Tens of thousands of houses were damaged or destroyed, according to the government. Authorities have also reported damage to thousands of schools, medical facilities and community centers in more than 400 cities.

“There is no place to live, we lost everything,” Ebert Jonathan Morales, 38, told The Associated Press from a shelter in Cali, one of the hardest-hit cities along with Pereira, Manizales and Quibdo.

Morales is one of the 102,263 people whose lives have been upended by the 7.4 magnitude quake that struck the South American country Monday. The government says more than 280 people died, nearly 4,000 people were injured and hundreds remain missing. Private groups estimate the number of missing is in the thousands.

Morales said he, his wife and four children are trying to rebuild from scratch.

“The earthquake destroyed several neighborhoods in the city. Many houses were damaged, and buildings collapsed,” he said. “We are going to stay here until the government gives us some help, some support.”

The government focuses on providing shelter

The devastation has tested Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella, who was inaugurated just days before the earthquake shook the country's west. De la Espriella acknowledged Thursday night that “the situation is complex” and announced a plan to partner with private companies to rebuild the nation, as well as subsidies for families who are homeless.

“We will not overcome this tragedy alone as a government,” he said. “We need the private sector to rebuild Colombia together.”

Monday’s earthquake was the most powerful to hit Colombia this century. Government aid has yet to arrive in some areas, where many people are relying on volunteers and neighbors for help.

“A neighbor is giving me shelter,” Olga Castro, a mother of five in Cali, told The Associated Press. “At least we survived, but right now we are practically on the street because we don’t have a home anymore.”

De la Espriella said national and international funds raised in response to the disaster will focus on the reconstruction of hospitals, schools, homes, roads and airports.

Rebuilding the country requires a “serious technical assessment” to determine which buildings can be used, which can be repaired and which must be demolished and rebuilt, said Yezid Alvarado Vargas, a professor in construction engineering at Javeriana University, in Bogota, Colombia.

“Before even discussing reconstruction, we must guarantee temporary housing, food, healthcare, continuity of basic services and economic support for families who lost their homes or livelihoods,” Alvarado said.

In Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, around 500 volunteers gathered at a reception center to sort food, toiletries and pet food before distributing the supplies in the most affected areas. From youngsters to the elderly, everyone diligently participated in the challenging relief efforts.

“We all have to help. Today is for you, tomorrow might be for me,” volunteer Jorge Muñoz, 85, told the AP. One of the oldest helpers at Bogotá's Vive Claro aid collection, Muñoz has witnessed the devastation caused by other earthquakes, including one in 1999 that killed more than 1,180 people.

National and international aid keeps coming

Local authorities opened schools, parks and public buildings as shelters, providing tents, mattresses and food to the displaced. In other parts of the hardest-hit cities, residents improvised shelters in the streets, while hundreds of volunteers rush to help those in greatest need, particularly in less accessible areas.

“These are isolated, neglected territories, historically lacking in institutional support, already plagued by violence, and now they are hit by an earthquake of this magnitude,” said María Mercedes Liévano, director of Save the Children in Colombia.

“It’s a crisis on top of a crisis, leaving the population in a situation of extreme vulnerability,” she added, citing communities including Buenaventura, the country’s main port, and Chocó, the earthquake’s epicenter.

De la Espriella visited several cities to track relief efforts and aid distribution, including Quibdó, in the Chocó region, and Pereira. Authorities are still waiting for tons of supplies and humanitarian aid from countries that have pledged their support, including Peru, China, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking to reporters in Quibdó, de la Espriella proposed implementing a Marshall Plan — the 1948 U.S. initiative that provided $13.3 billion to help European nations rebuild their economies after World War II.

“My heart, my strength and my spirit are with all the victims and with all these territories that have been forgotten and now devastated by nature,” he said. “We must rebuild them. There is a great task ahead and I am committed to it.”

___

Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia and Batschke reported from Santiago, Chile.

In a brief exchange with reporters before flying to New York for an event to highlight falling violent crime rates across the U.S., Trump refuted that family members have raised concerns about the deployment's length and even said that the more than 260-day deployment is “not nearly long enough.”

"That ship is moving right now, or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump said when asked about the lengthy deployment.

The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, are pressing for accountability from the Pentagon over conditions aboard the carrier, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said were “completely misrepresented.”

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment before being elected, took to social media to criticize Trump’s comments, saying on X that “President Trump does not care about our servicemembers or their families."

Extended deployments of carriers during the Iran conflict have raised concerns about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods as well as the increasing strain on the ship and its equipment.

While hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have calmed in recent weeks, the Navy has reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war. Hegseth said that the U.S. military can maintain the blockage of Iranian ports “indefinitely.”

Another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, and is expected to replace the USS Lincoln, one of two aircraft carriers currently deployed in the Middle East.

After reports emerged that sailors on the Lincoln are struggling with mental health concerns, the Navy said it has “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship,” though officials have declined to provide data, citing operational security and patient privacy concerns.

A Navy official said that a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August but that the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off ship for follow-on care. The official would not say whether it was being considered a suicide attempt.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, has also pushed back on reports about poor conditions.

___

AP writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

Trump’s solicitor general petitioned the high court to suspend last week’s decision by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Chief Justice John Roberts set a deadline of Tuesday for a response by plaintiffs challenging the ballroom project.

The divided appeals court panel ruled last week Trump must stop the White House ballroom’s construction because Congress has not approved the project. The panel’s majority said Trump doesn’t have the unilateral authority to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom where the White House’s East Wing stood before he ordered its demolition last fall.

The lower court suspended its own ruling for two weeks to give Trump's Republican administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to rule on its stay petition before the appeals court panel’s decision takes effect on Aug. 21.

"This case involves an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex, including a totally secure ballroom space, at the East Wing of the White House, which is vitally required by national security,” Sauer wrote.

In April, a district court judge ordered a stop to aboveground construction of the planned ballroom. But the judge stressed that the White House was free to proceed with underground work, including the construction of any bunkers, military installations and medical facilities.

The D.C. Circuit panel’s 2-1 decision upheld an order to pause aboveground construction on the project, siding with historic preservationists who sued to stop construction of the ballroom.

“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” wrote the majority's two judges, both appointed by Democratic presidents.

A third judge disagreed, finding that the preservationist group that challenged the project had no legal right to sue.

“The district court elevated the aesthetic displeasure of a single passerby over the government’s security interests in the ballroom,” wrote Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump.

The Trump administration argues that the president, not Congress or the courts, has unimpeded authority to renovate the White House. The current state of the project, essentially an open construction site, makes it harder to protect the White House, the Justice Department contends.

The administration also says the National Trust for Historic Preservation does not have the legal right, or standing, to sue over the ballroom, which is part of Trump’s plans to quickly remake Washington. The solicitor general said the ballroom project “should be a matter for the President and the political process, not construction-by-injunction.”

In response to the petition, the trust accused the White House of trying to “outrun the courts" by accelerating construction work, pointing to the administration's plans to install 1 million pounds of rebar and pour another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete in the next week alone.

“The Administration’s transparent efforts to evade the rule of law, frustrate judicial review, and limit the availability of meaningful relief in the courts must stop here,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.

During an appeals court hearing in early June, an administration lawyer defended a broad view of presidential control over iconic public facilities. The government could bulldoze the Statue of Liberty and the White House, Justice Department lawyer Yaakov Roth said in response to a hypothetical question, and the descendants of immigrants who came through Ellis Island and the enslaved people who built the White House would not have standing to sue.

The D.C. Circuit panel upheld a ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush. Leon concluded that a pause wouldn’t jeopardize national security. He also exempted any construction work that is necessary for the safety and security of the White House.

The ballroom has been under construction for 10 months. The administration says the work is roughly 65% finished.

“Given those developments, the injunction promises chaos in service of nothing,” Sauer wrote.

Volusia County Fire Rescue and the City of DeLand Fire Department responded to the fire on Central Parkway near Flamingo Road around 3 a.m. Upon arrival, deputies made contact with an adult woman outside the home who told them two adults — a man and a woman — were still inside, VCFR said.

Firefighters entered the residence and rescued both individuals, along with a family dog. All three victims were transported to area hospitals for treatment. One burn victim was airlifted.

Two individuals suffered burn injuries and are currently receiving medical care. Their conditions were not immediately available.

Firefighters said the adult male died of his injuries. A second dog rescued from the home also did not survive.

House Majority PAC’s move is expected to raise the group’s campaign advertising in the Cleveland area to roughly $7 million, the group announced in an email obtained by The Associated Press.

Miller’s decision to press on even after calls from within his own party to step aside also prompted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ main campaign arm, this week to move Democratic challenger Brian Poindexter on to the group’s list of priority candidates.

The House Ethics Committee said last week it had opened an investigation into domestic abuse allegations against Miller. The embattled Ohio congressman also last week spoke with Trump, who did not suggest he exit the race but suggested it would be difficult.

President Donald Trump won Ohio’s 7th District in 2024 by 11 percentage points, though Democrats see the swath of suburban Cleveland and rural northeast Ohio as within reach in light of the renewed accusations from Moreno, the daughter of Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno.

Miller, whose deadline to drop from the race passed Monday, has denied the abuse claims and said he would inject $1 million of his own into his campaign.

Officials with the National Republican Congressional Committee, the GOP's House campaign arm, said Friday they would support Miller's reelection campaign.

While discussions between Iran and Oman, as well as between Iran and Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar, persist at an uneven and unpredictable pace, the U.S. administration quietly has expanded its outreach to include perhaps unlikely interlocutors in Europe.

Just this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in person in Washington with the foreign minister of Austria on Tuesday and held a call with the foreign minister of Greece on Wednesday.

Those interactions were not notable beyond the normal course of relations between the U.S. and two close European allies. The official State Department readouts of the discussions were bland and vague and did not mention Iran by name as a topic of conversation.

But it then emerged that both foreign ministers — almost immediately after their talks with Rubio — spoke Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

The apparent new tack to break the negotiation logjam comes as the U.S. and Iran are both pushing for control of the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil shipping corridor. President Donald Trump faces little wiggle room in his next steps as the economic fallout from the war and dwindling stockpiles of key weapons pose political problems for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections.

A desperate push is on to break the diplomatic logjam between the US and Iran

The entry by Austria and Greece is likely less of a formal mediation attempt, analysts say, and more reflective of a desperate push to halt the conflict because of the impact it has on an increasing number of countries, beyond those in the Middle East.

“Everyone is just urging both sides to stop this reckless game of chicken,” said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.

It also shows how much Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced countries, which otherwise were neutral bystanders to the larger conflict, to exercise any diplomatic sway they may have on their Iranian and American counterparts to kick-start a lasting resolution.

Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned that any efforts by Greece, Austria or any other non-mediating country could prove to be futile.

“While the calls to both sides may entail encouraging both Iran and the U.S. back to the negotiating table, such efforts fall short of mediation, which is a very complex endeavor and requires trust to be built by the mediator with both sides," Yacoubian said.

She added that it’s not something that any country can “just jump into.”

Rubio discussed Iran with his Austrian and Greek counterparts

The State Department said Friday that it could not comment on the timing of calls by other countries' foreign ministers and maintained that Rubio had made no requests of either to get in touch with Iran or pass messages to Araghchi.

One European diplomat, who was briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive diplomatic conversations, said the timing of the calls was not an accident.

The State Department did allow, however, that Iran had been a topic of conversation in Rubio's discussions, which occurred as Trump is facing serious political headwinds over a war for which he has offered shifting objectives.

No longer purely about making Iran incapable of producing a nuclear weapon, the immediate goal has become reopening the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's oil usually passes through and which was open before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.

“That’s goal number one: keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country,” Vice President JD Vance said in an interview Thursday on Fox News Channel. But he did not say anything about the strait being open and toll-free for transiting ships, as he had in the past.

The second goal, Vance said, is to ensure that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.

The two European countries have key connections to the war's fallout

Austria and Greece may not be obvious choices to assist on the Iran portfolio, but Vienna is home to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will play a key role in any resolution to the Iran’s nuclear program, and hosted the final negotiations that resulted in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Greece is a major maritime nation in the Mediterranean and has significant shipping interests in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

In statements from the Austrian, Greek and Iranian foreign ministries, it was clear that Iran had been a top topic in all of the conversations this week.

The Greek foreign ministry said Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis had been briefed by Araghchi on “regional developments, and in particular on the ongoing talks regarding the Strait of Hormuz.” It said Gerapetritis “underlined the importance of freedom of navigation and maritime security.”

The Austrian foreign ministry offered Austria’s services as a venue for further potential talks with Iran and said Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger had stressed to Araghchi “the urgency of restoring stability in the region through serious diplomatic efforts.”

“There can be no military solution,” it said. “A diplomatic solution remains possible. Our priority is to safeguard freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran’s foreign ministry, expectedly, took a different tack in explaining the calls.

It said Friday that in Araghchi’s calls with his European counterparts they discussed “mechanisms for the future management of the Strait of Hormuz,” which he said had been disrupted by the “unlawful aggression by the United States and the Israeli regime against Iran.”

In both calls, he accused the U.S. of violating the interim deal signed by both sides in June to end the immediate hostilities and begin broader talks to end the war.

___

Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writers Derek Gatopolous in Athens and Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

Mangione, 28, said he even used a ruse to glean information about the event, contacting the health insurance company ahead of time under the guise of being an investor at a multibillion-dollar firm.

"On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan, and he died,” Mangione told the Manhattan federal court, which he entered shackled at the feet but not handcuffed in his beige jail uniform.

Listening in the audience, Thompson's wife, Paulette, took several deep breaths and repeatedly wiped tears from her eyes.

Prosecutors plan to seek a life prison term at Mangione's sentencing, set for Dec. 18. When U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett asked whether he understood that he could spend the rest of his life behind bars, Mangione answered neutrally: “Yes.”

In a statement, Thompson’s family called the plea “an important step toward justice” and noted that Mangione still faces other cases, including a New York state murder prosecution. It carries the potential for a separate long sentence.

Mangione still faces a state murder case

Federal prosecutors didn’t give Mangione any deal or incentive to plead guilty, they and his lawyers said. Nor did Mangione plead guilty to avoid a potential death sentence. That possibility was taken off the table when a federal murder charge was tossed out this winter.

But after Mangione entered the plea at Friday's hastily scheduled hearing, his lawyers quickly sought to have the New York case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds. The state’s double jeopardy protections can kick in if a prior prosecution ends in a guilty plea.

“Mr. Mangione has accepted full responsibility for the death of Brian Thompson,” defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said outside court, arguing that her client shouldn’t face two prosecutions over a “single tragic event.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is handling the state prosecution, said it remains committed to its case and would contest the defense’s efforts to shut it down.

Mangione alludes to back pain in explaining his actions

Surveillance video of the ambush showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson, 50, from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

That detail — and revelations that Mangione's private writings lambasted health insurers as greedy, according to authorities — made the case a fulcrum for debate about the industry and made Mangione a cause célèbre for some of its critics.

A University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, Mangione told the court Friday that he pursued Thompson “after years of enduring severe pain from a broken back and navigating the obstacles of the health insurance system.”

Friedman Agnifilo later said her client “believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life.”

Authorities say Mangione's grievances are no excuse for killing

Mangione never was a UnitedHealthcare customer, according to police and the company.

“To those who idolize Luigi Mangione, I say this. Violence is not a cause. Murder is not a message. And a killer is certainly not a hero,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said outside court Friday.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald, whose office handled the federal case, added: “There can be no celebrity in assassination."

Thompson led one of the United States' largest health insurers, but he wasn't well known outside the industry. Trained as an accountant, he worked at parent company UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, in 2021. He and his wife had two sons, who were in high school when their father was killed.

Thompson's violent death “devastated everyone who knew and loved him,” the company said in a statement Friday, thanking law enforcement for bringing Mangione to justice.

His defense had lost some disputes over evidence

Mangione was arrested five days after the shooting, when he was spotted at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. Police had released various images of the suspected shooter, including one showing his face as he checked into a hostel.

Although his lawyers got the federal murder charge dismissed, Garnett also delivered some setbacks to the defense, ruling in January that prosecutors could use items collected from Mangione’s backpack during his arrest as evidence against him. They included a 3D-printed pistol that investigators said matched the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which authorities say Mangione described his intent to kill an insurance executive.

Similarly, the judge in the state case threw out terrorism charges against Mangione but agreed to let the gun and notebook be used as evidence. The case has been heading toward a September trial, but his lawyers' new bid to dismiss it could complicate the timeline.

___

Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed.

For drivers already stretching their budgets, the combination of high prices and reduced fuel efficiency is creating a painful reality at the pump.

“Oh, my God. Where can I start? They are too high, and the income is too low. Honestly, I spend about $300 a month just on gas,” Estel Lopez, a Central Florida driver, told News 6.

Some drivers say they’ve had no choice but to rethink their daily routines.

“My mom has a smaller car, so she’s doing most of the pickups for me because it’s less gas,” Lopez added. “Instead of like, I used to go to work in the morning and on my break, go back home. Now, I don’t do that because I can’t. It’s a lot of money.”

Elvis Diaz, another Central Florida driver, put it simply.

“They’re a little too high. Very high,” Diaz said.

Traditionally, warm weather can actually improve fuel economy; engines heat up faster and run more efficiently. But extreme heat changes the equation.

Keeping the air conditioning running is a non-negotiable for most Central Florida drivers during the brutal summer months, even though it comes at a cost. Reports find that running the AC in extremely hot weather can reduce fuel efficiency by up to 25%.

“No way. I can’t not have the AC,” Lopez said.

Diaz, however, believes proper vehicle maintenance is one of the most effective ways to protect fuel efficiency, regardless of the weather.

“I don’t think it affects the vehicle as much as the maintenance does. Like inflating the tires and using the proper fuels and so forth,” he said.

Summer also brings another cost factor: gas stations switch to a pricier “summer blend” of gasoline, which burns cleaner but costs more to produce. That blend remains in effect until mid-September.

The U.S. Department of Energy offers several recommendations for drivers looking to get the most out of their fuel this summer:

• Roll the windows down at lower speeds; use the AC at highway speeds.
• Avoid setting the AC temperature lower than needed or running it more than necessary.
• Park in the shade or use a sunshade to keep the cabin cooler before getting in.
• Before turning on the AC, drive with the windows open briefly to let hot air escape — this reduces demand on the system and helps the vehicle cool faster.
• Don’t idle with the AC running before driving. Most AC systems cool more efficiently while the vehicle is moving.
• Review your owner’s manual to understand how your specific AC system works and how to maintain it.
• For plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle drivers, pre-cooling the cabin while still plugged into a charger can help extend range. Using a warmer AC temperature setting will also conserve battery power.

Club owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG) said in a statement it entered into a “definitive agreement” for the sale to 1892 Holdings.

The investor group is led by Amit Bhatia, who is married to a daughter of Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, and has taken a stake of more than 30% in the 20-time English champion, according to Sky News. The deal reportedly values Liverpool at around $6 billion.

Boston-based FSG paid 300 million pounds ($400 million) to take over Liverpool in 2010 and also owns the Boston Red Sox. FSG said in July that it had been approached by the Bhatia-led consortium regarding a “strategic minority investment” in the club.

“As we considered this opportunity, it became clear that Amit and the consortium shared our long-term philosophy and appreciation for what makes Liverpool special,” FSG president Mike Gordon said in the statement.

It marks the first foray into soccer by Bezos, who, according to Forbes, is the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of around $280 billion. He founded Amazon in 1994 and has been executive chairman since 2021.

Saverin is a Brazilian businessman worth around $36 billion, according to Forbes.

Bhatia, a British-Indian entrepreneur, was the co-owner of second-tier English team Queens Park Rangers for 18 years before stepping down recently.

“We are making this investment because we believe deeply in Liverpool and its leadership, and we look forward to supporting the club’s continued success for years to come,” Bhatia said in the statement.

Under the leadership of FSG and its principal owner John Henry, Liverpool ended a 30-year wait to be English champion in 2020 and added another Premier League title last year. That tied Manchester United on 20 English top-flight league championships.

The club was European champion for a sixth time — a record for an English team — in 2019.

The Premier League is one of the biggest competitions in sports, with its teams now largely owned by oil-rich gulf states or private equity.

Can Liverpool now start spending heavily?

Liverpool now has three of the richest people in the world as minority owners.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the club can simply start spending recklessly in the transfer market on new players.

That’s because the Premier League has financial rules in place to protect the competitive balance of the competition and ensure the financial sustainability of clubs.

In broad terms, a club’s on-pitch spending is related to 85% of its “football-related revenue and net profit/loss from player sales,” the Premier League says.

Instead, the difference will come in how Liverpool — already one of the top teams in world soccer — is marketed more around the world under Bezos and Saverin, especially.

The deal is likely to bring more commercial revenue into the club, thereby improving its profits.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Those two massive sociological forces had already joined up, Voltron-style, early in the 20th century with the development of the drive-in restaurant – that classic scene evocative of “Happy Days” where customers sat in their cars while servers (ideally on skates) brought out food that was consumed on site from window trays.

But the real innovation dates to the late 1940s and is the brainchild of either (depending on which source you trust) an In-N-Out Burger in California in 1948 or Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri in 1947. (In comparison, the first reported drive-thru in Europe didn’t open until 1985 in Dublin.)

By the mid 1960s, this had mushroomed into a robust American market, spawning imitators and innovators. Jack in the Box pioneered the drive-thru exclusive restaurant with no indoor seats and no parking — and a talking mechanical clown to take your order. In Western states, residents of a certain age will recall the Wienershnitzel chain with its distinctive A-frame structures specially built with a tunnel down the middle for cars.

The innovation sparked unexpected knock-on developments. Restaurant menus shifted heavily toward sandwiches, fries, chicken strips and other portables that could be consumed on the go. The cars themselves adjusted over the years to accommodate larger and larger drink holders. What sociological (and nutritional) impact this has all had on the actual consumers would be the subject of a much longer essay.

The innovation hasn’t stopped. Modern drive-thrus have evolved into tightly coordinated multi-lane affairs. At Chick-fil-As around the country, actual humans with electronic tablets now stand – breathing in exhaust fumes all day – to ensure a seamless ordering process with no mechanical speaker garbles.

The drive-thru, with its distinctly American creative spelling, has become woven into the fabric of the culture. It has been enshrined in the Smithsonian Museum of American History and has played a memorable role in recent and successful Presidential campaigns.

As one historian put it, somewhat pointedly: “The drive-in was less a pure novelty than an expression of great American passions that go hand in hand: speed, efficiency and, sometimes, laziness.”

___

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.

Osceola County requested and was awarded the funding from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to conduct a targeted, one-time removal of shoals and invasive vegetation from Boggy Creek. The Florida Legislature passed the fiscal year 2026-2027 state budget — which included the direct appropriation — in May 2026, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it in June 2026.

The Osceola County Commission is scheduled to vote to accept the final agreement with FDEP on Monday.

Boggy Creek feeds into East Lake Tohopekaliga — commonly known as East Lake Toho — one of the region’s prominent waterways. County officials have identified a combination of increased water flows, shoaling, reduced conveyance and unmanaged vegetation as the root causes of the creek’s problems, which have led to environmental degradation, impaired water quality, heightened flooding risks and structural strain throughout Boggy Creek’s natural drainage system.

Gator Airboat Rides sits along East Lake Toho and offers tours of the lakes. Jay Turner is one of the many who take people out on the water. He tells News 6 that while airboats can glide over vegetation with ease, other watercraft cannot and when growth clogs the creek’s tributaries, the consequences extend beyond navigation.

“It does impact these canals and the creeks, especially at this time of year when it grows pretty rapidly, and it could clog up canals and it’ll restrict water flow, which could be a problem,” Turner said.

The $3.5 million will fund the design, permitting and removal of shoals and invasive and nuisance vegetation within the creek. The goal is to restore water conveyance to East Lake Toho, rebuild native habitat, improve ecological health and strengthen the watershed’s long-term resiliency against future development and stormwater impacts.

The project will also restore safe navigation and provide better management access for agencies such as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to continue invasive species control efforts. Project outcomes will be measured by increases in acres of open water, reductions in water levels and improvements in water conveyance.

Ongoing maintenance of the creek following the cleanup is expected to be funded through Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission invasive plant management funding.

Turner says a cleanup of this scale is long overdue.

“I think it’s pretty cool. I’ve never heard of them in 30 years doing a $3 million cleanup project on Boggy Creek. So, yeah, I mean, it would be good anytime to go and clean up something — would make the water flow a little bit better,” he said.

Construction is estimated to begin sometime in 2027. The project serves Commission Districts 2 and 5.

The settlement, which still needs a judge's approval, came after the family filed a lawsuit against the city.

Police have said that Jazmir Tucker was carrying a loaded weapon when he was shot in November 2024. They said two officers heard gunshots, later spotted Tucker and ran after him before one fired multiple times.

Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said Officer Davon Fields was fired for multiple policy violations, including failing to properly provide medical aid and violating the department’s policy for body-worn cameras. The mayor also cited other issues related to a separate criminal allegation involving Fields.

“The loss of life and the circumstances in this case were absolutely tragic, with enormous human and financial costs,” Malik said in a statement. "We have a responsibility to make policy changes that reduce the likelihood of cases like this happening in the future.”

The head of Akron's police union called the firing unjust and said the officer was being used as a “political scapegoat.” The union plans to fight the firing, said Brian Lucey, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police.

A grand jury decided against indicting the officer nearly a year ago.

Weeks after the shooting, Akron's mayor said the bodycam video of the shooting raised questions, including why officers didn’t immediately turn on their cameras and why it took so long to provide first aid.

In the video, the shooting officer’s arms and long gun block his camera’s view, obscuring Tucker in the moments before he was shot. Another officer’s camera recorded police unzipping the jacket pocket of the wounded teenager and pulling out a handgun.

Thompson, 50, was shot outside a New York City hotel on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Mangione was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 233 miles (375 kilometers) west of New York City.

Here is a timeline of key events:

2024

Nov. 24: A man prosecutors say is Mangione arrives in New York City on a Greyhound bus. He takes a taxi to the area of the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson is later shot, then goes to a hostel where he stays until the morning of the shooting. While checking in, prosecutors say, the man presents a fake New Jersey driver’s license bearing the name Mark Rosario.

Dec. 2: Thompson arrives in New York. He is staying at a hotel across the street from the Hilton.

Dec. 4: Thompson is shot and killed. The shooter, later identified by prosecutors as Mangione, waits in the area for about an hour before ambushing Thompson. He then flees through Central Park to upper Manhattan before taking the subway to Penn Station and boarding an Amtrak train to Philadelphia, police say. The shooting is captured on surveillance video.

Dec. 5: In the days after the shooting, police release various images of the suspected shooter, including one showing his face as he checked into the hostel.

Dec. 6: Police find a backpack in Central Park that they say the shooter discarded as he fled. It contains Monopoly money and a black Tommy Hilfiger jacket.

Dec. 9: Altoona police are dispatched to a McDonald’s for a report of a man matching the description of the suspect in Thompson's killing. The man provides a fake ID and name, Mark Rosario, before identifying himself as Luigi Mangione. He is arrested. In his backpack, police find a 3D-printed pistol prosecutors say matches the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook that describes wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive.

Dec. 11: Mangione shouts about an “insult to the intelligence of the American people” and writhes in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as they lead him into an Altoona courthouse.

Dec. 17: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announces that Mangione has been indicted on state charges including murder as an act of terrorism, calling the killing “a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation.”

Dec. 19: Mangione is extradited from Pennsylvania and flown to New York. He is led up a Manhattan pier by armed officers in a highly choreographed perp walk in front of news cameras. The mayor at the time, Eric Adams, and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch look on. Mangione is taken to federal court, where he is charged with stalking and murder.

Dec. 23: Mangione is arraigned on state murder and terror charges. He pleads not guilty while his lawyer complains that the dueling federal and state prosecutions had turned him into a “human ping-pong ball.”

2025

April 1: Then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says she has directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Mangione, calling Thompson's killing “a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America” and “an act of political violence.”

April 25: Mangione pleads not guilty to a federal murder charge as prosecutors formally declared their intent to seek the death penalty against him.

Sept. 16: The judge in the state case, Gregory Carro, throws out Mangione's terrorism charges, rejecting the prosecution’s theory that the killing was “intended to evoke terror.” The ruling eliminated the top two charges in Mangione’s state case, sparing him the possibility of a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. Carro keeps other charges in place, including second-degree murder.

Dec. 1: A three-week evidentiary hearing kicks off in Mangione’s state case. Prosecutors call 17 witnesses, many of them police officers and other personnel involved in his arrest, and play body-camera footage of officers arresting Mangione and a 911 call from the McDonald's manager about a man resembling “the CEO shooter.” They also reveal notes about a “survival kit” and “intel checkin” and possible escape plans that they say Mangione had with him.

2026

Jan. 30: U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett bars federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Mangione, dismissing a federal murder charge that enabled them to seek capital punishment. Garnett also rules that prosecutors can use evidence collected from Mangione’s backpack during his arrest.

Feb. 6: Mangione speaks out in court against the prospect of back-to-back trials, telling Carro: “It’s the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.”

May 18: Carro rules that prosecutors in the state case can use the gun, notebook and other items that police found in Mangione’s backpack after his arrest. However, the judge bars items that officers took from the bag before Mangione was taken into custody, including a loaded gun magazine, cellphone, passport and wallet.

June 17: Carro discloses that Mangione plans to assert a psychiatric defense at his state murder trial, claiming he was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance when he killed Thompson. The next day, Mangione's lawyers reverse course and tell Carro he wouldn't be pursuing a psychiatric defense.

Aug. 14: Mangione pleads guilty to federal stalking charges and admits he targeted and killed Thompson. Prosecutors say they intend to seek a sentence of life in prison. Mangione's lawyers immediately file paperwork seeking to have the state murder case dismissed on double jeopardy grounds.

The attacks caused no casualties but underlined the dangers faced by vessels moving cargo through the critical waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open oceans, as Iran keeps a firm grip on the passage.

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

2 oil tankers hit by drones as they transited Strait of Hormuz

Two tankers owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil and gas company ADNOC were attacked Thursday evening while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the company said. It added that the attack caused no injuries and that “the situation has been brought under control.”

The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said two vessels were reported to have suffered minor damage when attacked by drones while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. It did not identify them as the ADNOC ships, but it appeared to be the same incident.

The UAE's Foreign Ministry blamed the attacks on Iran and said they were a “flagrant violation” of the United Nations' principles of freedom of navigation.

“Targeting commercial shipping and using the Strait of Hormuz as a tool of economic coercion or blackmail represents acts of piracy by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps,” the Foreign Ministry said.

There was no immediate response from Iran.

Activists bring food and water to Palestinians under siege by Israeli settlers

Activists from Israel and other countries marched through the occupied West Bank, bringing food and water to Palestinians who have been under siege by Israeli settlers for days.

Three Palestinian families in the town of Qusra have been unable to leave their homes for nearly a week after settlers surrounded the area. Israeli troops intervened multiple times, but the settlers have kept returning.

The standoff in the northern West Bank town of Qusra is the latest in a wave of settler violence in the territory, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up part of a future Palestinian state.

Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the army to prepare a plan to transfer power to the police to enforce civilian-related matters, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Yemen says it disrupted a Houthi attack as fighting continues

Yemen’s military said its forces thwarted Houthi attacks early Friday in southwestern Yemen amid ongoing fighting with the Iran-backed rebels.

Forces affiliated with Yemen’s internationally recognized government said in a statement that dozens of Houthis were killed and injured in fighting that disrupted plans to attack military reinforcements in Taiz province with drones, explosives and artillery.

The Associated Press was unable to independently verify that toll.

A fire broke out Friday at the port in Mokha, where Houthis launched missiles targeting the port’s infrastructure, according to a spokesman for Yemen’s joint military forces. The spokesman, Wadah al-Dubaish, could not immediately say if anyone was killed or wounded.

The Houthis said Friday they targeted Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, with a drone strike in the city of Najran near Yemen's border. There was no immediate comment from Aramco or Saudi Arabia.

Recent Houthi attacks on government-held areas across Yemen have raised fears that the country’s civil war could reignite and open another front in the Middle East.

Kushner will head to Middle East for talks on Gaza

U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East next week to try to advance plans for an end to the conflict in Gaza after a deal recently announced by the Trump administration ran into Israeli opposition.

An official with the Board of Peace, the body Trump established to oversee the fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, said Kushner, board high representative Nickolay Mladenov, and executive board member and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would arrive in Israel on Sunday.

The group will then travel to Cairo, where meetings of a Palestinian technocratic group set to assume control of Gaza under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal have been taking place for the past several months, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because planning for details of the trip has not yet been finalized.

The trip was reported earlier by Axios.

— Matthew Lee in Washington

The strike came a day after the United Nations said July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since the weeks following Moscow's all-out invasion of its neighbor more than four years ago.

At least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 wounded last month, the U.N. monitoring mission in Kyiv said, as Russia escalated its bombing of Ukrainian towns and cities. That was 70% higher than in July last year and 30% up on June of this year.

Overall, since Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, U.N. human rights monitors say the war has killed at least 16,874 civilians, including 820 children, and wounded 51,273, including 3,126 children.

“Every month this year the number of killed and injured civilians has increased. That trend accelerated sharply in July,” said Danielle Bell, head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Kyiv. “The number of civilian casualties in July was the highest we documented in a single month since March 2022.”

The Russian strike in northern Ukraine’s Sumy region early Friday also wounded four other people, including the dead boy’s father and grandmother, who were hospitalized with severe burns, the regional military administration chief Oleh Hryhorov said.

Russia's top diplomat says Moscow will intensify its aerial attacks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Moscow is planning to escalate its strikes on Ukraine, even as U.S. diplomatic efforts to end the war are set to continue.

“We will use much harsher methods to destroy everything that feeds Kyiv’s war machine from the West,” Lavrov said in an interview with Russian state TV broadcast Friday, referring to military aid Kyiv receives from abroad.

Officials in Washington said last month that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s main envoys, would travel to Kyiv sometime in the future. No date for the trip is publicly known, as the U.S. focuses on the Iran war.

Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by Trump, but Putin has refused, demanding a comprehensive peace agreement first, and Lavrov said that position hasn’t changed.

“We will only stop when there’s a long-term, reliable and sustainable settlement,” he said.

Russian glide bombs hit residential areas near front line

In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Russian glide bomb demolished six floors of a 10-story apartment block, killing one person and wounding 16 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Russia is launching around 220 glide bombs every day against settlements near the front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in a social media post Friday.

Russian forces crush settlements with the brute force of 3,000-pound (1,300-kilo) glide bombs, artillery, missiles and drones, then send in infantry units to attack the exposed defenders. The tactic has rendered many towns and villages uninhabitable.

In addition, Russian forces struck two tugboats in the Black Sea that were escorting cargo ships carrying Western weapons for Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.

It also said that its drones overnight hit the railway station in Ukraine’s southern port of Izmail that it said is used for transporting military cargo and fuel for the Ukrainian armed forces.

In all, Russia attacked 12 Ukrainian regions overnight, wounding dozens of people, Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian drones strike a major port north of Moscow

Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, extended their long-range strike campaign against Russian infrastructure, hitting the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region north of Moscow and starting a brief fire, its governor Alexander Drozdenko said.

Ust-Luga is one of Russia’s largest oil and gas export terminals located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Ukraine.

It has been a frequent target of Ukrainian drone attacks this summer, as Kyiv seeks to undermine Russian oil exports that provide Moscow with vital revenue for its war effort.

Ukraine also launched another attack on the premises of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, which Kyiv says helps supply the Russian military.

The attack damaged a wall of a Wildberries warehouse in the Tver region north of Moscow, the region’s acting governor, Vitaly Korolyov, said.

Wildberries reported “insignificant damage” and said the goods stored at the site were not damaged.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday its air defenses overnight intercepted 553 Ukrainian drones over 18 Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the waters of the Azov and the Black seas.

NATO warplanes shoot down a drone over Latvia

NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace in the early hours of Friday, the Latvian army and an official for the military alliance said.

Latvian authorities did not say what the origin of the drone was, but said it had entered Latvia “as a result of Russian electromagnetic warfare.”

Several drones have previously crossed the border into Latvia. Most of them are thought to be Ukrainian drones that strayed off course due to Russian electronic jamming.

Two Italian Eurofighter jets were scrambled to tackle the drone and one of them shot it down, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said.

Two Turkish fighter jets were also deployed, she said.

Residents in five municipalities in eastern Latvia were warned about the threat to airspace and told to take shelter.

Another drone crashed in woodland in Romania 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the border with Ukraine, the NATO member’s Defense Ministry said Friday.

Military radars did not detect the drone, which landed in eastern Tulcea County, because it was flying at a “very low” altitude, it said without providing details about the drone’s origin.

The ministry said later that another drone was found Friday in the village of Plauru, also in Tulcea County, which is situated across the Danube River from Ukraine’s port of Izmail. A specialist team was deployed to the area, which was secured, it added.

___

Associated Press reporters Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, Lorne Cook in Brussels and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England contributed to this report.

___

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

A statement from the Italian Carabinieri’s art recovery squad said the artworks were discovered in the possession of one of the suspects during searches ordered by prosecutors in the Parma province and neighboring provinces. The five suspects detained are believed to belong to an organized crime group responsible for numerous thefts of homes, businesses and other properties. Police also recovered stolen goods worth tens of thousands of euros.

Meanwhile, Brazilian police said late Thursday they located eight stolen works by Matisse following an apartment raid outside Sao Paulo. There were no apparent links between the two thefts.

The three artworks recovered in Italy are “Fish,” a painting by Auguste Renoir, “Still Life with Cherries,” a pencil and watercolor by Paul Cézanne, and “Odalisque on the Terrace,” a color aqatint by Henri Matisse. Authorities said the Cézanne was valued at 6 million euros ($7 million), the Renoir at 3 million euros ($3.5 million), and the Matisse at 20,000 euros ($23,000).

The heist at the Magnani Rocca Foundation, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Parma, took place on the night of March 22-23, police said. Video distributed by authorities showed the thieves entering through a broken door window and then taking the three artworks down from adjacent walls before exiting and escaping through the gardens in a matter of minutes.

Investigators said they retrieved important evidence at the scene, including a pickaxe and fire extinguisher with their serial numbers removed. Forensic officers were able to reconstruct the serial numbers, which linked them to an apartment building accessible to one of the alleged members of the criminal gang.

The suspects were all born in Moldova and resided in the Parma area, authorities said.

Established in 1977, the foundation hosts the collection of art historian Luigi Magnani and includes works by Dürer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya and Monet.

The museum believes a structured and organized gang was responsible for the theft, which the alarm interrupted, local media reported.

The crime followed a series of high-profile heists at major European museums, including the theft in October of French crown jewels and other items valued at 88 million euros ($101 million) from the Louvre in Paris.

Brazilian police said the eight stolen works by Matisse were valued at more than 1 million reais ($193,000) and found in the city of São Bernardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo police said in a statement they arrested one man at the scene for allegedly holding the prints for another person who was taken into custody in April during an unrelated art theft probe.

The recovery of the artwork marks a major breakthrough in a case dating back to December 2025, when two intruders broke into São Paulo’s Mário de Andrade library. A total of 13 pieces of art and history were stolen. Five works by Brazilian artist Cândido Portinari are still missing.

Matisse (1869-1954) is one of the most celebrated artists of the colorful expressive style. Brazilian police recovered eight prints which are named “Le Clown,” “Le Cirque,” “Monsieur Loyal,” “Cauchemar de L’Eléphant Blanc,” “Le Codomas,” “La Nageuse Dans L’Aquarium,” “L’Avaleur de Sabres” and “Le Cowboy.” They were made for an artbook named “Jazz.”

The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% from its all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 131 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:51 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% lower.

Stocks gave up modest gains from earlier in the morning after oil prices swung higher. The price for a barrel of Brent crude rose 1.4% to $88.30 as uncertainty continues about when the war with Iran will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again.

Also raising uncertainty was a report showing shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month than the month before. That surprised economists, who were forecasting another month of growth.

On the bright side for financial markets, such a pullback in spending could take pressure off inflation. Inflation remains much higher than anyone would like, but reports earlier this week suggested the pace of increases in prices is decelerating.

If inflation keeps trending that way, it could encourage the Federal Reserve to hold off on hikes to interest rates. Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they do so by intentionally slowing the economy and making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money.

But the downside of such data, including last week’s surprisingly weak report on the U.S. job market, is that they raise the risk of a slowing economy. The Fed has no good tool to fix both a stagnating economy and high inflation at the same time, which is why what’s called “stagflation” is seen as a worst-case scenario.

Some on Wall Street cautioned against overreacting to the weak data on U.S. retail sales, even if it was broad based. It could simply be a snap back after retail sales in earlier months were boosted by unusual factors such as big tax refunds, the World Cup and even an earlier Prime Day event at Amazon, according to Jennifer Timmerman, senior investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

U.S. consumers nevertheless appear to be getting more discouraged about the economy. A preliminary survey by the University of Michigan suggested sentiment among them is weakening by more than economists expected.

The survey said drops occurred across the political spectrum and showed up particularly among older, lower-income and other groups who can be hurt most by inflation.

On Wall Street, Reddit jumped 11% after learning its stock will join the S&P 500 index on Tuesday. Many professional investors and funds closely track the index, either mimicking it or at least measuring their performance against it. That can push many investors to buy a stock automatically when it enters the index.

Applied Materials fell 5.7% even though the company, whose technology helps make semiconductors, reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Gary Dickerson said global hunger for artificial-intelligence technology helped it deliver another record quarter.

But its stock had already more than doubled this year and built expectations very high, which helped pressure the stock on Friday.

AI stocks in general have been swinging sharply on worries that their prices shot too high because of AI euphoria and that their strong growth in revenue may not be sustainable.

In the bond market, shorter-term Treasury yields edged lower following the retail sales report, suggesting traders see the Fed as less likely to hike interest rates at its next meeting in September.

But the yield on the 10-year Treasury, which moves more on expectations for inflation and economic growth in upcoming years, rose to 4.70% from 4.63% late Thursday.

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

London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2% after Nigel Farage regained the seat in Parliament he quit a month ago, beating trash-can wearing comic candidate Count Binface in a special election.

South Korea’s Kospi again had one of the world’s sharpest moves and jumped 2.4% for its third straight gain of at least that much. Seoul has been at the center of the world’s swings for AI stocks because its market is dominated by two tech giants, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

___

AP Business Writers Michelle Chapman and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

While the counting was suspended, riot police and army vehicles deployed to parts of the capital, Lusaka, including the main vote tallying center, though there were no immediate reports of any major unrest.

It was an unusual development for the southern African country of 22 million people, which has held largely peaceful elections since it returned to multiparty democracy in 1991.

“The violence is targeted at poll staff and in some instances has resulted in the theft of marked ballot papers in ballot boxes,” the Electoral Commission of Zambia said in a statement announcing vote counting had been halted.

It did not say who was responsible for the violence or the alleged theft of ballot papers.

Electoral commission head Mwangala Zaloumis later announced counting would start again and said the violence affected a small number of polling stations in Lusaka.

“Following a review of the security situation and consultations with the relevant law enforcement agencies, I’m pleased to inform you and to inform the nation that the security threat to the electoral process has been contained,” she said at a press briefing.

The main opposition candidate said his alliance of parties had “received deeply troubling reports from several parts of the country” and called into question the credibility of the vote.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, who ran for a second five-year term, called for Zambians to “remain peaceful, patient and patriotic as we await the official outcome from those entrusted with managing the vote” in a statement on X.

Thursday's election was seen as a test of Hichilema's economic recovery plan after the copper-rich nation was plunged into a debt crisis in 2020. Hichilema was elected in 2021 and oversaw the restructuring of Zambia's sovereign debt while reining in inflation and stabilizing the currency.

But critics say that economic stability has not trickled down to many people in Zambia, where poverty is widespread. The most prominent issues for the election were the high cost of living and electricity shortages.

Hichilema, 64, was one of 14 candidates in the presidential election, but his biggest challenge was thought to come from Brian Mundubile, a 55-year-old law graduate who emerged this year as the leader of an opposition alliance.

Zambians also voted for members of Parliament and local government councilors. About 8 million people were registered to vote at more than 13,500 polling stations.

On Friday, Mundubile said the suspension of the vote counting could lead to “an opportunity for interference with or manipulation of the results.”

“Put the records before the nation and allow every number to be reconciled. The people of Zambia voted. Their decision must be respected,” he said.

Mundubile said he had received information that members of the military had taken control of vote counting stations in at least one town and boxes containing ballots had been taken away from stations in other places, though he did not provide any evidence for those claims in a statement he made on video.

Zambia gained independence from Britain in 1964 and was a one-party state from 1973 to 1991. It has held largely peaceful votes and transfers of power between parties and political alliances since then.

However, there was some criticism of Hichilema ahead of this election by the opposition and independent rights groups, which said his government was squeezing dissent. Mundubile’s alliance accused the government of being behind a law enforcement agency raid on its offices days before the election and claimed the action was designed to hurt the alliance’s campaign.

Hichilema himself was once imprisoned on charges of treason when he was an opposition leader in 2017 during a bitter rivalry with then-President Edgar Lungu. He was held for four months after his motorcade did not give way to Lungu’s on a road and claimed he was tortured during his imprisonment.

Hichilema was released after international condemnation of the arrest and beat Lungu in an election in 2021.

Mundubile served in Lungu's government and rose to lead the opposition alliance challenging Hichilema after Lungu died last year.

___

AP video journalist Alfonso Nqunjana contributed to this report.

___

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

The theme park announced that characters from Sony Pictures Animation’s “Hotel Transylvania” will make their debut at its annual Halloween Spooktacular, running on select dates Aug. 29 through Nov. 1.

The park teased that more announcements were coming after it unveiled the first-ever “I Know What You Did Last Summer” haunted house earlier this month.

According to a news release, Drac and Mavis have transformed SeaWorld’s SeaFire Inn into the Monster Dread & Breakfast, a separately ticketed character dining experience complete with a breakfast buffet, meet-and-greets, dancing and immersive Hotel Transylvania-themed décor. A Hotel Transylvania Dance Party hosted by Mavis and Johnny rounds out the monster fun.

Beyond the headline attraction, Halloween Spooktacular — included with park admission — is packed with family fun:

• Hotel Transylvania Dance Party — Mavis and Johnny host a rocking dance party only at SeaWorld Orlando.
• Trick-or-Treat Trail — Collect treats at 12 candy stations throughout the park with a Spooktacular trick-or-treat reusable bag.
• Meet Spookley the Square Pumpkin — The beloved square pumpkin returns with his message of kindness and acceptance.
• Meet a Mermaid — Encounter SeaWorld’s Halloween mermaids in the Key West area.
• Pumpkin Garden & Storytime — Wander a whimsical garden and catch Halloween story readings throughout the day.
• Spooky Bubble Trail — Follow a bubble-filled trail with Halloween surprises and Spooktacular Pals.
• Scarecrow Halloween Dance Parade — Watch festive scarecrows dance in a kid-friendly Halloween parade near Dolphin Stadium.
• Teal Pumpkin Program — Guests with food allergies can collect teal tokens at candy stations and redeem allergy-friendly treats at Coconut Bay Traders.
• Costumes welcome — Guests of all ages can dress up; guests 13 and older may not wear costume masks or hoods.
• Sesame Street Halloween Parade — Elmo, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, Count von Count and more march in a not-too-spooky parade.
• Storytime with Big Bird — Families gather around Big Bird’s nest for Halloween story readings.
• Seasonal Treats & Sips — New this year: the Mummy Dog, an all-beef hot dog wrapped in pretzel dough, and Trick-or-Treat Crunch Popcorn.

For tickets and more information, click here.

Fry finished third in a special primary held Tuesday, when Graham and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman advanced to the Aug. 25 runoff. His backing follows that of other powerful Republicans who have supported Graham, including Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Trump, whose early endorsement helped propel his own congressional career.

“President Trump needs fighters and allies in the Senate who will show up every day and get results,” Fry said in a news release. “I believe Darline Graham will be exactly that.”

Graham's brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, died suddenly last month. Darline Graham, was appointed to serve out the remainder of his current term, then opted to run for the seat, winning the biggest share of votes but not the majority needed to avoid a runoff.

The special primary, which took place just a month after Lindsey Graham's death, meant a compressed and sometimes chaotic campaign for the 10 candidates who ran to replace him.

Much of the most heated rhetoric volleyed back and forth between Fry and a political action committee supporting Darline Graham, which ran ads pointing out that Trump — who initially said Fry would be an “outstanding” pick for the seat — passed him over to back Graham instead.

Graham's brother was a top Senate ally for Trump, to whom she has also closely tied herself in her campaign. Both Fry and Graham have often mentioned their humble origins as a touchpoint for understanding kitchen table issues, something Fry noted he had in common with Graham.

“Darline knows what it means to struggle, persevere, and keep fighting when life deals you a difficult hand," Fry said of the 62-year-old Graham, who had a hardscrabble upbringing and was ultimately adopted by her older brother after their parents died when she was young. “Those experiences shaped her, and I believe they give her a real understanding of the challenges families across South Carolina face.”

Trump had stumped for Fry in his first House campaign in 2022, when the state lawmaker ousted a five-term GOP congressman who had voted to impeach Trump a year earlier.

Matt Gorman, a GOP strategist and former senior adviser to Scott, suggested that Fry's endorsement of Graham was a political calculation for the 41-year-old, two-term congressman, who has seen the ramifications for some Republicans who have crossed Trump.

“Russell is a smart guy with a long career ahead of him," Gorman said. "It makes zero sense to get crosswise with either President Trump or Tim Scott. If he wants to, Fry will get another shot at the seat because Graham or Norman won’t be there multiple decades.”

The GOP runoff’s winner will face Democratic nominee Dr. Annie Andrews in November’s general election. No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in South Carolina in decades.

___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.

___

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

Retail sales fell 0.6% last month, marking the biggest decrease since May 2025, compared with a revised gain of 0.2% in June, according to the Commerce Department data released Friday. Economists were projecting a small increase.

The decline followed a notable bump in spending in both April and May as Americans dipped into their government tax refunds.

The drop in spending for July, however, raised concern among some economists about the resiliency of consumers who have powered the economy forward despite nagging inflation and soaring gasoline prices. Yet, it may be too early to declare a retreat by one of the strongest and most consistent forces in the U.S. economy of late.

Still, the weak sales report follows unexpectedly sluggish jobs figures last week, and both suggest the economy could be slowing after strong consumer and business spending in the first half of the year.

Separately, consumers turned more pessimistic about the economy this month, likely driven by stubbornly high prices, according to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index, released Friday.

While most economists still expect solid economic growth in the July-September quarter, many have lowered their forecasts in the wake of the retail sales report.

Prices in July, which were not adjusted for inflation, were impacted by falling sales at gas stations. Fuel prices remained low until later in the month when evidence of a stalemate between the U.S. and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz began to grow. Business at gas stations fell 0.9% last month, according to the report.

Gas prices have been rising since the final week of July and ticked higher again overnight to $4.08 per gallon, up from $3.85 a month ago, according to motor club AAA. That's 92 cents more per gallon than Americans were paying last year at this time.

Gas prices typically begin to recede in August as the driving season comes to a close and the AAA said this week that the high cost of fuel for Americans this late in the year is unprecedented.

Excluding sales at gas stations and auto dealers, retail sales in July fell 0.2%.

Business at motor vehicle and parts dealers saw a 1.8% drop from a 1.9% increase in June, which was helped by auto makers' promotion incentives.

Electronics and appliance sales declined 0.5%. Online sales fell 2.2% from June when they were fueled by spending surrounding Amazon’s four-day Prime Day event that began in late June, earlier than previous years.

The drop in online sales weighed heavily on the so-called control group—which excludes food services, autos, building materials and gas station sales and is used to calculate economic growth. That figure fell 0.4% last month.

“American consumers are showing signs of fatigue, “ Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote Friday. “July retail sales were disappointing on all levels.”

But the weak sales seemed to be concentrated in a few areas.

Among some of the bright spots in the report: clothing and accessories stores, furniture and home furnishing stores as well as building material and garden supplies merchants all posted gains last month.

The data offers only a snapshot of consumer spending and doesn’t include activities like travel and hotel stays. But the lone services category – restaurants – registered a healthy 0.5% increase

“Though the latest numbers warrant a downgrade to the spending forecast, it’d be premature to write off the consumer,” Bernard Yaros, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics said.

He noted the job market is “broadly balanced,” and wealthy households, boosted by strong gains in the stock market, continue to spend.

New data this week showed that inflation declined slightly in July as gas and grocery prices slipped, though it is still rising more quickly than before the Iran war.

Consumer prices increased 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Inflation had fallen to 2.4% before the Iran war. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

The modest decline marked the second straight decrease after sharply higher gas prices pushed inflation to 4.2% in May, a three-year high.

Given the volatile economic environment, economists are closely watching how families spend behind Christmas.

Shopping has been steady, though Americans have dialed in on sales as they grow more careful with their money.

Off-price retailers, consumer electronics and office supply retailers have had a “strong early start” to the back-to-school season, said Elizabeth Lafontaine, director of research at Placer.ai.

“Consumers have looked to take advantage of early deals to check off their lists,” Lafontaine said.

Walmart, Target and other retailers have been pushing discounts for the fall season, seeking to lure inflation-weary shoppers.

Target, for example, says that 95% of prices for school supplies are at or below last year’s levels.

Retailers begin reporting quarterly earnings next week.

Stephen Yalof, CEO of the outlet mall operator Tanger, noted an increase in foot traffic this summer because of the World Cup festivities.

More Americans were shopping too, Yalof said, because more people are vacationing close to home to save money.

“We’re rewarding with value, and we’re getting customers to come in … and shop more frequently,” Yalof told The Associated Press.

____

AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report from Washington.

Pirro announced on X that her office was filing two felony charges against Melissa L. Farris. Pirro said the felony charges are “Depredation Against Property of the United States and Destruction of Veterans’ Memorials.” The offenses carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

On Thursday, the words “Clean hands dirty $” were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain.

“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,” Pirro wrote.

A woman identified on her Facebook page as Melissa Lovewell posted a video Thursday in which she is seen taking cans of spray paint from her bag and then painting the monument.

“I will wait here to be arrested for spraying our veterans’ fountain,” she says. “It was me, I’m doing it, it’s on camera."

In a video posted Friday, the woman, who in a separate post said she had been in Washington for three weeks, said she was turning herself in.

The arrest warrant filed in the case indicated that witnesses took pictures of the vandalism occurring, which were circulated among U.S. Park Police officers.

One officer recognized the suspect as someone they arrested Aug. 10 “for unlawfully camping on federal property” just blocks away. She livestreamed that arrest, the warrant said.

The suspect was identified by her Kentucky driver's license as Melissa L. Farris, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

Farris was expected to be arraigned Friday. The Public Defender’s office said she was not yet listed in the system and had not been assigned an attorney.

The incident sparked harsh rebukes from both Pirro and President Donald Trump and comes after the president blamed damage to the nearby Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on vandals, without providing evidence. That case prompted charges against multiple people which were dropped when Pirro said evidence showed the damage came from botched repairs after Trump's renovation at the site.

“Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals,” Trump said on Friday on his Truth Social site. “First the Reflecting Pool, now this.”

The Interior Department said that the U.S. Park Police were on the scene following the Thursday vandalism and an investigation was ongoing. "The public should know we will find the person responsible for this disgusting act,” the department said.

The Friends of the National World War II Memorial, a nonprofit organization that helps maintain the site, said: “There are many places in our country for expression, debate, and disagreement. A national memorial honoring those who served and those who never returned home should never be used as a canvas for vandalism.”

The Veterans of Foreign Wars called the vandalism “an act of profound disrespect, a slap in the face to the veterans who served and sacrificed and to the families who carried that burden at home.”

A former Olympian was charged in late July with deliberately damaging the Reflecting Pool, but the Justice Department later moved to dismiss that case, saying evidence prosecutors had received refuted the idea that vandals were to blame.

Trump sharply criticized Pirro’s assessment that damage to the Reflecting Pool was the result of shoddy construction and not the work of vandals, as he claimed.

The case dismissal was an embarrassing setback for a Justice Department that had previously echoed Trump’s claims and billed the prosecution as accountability for damage at a Washington landmark, a pet project of Trump. Pirro’s decision to drop the case was also a rare moment during Trump’s second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him.

The Department of Defense Education Activity operates about 160 schools across 11 countries and educates roughly 70,000 students who are children of active-duty military or civilian service members. Conservatives have eyed the schools — which, unlike most public schools, are run by the federal government — as a testing ground for reshaping education.

The Western civilization course planned for this fall will use a textbook published by Encounter Books, a conservative publishing house. Titled "The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom," it includes suggested lesson plans created in partnership with Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan.

Historians and educators who reviewed excerpts of the text told The Associated Press it depicts points throughout history in misleading ways, representing Western civilization and Christianity as one and the same and casting Islam as a threat to both.

“You’ve got to wonder a bit whether Western civilization is a Trojan horse for classical Christian education,” said Phil Gorski, a historical sociology professor at Yale University.

The course is part of a wider reshaping of the Defense Department's schools. They have begun hiring classical learning teachers, and the department has brought in new academic chiefs with ties to classical learning charter schools and to Republican-led efforts to promote more patriotic and civic education.

In a written statement, the Pentagon said it “remains committed to providing all of its military-connected students with the best possible education and opportunities.” It did not respond directly to a series of questions about the textbook and the broader push for classical learning.

Classical education broadly refers to a teaching style built on the liberal arts, with an emphasis on critical thinking and citizenship. Students are taught to imitate the rhetoric and style of great thinkers and writers. Critics have argued the movement focuses too heavily on foundational texts from Greek, Roman and other Western writers.

Conservatives see classical learning as an antidote to unflattering depictions of US history

Conservative politicians have embraced classical learning, especially as the Trump administration and Republican-led states have pushed schools to emphasize patriotism and put boundaries around how they teach unflattering parts of American history.

In his writing and public remarks since before becoming defense secretary, Hegseth has advocated for parents to embrace classical Christian education.

In his 2022 book “Battle for the American Mind,” Hegseth, a former Fox News host, describes a history of progressives working to remove God and religion from public and private schools.

Many classical Christian schools focus on reclaiming Western civilization from external threats. But across the broader field of classical education — including secular private schools — the field is increasingly split on this point, said Susan Wise Bauer, the author of a popular classical homeschooling program.

“Whenever you have a system of education where that is the impulse, ... 'This is us, and they are them over there,'” she said, “then the idea of a shared literary heritage becomes a weapon.”

Textbook casts Western civilization as under threat

In the Pentagon's system, high school students can take the new course, Western Civilization to 1500, to fulfill a world history graduation requirement, according to a news release. The course is offered through the department's virtual school.

In the textbook’s introduction, the authors write: “When citizens of Western countries are utterly ignorant of history, as most now are, they are left unarmed against the general hostility to their own tradition that has become so destructive a force in contemporary culture."

The book describes Islam as inherently more violent than Christianity.

In a section titled “Holy War and Martyrdom in Battle,” the book describes wars fought by Christians, such as the Crusades, as intended to defend and protect other Christians. Islam, in contrast, glorifies violence and war, the book says, invoking the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and 9/11.

Matthew Gabriele, a history and religion professor at Virginia Tech, said the book's description of the Crusades and the conflicts with the Islamic world strips out important details and context to depict Islam as an aggressive religious tradition and downplays the religious motivations and violence of the Christian church.

The book's publisher, Roger Kimball, said it was peer-reviewed by 15 experts. “As the proud publisher of this incomparable work, I stand behind it in every detail,” he said.

One of the book's co-authors, Harvard emeritus professor James Hankins, said the text does not attempt to characterize Christianity and Western civilization as one. Segments of the book acknowledge the West’s cultural debts to the Islamic world, said Hankins, who now teaches at the University of Florida's Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education, a conservative-backed project to teach Western civilization.

The Trump administration aligned the military’s education system with its political vision

President Donald Trump's administration also has moved to align the military's education apparatus with its broader vision for American schools. Admissions offices at U.S. military academies now accept the Classical Learning Test, a college entrance exam that positions itself as a classical alternative to the SAT. And last year, the ACLU sued the defense school system over its decision to ban hundreds of books that covered topics like race, gender and democracy.

In March, the department abruptly changed the leadership of Department of Defense Education Activity schools, replacing Beth Schiavino-Narvaez with Paul Craft as director. In a news release at the time, Hegseth described Craft as the right leader to reorient the school system "toward patriotic values and classical learning.”

The Pentagon also replaced the education activity's chief academic officer, hiring Tiffany Hoben, who previously worked in the Florida Department of Education under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. In Florida, she oversaw the rollout of a civics curriculum that was criticized for claiming America's founders did not intend for a full separation of church and state.

___

The Associated Press’ education 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.

The Department of Defense Education Activity operates about 160 schools across 11 countries and educates roughly 70,000 students who are children of active-duty military or civilian service members. Conservatives have eyed the schools — which, unlike most public schools, are run by the federal government — as a testing ground for reshaping education.

The Western civilization course planned for this fall will use a textbook published by Encounter Books, a conservative publishing house. Titled "The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom," it includes suggested lesson plans created in partnership with Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan that has also developed influential materials for K-12 schools.

Historians and educators who reviewed excerpts of the text told The Associated Press it depicts points throughout history in misleading ways, representing Western civilization and Christianity as one and the same and casting Islam as a threat to both.

“You’ve got to wonder a bit whether Western civilization is a Trojan horse for classical Christian education,” said Phil Gorski, a historical sociology professor at Yale University.

The course is part of a wider reshaping of the Defense Department's schools. They have begun hiring classical learning teachers, and the department has brought in new academic chiefs with ties to classical learning charter schools and to Republican-led efforts to promote more patriotic education.

In a written statement, the Pentagon said it “remains committed to providing all of its military-connected students with the best possible education and opportunities.” It did not respond directly to a series of questions about the textbook and the broader push for classical learning.

Classical education broadly refers to a teaching style built on the liberal arts, with an emphasis on critical thinking and citizenship. Students are taught to imitate the rhetoric and style of great thinkers and writers. While some classical educators have pushed to incorporate diverse scholars, critics have argued the movement focuses too heavily on foundational texts from Greek, Roman and other Western writers and gives short shrift to achievements in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Conservatives see classical learning as an antidote to unflattering depictions of US history

Conservative politicians have embraced classical learning, especially as the Trump administration and Republican-led states have pushed schools to emphasize patriotism and put boundaries around how they teach unflattering parts of American history.

In his writing and public remarks since before becoming defense secretary, Hegseth has advocated for parents to embrace classical Christian education.

In his 2022 book “Battle for the American Mind,” Hegseth, a former Fox News host, describes a history of progressives working to remove God and religion from public and private schools. For parents, he writes, not sending their children to classical Christian schools would be to admit defeat.

“It is certainly not sustainable, merely passing the same losing hand to the next generation,” Hegseth writes. “With this approach, we lose. We lose America — and Western Civilization.”

Many classical Christian schools focus on reclaiming Western civilization from external threats. But across the broader field of classical education — including secular private schools — the field is increasingly split on this point, said Susan Wise Bauer, the author of a popular classical homeschooling program. She said there is a range of approaches on which texts are worth studying.

“Whenever you have a system of education where that is the impulse, ... 'This is us, and they are them over there,'” she said, “then the idea of a shared literary heritage becomes a weapon.”

Textbook casts Western civilization as under threat

In the Pentagon's system, high school students can take the new course, Western Civilization to 1500, to fulfill a world history graduation requirement, according to a news release. The course is offered through the department's virtual school.

In the textbook’s introduction, the authors write: “The dangers presented by the neglect of Western history are not trivial.”

“When citizens of Western countries are utterly ignorant of history, as most now are, they are left unarmed against the general hostility to their own tradition that has become so destructive a force in contemporary culture,” they write.

The idea that external forces will displace the dominant culture is a common right-wing political narrative, said Curtis Dozier, a professor of Greek and Roman studies at Vassar College.

"It’s this right-wing idea that when immigrants come to a country, they care more about their own traditions and history and seek to replace the tradition of the place,” he said.

The textbook's authors credit early Christianity with promoting the idea that all people must be treated humanely. It argues that “Christian faith also supported a humane cosmopolitanism."

The book describes Islam as inherently more violent than Christianity. In a chapter on the Middle Ages, the text describes Arabs as resentful or bitter toward Christians and Jews.

In a section titled “Holy War and Martyrdom in Battle,” the book describes wars fought by Christians, such as the Crusades, as intended to defend and protect other Christians. Islam, in contrast, glorifies violence and war, the book says, invoking the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and 9/11.

“In recent decades, Islam as a religion has, understandably, aroused acute hostility from a great many non-Muslims around the world thanks to the behavior of radical Muslim terrorists. Sometimes referred to as Islamists, their atrocities have been applauded by depressingly large numbers of ordinary Muslims,” the book says.

Matthew Gabriele, a history and religion professor at Virginia Tech, said the book's description of the Crusades and the conflicts with the Islamic world strips out important details and context to depict Islam as an aggressive religious tradition and downplays the religious motivations and violence of the Christian church.

“It’s trying to make a contemporary political point by continuously referencing things that happened in the 21st century,” Gabriele said. “The fact that (the book) does this very selectively and only when it suits a particular political project suggests to me that this is not a scholarly history in any kind of real sense.”

The book's publisher, Roger Kimball, said it was peer-reviewed by 15 experts. “As the proud publisher of this incomparable work, I stand behind it in every detail,” he said.

One of the book's co-authors, Harvard emeritus professor James Hankins, said the text does not attempt to characterize Christianity and Western civilization as one. Segments of the book acknowledge the West’s cultural debts to the Islamic world, said Hankins, who now teaches at the University of Florida's Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education, a conservative-backed project to teach Western civilization.

An emphasis on the study of Western civilization was standard until the 1970s, Hankins said. He criticized the move away from teaching it, noting that other countries such as China study their own civilization.

“Abandoning it has been foolish in my view, and is one cause of the growing cultural disorientation of the last couple of generations,” he said in an email. “People no longer know where they come from or where they belong in the story of our civilization.”

The Trump administration aligned the military’s education system with its political vision

In speeches and interviews, Hegseth has drawn a line from the country's founding to Western civilization and early Christianity, a religion he describes as under attack by outside forces. He often argues the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and troops should embrace God.

At an event last September recognizing a civics education initiative, Hegseth emphasized the need to teach these values to children early on.

“That type of brilliance didn’t come out of thin air," he said of the Founding Fathers. “It was first inspired by God (and) inspired by an understanding of human history, an understanding of biblical history (and) an understanding of Western civilization philosophy and theology and civics poured into a generation of men and poured into an American experiment — it wasn’t an accident.”

President Donald Trump's administration also has moved to align the military's education apparatus with its broader vision for American schools. Admissions offices at U.S. military academies now accept the Classical Learning Test, a college entrance exam that positions itself as a classical alternative to the SAT. And last year, the ACLU sued the defense school system over its decision to ban hundreds of books that covered topics like race, gender and democracy.

In March, the department abruptly changed the leadership of Department of Defense Education Activity schools, replacing Beth Schiavino-Narvaez with Paul Craft as director. In a news release at the time, Hegseth described Craft as the right leader to reorient the school system "toward patriotic values and classical learning.”

The Pentagon also replaced the education activity's chief academic officer, hiring Tiffany Hoben, who previously worked in the Florida Department of Education under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. In Florida, she oversaw the rollout of a civics curriculum that was criticized for claiming America's founders did not intend for a full separation of church and state.

This summer, the department announced the hiring of Matthew Kirby as the system's Americas regional director. Kirby is the CEO of Liberty Classical Schools, an Atlanta-based network of charter schools.

In an all-hands meeting after his appointment, Craft described classical learning as a priority that came directly from Hegseth.

“He has tasked us with taking the best that we can from the lessons learned from classical learning in a private school setting to say, ‘How do we expose our kids to that in a public school setting like us?’” Craft said.

___

The Associated Press’ education 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.

Even as the army took positions around him and the homes of two other families that settlers had blockaded for most of this week, the settlers remained close enough that Abu Rida feared they would again return after the army left and try to take over the home owned by his Palestinian American brother in Ohio.

“I just don’t know when this will end,” he said.

The standoff in Qusra entered a new stage Friday as activists marched toward the besieged homes to try and replenish the families' food and water supply. But Abu Rida said he was growing tired of the pattern, with Israeli forces removing the settlers, only for them to return and reestablish their positions after the troops withdrew.

“It’s like a kids’ game, like cat and mouse,” Ziv Stahl, the executive director of the Israeli rights group Yesh Din, said. “It’s clearly not a matter of capability but a matter of will.”

The siege of the homes is the latest episode in a wave of settler violence convulsing the occupied West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up the main part of a future Palestinian state. Israel's military said the village — roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Palestinian city of Nablus — was a closed military zone.

They did not answer questions about the presence of the settlers. Both Israel’s military and Israel’s police both referred questions arrests in Qusra to the other.

The West Bank has become more dangerous for Palestinians as Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has approved more than 100 new settlements. Extremist settlers routinely enter Palestinian towns, clashing with villagers, burning homes, mosques and cars.

Netanyahu is courting blocs of ultranationalist voters ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult reelection campaign in October. He and members of his cabinet have largely dismissed concerns about settler violence as overblown and attributed it to fringe groups of a few hundred youths. Yet rights groups and Palestinians say the government's policies have made it more difficult to restrain settlers, who are rarely punished for attacks.

Qusra siege reflects broader violence

The standoff in Qusra began on Sunday when dozens of settlers arrived and blocked the doors to the three houses, preventing occupants from leaving, according to the families inside.

Israeli troops intervened multiple times and arrived in large numbers Thursday.

Abu Rida and his teenage son were temporarily moved by the army on Thursday but allowed to return hours later. He told his brother in Ohio that he planned on staying to defend the home.

For many, the scene unfolding in Qusra — now in its sixth day — reflected broader failures by Israeli authorities to curb the violence in the West Bank.

Itamar Weil, an Israeli human rights activist from the group Bnei Avraham, said the army had threatened to use tear gas against the activists and forced them to leave, even as settlers remained in the valley below Qusra.

“The army used to prevent settlers from carrying out this kind of violence,” he said. “Now, with a government that fully supports them, they’re not doing their job. They should be protecting both sides from violence, but instead they’re removing activists while barely doing anything about the settlers.”

Palestinian officials have reported 1,476 attacks by Israeli settlers in 2026, including several earlier instances in which settlers staged takeovers of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of other West Bank towns.

A total of 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank this year, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry. Israel says some were involved in terrorism, which it defines broadly to include militancy and rock-throwing. Three Israelis were killed by Palestinians, including two in a July clash during which four Palestinians were also killed.

Katz strips army of enforcement power against settlers

Before calm was restored in Qusra, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Friday that he would transfer all enforcement powers against Israeli civilians in the West Bank from the army to Israel’s police.

“The (Israeli military’s) role is to fight Palestinian terrorism, focus on protecting the borders and settlements against threats, deal with the borders and the territory itself and security threats to the settlements and the State of Israel, and not chase after boys on the hills,” Katz said in a statement.

Historically, the army has been able to arrest Palestinians and bring those accused of crimes before military courts. But when it comes to Israeli civilians, in most circumstances it can only use temporary detention for those suspected of crimes, leaving arrests, investigations and prosecutions to police and civilian courts.

Katz’s move comes after he ended the use of administrative detention against Israeli civilians in November 2024. The military had used the policy as a tool to contain settler violence, allowing it to detain suspects without charge and remove them from the West Bank.

Much like with that move, rights groups said transferring all powers to the police was unlikely to restore order or ensure Palestinian safety.

Some 2.8 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank alongside more than 560,000 Israeli civilians who live in settlements that the international community largely considers illegal and an obstacle to peace.

Though the Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy and policing power in the territory’s largest cities, agreements that date back to the 1990s give Israel security control over large swaths of the territory, including agricultural areas and communities such as Qusra.

Stahl, Yesh Din's executive director, said Katz's announcement wouldn't change or help stem the violence because police will still require army escorts to operate in Palestinian areas.

“Unless (Katz) means he’s going to apply Israeli law and have the police control the West Bank, the military is still the main body in charge,” she said.

Shippers including FedEx and UPS that acted as customs brokers for imported packages and received tariff refunds from the U.S. government have started to pass on those refunds to the customers that originally paid the tariffs.

The refunds to consumers are the last step in a monthslong process that kicked off in February when the Supreme Court struck down sweeping tariffs implemented by President Donald Trumpin March 2025 under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act on goods from almost every country. The court ordered the government to return the tariffs it collected.

So far, about $100 billion in tariffs have been refunded to companies who paid them under a system set up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

That doesn't mean Americans will get anywhere close to what they paid in tariffs, since most were paid indirectly. In 2025, the Trump tariffs amounted to an average tax increase of $1,000 per U.S. household, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., group that studies taxes.

But some consumers are getting some of what they paid directly back from shippers including UPS, DHL and FedEx. The refunds are being rolled out in phases based on what date they were paid. Shippers have said they'll return the refunds on a rolling basis as they receive them.

Tariff refunds from shippers will be directly refunded to credit cards or bank accounts

Most big overseas retailers paid the tariffs themselves and passed them along to retailers with a line item in their invoice that was part of the total bill, or indirectly by raising prices. But some smaller sellers left the tariff to be paid when it reached the U.S. In those cases, shippers paid the bill and charged the recipient of the package.

FedEx said it has begun the process of issuing $800 million in tariff refunds it received from the government back to the customers that paid them. Customers don’t need to apply to receive their refund, but they can enter tracking numbers for purchased items into a portal on the FedEx website to see whether or not they are due a refund.

UPS said in April it had paid $5 billion in tariffs on behalf of clients and would begin the process of applying to the government for refunds. In the first phase, it applied for $500 million in refunds and said customers should get refunds one to three months after it receives reimbursement from the Treasury.

DHL similarly said that it has filed claims for almost all eligible shipments where it served as the importer of record and is returning the refunds it has received.

“The volume and pace of refunds continue to depend on CBP’s processing of claims,” DHL said in a statement.

Major retailers say they could give back some refunds but mostly will use them to lower prices

Unlike shippers who collected tariffs directly from customers, most big retailers passed on tariffs in indirect ways, changing their product lineups or partly absorbing higher costs, making a consumer refund unlikely.

Amazon executives said last week the company received $600 million in tariff refunds in the second quarter.

In a call with investors, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said the company isn't the importer of record on most of the goods it sells and that it has absorbed some tariff costs. But he said the company has “identified a limited set of circumstances where we can trace that we pass specific import charges on to customers.” In those circumstances, he added, “we will proactively contact affected customers and automatically issue refunds to them.”

Otherwise, he said, Amazon will use tariff refunds to lower prices for customers.

That echoes what other large retailers have said. In May, Corie Barry, outgoing CEO of Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, said the retailer is an importer of record of only about 2% to 3% of what it sells and that the company would use any refund it gets to “deliver value back to our customers.”

And Costco CEO Ron Vachris said the company planned to return “in some form” the tariffs that were passed on to consumers.

“How much we return and when depends on a variety of factors, including how much refund money we receive and when it arrives as well as developments in the lawsuit filed against the company regarding the return process,” he said in a quarterly earnings call in May.

Dozens of class-action lawsuits have been filed

Some shoppers are suing to get the tariffs they paid in the form of higher prices back from companies. More than 80 class-action lawsuits have been filed by customers across the country against retailers including Costco, Nike, Amazon, Walmart and others.

The lawsuits will face difficulty because plaintiffs will have to prove they paid for price increases that were specifically tied to the tariffs, according to Lori Leskin, partner and co-chair of law firm Arnold & Porter’s Consumer Products Practice Group. None of the lawsuits have yet been certified as class action, which would mean they apply to all customers.

“It’s going to be very hard for anyone to establish that the price increase they paid was due to tariffs and not some other market force,” she said. “Most of them are just talking about price increases, and to be able to trace a price increase due to a single factor is going to be really difficult given the multifactorial approach that most companies take.”

López Beltrán announced the visa revocation in a letter to Trump posted on Instagram on Thursday, saying U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Under Secretary Christopher Landau “ordered the withdrawal of my permission to enter the United States,” despite having “no evidence against me regarding any immoral or criminal act.”

The U.S. government has not publicly disclosed the reason for the visa revocation, and it was not clear from López Beltrán's post what kind of a visa was revoked.

A U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Mexico, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly, told The Associated Press on Friday that visa records are confidential under U.S. law and declined to comment on the individual case.

Washington’s decision comes less than four months after another setback for Mexico's ruling party, Morena, when federal prosecutors in New York brought a case against 10 current and former Mexican officials, including Sinaloa Gov. Rubén Rocha Moya of the ruling party, over alleged links to drug trafficking.

Addressing the visa revocations of Mexican politicians at her morning news conference Friday, Sheinbaum urged the United States to provide evidence of any allegations against them but said the issue would not lead to a conflict with Washington.

“All we ask for is respect,” she said.

López Beltrán — known as Andy — was one of his father’s closest aides before his 2018 presidential victory. Local media reported that he managed his father’s private schedule and oversaw Morena’s activities in Mexico City and the neighboring State of Mexico.

For much of López Obrador’s six-year presidency, from 2018 to 2024, López Beltrán, the second of his four children, stayed out of party politics and focused on a chocolate business. But in September 2024, weeks before his father left office, he was elected Morena’s secretary of organization.

___

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

The forest gave way to giant holes gouged into the earth and filled with opaque, muddy water, gasoline and other chemicals glistening on the surface. Makeshift wooden mining platforms straddled the pools, surrounded by pumps and thick plastic tubes used to suck up and sift through sediment for tiny particles of gold.

As the troops closed in, several miners stood watching from a distance. The officer leading the patrol fired a warning shot into the air. Within seconds, they vanished into the forest.

The raid over several days this week was part of an intensified government campaign against illegal gold mining in Madre de Dios, one of Peru’s most biodiverse regions, as authorities try to stop the activity from advancing into protected areas of the Amazon. Mining has stripped away vast areas of rainforest, leaving behind a scarred landscape of contaminated pools and altered rivers in the hunt for lucrative gold. Mercury used to separate gold from sediment has contaminated waterways, wildlife and people, including Indigenous communities that depend heavily on fish.

Behind them was a camp abandoned in haste. Crushed beer cans and empty liquor bottles littered the ground alongside mattresses, clothes and tools. That day’s lunch — rice and plantain — still sat in plastic containers. Freezers and fuel containers dotted the camp, alongside live chickens and guinea pigs kept for food.

The troops were one of eight patrols, flown by helicopter to separate points along the Malinowski River. The aircraft touched down only long enough to drop each group before lifting off and moving to the next site.

Illegal mining is advancing toward protected areas of the Amazon

Edy Reynaldo Dariquebe, an official with FENAMAD, an Indigenous federation representing communities in Peru’s Madre de Dios region, said criminal groups linked to illegal mining have been operating near or inside protected Indigenous communities. He said mining is destroying forests and contaminating rivers with mercury that accumulates in fish, spreading the impact to communities far from the mining sites.

Ronald Flores Yáñez, a deputy prosecutor for Peru’s Office of the Attorney General, said illegal mining has advanced close to military monitoring points and into protected areas.

“We can attest today that they have already entered the Tambopata National Reserve,” Flores told The Associated Press. “We are inside the reserve and around us we see dredges numbering in the hundreds.”

Illegal mining declined in parts of Madre de Dios after Peru launched a major military and police crackdown known as Operation Mercury in 2019. But miners have since moved back toward protected areas, prompting authorities to intensify operations.

Global Conservation, a U.S.-based nonprofit working with Peruvian authorities, said ongoing operations will combine satellite monitoring, aerial reconnaissance and law enforcement raids over the coming year to identify and dismantle illegal gold mining camps and equipment.

Destroying the motors hits miners where it hurts most

Before setting out Tuesday, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Renato Miranda told troops at a briefing that the mission’s objective was to “neutralize and dismantle” illegal mining activities. Once on the ground, that meant searching for anything that allowed the mines to function: pumps, batteries, fuel, dredging equipment and makeshift infrastructure.

“The most important thing is to destroy the main machinery,” Miranda said. “And the main machinery is the motors.”

The powerful engines are among the most valuable pieces of equipment at a mining site and a key economic pressure point for authorities trying to make it more expensive for miners to restart operations. Miranda said larger engines can cost around $30,000 to $45,000. He estimated that motors targeted in the raids can extract 30 to 50 grams of gold a day. At current gold prices, that would be worth about $4,000 to $7,000.

Miranda told AP the three-day operation destroyed 56 motors, 78 mining rafts and 13,751 gallons (52,050 liters) of fuel, with the destroyed material valued at more than 15 million soles ($4 million). On the ground, soldiers said they had destroyed around 115 motors over the previous three months during operations carried out nearly every week.

The remote sites give miners time to hear approaching boats or helicopters and flee, often hiding motors in sand, behind trees or in muddy pools to recover later. Specialized navy divers search the murky pools for submerged engines, entering water where mercury and other chemicals may be present. When they find one, they attach explosive charges and destroy it.

At one site, as troops prepared to leave, a soldier spotted disturbed sand and began digging. He uncovered a motor, threw it onto a pile with a mattress and chainsaw, doused it with gasoline and set it alight. A dog abandoned at the site fared better: soldiers took a liking to it, bringing it along for the rest of the day’s mission and eventually back to their military base.

Elsewhere, troops used dynamite-like explosives to destroy equipment and burned structures and supplies that could be used to keep the mining camps running.

A 10-minute boat ride away, another, larger camp offered a glimpse of daily life at the mining sites. A chest freezer was packed with meat, while wooden shelves held plates and coffee mugs. Several separate sleeping areas were strewn with personal belongings: a ledger filled with lists of needed supplies, freshly washed underwear hanging from string to dry, bottles of vitamins and even pills marketed as increasing penis size and sexual endurance. All was set alight by the troops. Before moving on, some of the soldiers cooked and ate food they found in the abandoned camp.

The expensive machinery and valuable gold contrasts with the precarious conditions of many living and working in the camps.

During the operation, another patrol encountered a woman with her 1-year-old child at a mining site. Flores told AP she had come to Madre de Dios from Cusco after failing to gain admission to university and, after being left by the father of her child, needed work. She responded to an advertisement seeking a cook and ended up preparing food for illegal miners.

Authorities say raids alone will not stop the mining

The destruction of machinery is intended to hit miners where it hurts most: the cost of restarting. But authorities themselves acknowledge that raids alone are not enough.

Miranda said that with gold prices high and mining highly profitable, operators can acquire another engine, rebuild their equipment and return to the same location or move elsewhere.

“Every day they are advancing more and more and more, and we are being very slow," said Flores, adding that their strategy needs to change.

Prosecutors, he said, are now pursuing two fronts: continuing operations against dredges, motors and other equipment while also following the money behind the mines — identifying the financiers who provide the capital for expensive machinery and tracing the profits generated by the gold.

That approach could be critical to breaking the cycle visible along the Malinowski River: authorities destroy equipment, leave and miners find the money and machinery to start again.

“These operations have to be permanent,” Flores said. ___

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.

The team announced Friday that the ceremony will take place following the Feb. 28 game at Target Center against the Celtics, who retired Garnett's jersey in 2022.

Garnett will become just the second player in the 37-year history of the franchise to have his number retired, following the late Malik Sealy, a close friend and teammate of Garnett's who died in a car crash in 2000.

Garnett had a falling out with former Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, but the club under new ownership made amends and hired him last year as a team ambassador. He made his first appearance at Target Center in April during the Minnesota's final game of the 2025-26 regular season.

Garnett won the NBA MVP award for the 2003-04 season while leading the Timberwolves to the Western Conference finals. After playing the first 12 years of his career for Minnesota, he was traded to the Celtics in 2007 and won an NBA title with them in his first year. He returned to Minnesota in 2015 and played his last of 21 seasons in the league there.

Garnett is the all-time Timberwolves leader in numerous statistical categories, including points, rebounds, blocks, assists and steals.

___

See AP’s full NBA coverage here

Earlier this month, The Associated Press highlighted Maisa Lopes Eliaser as one of dozens of spouses or parents of U.S. troops who had been detained after President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back protections for military families amid its push for mass deportations. Following the AP’s reporting, a group of Congressional Democrats launched an investigation into deportations of military service members and their families.

Eliaser was placed on a deportation flight Wednesday to her native Brazil when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on the plane received a phone call about her mid-flight, she told the AP. She said she was then asked by an ICE officer whether she wanted to continue on to Brazil or go back to the U.S.

“Who made the call? We don’t know,” said Eliaser’s husband, Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo. “But someone made the phone call, and then she came back.”

While other detainees were led off the plane in Brazil, Eliaser stayed on board and returned to Louisiana. ICE officers told her that she was “famous” because there were videos about her case, she said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DHS previously told AP that Eliaser, 32, had been issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on April 15, after overstaying the tourist visa she used to enter the U.S. in 2019.

Jaramillo, a 43-year-old aviation operations specialist who has served in the Army for more than a decade, took leave of his duties training soldiers in Fort Polk, Louisiana, to care for Eliaser's 5-year-old son after she was detained on July 8.

Jaramillo said Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy officer, also looked into his wife’s case. Kelly’s office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This family’s reunion is proof of what’s possible when people set politics aside and do right by those who serve,” Danitza James, who heads Repatriate Our Patriots, a nonprofit that supports military families facing deportation and helped with Eliaser’s case, said at a news conference. “We won’t stop until every military family facing detention gets the same chance at justice.”

Eliaser, who was detained in July while at an immigration appointment, has another appointment scheduled for Monday in an effort to reopen her case and advance her green card application. Jaramillo is a U.S. citizen and the couple have been married since 2024.

Jaramillo said he has been told that there will be no further issues with Eliaser’s case, but the couple is still concerned.

“We are really, really, really scared about it, but you know, we have to go,” Jaramillo said. “I told the person who gave me the appointment, ‘Hey sir, don’t play with me, I’ve been through a lot.’”

Eliaser said she is still struggling to sleep and is afraid she will be sent back to the detention facility, where she said she was treated like “an animal.”

“It felt like I was in a nightmare,” Eliaser said. “I could not believe what was happening until I returned to my house. Day by day, I’m trying to recover from this trauma.”

There have been similar interventions in other high-profile cases over the past year. Annie Ramos, 22, was detained by immigration authorities as her husband, an Army staff sergeant, was preparing to deploy. She was released after a public outcry. Around the same time, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat and combat veteran, told the AP that she personally contacted DHS to call for the release of Deisy Rivera Ortega, the immigrant wife of an Army sergeant who did three tours in Afghanistan, after learning about her case from advocacy groups. She was eventually released from custody.

___

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Around 9:30 a.m. Friday, a small plane went down in a rural area near Cloud Street, just west of State Road 33, according to the Groveland Fire Department.

The plane was carrying two occupants. One was transported by trauma helicopter to a hospital with burn injuries. The second occupant refused treatment, officials said.

The cause of the plane crash is unknown.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Kevin Rideout “is in good health in the care of U.S. officials,” SIM International, an Evangelical mission organization, said in a statement.

He will soon be reunited with his extended family, the statement added.

Rideout was back in U.S. custody on Friday, the country’s President Donald Trump said in a post on social media.

“Kevin, the United States of America looks forward to welcoming you HOME. Glad to have helped!” Trump wrote.

Rideout was kidnapped in the West African country's capital, Niamey, on Oct. 21 by three armed individuals and was probably driven out of town, according to information provided by a security official at the time.

No armed group claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Niger has long faced attacks from armed groups including jihadis linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization.

The U.S. Embassy in Niamey issued a security alert a day after Rideout's kidnapping, warning that U.S. citizens “remain at a heightened risk of kidnapping throughout Niger, including in the capital city.”

Niger is ruled by a military junta that took power in 2023 after deposing the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. The new authorities ousted Western partners including the United States, which had soldiers in Niger, and forged a new security and diplomatic alliance with Russia.

In June, more than 30 people were killed when gunmen attacked the main airport in Niamey. It was the second attack this year at the airport, a strategic hub that serves as the ruling military’s command, hosting its air force base and most of its drones and aircraft. It’s also the headquarters of the regional alliance that brings together troops from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.

The violence is the latest sign of armed groups increasingly targeting cities and urban centers in Africa’s Sahel region.

Sly moved into the Kapuzinerkloster, a Capuchin monastery about 1,550 feet (470 meters) above sea level, 7 1/2 weeks ahead of the Aug. 4 opening of Romeo Castellucci’s new Salzburg Festival production timed for the 800th anniversary year of St. Francis’ death.

Sly climbs the steps from the city center or walks up a road several times daily and sleeps without air conditioning in a summer of record European heat waves.

“Just being here has been extremely important because I’m going to Lauds every morning,” the 37-year-old Canadian bass-baritone said in a reference to Franciscan morning prayers.

“I’ve taken on all these habits that they have here and now I long for it," he said in an interview with The Associated Press outside the monastery on the morning after the first performance. "It’s weird. I’m excited to come back to the monastery and be present for Vespers or for the Eucharist Mass.”

Messiaen, a prolific 20th century French composer, spent nearly a decade creating his only opera, which premiered in 1983, nine years before his death.

His score for the 6-hour, 20-minute, eight-tableaux opus (including a pair of one-hour intermissions) depicts episodes in St. Francis' spiritual journey, including his encounter with a leper and his sermon to birds. The score calls for two raised percussion sections on either side of the stage and three ondes Martenots. The electronic instruments figure prominently in the 45-minute “Sermon to the Birds,” the sixth tableau, reflecting Messiaen's devotion to his Catholic faith.

Conductor Maxime Pascal leads 120 musicians and a chorus of 90 in six performances through Aug. 23. A second conductor in the pit waves a baton capped by a white light, signaling percussion beats at odds with the other instruments’ markings.

“It’s 2,500 pages of music, sometimes very, very complex,” Pascal said. “There is never one transition. It’s a succession of infinity of moments and so each moment, it can be short or long, but each moment is like a work by itself.”

The staging features a peacock, sheep and baking bread

Castellucci’s production features a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, a female peacock and seven sheep who romp across the stage near the end as the roof opens at the Felsenreitschule, a 1,400-seat theater built in the Mönchsberg rock quarry and famous for its appearance in the film “The Sound of Music.”

In the Franciscan tradition of bread for the poor, a pair of MIWE four-level ovens are moved on stage and bake 33 sourdough loaves, their aroma wafting through the audience. Each oven weighs 2,650 pounds (1,200 kilos). The bread is later made available to the backstage crew.

“In the New Testament, often there’s quotes of Jesus saying that the kingdom of God is like yeast,” Sly said.

José van Dam originated the title role at the Paris Opéra, with Seiji Ozawa conducting. Peter Sellars directed a 1992 Salzburg production starring van Dam with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“Messiaen had these pictures of colors and dimensions of time and space. Pretty exhilarating,” said Sellars, who first heard the music when Ozawa conducted three tableaux in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1986.

“Most opera is about stabbing the girl in the back," Sellars told the AP. "This is just about what are the revelations in your life, what are the moments when you have another idea of how to live and what it means to be human and what it means to be part of nature.”

Performing the opera for the first time, the Vienna Philharmonic started with five rehearsals back home followed by 12 more in Salzburg. The orchestra is known for Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Strauss, not contemporary compositions.

“It’s very important for an orchestra today to play also modern music,” said double bassist Michael Bladerer, the Vienna Philharmonic’s general manager.

Large orchestra and chorus make performances rare

There has been just one major U.S. staged production, by the San Francisco Opera in 2002 starring Willard White with Donald Runnicles conducting. Then-general director Pamela Rosenberg believed the city named after St. Francis should stage the portrayal of him.

“It’s one of the two or three most compelling pieces of the second half of the last century,” she said. “For me it was almost distressing — being dramatic — that it hadn’t been shown in the Western hemisphere yet.”

“He’s just so unique,” she added of Messiaen. “In spite of being part of the spectral music movement, he wasn’t continuing the footsteps of anyone with his musical language and he really created something that had an enormous artistic impetus in the music world.”

White, now 79, sings the shorter role of Frère Bernard in the new production and was able to pass on his experience to Sly.

“It was partly technical but it’s also a mindset,” White said. “I basically said that in this life we got to go from one moment to the next and in the acceptance of the moment that we’re in it actually guides us to the approach of the next moment.”

Soprano Lauranne Oliva (The Angel), tenor Sean Panikkar (The Leper) and baritone Russell Braun (Frère Léon) are part of a standout cast dominated by Sly’s quivering, self-mutilating performance as he gets smothered with dirt and blood.

Pascal thinks Messiaen chose St. Francis as a subject because of their mutual interest in birds and faith, then created the opera as a synthesis of his use of orchestral color.

“Messiaen was convinced while composing the work that it would be his last work," Pascal said. "He thought it was his swan song.”

DeSantis made the announcements at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Center for Advanced Air Mobility, joined by Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue and Embry-Riddle President Dr. Barry Butler.

Highlighting Florida’s growing role in advanced air mobility technology, DeSantis announced a $56 million road improvement project along Clyde Morris Boulevard in Daytona Beach.

The fully funded project covers three miles of improvements, including a pedestrian tunnel, redesigned intersections, new medians, drainage modifications and a resurfaced roadway — starting two years ahead of schedule.

DeSantis also highlighted Florida’s partnership with Embry-Riddle to build a workforce for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, known as eVTOLs, calling them a potential solution for congested travel corridors.

“If you land in Tampa Airport and you want to go to Disney World or Universal, you could potentially just leapfrog I-4 entirely,” DeSantis said.

He added that eVTOL taxi service could launch within the next year, with test flights at the SunTrax facility in Polk County expected by the end of 2026. DeSantis noted the aircraft could eventually be used for medical transport, disaster response and law enforcement.

FDOT also announced a partnership with Embry-Riddle to develop a workforce for the next generation of transportation technology, alongside Polk State College near the SunTrax facility.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement Friday that the 2028 Midsummer Classic will be at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. The 2007 game was played in the picturesque waterfront ballpark, featuring Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki's famous inside-the-park home run that bounced off the tricky wall in right-center field.

“With its passionate fanbase, world-class ballpark, and rich baseball history, San Francisco will be an outstanding host for All-Star Week, which culminates in one of Major League Baseball’s best traditions, the Midsummer Classic,” Manfred said in a statement. "We look forward to bringing the excitement of All-Star Week and the celebration of baseball to the Bay Area.”

This will mark another major sporting event for the Bay Area recently after the Super Bowl and World Cup this year and the NBA All-Star Game in February 2025.

The Giants will host the Midsummer Classic for a fourth time overall after Candlestick Park held the first All-Star Game of the 1961 season and also baseball's summer showcase in 1984.

Oracle Park is set to become the eighth active ballpark to hold the All-Star Game multiple times, joining Fenway Park in 1946, 1961 and 1999, Wrigley Field (1947, 1962, 1990), Angel Stadium (1967, 1989, 2010), Dodger Stadium (1980, 2022), Progressive Field (1997, 2019), Coors Field (1998, 2021) and T-Mobile Park (2001, 2023).

Giants President and CEO Larry Baer said the club is “incredibly honored” and expressed his gratitude.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to showcase our organization, our city, and the incredible passion of our fans on baseball’s biggest summer stage,” he said in a statement.

“Hosting the All-Star Game is more than celebrating the game’s brightest stars, it’s a chance to highlight the people, neighborhoods, and culture that make our community so special. Few cities offer the unique combination of sports, culture, innovation, entertainment, and natural beauty that defines San Francisco. We look forward to welcoming players, families, fans, and visitors from around the world for a week that will create lasting memories and have a meaningful impact throughout our region.”

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

And thus, “A Very Laufey Day” was born. Each year, the Grammy-winning singer curates itineraries for different locations across the globe for her listeners to follow. It's “anywhere I have been and loved,” she says. It allows them to live what she refers to as “a perfect day,” but also to connect with their community offline and in person. And as she approaches its fourth edition, it has only grown larger.

“It became much bigger than I anticipated, really,” she says. She sought to inspire her audience to find “third spaces,” and explore some of her favorite locales: museums, bookstores, cafes, concerts and the like, and foster community in the process. And each year, it has only grown bigger, with fans dressing up in their favorite Laufey-themed vintage fashions to celebrate the unofficial holiday.

And Aug. 23 will mark the fourth annual “A Very Laufey Day.”

“It is a fun puzzle every year,” she says.

‘A Very Laufey Day’ 2026

This year, “A Very Laufey Day” will include experiences in 75 cities across 25 countries, centering on the theme of “A Celebration of the Arts.”

Those include performances spanning symphony orchestras, ballet, jazz, opera and theater as well as events with libraries, bookstores, coffee shops, yogurt/ice cream shops and more. Her concert film “A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl” will be screened at select theaters. And she's partnered with many museums around the world, including New York City's Guggenheim, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, London's Tate Modern and National Gallery, Chile's Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Seoul's Daelim Museum and more. At some participating businesses, fans will be able to acquire limited edition merchandise and Laufey-themed specialty drinks.

“This year it was really about focusing on the arts and culture and finding ways to bring this barrier of entry down between my audience — which is mostly Gen Z and Gen A — and these kind of so-called high cultural experiences,” she says. “Whether it’s going to see an orchestra show … museums or galleries, we really want to find ways to connect with those institutions.”

Some of these spaces can be intimidating for younger fans, and Laufey says this year was all about making these rooms, some of her favorites, inviting to her audience.

“It doesn’t have to be this scary thing. And so, I’ve kind of made it my life’s mission to make spaces like that fun and accessible,” she says.

Joining the S&P 500 is considered an achievement for a company because the index is a widely followed measure of the broader U.S. stock market’s health. A company is selected for the index based on several criteria that demonstrate stability, including market size and consistent profitability.

Reddit's stock surged nearly 14% around midday Friday.

Aside from status, inclusion means more investments. The index tracks 500 of the biggest U.S. stocks, and trillions of dollars in investments benchmark themselves against it. Those investments include mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. Essentially, those funds will have to buy the stock once it becomes part of the index that the fund is tracking or mimicking.

Investors are depending more than ever on funds that simply mimic indexes such as the S&P 500. It’s a lower-cost way to invest, allowing savers to keep more of their investments. Partly because of that, such index funds have usually proven to be better performers than funds that try to pick and choose individual stocks.

Reddit will join the benchmark index as of Tuesday. A stock must trade publicly for at least 12 months to join the S&P 500. The operator of the index, S&P Dow Jones Indices, stuck to that guideline recently when it declined to fast-track SpaceX into the index after the space exploration company's massive initial public offering in June.

Reddit's inclusion comes weeks after it posted strong financial results for the second quarter. That included its highest-ever quarterly revenue. The company has been posting profits almost every quarter since it went public in 2024.

Wall Street expects profits to more than double overall in 2026 on a surge in revenue.

Speaking at The Plaza Live, Dyer pointed to a 19% citywide reduction in crime last year as one of Orlando’s biggest achievements, noting the city recorded just 10 homicides — the fewest in 50 years and the largest decrease in homicides of any major U.S. city.

“These numbers are more than just statistics,” Dyer said. “They represent secure neighborhoods where residents can sleep better knowing they’re supported by officers working day and night to protect us all.”

On housing, Dyer said Orlando has added nearly 24,000 residential units over the last six years — equivalent to every home in Altamonte Springs. The city’s “Orlando Unlaunched” initiative is modernizing zoning, streamlining approvals and converting vacant city-owned lots into affordable housing.

Dyer also highlighted the Vision Zero traffic safety program, crediting more than 100 safety projects with a 40% drop in deadly and serious injury crashes since 2020 — representing 60 lives saved.

Closing the address, Dyer urged residents to pay close attention to Amendment 3 on the November ballot, warning that if passed, Orlando could lose up to $80 million annually in property tax revenue — threatening police, fire, parks and other essential services.

“Our decisions at the ballot box in November will shape how cities and counties provide the services we all depend on,” he said.

Police said officers, paramedics and firefighters were at the scene near Wickford train station in Essex, about 30 miles east of London (48 kilometers), after receiving reports that the rear carriages of a train derailed. The carriages were in an “upright position," police said, and no injuries were reported.

National Rail said officials were working to understand what happened, and major disruptions to train services were expected through Friday afternoon.

The incident came less than 24 hours after a train from London to Eastbourne went off the tracks outside the southern English town of Lewes. Three carriages overturned, seriously injuring two people and causing minor injuries for 18 others.

All passengers were evacuated within about three hours, the transport police said.

The cause of the derailment is under investigation.

The season itself is in no danger; climate change, mainly caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal, is warming the weather year-round. Viewed this way, summer-like weather is ascendant. It's setting records across the globe — melting Arctic ice, driving droughts, intensifyingwildfires, spinning up storms and endangering millions of people who can't affordair conditioning, time off work or “coolcations.” The heat is so extreme in Asia that Japan has coined a new meteorological category for the danger: kokusho-bi — or “cruelly hot day.”

What seems as dead as the grass in England this year is the summertime ideal — lazy days, warm nights and escape, however temporary, from classes or parents or work or rules. During the Summer of '26, people are grieving that freedom. And perhaps, the versions of ourselves we become when our senses tell us that we are safe.

“I mourn for the way summer used to be,” author Debra Denker, who writes “cli-fi,” or climate fiction, wrote in an essay last month recalling leisurely days and July Fourth block parties of the 1960s. “Unless we change the trajectory we're on, today's children will never know the gentle and balmy summers of my childhood ... I feel sad that they may never know the truly carefree summers that the more privileged among us enjoyed.”

In 2026, summertime is a different kind of blast

No one needs meteorologists to confirm that this summer is different and our rituals are changing. Downwind from wildfires in North AmericaandEurope, the sky turns orange and the air tastes gritty. Life under Paris' famous gray rooftops can be deadly. Nights can be a sullen cycle of sleep, showering and opening a window — only to close it later to block out the urban noise.

Everywhere, life-giving sun hurts during much of the day. Checking the air quality index has become part of the act of stepping outside. We get things done earlier in the day and stay up later at night. And a full day at the beach — or an August holiday in Europe — is more a matter of risk management than it used to be.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Americans are more likely to say extreme heat has had either a “major impact” or “minor impact” on their travel or vacation plans, electricity bills, their sleep, their family’s outdoor activities and more parts of their day-to-day life than in July 2024. Research at Oxford University published in July found that the intense heat influences daily behavior globally, with such “everyday adaptations” to daily activities occurring across seven of the countries most at risk of heat waves: Brazil, France, India, Nigeria, Turkey, the U.S. and China.

For some, it's a summer of discontent

Amber Risebrow, a teacher in Britain’s Channel Islands, said she yearned for England’s idyllic warm season — that period when the sunlight lingers.

“I wanted the long light evenings and the sunshine and the not-dark-at-4pm of it all,” she posted recently on Instagram. “What I did not want was to feel like a rotisserie chicken every single time I stepped outside. Slowly rotating. Gently basting. Questioning my life choices by 10am.”

For those who care to look, the data is plentiful and the weight of it is moving toward hotter and stormier summers. This week alone, intense heat hammered the U.K. and France as temperatures soared toward 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). It was the fifth heat wave of the year in a region where air conditioning is sporadic at best. And the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the contiguous United States sizzled to its hottest month ever in July.

Globally so far, this is the third-hottest year, behind 2024 and 2025, climate statistics show.

But 2026 still has time to catch up. Thanks to the one-two punch of accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Nino — a periodic warming of parts of the Pacific that leads to temperature variations around the globe — there’s an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could become the hottest year on record, scientists said.

“And it’s not just extreme heat,” the World Meteorological Organization’s Clare Nullis told reporters in Geneva. “We’re also seeing extreme rainfall, tropical cyclones. So we’re not in holiday mode at all.”

Is summer an ‘outdated sham’?

Somewhere deep, there's a sense of acceptance that life-threatening, trip-canceling heat waves and their rippling effects aren't a one-off fluke. So management has ensued, with the hope that escaping hot weather might somehow allow the return of that summertime feeling — for now.

Advisories urging tourists to limit outdoor activity during peak heat hours have become a standard part of trip planning from Cambodia to Cambridge, England. Dog walking is becoming a dawn-or-dusk activity, with governments in high heat zones advising owners against midday walks. Employers and workers are adapting, with work hours especially for agricultural and construction workers shifting to the morning, and policies in some places allowing employees to work from home when the heat becomes extreme.

But home doesn't offer much solace for workers with no air conditioning. Only about 4% of British homes have “air-con,” compared to about 90% of American homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

So achieving old-fashioned summertime bliss is, and perhaps always has been, mostly a matter of privilege.

In “An Open Letter to the Person Who Asked Me What I'm Doing For The Summer As If I Didn't Have to Work,” comedy writer Elizabeth Simone addressed the issue in the Weekly Humorist last year.

“You do know that summer vacation is an outdated sham, right?” she wrote. “Obviously it's because of what summer meant back when we were kids.”

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed from Tokyo.

The outdoor shopping and dining district is going all-in on the season, with its Halloween décor, seasonal treats and new experiences around every corner.

“We have a lot of newness this season,” said Debbie Hart, vice president of Disney Springs. “We have over 150 shop, dine, play opportunities. But we decided we’re going to lean into fall in a very big way.”

World of Disney is a hot spot for fall merchandise this season. The store’s sweeping Halloween overlay sets the mood the moment you walk in, where shoppers will find a new Haunted Mansion line and the Headless Horseman collection.

“There really is something for everyone this year,” said Mason Perry, merchandise marketing strategy associate for Walt Disney World.

The fan-favorite Cutie Ghost Collection is also back, featuring apparel, plush and accessories with an updated pastel pink-and-orange palette.

Other highlights include a new Halloween popcorn mix at Goofy’s Candy Company, seasonal sweets, like the Haunted Mansion Chocolate Box, at The Ganachery.

Halloween Hangar Bar returns

The Halloween Hangar Bar at Jock Lindsey’s is back for its second year with an all-new seasonal menu.

Highlights include the returning Nashville Hot Alien Sliders — now served on a custom spaceship — plus new items like Candelabra Eggs, Midnight Mayhem Popcorn Chicken, the Dark Forest Dip and the Skull of the Dead Dip.

Festive photo ops

Guests looking for a memorable keepsake can stop by the PhotoPass Fall Studio Session, where PhotoPass photographers are on hand to capture high-quality fall-themed photos.

No reservations are required, and complimentary downloads are included with Memory Maker.

Fall into Magic festivities run through Nov. 9.

Hello, subscribers. It’s Haley.

This week I was invited to the Fall Into Magic kick-off at Disney Springs.

Among the highlights was a tasting at Jock Lindsey’s Halloween Hangar Bar. The beloved Indiana Jones-inspired watering hole is once again leaning into the season with themed food and drinks that draw crowds well before Halloween arrives.

Chef Gary Miles said the Disney Springs culinary team had been crafting the menu since January.

My favorite item on the spread was Candelabra Eggs. When it came to crafting such a toothsome bite and striking presentation, I asked, “What came first, the deviled egg or the candelabra?”

Gary said they are always looking to maximize their deviled egg recipe, and the candelabra for the Halloween season was a natural choice.

My Fall Into Magic guide — covering merchandise, photo opportunities, and more seasonal food offerings — is available now.

D23 quick predictions 🎤

D23 is underway on the West Coast, and the internet is buzzing with predictions on what the major park announcements will be.

Two years ago, Disney dropped blockbuster attraction announcements now under construction at Walt Disney World. Based on the released photos of upcoming attraction models at the ultimate fan event, we’ll likely be getting updates for Villains Land, Piston Peak, and Tropical Americas.

I’m hoping for an official name of the Indiana Jones ride.

I also agree with my colleague and theme park historian Ken Pilcher on this prediction:

“Rumors are swirling about a top-to-bottom gut and rebuild of Space Mountain. I think that is the most likely new project we might hear about. Insiders insist Disney looked at re-tracking the whole ride during the last major refurb in 2009. The coaster is 51 years old.”

Given that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad just had a sweeping refurbishment, a Space Mountain revamp seems like a natural next choice.

SeaWorld Orlando

Up for a challenge? 🎢

Orlando’s roller coaster capital is turning up the thrills.

SeaWorld Orlando’s Ultimate Challenge invites guests to conquer all eight coasters on National Roller Coaster Day on Sunday — and walk away with limited-edition prizes.

Mako is getting extra love this year as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Get all the details here.

Universal Orlando

IP mystery 🤔

This weekend marks the final chance to ride Fast & Furious – Supercharged at Universal Studios Florida, as the attraction closes for good — though the franchise isn’t going anywhere.

The Fast & Furious name will live on with the upcoming Hollywood Drift roller coaster, leaving fans buzzing about what big IP could be moving into the iconic San Francisco backlot building next.

An epic night ⭐

Park-goers love their after hours, and Universal Orlando Resort is now selling tickets for Universal Nights.

The exclusive after-hours event at Universal Epic Universe offering guests limited-capacity access to all five worlds, complimentary snacks, and entertainment.

As of this newsletter’s publication, tickets were available for both October dates.

Legoland Florida

Roaring back 🦖

Florida’s only fully wooden roller coaster, Coastersaurus, is back at Legoland Florida Resort — just in time for National Roller Coaster Day!

The fan-favorite dino coaster just wrapped a major rebuild designed to keep it running for decades to come

Whether it’s food, decorations, or a Halloween celebration, don’t forget our PinIt! page for photos. There is an In The Loop channel.

As always, keep me in the loop through my email or reach out to me on X or Instagram.

See you next week!

- Haley

Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party who some see as a possible next prime minister, abruptly quit his seat in July amid an investigation into whether he failed to report a 5 million pound ($6.7 million) gift from an overseas crypto billionaire.

He denied wrongdoing and ran again for the seat to prove he had voters’ support, regaining it with 63% of Thursday’s vote in an unusual election on the hottest day of the year. Binface, a serial candidate who has challenged prime ministers past and present, represented a protest vote and finished second in a field of 34 candidates — many of them also jokers — with about 27%, according to the results announced Friday.

Farage hailed the result as an “overwhelming win” that increased his vote share over the last election, but it’s hard to draw broad conclusions from the election given the lack of genuine rivals and the fact that Farage has long been popular in the conservative constituency on the east coast of England.

“Today the voters in Clacton have stuck up two fingers to the entire political establishment,” Farage said, referring to the British equivalent of a crude gesture that employs the middle finger in other cultures.

The result will send him back to the House of Commons, but an investigation by a parliamentary watchdog that was suspended when he stepped down was resumed hours after the result was announced. That means Farage could be forced out of Parliament — and face yet another election.

Farage reshaped UK politics

Farage, the chief cheerleader in getting Britain to vote to leave the European Union a decade ago, has shattered the country's longstanding two-party system by positioning himself to the right of the Conservative Party.

With Farage’s win, Reform has just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, but he has made the party a major political force by drawing on a mix of cultural grievances and a vow to stop what he has called an invasion of migrants crossing the English Channel in inflatable rafts. The party has frequently changed the national conversation and forced the governing center-left Labour Party and the Conservatives, long the dominant parties, to address Reform’s key issues.

But with Farage under scrutiny and a Labour leadership shake-up that installed Andy Burnham as prime minister, there’s room for Labour to regain some ground.

Farage still faces investigation over an undeclared donation

Pressure will continue to mount on Farage as Parliament’s standards watchdog investigates an undeclared donation he got in 2024 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage says he didn’t need to declare the money because it was a personal gift he used to fund his security and was made before he was elected.

When he resigned on July 7, he complained of an “establishment hit job” and a media-driven “witch-hunt.”

Farage also faces an investigation into his financial relationship with George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served eight months in a U.S. prison for fraud a decade ago after offering to launder money for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers.

Cottrell remains close to Farage and has reportedly given him money for security and staff. Farage has denied wrongdoing and stood by the man he calls “Posh George.”

Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said the election was no victory for Farage, and he needs to come clean over his finances and relationship with Cottrell.

“The mountain of sleaze and scandal he and Reform are now engulfed in has grown and grown while he’s been trying to distract the public by fighting a by-election against a bin,” Phillipson said.

Farage was a no-show at the vote count

Farage’s gambit to resign and run again backfired when other parties refused to participate and he was left facing a massive field of independent and small-party candidates, including novelty acts such as Howling Laud Hope of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Marcus White from the Everyone is God Party.

Farage declared victory in the early morning and blew off the official declaration where he would have had to stand alongside the other candidates — a time-honored tradition in British politics.

“I’m damned if I’m going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory ... and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies,” Farage told supporters at a victory party.

Farage also said he didn’t attend because police told him about an “organized campaign to disrupt and degrade the result.” A spokesperson for Reform said there was a credible threat against him, though police disputed that.

Fiona Byrne, who wouldn’t say who she voted for, said Farage shouldn’t have called the election, which she said was an expensive joke.

“It’s just been a complete waste of money and time for everybody here, and he just needs to face the music,” she said.

But John Fairclough said he was happy Farage won because he’s what the country needs.

“To my mind he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Fairclough said. “He’s a threat to the main media and government who want to just control us and control everything.”

Binface, who ran on a wacky platform that included a vow to “cut your taxes, and raise everyone else’s,” build one affordable home, and nationalize singer Adele, declared himself the "winning candidate of the candidates who bothered to turn up for the results."

Under the black cape, trash can helmet and ample body armor straight out of a low-budget sci-fi film, Binface’s alter-ego is Jon Harvey, a middle-aged comedian who spent most of the campaign doing media interviews and trying to stay cool in the costume during a sweltering summer.

Binface has hinted that if Farage faces another election, he could return to run again.

“Over one in four people in this constituency would rather have Count Binface as their MP than the leader of Reform UK,” Binface said in a video on X. “Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Clacton by-election.” ___

Melley reported from London.

Abdullah, her son Khalel, and his friend Josiah spent an afternoon splashing around in a private backyard pool in Wantagh, New York — one they rented by the hour through an app called Swimply.

“You could just do your own thing and have fun,” Khalel said.

For Abdullah, the appeal goes beyond convenience. “It beats the public pools and the lines and the locker rooms,” she said. “It gives a peace of mind to know like it’s solely ours for whatever time we booked it.”

How Swimply works

Swimply is a booking app that connects pool owners with renters. It vets guests and manages reservations, taking a portion of the host’s earnings in return.

This summer alone, Swimply expects to host 2.5 million guests. The platform currently lists 18,000 rentable pools across 45 states.

Lauren French is one of those hosts. She rents out her backyard pool for $70 to $80 an hour and expects to earn about $15,000 this season.

For French, it’s about more than the income. “I think part of what’s endearing about having this experience is a lot of the folks that come use my pool, like myself when I was younger, would definitely not be able to use a pool unless there was something like Swimply,” she said.

Why so many people are skipping the pool purchase

Building a backyard pool has become increasingly out of reach for many homeowners.

According to Pool Magazine, the average price of a new in-ground pool has jumped 30 to 40 percent since 2021. That price shock has cooled construction: new pool builds have fallen from more than 120,000 in 2021 to about 60,000 this year.

Abdullah said she looked into putting in her own pool — and quickly ruled it out.

“I saw how much it costs not only to install, but the insurance and the taxes that come along with it,” she said. “And just as quickly as it entered my mind, it had to leave.”

A pool for everyone?

Only about 1 in 12 U.S. households have a swimming pool, according to Pool Magazine. Most are concentrated in Florida and California. For the rest of the country, apps like Swimply are offering a new kind of answer — someone else’s backyard, yours for the afternoon.

“No, it's not going to be my biggest challenge,” Makhachev said. “He's just good, you know? I give him respect. He has good skills. But everybody knows my game.”

Fight fans know Makhachev as a two-division champion and reigning title holder at 170 pounds.

They might soon know Makhachev as the fighter with the longest winning streak in UFC history.

Makhachev can indeed topple Anderson Silva and set the UFC record for most consecutive wins at 17 should he defeat Machado Garry in the main event title fight at UFC 330 on Saturday night in Philadelphia.

Makhachev (28-1) has not lost since UFC 192 in 2015 and has gone on from that defeat to win the UFC lightweight title in 2022. He made four straight successful title defenses before he surrendered the title. Makhachev won the welterweight crown in his first attempt when he beat Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 in November 2025.

The win put Makhachev on par with Silva, a Hall of Famer who won a championship match in UFC's first Philadelphia show in 2009.

Makhachev joined a short list in UFC history — the company was founded in 1993 — of male fighters who won championships in two weight classes. The others: Henry Cejudo, Daniel Cormier, Randy Couture, Georges St-Pierre, B.J. Penn, Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Alex Pereira and Ilia Topuria.

The 34-year-old Makhachev is smart enough to know that, even as a heavy betting favorite to defend his title, Machado Garry is more than “just good."

Machado Garry (17-1) just might be the biggest threat yet to end Makhachev's winning streak and walk out of Philadelphia as the new champion. His only career loss came in a 2024 decision, and he rebounded with two straight wins that thrust the Irishman into a title fight against Makhachev.

“For me to go out there against him, who many consider to be a generational talent, they're starting to talk about him in the GOAT conversation,” Machado Garry said, “for me to go out there and have that as the challenge that I have to go out there and beat to prove I'm not only the champion of the world, but I really truly am the best on the planet, that's what I want.”

Machado Garry lacks a finishing punch but has enough of a versatile skill set to win the bulk of his fights by decision. He is not the near the elite level of wrestler of Makhachev and has to stay on his feet to keep the fight in his favor. Machado Garry does have about 4 inches in height and reach to the challenger.

“He acts like he's a bad boy,” Makhachev said. “We will make him humble. We will make him a good guy.”

Mackenzie Dern defends 115-pound title against Gillian Robertson

Mackenzie Dern (16-5-0) is set for her first title defense after she won the vacant strawweight belt in her last fight at UFC 321.

She already had to make one adjustment as the champ.

“It's definitely a little bit different doing the faceoffs with the belt in my hand,” Dern said. “I'm like, how do I shake her hand? Just getting used to having the belt over my shoulder most of the week during fight week.”

Gillian Robertson (17-8) holds the record for the most UFC submission wins by a woman and has won five straight fights going back to 2024. Robertson has won five straight bouts and six of seven overall since returning to the strawweight division and she is tied with Amanda Nunes for the most overall finishes on the women’s side of the sport with 10.

New kind of Broad Street Bullies set to usher in UFC's return to Philadelphia

UFC is running only its third numbered card in Philadelphia.

UFC 101 was held in August 2009, and UFC 133 was in August 2011.

Justin Gaethje, who won the lightweight title in the main event of the June card at the South Lawn of the White House in front of President Donald Trump, beat Edson Barboza in a 2019 Fight Night event on ESPN.

Barboza is back on Saturday's 330 card and fights Esteban Ribovics in a lightweight bout.

Machado Garry thought his title fight deserved a location more associated with big-time UFC bouts such as Las Vegas. He came around to Philadelphia once he brushed up on the city's fight history — though boxing is more the name of the game, and the city boasts statues of Joe Frazier and the fictional Rocky Balboa.

“Philadelphia is going to have a special place in my heart come Saturday night for the rest of my life because it's where I'm going to win a world title,” Machado Garry said.

One fight of note on the main card includes Dustin Stoltzfus, a native of Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, taking on Mansur Abdul-Malik in a middleweight bout.

“I love this area,” Stoltzfus said. “Less Philadelphia. I'm more of a country bumpkin from Lancaster."

___

AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued the warning Thursday for the Model WPX-4 Slide Playset, made by Wenzhou Yidian Amusement Equipment Co., Ltd. The agency said the playsets have multiple openings large enough for a child’s torso to pass through — but not their head — creating a head and neck entrapment hazard.

The agency confirmed one death linked to the product: a 17-month-old child who became entrapped in the playset.

What to look for — and what to do

The plastic playsets are designed for indoor or outdoor use and come with several activity features, including a tunnel, a slide, and a basketball hoop. Some versions include a vehicle-shaped component on the side. The sets are sold in red, navy, coffee, gray, green, and yellow.

The model number WPX-4 and the manufacturer’s name appear on a label on the product.

The CPSC says caregivers should:

• Stop using the playset immediately
• Throw it away — do not sell it, donate it, or give it away
• Report any incidents at SaferProducts.gov or by calling 800-638-2772

Manufacturer refuses to cooperate

The situation is complicated by the fact that Wenzhou Yidian Amusement Equipment Co., Ltd. has not agreed to an acceptable recall of the product. Because of that, the CPSC is not offering a refund or replacement — it is simply urging consumers to dispose of the playset entirely.

The warning was issued Aug. 13, 2026, and assigned product safety warning number 26-703.

In a release, deputies said that the stabbing happened near West Beresford Road and South High Street around 8:30 p.m.

The victim, identified as 55-year-old John J. Strobel, was pronounced dead at the scene, and the suspect’s identity remains unknown, deputies added.

“Detectives are actively investigating the circumstances and canvassing for evidence,” the release reads. “At this time, no suspect is in custody.”

Deputies said Strobel lived in a camp near the area of the incident.

No additional information has been provided at this time.

And probably more than anything when it comes to time, most of us try to manage it — in our everyday lives and on a global scale, from the biology of our circadian rhythms to what constitutes a work day. Clocks. Calendars. Pendulums. Hourglasses. Sundials. Time zones.

For something that's been a pretty universal impulse to mark the shift of light and dark, the movement of the stars and the rhythms of the tides, the cycles of summer heat and winter cold, one might assume there's been a universal way of measuring time. That assumption would be wrong.

Take the shifting of the clock twice a year in most of the United States, once forward and then back again, a system that “moves” the time to let people enjoy daylight hours later into the evening.

While people love the light, a lot of them loathe having to make the change. So much so that the House of Representatives last month overwhelmingly passed legislation calling for the shift to become permanent year-round. Its prospects for passage in the Senate aren’t high, and when the country tried it in the 1970s it was wildly unpopular and short-lived. But it continues to be brought up, an indication that the way we keep the clock counts.

The methods different peoples and communities have used to track their lives haven't existed in a vacuum. They've been impacted by culture, by religion, by economics and technology, by the governing principles both within nations and among them.

Turns out, like pretty much anything where people are involved, there’s a politics to time.

Measurements of time are made up, but they matter

“Every measurement of time is arbitrary,” says Elizabeth Cohen, a political science professor at Boston University who has written about how we chronicle time and how it impacts the way people relate to each other. “Every deadline could have been a fraction of a second or a large increment of time different than it was,” she says. “None of it is natural.”

Take calendars. We use them to give a structure to our lives, but the spectrum of what that has looked like is vast through human existence. Some followed the sun, others the moon, and others still a combination of both. Maybe all the months were the same length, maybe they weren’t. What we call a seven-day week might have had four, or six, or some other number of days in other timekeeping systems.

Even today, when the main calendar in use globally is what we know as the Gregorian calendar, with its 12 months and leap years, other calendars are still consulted for religious or cultural purposes in places from Israel to Thailand. And daylight saving time? With its connection to our perceptions of what hours of light become available to us, it reflects “a desire for natural time,” says Michael O’Malley, professor of history at George Mason University.

People “are outside longer, so they feel it as a connection to nature,” he says. “But it only makes sense in a society that’s completely hypnotized by clocks so you think the clock is time.”

The culture of the clock is evolving

It's not just about the how. When we think about how culture evolved around time, there's also the why.

For most of human history, there were ties to the rhythms of the natural world: the phases of the moon, the rising and setting of the sun, the ebb and flow of the tides. And in agricultural societies, the importance of when to plant and when to harvest.

Tracking the sun's journey across the sky was a local endeavor. While the idea of a day broken down into 24 equal segments was important to groups like astronomers or seafarers, daily life was broken into “systems that tended to expand and contract based on the time of year and the location,” says Kevin Birth, a professor of anthropology at Queens College.

“But since people weren’t really traveling back and forth with any great rapidity back," he says, "then it really didn’t matter.”

Industrialization — in the form of the Industrial Revolution that started in 18th-century England and spread — pushed people to shift notions of time. No longer was it about the sun's cycle or the turn of the seasons. Industrial production meant schedules — people paying attention to the clock because they were due for specific shifts.

“It was one of the goals of industrialization to instill in people this regular, unvarying sense of time,” O'Malley says.

Contrast that to a preindustrial farmer, he says. “You could have an ethic of hard work, but that work is not going to be governed by a clock. It’s typically going to be governed by natural cues. The clock establishes this external authority that’s not you."

In the United States, by the mid-1800s, another issue arose: time zones. There were more than 40 based around cities, which O'Malley says forced railroad companies to switch dynamically as trains traveled.

Worried that other entities would standardize the zones and disrupt their businesses, the companies acted. “The American Railway Association got all the American railroads to agree that on Nov. 18, 1883, they would declare a four-zone system in effect in America,” O'Malley says. “And they just announced it.”

Time can be a cudgel

It's hardly the only occasion where the perception of time has involved national or global concerns.

Take the Prime Meridian, the entirely made-up longitude line running from the North Pole to the South Pole, that divides Earth into eastern and western hemispheres and is used as the basis for global timekeeping as well as navigation.

It runs through Greenwich, England, and was selected at an international conference in 1884. Was that because Greenwich was the ideal place? No, Birth says — it simply was established during “a period when the British Empire was one of the dominant empires in the world.”

Time zones themselves “are about politics,” he says, pointing out that they are not divided in a standard format. Countries decide their own, and in the U.S., the individual states can decide if they observe Daylight Saving or not.

A prime example is China, which stretches more than 3,000 miles (5,000 kilometers) across Asia. It has one official time zone for the country, instituted when the Communist Party took power in 1949 as a form of national unity.

The entire country runs officially on Beijing time, but the reality on the ground when the sun rises in eastern China hours before it rises in western China is people adjust with their own local times for daily life, Birth says.

Time can also be a tool used in a society to manage dissent and protest, Cohen says. She pointed to examples like governments instituting curfews or protesters engaging in slowdowns or strikes.

“Time has a lot of power," she says, “and people are battling over it to try and impose themselves on others or remove the yoke that has been imposed on them.”

Colón’s death was confirmed in statements by the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Organization late Thursday.

In October 2015, Colón suffered a brain bleed in a light-middleweight fight against Terrel Williams in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Fairfax, Virginia.

Colón underwent surgery to relieve pressure on his brain and the WBC said he sustained “irreversible neurological damage” because of what the governing body described as “severe, illegal blows to the back of the head.”

He never fought again and was later pictured in a wheelchair. The WBC named him an honorary world champion.

“The ‘Champion of the Heart’ became a global symbol of resilience, faith, and dignity,” said the WBC, which added that the incident involving Colón inspired the governing body to reinforce its safety regulations and implement stricter medical protocols.

The WBC praised his family for its support in “one of the most moving and outstandingly brave battles for life the world has ever witnessed.”

The WBO described Colón as “a warrior until the very end” and said his “courage, strength and fighting spirit transcended the ring.”

“His greatest fight became a testament to resilience and the unwavering love of his family,” the WBO added.

Before the fight against Williams, Colón collected 16 straight wins, including 13 knockouts.

He lost by disqualification against Williams because his cornermen removed his gloves after the 10th round, believing the contest to be over.

___

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

The historic temperatures are linked to human-caused climate change, and are hitting countries more used to long cold seasons and ill-equipped for this sort of heat, with limited air conditioning.

More evacuations in France as fire affects more regions

With France experiencing its driest year ever, a new fire raced through woodlands overnight in the Landes region on the southwest coast. The blaze forced more than 500 people to evacuate their homes in the town of Luglon as hundreds of firefighters deployed to the area, the regional administration said Friday.

It’s one of several fires scorching forests around France this week, including in normally cooler and wetter regions in the north and Brittany. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.

France also has shut down six nuclear reactors in recent days because of extreme heat and drought — and because a mass of jellyfish washed up outside one power plant on the English Channel coast, utility company EDF said. Large numbers of jellyfish are appearing on many French beaches in connection with unusually warm sea temperatures.

In a statement, the company said the shutdowns had minimal impact on France’s electricity production. It said extreme weather poses no safety risks to the reactors themselves.

UK wildfires come as London records its hottest day of the year

In the central English town of Stourbridge, where a huge blaze started Thursday, TV footage showed the fires consuming houses, with many left without roofs as flames burned inside the charred walls. About 20 to 30 homes were completely destroyed, Stourbridge lawmaker Cat Eccles told the BBC.

A woman who was evacuated from her Stourbridge home said police knocked on her door and urged her to leave immediately.

“They thought the fire was changing directions, and they didn’t know which direction it was going in,” Jane Baxter told BBC Radio. “So, it was literally ‘grab what you need and get out.’”

Simon Tuhill, chief fire officer of West Midlands Fire Service, said an investigation will be launched but the fire was believed to have started in the grassland before spreading to homes nearby.

Nineteen people and six firefighters were hospitalized for smoke inhalation and other injuries from multiple wildfires in the West Midlands region. In nearby Stoke-on-Trent, a 23-year-old man and a 24-year-old woman were arrested Friday on suspicion of arson over a large grass fire that spread quickly.

The Met Office, the official weather agency, said 38.1C (100.6 F) was recorded in west London on Thursday, marking the hottest day of the year. While temperatures cooled slightly on Friday, many parts of the country have seen little to no rain for weeks. This July has been the driest in England and Wales since records began in 1836.

Spain moves kings' remains to avoid fire

Spanish authorities on Thursday night transferred the remains of three 11th Century kings from a monastery in the northeastern Aragón region near an active wildfire.

The remains were taken to a museum about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the 10th-century San Juan de la Peña monastery, which remained unharmed Friday, according to regional authorities.

Paintings, liturgical objects and the clothes of a notable 18th-century Spanish count were among the other items removed from the monastery.

The wildfire was not yet contained midday Friday with some 800 residents evacuated. Temperatures were expected to cool slightly Saturday.

A separate, much larger wildfire in southern Spain has burned more than 300 square kilometers (120 square miles) in the province of Huelva, also forcing evacuations.

Firefighters battle forest fire in Germany

All 1,800 residents of the village of Gey in western Germany were evacuated after a wildfire with shifting winds in the nearby Hürtgen forest threatened to reach their homes. Nearly 300 hectares (1.16 square miles) of forest were ablaze on Friday morning, local authorities said.

Unexploded ordnance from World War II in the forest hampered firefighting efforts, German news agency dpa reported.

The fire advanced to within 300 meters (1,000 feet) of Gey, which sits on the edge of the forest near the Belgian border. The cause of the blaze remains unknown.

Germany has set a new record for heat-related deaths so far this year, surpassing the 2018 level for the entire year, the Robert Koch Institute said Thursday. An estimated 12,500 people died from heat-related causes between Jan. 1 and Aug. 2.

Fire in Croatia leaves 1 dead, 14 hospitalized

In Croatia, one person was killed and 14 people were hospitalized, of whom seven remained in life-threatening condition early Friday, from a fire that raged overnight by the coastal town of Omis and forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate their homes. The person's body was found as police combed through the burned-out area.

The fire erupted late Thursday in an Omis suburb and quickly spread because of strong wind. The regional maritime authorities said 194 people, including children, were plucked from the sea and from various boats as they tried to flee the fire.

Firefighters put out the blaze by Friday morning as other crews in planes headed further south toward the Peljesac peninsula, where another wildfire broke out overnight.

Firefighters keep Albania's largest wildfire from spreading to homes

Albania has been battling dozens of wildfires in recent weeks, with 11 active fires reported across the country Friday.

The largest fire is in the Gure-Lure area, where the perimeter near residential homes has been brought under control.

Three people have been prosecuted over that fire, which engulfed Lura National Park. They are suspected of failing to take measures to protect the territory from fire, authorities said.

Meanwhile, in northern Greece, more than 300 vacationers and residents were evacuated by sea Thursday after a wildfire swept through a pine forest and threatened seaside homes, authorities said.

Belgium expected to set another heat record

Belgium was expecting to hit its highest temperature of the summer on Friday, climbing to 37 C (98.6 F) in the capital, Brussels.

The mercury was also set to hit 37 C (98.6 F) in the neighboring Netherlands. The country is suffering from severe drought, with water shortages in some areas, but Dutch authorities have held off declaring a water crisis as rain is expected in the coming days.

___

Hui reported from London. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin; Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland; Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo; Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia; Lorne Cook in Brussels; and Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed to this report.

The fourth heat advisory of the week was issued Friday, as heat index values will exceed 108 degrees. While a few storms are possible, don’t expect them to bring much of a cool down.

FRIDAY

Temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 90s this afternoon, with oppressive humidity making it feel even hotter. A Heat Advisory is in effect for all of East Central Florida from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

There will still be a chance for some afternoon and evening showers and storms, with rain chances around 30 to 50 percent. Most storms should develop as sea breezes collide inland before activity fades around sunset.

A few storms could become strong, producing frequent lightning, wind gusts up to 50 mph, and heavy rainfall.

WEEKEND

The overall weather pattern changes very little through Saturday and Sunday. High pressure and a layer of Saharan dust will help limit afternoon storm coverage, with rain chances generally between 20 and 40 percent Saturday and even lower for many areas Sunday.

That means the heat will once again take center stage. Coastal highs will generally reach the low to mid 90s, while inland communities climb into the mid to upper 90s. Heat index values could again reach 108 to 112 degrees, and additional Heat Advisories are likely.

NEXT WEEK

The heat wave is expected to continue into at least the first half of next week. Afternoon highs will remain in the mid to upper 90s, with warm and muggy nights offering little relief.

Rain chances should stay below normal through early next week before a front sagging south across the eastern U.S. could help increase storm chances around Tuesday or Wednesday.

The 7.4 magnitude earthquake affected a large swath of western Colombia, from urban centers like Cali and Pereira to remote and rugged areas in the department of Chocó. As of Friday morning, authorities had confirmed more than 280 dead, thousands injured and over 12,000 dwellings destroyed. Responders have managed to rescue about 350 people, but hundreds remain missing.

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has promised a robust governmental response. But with so much need spread across a large area, aid groups will also play important roles helping those needing shelter, supplies and economic assistance.

“Institutional capacity does not remove the humanitarian need,” said Catalina Vargas, Colombia country director for the humanitarian group CARE. “The most severely affected area, Chocó, is also one of the most isolated and underserved parts of the country, so access remains the binding constraint regardless of the strength of national institutions.”

For those who can help, giving cash is often ideal to give groups flexibility and agility, said Abe Diaz, head of disaster relief for Amazon, which is providing requested supplies to partners.

"Unrequested product donations overwhelm communities and force responders to divert resources from life-saving work just to sort and store unwanted supplies,” Diaz said.

Here are some organizations collecting donations for Colombia earthquake recovery, including U.S. groups responding on the ground and some local organizations accepting outside funds.

U.S.-based groups already on the ground

All Hands and Hearts has provided search and rescue tools like jackhammers and pickaxes to the Pereira fire department as well as blankets and rehydration supplies for those affected. Link to donate.

CARE has a longtime presence in Colombia. Its immediate support will focus on food assistance through cash and vouchers, emergency supply care packages, and protection and emotional support for affected families. Link to donate.

Direct Relief is funding medical responders on the ground and preparing to deliver requested medications and healthcare supplies. Link to donate.

GEM is joining with local partners to provide essential kits with food, water, and hygiene necessities. Link to donate.

Operation Blessing is focusing its initial response on providing food and water, as well as solar lanterns, to displaced people. Link to donate.

Save the Children has worked in Colombia for over 40 years and has begun psychosocial support activities and set up multiple child-friendly spaces in affected areas. Link to donate.

World Central Kitchen is providing food and water for displaced people, first responders and volunteers, including in more remote mountain communities. Link to donate.

Marc Anthony leads Sunday benefit concert for Colombia and Venezuela

Latin music stars Marc Anthony, Luis Fonsi, Chayanne, Feid, Jay Wheeler and many more will perform at an international benefit concert for Venezuela and Colombia on Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. EDT at Miami’s Kaseya Center. It will be carried live on Univision, ViX, WAPA and TelevisaUnivision radio stations, iHeartLatino and Venevision Play in Venezuela.

Viewers can donate by scanning onscreen QR codes, texting UNIDOS to 707070 or visiting univision.org during the broadcast. Proceeds will go to All Hands and Hearts, CARE, GEM, TECHO and World Central Kitchen.

Colombia-based groups accepting outside donations

Abaco Colombia, an association of 26 food banks across Colombia, is distributing food to affected families across the impacted regions. They accept online donations, though the payment processor requires a passport number.

Cruz Roja Colombiana teams are doing search and rescue, offering medical attention and psychosocial support, and filling other needs. They accept online donations, though the payment processor requires a passport number.

Fundación Solidaridad por Colombia supports youth initiatives, nutrition and health, and community building. It's helping deliver relief supplies and food to displaced people in Pereira and other locations. They accept PayPal.

Fundación Semillas de Oportunidades supports youth through art and sport from its base in Quibdó, Chocó. They are supporting families of young people across Chocó. They accept PayPal.

Manos Visibles, a network of organizations dedicated to racial and territorial equity, is collaborating with a local trade school with a goal to restore at least 100 homes in the city of Buenaventura. They accept online donations, though the payment processor requires a passport number.

Presentes Corporation, a 43-year-old organization in Colombia focused on community resilience, is partnering with the Miami-based nonprofit Give to Colombia to facilitate donations from the U.S. Their Colombia Se Levanta fund accepts online donations.

Refugio Huellas de Amor in Pereira is supporting rescue animals already in their care as well as other impacted animals. Huellitas Callejeras Barranquilla is sending vets and medical supplies to affected areas. Both accept PayPal.

_______

Associated Press staff writer Megan Janetsky contributed reporting from Mexico City.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

The conservative voter from northeast Iowa said he didn't know Zach Lahn before the political newcomer “came out of nowhere" with a surprise GOP primary win over the candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump. So when Lahn came to his farm last week, Burrack questioned him on his approach to agriculture.

“I hit him pretty hard,” said Burrack, who was considering whether to vote for Lahn in November or not vote at all.

It wasn't the first skeptical audience for the self-described “change candidate” in the state led by Republicans.

Lahn won the June primary even though an “entire establishment was set up against me,” he said. He criticizes politicians in both parties, accusing them of being bought by corporate interests. His bid for governor will test how an anti-establishment conservative fares with a general electorate — and with traditional Republicans — a decade after Trump’s own brand of populism reshaped the GOP.

While Iowa Republicans have an electoral advantage, Lahn entered the general election with a lower public profile than his Democratic opponent, state Auditor Rob Sand. Democrats see an opportunity to win this cycle in once-competitive Iowa, where high costs, health clinic closures, manufacturing job losses and a struggling agricultural economy weigh on voters.

Lahn talks about bringing a “different message” to Iowans who aren't satisfied with the trajectory of Iowa's small towns, public education or cancer rates, even after years of Republican control of state government. But only three months before Election Day, Lahn acknowledged he needs to keep getting out in front of people to address their questions and concerns.

“I think, for the most part, a lot of people just have never heard my message,” Lahn said after the event at Burrack's farm in Arlington. “The more we’ve met with people, the more they understand where our priorities lie, the more they say, ‘We are with you.’”

In farm country, Lahn has to answer for his positions on ‘big ag’

Some of Lahn's ideas challenge the Republican Party's status quo. Among them is his approach to agriculture and embrace of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which has prompted questions in the state that's among the nation's top producers of corn, soybeans, red meat and ethanol. Lahn promotes regenerative farming; emphasizes a link between high nitrate-loaded water and cancer; and questions the safety of agrochemicals.

Before Lahn took the stage in Arlington to talk agriculture, farmer Lance Lillibridge, a former president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, told the couple hundred Iowans there that the goal was to “get the air clear."

In front of a huge American flag and sandwiched between two freshly washed John Deere tractors, Lahn said, “We farm a bit weird” on his own Iowa acres, growing oats, alfalfa and einkorn along with corn and beans.

But he told the crowd he wants to fund farmers’ efforts to diversify their operations, not force Iowans to farm like him. He said targeting “big ag” means filing antitrust lawsuits against corporate conglomerates that sell seed and fertilizer and taxing out-of-state investors consolidating Iowa acres, not stepping on family farms. He wants to see more incentives to improve water quality but wouldn’t try to outright ban agrochemicals.

Burrack, like Lahn, says that they won’t agree on everything. But after talking with Lahn, he called himself a supporter.

Lahn pushes back on claims that he's a ‘part-time Iowan’

At another stop, a few dozen faces crowded at the back of a coffee shop in Hampton, Iowa, just after the lunch rush. Many of them were familiar with each other but less so with the candidate they came to see. Among them were Jay and Sally Van Wert, retired farmer and teacher, who said Lahn seemed like a nice guy, but they didn't know much else.

Several Iowans attending some of Lahn's first publicly advertised events since the primary said they only knew what they’ve seen in advertisements from Sand's campaign. The ads call Lahn a “part-time Iowan" and reference dozens of occasions where Lahn piloted his private plane to and from Kansas since launching his campaign.

“Is he going all the time to Kansas?” asked Larry Streicher, 84, a Republican farmer in the front row in Arlington. “We don’t know anything about him.”

Lahn said he left Iowa for college like so many others but wanted to come home, amplifying a nostalgia for Iowa culture and heritage that resonated with voters, not unlike Trump's “Make America Great Again” message.

He left Iowa again to start a private school funded by the Koch family, which opened in Kansas in 2018. He co-founded the school with his now-wife, Annie, who had been married to Chase Koch, son of conservative billionaire Charles Koch.

Lahn told the crowds he and Annie moved into their Belle Plaine, Iowa, homestead in 2023 after finishing renovations. Lahn bought the farm that had been in his family for a century but sold it after his great-grandmother died.

Douglas Puffett, a farmer from Strawberry Point and member of his county’s GOP central committee, said Lahn's story is like so many other Iowans’ and his vision for Iowa is driven by what drew him back.

“That’s how you inspire the next generation,” said the 40-year-old, who appreciates that Lahn, also 40, is young and has young kids.

Lahn has explained that trips to Kansas are due to his blended family, which includes children from his and Annie’s previous marriages. He doesn't comment on whether he would travel or use taxpayer resources to do so if elected governor, saying it would not impact his ability to govern.

Puffett, who attended Lahn’s Arlington event, thinks 10 years of Republican trifecta have given Sand an opening to appeal to people who might be unhappy with the “Republican establishment,” he said, but Lahn “stacks up really nice” with his calls for reform.

“I think it’s time to kind of roll over the leadership of the Republican Party here in Iowa," he said.

A grassroots campaign receives ‘full embrace’ from the establishment

Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision to not seek a third term gave Republicans their first wide-open primary since 2010, and five candidates were on the ballot. Lahn overtook U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra by less than a percentage point, or about 1,650 more votes.

Lahn told crowds that he only met Reynolds after the primary, a signal of his distance from Iowa politics. Speaking at the state party’s fundraiser in July, he joked about all the donors who “haven’t been returning my calls” all being in one room.

Since his primary win, Lahn has met with party leaders and Iowa's prominent industry groups. His campaign spent the summer ramping up fundraising, staff and organizing infrastructure.

State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, who is the majority leader of House Republicans, said there may be some differences of opinion or “curiosities, not concerns" about Lahn's positions, but added that's always the case.

Kaufmann met Lahn earlier this year, voted for him in June and said there's been a “full embrace” of the nominee. He said Lahn is not a traditional candidate, but that's what makes his campaign energizing for Republicans who are “constantly craving new leadership."

“I think it began back in 2016 with President Trump,” Kaufmann said. “Republicans don’t rest on our laurels."

The former LSU coach and athletic director passed away in a Baton Rouge hospital, LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette said.

The LSU Tigers, now synonymous with college baseball's elite and known for fielding numerous Major League Baseball prospects, had never won a national title when Bertman, a native of Miami, took over the program in 1983.

The College Baseball Hall of Famer's legacy now includes the current Alex Box Stadium, which opened in 2009, holds about 11,000 and routinely is filled to capacity. The field in the stadium was named for Bertman in 2013. The Tigers also have won three national championships under two of Bertman's successors, most recently in 2025.

Since 2013, the College Baseball Foundation's annual award for the nation's top coach has been named the Skip Bertman Coach of the Year Award. Bertman won it six times between 1986 and 2000.

Bertman coached a total of 18 seasons, retiring in 2001 with a record of 870-330-3 and 11 College World Series appearances. He then served as Athletic Director until 2008 and Athletic Director Emeritus after that, continuing to live in Baton Rouge, support the university and attend LSU events for the rest of his life.

Bertman coached the Tigers to their first five NCAA College World Series championships in 1991, ’93, ’96, ’97, ’00. His tenure as coach also included seven Southeastern Conference championships. His NCAA Tournament winning percentage of .754 is the highest in the history of the event.

Bertman also was head coach of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, which at that time included only amateur players and won a bronze medal in Atlanta.

Bertman played baseball at Miami before going into coaching, starting at the high school level in Miami Beach. His final job before taking over at LSU was as an assistant at Miami under then coach Ron Fraser.

Bertman was preceded in death by his wife, Sandy, and daughter, Lisa.

Funeral arrangements were pending Friday.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

It is just one way officials across the country are trying to tackle the growing issue, while families navigate a patchwork of local laws and guidance on what kind of souped-up cycles and scooters are safe or even legal for their kids to ride.

New York City’s mayor recently sent cease-and-desist notices to dozens of online retailers for selling products marketed as “e-bikes” that aren’t street legal after a 17-year-old died in a crash on an illicit vehicle. In neighboring New Jersey, new regulations require e-bike riders to be at least 15 and obtain a license and vehicle registration.

But do the measures hit the mark? Cycling advocates worry regulations might be too broad — demonizing low-powered e-bikes instead of speedier motos — while some parents question whether localized, piecemeal strategies are enough.

Monica Stafford, a San Francisco-area mother whose teen daughter fractured her skull falling off an e-bike, said officials are “missing the mark” if they’re seeking to lay the blame solely on parents. The San Rafael resident said a unified, national set of rules is needed.

“We’re in a total Wild West of laws,” Stafford said. “Being for common sense laws doesn’t mean that you’re against e-bikes, just like you can be for cars but not think that it’s safe to put keys in the hands of a 10-year-old.”

E-bike injuries disproportionately impact children, experts say

The two-wheeled machines have become nearly ubiquitous in recent years, from packs of teens zipping around California beach towns to the army of delivery drivers dodging traffic on the congested streets of Manhattan.

Hospital visits for injuries from e-bike, e-scooter and other motorized rides have, as expected, soared as they have grown in popularity, study after study has shown. But researchers stress that the more concerning trends are the severity of the injuries and the fact that they’re especially pronounced among children.

“The big takeaway is that people are generally more severely injured than they would be if they were on a traditional, pedal bicycle,” said Dr. John Austin, a doctor at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine who led a recently published statewide study. “Overall, these patients tend to be younger, they tend to be unhelmeted and, in turn, be more severely injured.”

Recent youth deaths prompt officials to take action

Most e-bikes are classified as nonmotorized vehicles akin to traditional bicycles under federal law, meaning riders don’t need a license, insurance or to even wear a helmet. Most states, though, have enacted additional requirements for higher powered machines, including minimum age and helmet requirements.

In New York City, the death of the 17-year-old just steps from City Hall has spurred renewed debate about the bikes. Gabriel Nacato had been riding a vehicle advertised as an “e-bike” but wasn't legal on city streets.

Earlier this month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani warned more than 40 online retailers, including Amazon, Walmart and Target, that they could face fines of up to $2,000 for each sale of an e-bike that exceeds city regulations.

New York state requires riders of all forms of e-bikes to be at least 16, and New York City imposes additional restrictions, including a 15 mph (24 kph) speed limit. California, in contrast, has no statewide minimum age for lower-powered bikes, though riders must be at least 16 to use e-bikes that can go up to 28 mph (45 kph).

New Jersey and Illinois are among the states that have enacted statewide regulations recently, and Massachusetts is weighing measures. Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in June vetoed a 10 mph (16 kph) speed limit and other e-bike regulations, saying the measures would lead to “enhanced surveillance” of citizens.

Other jurisdictions seek to hold parents accountable

In Southern California, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer says his office has more than two dozen open investigations against parents after launching a new unit focused on e-bike and e-motorcycle cases involving children.

The office has already brought charges against four, including the mother of a 14-year-old boy accused of killing an elderly pedestrian while riding an e-motorcycle.

That mother’s attorney declined to comment, but Mitchell Krems, the lawyer for another parent, dismissed the charges against his client as “absurd,” suggesting his client was being made a “scapegoat.”

Richard Eyssallenne pleaded not guilty to child endangerment charges after prosecutors say he bought his 12-year-old son an e-motorcycle and helped him illegally modify it to make it go faster. The boy ran through a red light and was injured by a car.

Other jurisdictions have also taken steps to hold parents liable. In Ohio, a Columbus suburb recently issued new e-bike rules making it clear that parents who knowingly allow their children to break the rules are subject to the same penalties as the rider.

Cycling advocates blame electronic motorcycles

PeopleForBikes, a national bicycle advocacy group that tracks state e-bike regulations, stressed that many of the problematic vehicles are actually electronic motorcycles with heavy frames, sturdy tires and sizable motors that are falsely marketed as e-bikes.

Lower-powered and pedal-assisted e-bikes have been used safely for decades on U.S. streets and are key to reducing society's reliance on cars, advocates argue.

“Many of the dangerous behaviors people cite — running red lights, riding on sidewalks, not wearing helmets — are already illegal,” added Chloé Lauer, executive director of the San Diego County Bike Coalition. “We’d rather see those laws enforced than add new restrictions that limit mobility for kids who are riding responsibly.”

Anya Dalal, a San Francisco-area high school senior who has been advocating for better safety measures, believes the problem requires multiple solutions, including setting age limits.

“It should be a mix of parental accountability, accountability from the manufacturers and retailers and also education for kids to understand e-bike laws and road rules,” said the 17-year-old Hillsborough resident.

Sharon Franke, a San Diego-area mother, agreed, though she said the first step starts at home, with parents doing their research, accompanying their children on rides and reinforcing safety once they set off on their own.

“We want them to have fun, but we also want them to come back safe and we don’t want them to hurt anybody,” she said as her 15- and 12-year-old sons prepared to attend a safety training last weekend. “How do you balance all of it? It’s just overwhelming right now.”

___

Associated Press reporters Amy Taxin and Christopher Weber in California and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this story.

___

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

Catania’s airport will remain closed until early Saturday, which falls on the Ferragosto holiday that marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season when millions flock to the sea and mountains, deserting Italian cities.

While Etna’s activity often interrupts flights at the airport, located 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of the volcano, this is the longest emergency since 2002.

“Volcanic ash can be a great risk for aircraft,” said Boris Behncke, a researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology’s Etna Observatory. “It can be sucked into the motors, and force them to stall. This is why everyone is so very cautious with aircraft when there is a volcanic ash emission.”

Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe. The latest activity has been unusual for its persistence and sustained ash emissions. Northerly winds have spread light amounts of ash to Malta and northern Africa.

“There have been many shorter interruptions — and stronger eruptions — over the past few decades, but this event is different because the ash emission from Etna’s summit has been much more persistent,” Behncke said.

The closure has forced planes to be rerouted to other airports on the island, which has pushed up taxi fares and car rental prices, according to the Corriere della Sera daily. The Codacons consumer association has announced it will file a complaint with Italy’s competition authority following complaints about price gouging.

The SAC airport operator said 36% of nearly 2,000 flights scheduled to arrive in Catania from Aug. 6-12 had been canceled, while more than 600 were diverted to Palermo, Trapani and Comiso in Sicily and Lamezia Terme in Calabria. Flights were able to depart Catania over the weekend, but the airport was officially closed to both incoming and outgoing flights Monday. Comiso also was briefly closed.

The Italian train company Trenitalia has added six trains along the Palermo-Messina-Catania route to help ease the travel pressure.

Italy's federation of travel agencies and tour operators has called for a task force to coordinate responses to disruptions caused by Mount Etna and said it would ask for a review of how airlines handled the cancellations and passenger assistance.

“Operators are working around the clock to provide assistance, cancellations and alternative travel arrangements, but they cannot bear the burden of structural shortcomings and the management responsibilities of others," FIAVET President Gian Mario Pilieri said in a statement.

The 24-year-old Kolbe, who is white, spoke out Thursday after her semifinal heat in the 800 meters at Alexander Stadium.

“Let me say one thing. I read so many comments and I’m really happy about all the support we’re getting,” Kolbe began, speaking to German broadcaster ZDF.

“But I see some really unbelievable comments under some athletes, and I wish — we’re representing Germany here and getting support from everyone watching — but I expect a little more respect, and I’m delighted that so many people support me, but I don’t want to imagine what it would be like if I wasn’t as white as I am.”

Kolbe, who competed at the University of North Florida, finished sixth in her heat and didn't qualify for Thursday night's final.

“It’s important for me to say this,” Kolbe added, “and I expect everyone watching to give the respect due to celebrate the amazing achievements of our athletes.”

___

See full AP coverage of European sports here

The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, after it launched an offensive as the U.S. and other NATO troops withdrew from the country after two decades of war. The withdrawal led to chaotic scenes at and around Kabul’s airport with thousands wanting to leave.

“Thank God, the past five years have passed in safety,” said Mohammad Qasim, 30, reflecting on the anniversary that comes against a backdrop of economic hardship in a conflict-stricken country. “Our wish and hope from the government is to create job opportunities for the youth.”

“We, along with the entire nation, call upon the government to create employment opportunities for the youth and to encourage them to pursue education,” he added.

Taliban curbs women's rights despite pledge

Before the takeover, the Taliban stated that, upon assuming power, it would allow women access to education, employment and public participation, albeit in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic principles.

Soon after it seized power, the Taliban imposed an indefinite ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and, a few months later, also banned higher education for women until “further notice.”

Women also were banned from entering gyms, parks and public baths, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a “mahram,” or male guardian.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has repeatedly said the administration is working to establish conditions under which girls and women can attend classrooms or university campuses in line with Islamic Sharia laws. The restrictions, nevertheless, remain in force.

While the U.N. has acknowledged that the country has become more stable since the takeover, it has warned that lasting stability cannot be possible unless the Taliban rulers — who remain isolated internationally — lift restrictions on women and girls, protect basic rights and address terrorism concerns.

“A reduction in conflict has brought tangible benefits for many Afghans and created opportunities to focus on recovery, development and regional economic cooperation,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, said in a statement ahead of the anniversary. It added, however, that the restrictions on women and girls impede Afghanistan’s recovery and its reintegration with the international community.

UN says Afghanistan in world's most severe women's rights crisis

In a statement this week, the U.N.'s agency on women’s rights, said Afghan women and girls are living under the world’s most severe restrictions, which not only violate their rights but also threaten the country’s social and economic future.

“Half a decade after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Afghanistan has systematically dismantled the rights of half its population, making it a global outlier with no parallel in the modern world,” U.N. Women said.

“In the past year alone, this exclusion of women and girls from education, employment, public life, justice systems and healthcare has only intensified, entrenching what remains the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis,” it said.

Fazila Soroush, a 39-year-old Kabul-based entrepreneur and an advocate for women’s rights, said the government had “demonstrated its worth to the people through its actions in every area.”

“We consider it essential that the officials of the Islamic Emirate who had announced the closure of schools and universities until further notice, now make a clear and practical decision regarding this matter,” she said.

In the streets of Kabul, preparations for the anniversary celebrations were underway. Vendors sold the Taliban’s white with black scripted flags while painters were busy writing slogans in praise of Islamic laws on walls, including: “The Islamic system has been achieved at the cost of the martyrs’ blood” and “Our commitment stands firm: Consolidation and implementation of Islamic Sharia.”

Taliban says it brought security and stability

Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and culture, said in the five years the administration has delivered security, stabilized the currency, improved infrastructure and formed industrial parks that have created jobs.

“Naturally, challenges and difficulties exist, yet we can highlight several accomplishments,” Farahi told The Associated Press.

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

“The Emirate continues its efforts to further organize and improve services for our citizens in the fields of education and other sectors,” he stated.

The deputy minister rejected a U.N. report that documented terrorist networks in Afghanistan, saying “these are merely enemy propaganda, spread to portray the country as unstable.”

Asked to comment about its international isolation, Farahi insisted the Taliban government was engaged with some 40 countries. The Taliban government currently is only formally recognized by Russia.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has fulfilled all the requirements necessary for official recognition. It is now up to the international community and others to step forward and take the appropriate action,” he said.

UN points at broader educational crisis

The bans have left an estimated 2.4 million girls excluded from secondary education, UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said this week — a 200,000 increase from last year. The restrictions have reversed two decades of progress that Afghanistan had made in education, the agency said.

Pointing at a broader educational crisis, the agency said 53% of primary school-aged children are out of school. Schools lack basic infrastructure such as water, sanitation or heating, while natural disasters have also led to hundreds of school closures.

Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Program said child malnutrition has reached critical levels in a third of Afghanistan’s provinces and is expected to worsen as funding shortfalls force cuts in food distributions and other support.

In Kabul, Dost Mohammad Khan expressed support for the Taliban administration, saying the past five years have brought stability. He said however, that the country needs trained professionals such as doctors and engineers, urging the authorities to keep “all sectors operational.”

“We also call upon the Islamic Emirate to permit women to attend school under the sharia dress code and we urge the public to heed the directives of the Emirate also,” said the 38-year-old.

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

Roughly 97 million people from the central Plains to the Southeast face heat advisories. Dangerous temperatures are expected in more than a dozen states in the Southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley through Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

Some places could hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius), forecasters said. But the combination of soaring temperatures and high humidity could make it feel as hot as 115 F (46 C) in portions of the Southeast.

That heat dome effect is created by high-pressure systems sitting above a region, trapping heat and humidity closer to the ground.

And there will be little nighttime relief, with overnight lows predicted to remain in the 70s in many places, forecasters said.

“The nighttime lows are not going to get below about 80 Fahrenheit for a lot of urban areas,” said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections. “So that's really going to bump up the mortality from this heat wave. It's going to be deadly because of all these factors: Long lasting, intense, and high humidity.”

People were urged to stay indoors when possible and keep hydrated.

Early days of the heat wave force workers to cope with risks

In Little Rock, Madi Ramos wore a large straw hat as she shoveled an irrigation ditch outside the state Capitol building on Thursday morning when temperatures had already reached 90 F (32 C).

“This heat is stronger than last year’s,” said Ramos, 21, who works with her stepfather at a landscaping company.

The forecast comes after July became the hottest month on record in the contiguous United States. Extreme heat events are increased and exacerbated by climate change, which comes from the burning of fuels like gasoline, oil and coal.

During a July heat wave, Ramos said she felt nauseous and had to pause for a break. One of her colleagues took three days off after falling ill from heat.

Ramos said she usually drinks seven to eight bottles of water that she sometimes mixes with electrolyte packets during her 12-hour outdoor shifts. She’s preparing for this week’s heat wave by wearing breathable clothing.

But sometimes the heat can be too much and, Ramos said, the company encourages her to take breaks.

“When I feel I can’t take it anymore, I take a break and then I come back,” Ramos said in Spanish.

Communities offer residents places to cool off or stay hydrated

When the heat gets oppressive, communities across the country typically offer public libraries, community centers and senior centers as air-conditioned places to cool down. Other places try to make sure residents are hydrated.

Donna Schillinger expected dozens of visitors to WayStation, a resource center in Rogers, Arkansas, as the heat wave lingers. The center had already provided bags filled with food and bottled water to nearly two dozen people by Thursday afternoon. Schillinger, the executive director of nonprofit Micah 6:8, said the center typically sees six people per day for to-go bags.

“Everybody is commenting about how hot it is outside,” Schillinger said. “I mean it’s just crazy hot.”

Heat arrives with a new school year and sports activities in full swing

The heat wave is coinciding with the start of the new school year in much of the country, forcing discussions about how to keep students comfortable on buses, in classrooms and even on school playground equipment.

In some school districts, parents are urged to send bottled water to school with their students. One Central Arkansas district implemented a policy this year mandating that students remain indoors, including during recess, when the heat index reaches 95 F (35 C).

Young athletes and professionals preparing for a new football season also are having to take precautions against overheating.

In South Carolina, where an extreme heat warning was in place, two school districts canceled a series of football scrimmages involving more than a dozen high schools Friday evening due to the forecast.

Nationwide, at least 58 players died from exertional heat stroke between 1992 and 2024, the latest year available, and thousands more are sickened each year, according to the Korey Stringer Institute at the University of Connecticut. Most of the deaths involved younger athletes.

The institute is named after the Minnesota Vikings player who died of heat stroke in 2001, prompting changes in safety protocols.

Sweltering heat is ongoing in Europe

Hot weather is taking its toll abroad as well.

The United Kingdom recorded its hottest day of the year Thursday, coming during an excessively dry stretch that saw multiple fires break out as an intense stretch of sizzling weather continued to grip Europe.

___

Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.

A rescue operation was launched after a sudden rush of water and debris entered the tunnel at the Vishnugad-Pipalkoti hydroelectric project in Chamoli district later Thursday night, said top district official Gaurav Kumar.

Of 22 people who were working in the tunnel, 12 have been rescued alive and another three are still missing, the chief minister of Uttarakhand state Pushkar Singh Dhami told reporters.

Rescue teams from the national and state Disaster Response Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and fire services are fighting rising water and debris with as they search for the remaining workers, officials said.

“When our team reached the site and started the operation, there was a lot of water inside the tunnel and water was also seeping from the sides. Since then, the water level has increased considerably,” said the commander of the National Disaster Response Force team, Amrit Lal Meena.

Construction accidents are common in India, where rapid infrastructure growth often collides with fragile geology, construction lapses, extreme weather and safety standards.

In the Himalayan region, fragile mountains, seismic activity and unpredictable underground conditions make tunnel projects especially risky. An explosion inside a coal mine in neighboring Meghalaya state in February killed at least 18 workers. In 2023, a tunnel section in northern Uttarakhand state collapsed, trapping 41 workers for 17 days before they were rescued.

“What they’re trying to do is restructure a lot of funding,” Moody said. “They’re putting a lot of it into other agencies. Some of it’s going to other departments, like the Department of Labor.”

News 6 spoke to Moody after she addressed families gathered for a school resource fair held at Valencia College in Orlando.

Earlier this year, the White House published its Fiscal Year 2027 budget blueprint -- a wishlist of sorts containing the items the Trump administration would like to see funded or cut.

The budget proposes cutting $2.3 billion from the Department of Education.

Under the blueprint’s section that pertains to the department, the first line reflects the administration’s overall approach when it comes to the agency.

“The Budget puts the Department of Education (ED), which has failed the Nation’s children, teachers, and families, on a path to elimination,” the blueprint states.

News 6’s Mike Valente asked Moody whether she shares the White House’s vision to eliminate the department.

“My vision is to take our abysmal test scores in reading and math and we do like we did it Florida, where we go from a 60% graduation rate to an over 92 % graduation rate in a short amount of time,” Moody said. “And you only do that by examining your structure, where your resources are going, and making sure you’re giving meaningful opportunity to kids. And I support thinking outside the box and not doing the same thing that we’ve done decade after decade and failing our kids across this country.”

Valente then pressed Moody on whether she believes the Department of Education should still have some kind of role in education.

“Well, currently, right now, (Education Secretary Linda McMahon) is embracing that department and fully working with other agencies to see how can we serve the kids, how can we improve our scores,” Moody said. “Does that mean we transfer some of those funding opportunities to other agencies?”

Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Moody to her seat in 2025 to replace Sen. Marco Rubio, who assumed the position of Secretary of State.

Moody is looking to retain her seat. The first step to doing so comes during the Republican primary on Tuesday.

• TOP TIER gas does not mean premium gas.

• Automakers created the standard decades ago.

• TOP TIER doesn’t necessarily mean higher-priced gasoline.

For most Americans, when it comes to buying gas, one thing stands above the rest: price.

Convenience is nice (not driving too far just to save a penny or two), but when it comes right down to it, a couple of cents will usually determine whether you pull into the gas station immediately on the right or drive 20 feet to the next one across the intersection with a lower price.

That’s good for your wallet, but is it good for your car?

Before we go any further, this isn’t a story about whether or not premium gasoline is better for your vehicle than regular gasoline. The answer to that debate is simple: if your manufacturer recommends using regular gas, filling up with premium instead is literally flushing money down the drain. Why? Regular versus premium is about octane, and this story isn’t about octane – it’s about detergent.

Detergent?

Yup, detergent. It’s certainly not the same stuff you use in your washing machine, but the basic idea is similar: gasoline detergent helps keep things clean. For the rest of this story, remember this: clean engines are happy engines for a variety of reasons.

Why Is There Detergent in Our Gasoline in the First Place?

Here’s the backstory: as a requirement of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Congress directed the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that gasoline sold to consumers contained additives designed to help engines and fuel systems stay clean.

How? By reducing engine deposits.

When gasoline burns in an engine, it doesn’t leave everything perfectly clean. Over time, carbon and other deposits can accumulate on critical engine and fuel-system components like fuel injectors and intake valves – parts designed to precisely control the fuel and air your engine needs.

Think of it like a dirty showerhead in your bathroom: tiny openings are designed to spray water in a very specific pattern, but when deposits start building up, they can partially clog those openings and change the spray. A fuel injector works on a much smaller and more precise scale, but the problem is the same: instead of restricting the spray of water, deposits can restrict the flow of fuel and interfere with the way the injector sprays it.

Detergent additives help control those deposits, keeping critical components cleaner and helping your engine continue operating the way it was designed to.

The mandate for detergent in gasoline went into effect on January 1, 1995, and although it was a step in the right direction, it wasn’t good enough for everyone. At this point, you might be thinking the idea of “TOP TIER” gasoline – a higher standard than what was being mandated by the feds – was something cooked up by oil companies to convince you to spend more at the pump.

Nope.

The standard came from the companies that make your car.

General Motors Was the Driving Force

In 2004, General Motors, with the support of BMW, Toyota, and Honda, developed the TOP TIER gasoline standard because the automakers wanted gasoline with better deposit-control performance than what was required under the federal minimum. Their solution wasn’t simply to require more detergent – instead, they established tougher performance tests that gasoline had to pass to earn the TOP TIER designation.

ChevronTexaco was the first U.S. gasoline marketer to meet the new TOP TIER standards, announcing in June 2004 that its gasoline had been approved under the program.

Today, more than 50 companies, cooperatives, and tribal operators sell TOP TIER-approved gasoline in the U.S. through dozens of different brands. The program has previously estimated that TOP TIER gasoline is available at roughly 75,000 gas stations nationwide and, in 2024, reported more than 100,000 licensed stations worldwide.

What brands are considered TOP TIER? You’ll recognize many of them – and you might also recognize the names they use to market their fuels and detergent technology: BP/Amoco have Invigorate, Chevron has Techron, Exxon/Mobil market Synergy, and Shell has V-Power NiTRO+.

Costco, through its Kirkland Signature gasoline, is currently the only one of the three major warehouse clubs (Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s) listed as TOP TIER-approved. Other major brands selling TOP TIER gasoline include CITGO, Marathon, Phillips 66/Conoco, QuikTrip, Sunoco, and Valero.

Does It Really Make a Difference?

So, automakers say TOP TIER gasoline is better at keeping your engine clean, but does it actually make a difference?

Well, AAA wanted to know the same thing.

In 2016, the auto club commissioned an independent laboratory to compare TOP TIER gasoline with fuel that met federal detergent requirements but did not meet the TOP TIER standard. The test focused on something we’ve already talked about: engine deposits.

Researchers subjected six gasoline samples – three TOP TIER and three non-TOP TIER – to an industry-standard engine test representing about 4,000 miles of driving. Afterward, they took the engines apart and measured the deposits left behind.

The difference was significant.

The AAA-commissioned study found the non-TOP TIER gasoline produced 19 times more intake-valve deposits than the TOP TIER gasoline tested. The specifics: the non-TOP TIER fuels averaged about 660 milligrams of deposits per valve, compared with just 34 milligrams for the TOP TIER fuels. For a second, don’t think about milligrams – think back to that showerhead. Both fuels left some buildup, but the non-TOP TIER gasoline left about 19 times more.

There is one important caveat to the study: it was conducted in 2016, so it isn’t a comparison of every gasoline being sold today. However, the AAA test remains an important independent laboratory comparison of TOP TIER and non-TOP TIER fuels.

Does TOP TIER Mean More Expensive Gas?

There’s a perception that buying TOP TIER means filling up at one of the big-name gas stations – and paying big-name prices. But that’s not necessarily the case. Chevron, Shell, Exxon, Mobil, and BP all sell TOP TIER gasoline, but so do brands like CITGO, QuikTrip, Costco, and Sunoco.

Meanwhile, some other familiar names – including Speedway, RaceTrac, Circle K, and 7-Eleven – are not currently listed as TOP TIER-approved gasoline brands. That doesn’t mean the gasoline they sell is bad. It still has to meet federal requirements, including the EPA’s minimum detergent standards. It simply means their gasoline has not been certified as meeting the additional TOP TIER performance standard.

So instead of assuming the most expensive station has the “best” gasoline – or that the cheapest has the worst – check whether the fuel is TOP TIER-approved.

But Wait, There’s More: TOP TIER Gets an Upgrade

In 2024, the TOP TIER Fuels program announced an updated performance standard called TOP TIER+, designed to extend the TOP TIER standard to newer engines. In particular, the update targeted gasoline direct injection, or GDI – technology now found in many newer vehicles.

TED Talk time: in a traditional port fuel-injection engine, gasoline is sprayed into the intake port before entering the combustion chamber. In a GDI engine, the injector sprays gasoline directly into the combustion chamber, and under much higher pressure. GDI technology improves the precision of fuel delivery, but it also creates different challenges when it comes to deposits – particularly on the tip of the fuel injector itself. TOP TIER+ adds new engine testing, including a test specifically designed to measure GDI fuel-injector cleanliness.

Bottom line: as engines have changed, the TOP TIER standard has changed with them.

You may already be buying TOP TIER+ without knowing it: BP and Amoco announced in 2026 that their gasoline with Invigorate had earned the TOP TIER+ designation, joining Costco’s Kirkland Signature gasoline among the national brands meeting the newer standard.

So, does all of this mean you should drive across town or pay significantly more just to fill up with TOP TIER gasoline? Probably not. But the next time you’re comparing prices at two stations, don’t assume the higher price or bigger brand name tells you which gasoline meets the higher detergent standard. Look for the TOP TIER logo – or check the approved-brand list – and then compare the price.

And remember: the most important thing is still to use the octane recommended by your vehicle’s manufacturer. TOP TIER isn’t about buying more expensive gas – it’s about being a little more selective about the gasoline you buy.

One last thing: if you want to know whether a station near you sells TOP TIER gasoline, the program offers a TOP TIER Station Finder app for Apple and Android devices, along with an online station finder. The program says it is also updating those tools to identify stations selling TOP TIER+.

That’s three months away, but supporters say it’s not too early to get the word out.

Volunteers from the Brevard Indian River Lagoon Coalition lined the causeway on US Highway 192 between Indialantic and Melbourne one Friday evening, signs in hand, hoping to remind Brevard County drivers that the future of the Indian River Lagoon is on the November ballot.

The nonprofit is dedicated to advocating for the protection and restoration of the Indian River Lagoon.

Vince Lamb, a representative with the coalition, said the effort is all about awareness — and urgency.

“Most people have no idea that this is going to be on the ballot in November,” Lamb said. “We’re really confident that if people just get educated on what it does, they’ll vote for it.”

The half-cent sales tax, known as the Save Our Indian River Lagoon plan, was first passed by Brevard County voters in 2016. Over the past 10 years, the program has generated more than $500 million for lagoon restoration efforts. But the tax expires this November and must be renewed by voters.

Lamb said the results speak for themselves.

“The water is cleaner. The algae blooms are less frequent and less severe. Seagrass is coming back,” he said. “There’s a lot of evidence it is working, but we’re far from done. So we need for it to be renewed.”

With an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 Brevard County residents expected to vote on Nov. 3, Lamb said the coalition needs a clear majority — somewhere between 130,000 and 150,000 votes — to get the measure passed.

“I don’t want to wake up on November 4th and find that we needed a hundred more votes or something,” Lamb said. “There’s a lot of evidence that we have good public support for it, but we’re not taking it for granted. We’re out here working.”

To reach voters, the coalition plans to deploy roughly 300 volunteers to walk neighborhoods across Brevard County, knocking on doors and distributing information. Sign-waving events are also planned twice a week through the summer, ramping up through September and October ahead of early voting.

“We need 130,000 votes. We get them one at a time,” Lamb said.

Thomas Ghesquiere, a volunteer at the event, said his love of the water brought him out on a Friday evening.

“I love living here, and a large part of the reason I love it here is because of the water in the lagoon,” Ghesquiere said. “You get one good chance to take care of it, and if you blow it, it’s gone forever.”

Ghesquiere described the lagoon’s broad appeal — from early-morning anglers to families enjoying a boat ride to waterfront restaurants.

“It impacts so many different ways because it affects families, individuals,” he said. “It’s just a great resource.”

For many volunteers, the effort is personal. Mary McIntyre said she has lived in the area since 1979 and remembers when the lagoon was a vibrant source of food and recreation.

“My husband and kids would fish this and we would eat the fish and it was just wonderful. We would go water skiing,” McIntyre said. “Now I don’t think anyone’s eating the fish out of the lagoon. So we really absolutely need to get it back to that point.”

Dr. Chris Edwards, president of the Friends of the Thousand Islands nonprofit and a self-described lover of the lagoon, said he has seen the water quality decline over more than 25 years of living in the area. He said visible improvements from the tax — like septic-to-sewer conversions — have made a real difference.

“Where there was a septic-to-sewer conversion, I saw that change,” Edwards said. “I would ride my bike every Sunday and it would smell. They added sewer to the community. The smell is gone. So there’s an example of what the sales tax has done.”

Edwards added that the region’s growing population is putting additional pressure on the lagoon’s recovery.

“It’s a long way from being healthy,” he said. “And the amount of population that’s growing here is only stressing the lagoon out more.”

Elizabeth Blackford, another volunteer at the event, said she first traveled through the area by sailboat in 1992 and was struck by its beauty. She said the decline she’s witnessed since moving to the area about 15 years ago makes the tax renewal essential.

“The quality of the Indian River Lagoon has declined,” Blackford said. “Ten years ago, the citizens here voted to tax themselves to try and clean it up. And the fact that they were willing to suck up an additional half-cent sales tax for 10 years tells us all how important it is.”

Blackford said she is not worried the measure will fail.

“I think the citizens here know just how important the lagoon is to them, and they’re willing to pay for paradise,” she said.

She also offered a reminder that residents can take action beyond the ballot box.

“People in their own backyards can stop fertilizing and throw their grass clippings back on their lawns, and that will help stop the pollution that runs off to the lagoon,” Blackford said.

Lamb said the coalition is confident — but not complacent. In 2016, more than 60% of voters approved the original tax.

“Asking people to tax themselves to protect the waterway is quite an ask,” Lamb said. “The program has actually been working — almost everybody believes it’s been working. So it shouldn’t be terribly hard to get it renewed, but we’re not taking any chances.”

In Orange County, a proposal for 100 apartments on an 8.5-acre parcel near Catalina Elementary is already drawing opposition from residents of the neighboring Isle of Catalina community.

Under Florida law, “affordable” housing generally refers to housing where eligible households spend no more than 30% of their income on rent or mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and utilities. Eligibility is tied to household income compared with the area’s median income, with different income limits applying to different affordable housing programs.

Not every apartment proposed near Catalina Elementary will fall into that category. Some units are expected to be considered “attainable” housing. Attainable housing generally refers to units priced for working households that may earn too much to qualify for traditional affordable housing programs but still struggle with market-rate housing costs.

That distinction means rents, income requirements and eligibility could vary among apartments within the development.

Catalina Elementary Principal Adriene Anderson sees potential benefits for teachers and students. She told News 6 that affordable and attainable housing near the school could help the district retain educators and, in turn, strengthen academic performance.

“Because when you have teachers that remain at your school, that helps with our student achievement,” Anderson said.

Michael Hart is a reading teacher at Catalina Elementary. He said having housing closer to work would make a major difference.

“I do travel 30, depending on traffic, plus minutes to come over here,” said Hart. “So, the idea of it being cost-affordable and being close sounds absolutely amazing.”

But neighbors in the surrounding Isle of Catalina neighborhood are pushing back. They say an apartment-style development is not what they expected across from their single-family homes. Many residents have raised concerns about increased traffic and environmental impacts on nearby Clear Lake.

Resident Larry Johnson, who built his home across from the school in 1990, said he worries the project could hurt his property value.

“I can see probably $100,000 going off the property value of my home immediately once that happens,” Johnson said. “If I should need to sell, it’s going to be difficult because not very many people want to open their front door and look at an apartment complex,” he added.

In June, more than 50 letters and speakers were submitted during a City of Orlando zoning meeting opposing the proposal.

“If you don’t want this in your neighborhood, please, please, please don’t put it in mine,” one speaker said at the meeting.

Days later, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the latest Live Local Act update, giving school districts broader authority to pursue qualifying housing projects. The act now allows school districts to build affordable housing on district-owned properties regardless of current zoning.

With districts dealing with declining enrollment, budget cuts, and campus closures, News 6 asked other school districts whether they plan to convert district-owned property into affordable housing.

Districts across the region told News 6 they do not have plans at this time, including Seminole, Lake, Osceola, Flagler and Brevard.

Marion County Public Schools said the school board previously discussed the idea with a company out of Texas, but those talks have since paused.

Volusia County Schools said they initiated a project last year in collaboration with Home Brings Hope. A district spokesman said they donated the land and constructed new homes for six Volusia County staff members but did not indicate any plans for future developments.

News 6 also asked Orange County Public Schools whether it has decided what to do with the seven campuses it closed due to declining enrollment.

The district said it has not made a decision, and it has no other affordable housing projects in the works at this time.

The storm is forecast to bring rain to the Hawaiian Islands starting late Friday as well as high winds and dangerous surf, the National Hurricane Center said.

A hurricane warning is in effect for Hawaii County and a tropical storm watch is in place for Maui County including the islands of Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kahoolawe, forecasters said.

Lala was about 455 miles (735 kilometers) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and about 670 miles (1,075 kilometers) east-southeast of Honolulu with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) while moving west-northwest, the Miami-based center said.

Lala is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches the Big Island. It's expected to be near the island Saturday. A hurricane warning means hurricane conditions are expected, and it is typically issued 36 hours before potential tropical-storm-force winds.

The system could bring rainfall totals of 8 inches to a foot (up to about 30 centimeters) across Maui and the Big Island, with as much as 25 inches (nearly 64 centimeters) possible across the Big Island, forecasters said. That could produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, the center said.

Also in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Hernan formed Thursday but wasn't threatening land and was weakening while moving south.

Hernan was about 1,505 miles (2,420 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico with maximum sustained winds around 40 mph (65 kph), the center said.

In the Atlantic Ocean, former Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened and degenerated into a post-tropical remnant low on Thursday, the center said. It was about 500 miles (805 kilometers) west of the Azores and didn't threaten land.

In a release, the Florida-native grocery chain announced that the event — scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 15 — will feature “a mix of sweet and savory pistachio products.”

The event runs from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., during which time customers can stop by and enjoy free samples in several different departments.

The full list of goods on offer in this event is as follows:

• Bakery — Limited Edition Brown Butter Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

• Deli — Limited Edition Pistachio-Flavored Pudding

• Grocery — Pistachio Frozen Yogurt (availability varies by location)

• Seafood — Meal for One: Pistachio-Crusted Cod

• Produce — Limited Edition Pistachio-Flavored Parfait

These records show that the reported eateries experienced violations like rodent droppings, roaches, and storage issues, among others.

One eatery in particular — Castello’s Pizza in Orlando — had around 300 dead roaches in glue traps around the establishment, a health inspector reported. However, the pizzeria was able to reopen just a couple of days later.

That said, many of the other Central Florida eateries that were forced to close down last week were also eventually allowed to reopen after meeting health standards.

The full list of Central Florida eateries required to close last week is as follows:

BUNNELL

• Taqueria La Calentana Dos — 604 E. Moody Blvd.
• • Closed on Aug. 3
  • • Over 20 live, flying insects found on premises
  • Met inspection standards on Aug. 6

ORLANDO

• Castello’s Pizza — 8947 Conroy Windermere Road
• • Closed on Aug. 4
  • • Around 300 dead roaches found in glue traps throughout establishment
    • Sixteen live roaches found on premises
  • Met inspection standards on Aug. 6
• Hooter’s — 8510 Palm Pkwy.
• • Closed on Aug. 5
  • • Over 40 live, flying insects found on premises
    • Employee touched raw burgers with gloves and touched clean utensils with same gloves
    • Time/temperature violations for chicken wings and hamburger patties
    • Ware-washing sanitizing solution exceeded maximum concentration allowed
  • Follow-up inspection required as of Aug. 6
• Jersey Mike’s Subs — 6700 Conroy Road
• • Closed on Aug. 7
  • • Nineteen dead roaches in traps under front counter
    • Six live roaches found on premises, primarily in traps under front counter
  • Met inspection standards on Aug. 8
• Subway Sandwiches & Salads — 8839 Conroy Road
• • Closed on Aug. 4
  • • Over 30 live, flying insects found on premises
  • Met inspection standards on Aug. 4
• The Juicy Crab — 7308 International Drive
• • Closed on Aug. 7
  • • Seventeen dead roaches found on premises, primarily beneath wok station
    • Dozen live roaches found on premises, primarily in wok holder on cooks line or under wok station
    • Nearly 30 small, flying insects found on premises, primarily by soda machine
    • Pesticide labeled for household use only was present on cooks line fan
    • Raw whole shell eggs were touching buckets in walk-in cooler
    • Time/temperature violations for potatoes and corn
    • Toxic chemical/substance improperly stored next to wok station
    • Vacuum breaker missing at fitting/splitter added to mop sink faucet
  • Follow-up inspection required as of Aug. 8
• White Wolf Café & Bar — 1829 N. Orange Ave.
• • Closed on Aug. 3
  • • Over 70 rodent droppings found beneath counter of bar area
    • Time/temperature violations for cheese; ham; sausage; pancake batter; chicken salad; turkey; coleslaw; poached eggs; and cut tomatoes
    • Server drank from cup while waiting to pickup food, which was served without first washing hands
    • Dish person loads and unloads dishes without washing hands
  • Met inspection standards on Aug. 4

ST. PETERSBURG

• Buffet City — 1030 58 Street N.
• • Closed on Aug. 3
  • • Three dead roaches found in sticky trap beneath hand-wash sink by kitchen entrance
    • Six other dead roaches found on premises
    • Over 20 live roaches found on premises (operator killed all roaches)
    • Roach droppings found in corners of shelving in dry storage area
    • Raw chicken kept over raw shrimp in reach-in cooler
    • Raw chicken kept over raw salmon in walk-in freezer
    • Raw chicken stored over pizzas in reach-in cooler near ovens
    • Dishwasher not reaching hot enough temperature
  • Met inspection standards on Aug. 6

TAMPA

• Devito’s Italian Specialties — 200 N. Tampa Street
• • Closed on Aug. 4
  • • Three dead roaches found on premises
    • Eight live roaches found on premises
    • Raw shell eggs stored over bread and desserts
    • Raw beef stored over milk in walk-in cooler
  • Follow-up inspection required as of Aug. 5
• The Fryer House — 6617 N. Nebraska Ave.
• • Closed on Aug. 3
  • • Two flies spotted in kitchen
    • Three live roaches found near stand mixer
    • Eight live roaches found near grease trap
    • Raw chicken kept over unwashed produce in reach-in cooler
    • Three rodent droppings discovered near A/C unit in closet
    • Employee touched phone and then chicken without changing gloves or washing hands
    • Time/temperature violations for coleslaw, butter and cut lettuce
  • Follow-up inspection required as of Aug. 4

The backing came from 2030 World Cup co-host Morocco, Qatar, Egypt, Mauritania, Lebanon and Sudan, with four of the signatories being FIFA council members.

“We, the undersigned leaders of our respective football associations, express our full support for Mr. Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, and reaffirm our confidence in his leadership and continued commitment to the development of football worldwide,” the statement read.

“We deeply appreciate Mr. Infantino’s sustained efforts to advance football globally, expand opportunities across all regions and strengthen the game’s role in bringing people and communities together.”

The statement said the signatories “look forward to continuing our close cooperation with him towards a stronger and more prosperous future for world football, expanding opportunities and further enhancing Arab football’s contribution to the global game.”

Infantino is facing a revolt after his plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private equity investors. He withdrew the $20 billion proposal after a furious backlash by global soccer officials, including European body UEFA, which has warned of a boycott of all FIFA games and events.

UEFA teamed up with CONCACAF — the confederation for North, Central America and the Caribbean — and the Asian Football Confederation — and issued an open letter Monday saying Infantino’s plan was a “fundamental breach of trust” and described it as “deception.”

And on Thursday, the Football Association of Ireland said in a statement it has withdrawn its support for Infantino to be re-elected as FIFA president in March, saying “recent events have raised significant concerns regarding governance, transparency and the lack of meaningful consultation.”

The soccer federations in England and Wales did the same last week, while Northern Ireland said it was backing UEFA's stance.

New Zealand Football issued a statement Friday local time saying it had withdrawn its support for the candidature of Infantino and was seeking an independent review of steps taken to develop the FIFA Forward Enterprise scheme.

New Zealand Football broke ranks with its Oceania confederation, saying it “formed the view that decisions and actions within FIFA have contributed to a breakdown in trust and increased division within international football, and that an independent review is required to restore confidence and trust.”

Without commenting on Infantino's position, the OFC said it welcomed FIFA’s decision to withdraw the FFE proposal and its commitment to review the issues surrounding the project.

“OFC recognizes the progress achieved over the last decade in advancing football development in Oceania under FIFA’s leadership and encourages FIFA to use the review as an opportunity to identify and implement any changes that may be necessary," the statement said.

Schism in Asian bloc over Infantino support

By expressing support for Infantino, Qatar and Lebanon aligned against the Asian Football Confederation. Infantino’s official Instagram account previously has posted letters of support from several member federations, including Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The four FIFA council members among the signatories were Qatar Football Association president Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Egyptian Football Association president Hany Abo Rida, Moroccan Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa and Mauritanian Football Federation president Ahmed Yahya.

The other two were Lebanese Football Association president Hashem Haidar and Moatasem Gafar, president of the Sudan Football Association.

Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016 and seemed sure to be re-elected unopposed next year in Morocco.

FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to come forward.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Many Christians in Israel, who make up less than 2% of the country’s population, are worried visible signs of their faith will draw harassment, which has increased as multiple conflicts grip the region.

“I’m scared after the sister was beat up,” said Sister Mayela, a Mexican nun who’s lived in Jerusalem on and off for more than two decades. “Before, one could live with more confidence. Some people spat, some said hi. Now we have to live trusting in God.”

She finds resilience in her faith — and in support from Israelis like the volunteers. Even that, though, didn’t prevent a teen from spitting right behind her as they passed a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews recently. The teen said she was only clearing her throat, but the volunteer reported it to police.

Incidents like that are among the challenges for Christians in Israel, particularly since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, plunged the country back into war and polarization. But interfaith leaders and researchers are encouraged by better policing and prosecution as well as the recent appointment of a government envoy to the Christian world, who is Greek Orthodox.

In northern Israel, many Christians say they feel the state isn’t doing enough to protect them from crime because they’re not Jewish. But those concerns didn’t stop groups of Catholics from joining a recent joyous pilgrimage on Mount Tabor, where the Gospels say Jesus appeared transfigured alongside the Jewish prophets Moses and Elijah.

“In a world where darkness is filling the hearts of people, we need to diffuse God’s light to other people,” said Sister Muna, the nun who led one youth group.

For many Christians and Jews, protecting coexistence in the Holy Land is a moral imperative after their own long histories of religious persecution.

“I don’t want Christians to go out of their house in Jerusalem … and have fear,” said Yisca Harani, the Jewish Israeli educator and activist who escorted Sister Mayela. “I’ve gone through this 2,000 years in my Jewish history. I’m not going to let that happen.”

Occasional flare-ups occur in multifaith Old City

In the Old City, Jewish men in black hats and tzitzit tassels, Muslim women in hijabs and Christian priests in flowing robes walk past each other daily in the maze of stone alleyways. Many are headed to pray at the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. These are some of the most sacred sites respectively for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and they are close to each other.

“If you stroll around in your habit, sooner or later you’ll get some spitting next to you,” said the Rev. Alberto Pari, who leads interfaith dialogue and Christian-Jewish relations as secretary to the Custody of the Holy Land, the Catholic order ministering to holy sites across the region. “But it’s important not to generalize, because that unleashes antisemitism.”

Religious Freedom Data Center, the organization that Harani founded to track harassment of Christians, has recorded a near-tripling of incidents in Jerusalem from four years ago to the last three months recorded — about one a day now — virtually all by Jewish religious nationalists.

A Jewish man from a settlement in the occupied West Bank was indicted in the violent attack on the nun in April. The French Biblical and Archeological School of Jerusalem where the nun is a researcher expects “effective prosecution at the criminal and civil levels,” said the school’s director, Friar Olivier Poquillon.

Israel's government tackles anti-Christian incidents

Among those reaching out to Catholic leaders to denounce the attack and offer support was Ambassador George Deek, Israel's new envoy tasked with building what he calls the “special relationship” between Christians and the country, to both keep Christians safe and partner on issues like fighting antisemitism.

“We believe that every incident against Christians is immoral, illegal and should be prosecuted. That’s exactly what we are going to do,” Deek told The Associated Press. “We want to make sure that Israel continues to prosper and grow as a place where Christians can not only survive, but they can thrive.”

Around the time that the nun was attacked, two other incidents drew global condemnation. An Israeli soldier smashed a crucifix in a family garden and another stuck a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon, where the military is fighting Hezbollah militants. The soldiers involved received military prison sentences.

Most Israelis find harassment unacceptable. But Jewish religious nationalists, particularly uneducated young men, remain a threat, said John Munayer of the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, an interreligious organization in Jerusalem.

Their hostility to Christians is grounded in the history of persecution of Jews in Christian-majority European countries, in faith practices they see as idol-worshipping, and in a “general intolerance” for anyone who’s not Jewish near sacred areas like the Western Wall, Munayer said.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict spills over in Christian-Jewish tensions

Then there’s the overhanging trauma of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, since most local Christians in Israel and the occupied West Bank are Palestinian.

In Taybeh, the last entirely Christian village in the West Bank, Jewish settlers recently cut through house fences and destroyed fruit and vegetable gardens, said the Rev. Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Christ the Redeemer Catholic Church.

“All the people here are afraid,” he said. “Settlers come and go every day.”

Israel’s army declared the village a closed military zone earlier this week to curb the attacks. But concerns about Israel’s ability and willingness to rein in the settlers remain even among evangelicals, who are among the staunchest Christian supporters of Israel.

“What happens in Taybeh is really troubling,” said David Parsons, spokesperson for International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. “Israeli leaders have realized for some time that Christian support for their nation is not only vital, it’s a strategic interest.”

And yet since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, “generalized fear and skepticism” pervaded all interreligious work, Pari said. The interfaith music institute he directs, Magnificat, was invited to play at a peace march in Jerusalem. But when the Palestinian members saw that the stage had been set up by an Old City gate flanked by Israeli flags, they refused to play.

“I felt a real failure,” Pari said. “We think that as Christians, we have a very important role to patch things back together. ... It will be difficult, but we can do it.”

Israeli Christians hold tight to faith and identity

That faith-grounded resilience prevailed among the Mount Tabor pilgrims, who gathered on the mountain to celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration last week. Rising interfaith tensions and crime have driven many of the area’s Christians to emigrate, several said.

“It’s very difficult that we keep our identity as Christians in the Middle East, but it’s the most important,” said John Akleh, 20, who came with Sister Muna’s group.

Ten pilgrims from nearby Nazareth — where Jesus grew up — started the climb at 4:15 a.m. led by the Rev. Fadi Shallufi in a yearly tradition they’ve maintained even in wartime.

“We will have a lot of sacrifice, but you will be sure in this land something will change,” Shallufi told them as he celebrated Mass in the mountaintop basilica.

___

Associated Press journalists Ibrahim Hazboun and Moshe Edri contributed from Jerusalem.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The Dodgers took a two-run lead into the ninth inning Thursday night with Diaz, the highest-paid closer in baseball, on the mound. The defending champions left one inning later with a 5-4 loss to the NL-leading Milwaukee Brewers, who wreaked havoc on Los Angeles’ already beleaguered relief corps with a clutch three-run, five-hit rally.

Diaz (2-2) blew a save for the third time in his last four appearances for the Dodgers, giving up four consecutive one-out singles and three runs.

The normally imperturbable Roberts was clearly annoyed after this brutal loss in a game that would have pulled the Dodgers even with the Brewers atop the National League standings. Instead, Los Angeles has lost nine of 13.

When Roberts was asked whether Diaz would be allowed to continue to work through his struggles as the closer, Roberts snapped: “Give me another option.”

“I can’t just say, ‘Change (Diaz) to low leverage,'” Roberts added. “I have to have other options, and to be quite honest, none of those guys really have thrown the baseball great. That’s just kind of the way it is.”

That’s the dilemma facing Roberts, whose bullpen doesn’t currently contain a reliever he completely trusts. While the Dodgers’ overall bullpen statistics aren’t glaringly bad, Diaz’s struggles and a series of poor performances in recent high-leverage situations have clearly taxed Roberts’ problem-solving ability.

“You look back at the last week, and guys have struggled,” Roberts said. “I’m not going to sit here and play carousel and chase my tail ... when a guy is struggling, and then when he doesn’t pitch well, then it’s, ‘Why are you pitching him?’ I don’t do that. Everyone has got a role. They all have jobs to do, and they all have to do their job. That’s it.”

The trumpets that herald Diaz’s entrance into games have sounded more like a dirge lately while his ERA ballooned to 11.57. The three-time All-Star and longtime Mets closer has been frequently awful since returning late last month from a three-month absence for elbow surgery, giving up eight runs and 12 hits in only seven appearances.

“It’s frustrating, because I know my ability,” Diaz said. “I know what I can do on the mound. To not be able to do it (stinks). I've just got to come tomorrow and try to keep getting better.”

Diaz realizes he could be in danger of losing his job as the Dodgers' closer.

“I've just got to see what they want to do,” he said. “I want to do the best thing for the team. At the end of the day, if they give me the ball in the ninth, I will try to do my job. If they give me the ball in another inning, I will try to do my job. Got to get better, be consistent.”

Despite Roberts’ protestations, the clearest option to replace Diaz is left-hander Tanner Scott, who earned 16 saves this season before Diaz returned. But Scott’s miserable 2025 season is still top of many minds in Los Angeles, and his 2026 performance has mildly declined in recent weeks.

Roberts realizes he could consider a closer-by-committee plan, but that’s also difficult when any choice will be concerning.

“We’ve got to get other guys on track to even have that be even a valid conversation, to be honest with you,” Roberts said.

The bullpen’s struggles are magnified because the Dodgers’ talent-laden lineup hasn’t blown out anyone in weeks. Los Angeles has won just two games by more than two runs since July 19, repeatedly putting its relievers into perilous situations.

The Dodgers are trying to become the first NL team to win three straight World Series, and their fans still remember their team barely scraping through last season with a patchwork bullpen that finished 21st in the majors in ERA. In the postseason, LA improbably converted rookie starter Roki Sasaki into a closer.

Diaz was supposed to be the foundation of a return to a strong bullpen for the Dodgers, who hadn’t had a standout closer for years. Instead, he’s the central figure in another mess in mid-August.

Roberts is frustrated, but he’s also got perspective.

“I know people don’t want to hear it, but it’s baseball,” Roberts said. “Offenses go in lulls, and the bullpens go in lulls, and sometimes you get in a run where the starting pitching isn’t there. It is what happens, and it just doesn’t feel good. And it certainly is more highlighted when the ’pen doesn’t throw the baseball well, because it costs you games.”

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The program remained secret for decades and in 1982, President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation designating Aug. 14 as the official day to honor the Navajo Code Talkers and all Native Americans who served in the war.

A crowd is expected to gather in Phoenix to mark the day. Among them will be Thomas H. Begay, 101, who is among the last two remaining Code Talkers.

In all, the military recruited and trained more than 400 Navajo men to communicate confidential information using their then-unwritten language. It became the largest code-talking program in the military at the time.

Between 1942 and 1945, they sent thousands of secret messages on battle tactics and enemy troop movements and ultimately helped save the lives of thousands of Allied soldiers.

“The U.S. was being defeated. Without that code, that war could have been different," said Dawn Manuelito, a granddaughter of one of the first 29 Navajo Code Talkers. “Our language saved this country."

Navajo soldiers were sworn to secrecy

When the Code Talkers were discharged after the war, they couldn't tell anyone — even family members — about their secret mission. The program remained classified until 1968 and then efforts began to formally recognize the soldiers for their contributions.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon sent a letter of appreciation to the Navajo Tribal Council. Code Talker veterans participated in the bicentennial parade in Washington in 1976 and then Begay and other Code Talkers made a written request for recognition that resulted in a 1982 joint congressional resolution and Reagan's proclamation.

In the proclamation, Reagan also acknowledged that members of the Choctaw, Chippewa, Creek, Sioux, and other tribes used their tribal languages as effective battlefield codes in the two world wars.

At least 20 tribes have had members participate in the code talking programs, according to the National Museum of the American Indian.

During World War II, over 40,000 Native American men and women enlisted in the U.S. armed forces. Of the hundreds of Code Talkers deployed, the Comanches participated in operations in Europe, including the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

Advocates work to keep the legacy alive

Following President Donald Trump’s executive order to end federal diversity and equity programs, the Defense Department deleted thousands of pages honoring contributions by women and minority groups, including the Navajo Code Talkers and other Native American veterans.

Tribes condemned the action. The Pentagon restored some webpages, saying the Navajo Code Talker material was erroneously removed.

Laura Tohe, the Arizona poet laureate and daughter of a Navajo Code Talker, said her father went to a boarding school where students were punished for using their native languages. But when he joined the Army, Tohe said, he and other men were told that the military would use their language to devise a code.

“It's a huge contradiction,” Tohe said. “Despite the complicated and dark history and relationship that we have with the U.S., these men were willing to step up because many of them felt like it was their responsibility to serve."

There's no dedicated museum to honor the group. Attempts to build one on the Navajo Nation haven't come to fruition, but plans were announced last week to establish one in Farmington, New Mexico.

Only two Navajo Code Talkers remain

Begay grew up speaking only the Navajo language with his parents. At 13, like many Native American Code Talkers, he first learned English when he was sent to boarding school.

Begay left the Marines in 1946 but joined the U.S. Army a year later. He worked as a communication specialist and was a paratrooper during the Korean War. The experience in Korea convinced him to leave the military in 1953.

The other surviving Navajo Code Talker is Peter MacDonald. He joined the Marine Corps at 15. He was two years too young, so he lied about his age.

After the war, MacDonald worked as an engineer at a defense contractor company and eventually became a powerful and controversial politician on the Navajo Nation. In November 2017, MacDonald, along with other World War II veterans, met Trump in the Oval Office and shared the history of the Navajo Code Talkers.

——

Associated Press writer Savannah Peters contributed from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I’m not too concerned,” deGrom said following a 7-0 loss to the Angels. “I mean, hopefully I’ll make my next (start). We’ll see. It was tight in the second inning, and it just didn’t want to loosen up,
so I don’t know, I haven’t really had this before.”

The 38-year-old right-hander, who has been dealing with a left hip and glute injury since the All-Star break, escaped a two-on, one-out jam in the first but gave up two runs and five hits during a 32-pitch second. He was replaced by right-hander Peyton Gray to begin the third with the Angels leading 2-0.

It was the first time deGrom permitted five hits in an inning since Sept. 5, 2017, with the New York Mets.

“I wasn’t going to risk it once I heard (it was) the triceps,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “Obviously, you don’t want to hear anything arm-related. You pull a guy out in the second inning, it’s concerning. But we’ll figure it out when he gets some imaging. We won’t know until they get in there.”

This seven-game road trip began with the Rangers placing pitcher Nathan Eovaldi on the 15-day injured list because of elbow inflammation Monday. Texas beat the Angels 4-1 that night but lost the next three games to fall to 60-62 and two games behind first-place Houston in the AL West.

Now, the Rangers might have to navigate the next few weeks without their two best starting pitchers.

“Our starting pitching has taken a hit, that is reality,” Schumaker said. “With two guys going down, we’ll see what it looks like, but it’s never easy when you’re No. 1 and No. 2 guys are down.”

A two-time Cy Young Award winner, deGrom allowed six hits, struck out three and walked one. He needs two strikeouts to become the ninth active pitcher and 94th in major league history to reach 2,000.

In three starts against the Angels this season, deGrom has yielded 10 earned runs in 10 innings.

“It was very disappointing,” he said of Thursday night's start. “I needed to go out there and give us some length and wasn’t able to do it. I said I could probably keep going, and they said, ‘Well, we’re not going to risk this right now,’ so we’ll just see how it is tomorrow and I’ll go from there.”

One of baseball’s best pitchers when healthy, deGrom made at least 31 starts per season and pitched to a 2.53 ERA across 622 1/3 innings from 2017-19 with the Mets.

He won NL Cy Young Awards with New York in 2018 and 2019 and led the National League with 255 strikeouts in 2019 and 104 strikeouts during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

But deGrom made only 35 starts because of injuries from 2021-24 and underwent his second Tommy John surgery in June 2023, which sidelined him for much of his first two seasons with Texas in 2023 and 2024.

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Australia led all but 150 meters of the women's 4 x 200 freestyle relay, with the team of Inez Miller, Lani Pallister, Hannah Casey and Milla Jansen winning in 7 minutes, 42.40 seconds to lower the country's championship mark of 7:44.12 set at the 2018 Pan Pacs.

Katie Ledecky swam the anchor leg for the U.S., but couldn't overhaul Jansen although she got within a body length in the closing meters. Erin Gemmell, Anna Peplowski, Rylee Erisman and Ledecky took silver in 7:43.10, also going under the old championship mark.

“I've kind of struggled with the 200 individually from a flat start over the last couple years, but I always know I'll have something in me for the relay and I'll pull out a good split,” Ledecky said. “I love swimming that anchor leg.”

McIntosh helped Canada earn the relay bronze.

The U.S. team of Luke Hobson, Aaron Shackell, Patrick Sammon and Gabriel Jett won the men's 4 x 200 free relay in a championship record of 6:59.37. The Americans led the entire race, with Jett's explosive turn off the final wall helping him hold off a charging Sam Short of Australia on the anchor leg.

“I just kind of poured everything on,” Jett said. “I swim with my eyes closed, so I didn't know where I was.”

McIntosh briefly dipped under her own world-record pace early in the 400 IM. McIntosh finished in a championship record time of 4:28.01 after qualifying second-quickest for the eight-woman final at the outdoor pool.

McIntosh was disappointed with her time in the 200 free after losing to Pallister of Australia on opening night of the four-day international meet.

“Just trying to forget about it,” McIntosh said.

Jenna Forrester of Australia was second in 4:31.50. Agostina Hein, an 18-year-old from Argentina, took bronze after coming into the final with the fastest time in preliminaries.

Meg Harris of Australia surprised herself with a victory in the women's 100 freestyle from Lane 6. She touched in 52.60 seconds, beating American Gretchen Walsh, who was second in 52.78 after being 0.01 seconds under world-record pace at the turn. Olivia Wunsch of Australia was third.

American Simon Manuel, the 2016 Olympic champion, finished fourth.

The U.S. went 1-2 in the men's 100. Jack Alexy won in 47.14, lowering his championship-record time of 47.40 from the preliminaries. Teammate Patrick Sammon was second at 47.62. Guilherme Caribe of Brazil was third.

American McKenzie Siroky won the 100 breaststroke for her first international medal. She outdueled Tang Qianting of China down the stretch to touch first in 1:05.32. Tang was second in 1:05.46.

The U.S. swept the 50 backstroke events.

Quintin McCarty won the men's race in 24.51, lowering the championship record set by Isaac Cooper of Australia in the prelims. Cooper took silver.

Katharine Berkoff won the women's race in a career-best 26.90, bettering her championship mark set in the prelims. Teammate Regan Smith was second in 27.14.

American Van Mathias earned his third medal of the meet, winning the 100 breaststroke in 58.02, lowering his championship record from the prelims. He took silver in the 50 butterfly and gold in the world record-setting 4 x 100 mixed medley relay Wednesday.

The men's 400 IM was won by Tomoyuki Matsushita of Japan in 4:06.75. His time erased American Ryan Lochte's championship mark of 4:07.59 set at the 2010 Pan Pacs, also in Irvine.

“Next time I come back to the U.S. I'm going to get gold again,” a smiling Matsushita said through a translator.

American Carson Foster was second.

___

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

The Heisman Trophy winner led one touchdown drive for the Raiders (0-1) in four series — not including a kneel-down at the end of the first half — and finished 10 of 16 for 97 yards and a 6-yard TD pass to Jack Bech.

“I thought he led a good scoring drive as far as getting in and out of the huddle and commanding the group and getting the play calls down,” Raiders coach Klint Kubiak said. “I saw the same guy that we’ve seen in practice. I see an ascending player.”

Mendoza was more critical in his self-evaluation.

“Unfortunately, I let my teammates down today,” Mendoza said. “But it's a growing experience, and I feel like we're all growing. It showed me that I need to grow a lot.”

Mendoza became the first top overall draft selection to throw a touchdown pass in his first preseason game since 2018, when Baker Mayfield had two for Cleveland against the New York Giants.

Mendoza just missed a second touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, throwing beyond the reach of Deven Thompkins. He was sharp at times, threading a 19-yard pass in the second quarter between three defenders to fellow rookie Malik Benson.

While noting that everything came together on that play, including his timing with the receiver, Mendoza said some of his throws were a bit off.

“There's other passes I made that did not have great timing and anticipation,” Mendoza said. “But that was one that was a good connection. You see (starter) Kirk (Cousins) is timing and anticipation — boom, boom, boom. So that's an area I've got to grow in.”

The expected rematch of college football national championship quarterbacks didn't happen because the Cardinals (1-1) decided not to play Carson Beck, who has sore ribs. Mendoza led Indiana to a 27-21 victory over Beck and Miami in the title game in January.

“Being the preseason, we just didn't want to risk it,” Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur said. “It was kind of a bummer for our fan base and (media) and me and all us because we want to see these guys out there.”

Raiders pass rusher Maxx Crosby also did not play, which wasn't completely unexpected after Kubiak said Tuesday that his playing status was to be determined. Crosby, who underwent knee surgery in January, has participated in training camp.

Teammate Jermod McCoy, who hasn't played in nearly two years because of a torn ACL, played with the second-team defense at cornerback. He was the primary defender on two Cardinals touchdowns.

Each team's starting quarterback played one series, both resulting in touchdowns.

Las Vegas' Cousins was 5 of 6 for 50 yards and a 13-yard touchdown pass to Michael Mayer. Arizona's Jacoby Brissett completed all five passes for 44 yards and a 7-yard TD to Marvin Harrison Jr.

Brissett and former Raider Gardner Minshew combined to go 15 of 15 for 123 yards and three touchdowns in the first half to build a 21-14 lead. That string of completions extended 16 early in the second half before Minshew finally threw an incomplete pass on a rollout to the right.

Rookie Jeremiyah Love, drafted third overall by the Cardinals, made his preseason debut and rushed for 58 yards on 11 carries.

Injury report

Cardinals: Rookie right guard Chase Bisontis, who was drafted in the second round, injured his left knee. LaFleur said the injury appears serious. ... LaFleur said he didn't think Love's ankle injury was a major concern.

Up next

Cardinals: Host Dallas on Aug. 22.

Raiders: At Houston next Thursday.

___

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

The 33-year-old Philadelphia Phillies slugger added another thoroughly Midwestern highlight to his well-decorated career Thursday night, hitting two home runs into an Iowa cornfield.

Schwarber led off the Field of Dreams game with a homer and then connected for a two-run shot in the fourth inning to spark the Phillies in a 7-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

“We all watched the movie as kids, so it was really cool to be able to see exactly where it was and just kind of the full ceremony of it, too,” said Schwarber, who leads the major leagues with 37 home runs. “Just an unbelievable experience.”

After helping the Cubs win the World Series in 2016, making the postseason 10 times in his first 11 years and being selected to four All-Star teams, Schwarber has been building quite the resume. With 377 career home runs and counting, perhaps he'll one day join the club in Cooperstown like the 26 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame who took part in the pregame pomp at the newly constructed ballpark.

For now, Schwarber has an unforgettable night to share with his family forever. His two children are too young to watch or understand the movie now, but he can't wait to watch the 1989 film with them down the road.

“You might not ever get to play another big league baseball game here, so to be able to have that experience, it’s a unique thing for you and it’s something you’re going to bring up to your kids,” Schwarber said. “We’re going to watch that movie together with my kids one day and be able to say, ‘Hey, dad got to play there,’ or, ‘See that house in this movie? I got to see it.’ So it’ll be really cool.”

Twins right fielder Luke Keaschall, who homered in the loss, nearly caught Schwarber's second home run above the wall, but the ball glanced off his glove and into the dark green sea of corn.

“It was up there a while. In a perfect world, I think I should catch it,” Keaschall said. “I didn’t today.”

The Phillies moved a half-game ahead of idle Arizona into the third and final wild-card spot for the NL playoffs. So Schwarber's big swings meant more than just a page in his personal memory book.

“To have a good season a lot of guys have to have good years, but the aircraft carriers have still got to carry you,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said. “That just takes pressure off of everyone.”

Having entered the night just 10-15 since the All-Star break, the Phillies needed a bit of a jolt like the magic of the movie site and game location can produce — and their star designated hitter can provide.

“I feel like some people could take that for granted because he’s done it so many times, but we definitely don’t,” Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola said. “There’s no moment ever too big for him.”

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Trump is visiting the Nassau County Police Academy in suburban Long Island, where the White House said he will release new FBI crime statistics showing a decrease in violent crime for 2025.

“President Trump promised to make America safe again and the data proves he has done just that,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said. “Unlike Defund-the-Police Democrats, President Trump will always stand with our law enforcement officers and deliver safer American neighborhoods.”

Trump's visit is aimed at boosting Republican candidates in closely contested races across his home state, but just how much his presence will help is in question as he faces lagging approval ratings and a deeply unpopular war in Iran with no end in sight.

Trump narrowly won Nassau County in 2024, flipping it for Republicans for the first time in more than two decades. It's home to two Democratic House seats that Republicans now see as winnable this fall, and it's home turf for Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican challenging Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Trump will be joined by Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel in Nassau County, which has one of the largest police forces in the nation.

Crime becoming a theme in New York races

It's the second time this year Trump has visited New York in support of Blakeman and other Republicans. He stopped by the Hudson Valley area in May for a speech in which he said Blakeman would curb “out of control” crime.

Crime has emerged as a significant issue in the governor's race, with both candidates claiming to have the better track record of making New Yorkers safe. Hochul visited a different Long Island police department in July to announce a statewide investment in policing technology.

A statement from Blakeman said he's grateful Trump is visiting “to tour our outstanding, state-of-the-art law enforcement facilities” and pay tribute to law enforcement workers.

In a Fox Business interview Thursday, Blakeman played down concerns that Trump's visit would be unpopular with voters in New York City.

“When the most powerful person in the world comes to visit you and shows that you have a relationship together, I think that’s a very good thing,” Blakeman said, adding that even voters who disagree with Trump might appreciate a governor with a direct line to the president.

Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said the governor "has invested billions in public safety to protect New Yorkers — ‘MAGA all the way’ Bruce Blakeman is bringing Donald Trump to tour the county where he let violent crime spike to decade highs and Trump’s unaccountable ICE agents abuse their power.”

For GOP, safety is seen as a winning issue

Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist, said Trump's visit stands to boost Blakeman along with Republican challengers looking to unseat a pair of Democratic incumbents in Nassau County districts. Michael LiPetri Jr. is challenging Rep. Tom Suozzi in New York's 3rd Congressional District, while Jeanine Driscoll is opposing Rep. Lauren Gillen in the 4th Congressional District.

The focus on crime is seen as a cornerstone issue for Republicans that appeals to Trump's base along with suburban swing voters, Gorman said.

“On the strategic level, crime is an issue that Republicans feel comfortable going on offense with, where the country kind of broadly agrees with them,” he said.

Trump is touting the issue as he faces low approval ratings on a number of other issues, including the economy and the Iran war. An AP-NORC poll from August 2025 found that Trump’s handling of crime was among his strongest issues, though his approval on the issue had fallen by 10 points by December 2025.

Trump lashes out over report finding he hasn't reduced crime

While many of Trump's recent swing-state speeches have focused on his tax breaks and economic policies, Trump often mentions his effort to curb crime by deploying the National Guard in Washington, New Orleans and other Democrat-led cities.

This week, Trump lashed out at the Center for American Progress and threatened to sue the liberal think tank over a report finding that the National Guard deployments failed to reduce crime. Without giving evidence, Trump said in a social media post that “crime is way down since I took Office, and they know it.”

For Trump, talking about crime reduction during his trip to New York offers a chance to reach voters across political and class divisions, said Jesse Hunt, a Republican strategist.

“The issue of crime and safety is a massive winner for Republicans,” Hunt said. “What we’ve seen from the Trump administration and Republicans in general is a real focus on that issue. And they should highlight the successes.”

The White House said the new FBI statistics will show year-over-year decreases in murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Crime experts often caution against drawing too much from single-year changes and encourage a focus on long-term patterns.

In conversation, she seamlessly slips in and out of that singular voice — a little breathy, a little squeaky, a little lispy, a little New York — that made her “Little Shop of Horrors” heroine an instant icon. It wasn’t a register she’d planned on hitting at the audition. It just came out of her in the moment, and it stuck.

“I didn’t think about it,” Greene, 75, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It was weird, I mean, I don’t know where half of this stuff came from.”

Back on tour with ‘Little Shop’

In her long and robust career on the stage and screen, Audrey is perhaps Greene’s defining role. Her tragicomic shopgirl of skid row belted her way into audiences’ hearts off-Broadway in 1982, and then in Frank Oz’s 1986 film opposite Rick Moranis.

The catchy musical about that flesh-eating plant is never too far in the rearview either. Every few years it seems she’s beckoned for an encore. In 2015, she reprised the role for three sold-out shows, with Jake Gyllenhaal playing Seymour.

Starting this weekend, she'll be making stops around the country for the next few months for 40th anniversary screenings, from Seattle (Aug. 18) to Atlanta (Nov. 13). Performances of “Somewhere That’s Green” have been promised too.

'Somewhere That’s Green'

That aching ballad about wanting more, aside from being one of the big showstoppers, holds a special place for Greene. She remembers first listening to it on the unemployment line, waiting to get her check, and quietly singing along.

“I just knew there was an Audrey inside of me waiting to be born,” Greene said.

She carried that feeling to the audition where composer Alan Menken jumped in to play the piano with lyricist Howard Ashman, already her great friend, looking on. When she finished, everyone was in tears.

Getting the role wasn’t any sort of immediate windfall either. When they started at the WPA Theatre in New York, she was being paid $50 a week for a month of rehearsals and two months of shows off-Broadway. But it was a hit. One night, Steve Martin, who would later play Audrey’s abusive dentist boyfriend in the film, even came to see it with Mary Tyler Moore.

On the stage, she performed “Somewhere That's Green” sitting on a trash can. For the film, Ashman wrote the number to be staged like the Leslie Caron and Cyd Charisse numbers they both loved, where a character walks into a room and suddenly they’re in a different outfit for the song.

“You would think I would just have been floored and so excited that he gave me this gift,” she said. “Instead, I call him up and I’m crying my eyes out. And I’m saying, wait for this, ‘Where’s my trash can?’”

Ashman, she said, just laughed and assured her that they’d elicit the same response when the camera pans out to reveal she’s still on skid row. Ironically, this whole exchange happened before she’d even officially been cast in the movie.

How the audience saved Audrey from dying

The story of how the film was made is long and bumpy. John Landis was originally attached to direct, then, briefly, Martin Scorsese, before it found its way to Oz. Greene’s participation was never a given, either. Producer David Geffen wanted to get a “bigger name,” like Cyndi Lauper, on screen.

“I never thought I would have gotten the film,” Greene said.

But it’s hard to imagine anyone else turning in a performance as distinctive. Test audiences loved her Audrey so much that they wholly rejected an ending in which she dies.

“I love that death scene, personally,” Greene said. “But I had an inkling, you see, because Frank directed the Audrey for the screen more heroine-like.”

He’d taken out lines from the play like “you don’t meet nice boys when you live on skid row,” she said in Audrey-speak. She thinks it set her up a little differently. Then at the end, there’s the line “when I die, which should be very shortly.” On stage, she said it to the audience. In the film, she says it to Seymour. It's more intimate and serious.

“Frank thinks it’s because we didn’t take a bow, like in the play, but I think it’s because it’s just the line is interpreted two different ways. One sets it up that this is silly and I’m OK, and the other one is it’s real and it’s touching,” she said.

Oz ultimately relented and they shot a happier conclusion. Now, Greene just likes that they both exist (the original in a director’s cut).

Keeping Howard Ashman's memory alive

Remembering “Little Shop” is also a way to remember Ashman, who died of complications related to AIDS in 1991. Their friendship was one of many laughs, songs and adventures. He even took her on her first trip to Paris.

“We got into my room and he put on a bubble bath, because he knows I love bubble baths. I got into the bath, he gave me Champagne, he gave me caviar, he put on Piaf,” she said. “We had separate rooms, of course, but we were close, so what can you do? And I’m from the theater, so I’m not modest.”

He also looked out for her. When they were drawing up contracts for the “Little Shop” stage run, all she could think about was making sure London was in there. Unbeknownst to her, Ashman had also given her a half point of the profit, “because I created Audrey,” she said.

“That’s how generous and kind he was and how much he loved me,” she said. “Everybody loves Audrey because we, I, loved her first. And everybody loves “Little Shop” because we put so much love in it … I am so grateful and very humble because when they love ‘Little Shop’, they keep it alive, and they keep Howard Ashman alive.”

“I commented a week ago on that,” Kiffin said after practice in Baton Rouge. “That's the comment that I had and we're moving forward.”

LSU's official online store has removed replica Daniels jerseys from the menu of those for sale, which include the No. 9 of 2019 Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow and the No. 3 of former star receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Meanwhile, Pickett showed no interest in relinquishing the No. 5 when he spoke with reporters after Thursday's practice.

“I’ve been wearing the number my whole life, since I was 4 years old,” Pickett said. “That was the number I was promised. I wish Jayden the best. Good player — he did real good here.”

Daniels, drafted second overall by the Washington Commanders in 2024, said in a social media post on Thursday that the matter would not affect his preparation for the NFL season.

“I have been locked in on training camp and that has been my No. 1 focus,” Daniels said in the post. “I have a lot of gratitude for my time at LSU and I'm proud of what my teammates and I accomplished there.

“Obviously there are issues to get worked out” with LSU, Daniels continued. “My hope is that it will get done privately. ... I realize the business of football is unique and I trust that this can all be resolved.”

Daniels' statement came in the wake of reports about a letter in which his Miami-based attorney, Adam Kenner, demanded that LSU no longer use his client's name, image or likeness to promote the university or its athletic programs.

Pickett wore a No. 3 jersey as a freshman last year but was wearing No. 5 when August camp opened last week. The 6-foot-5 cornerback is a former five-star recruit who had three interceptions in 2025.

Kiffin said last week that Pickett was promised the opportunity to wear No. 5 when he signed with LSU in December 2024, when Brian Kelly was coaching the Tigers. Kelly was fired in October 2025, and Kiffin was hired at the end of the regular season.

“When a kid’s promised something to come to a school, he should wear it,” Kiffin said during an Aug. 5 media session. “So at that point, I don’t think it’s really my decision. We should honor what he was told.”

Pickett is the first player to wear No. 5 since Daniels left LSU. Under LSU policy, the only number football players cannot wear is No. 20, worn by the late Billy Cannon, who was the Tigers' first Heisman winner in 1959.

Top LSU officials, including athletic director Verge Ausberry, have declined to comment on the matter.

A number of images of Daniels that are on display at LSU would be considered in the public domain, and not subject to any contractual agreements between the university and the quarterback. But LSU has in the past featured Daniels in promotional videos shown in Tiger Stadium or and elsewhere, and it remains to be seen whether LSU might edit some of those out should the dispute become protracted.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow — who won the 2019 Heisman Trophy and led LSU to a national title — declined to comment on the specifics of Daniels' situation after Thursday night’s preseason game against the Detroit Lions. But he said he's had conversations about his No. 9 not being issued to another player.

“They told me that they wouldn’t use it again, but you never know what happens,” he said.

___

AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy in Cincinnati contributed to this report.

___

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here

In all, three ballistic missiles fired by the Iran-backed Houthis struck the ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, just off Yemen’s coast, as it was coming into port, killing six people and injuring at least nine others, according to Yemeni authorities.

It was part of an escalating campaign by the Houthis and their first deadly attack this year on a vessel navigating the strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and accounts for roughly 12% of global trade.

“People were burning ... it was a strange scene of doomsday,” said Zaheer Ahmed, a Pakistani crew member recovering at a hospital in the port city of Mokha.

“I shouted for help and a Yemeni soldier came to my aid,” said Ahmed, who was injured in both legs.

All three of the crew members The Associated Press interviewed Wednesday at the hospital described intense fire, panic and damage aboard the ship, which was struck before dawn on Tuesday.

Muhammad Alteno, an Indonesian crew member, said he was in “complete shock” after witnessing another Indonesian crew member — a friend — die in the attack. Alteno said he had tried to rescue his friend, who was trapped inside the room they shared, after the first missile strike.

“But the flames were so intense that I couldn't breathe,” Alteno said. “I managed to escape with some of the (other) crew members.”

Two members of Yemen's government-allied National Resistance Forces were killed in the attack, as were three crew members from Pakistan.

The attack was one of many in recent weeks by the Houthis, who have killed government forces and civilians in an escalating campaign on the government-held city of Mokha and other areas, according to the Yemeni military. The rebel group has also intensified its attacks on troops and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government.

The attacks risk reigniting Yemen’s civil war following a 2022 U.N.-brokered truce, and could open a new front in the Middle East war.

The Houthis declared a blockade several weeks ago on Saudi-linked ships leaving the Bab al-Mandeb strait in retaliation for a yearslong Saudi siege on Yemen and recent attacks on the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa. The Houthis had said they would only stop vessels connected to Saudi Arabia or going in and out of its Red Sea ports.

During a similar blockade it announced during the war in Gaza, the Houthis attacked over 100 vessels before a punishing U.S. and Israeli air campaign put an end to the attacks in early 2025.

___

Ezzidin reported from Cairo.

The wildfires across the West Midlands, which saw several houses burned to the ground, have been “one of the most significant” incidents the region’s fire service has ever dealt with, chief fire officer Simon Tuhill said.

A child and three firefighters were taken to the hospital following the wildfire in Stourbridge.

West Midlands mayor Richard Parker described the “multiple fires across our region” as an “extremely worrying and fast-moving situation."

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been kept abreast of the situation and has, according to Parker, pledged to support fire and rescue services in the West Midlands with any additional resources they need.

The fires, the cause of which has yet to be determined and which could take days to put out, came on the hottest day of the year, when the mercury struck 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in west London, a tenth of a degree higher than the previous high set on June 28.

Britain is experiencing its fifth heat wave of the year, with the first recorded in May. The latest extreme heat means 2026 has now had a record four days with temperatures of 36 C (96.8 F) or higher. It also has matched 2022 with two days reaching 38 C.

These are historic temperatures as a result of human-caused climate change.

Nearby France has also endured its fifth heat wave this year and, if anything, the situation is worse. Temperatures in France approached 41 C (106 F) in several areas, from Aquitaine in the southwest to the Rhone River valley in the east, according to the national weather service.

Britain and France ill-equipped for this sort of heat

This summer has shown that both Britain and France are ill-equipped to deal with these levels of heat. Air conditioning is a rarity outside of shops and offices, for example.

In Britain, nurses have collapsed from heat exhaustion while working in hospitals, many housed in aging buildings that lack adequate cooling, the Royal College of Nursing said Thursday.

“When nursing staff are collapsing, feeling dizzy, sick or even being admitted to the very hospitals they work in because their workplaces cannot handle the heat, it shows just how badly they are being failed,” said Nicola Ranger, the college’s chief executive and general secretary.

Wildfire fears remain a clear and present danger

With the land parched and no sign of any meaningful rain coming, authorities across Europe remain on high alert for wildfires.

French firefighters were back in action after a desperate summer and are threatening to go on strike to demand more staff and resources to cope with increasingly extreme weather events.

One broke out late Wednesday in the northern Pas-de-Calais region, and another in Brittany, far from the hotter, drier and more fire-prone regions in southern France. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.

In northern Greece, more than 300 vacationers and residents were evacuated by sea Thursday after a wildfire swept through a pine forest and threatened seaside homes, authorities said.

The Fire Service said nine water-dropping planes and seven helicopters were assisting 250 firefighters around the Siviri resort on the popular Halkidiki peninsula. There were no initial reports of injuries or serious property damage.

In Britain, which is increasingly looking sandy brown rather than its traditional luscious green, firefighters have been out in force this week trying to contain a wildfire in the New Forest in southern England.

Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data from the National Fire Chiefs Council, the same as last year’s record-breaking total.

Though not on the same level as those witnessed in France, Greece and Spain, they provide ample evidence of the need for the U.K. to adjust to a new reality.

Unsurprisingly, drought conditions are spreading

Like many parts of Europe, Britain and France are facing widespread drought conditions that have shriveled crops and drained rivers, heaping pressure on water resources for households, agriculture and the environment, and forcing all parts of society to seek both short- and long-term measures to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Britain’s Southern Water, which oversees supplies in the south of England, has applied for a rare drought order which would ban businesses from nonessential water use, including cleaning cars and filling nondomestic swimming pools, saying an “exceptional” lack of rain is threatening supplies. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle will decide on the application, which would be the first such ban since May 2006.

With temperatures soaring, many people headed to beaches and outdoor pools or found other ways to cool off. In Bordeaux in southwestern France, children and adults sought relief in the city’s iconic “water mirror.” Some frolicked in fountains, splashed their faces and filled up water bottles. Birds too quenched their thirst.

The most intense heat is forecast to move eastward away from Britain and France on Friday and then recede over the weekend.

___

Charlton reported from Paris. Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece contributed.

Satellite images have shown that oil from the tanker Caroline Bezengi has exponentially spread over hundreds of square kilometers during stormy weather, endangering a marine protected area. The region's “Khareef” monsoon season peaks in July and August.

Ambrey, a UK-based maritime risk and response company, said its personnel boarded the vessel with help from the Omani air force to assess its condition before stabilizing it.

The vessel has been grounded off Qabiliyah Island in southwestern Oman following an explosion of unclear cause in early June. Its cargo previously has been estimated at more than 800,000 barrels.

Satellite images also have shown that the tanker is increasingly submerged, and experts have warned of an unprecedented environmental disaster if the vessel sinks or breaks open and leaks its entire cargo.

“This is an extremely challenging situation, compounded by adverse weather conditions associated with the Khareef monsoon,” Ambrey's global response director Ed Wollaston said in a statement. The company did not immediately have any estimates of how long the salvage operation would take or cost.

Oman’s Environment Authority said Wednesday the oil spill has reached the shores of Ras Madrakah, more than 200 kilometers (more than 120 miles) north of Qabiliyah Island. Authorities said they estimated the spill could reach more than 100 kilometers further north, to Masirah Island.

Hanen Keskes, a campaigner for the environmental group Greenpeace, said it is “extremely concerning” that the oil has spread from an offshore spill to the shoreline where it can contaminate coastal sediments.

"It can make the cleanup significantly more complex than containment at sea,” she said. “Even after the slick has been contained and removed, the environmental impact can last for years."

The marine protected area of Qabiliyah Island includes coral reefs, seagrass meadows and endangered turtles, and offers breeding sites for migratory birds. The area is also home to the rare Arabian Sea humpback whale.

The remote area lacks infrastructure, making the salvage and containment more challenging and requiring more safety measures, Keskes said.

The 247-meter (899-foot) Caroline Bezengi is believed to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” and has been sanctioned by the British government and the European Union for carrying cargoes of Russian oil.

It had left the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, in Russia, in May, according to geospatial data tracking company SynMax Maritime. The vessel’s owners are believed to be Shanghai-based. The vessel is unflagged, and it is not clear if it is insured.

It is only one of the environmental crises affecting the region. Off the coast of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian authorities are cleaning up an oil spill off of Qeshm Island that has been attributed to the conflict between Iran and the United States.

Images distributed by Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA show oil damage to the sandy beaches of Qeshm. It is not immediately clear what caused the spill.

Iran has said it should receive compensation for its efforts to contain the damage. But maritime tracking firm TankerTrackers.com posted satellite images on X saying it appears the spill was caused by an Iranian attack on a bulk container ship off of Oman. The spill drifted across the strait to Iran.

The pregame pomp before the Minnesota Twins played the Philadelphia Phillies — adjacent to the farmland where the 1989 fantasy was filmed — featured 26 members of the Hall of Fame emerging from the outfield corn just as the ghost players did in the movie.

With some of the loudest cheers saved for former Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt and former Twins catcher Joe Mauer, the capacity crowd of about 8,000 at the newly constructed ballpark in northeast Iowa soaked up the surreal atmosphere as the aged stars strolled into the infield for proper introductions.

Fireworks were launched from the cornfield during the national anthem, and Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber followed with his own big bang — a stalk shot to right on Twins starter Taj Bradley's third pitch of the game that set the tone for a 7-1 win on Thursday night.

After stealing the show at the inaugural 2021 event, which was played on the same footprint at a temporary setup that also hosted the 2022 game, Kevin Costner did not appear.

But the star of the film — as the restless farmer Ray Kinsella who reconnects with his late father by playing catch on his front-yard ballfield — narrated the pregame video that helped pump some old-guard nostalgia through the new-school broadcast on global streaming giant Netflix.

Both teams emerged from the corn together to take their places along the lines like on opening day, and Twins All-Star Byron Buxton — who came off the injured list in the afternoon to play — took the microphone to evoke a line from James Earl Jones, who played the author Terence Mann in the movie.

“The one constant through all the years has been baseball," Buxton said before Schwarber followed with a brief script on an idyllic late-summer night after heavy rain moved through the area earlier in the day.

Then came the legends, and living ones at that, unlike those wool-clad lads in the movie.

Schmidt and Steve Carlton wore Phillies uniforms along with Jim Kaat, who played for both teams. Mauer and Bert Blyleven donned Twins jerseys. The others — Andruw Jones, Harold Baines, Fred McGriff, Adrián Beltré, Andre Dawson, Larry Walker, Cal Ripken Jr., Iván Rodríguez, Jim Thome, Scott Rolen, Tony Pérez, Tony La Russa, Jeff Kent, Fergie Jenkins, Joe Torre, CC Sabathia, Billy Wagner, Rollie Fingers, Lee Smith and Trevor Hoffman — helped form a half-ring around the diamond to represent about one-third of the Cooperstown contingent that's still alive.

This was the largest such gathering at a ballpark, not including the annual ceremonies at the Hall of Fame in upstate New York, since the All-Star Game in 2008 that feted the final season at old Yankee Stadium.

Phillies manager Don Mattingly relished the brief pregame mingle before the grand entrance, with many in the group contemporaries of his as a player in the 1980s and 1990s and a few others in Jones and Kent he was able to coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“It was definitely good to see the boys,” Mattingly said.

No place evokes baseball and family nostalgia like the Field of Dreams

Before the game, Buxton played catch with his 12-year-old son on the nearby movie site that remains open to the public for no cost on non-event days. Twins manager Derek Shelton did the same with his 78-year-old father, a former educator who coached him on his high school baseball team. Shelton later complained that his arm was in weaker shape.

“You don’t get old enough that an experience like that is not emotional to be able to do something with your father,” Shelton said.

Mattingly, whose son just happens to be the club's general manager, found himself harkening back to Indiana childhood ballgames with his brothers upon arrival on the team bus.

“This place reminds me of when I was a kid,” Mattingly said. "You’d go down a dirt road, and all of sudden you’d see a cornfield and then there’d be a field there."

Both teams wore throwback uniforms — the Twins in home threads from their first season in 1961 and the Phillies in road jerseys circa 1940 — in step with the hand-operated scoreboard in right field.

The permanent ballpark built for all kinds of events — including the opportunity to host MLB games on a recurring basis — also has plenty of amenities with the video board in left field, a state-of-the-art sound system and, of course, indoor plumbing.

The feel of the farm was just as strong as the buzz of the ballpark, with natural sponsor John Deere pledging $100,000 per home run hit to hunger-relief organization Feeding America.

The special environment didn't erase the circumstance of the stretch run of the regular season, though, with both the Twins and Phillies in the thick of their respective wild-card races.

“We’re not in Minnesota for three days," Phillies star Bryce Harper said, "but we’re still playing the Twins three times and we've still got to win some games."

Even in defeat, the Twins enjoyed taking part in something bigger than simply the 123rd game on their schedule.

“As you grow in this game and get older and play more games, the shine of being in the big leagues and walking out on a big league field starts to wear off,” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Moments like this kind of bring that excitement and that energy and the goosebumps similar to your debut day.”

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Qusai Abu Rida was holed up inside with his teenage son when settlers cut the water and electricity, leaving them to drink well water as dozens of Israeli settlers erected tents outside. His Palestinian American brother in Ohio, who owns the house, watched the siege unfold on security cameras and called for updates.

The standoff in the northern West Bank town of Qusra is the latest in a wave of settler violence convulsing the territory, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up the main part of a future Palestinian state.

On Thursday, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists” — a word American officials usually reserve for Palestinian militants. It was an unusually sharp rebuke from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has given unprecedented support to Israeli settlement over the years.

Mounting criticism of Israel from the United States could pose a challenge for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is trying to maintain good relations with his country's closest ally as he mobilizes ultranationalist voters ahead of a tough battle for reelection in October.

Settlers have remained in the area despite the army intervening

On Sunday, dozens of settlers arrived at the homes in Qusra, blocking doors and preventing occupants from leaving, according to the families.

Israeli troops have intervened multiple times, but the settlers keep returning, said Loui Ridi, the homeowner in Ohio who spells the family name differently. Rights groups have long accused Israeli forces of turning a blind eye to settler violence or of intervening to protect the settlers.

“It's a cycle,” Ridi said. “They need to be prevented from the entire area, not just removed and moved 100 feet away so when the (Israeli military) leaves, they come back.”

On Tuesday, Israel’s military condemned the siege as “illegal, reprehensible, and unacceptable,” and declared Qusra a closed military zone. The next day, dozens of settlers returned, tried to block the road with rocks and clashed with Israeli soldiers, according to video shot by village residents.

On Thursday, the military said troops dismantled “two illegal outposts” in Qusra and a nearby village, and detained one Israeli. It said more soldiers were sent to “carry out defensive missions and patrols.”

Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi said that Israeli forces evacuated more than a dozen homes to take up positions in the village. The settlers, though removed from their outposts, remain in other parts of the village, he added.

Abu Rida said soldiers gave the occupants of all the homes 30 minutes to evacuate and move into one of the besieged houses. The military said the soldiers have been told to allow families to remain in their homes and not to operate in them, but families have not yet returned, Abu Rida said.

It's still not clear when families in the besieged area will be able to get basic supplies and what would happen to their homes. Israel’s military said the families had basic supplies like food and water when it checked in on them on Wednesday.

But Ridi said Thursday that after water and electricity lines had been reconnected, settlers cut them again.

Settler violence has surged in recent years

Netanyahu's government, the most ultranationalist and religious in Israel's history, has presided over a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank. It views the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.

On Thursday, members of Netanyahu's Cabinet joined in celebrating the rebuilding of a settlement elsewhere in the West Bank that had been dismantled in 2005. "The era of withdrawals and expulsions has ended. The era of construction and Zionism begins,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said at the ceremony.

During Trump's first term, he signaled broad acceptance of the settlements, which most of the international community views as illegal and an obstacle to peace. At the start of his second term, he lifted sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on settlers accused of violence.

Huckabee, a longtime supporter of the settlements, has condemned the rising violence.

“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,” Huckabee said in his post about the events in Qusra. He said the embassy has been coordinating with the Israeli military and police.

Qusra has been a focus of settler attacks

The U.N. humanitarian office in April said it had recorded more settler attacks in Qusra than in any other West Bank community in 2026. A 25-year-old resident was shot and killed by an off-duty Israeli reservist in March, and eight others have been wounded in the attacks, according to the U.N.

Violence between settlers and Palestinians last month left two Israelis and four Palestinians dead in a nearby northern West Bank village. In the aftermath, a mosque in Qusra was set on fire and the word “revenge” was graffitied on its wall in Hebrew.

A total of 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers this year, according to the Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry. Israel says some were involved in terrorism, which it defines broadly to include militant attacks and rock-throwing. Palestinian authorities do not distinguish between militants and civilians when recording deaths in the conflict.

Palestinian officials have reported 1,476 attacks by Israeli settlers in 2026, including several instances in which settlers seized Palestinian homes and property.

The military says it works to maintain law and order in the territory, and Israeli Cabinet ministers have blamed the attacks on a small group of young extremists acting outside the law.

Some 2.8 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centers. The settlers, who now number over 560,000, are Israeli citizens. There have been no Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in over a decade.

“This is not a life that can continue this way,” said Wadi, the mayor of Qusra. “Too much pressure eventually causes an explosion.”

___

This story has been updated to correct the first name of the homeowner to Loui.

___

Metz reported from Jerusalem.

Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Palm Coast is set to donate $25,000 to support the new business, Hilaire told News 6.

“Dignity starts here,” is the message that greets visitors at the Parramore Market entrance, where Hilaire hopes to create a shopping experience that feels like a traditional grocery store.

“I want people to feel — I want everything to feel what it feels like going to the Parramore Market,” she said.

Hilaire said she was shocked when the church first reached out.

“At first I’m like, this has to be fraud,” she said, laughing.

She said the church sent paperwork asking about the level of need.

“I filled out not knowing what their capacity to give was,” Hilaire said.

Hilaire said she decided to put $25,000 as the requested amount . She considered that amount after last year thru her group The Desire Foundation raising $49,000. The group using that money to feed 6,000 families.

“So I said, you know what, I’m just gonna put 25 thousand,” she said.

The next day, she said, the church sent over a contract approving that amount.

“And I was just like, God — I started shouting in my room. I’m real churchy,” Hilaire said. News 6’s Ashley Garrett responded, “Same,” laughing.

The Parramore Market is set to open on Westmoreland next month and will offer a mix of low-cost and no-cost items, Hilaire said.

She said free items will include produce, baby formula and even laundry detergent — an expense that can quickly add up for families.

“When you go to get your little normal size Tide, that can be anywhere from 10… maybe 15 bucks,” Garrett said during the story. Hilaire added that being able to refill detergent as needed can save money compared with buying new containers.

Hilaire said she had previously shared concerns about how she would continue serving the community financially, but said support has continued to arrive.

“The power of a yes,” she said when talking to Garrett, reflecting on how one opportunity can lead to another.

“Just saying one yes — it’s like you. You said yes to the interview and that opened doors for us to get that funding,” she said. “If they said yes to us, then that’s gonna open more doors for us to feed thousands of people.”

Parramore Market is scheduled to open to the public Sept. 9.

Link to donate to Jennifer’s group here.

The slowdown Thursday for people in the capital, Taipei, and six other cities and localities was part of the last phase of the island's annual Han Kuang exercises, military drills that began last week and aim to model a response to a possible Chinese military invasion.

Telecommunication operators slowed mobile web traffic to 256 Kbps, making it difficult to exchange anything other than texts. Usually, residents can access 5G in major cities.

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te apologized to the public for the inconvenience, “We ask for your understanding and support, as this is a necessary drill,” he said.

Taiwan has stepped up the intensity of the Han Kuang drills, incorporating reservists and more civilians into the exercises with a focus on real-world scenarios. Previously, urban resilience drills in Taipei went largely unnoticed as they were not disruptive. For example, air raid drills in the metro station didn’t stem the flow of passengers.

This year, integrating civilians and coordinating with local governments was a key part of the exercises, according to the Taipei Times.

At a Taipei metro station Thursday afternoon, passengers waited to be released after the station's gates were shut for the simulation as part of air raid drills.

Allen Hsieh, a tourist from Hong Kong who was among the passengers who waited 30 minutes to be let out of the station, said he found the exercises to be convincing.

“The exercise did not cause me any inconvenience. I know that Taiwan needs to conduct exercises, given the current situation. I can understand that,” he said. “I did not expect it to be so real. I thought I would only receive text messages.”

Lai also visited a hospital as it simulated how to relocate its critical operations to underground facilities as part of the drills.

Taiwan is ramping up its defense exercises and purchases in response to heightened tensions with China, which claims the island as its own. China sends military planes, as well as Coast Guard ships and other vessels towards Taiwan on a daily basis and carries out large-scale military exercises from time to time.

Between Wednesday to Thursday morning, 18 Chinese warplanes and 11 navy ships operated around Taiwan, the island's Defense Ministry said.

The warning is typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises and suggests the country could conduct more missile tests in coming days. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals' drills as a pretext to ramp up its testing activities to expand its weapons arsenals and promote public support for leader Kim Jong Un.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries are to start their major summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises Monday and have described their scope as similar to past years. The allies have said the 11-day exercises are meant to strengthen their readiness against North Korean threats and reiterated that they are defensive in nature.

In a statement carried by state media Friday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the U.S.-South Korean training “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that is triggering a different level of instability in the region.

“It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent,” the statement said. North Korea “will more clearly express its stance on the enemies to cope with any threats and challenges through the responsible and decisive exercise of the right to legitimate self-defense.”

North Korea also said the drills would be of a “more serious provocative nature and dangerousness than last year” and involve all the military assets and war-fighting modes of the U.S. and South Korea, a claim that those countries haven’t said.

A U.S. military statement issued Friday said U.S. and South Korean forces will practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distribution of prepositioned military equipment.

North Korea's neighbors detected two ballistic missile launches off the North's east coast in the past week. North Korea hasn’t commented on the launches, but outside experts assess they were likely meant to protest the U.S.-South Korean drills or upgrade its weapons systems.

Kim has ignored the U.S. and South Korea’s offers to resume diplomacy and focused on taking steps to bolster his nuclear arsenal since his diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump broke down in 2019. Experts say Kim will likely eventually aim to use his advancing nuclear program to win greater U.S. concessions such as extensive sanctions relief.

North Korea has expanded cooperation with Russia in recent years by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine in return for economic and military assistance. North Korea has also recently pushed to deepen ties with China, its biggest trading partner.

The bridge — known as Nero's Bridge, named for the former Roman emperor — once connected Rome’s city center with the Tiber’s right bank.

“Nero is the most famous person linked to this area, because precisely in Nero’s circus, where the Vatican is now located, the Apostle Peter was martyred,” said Antonella Bonini, an archaeologist at Rome’s cultural heritage superintendency.

“However, scholars consider the bridge to be older (than Nero’s era) — built by Caligula, Nero’s uncle,” she said, adding that it existed as early as 39 AD.

The Tiber’s flow has fallen below 80 cubic meters (2,825 cubic feet) per second, about half the historic average for the month of July, according to Giovanni Giganti, coordinator of the Rome civil protection service’s center for water management.

“We are facing a major water crisis. And it is a crisis that is also due to the fact that this winter we did have quite abundant rainfall, but then the dry periods ... were quite long,” Giganti said.

The city confirmed Thursday that the intersection improvement item had been removed from the Aug. 13 agenda.

That means commissioners will not vote Thursday on whether to move the proposed permanent improvements into the design process.

The proposal had drawn attention because it would change how traffic moves through several intersections along and near Avalon Road — an area where some residents say congestion has become part of everyday life.

David May has lived along Avalon Road for about 16 years.

“It used to be nowhere near the traffic we get now,” May said.

He said traffic can become particularly difficult around school arrival and dismissal times.

“It’s hard to get out, in and out of your driveway,” May said. “Sometimes you gotta wait for someone to let you out.”

What had been scheduled for a vote?

The item prepared for Thursday’s commission meeting called for a series of temporary and longer-term intersection changes.

According to city documents, the proposed final improvements included:

• A roundabout at Avalon Road and Tucker Ranch/Coscester Street
• A roundabout at Avalon Road and Golden Bell Street/Longbeam Way
• Additional vehicle queue space on the south side of Avalon Road at State Road 50
• Lowering the speed limit on Avalon Road between S.R. 50 and Tilden Road to 35 mph

The city was also considering temporary changes while the permanent improvements were being developed.

Those included four-way stops at:

• Marsh Road and Williams Road
• Avalon Road and Tucker Ranch/Coscester Street
• Avalon Road and Golden Bell Street/Longbeam Way

Importantly, Thursday’s scheduled action would not have amounted to final construction approval for the two roundabouts.

City staff had been asking commissioners to authorize working with the city’s contract engineers to design the proposed final improvements.

With the item now pulled, that vote will not happen Thursday.

Why was the city looking at these intersections?

Winter Garden hired a traffic consultant to analyze conditions at several intersections, looking at factors including traffic volume, delays, vehicle queues, speeds and crash history.

The findings show the city’s concerns extend beyond drivers simply complaining about congestion.

One of the locations examined was Avalon Road at Tucker Ranch/Coscester Street.

At that intersection, the consultant found the Tucker Ranch approach operating at Level of Service F during both the morning and afternoon peak periods. The Coscester Street approach, by comparison, was rated Level of Service C.

Level of Service is an engineering measure used to describe traffic operations. In the city’s study, an F represented deficient conditions for that Tucker Ranch approach.

Crash data also played a role.

The report identified 13 crashes at Avalon and Tucker Ranch/Coscester from 2021 through 2025, an average of 2.6 crashes per year.

Ten of the 13 — nearly 77% — were rear-end crashes. None were fatal.

The consultant’s analysis supported an all-way stop at the intersection, saying it could create breaks in Avalon Road traffic that would make it easier for vehicles on the smaller side streets to enter the road.

The report also said an all-way stop could reduce speed, improve pedestrian and cyclist crossings and allow traffic to move more smoothly under right-of-way rules.

Under the plan that had been scheduled for consideration Thursday, that four-way stop would have been an interim change, while a roundabout was proposed as the longer-term solution.

Another neighborhood entrance also under scrutiny

The city study also examined Avalon Road at Golden Bell Street and Longbeam Way.

Golden Bell Street serves the Carriage Pointe subdivision on the west side of Avalon Road, while Longbeam Way provides access to Stone Creek on the east side.

Avalon Road is a two-lane roadway in that area and has a posted speed limit of 45 mph.

The report identified nine crashes at that intersection between 2021 and 2025.

Six were rear-end crashes and two were angle crashes. None were fatal.

The consultant again supported an all-way stop, saying it could reduce side-street delays and create more opportunities for drivers to safely enter Avalon Road.

The city’s longer-term proposal had called for a roundabout there as well.

The proposal also would slow drivers down

Another major piece of the plan involved speed.

City staff proposed lowering the speed limit along Avalon Road between S.R. 50 and Tilden Road to 35 mph.

A 24-hour speed count conducted by the consultant near Golden Bell Street and Longbeam Way in April found northbound vehicles traveling at an average of 42.02 mph and southbound vehicles averaging 42.29 mph.

The 85th-percentile speeds were higher: 47.20 mph northbound and 47.85 mph southbound.

The study found about 20% of northbound vehicles and 24% of southbound vehicles were traveling above the existing 45 mph posted limit during that count.

Closer to Tucker Ranch and Coscester Street, the consultant measured lower average speeds — about 33.6 mph northbound and 38.3 mph southbound.

Residents question whether intersection changes solve the bigger problem

For May, the question is not simply whether a stop sign or roundabout could make one intersection work better.

He questions whether those changes would substantially reduce the amount of traffic using Avalon Road.

“The roundabouts might help rather than stop signs, but it ain’t gonna do nothing for the traffic,” May said.

May believes continued development in the area has contributed to what he sees outside his home.

“There’s so much building going on, it don’t matter what you do, because they’re just bringing in more people,” he said.

That is May’s assessment. The consultant’s study does not conclude that development alone caused the conditions documented along Avalon Road.

When News 6 asked May to rate the traffic on Avalon Road on a scale of one to 10, with 10 representing the worst traffic imaginable, he gave it an eight.

Still, he said he wants to see what the city ultimately comes up with.

“I’d like to see what they can do,” May said. “Anybody you talk to on the road says, ‘Oh man, the traffic’s terrible.’”

So what happens now?

For now, the most immediate development is what won’t happen Thursday night.

Commissioners will not take up the Avalon Road intersection improvement item after it was pulled from the agenda.

The documents prepared for the meeting provide a detailed picture of what the city had been considering, but the removal means the proposed final improvements will not move into design through the vote that had been scheduled for Thursday.

The next question for drivers along Avalon Road is when — and in what form — the proposal comes back.

Until then, the roundabouts, temporary four-way stops, speed-limit reduction and other changes remain proposals rather than an approved construction plan.

The dismissal marks the latest setback in swing states’ efforts to prosecute fake electors who tried to keep Trump in the White House after he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.

Three other fake elector cases in Arizona, Michigan and Georgia have been dismissed. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes recently dismissed her office’s criminal case but vowed to bring it back to a grand jury in hopes of securing another indictment. The dismissal was a legal maneuver aimed at getting around a deadline for starting new grand jury proceedings after Mayes lost an appeal earlier in June.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is also running for governor as a Democrat, brought charges relating to forgery and “offering a false instrument for filing or record” against the six Nevada Republicans, who pleaded not guilty.

His office plans to appeal the ruling.

The defendants included Michael McDonald, the chair of the Nevada Republican Party, and Jesse Law, the former chair of the Clark County Republican Party.

In a Thursday statement, McDonald’s defense attorney Richard Wright called the attorney general’s plans to appeal “hasty” and “premature” and said continuing the case was politically motivated.

After the 2020 election, the six Republican electors gathered outside of the Nevada Legislature to sign a certificate giving the state’s six electoral votes to Trump, despite Biden winning the state by more than 30,000 votes. The ceremony was broadcast online, and the video footage was used as evidence in the case.

The case has revolved around the defendants’ intent behind submitting the certificate.

Prosecutors argue the defendants intended for their documents to be mistaken for actual electoral votes that then-Vice President Mike Pence would count on Jan. 6, 2021.

The defendants say submitting the certificate was an act of “political theater” designed to publicize their concerns about the election. They were preserving their rights to challenge the official election results and had no intent to deceive a government agency into accepting the GOP certificate as real, their attorneys argued.

Nevada Judge Mary Kay Holthus agreed.

She found there was a lack of evidence that showed the electors intended to deceive government officials, and she determined that the state failed to disclose exculpatory evidence to the grand jury.

“The fact that Defendants openly announced both their actions and their asserted purpose, rather than concealing their conduct or attempting to secretly induce governmental reliance, weighs against a reasonable inference that they acted with fraudulent intent,” Holthus wrote in her ruling.

Jurisdiction had also been an issue, but the case eventually landed in Clark County, which is home to Las Vegas and leans Democratic.

The case was originally scheduled for a trial in Nevada's capital of Carson City, but the attorney general's office voluntarily dismissed the case to pursue it instead in Southern Nevada, which leans more Democratic.

Courts have dismissed similar cases in Michigan and Georgia, and a special prosecutor dropped a federal case in late 2024 that charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Those cases ended after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. A fake electors case is ongoing in Wisconsin.

The program, dubbed Operation Puppet Master, was aimed at what officials called a network of conspirators helping “violent opportunists and agitators.” The documents were filed in a case involving 15 people charged by federal prosecutors in June with impeding the crackdown, accusing them of conspiring against the federal government through a range of actions, from throwing ice chunks to setting up blockades.

The government documents were released Thursday in connection with a motion from a defense lawyer in the case, Kevin Riach, who requested that officials disclose more material collected during the investigations.

The reality, according to government documents revealed in court motions, was Department of Homeland Security officers infiltrating meetings in churches, schools and parks that were often simply discussions of constitutionally protected protests.

A statement from the department said Homeland Security Investigations doesn’t comment on the existence or status of on-going investigations or investigative methods. The statement referred questions to the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, which didn’t immediately respond to an after-hours email from The Associated Press.

Puppet Master, and a later operation called Project Whipple Shield, were a “broad and irrational investigation” driven by politics and not criminal conduct, Riach said in a motion filed Thursday.

Take, for example, a Jan. 31 meeting in a Minneapolis library, when a Homeland Security report says an undercover officer identified as “UCA 9833” listened as supporters of a progressive climate group, the Sunrise Movement, discussed sit-ins, de-escalation tactics and “having a police liaison and safety marshal present during events.”

“During the Action meeting, it was made clear that the Sunrise Movement organization focused on ‘peaceful’ protests,” the agent reported.

Dozens of pages of documents describe agents secretly infiltrating meetings, monitoring activist chat groups and using license plate numbers to compile names of people who attended gatherings.

A slide created by Homeland Security’s investigative branch titled “The Conspiracy” shows 18 organizations, from a small Minneapolis bicycle repair collective to the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor groups in the U.S.

The government also obtained years of certain financial records for groups ranging from the Sunrise Movement to major unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the Communications Workers of America.

“You are requested not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time,” warned a DHS request to FedWire, a money transfer system operated by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

“It's very disturbing,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. Over time, it could deter people from expressing their beliefs, he said.

Many people don’t want to live in a world where expressing their beliefs gives federal agencies the right to investigate them, he said.

“It’s that fear of that creeping police state,” he said.

Groups that the government investigated were furious at the news.

“Our union has become the latest target of a corrupt administration that weaponizes the legal process against law-abiding Americans exercising our Constitutional rights,” CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said in a statement. “We will not be intimidated, and we will not be silenced.”

The AP News Guild, the union that represents many Associated Press employees, is part of the CWA.

On Thursday, a coalition of Minneapolis-area civil society groups defended the protests and criticized the investigations.

The government is “lashing out desperately in hopes of intimidating people and organizations that have shown the power of communities acting together," said a statement distributed by Unidos MN, a local human rights group.

DHS deployed about 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for roughly three months starting late last year in what the department called its “ largest immigration enforcement operation ever.” It led to thousands of arrests, angry mass protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.

Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said the 15 were part of two groups that he characterized as “antifa,” an umbrella term for a diffuse movement of militant left-wing activists.

Defense attorney Riach said at the time that his client, Isaac Sant, had no affiliation with antifa, which he called “a boogeyman invented by the far-right.”

___

Kelleher reported from Honolulu.

Discussion

At 300 PM GMT (1500 UTC), the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Cristobal was located near latitude 39.4 North, longitude 36.8 West. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the northeast near 16 mph (26 km/h) and this motion is expected to continue today.

Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph (45 km/h) with higher gusts. Cristobal is expected to dissipate later tonight.

The estimated minimum central pressure is 1018 mb (30.06 inches).

Watches and Warnings

There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Land Hazards

None.

The incident occurred around 11:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of Greenborough Loop in the Trinity Gardens neighborhood.

According to a news release, an altercation broke out between the trash truck driver and three individuals. The confrontation turned physical, and gunfire was exchanged, and the driver was struck by a gunshot. He was airlifted to a hospital, where his condition is listed as stable.

After fleeing the scene, officers found all three and took them into custody without further incident.

Investigators said there is no evidence anyone else was struck by gunfire and no threat to the public.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

In a release, deputies said they responded to a home on Wednesday evening near Bay Road in Mount Dora in reference to a missing person.

“The complainant reported that the victim could not be reached or located,” the release reads. “Upon arrival, deputies observed a bullet hole through the passenger-side window and blood inside the victim’s vehicle.”

Deputies searched the vehicle, eventually finding the victim dead in the rear hatchback area beneath a blanket, investigators revealed.

Per the LCSO, this discovery kicked off an investigation, during which detectives spoke with the victim’s family members and neighbors.

During this time, deputies said they learned that the victim had been in an ongoing dispute with the next-door neighbor regarding property lines, leading investigators to pin the neighbor as a suspect.

That neighbor’s vehicle was spotted in the driveway, and law enforcement consequently tried to make contact with him at home, though they were unable to do so, the release states. As such, deputies obtained a search warrant for the house.

Upon entering the home, the LCSO SWAT team found the suspect, who appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to detectives.

No additional information has been provided at this time.

In an affidavit, deputies said they were initially alerted to the scheme in September 2025 after victims reported they’d been scammed out of around $196,000.

The alleged scheme

A Volusia County Sheriff’s Office affidavit describes a fraudulent land sale involving a vacant parcel in Orange City.

Investigators say the legitimate owners’ identities were used to make the property appear for sale, and a buyer wired nearly $200,000 to what was presented as an escrow/title account connected to Old Republic Title — but detectives say the escrow setup was not legitimate.

Who is Salomes Jackson?

Detectives allege 40-year-old Salomes Rengifo Jackson — a New York City resident and reality TV personality — was a central figure in receiving, moving and spending the stolen money.

The affidavit states Jackson “exercised direct control” over accounts used to receive funds, transfer them through multiple business accounts, and withdraw or spend the proceeds.

[RELATED: Footage shows Salomes Jackson being taken into custody]

Following the money (what investigators say)

• About $196,000 was wired into a Bank of America account labeled “Old Republic Title LLC,” which investigators describe as tied to identity theft.
• The affidavit alleges Jackson personally received about $178,786.65 of the stolen funds.

How detectives say they built the case

Investigators traced transfers and withdrawals across multiple accounts, some allegedly opened using stolen identities, and reviewed records tied to how and where the money was withdrawn and spent.

Jackson now faces charges of money laundering, grand theft, organized scheme to defraud, and using another person’s ID without consent. She is held on bond of $275,000.

In a release on Thursday, police said the call came in around 6:30 a.m. Officers made contact with the driver and conducted a DUI investigation at the scene. The woman was then arrested, officials said.

In released body-camera footage, an officer states that the driver had been reported asleep for over 20 minutes.

“I think you’ve actually had a little bit too much to drink today, OK?” an officer can be heard saying later in the video.

[RELATED: Watch the body-camera footage below]

Authorities noted the situation ended without anyone being hurt, but warned the outcome could have been much worse.

Police are urging anyone who plans to drink to arrange a safe ride home, stressing that a single decision can prevent a serious crash and potentially save a life.

“One decision can save a life,” the release reads.

The Tennessee man was executed for killing a motel maid in 1985 and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death for killing a 5-year-old girl he had offered to pay her mother to abuse.

Having three executions in one day was a coincidence in scheduling, but reflected a trend of increased executions in the U.S. Eleven states executed a total of 47 people in 2025, the highest number since 2009. With Thursday's injections, 22 executions have been carried out this year in the U.S. with nearly a dozen more scheduled.

The last time three executions were carried out on the same day was on Jan. 7, 2010, when Louisiana, Ohio and Texas put inmates to death. Three executions were scheduled on the same day in 2018, but only one went forward after a Texas man was reprieved and Alabama prison officials had problems with the IV line.

Florida executed two men the same day in July and has executed 31 overall since the start of 2025.

Oklahoma prisoner said he regretted killing his girlfriend

Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, received an injection at the state penitentiary in McAlester in Oklahoma's third execution this year.

Cuesta-Rodriguez turned his head toward two relatives watching and mouthed “I love you” but had no last statement. He was declared dead at 10:13 a.m. after several minutes of labored breathing.

Convicted of murdering his girlfriend at their Oklahoma City home in 2003, Cuesta-Rodriguez had said he regretted killing Olimpia Fisher and told a board he didn’t want clemency. Fisher, 43, planned to leave Cuesta-Rodriguez when he shot her.

Fisher’s daughters, Cinthya Allen and Katya Wallis, said in a statement they hoped the execution brings awareness to preventing domestic violence, adding they are “raising our families to reflect the love and faith in God that she taught us.”

Tennessee man challenged execution after previous one was halted

Anthony Darrell Hines was executed in Tennessee for the 1985 stabbing death of Catherine Jean Jenkins, 54, as she worked as a motel maid in Kingston Springs.

Hines said “not right now, thank you” when asked if he had final words, then said, “Tell my son hello."

Hines' son witnessed the execution. He reconnected with his father four days earlier after not seeing him since he was 3 years old.

Minutes after the execution chamber curtain opened, Hines asked his spiritual adviser: “How long do I have?” Soon afterward, witnesses heard groans and heavy breathing while the adviser put her hands on his shoulders and prayed. Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m.

Afterward, Jenkins’ son said his mother had only a plastic spray bottle to defend against Hines' knife.

“I hope he felt severe pain because what he did to my mother is nothing compared to what he may have just gone through,” Dennis Jenkins said.

Hines' execution comes three months after another man's attempted lethal injection was stopped after medical staff couldn’t establish a backup IV line for over an hour.

Hines, 66, appealed unsuccessfully, saying the doctor who oversaw the May execution was unqualified and likely to botch his execution as well.

Alabama man asked to be executed swiftly

Alabama executed Jeremy Williams for the 2021 rape and murder of the young Georgia girl.

“I want to thank God for forgiving me for my sins so I can meet him in peace,” Williams said on the gurney. He rocked his head back and forth, smiled and appeared to sing or speak before becoming still. A member of his family cried quietly throughout, and Williams was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m.

Williams, who pleaded guilty to killing Kamarie Holland, had written the Alabama attorney general’s office seeking an immediate execution date so his victim’s family “may have some type of closure.”

The 42-year-old raped and strangled Holland after offering her mother $2,500 for the child to perform a sex act, prosecutors said, adding he filmed his attack.

“The unspeakable nature of this crime is exactly why we have the death penalty statute,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement afterward.

The mother is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking.

Russell County District Attorney Richard Chancey described Kamarie’s final moments as “horrific.”

"That baby didn’t die in peace,” he said at a later news conference, recalling Williams' last words about dying in peace.

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor, who called the case the worst he'd investigated in 39 years of law enforcement, said he believed Williams sought swift execution over worries about how he would be treated in prison.

"He didn’t want to look over his shoulder for 30 years, in my opinion,” Taylor said.

It was Alabama’s first execution this year. A nitrogen gas execution was blocked in June after a federal judge ruled the method unconstitutional.

Williams also was a suspect in the 2005 death of his infant daughter in Alaska, but charges weren't filed until 2022.

Corey Holland, Kamarie’s father, had said she was an exuberant child who loved princesses and made people laugh.

“She loved playing dress-up, all her little Halloween costumes and her princess stuff I got her,” he said.

___

This story has been revised to correct that the Alabama man offered to pay the mother, but didn't actually do so. It also was updated to correct the name of the Russell County Sheriff. He is Heath Taylor, not Heather Taylor.

___

Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins and Hallie Golden contributed.

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

Yemeni soldier killed in clashes with Houthis

At least one government soldier was killed and another critically wounded in clashes with the Houthis in the mountainous province of Taiz, Yemeni military officials told The Associated Press.

The fighting came as part of a spate of recent Houthi attacks on government-held areas across the country. Dozens of government troops have been killed since last week, the Yemeni military said.

The Houthis also said they launched another drone attack on an Aramco oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials did not immediately comment on the reported attack in the city of Jazan. Last weekend, the Houthis fired drones at the refinery, where the Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire but no casualties.

Last month, the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi shipping, threatening another key trade route in the region.

US carrier heads toward Middle East after issues reported on long-deployed USS Lincoln

The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington has begun heading toward the Middle East as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.

The Lincoln has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and its deployment has included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 260 days.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Thursday that reports of trouble on the carrier were “completely misrepresented.”

Speaking during a trip to Panama, he said the U.S. military could maintain the blockade of Iranian ports indefinitely, “because we’ll rotate ships in and out, as we have and we’ll continue to.”

The USS George Washington left port in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week, a Navy statement said. The carrier, along with a cruiser and a destroyer, have since been spotted crossing the Singapore Strait.

A Navy official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail sensitive ship details, confirmed that the Washington was in the Strait of Malacca, which links the Pacific and Indian oceans and puts the carrier on a course to head into the Indian Ocean. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the Washington would replace the Lincoln as one of the two aircraft carriers now stationed in the Middle East.

The move would leave the waters of the Pacific without a U.S. carrier presence for an unknown period of time.

— Konstantin Toropin in Washington

Peace laureate calls for UN pressure to resolve Yemen conflict

Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, told the U.N. Security Council in a video briefing Thursday that Yemen is at greater risk of returning to large-scale conflict than at any time since a 2022 truce paused the fighting.

Yemen faces “catastrophe” from rising hunger and from health services crumbling amid the fighting, said U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher. He said 6 million people in Yemen face emergency levels of food insecurity bordering on famine, “the highest number globally.”

Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman told reporters outside the chamber that Houthi rebels bear the primary responsibility for the “collapse of the state” in her home country.

But the human rights campaigner also blamed Iran for backing the Houthis, Saudi Arabia for its intervention on behalf of the government ousted by the Houthis, the United Arab Emirates for its involvement in the conflict and the international community for its failure to do enough to protect civilians.

Karman was invited to brief the U.N. Security Council as an independent civil society voice on Yemen, but was blocked from speaking because of “strong opposition,” Danish Deputy Ambassador Sandra Jensen Landi said. Instead, Karman spoke to reporters outside the council chamber.

Iran and Oman working to clean oil spills off their coasts

Oil spills spreading off the coasts of Iran and Oman are raising concerns about environmental damage as oil shipments have come under fire in the Iran war.

Iran said Thursday it's working to clean up an oil spill off Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Images distributed by Iran’s semiofficial news agency ISNA showed oil fouling the island's beaches.

While Iran hasn't said what caused the spill, the firm TankerTrackers.com says it appears to have started with an Iranian attack on a bulk carrier off Oman. Iran has repeatedly attacked shipping in the strait since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.

Oman is responding to another spill in the Arabian Sea, coming from a tanker grounded off its southern coast. The tanker Caroline Bezengi — a sanctioned vessel believed to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” — has been grounded since reporting an explosion in June. No party has claimed responsibility and the cause is unknown.

A British maritime risk and response company said Thursday it has been hired to salvage the tanker and stop the oil leak off Oman. Oil from the ship has been spreading for weeks, reaching shores hundreds of kilometers (miles) north of the vessel.

JD Vance says Iran war will end with US in stronger position

Vice President JD Vance appeared to be lowering expectations for the Strait of Hormuz to return to the way it was before the war. He predicted in an interview on Fox News Channel that the war will end with the U.S. in a stronger position, with Iran not having a nuclear weapon, and with the Strait of Hormuz “returned to a place where oil and gas prices are stable for the American people.”

He did not say anything about the strait being open and toll-free for transiting ships, as he had in the past.

Vance’s comments also seemed to suggest that the administration was more acutely focused on the economic impact of the war than the original aims of the war itself.

“That’s goal number one: keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country,” he said.

The second goal, according to Vance, is to ensure that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.

Kushner will head to Middle East for talks on Gaza

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator Jared Kushner will travel to the Middle East next week to try to advance plans for an end to the conflict in Gaza after a deal recently announced by the Trump administration ran into Israeli opposition.

An official with the Board of Peace, the body Trump established to oversee the fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, said Kushner, board high representative Nickolay Mladenov, and executive board member and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would arrive in Israel on Sunday.

The group will then travel to Cairo, where meetings of a Palestinian technocratic group set to assume control of Gaza under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal have been taking place for the past several months, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because planning for details of the trip has not yet been finalized,

The trip was reported earlier by Axios.

— Matthew Lee in Washington

___

Click here for full AP coverage on developments in the West Bank.

The call for quiet was part of last-ditch efforts to find anyone else alive in the aftermath of the 7.4 magnitude quake that struck the South American country Monday, killing more than 280 people and leaving hundreds more missing.

“Unfortunately, we are reaching a point where the probability of finding survivors is dwindling,” said David Santiago Tamayo, director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, in a press conference Thursday night. “But the mission is to never stop searching and find all those reported missing.”

Aid agencies consider the first two to three days after a quake to be the prime window for retrieving survivors. People trapped in debris can live longer if they have access to food and water.

The death toll rose Thursday to 281, authorities said, with another 348 people rescued.

As time runs out, rescuers, families and volunteers across the country continue to hold on to hope.

“There might be two more people alive here, and I’m hopeful,” rescuer Daiana Rojas told The Associated Press. “We have been hearing sounds since 2:30 a.m., so our hope remains.”

Rojas and her family were unharmed by the quake, the most powerful to hit Colombia in this century. She has been volunteering to help search for survivors in Cali, one of the most heavily damaged cities, along with Pereira, Manizales and Quibdó.

“I thought that was going to be my last moment alive,” she said, recalling the terror of the quake. “Seeing this situation in my city breaks my heart.”

Rojas has witnessed two people being pulled alive from the debris, as well as the recovery of bodies.

“They are not a relative or a friend of mine, but it feels as they were,” she said of the survivors who have been found. “Whenever rescuers ask for silence, everyone stays still and tries not to move, speak or whisper. But when signs of life are found, all the teams start to applaud.”

Critical hours

The devastation has tested Colombia’s new President Abelardo de la Espriella and his government as they scramble to respond while aid groups seek to help the hardest-hit communities.

“The situation is complex, but we are using all our capacity and the capacity that has come from other countries,” de la Espriella said.

The president added nearly 400 people remain missing, though civilian-run databases put the number at more than 4,200. More than 3,900 people were reported injured, while nearly 10,600 homes were destroyed and more than 65,800 damaged. In total, more than 44,900 families have been affected, he said.

Authorities recognize that the rescue effort has entered a grim phase as search teams begin shifting toward recovering bodies. But as the government moves forward with plans to help those affected and rebuild the country, finding potential survivors remains a priority. “Our priority is saving lives,” de la Espriella said. “These are human beings who are trapped under the rubble.”

In other developments, a 4.2 magnitude aftershock struck Thursday in San José del Palmar, in the Chocó region — the epicenter of the earthquake. More than 160 aftershocks have rocked the country, according to the Colombian Geological Survey.

“We’re pretty shaken up, but we’re in good spirits. We can see everyone working hard to get through this very complex situation,” volunteer helper Jairo Galán said in Cali, where food and donation centers were set up.

Colombia, with a population of 54 million people, experiences an average of 2,500 earthquakes each month, most of them small. That's equivalent to about 80 tremors per day, according to the geological survey.

More international aid arrives

Meanwhile, international aid continues to arrive.

Speaking to reporters in Quibdó, in the Chocó region, Colombian Vice President José Manuel Restrepo said rescuers had concluded the search for survivors and bodies in the area and would now shift their focus to the “humanitarian phase.”

The region has received some 7 tons of humanitarian aid, with another 10 tons expected to arrive late Thursday night. An additional 20 tons of supplies are expected to arrive on Friday. “That’s almost 40 tons of humanitarian aid, containing everything people will need at this moment,” Restrepo said.

Earlier today, a group of rescuers from the Los Angeles County Fire Department arrived to help with search efforts and structural engineering assessments. Other countries, including Peru, El Salvador, Mexico and Brazil, have also offered assistance.

De la Espriella announced on X that Colombia will receive a $10 million donation from the United Arab Emirates.

The Chinese ambassador to Colombia said China will provide $1 million in financial aid and more than $2 million in humanitarian assistance.

The South American Football Confederation and the Colombian Football Federation also jointly announced a $1 million donation to support reconstruction efforts.

“Soccer transcends the pitch and remains close to its people, especially in the most difficult times,” they said in a statement.

The Colombia disaster unfolded less than two months after neighboring Venezuela endured back-to-back earthquakes. The contrast between the two countries' responses was stark.

In Venezuela, acting President Delcy Rodríguez waited nearly four hours before addressing the nation. In Colombia, de la Espriella announced an emergency command post to oversee rescue efforts barely an hour after the earthquake. For weeks, Venezuelan civilians were clawing through rubble by hand. Hours after the earthquake in Colombia, rescue teams were searching for survivors with cranes and excavators.

The contrast was a reminder of the differences between the nations — their political systems, resources and the strength of their institutions — and a demonstration of how those can take on life-or-death importance.

___

Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia. Batschke reported from Santiago, Chile.

A Louisiana grand jury in June declined to indict Christopher Gillum on a state terrorism charge that could have carried up to a 15-year sentence, court records show.

Gillum, who had been held without bond, was released shortly after the grand jury’s decision and is not facing charges in any other jurisdictions, according to his attorney, Dylan Utley. He declined to comment further.

Gillum's release has not previously been reported.

The 45-year-old ex-police officer, who is from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, had been arrested in Florida in April with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a handgun while on his way to Louisiana to commit a mass shooting, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation had involved the FBI and authorities across Louisiana, North Carolina and Florida.

Authorities did not name the event Gillum was allegedly targeting, but his arrest came on the eve of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of festivalgoers annually.

Gillum, who is white, had “expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people’ ”, according to authorities. His family had reported him missing in North Carolina and said he had a history of self-harm.

Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, said in a statement that Gillum’s family had taken him “to a treatment facility out of the state” and that he is not facing additional criminal charges.

Duhe said there were “several jurisdictional issues” that complicated the case after Gillum was extradited to Louisiana following his arrest.

“The threat relayed to a family member actually occurred in North Carolina,” Duhe said. “The defendant never entered the State of Louisiana until after his arrest.”

Gillum had been planning to travel to the Florida Keys “during the same period he would have been suspected to travel to Louisiana,” Duhe added.

Gillum was charged under a Louisiana statute for the crime of “terrorizing,” which requires that “a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist.”

Jonathan Guidry, the foreperson for the grand jury, declined to comment on the decision to not indict Gillum.

Katherine Schweit, a former Chicago prosecutor and FBI executive who ran the agency’s active shooter program, said that thwarted acts of mass violence do not always lead to indictments, but prosecutors often seek an array of criminal charges when possible.

“It’s very difficult to convince a jury, or to convince a grand jury, that something might have happened,” Schweit told The Associated Press.

Law enforcement authorities in North Carolina, where Louisiana court records list Gillum as residing, told the AP that they were not aware he had been released from custody.

“If we’ve got an individual that was accused of such an action, we would want to know if in fact he did return to Alamance County,” said Byron Tucker, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina.

Nazneen Ahmed, a spokesperson for North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, said their office is not involved and that criminal prosecution authority in the state generally belongs to local district attorneys.

The office of the Florida Attorney General did not respond to a request for comment about whether Gillum may face additional criminal charges in its jurisdiction. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Louisiana also did not return messages seeking comment.

In a statement, the FBI New Orleans office said the decision whether to charge Gillum rested with prosecutors.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival declined to comment.

___

This story was first published on Aug. 12, 2026. It was updated on Aug. 13, 2026, to correct that Nazneen Ahmed, a spokesperson for North Carolina’s attorney general, said their office is not involved in legal proceedings surrounding Christopher Gillum and that criminal prosecution authority in the state generally belongs to local district attorneys, not that there are no plans for the state to pursue charges.

___

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.