that began operating in 2021.

“Our request is for the government to invest in infrastructure and make it easier for us to do business. We have a lot of good policies, but there is a lack of cooperation from officials in many government departments,” Patel said. “They are still living in the old era and need a change in their mindset.”

___

Follow Sibi Arasu on X at @sibi123. Reach him at sarasu@ap.org. ___

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

He struck out the side on 13 pitches in the first inning for the first time as a Dodger. The Dodgers rallied to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-4 in 10 innings, although Snell didn't figure in the decision.

“He was fantastic,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I just liked the look in his eye and obviously talking about how good he feels physically. I give him a lot of credit for really attacking and not trying to be too fine.”

After striking out Nick Loftin to open the fourth, Snell gave up back-to-back singles to Bobby Witt Jr. and Jac Caglianone. Witt scored on Salvador Perez's sacrifice fly, tying the game 1-1.

“Everything was free and easy,” Roberts said. “Really electric stuff.”

Snell allowed one more hit — a double to Tyler Tolbert in the fifth — before leaving the game in the sixth with the score still tied. He gave up one run and three hits and struck out 10 while walking one.

“I think the biggest thing was just being aggressive. Be in the zone, attack. I know how good my stuff is, so I didn’t want to just be nibbling and then complaining like, ‘Oh, that’s a strike,’” he said. “To strike out the side was good, but it’s just keeping the pace, keeping the velo where I need it to be, feeling strong, those things matter a lot to me. To be able to do that for six innings and feel like I had more left, I’m excited about that.”

The two-time Cy Young Award winner had made just one start this season, giving up four runs and six hits in three innings against Atlanta on May 9 before going on the injured list four days later.

“Pretty frustrating to have that as my only start and then have to rehab, go through all that, to come back,” Snell said. "Just had a lot of information from that game that helped me with this one on what I wanted to do differently and how I wanted to start. Definitely happy that I was more aggressive, more in the zone and more just in control of my emotions first one back.”

Snell is one of three Dodgers pitchers to have had surgery for loose bodies this season. Closer Edwin Díaz had right elbow surgery in April and fellow two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal had left elbow surgery in May while with the Detroit Tigers. Both are back pitching.

“That’s the Snell that we’re used to seeing and hopefully we have him for the next two, three months for the long run,” said teammate Max Muncy, who had the winning single in the 10th.

For the third consecutive season, Snell is returning from an injury in the second half. The NL West-leading Dodgers are looking for him to quickly get back on track, with the team losing eight of 10 before winning Tuesday.

“When he's going well, he's not really thinking about his mechanics and he's got a rhythm,” Roberts said before the game. “When he's not and he's searching, the game kind of comes to a standstill.”

Roberts can easily tell when Snell is in command on the mound.

“There’s a little swagger," the manager said. "There’s a little kind of standing a little taller.”

Snell made three rehab starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City and another for Single-A Ontario, going 0-0 with a 3.09 ERA. He struck out 19 batters for a 14.7 strikeout-per-inning rate.

“Coming back from rehab and to kind of feel your way into the middle of a season is really difficult,” Roberts said.

The 33-year-old left-hander had a 2.35 ERA last season, his first with Los Angeles after signing a $182 million, five-year deal. He helped the Dodgers win a second straight World Series championship, with three wins and a 3.18 ERA in six postseason games, including eight scoreless innings in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets.

In other moves Tuesday, the team transferred reliever Blake Treinen to the 60-day IL. The 38-year-old right-hander has been out since June 20 while recovering from elbow inflammation. Roberts said he has not experienced a setback.

Left-hander Charlie Barnes was sent down a day after he was added, but didn't appear in the series opener against the Royals. Barnes went 0-1 with a 6.30 ERA in four appearances for the Dodgers.

___

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Progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota's Democratic U.S. Senate primary over centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in the latest moderate-vs.-progressive contest in the Democratic Party. In the race for governor, state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won the GOP primary despite President Donald Trump's endorsement of opponent Mike Lindell, known as the MyPillow Guy. Sen. Amy Klobuchar won the Democratic nomination with minimal opposition.

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong and establishment candidate David Crowley are locked in an extraordinarily tight race in the Democratic primary for governor. The results, delayed by an absentee ballot uploading error, are not expected until early Wednesday. The winner will take on Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in November in an open election that could test the limits of progressives’ appeal in a critical battleground state. In a separate race, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s 26-year-old son-in-law Michael Alfonso won a five-way primary for Duffy’s old U.S. House seat.

And Sen. Darline Graham advanced to a runoff in South Carolina’s special Republican primary to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate. The first-time candidate will face U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who also emerged from a 10-way field in Tuesday's primary. The winner of the Aug. 25 runoff is expected to claim the U.S. Senate seat over the Democratic nominee.

Here's the latest:

Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary hangs in the balance awaiting Milwaukee votes

Early Wednesday, the race between democratic socialist Francesca Hong and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley remained too early to call as 28,000 absentee ballots from Milwaukee were delayed because of a human error in uploading the results.

Both candidates were waiting for the final ballots to be counted before announcing next steps. If the margin is less than one percentage point, the losing candidate can seek a recount.

“We’re still waiting for all the results to come in,” the Crowley campaign said. “We feel optimistic, but it’s not over until the votes are counted.”

Hong addressed her supporters just before midnight, saying, “I know we don’t have the final results right now, but what I do know is we are ready to keep fighting.”

Milwaukee absentee ballot results delayed

Milwaukee elections officials say a human error will delay reporting the results of about 28,000 absentee ballots by at least an hour.

The ballots could determine the winner in the tight race between democratic socialist Francesca Hong and more moderate challenger Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Milwaukee Election Commission Director Paulina Gutierrez said human error was to blame for audit logs being uploaded onto flash drives instead of ballot results.

Hong spoke to her supporters late Tuesday night, saying, “We are ready to keep fighting.”

Crowley has not addressed his supporters as the race remains too early to call.

Wisconsin democratic socialist says she will keep fighting as governor’s primary race remains tight

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong is telling her supporters that she will keep on fighting as the outcome of the Wisconsin Democratic governor’s primary remains too early to call.

Hong did not concede the race or declare victory against Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

“We have built something that will change politics forever,” Hong said. “The work we have done will be remembered forever. I know we don’t have the final results right now, but what I do know is we are ready to keep fighting.”

Hong also looked ahead to November in the race against Republican Tom Tiffany, not knowing whether she or Crowley will be the one facing him.

“We will win together, united,” Hong said.

Peggy Flanagan says Trump doesn’t need another ‘yes sir’ senator

Flanagan took the stage at her party shortly after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate and laid into GOP nominee Michele Tafoya.

She said Tafoya supports Trump on issues from immigration enforcement to the war in Iran.

“We already have too many spineless ‘yes sir’ senators who won’t stand up to Donald Trump,” she said. “Minnesota, we are not going to send him another one.”

In concession, Angie Craig urges supporters to rally around Peggy Flanagan

Craig gave a gracious concession speech at a Saint Paul brewery after losing the Democratic primary. She framed the coming general election in stark terms and wasted no time going after the Republican nominee.

“To every person who supported me, I ask you tonight to support and elect Peggy Flanagan as the next senator from Minnesota,” Craig said. “Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy, and Michele Tafoya would be nothing more than a rubber stamp to his dangerous agenda.”

She stood in front of a large American flag with her wife by her side.

“This is the moment, folks, to use democracy to save democracy,” Craig said.

Progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan wins Democratic primary for Minnesota Senate seat

Flanagan’s win is the latest for an insurgent progressive over the party’s establishment.

She defeated centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig with a pledge to fight the influence of corporations and confront Trump.

Flanagan was backed by popular progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who rallied with her in the campaign’s final weeks. She was also supported by the retiring incumbent, Democratic Sen. Tina Smith.

Flanagan highlighted Craig’s support from wealthy donors and blasted her vote for a Trump-backed immigration bill, which became a liability after immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Flanagan enters the general election as the frontrunner in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican to a statewide office in 20 years. But Republicans see an opening from Flanagan’s progressive views and backlash to a fraud scandal involving the widespread theft of public funds dispersed by state agencies to social services organizations. Republicans say Democrats turned a blind eye while Flanagan was lieutenant governor.

Lisa Demuth defeats MyPillow founder Mike Lindell to win GOP nomination for Minnesota governor

The win by the state House speaker was also a rare loss for a Republican primary candidate endorsed by Trump.

Demuth argued that she’s the most electable and experienced Republican candidate, pointing to her role as a legislative leader. She became speaker in a power-sharing agreement for the Minnesota House, which is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

Some Minnesota Republicans worried Lindell would be unable to win over independents and moderate Republicans who reject the 2020 election lies he’s best known for promoting, potentially dragging down the entire GOP ticket.

Demuth will face Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who had no serious opposition for the Democratic nomination. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz dropped his reelection campaign in the aftermath of a fraud scandal involving the widespread theft of tax money his administration gave to organizations that were supposed to use it for social welfare programs.

Economist Amanda Janoo wins Vermont’s Democratic gubernatorial primary

The first-time political candidate will go on to face Republican Gov. Phil Scott in November.

Janoo, 38, has spent her career working with the United Nations and international development organizations. She billed herself as the more progressive candidate while running against Aly Richards in the primary. Richards was also a first-time candidate.

Scott, who has served five terms and is one term away from becoming the state’s longest-serving governor, ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

Vermont is one of two states, along with neighboring New Hampshire, that hold a gubernatorial election every two years.

GOP voters says Marques has a proven record

Bill Ventress voted for Republican Rhett Marques in the special congressional primary in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.

Ventress said Marques has a proven record already in the district after serving in city government and the Alabama Legislature.

“He’s done a great job in every position he’s been in, and I know he will again,“ Ventress said.

Marques, who was backed by President Donald Trump, defeated five GOP rivals to secure the Republican nomination. He will face incumbent Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures in November.

Michele Tafoya says it’s time to end one-party rule in Minnesota

The former sports broadcaster is working against history after winning the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican statewide since 2006.

She indicated fraud will be at the center of her pitch as she tries to convince voters to give the GOP a chance. The Democratic-controlled state government has been embroiled in scandal after failing to detect and stop the widespread theft of tax money from public assistance programs.

“We will not reelect politicians who let criminals steal billions and treat accountability as optional,” Tafoya said in a statement Tuesday night. “We deserve better, and it’s time we demand better.”

Tafoya will face either U.S. Rep. Angie Craig or Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who have fought a tense campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Key rematch set for Wisconsin’s 3rd District

Rebecca Cooke’s Democratic primary win in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District sets up a key battleground in the fight for control of the U.S. House.

In a rematch of the 2024 election, Cooke will face incumbent U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who flipped the seat four years ago. Democrats hope to win back the district Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Kind represented for 26 years before retiring.

The 3rd District is one of 31 on the 2026 U.S. House map that Trump won by less than 10 percentage points.

After ousting Larson, Luke Bronin says Democratic Party needs to embrace change

Speaking to supporters after defeating U.S. Rep. John Larson, Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, said the Democratic Party needed to act with more urgency in its fight with President Donald Trump.

“If we are going to fix this mess that we are in, we need to build a Democratic party that is bringing a whole new energy to this fight,” Bronin said.

While Bronin praised Larson for his liberal politics and longtime service, he said the party needed to adapt, and if it is too slow to do so, “then the changes are going to come from the ground up. And that’s a message the party needs to hear.”

10 incumbent US House members have lost their primaries so far

Fourteen-term Democratic Rep. John Larson is the 10th House incumbent to lose their primary this cycle and the sixth ousted by a younger challenger. Overall, 70 representatives will not return to their seats next year, the most at this point in the calendar in recent history.

Democrat Rebecca Cooke wins western Wisconsin congressional primary in targeted district

The 3rd Congressional District is a top target for Democrats to flip this year. Cooke will battle two-term incumbent Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden for the seat in November.

Van Orden is one of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters. But he will face a tough reelection bid in a narrowly divided district in a year where Trump’s approval ratings are low in Wisconsin.

Cooke defeated former Eau Claire City Council President Emily Berge in the primary. Berge ran an underdog, insurgent campaign against Cooke who was more well known and better financed.

Cooke narrowly lost to Van Orden in 2024 and also ran in 2022 but lost in the Democratic primary that year.

Tight race in Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley are neck and neck.

The winner will advance to face Republican Tom Tiffany.

Hong was counting on support from her home city of Madison, the liberal state capital, to overcome Crowley, who has served as the top elected official in Milwaukee County for six years.

Crowley has the endorsement of two-term Gov. Tony Evers and has been running as the more moderate choice.

Sean Duffy’s son-in-law Michael Alfonso wins Wisconsin congressional primary

The 26-year-old son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy won a five-person Republican primary for Duffy’s old congressional seat in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District.

Alfonso rode President Donald Trump’s endorsement to victory in the race where his opponents and some longtime Republican leaders in the district argued he was too young and inexperienced.

Duffy returned to Wisconsin to help campaign for Alfonso, who was waging his first run for any office. Alfonso is married to Duffy’s daughter.

Alfonso defeated four other challengers including Kevin Hermening, a Republican with deep ties to the district who was also one of the American hostages held in Iran starting in 1979.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar pledges to be ‘a transformative governor’

The Democratic nominee for Minnesota governor said she will bring tangible improvements for Minnesotans, including making life more affordable and tackling fraud.

“You expect leaders to deliver results, not excuses,” Klobuchar said.

She went on to preview the case she will make against her Republican rival. The GOP primary is too early to call between MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and state House speaker Lisa Demuth, but Klobuchar said both are more interested in serving the president than the state.

“When my opponents were asked to name one place where they disagreed with Donald Trump, they couldn’t do it,” Klobuchar said.

Longtime Connecticut congressman John Larson says he’s ‘disappointed’ with election turnout

Larson still stressed to supporters that Democrats must “come together, heal and move forward.”

Larson, a longtime Democrat who has represented the state’s 1st Congressional District for nearly 30 years, was ousted by former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.

“Tonight, the people have spoken. And they’ve made that clear. They’ve made it clear what their decision is. And now is the time for all of us to come together,” Larson said, thanking his supporters, family and friends.

Larson added that he intended to “fulfill my responsibility to the last day.”

Norman earned his runoff spot with help from Upstate

South Carolina’s most populous county of Greenville once again showed its independent streak in Tuesday’s special U.S. Senate primary by helping Rep. Ralph Norman secure a spot in the August 25 runoff.

At 9 p.m. ET when he locked a runoff berth, Norman had a plurality of the Greenville County vote and a sizable lead over U.S. Sen. Darline Graham.

Norman was also Greenville County’s top vote-getter in the June 9 primary for governor, outperforming Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who both advanced to the June 23 runoff over Norman.

A plurality of Greenville County voters also preferred businessman Mark Lynch over the late Sen. Lindsey Graham in the June 9 Senate primary. Greenville and Spartanburg counties were the only two counties Lindsey Graham lost on June 9.

Ammie Akin wins Republican primary in redrawn Alabama district

She will face Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell in the November general election for the 7th Congressional District seat.

Akin served as assistant superintendent in a public school system, was interim superintendent of a private Christian school and founded a nonprofit.

Alabama is holding special primaries in four congressional districts after redrawing lines in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s redistricting decision. Alabama Republicans reshaped the 2nd Congressional District to make it more likely to elect a Republican, and altered the lines of three others, including the 7th District.

Sewell still remains the favorite to win in November.

A native of Selma, Sewell has served in Congress since 2011. She has sponsored legislation aimed at restoring and modernizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

‘Guilty as charged’: Darline Graham is a political newcomer, and proud of it

“I’ve been accused of not being a politician,” she said at her election night speech. “Guilty as charged.”

Graham, who is now in the Republican U.S. Senate runoff in the race to replace her late brother, was tapped to serve his remaining months in office. She touted what she had done in the Senate so far and her work outside of politics, but leaned into the newcomer role.

“I will spend the next to weeks of this runoff meeting with voters and, unlike some politicians, listening to their concerns — yes, listening to their concerns,” she said. “This seat belongs to the people of South Carolina, and I will work hard to earn your vote.”

Luke Bronin defeats incumbent US Rep. John Larson in Connecticut Democratic primary

Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, topped Larson in a race that evoked the battle over generational change in the Democratic party.

A Rhodes scholar, lawyer and U.S. Navy Reserve officer, Bronin, 46, was a sophomore at Yale when Larson, 78, was first elected to the 1st District seat in 1998.

Bronin’s campaign got a big bump earlier this year when the state party endorsed him at a May nominating convention.

Larson has had to fight concerns about his age and health, which intensified last year after he suffered a partial seizure during a speech on the House floor.

Even in a loss, Sanford can’t stop talking about national debt

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s run for U.S. Senate ended with a loss for a man who almost never used to lose in South Carolina.

Sanford jumped at the opportunity to run for U.S. Senate in the state’s two-week special Republican primary since he had plenty of money remaining in his campaign account and a burning need to tell everyone the U.S. is drowning in debt.

His concession speech Tuesday was another campaign speech. He talked about how the U.S. will spend more national debt interest than defense this year and Social Security and Medicare are less than a decade away from bankruptcy.

“We are on an unsustainable course, and no civilization across the pages of time has been able to outrun math,” Sanford said.

The former governor had a blast getting back on the campaign trial. He spent most of his election night talking to his sons and supporters and drinking a few beers.

Darline Graham addresses grief and victory

“This is a very emotional night, because I’m usually standing here celebrating with Lindsey,” said the sister of the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, after she secured a place in the Republican runoff to replace him.

Darline Graham was subdued for a victory party, as she thanked God, her family and President Donald Trump.

“His steadfast and his complete and total endorsement means so much to me,” she said of the president. “He knows that I will stand with him, and fight for his agenda, just like Lindsey did.”

Former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya wins Republican Senate nomination in Minnesota

Tafoya, a newcomer to politics, defeated Adam Schwarze, a Marine veteran and Navy SEAL who had the official backing of the state Republican committee, and Royce White, who had an existing profile as a prior candidate, conservative commentator and a brief professional basketball career.

Tafoya will face an uphill battle in Minnesota, where Democrats have a two-decade streak of winning top offices. But Republicans think Tafoya, who is known outside of politics and doesn’t have a controversial voting record, is well-positioned to pull off an upset victory.

President Donald Trump did not make an endorsement in the primary.

The Democratic candidate for South Carolina Senate is already on defense

Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews spoke to WIS News 10 after both Darline Graham and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman notched the top two spots in the Republican runoff for U.S. Senate in South Carolina.

Andrews, who was elected in her party’s June primary, batted away attacks from Norman’s election night speech before pitching her vision in an uphill race to win the red state.

“Unfortunately for Ralph, I guess, I am not a socialist, I am not a democratic socialist, I’m a mom and a pediatrician,” said Andrews. “I’m running, as I said, to address our affordability crisis and our broken healthcare system.”

Flanagan defeated centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig with a pledge to fight the influence of corporations and confront Republican President Donald Trump.

“For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many versus the money,” Flanagan said as she celebrated her victory in Minneapolis. “Well guess what? The many just won.”

The outcome was another sign of progressive energy among Democratic primary voters. It comes a week after Abdul El-Sayed won a bitter and divisive primary in Michigan that fired up the left and fueled anxiety among party leaders that Democrats will alienate moderate swing voters.

The result was less clear in Tuesday's primary for Wisconsin governor, where democratic socialist Francesca Hong and moderate David Crowley were in a tight race as of Wednesday morning.

Flanagan will be the front-runner in the general election contest against former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya, who won the GOP primary Tuesday. Minnesota voters haven’t elected a Republican to a statewide office since 2006.

Still, Republicans are hoping a fraud scandal involving the widespread theft of public funds will give them an opening up and down the ballot.

“We’ve had a crisis of leadership here. We’ve seen what career politicians have done in this state,” Tafoya told reporters after casting her ballot earlier Tuesday in a Minneapolis suburb. “They’ve brought us to a place of national embarrassment, and this state is ready for change.”

Meanwhile, Lisa Demuth won the Republican primary for Minnesota governor. Among the candidates she defeated was Mike Lindell, the Trump- endorsed pillow purveyor, who has been among the most persistent advocates of the lie that Trump’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden was fraudulent.

Demuth, the state House speaker, will face U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who defeated six others to win the Democratic nomination.

Race between Craig and Flanagan shaped by ICE, outside spending

In the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, Craig lined up support from Democratic establishment figures including House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as senators from battleground states.

She pointed to her record of winning tough races in a closely divided House district in the suburban Twin Cities, saying she had the experience to bring the change voters are demanding to Washington.

“Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy, and Michele Tafoya would be nothing more than a rubber stamp to his dangerous agenda,” Craig said, previewing the message Democrats will take into November as she conceded and urged her supporters to back Flanagan.

Flanagan was backed by popular progressives including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as well as Smith, who rallied with her in the campaign’s final weeks.

Flanagan highlighted Craig’s support from wealthy donors and blasted her vote for a Trump-backed immigration bill, which became a liability after immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

The race was shaped by the killing of Good and Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, confrontations that were caught on camera and fueled a backlash to Trump's immigration policies. Flanagan highlighted Craig's vote for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration bill that passed early in Trump's second term. Craig repudiated her support after Good and Pretti were killed.

U.S. support for Israel and the influence of corporations and wealthy donors also figured prominently in a race that attracted tens of millions of dollars in spending by allies of both women.

“I love that she doesn’t take any corporate money, she doesn’t take any money from AIPAC,” said Andrea Ropella, a Flanagan supporter, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supports pro-Israel candidates. “The things that she says, she believes in and she stands for.”

Gov. Tim Walz declined to endorse either candidate, but late last month his wife, Gwen Walz, endorsed Craig over Flanagan, a move seen as a repudiation of her husband's running mate and governing partner for two terms.

Trump did not endorse a candidate on the Republican side, although Tafoya had support from the national GOP. Adam Schwarze, a Marine veteran and Navy SEAL, had the official backing of the state Republican committee and Royce White had an existing profile as a prior candidate, conservative commentator and a brief professional basketball career.

Lisa Demuth wins GOP governor primary over ‘MyPillow Guy’ Mike Lindell

Republicans had another crowded primary in the race for governor.

Lindell established his national profile from his TV advertising campaign as the “MyPillow Guy.” He has been one of Trump’s most outspoken supporters and a persistent proponent of myths about the 2020 election. He lost a defamation lawsuit last year and was ordered to pay $2.3 million to a former employee of a voting systems company, whom he called a traitor.

In a post on social media Tuesday morning, Trump said Lindell “deserves a BIG WIN.”

Trump's endorsement carries enormous weight in GOP primaries, and few of his favored candidates have lost so far this year.

Some prominent Minnesota Republicans worried Lindell was too toxic with independent voters and would drag down the entire GOP ticket. Even state GOP Chairman Alex Plechash raised doubts about Lindell's electability.

Jim Busche, 79, said he likes Lindell but agrees that he’s probably too controversial to win a general election, so he cast his vote for Demuth.

“I wanted to vote for somebody that at least has a chance,” said Busche, who is retired and lives in Independence.

GOP sees hope despite Minnesota's long blue streak

No Republican has won a statewide race in Minnesota since Gov. Tim Pawlenty was reelected in 2006, but the state is more closely divided than that history would suggest.

In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump here by only 1.5 points, and in 2024, even with Walz on the ticket, Democrat Kamala Harris won the state by only 4 points.

In the state Legislature, Democrats hold just a one-seat majority in the Senate, and the House is split evenly between the parties.

Republicans think the fraud scandal, which led Walz to abandon his plans to run for a third term, gives them a rare opening to make inroads in an otherwise tough environment for the GOP.

At least 65 people have been convicted in a series of overlapping food fraud cases stemming from investigations that began during the Biden administration. One former nonprofit leader was sentenced in May to 42 years in prison in a $250 million fraud case.

Trump pointed to the scandals as justification for launching a massive immigration crackdown that he initially said would focus on the state’s large Somali community.

Walls also accomplished the feat on April 18, 2023, at Cincinnati.

The 30-year-old shortstop hit his first homer Tuesday left-handed in the fourth inning off Athletics starter Mason Barnett. Walls went deep as a right-handed hitter off reliever Brady Basso in the sixth, helping Tampa Bay win its eighth straight game.

Walls is the fifth player this season to homer from both sides of the plate, joining the Chicago White Sox’s Drew Romo, Colorado’s Willi Castro, Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds, and Minnesota’s Josh Bell.

Hitting his first long ball of the season, Walls ended his personal home run drought at 105 regular-season games, dating to July 27, 2025.

Walls only has 24 home runs in 581 games in the majors, counting the playoffs.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

A boy’s scream can be heard in the distance on body camera footage showing how rescue teams last week found two women and a 9-year-old boy who had been stranded for three days after their river tubing trip went wrong.

“We’re coming, guys,” says Cameron Wright, a conservation officer from Newaygo County, his breath heard in ragged gasps.

The team picks up their pace, pushing through sharp switchgrass and stinging nettle, the footage released by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources shows. A few moments later, they find Sarah Vida, 28, and her son Kayden Kovalcik, 9, along with Jazmin Hock, 28; wearing just their swimming suits.

Hock's legs are almost entirely covered in deep, red cuts from scrapes after trudging through the brush. They have a broken phone and a single water bottle with only a few sips left.

“You’re talking about vegetation that’s higher than your eyes and switchgrass that cuts you when you touch it and stinging nettles that makes your skin set on fire,” Anna Cullen, a conservation officer from Muskegon County who helped with the rescue, said Tuesday.

The trio had been on a tubing trip on the Muskegon River in the small community of Twin Lake on Tuesday when they'd hit logs and their tubes popped, according to officials. They were reported missing after one of the women hadn't shown up to her dentist appointment.

“I was just in disbelief at finding them because we were just running out of ideas and places to search and it was nothing short of a miracle that we ended up finding them the way we did,” Wright said.

For days, teams had scoured the river and rugged terrain.

The group was found Friday about 7 miles (11.27 kilometers) from where they entered the river, according to Wright. The rescuers had tracked them from a tube next to the river, following footprints, broken twigs and bent grass.

In the video, Kayden explains that they’ve been eating bark and flowers, while Hock says they had to drink river water.

They'd been tubing down the river and kept hitting log jams, Hock explains.

“The last one that we ran into just popped everything,” she says.

They started walking and soon realized they were going in circles, she says.

Members of the rescue crew handed over their own shirts to protect them from the bugs swarming their cuts and put medical gloves on some of their hands and feet. Wright inflated his life vest for Hock to sit on. As she answered the rescue team's questions, her legs, lined with scratches, shook.

“There was not even an inch of their exposed skin that was not just covered in cuts and bug bites and mud and scrapes where they were just physically not able to go any further,” Wright said, explaining that he still had cuts on his arms from the search.

Cullen said the women later explained that when they saw the rescuers, they thought they were hallucinating.

The two women couldn't walk, so the rescuers put them in Stokes baskets, a type of stretcher, to get them out of the brush, while Wright carried the boy on his back. They were taken to the hospital and treated for infections, dehydration and rashes, according to Lt. Pat Agema, a spokesperson for the Michigan State Police. As of Tuesday, they were all back home, he said.

Wright said the entire hike out, Kayden was telling him about everything he was going to eat and drink.

"He's just telling me about all of the root beer he’s going to drink and the slushies and the pizza and doughnuts he’s going to eat,” said Wright.

He adds: "You would have no idea that he had just spent 72 hours in the woods from how happy he was.”

“Many families are finishing up that back-to-school checklist, and among those things is the medical checkup and assuring that their kids have their vaccines,” Michigan pediatrician Dr. Molly O’Shea said. “To put into question the safety or efficacy of these vaccines right now is really unfortunate and ill-conceived.”

The order, signed Monday, advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and giving all childhood immunizations at separate appointments when possible. It also includes several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule already attempted by Trump’s health department but blocked by a federal judge. The department is run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years.

Trump repeatedly suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even though decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link. He also strongly suggested that the MMR vaccine could be harmful or even deadly.

Dr. Paul Offit, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine researcher and former government adviser, said the recommendations by Trump and Kennedy “are just not science based,” and it’s irresponsible to cast doubt on a vaccine that protects against measles when the nation is facing its biggest epidemic in more than 30 years.

“The harm that it will cause is … to induce chaos and confusion into the system, so people aren’t sure what they’re supposed to do,” he said.

Trump’s order evokes fears

At one point before signing his executive order, Trump used the word “lethal” when talking about the current MMR vaccine, saying: “Together there could be a possibility they are quite lethal and separately, it looks like they are not at all lethal but just very effective.”

Doctors strongly rejected this characterization, saying the current combination vaccine has gone through rigorous studies and years of safety tracking — like other childhood vaccines — and has been shown to be very safe. The diseases they protect against are the far bigger risk, they said.

“The suggestion that separating the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines one from another has value is incorrect in both science and in immune response,” O’Shea said. “You actually get a better immune response giving them together. There’s no value in separating them.”

There are currently no separate vaccines for children against these diseases in the U.S., but Trump's order directs the health department to present a plan to offer them. Trump spokesperson Kush Desai has said that would give parents more options on timing and frequency, ultimately increasing vaccine uptake.

Doctors lamented that Trump revived debunked theories about vaccines and autism. Autism diagnoses have been rising for decades, with a recent count finding that an estimated 1 in 31 children in the U.S. have autism spectrum disorder. Scientists say that’s in part because the definition has broadened with expanded understanding of its wide range of traits and symptoms. There’s no single cause, they say, and genetic and environmental factors can play a role.

Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the potential link between childhood vaccines and autism has been studied in dozens of well-designed studies around the globe and there is “unequivocally” no link.

The fact Trump raised the issue, O’Shea said, “is really misguided and unfair to families.”

Competing vaccine schedules raise confusion

Trump’s comments and his order also cause confusion about which vaccines to give children and when, doctors said.

In the first year of Trump’s term, Kennedy set out to overhaul immunization guidance, firing a 17-member vaccine advisory committee and installing replacements who made the restrictive recommendations halted by a federal judge. Those recommendations call for injections against 11 diseases, with additional vaccines separately categorized for at-risk children or as available through “shared decision-making” with a doctor.

The pediatrics academy, meanwhile, continued to recommend vaccines to protect against 18 diseases in its 2026 immunization schedule. O’Shea said that schedule “has been very well designed, carefully constructed and thoughtfully put together to provide safety and protection just as the baby or young child’s immune system is ready to accept it.”

Doctors said insurance coverage shouldn’t be an issue. Medicaid and CHIP continue to cover the vaccines recommended before the current Trump administration took office. Through 2027, private health insurance plans generally will too, said Chris Regal of AHIP, the national health insurers’ trade association.

Doctors say vaccine hesitancy, and dangers to kids, could grow

With confusion and fear rising, Racine said pediatricians expect to answer more questions from parents.

But many doctors fear vaccine hesitancy may still keep increasing. Federal data shows U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates have been dropping, with the share of children with exemptions hitting an all-time high in the 2024-25 school year.

Experts said they worry about families skipping necessary vaccines for their children or spacing out shots, since a vaccine-preventable disease could strike between doctor visits.

“Parents deserve clear, evidence-based guidance about how to protect their children, not competing recommendations issued through political processes,” said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases. “When families receive conflicting messages, confidence in vaccination suffers, and children ultimately bear the consequences.”

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Medical writer Mike Stobbe and video journalist Mary Conlon contributed.

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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.

One hundred firefighters from Mexico have joined the effort, bringing the number of firefighters battling the blaze to 193. The fire has destroyed homes and other properties near Okanagan Lake, killed an 80-year-old woman and burned toward Summerland, a community of about 12,000 people roughly 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Vancouver.

The fire showed “quite significant growth” in some areas overnight even without strong winds, said Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations for the British Columbia Wildfire Service. He added crews were working around the clock to establish control lines and make it safe for evacuated residents to return home.

“We recognized and we heard even last night that people obviously would like to go home. They would like to see the extent of the damage,” Chapman said.

Provincial officials ramp up evacuations

Kevin Dunbar, British Columbia’s executive director for emergency response and recovery operations, called it one of the largest evacuations in recent British Columbia history.

British Columbia officials said they had secured 1,600 hotel rooms and 1,000 group-lodging spaces for evacuees in Okanagan after some residents faced delays getting emergency assistance during the weekend evacuation.

Beyond those already forced to flee, another 10,000 people have been told to be ready to leave on short notice. More than 100 wildfires were burning across the province, and officials warned that dry lightning could spark new fires in the Central Interior and Okanagan. The province also asked the federal government for help expanding lodging for evacuees.

RCMP are investigating whether criminal activity played a role in the fire. Chapman said about 4% of wildfires in British Columbia over the past decade were suspected of having been deliberately set, but officials have not said the Bald Range fire was intentionally started.

Evacuated residents recount emotional experience

Lucille and Gordon Beach of Summerland were in Vancouver for the weekend wedding of a granddaughter when they heard the fire had started. “We didn't feel too celebratory,” Lucille Beach said Tuesday.

The couple, staying for now in West Kelowna with their dog, haven't seen their home since leaving Friday but believed it was OK. It took a few days to adjust to the reality of what was happening, Lucille Beach said.

Carmen Bodzasy evacuated from Summerland, where she and her husband moved recently. She had to navigate evacuating on unfamiliar roads while he was away for work.

Before leaving, “I cried my eyes out for a minute, and I thought, you know what, if I had to restart over, what would I take with me?” She took photos of her parents' wedding, of her children's families and of her and her husband. “I thought if I didn’t have walls to go home to, at least I have memories to put up on my new one,” she said.

Holding her small dog Tuesday, she was not sure of the status of their home but said whatever happens, she intends to stay in Summerland, a place where people wave at passing motorists and stop to ask how you're doing.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help that town rebuild because everybody’s so kind there,” she said.

The lack of information has frustrated some Summerland residents, who have turned to photos and videos posted online from inside the evacuated community.

Firefighters battle blazes across the US

In the United States, firefighters in California were fighting a blaze that has burned nearly 5 square miles (about 12 square kilometers) in the Big Sur region of the state’s rugged central coast.

Area state parks have closed and evacuation orders have been issued, including for a roughly 7-mile (11-kilometer) stretch of Highway 1, the state’s iconic coastal route. Portions of the highway were closed on Tuesday due to the fire's spread and evacuations, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Along the Nevada-California border, a quick-moving blaze north of Reno spread to about 90.6 square miles (234.7 square kilometers), according to officials. More than 4,000 people and families were displaced, and a memory care facility had to be evacuated, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said during a news conference. Hot, dry and windy conditions were adding to the fire threat.

The fire has merged with another blaze that was burning on Freds Mountain. The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 47-year-old woman on a third-degree arson charge in connection with that mountain fire after she told crews responding to it that she had started it, the sheriff’s department said in a post on social media Tuesday.

In Minnesota, a person involved in fighting a wildfire near the town of Ely died Tuesday following an unspecified medical emergency, the Superior National Forest said in a social media statement. Further details were not immediately released.

At least eight other people have died while helping with wildfires in the U.S. this year, including four firefighters who got trapped in a fire in western Colorado, a bulldozer operator who got overrun by flames in Oregon, two helicopter pilots who crashed while helping fight a fire in Utah and a helicopter pilot in Colorado who crashed into a reservoir.

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Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

Deputies were called Monday evening after a resident noticed the Amazon truck had been parked near the end of his driveway for several hours.

Patrick Miranda, who lives nearby, said he called the sheriff’s office non-emergency line after noticing the truck was still running.

“I see the phone is still plugged in. The backpack is there and again the car is running, but there is no one,” Miranda said. “It seemed kind of strange.”

Surveillance video from Miranda’s home shows deputies and Lake County Fire Rescue responding to the scene. One image shows the side door of the Amazon truck open.

Miranda said a deputy initially opened the passenger-side door and appeared to react to fumes before opening the rear doors and finding the woman unconscious.

“The police officer opened the passenger side front and he had some fumes, he had to reel back from,” Miranda said. “Then he opened the back, the sliding doors, and she was lying there in the back unconscious.”

Miranda said he later saw one of the deputies step away from the truck and appear lightheaded.

“I’m not sure if there were fumes from either the vent, if there’s a package,” Miranda said. “There was a lot of speculation at the time from both the officers and the other people involved.”

Because of concerns about potentially toxic substances, Miranda said firefighters wearing gas masks responded and the area around the truck was secured.

He also said the woman was sprayed with a fire hose before paramedics began life-saving measures.

“Because they were worried about toxic chemicals, I remember they did use a fire hose to rinse her off to make sure there was nothing on her clothes or person,” Miranda said. “But immediately after that, they were using life-saving measures.”

The woman was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the sheriff’s office.

The cause of death has not been determined.

“Detectives with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Bureau are continuing to investigate this incident,” the sheriff’s office said.

Miranda said fire rescue crews remained at the scene for several hours, including conducting what appeared to be an examination and cleanup of the delivery vehicle.

The identity of the driver has not been released.

Amazon released this statement to News 6:

“We’re deeply saddened by this tragic incident, and our thoughts and prayers are with the driver’s loved ones during this difficult time. We’re cooperating fully with local authorities in their investigation.”

A first-time candidate who was always close to her brother’s political orbit, Darline Graham overcame skepticism about her lack of experience in her campaign to replace him, as she moved forward Tuesday as the top vote-getter to runner-up Norman from a 10-way field en route to an Aug. 25 runoff. Lindsey Graham died July 11, triggering a whirlwind special election season.

Gov. Henry McMaster had appointed Darline Graham to serve the waning months of her late brother’s term. She picked up President Donald Trump’s swift backing, but the rare open Senate seat attracted a broad field, including some of the state’s top Republicans, setting up the latest test of the president’s command over the GOP base.

Darline Graham addressed reporters Tuesday evening flanked by her family and introduced herself anew to the state's Republicans voters. She boasted of her work with Trump in her first three weeks in the Senate and took a veiled swipe at her opponent, saying she was “guilty as charged” of not being a politician.

“I will spend the next two weeks of this runoff meeting with voters and unlike some politicians listening to their concerns — yes, listening to their concerns," Graham said, not mentioning Norman by name. "This seat belongs to the people of South Carolina and I will work hard to earn, earn your vote.”

Trump told reporters Tuesday evening that Graham called him after making the runoff to thank him for his support. Trump responded “I think so” when asked if he would campaign for her, but noted he also liked Norman and other candidates in the race, saying, “I mean, they’re all Trumpers.”

Norman has long been a member of the House Freedom Caucus, comprised of the chamber’s most conservative members. He unsuccessfully ran for the GOP gubernatorial nomination earlier this year.

“Let’s win this thing in a big way," Norman told supporters Tuesday night, as he appealed for party unity heading into the runoff and noted surprising circumstances of the campaign after Graham's death. “He’s a fixture, we thought he would be here,” Norman said.

For decades, South Carolina voters reliably returned Lindsey Graham to Washington despite periodic primary challengers who accused the dealmaker and foreign policy hawk of being insufficiently conservative.

Tuesday's contest featured one of Lindsey Graham’s earlier foes, as well as two U.S. House members and Mark Sanford, the former governor and congressman eager for a political comeback in a field crowded with familiar faces. The winner of the runoff will face Democrat Annie Andrews in the general election.

Goodwill toward Lindsey Graham helped boost his sister at the polls

The unexpected primary began even before funeral observances in Washington and South Carolina for Graham, who died at his Washington home after suffering a tear in his aorta, had concluded. State law proscribed a compressed timeline that forced candidates to navigate the decorum of mourning the senator's death while jockeying to replace him.

A day after Graham’s death was announced, his sister accepted Republican Gov. Henry McMaster’s appointment to succeed her brother in an interim capacity and was sworn in with her family and the late senator’s staff standing behind her. A week later, Darline Graham launched into the campaign herself, encouraged to run and then endorsed by Trump.

Some voters said her brother's reputation helped tilt them to support Darline Graham.

“She’s not a politician, but she was kin to probably one of the greatest senators ever,” Frank Bohn of Horry County said.

While Darline Graham couldn't directly access the millions in Lindsey Graham's campaign account, there was no limit to how much could be transferred to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which funded advertising to support her.

A super PAC that once supported Lindsey Graham also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars backing Darline Graham. Mailers touted her as “President Trump's choice” and “Prepared to Carry on Lindsey's Legacy.”

Norman vaulted to the runoff over another sitting lawmaker

Fresh off his unsuccessful primary run for governor, Norman entered the Senate contest as one several politicians more familiar to South Carolina voters in their own right, and snapped up endorsements from the likes of Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah.

One of the most conservative House members, Norman is well-known across South Carolina as a fiscal conservative. At times, however, he has been at odds with Trump, backing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential primary.

Another candidate, Rep. Russell Fry, had at one time appeared poised to gain Trump's backing after Lindsey Graham's death. Despite lacking the president's endorsement, he began running and sought to boost his name recognition beyond his pro-Trump, Myrtle Beach-area district.

Voter George Mitford said Fry's service stood out to him over Darline Graham, who hasn't been in elected office.

“I just thought he’d probably had more experience in this than she would have had,” Mitford said, adding that he had supported Lindsey Graham’s Senate tenure.

Mark Sanford deprived of another political comeback

The former South Carolina congressman and governor whose political ascendency was stalled by a 2009 extramarital affair failed in yet another attempt to return to public office. Sanford’s Senate bid came just three months after he ended an effort to retake his former U.S. House seat, saying then he was quitting the race to establish a nonprofit to address the national debt.

Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman who tried to oust Graham in last month's regular Republican primary, swiftly relaunched his campaign after Graham’s death. Lynch campaigned as a Trump supporter, but in June, Trump on social media called him a “lunatic” and a “disaster for the Republican Party.”

Who is the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat?

Andrews, a Charleston physician, won her party’s June primary outright. Having set up her campaign based around challenging Graham, Andrews had been forced to pivot to a broader critique of the Republican contenders.

No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat here in decades. And when Graham last ran in 2020, he defeated his Democratic opponent, Jaime Harrison, by a 10 percentage point margin.

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

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Collins reported from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. AP reporters Will Weissert in Washington and Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, contributed.

The Reds rallied from three runs down in the eighth inning after White Sox starter Sean Burke allowed only one run on three hits in seven innings.

Sean Newcomb (1-3) took the loss. Brock Burke (5-4) picked up the win and Emilio Pagan recorded his 14th save with a perfect 10th.

Bryan Hudson gave up an RBI single to De La Cruz in the eighth and Tyler Stephenson drove in two runs with a basesloaded single off Grant Taylor to tie the score.

The White Sox drew 38,113, their ninth sellout, for a unique giveaway: team-branded papal-style hats in honor of Pope Leo XIV, a lifelong White Sox fan who attended Game 1 of the 2005 World Series as Father Robert Prevost. Sister Mary Jo Sobieck threw out the first pitch.

Brenton Doyle hit Nick Lodolo's first pitch 415 feet to deep center, his fourth career leadoff home run and the sixth for the White Sox this season. Edgar Quero and Miguel Vargas also hit solo home runs for the White Sox.

Burke scattered three hits over seven innings, allowing one run on Eugenio Suarez’s third homer in four games, his 17th. Burke, who has allowed two or fewer runs in eight of his last nine starts, struck out eight Tuesday, walking none.

Muneteka Murakami extended his on-base streak to 26 games with a double in the eighth.

Lodolo was activated off the injured list (blister) to make his first start since July 11. He gave up four runs on five hits in four innings.

Up next

Reds RHP Rhett Lowder (4-7, 5.26 ERA) faces White Sox RHP Luis Castillo (3-9, 5.30) on Wednesday.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

“Your country is in big trouble. You’re not winning,” Trump said, dressing down Zelenskyy in front of the world’s media. “You don't have the cards.”

The blowup in February 2025, three years into the war, was more than just a heated public exchange: The Ukrainian delegation was asked to leave the White House, and Washington briefly suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv. In the ensuing months, as Russia made slow but steady gains on the battlefield, Trump warmly welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and seemed ready to push Ukraine into an unfavorable peace deal, including forcing it to give up territory.

But even as Zelenskyy sat next to Trump, his forces were preparing an operation that would reveal Ukraine’s ability and ambition to take the war to Russia: Months later, drones smuggled into the country attacked Russian bombers, destroying or damaging planes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since then, Kyiv has ramped up a campaign of longer-range strikes inside Russia and in areas Moscow has seized, increased production of weapons, targeted Russian air defenses, and hit oil infrastructure and the warehouses of a major retailer in a bid to ensure ordinary Russians feel the impact of the conflict.

In an embarrassment to Putin, Ukrainian drone strikes sent thick plumes of smoke billowing over St. Petersburg shortly before the opening of an international economic forum in June. Concern over Ukraine’s attacks led Russian authorities to scale down the May 9 military parade commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany. Strikes on oil refineries have caused a summer fuel crisis.

By the time Trump and Zelenskyy met at a NATO summit in July, the American president said the Ukrainian leader had “been very effective” in the war. “We’ve actually developed a good relationship,” Trump added.

But as Ukraine’s strikes have intensified, so have Russia’s — and Kyiv faces major challenges in defending against them because of shortages of American Patriot air defense missiles.

In the first six months of the year, 1,396 civilians were killed in Ukraine, according to the U.N. Meanwhile, the world body said Russian authorities reported 250 civilians killed in the same period. On Monday, a strike that Ukraine said hit an oil refinery in Russia killed 13 people, according to local officials.

And while Ukraine's effort appears to have shifted the narrative about the war in Washington, it's still not clear if it will be able to push Putin toward the negotiating table.

Ukraine’s strikes are aimed at undermining the idea that Russia can afford to “just let this roll,” said Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the London-based RUSI think tank.

The question of whether it will succeed depends on how much pain Ukraine can exact. “Logically, above a certain threshold, it does work but whether they can reach that threshold is an interesting question” — and one that depends at least partly on factors outside Kyiv's control, like continued European financial support, he noted.

Ukraine brings the war to Russia

While most of Ukraine's strikes have a range of less than 200 kilometers (125 miles), its longer-range attacks have increased dramatically this year. It launched three times as many of those strikes in July as it did in January, according to data from ACLED, an independent conflict monitor. Repeatedly hitting deep into Russia has forced its military to stretch air defenses over a larger area.

Many of its strikes have focused on four key categories of targets, according to an Associated Press analysis of hundreds of Ukrainian attacks this year — compiled from statements by Russian officials and state media and the Ukrainian military.

As the Iran war pushed up energy prices, leading the U.S. to ease sanctions on Russian oil, Kyiv ramped up strikes on oil infrastructure to deny the Kremlin revenue from fuel exports and force shortages on ordinary Russians. It is also striking defense manufacturing to damage Russia’s long-term ability to produce weapons, targeting air defenses to clear a path for its own arms, and hitting retail warehouses to bring the effects to ordinary Russians.

— As part of the campaign against oil infrastructure, Kyiv said it hit Russia’s largest oil refinery, more than 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from Ukraine.

— Kyiv has also targeted defense manufacturing centers. It hit a factory making navigation systems multiple times, including with its own Flamingo missile.

— In July and August, Ukraine struck Wildberries warehouses. Kyiv said the company helps supply the Russian military. Moscow denies that.

— Many of Ukraine’s strikes on Russian air defenses and radar are around Russian-held Crimea and are often carried out with drones.

Maj. Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, the commander leading Ukraine’s drone war, told the AP its strikes in Crimea are also aimed at rendering the peninsula unusable as a staging ground for Russian forces.

Starlink gives Ukraine an advantage — for now

It’s not always clear if Ukraine’s attacks are effective — and some may have resulted in minimal or no damage. In May and June, Ukraine said it hit several satellite, reconnaissance or signals intelligence facilities in Russia, but satellite images analyzed by AP did not show major damage.

Still, Ukraine has one advantage that can help it strip back Russian air defenses and make its drone strikes more precise.

It has access to Elon Musk’s satellite communications service Starlink — which means its operators can control drones in real time in Russian-held Ukrainian territory. Russia has been blocked from using Starlink.

But Russia is also building its own version of Starlink, and is installing jamming systems that hamper Starlink connectivity, Brovdi said.

Ukraine is investing heavily in weapons production

Even before the Oval Office meeting, Ukraine scrambled to invest in new weapons — but that moment was “a real wake-up call," said a European military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the front-line situation in detail. It became clear that U.S. support could be stopped “from one day to the next.”

Ukraine doubled down on production, churning out a growing array of weapons in larger numbers and shortening traditional research and production cycles from decades to years or even months.

Even so, Ukraine is still not able to produce as many missiles as it needs. It also took Ukraine time to make systems that could target facilities precisely enough that Kyiv felt comfortable using them to strike deep into Russia, Watling said.

And while Ukraine has begun to resolve navigational issues with its missiles, such as the Flamingo, those weapons are still not as accurate — or as stealthy — as their Western analogues. That often means hundreds of drones must be fired to overwhelm Russian air defenses to allow a missile to get through.

It's an expensive and time-consuming way to wage war since only 5% to 9% of what Ukraine fires gets past Russian air defenses, according to Watling.

But, although Russia's weapons are more powerful, Zelenskyy suggested at the NATO summit that Putin is “losing the initiative” in the war as Ukraine has moved the fight from the stalled battlefield to the sky.

Sitting next to Trump at the summit, the Ukrainian leader even cracked a joke, demurring when Trump asked him if he would accept Moscow as a venue for peace talks, as Putin has suggested.

“There are a lot of Ukrainian drones in the air," Zelenskyy said. "It would be dangerous.”

In a release, police said they were investigating in the 600 block of South Keech Street.

Shortly before 4 p.m., officers were flagged down regarding the stabbing, prompting them to head to the 900 block of Cedar Street, police explained.

“Our preliminary investigation found that the victim and the female suspect were involved in a disturbance that resulted in the victim being stabbed,” the release reads. “The suspect left the area in a vehicle before officers arrived.”

Afterward, police found the vehicle and ultimately took 21-year-old Rosemary Mercardo Torres into custody, the department revealed.

“The investigation determined that the victim and Torres are in a domestic relationship,” the release continues. “The victim was taken to a local hospital and is currently in stable condition.”

No additional information has been provided at this time.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Jail records show that the woman — identified as 69-year-old Shirley Zimmerley — was taken into custody on Monday afternoon, though the offenses were originally reported on July 26.

Sheriff Ivey said that Zimmerley stabbed a horse several times in front of a child who was at a horse ranch to get therapy.

“She stabbed a freaking horse with a knife!” Ivey said. “Then, took and started whipping the horse because she was ‘frustrated’ over the horse’s behavior.”

Per the sheriff, the incident “devastated” the child, who went home and reported it to their parents, who in turn alerted the sheriff’s office.

“When our team got here, they not only found that the horse had been stabbed multiple times; they found that the horse was a three out of nine on the body scale. Three out of nine,” Ivey continued. “So here it was, malnourished, and it still got stabbed on top of it and then violently beat with a whip.”

Furthermore, Ivey stated that Zimmerley claimed a “cat did that,” referring to the horse’s injuries.

Ivey also said that other horses had open sores on them, resulting in several citations and a mandate to seek out veterinary care.

Zimmerley now faces a felony charge of animal cruelty, as well as two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. She was released Tuesday on bond of $12,000.

On Tuesday, she finally lashed out.

The 2023 WNBA Coach of the Year and one of the original Fever players angrily defended herself after she was criticized for her response to DiJonai Carrington's flagrant foul on Sophie Cunningham, and pleaded with people to focus on the sport and not the continual sideshows.

“The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness that’s trying to hijack our league will not win. It won’t win,” White said, her voice rising as she pounded the table in front of her. “We are united. We are connected. We will not be divided. Every day these women put their ass on the line. Every day when they go low, we go high. Love will win. Grace will win. Humility will win and kindness will win. I stand by them, I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.”

White left immediately after her 2 1/2-minute outburst ended without taking questions.

Indiana responded with one of its best halves of the season, shooting 59% from the field and 79% on 3-pointers on its way to a 106-92 victory over the New York Liberty. The Fever have won seven of their last nine despite being the focal point of so many controversies.

Fever All-Star Caitlin Clark wasn't surprised by how the Fever played or White's pregame reaction. She was more upset by the boos she heard during White's pregame introduction.

“I talked to Steph earlier in the day and you know I think we forget a lot of times, like, we're humans and she has feelings and there are moments that are really hard and sometimes that's the job we sign up for," Clark said. “At the same time, it's OK to feel those emotions and I told her I've been through the same thing.”

Clark added: "There was like no way we were losing this game. Like, that’s my head coach. Like, I hated that our fans booed her before the game. That made me a little sick to be honest.”

Carrington hit Cunningham in the head and neck area Saturday, knocking the Fever guard hard to the ground on a breakaway layup. Cunningham got up and charged toward Carrington but was restrained.

Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2, an automatic ejection. The Chicago Sky player then wrote “WHITE PRIVILEGE” and tagged the Fever on a social media account. On Monday, Carrington said she never claimed the foul call was “white privilege.”

Cunningham has been outspoken about her desire to keep transgender women out of women's sports, a position that has spurred rallies in support of and opposed to her stance.

White initially said she thought the refs got the call right but that she didn't think that action near the head and neck area was intentional. Critics claimed she was defending Carrington.

"OK... The Indiana Fever need to let Stephanie White go,” Indiana Lieutenant Gov. Micah Beckwith wrote Sunday on X. “No solid coach would ever take the side of the opposing team’s player who committed a flagrant foul on one of your own players. Terrible coaching! The Fever need to defend their players.”

White explained Tuesday that she had not seen the replay when she first spoke with reporters Saturday and that she changed her opinion after watching it again. She called the foul “egregious.”

“Our players' success, our players' health and wellness, our players' safety is always a top priority,” she began, her voice rising. “One of the things I pride myself on is my relationships with my players. For those who have anything to say about the play in the last game, I didn’t see the replay. I went straight to a press conference, I thought the play got called right. Thankfully, Sophie is OK. Was it egregious? Absolutely.

"When you get a chance to see that on replay over and over, you see that. I didn’t see that in real time. I personally take any suggestions that I don’t 100% always have my players back. I ride with them 10 toes down all the time, all the time.”

Cunningham received a loud ovation when she entered Tuesday's game. She and White hugged after the game.

“I think there’s just been a lot of outside noise but our locker room is good,” Cunningham said. “We have each other’s backs. Coach loves us. So give her her flowers. She didn’t see the clip and that’s OK. Me and Steph are great, and Steph is great with all of us.”

White faced a similar controversy when Clark also was fouled hard earlier this season, prompting a letter from the U.S. House of Representatives to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

White and Clark also were involved in a sideline spat in late and there was speculation about White's job status following the incident.

Now White just wants everyone to get back to basketball.

“It's a shame we can't have an opportunity to talk about what great basketball they are playing,” White said with emphasis. “The reality is, with me, I will always lead with love. I will always lead with grace, I will always lead with humility. and I will always lead with integrity. It doesn't mean I'll always get it right. I'm human.”

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

Tornado warning sirens howled as the skies darkened. All flights were temporarily stopped at Chicago’s two major airports, and officials warned of delays as the backlog was cleared. In Ohio, power outages swept the state capital region, and at least one death was reported.

Sixteen incarcerated people were hospitalized, including one who was transported by helicopter, after lightning struck at a prison complex southwest of Cleveland, according to the Ohio Department of Corrections. The victims were injured as they returned from an evening meal at Grafton Reintegration Center, department spokesperson JoEllen Smith said in an email Tuesday evening. Their conditions weren't immediately known.

Two tornadoes touched down just south of Chicago, the National Weather Service said Tuesday night. Photos posted on social media from the Chicago area, and across the state line in Indiana, showed flooded roads, trees tangled in power lines and homes with gashes in their roofs.

“No power. It was very scary. We were down in the basement,” said Javid Jenkins of Homewood, a Chicago suburb. “We’re built for snow. We’re built for cold. We’re not built for this.”

Jenkins, 54, said he was driving around for gas to fire up a generator to preserve food in his refrigerator.

Forecasters said a wind gust of 99 mph (159 kph) was recorded in Gary, Indiana. Elsewhere there were numerous reports of gusts of 80 mph (128 kph) or more at personal weather stations.

Preliminary information indicated that the intense system that swept from Iowa into Indiana over several hours qualified as a derecho, the weather service's Storm Prediction Center said Tuesday evening. Derechos are prolonged straight-line wind events that unleash heavy rainfall and travel far distances. The damage they cause is sometimes comparable to the destructive forces of tornadoes or hurricanes.

The weather service bluntly warned earlier in the day: “These are dangerous storms!”

More than 600,000 customers lost electricity in Illinois and Indiana, according to poweroutage.us. Lake and Porter counties in Indiana and Will County, south of Chicago, were especially hard hit. Farther east in Ohio, at least 250,000 customers were without power.

“Total devastation. No roof,” said Kerry Hourigan, standing outside her home of 25 years in Tinley Park, another Chicago suburb. “Stupid thing, but my focus was I just bought a new barbecue grill, and I have no idea where that is. It’s disappeared.”

Meteorologist Scott Baker said the Midwest was on the outer edge of a “ring of fire,” bringing waves of excessive moisture, instability and storms.

In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine said a resident of Roseville died during a health emergency when first responders, faced with flooded roads, couldn’t get there. He warned that flood dangers would persist.

“This is not something that will end tonight,” DeWine said of the severe weather.

Dayton, Ohio, set a daily rainfall record with 2.07 inches (5.25 cm), shattering a mark set in 1915, the weather service said. Forecasters said multiple rounds of rain would cause flood hazards in the Ohio Valley through early Friday.

Officials in Columbus, Ohio, sent local government workers home early ahead of another round of storms. The library in Westerville, Ohio, closed after rain poured into the atrium.

The fifth day of the 10-day Lake County, Indiana, Fair was canceled, disappointing fans who were hoping to see a professional wrestling event involving people under 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall.

Nearby in LaPorte County, Indiana, there was a “tremendous amount of tree damage,” Commissioner Joe Haney said.

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White reported from Detroit. Associated Press writers Jennifer Garske in Washington, Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.

Drone strikes continued on Tuesday, hitting the town's power plant and oil refinery, the state-run National Oil Corporation said.

The attacks underscored the fragile state of security at Libya's critical infrastructure. In the country's east, in the city of Benghazi, a car bomb killed a senior military officer with a self-styled military force on Monday, the latest such bombing in the violence-stricken North African nation.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for either the drone strikes in the town of Zawiya, about 47 kilometers (about 30 miles) west of the capital of Tripoli, or the Benghazi bombing.

Monday's first drone strike ignited a massive blaze at the refinery's gasoline-storage tank that burned through the night and into Tuesday afternoon, according to the Civil Defense, a first responders agency. There were no reports of casualties, health authorities said.

Footage aired by local media showed massive flames and fireballs erupting from the tank, with black and orange smoke rising in the sky as firefighters sprayed what appeared to be foam or water in efforts to extinguish the blaze.

As the firefighters fought the flames, another drone hit close to a key oil tank nearby but did not cause any casualties, the company said. It said the tank, which held 4.5 million liters of fuel when it was hit, collapsed and the company declared a state of maximum emergency at the facility.

On Tuesday, two drones hit the town's power plant, with one damaging its firefighting system while the second landed close to the facility’s main fuel storage, setting it on fire. The national oil company said firefighters quickly got that fire under control and there were no casualties.

Oil infrastructure in Zawiya — which houses critical energy infrastructure, including Libya's largest oil refinery, an export terminal and a power plant — has come under frequent attacks, including over the weekend when the national oil company said drones hit a fuel tank and a desalination plant linked to the oil facilities. It said the tank was damaged.

By late Tuesday evening, the national oil company said all the fires had been extinguished.

The attacks come as tensions are rising between the government of western Libya and warlord Mohamed Bahroun who controls the city of Zawiya. Much of western Libya is ruled by local militias loosely allied to Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah's government in Tripoli.

Jalel Harchaoui, an analyst affiliated with the Royal United Services Institute in London, said the warlord has been cornered by the government and his forces “are likely to resort to desperate measures.”

The Benghazi bombing on Monday evening killed a senior officer with the forces of powerful commander Khalifa Hifter. Maj. Gen. Fawzy al-Mansouri, director of the military intelligence of Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army, was killed when an explosive-laden vehicle detonated near his car in the Sayyida Aisha neighborhood in Benghazi, the LNA said.

The LNA is allied with one of Libya’s two rival governments, which controls the country’s eastern and southern parts.

Libya, a largely lawless Mediterranean country, has been plunged into chaos and division following the 2011 uprising-turned-civil war, which toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Amid the chaos, militias grew in wealth and power, particularly in Tripoli and the western part of the country.

The country has been divided for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments. Currently, it is governed by Prime Minister Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah’s government in the west and by the administration of Prime Minister Ossama Hammad in the east.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who is to arrive in Libya for a visit this week, is due to visit both Tripoli and Benghazi.

The team didn't provide any further details on the nature of Stiggers’ ailment or if he might be sidelined. The teams practice again Wednesday and Jets coach Aaron Glenn will speak to reporters after the session.

Shortly after practice Tuesday, Glenn said the 24-year-old Stiggers was conscious and talking on the field before being put on a stretcher and taken for further examination.

“He was able to talk and I want to make sure I go and see him after this, just to make sure I'm good with everything,” Glenn said. “But for the most part, he was good.”

The Jets and Buccaneers were in the middle of special teams drills late in practice when Glenn — who was watching a session on another field — said he was told Stiggers came to the sideline and “passed out.”

“He actually fell out,” Glenn said. “The good thing is, he was conscious. Our guys did a hell of a job, just like most medical staffs around this league do in situations like that, and they took the necessary steps just to make sure that we do everything we can to be on board when it comes to those situations.”

It was a somewhat scary scene, though, as several Jets teammates took a knee near the sideline and some formed a prayer circle. After several minutes, Stiggers was placed on a stretcher with what appeared to be an IV and loaded into the ambulance as fans seated near the area clapped in support.

“It was very sad, very emotional,” running back Breece Hall said. “You get on your knee and say a prayer for him and hope he’s OK."

Added defensive tackle Harrison Phillips: “What’s been shared to us is things are on the up and up.”

Practiced resumed after being halted for more than 10 minutes while Stiggers was being attended to.

Stiggers was earlier involved in one of the handful of chippy moments during the practice when he had his helmet flung down the field by Buccaneers offensive lineman Luke Goedeke after players on both teams scuffled.

Stiggers, an Atlanta native, is entering his third season with the Jets after being a fifth-round draft pick in 2024. He was one of that draft's feel-good stories because he had no college football experience and was the first player drafted directly from the CFL, where he played for the Toronto Argonauts, since Miami took Jermaine Haley in 1999.

In 29 games, including five starts, with New York, Stiggers has 35 tackles, two fumble recoveries and three passes defensed. He is also one of the Jets' top special teams players.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Constellation Furyk & Friends will run Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, with tournament play beginning on Oct. 9.

The Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa is a Jack Nicklaus inspired golf course sitting on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The course provides players a chance to feel the ocean breeze, battle the elements and enjoy the Florida coast.

This is the first time the event will be played in Palm Coast, having been hosted in Jacksonville previously.

“Seeing the course (and) seeing the resort, looking at the event lawn, the space, six holes touching the ocean, I went, ‘Wait a second, this could make a great event,’” said Jim Furyk to News 6.

Furyk, a 29-time PGA TOUR champion including the 2003 U.S. Open Championship and 2010 FEDEX Cup, wants fans to come out and experience the resort.

Alongside the tournament, the Jim & Tabitha Furyk Foundation raises charity money. Over the last five years of the event, over $5 million has been raised.

“This is a pinch me moment,” Furyk said. “To be able to host your own event (and) to have all of my friends that I competed against my entire career here to kind of help out, to the play the game, to interact with our fans, and at the end of the day to raise a lot of money and do a lot of good in our community is something we’re very proud of.”

Golf fans can buy tickets here to see the golf play and a concert on Friday.

Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for gradual development over the next several days.The NHC gives this disturbance a 20 percent chance for development over the next seven days as it moves west.

A disturbance in the North Atlantic, Invest 93 L, is getting better organized and a short-lived tropical depression or storm will be possible over the next day or so. After that the system will move over cooler waters ending it’s chance for development.

There is currently a 40 percent chance for development. Showers and storms are becoming better organized with a tropical wave, Invest 93 L, 700 miles southwest of the Cabo Verde islands.

A tropical depression is likely by the end of the week as it moves west-northwestward.

The NHC gives this disturbance an 80% for development over the next seven days. The next names on the 2026 hurricane season list are Cristobal and Dolly.

The 38-year-old Curry is hoping to play at least a couple more years and has said he wants them to be with the Warriors. He is set to complete a $62.6 million extension he signed for the 2026-27 season in August 2024.

Whether a new contract will get done right away remains to be seen. Curry becomes eligible for a two-year extension Aug. 29, and general manager Mike Dunleavy said, “I'm pretty confident Steph will finish his career here.”

"Ultimately it’s his call, his decision, whether that’s allowing his contract to run out and move on,” Dunleavy said during a video call Tuesday. “Look, if he comes to me and wants to be moved, Joe (owner Joe Lacob) and I will talk it through. We wouldn’t love it. But he’s earned the right to do what he wants, do those things. But as far as the messaging or any idea that he would be anywhere else, that’s not a thing we’re looking at or he’s looking at.”

Curry averaged 26.6 points, 4.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds but was limited to 43 games last season for the Warriors, who will host Denver on Christmas night — playing on the holiday for the 14th straight year.

Closely monitoring his playing time will be a top priority as coach Steve Kerr returns for two more seasons after signing a new contract in May. Curry missed more than two months with a nagging right knee injury before he finally came back in early April.

He had initially hoped to return after the All-Star break.

“I think with the knee, other injuries and then his age, it's definitely something we have to manage,” Dunleavy said.

The Warriors (37-45) also dealt with season-ending knee injuries to Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody that required surgeries and finish 10th in the Western Conference. After beating the Los Angeles Clippers in the first play-in tournament game, Golden State lost 111-96 at Phoenix.

The Warriors missed out on signing LeBron James this offseason but brought back Draymond Green on a one-year contract for $27.7 million, and also Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Gary Payton II.

Dunleavy hasn't heard any change of thinking from Curry, who is headed into his 18th NBA season still determined to add to his four championships with Golden State. The Warriors last won in 2022.

“That’s always been what he’s discussed. I think that’s tracking quite well,” Dunleavy said of Curry staying put.

“There's two things I’m confident about with Steph. He really, really wants to win and he wants to finish his career as a Warrior. I don’t think that changes tomorrow, Aug. 29th, the start of the season, middle of the season, the end of next season. I think those things are going to be consistent.”

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British driver Andy Green reached 406.320 mph (653.908 kph) in a car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, setting the record for that vehicle category, according to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.

The 64-year-old retired Royal Air Force pilot rocketed across the crystalline crust at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats in a 32-foot (9.75-meter) car engineered by British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The engines, adapted from those used in the company’s heavy machinery, mix pressurized hydrogen gas with air and ignite it to create bursts of power.

“It’s magic to be able to showcase this technology and to showcase how good the engineering is on the best racing surface in the world, Bonneville Salt Flats,” Green told The Associated Press after the run.

To be clear, Tuesday’s feat didn’t come close to approaching the overall land-speed record, which Green set with jet power in 1997. That year, he climbed into the Thrust SSC, a black needle sandwiched between two cartoonishly large jet engines, and hit 763.035 mph (1,227.985 kph), breaking the sound barrier and achieving a feat no one has come close to matching. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach.

In 2006, Green also set the land-speed record for a diesel-powered car — 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) — at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He returned there Tuesday with the goal of beating that mark using hydrogen power, which he has called the “fuel of the future.”

In targeting his diesel speed, Green easily topped the previous hydrogen combustion world record of 185.5 mph (298.5 kph). He had a 10-mile (16-kilometer) straightaway to build speed. A few dozen JCB staff members and reporters watched from a distance through cameras and binoculars.

Green said the cockpit of the car he used on Tuesday was “probably a little hotter” than in the jet-powered vehicle from 1997, with temperatures routinely above 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius).

“But I have been training four months for that, both training in the gym and actually just getting used to it with hot baths,” he said.

A remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, the Bonneville Salt Flats are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop a shallow aquifer that cools the tires. The low-friction surface and dry desert air are conducive to speed and have beckoned drivers since the first race there in 1914.

“It looks like snow, and it behaves a bit like packed snow — it is surprisingly slippery,” Green said.

Green was no stranger to speed when he took his first racing job. He had been flying supersonic military jets when he spotted a 1994 British newspaper ad seeking a high-speed driver to break the sound barrier.

Green did not approach supersonic speeds on Tuesday, but JCB engineers hope his feat with hydrogen power will shake up the clean-energy industry.

The company's chairman has argued that hydrogen can better handle the demands of heavy industries than electric power.

Hydrogen is only as clean as its source, and the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels. JCB signed a deal to buy green hydrogen, which is created using renewable energy but makes up a tiny fraction of global hydrogen production.

The concept and development of such technology has been around for decades, but has had a resurgence over the past several years, said Greg Keoleian, a professor of sustainable systems at the University of Michigan and co-director of the school’s MI Hydrogen initiative.

Many major automakers have already developed hydrogen internal combustion engines or hydrogen fuel cell technology, but the higher cost of hydrogen production compared with gas and diesel is a barrier to wider usage, Keoleian said.

“It represents an important energy carrier for decarbonizing areas of the economy,” he said. “As far as its deployment, it’s influenced heavily by the cost.”

An emerging focus, he said, is extracting hydrogen from natural deposits instead of separating it from water, a prospect that could significantly reduce costs.

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Associated Press reporter Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed reporting.

Stewart canceled his Tuesday night performance at Rocket Arena in Cleveland shortly after postponing his Sunday concert in Cincinnati at Riverbend Music Center. The latter venue said at the time that it was due “to an unforeseen but minor medical procedure that required prompt attention.”

Stewart also canceled a few dates earlier this year, including two in Las Vegas and one in San Diego.

“Following further medical evaluation, Sir Rod Stewart has successfully undergone a routine coronary stent procedure. Doctors are pleased with his recovery, and Rod is doing very well and has returned to his normal daily activities,” a statement from his publicist read. “On the advice of his doctors, he will take the next four weeks to recuperate and regain full fitness before returning to the stage. Unfortunately, this means he will be unable to continue his current tour dates.”

It added that “information regarding affected performances will be communicated by the respective promoters and venues.”

Stewart, 81, was scheduled to appear through Sept. 3 in North America, including his six-night residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and a few dates in Mexico.

“I’m already feeling better and very much on the mend. I want to thank the doctors, nurses and everyone who has taken such wonderful care of me,” Stewart said in the statement. “I’m deeply disappointed to miss these shows and sorry to let my fans down, but I look forward to getting back on stage and having a good time with you all again soon.”

The Grammy Award-winning Stewart, whose signature rasp made him a rock ‘n’ roll legend, has sold millions of records across his career's many decades. Perhaps best known for hits like “Maggie May” and “Tonight’s the Night,” he has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice.

Romo, the network's lead NFL analyst, is on leave following his arrest last month in Wisconsin on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence.

“It’s an evolving situation, and therefore we’re still assessing,” Berson said during a network event.

Berson also told reporters the decision to place Romo on indefinite leave was intended to shift attention toward the games and away from his legal situation.

“We we had to consider the impact on our image and on our brand. That’s very important to us. Whether the games, marketing, PR, social, the focus should and needs to be on our presentation and not on any other factors,” he said.

Analyst JJ Watt will join play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson on CBS Sports’ lead NFL team during Romo’s absence. Their first game will be on Sept. 13, when the Minnesota Vikings host the Green Bay Packers.

Watt joined CBS in 2023. He was an analyst on “The NFL Today” for two seasons before teaming with Ian Eagle on the network’s No. 2 crew beginning last season. Ross Tucker has been moved up to the No. 2 team. He has previously teamed with Eagle on radio broadcasts for Westwood One.

Romo, 46, has been the lead game analyst for CBS’ NFL coverage since 2017 after making four Pro Bowl appearances during a playing career that ran from 2004-16 and was spent entirely with Dallas.

He was arrested July 23 after he was stopped while driving south on Interstate 43 in Wisconsin. According to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, Romo performed poorly on field sobriety tests before getting arrested, booked and released.

He has a court date set for Sept. 21.

Romo went to high school about 35 miles southwest of Milwaukee in Burlington, Wisconsin.

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Mozeliak also fired bullpen coach Dom Chiti and assistant pitching coach Darryl Scott in a shake-up of first-year manager Kurt Suzuki’s staff with just 43 games remaining for the Angels, who have the majors' worst record at 45-74.

While Mozeliak said that "no one thing just stood out” in his decision to fire Maddux, he prominently cited his desire for the Angels to “use all the different tools that you see a lot of pitchers use today.”

“I think there was becoming some level of frustration with the inconsistency of that, and so ultimately that's when we started thinking about, ‘Do we need to make a change?’” Mozeliak said. ”I do feel like we have a lot of great resources that we could be taking (greater) advantage of."

The dismissals were the latest shake-up in a tumultuous year for the Angels, who fired general manager Perry Minasian in late June. Los Angeles is headed toward its 11th consecutive losing season and 12th straight non-playoff season, both the longest active droughts in the majors, under much-criticized owner Arte Moreno.

Mozeliak, the longtime St. Louis Cardinals general manager, agreed to take over baseball operations for Moreno on a temporary basis after Minasian's firing, and he has endeavored to modernize the Halos' long-struggling organization.

Mozeliak said the Angels have technology and information on par with the rest of the majors, and he's confident it is being used properly by Suzuki's offensive staff — but the pitching operation needed an urgent overhaul.

“There’s so many more resources out there that really every team in baseball is utilizing, so (we’re) just making sure that the Angels are up to speed with that and leveraging this,” Mozeliak said. “I know our research and development team upstairs, they’re providing a lot of useful things that I think we can be taking advantage of. And then moving forward ... what can we do to make this a state-of-the-art place for player growth? What you don’t want to do is have players outsourcing those types of things. You want it to be the internal model, and hopefully we can accomplish that.”

Maddux, who turns 65 later this month, didn’t last one full season with the Angels after leaving the Texas Rangers last winter. The former major leaguer is widely respected in the game after 24 seasons as a pitching coach, and he played a significant role in the Rangers’ success during their 2023 World Series title.

But in Anaheim, Maddux presided over a staff that has posted the majors’ seventh-worst ERA at 4.51 and an MLB-high 508 walks.

Angels left-hander Reid Detmers, whose 1.10 WHIP is the 14th-best in the majors, said “everybody is surprised” by the firings.

“I mean, if we have it, might as well use it, right?," said Detmers, who evaluates his biomechanics in every bullpen session and consults with his personal coaches during the season. “I'm not saying we didn't use it all the time, but there's definitely times where we could have used it. In my eyes, it's only going to make you better.”

Tim Leveque was appointed Los Angeles’ interim pitching coach, and Michael Wuertz will be the club’s interim bullpen coach. Leveque was the pitching coach at the Angels’ Double-A Rocket City affiliate after working in the Cardinals organization during Mozeliak’s tenure.

“He’s a smart guy who really understands where the game is at, and I think he’ll be a good resource for (Suzuki),” Mozeliak said of Leveque.

Suzuki is on a one-year contract in his first major league managerial job. Mozeliak said he won't make any additional changes before the end of the season in seven weeks.

“I appreciated everything that they did,” Suzuki said of the fired coaches. “They worked hard. They prepared. At the end of the day, Mo and I felt like the path moving forward in these last 43 games ... we felt like this was the best way.”

Chiti was in his first season as the bullpen coach after rejoining the Angels organization in late 2023. Scott also was in his first season with the Angels after several years with the Colorado Rockies.

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