At least 34 migrants have died in the process.

“The situation that Ceuta is going through is absolutely unsustainable,” said Juan Jesús Vivas on Friday.

The border crisis boiled over Thursday and continued on Friday with security forces clashing with migrants on the Moroccan side of the border.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the breach of the border on Friday speaking in Ceuta, describing the events as "a violation of Spain's territorial integrity.”

The Spanish leader cast blame on human smugglers, saying they "deceive so many young people, and ultimately lead many of them to their deaths — whether in the ocean or, as in this case, at Spain’s border in the autonomous city of Ceuta.”

Live footage of the border showed hundreds of migrants gathered on a hill overlooking Ceuta being dispersed with tear gas by Moroccan forces, while others continued to swim to the Spanish territory.

At the same time, large groups of migrants walked back from Ceuta toward Morocco to return home.

Rachid Sbihi, who leads a local workers association representing Civil Guard officers, called the situation a “serious humanitarian crisis," saying thousands of migrants, including unaccompanied children, were left sleeping in parks and on sidewalks, while others roamed the streets aimlessly.

“People are still entering. The reinforcements, including Spanish military troops, that have arrived are only helping the injured and other humanitarian efforts,” he said. "It’s chaotic.”

People died in border chaos

Among the 18 who died, many drowned, Sbihi said, but some were also killed in a stampede to cross the breakwater fence at Tarajal beach, an urban beach near a border checkpoint with Morocco.

Ahmed Karim, a 33-year old Moroccan, said he had crossed into Ceuta because of the lack of jobs in his country.

“Many people want to go to Europe, America, but they don’t have the opportunity,” Karim said.

On Friday morning, the waters near the border fence were littered with buoys, shoes and other belongings left behind.

Moroccan police deployed additional personnel, used water cannons and fired warning shots into the air to prevent migrants from crossing into Ceuta, according to rights groups in Morocco.

“Despite the heavy police presence, people crossed through the waterway, while the land border remained closed,” said Achraf Maimouni, a human rights activist in Fnideq, the Moroccan city bordering Ceuta.

Migrants arrested at the border were taken farther into Morocco, away from Ceuta, “but people are still coming,” he said.

Morocco’s ambassador to Spain expressed hope that those who crossed from Morocco into the Spanish exclave would return. Karima Benyaich described the situation in Ceuta as difficult, saying it had unfolded against Morocco’s wishes.

“We have always prioritized legal, orderly and safe migration for all,” she said. Benyaich did not comment on what prompted the migrants to cross into Ceuta.

But authorities in both Ceuta and Madrid, linked it to a recent decision by Spain's Supreme Court that ruled migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily deported, unlike those who cross by land or climb the border fence.

Sánchez said migrant smugglers misinterpreted the ruling, but acknowledged that it may have played a role in sowing chaos.

“It appears that this interpretation of the Supreme Court’s ruling spread like wildfire over the past few hours through the networks of human trafficking organizations, triggering the kind of mass surge we witnessed yesterday," Sánchez said.

Spain is a main point of arrival into Europe for migrants seeking better economic opportunities or an escape from violence in their home countries.

To reach Ceuta, located on the northern African coast, migrants often swim from the Moroccan town of Fnideq, covering about 3 miles (5 kilometers) to reach Spanish territory. Others attempt the crossing from the nearby town of Belyounech, where the distance is shorter.

Spanish leader criticized at home and abroad

Sánchez has bucked the anti-migration trend that has gained ground across Europe and in the U.S.. While the Trump administration and other European countries have tightened their borders and stepped up deportations, Spain earlier this year moved to give residency and work permits to hundreds of thousands of migrants already living in the country without permission.

Sánchez, a Socialist, argued that it would be good for the economy and the demographics of an aging Spain. Migrants who entered irregularly after January 1, 2026, were not included.

But his critics have jumped the opportunity granted them by the endless reels of young Moroccans streaming into Ceuta to attack his policy, saying it encouraged more migrants to come to Spain.

“Sánchez allows Spain to be invaded through Ceuta,” Spanish conservative politician Isabel Díaz Ayuso wrote on X.

Sánchez on Friday distanced the migrant legalization push from the events unfolding in Ceuta.

The chaos had ripple effects abroad as well. Premier Giorgia Meloni threatened to suspend Italy’s open-border Schengen agreement with Spain “to defend our borders and ensure the safety of our citizens,” even though Italy doesn’t share a border with Spain and is also a main entry point for tens of thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa each year.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said France would also strengthen border checks with Spain, writing on X that he had activated the Rapid Intervention Border Force.

“This crisis in Ceuta has nothing to do with the regularization of migrants adopted by the Government of Spain, as is being falsely claimed by some," the Spanish government said in a statement late Thursday after Meloni's announcement. It also summoned Italy’s ambassador in Madrid.

“This crisis stems from an interpretation of a Supreme Court’s decision, according to which people who swim illegally across the border cannot be returned," the Spanish government said. The decision has been exploited by smugglers who take advantage of vulnerable migrants, it added.

Some activists in Morocco expressed doubt that the ruling was behind the surge, arguing most migrants would have been unaware of such legal decisions.

Migrants cross into another Spanish exclave

Migrants from Morocco also attempted to cross into Melilla, Spain’s other territory at the tip of North Africa.

There was widespread chaos in Bni Nsar, the Moroccan town bordering the Spanish territory, where migrants clashed with police, throwing rocks and setting police vehicles ablaze, according to local media and rights groups. They reported injuries among security forces and the arrest of dozens of people attempting to cross.

Omar Naji of the local branch of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights told the AP that the crossing attempts into Melilla appeared to be linked to the situation in Ceuta.

Like Ceuta, Melilla is a Spanish autonomous city on the North African coast. Many Moroccans consider both cities to be occupied territory.

Ceuta authorities had warned of a looming crisis

Juan Jesús Vivas, the head of Ceuta’s regional government, had warned earlier this week that migrant reception centers were overwhelmed as arrivals by sea had steadily been increasing before the chaos erupted Thursday.

Spain’s Interior Ministry would not confirm the number of migrants who had made it to Ceuta but said it would publish its next migration report on Monday.

Spanish media, citing unnamed government and security sources, estimated between 30,000 and 49,000 migrants had crossed in the past 24 hours. A member of Spain's civil guard who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release figures to the media said that 49,000 people were estimated to crossed. That's more than half of Ceuta's nearly 84,000 population.

Sbihi, of the civil guard workers association, said it was difficult to know exact numbers but believed tens of thousands of migrants had made it through.

Ceuta has been a Spanish possession since 1580. Its mixed population of Christians and Muslims, Spanish and Moroccan residents and day workers, lives in relative harmony.

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Naishadham reported from Madrid, Brito from Barcelona, Spain. AP journalists Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, Akram Oubachir in Casablanca, Morocco, and Antonio Sempere in Ceuta, Spain, contributed.

Though there was no shortage of levity, a sense of urgency filled the Detroit meeting room as Abdul El-Sayed, a former gubernatorial candidate who is running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, began speaking about how his Muslim faith informs his progressive views.

The public health researcher asked the group of faith leaders ahead of Tuesday’s primary, “What does the inspiration of holding yourself accountable to something bigger than you mean for what you do for the people around you?”

El-Sayed added, “If you can’t eat food and I have something to do about it, I better do it.”

Progressive Democratic politicians have won major electoral victories across the country in recent months amid growing frustrations surrounding inequality, affordability and potential threats to job security posed by artificial intelligence. As the economy becomes a flashpoint for the November midterms, many of these candidates and voters who support them are citing religion as a justification for their positions.

“We’re in an era of historical inequality,” El-Sayed told The Associated Press. “Most faith traditions — certainly the Abrahamic faith traditions — put a lot more burden on the wealthy.”

The interfaith roundtable took place days after a high-profile rally for El-Sayed, who has made “Medicare for All” a fixture of his campaign and is running against the more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens. It featured speeches from progressive heavy hitters like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Though not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, El-Sayed is being endorsed by liberal allies, many of them members of the DSA, while being criticized by Republicans and centrist Democrats for being too far left to be electable in a swing state.

If elected in November, he would be the first Muslim senator in U.S. history.

Representatives for Stevens, who is identified in congressional profiles as a Protestant, did not respond to requests for comment.

Progressive ideologies carry different connotations for different generations

Religious support for progressive economic and labor movements is not new, even if it has ebbed and flowed in the U.S. over the centuries. Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical was in many ways an ode to “Rerum novarum,” Pope Leo XIII’s seminal 1891 text on labor, wages and unions that helped shape Catholic social teaching.

This embrace of religion isn't unique to the Democratic Party's progressive wing. More moderate candidates like James Talarico, the seminarian running for the U.S. Senate in Texas, also highlight their faith. But as left-leaning Democrats and democratic socialists like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim, score wins in local and national races, Republicans have repeatedly decried the party's progressive wing as communists devoid of religion.

“Republicans and conservatives believe in natural rights that flow from a creator. I think communism rejects that. It espouses a very atheistic, centralized sort of secular view of society,” said Douglas Blair, a spokesperson for Heritage Action for America.

Megan Romer, a DSA national co-chair and ordained ruling elder within the Presbyterian Church (USA), conceded socialism is a troubling concept for some people of faith.

“People’s idea of it is, ‘Oh, that’s when you’re not allowed to have a religion, right?’ Which has been true in some socialist projects,” she said.

But experts say that narrative carries less weight among many younger Americans who have no memory of the Cold War and the anti-religious associations it begot.

Theology informs more than just faith

Though there are more Democrats unaffiliated with religion than Republicans, many people of faith do not see progressive ideologies like socialism as contradictory to their beliefs. They cite Black religious activists who were outspoken critics of capitalism, including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and W.E.B. Du Bois, as models for their thinking about the relationship between religion and politics.

The Rev. Andrew Wilkes, who co-pastors the Double Love Experience Church in New York City, became interested in democratic socialism more than a decade ago after presiding over a funeral for someone whose insurance wouldn’t cover a critical operation. “It was not God that sent him home but an unjustly organized healthcare system and economy,” he said.

“There’s an increasing recognition, I would say, connecting socialism to a sense of a moral compass,” Wilkes said, adding that religion can bring optimism and creativity in a time of pessimism. “There’s a level of world-building that faith can speak to.”

Romer, who joined the DSA in 2018 in part because of Sanders’ unsuccessful presidential run two years earlier, thinks there is a theological component to why Christianity in particular has thrived among conservatives.

“That flavor of Christianity is a very individualistic one. They talk a lot about your personal relationship with God,” she said. “My interpretation of Christianity is one that, I think the early Christians — they were not communists in the modern sense, but they lived in communal situations.”

Attitudes toward capitalism are changing, and religion is playing a role

This faith-driven economic focus is not limited to elections.

Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice is a nonprofit organization that works with congregations throughout Southern California to support workers’ rights. Earlier this month, it facilitated a visit to Live Oak United Church of Christ in Brea, California, to support efforts to unionize a local grocery store chain.

“We just feel very, very overworked,” Luis Cueva, a Mother’s Market employee, told members of the congregation after their Sunday service as he asked for support.

“Jesus was a socialist,” Cueva said after the meeting, citing his teachings about it being difficult for rich people to go to heaven. “It means a lot to know that the church is willing to help.”

About half of U.S. adults have a positive view of capitalism, according to a poll last year from Gallup, down from 61% in 2010. Democrats have driven part of the shift, but favorable views of capitalism have also declined among independents.

President Donald Trump and other Republicans have cast these attitudes and candidates as being fundamentally at odds with religion.

“These are hard core, godless communists,” Trump said recently during a speech to the Faith & Freedom Coalition. “All communists are godless. They don't believe in God.”

Faith can be both a political asset and a liability

Although there are myriad points of contention within the Democratic Party, such as support for Israel, El-Sayed considers economic issues a top issue for his campaign.

“I talk about taking money out of politics because it’s the reason life is not affordable,” he said. “People are realizing that politicians on both sides of the aisle really are being paid off by the same people.”

The son of Egyptian immigrants, El-Sayed is aware that his Islamic faith can be weaponized or misunderstood. But since having a religious experience in college that followed a rebellious childhood, he takes seriously the implications of his faith.

“If you put your morals on a mantel, they’re not morals. They’re just, you know, things that you can admire and then you give yourself the permission to step away from them when it’s convenient,” he said.

As the roundtable concluded, leaders from each faith took turns praying. Their heads lifted, but the Rev. Horace Sheffield chimed in with one last request on behalf of El-Sayed.

“I don’t think y’all were specific enough. So I’m gonna say it real simple,” he said. “Lord, let him win.”

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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.

An expanding crisis for soccer's governing body reached into Infantino's longtime inner circle when his pick to represent FIFA on the White House Task Force for the World Cup walked away calling the Joshua Kushner-backed $20 billion commercial subsidiary plan “a bad deal for football.”

Carlos Cordeiro is a former Goldman Sachs banker and officially Infantino's Senior Adviser yet revealed he was not involved in the secretive investment plan that has rocked the sport since media reports revealed it Tuesday.

“I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,” Cordeiro said in a statement formally resigning, just hours after FIFA insisted in a statement: “Nobody is selling football.”

Cordeiro's exit — and call for other senior staff to speak out — intensified scrutiny on Infantino one day after European soccer body UEFA threatened to boycott all FIFA games and events until the plan is dropped. North America's CONCACAF also rejected Infantino’s offer of one-off $20 million payments to each member federation by a mid-September deadline.

Cordeiro often joined Infantino on working visits to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in recent years, and took part in meetings of the administration's World Cup task force led by Andrew Guiliani.

“Let me be clear. I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,” said Cordeiro, the former U.S. Soccer Federation president.

Asia joins Europe and North America

On another seismic day in soccer politics, Asia’s soccer body that has been a key ally in Infantino's 11-year presidency opposed the investor plan and said FIFA must urgently review its management style

The Asian Football Confederation said it “stands in solidarity” with UEFA and CONCACAF, the first two continental bodies to oppose Infantino whose combined 90 FIFA member countries near a majority of the 211 global total.

“Football should never have been placed in such a position,” said the Asian soccer body, which counts 46 of FIFA's 211 members

Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA's commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.

The “anchor investor,” described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“(T)he proposed (FIFA Forward Enterprise) cannot realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and unity required to move forward” and must be reconsidered, the AFC said.

The statement did not name Infantino yet criticized FIFA for problems beyond the content of the private equity plan plus failing to consult about the secretive proposal.

“Rather, it has exposed fundamental weaknesses in FIFA’s consultation and decision-making processes that must now be addressed,” said the AFC, whose longtime president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa narrowly lost the FIFA presidential election to Infantino in 2016.

“Accordingly, the AFC calls upon FIFA to undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework,” said the organization based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Infantino's job at risk?

Infantino had seemed — 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey — to have a clear path to being reelected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031.

FIFA had briefed during the tournament that Infantino had letters of support from about 200 members, despite a furor over letting United States forward Folarin Balogun play against Belgium even though he received a red card in his previous game. Trump acknowledged asking Infantino to review Balogun's mandatory one-game ban.

FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.

FIFA blames the media

The Asian statement came hours after FIFA blamed the media and doubled down on pursuing the project which now seems to have a majority of the 211 in opposition.

“Our planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports,” FIFA said in a statement early Friday. “We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each (member) has the ability to express its vote based on facts.”

The next FIFA event that would be targeted by the threatened European boycott is within weeks — the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5. The four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup. That decision is due Nov. 23.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

The group agreed to a road map as long as Israel also makes concessions, including ending hostilities and withdrawing its troops from the Palestinian territory, according to a Hamas official and a regional official. Israel has not commented on the deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump announced hours earlier.

It comes nine months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to end the fighting between Israel and the group was signed.

That 20-point ceasefire plan calls on the militant group to surrender its weapons and destroy its vast network of tunnels. It also envisions Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, the arrival of a new technocratic Palestinian government, the deployment of a security force known as the International Stabilization Force and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave.

But negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the implementation of the next phase of the ceasefire deal had largely deadlocked — and disarmament was a major sticking point.

Disarming would represent a sea change for Hamas, whose founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and which sees its arsenal, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives, as lying at the heart of its identity.

“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” Trump said on social media. “As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”

A copy of the agreement obtained and verified by The Associated Press said that all police weapons will be transferred to the U.S.-backed Palestinian technocratic committee, known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, upon its arrival in the enclave. It’s not clear when that would happen since it is contingent on other steps.

A process to decommission and store heavy weapons, military production sites and tunnels will begin after the arrival of the Palestinian committee and the deployment of the ISF. The process will be linked to an Israeli withdrawal, in phases, from the areas under its control in Gaza, according to the agreement.

In a statement Thursday, an Israeli official said that there will be no Israeli withdrawal from the areas it holds in Gaza — which account for about 60% of the territory — before the militant group is disarmed and the strip demilitarized. The statement was made on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.

A person with knowledge of the situation said that Israel is fully involved, but it's not a signatory to the deal, which is between Hamas and several countries helping to negotiate and guarantee the ceasefire. The person spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the agreement. The deal's guarantors are the U.S., Turkey, Egypt and Qatar.

It could take years for Hamas to disarm

On Thursday, U.S. and Board of Peace officials, describing the deal to reporters on condition of anonymity under guidelines set by the White House, gave an extremely optimistic assessment of the agreement that laid out a scenario very similar to the one outlined by Trump and his top aides when the Board of Peace was first formed. The board, which was established by Trump, oversees the ceasefire in Gaza.

While Gaza's police force is expected to hand over its arms, that doesn't include the vast majority of Hamas militants, and heavy weaponry is not included in that part of the agreement, according to the officials.

Instead, the surrender of heavy weapons and the decommissioning of Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure are to come later in a process that could take between 200 and 350 days, a Board of Peace official said. That timeline did not appear in the agreement obtained by AP.

The Hamas official and the regional official involved in the process said that Hamas and other groups agreed to “collect and store” arms inside Gaza under the supervision of the Palestinian technocratic committee and that weapons won’t be handed to Israel or non-Palestinian parties. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said this would be a gradual process linked to an Israeli withdrawal.

Israel has not responded but has been deeply skeptical

A U.S. official said Israel, which has been deeply skeptical about Hamas’ willingness to give up its guns or relinquish control of Gaza, had been consulted at every step of the negotiation.

However, the official said Israel was not being asked to do anything more than what it had initially committed to when it agreed to Trump’s 20-point plan, which essentially involves withdrawing its forces from Gaza and committing to ending airstrikes on the territory.

A member of the Palestinian technocratic committee told the AP on Friday that it was eager to enter Gaza but was concerned Israel will pose challenges for them. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media. The person said they didn’t expect to enter Gaza for at least two months.

The committee welcomed the progress Friday, but said the work to restore public institutions and services and rebuild the territory would be immense.

The war in Gaza began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government and is staffed by medical professionals, does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its toll but says women and children make up around half of all deaths.

With Israel in control of much of Gaza, Palestinians are confined to squalid tent camps and heavily damaged urban neighborhoods.

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Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, Cooper from Phoenix, and Lee from Washington. Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri in New York and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

The conflict, now in its sixth month, halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that previously served as a delivery route for a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas. With global supplies constrained, prices for Brent crude, the international standard, soared from about $70 to above $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May, and at one point reached $126.

The money that oil companies accrued between the beginning of April and the end of June could receive extra scrutiny this year. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices climbed during that period, increasing costs for drivers and airline passengers. Supplies ran low in some countries, leading to sporadic fuel rationing in Australia and government office closures in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The attacks between the U.S. and Iran resulted in huge profits for some of the biggest publicly traded oil companies as they sold their goods for higher prices. Exxon Mobil on Friday reported doubling its second-quarter profits to $14.53 billion, up 105% from the same time a year ago. The oil giant, based in Spring, Texas, brought in $116.02 billion in revenue, up 42% from the same time last year.

Chevron, based in Houston, nearly quadrupled its profits to $12.07 billion, up 385% from the same quarter last year, and reported $70.06 billion in revenue, up 56% from the same time last year.

Six of Europe's largest oil companies posted first-quarter profits of $22 billion altogether, a total which was 43% higher than the same time last year, according to Global Witness, a nonprofit organization that investigates environmental problems.

“There are constituencies around the world who are having a very good crisis, and the oil producers are one of them,” said Patrick Galey, fossil fuels lead at Global Witness. “When you compare that to the hundreds of millions of people who are struggling with rolling blackouts, with electricity curbs, rationing, waiting in line for food queues, or the disruption to fertilizers and the potential impact that that has on food prices, we don’t think that it’s a justifiable price for the rest of the world to be paying.”

Lawmakers propose taxing major oil producers for war windfalls

Energy companies such as Exxon and Chevron do not set the price of American oil, which ricocheted from $68 to $115 a barrel during the quarter. It’s driven by supply and demand, and what traders, refiners and other buyers are willing to pay.

Nevertheless, Democrats in Congress introduced bills in March to tax major oil producers for profits they show from 2026 onward and have the tax proceeds redistributed to consumers.

“It’s fair to put a windfall profits tax on inordinate windfall profits rather than cut off children’s food programs,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who introduced the Senate version of the legislation.

Whitehouse's measure and a companion bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California would amend the U.S. tax code to impose a per-barrel excise tax on companies that produced or imported at least 300,000 barrels of oil per day in 2025. The tax would be 50% of the difference between the oil price at the time of the levy and the average price per barrel last year. Similar proposals failed to pass in previous years.

“We cracked $4 again per gallon last weekend in gas stations that I drove by, and that’s a big expense, particularly for families that get their income from driving around from job to job in the work van or the work truck,” Whitehouse said. “It makes a real difference.”

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S., which was below $3 before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran, reached $4.11 Friday. That's about $1 more than the cost of a gallon at this point last year.

Refineries rake in cash while consumers pay more for fuel

Outfits such as Exxon and Chevron, which not only extract oil and gas but also own refineries, are in the best position to profit from the current market conditions, said Tom Seng, assistant professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University.

Refineries turn crude oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and home heating oil. They’re enjoying historically high “crack spreads,” which is a term to describe the profits refineries expect to make based on the prices of oil and products such as gasoline and jet fuel, Seng said.

In late July, refineries planning to buy a barrel of oil for about $80 were looking at potential profits of $50-$60, which is huge compared to the average range of $20-$25, he said.

“The return on refining, on a percentage basis, has skyrocketed,” Seng said. “Oil right now is priced what it is priced because of the Iran war. But in the meantime, the refineries are making money hand over fist.”

Globally, not all refineries have been able to get the supply of crude oil they need to meet demand since the conflict began, said Timothy Fitzgerald, a University of Tennessee professor of business economics who studies the petroleum industry.

As a result, refineries that have ample oil to work with, including those in the U.S., are turning high profits, particularly when they make jet fuel and diesel, which is priced about 41% higher in the U.S. than before the Strait of Hormuz was blocked.

"If you’re a company that owns a bunch of refinery capacity, things look pretty good," Fitzgerald said.

American refineries are running at near-full capacity and poised to benefit because some refineries in the Middle East and Russia were damaged, while others in Asia can't get the amount of oil they used to from the Middle East.

“Ultimately, users of the energy services pay,” Fitzgerald said. “Consumers, people like you and me buying retail motor gasoline or diesel fuel or airplane tickets. But it also means that almost everything else we buy has an embedded energy content to it ... and this is where you start to worry about it driving increases in costs.”

Not all oil and gas companies benefit in the same way

In the present geopolitical environment, some companies are winners while others are losers, Fitzgerald said.

“If you’re a company like a U.S. (oil) producer, even a U.S.-based international company like an Exxon or Chevron who’s got lots of production outside the Gulf, things are good. You’re selling your product at a higher price,” he said.

But companies in the Middle East that are not able to benefit from higher prices because they are struggling to get their liquefied natural gas out of the Persian Gulf or have a lot of damaged oil fields or processing facilities have a very different take on recent events, Fitzgerald added.

“Your ability to sell anything and the volume that you may be getting out is so curtailed that your revenues are way down and you’re incurring higher transportation costs and security costs,” he said.

Exxon and Chevron weren’t as profitable in the first quarter due to the way oil is traded; the first real opportunity they had to take advantage of higher prices oil was in April. Companies that had a lot of oil stored in floating tankers and available for spot-market trading, including some European ones, were able to benefit from March’s higher oil prices, Seng said.

None of those initiatives would have passed under a ballot measure getting decided by voters Tuesday.

Missouri's proposed Amendment 4 would make it significantly harder to amend the constitution by requiring citizen initiatives to pass in all eight of the state's diverse congressional districts instead of by a traditional, simple statewide majority. No other state has such a high standard — or has even asked voters to consider it.

“This is a first-of-its-kind,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a national group that backs progressive ballot initiatives like the ones Missouri's Republican lawmakers are hoping to quelch.

“It would be nearly impossible for citizens to participate meaningfully in any sort of direct democracy,” said Hall, who believes other states could try to copy Missouri's proposal.

Lawmakers seek to rein in citizen initiatives

The Missouri proposal is the culmination of years of attempts by lawmakers in numerous states to raise the bar for citizen-initiated petitions to qualify for the ballot and win voter approval. Some elected officials contend lawmaking is best left to themselves — the people's representatives — because citizen initiatives lack the vetting that comes from the multistep legislative process of public hearings, debates and revisions.

The effort to curtail citizen initiatives on state ballots comes as President Donald Trump pushes for greater restrictions on who can vote and how ballots are cast, asserting the integrity of elections is at stake.

Missouri’s measure “fits into the larger narrative and story around what the future of democracy looks like in the United States,” said Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which supports progressive ballot measures.

Citizen initiatives are allowed only in some states

About one-third of U.S. states allow people to bypass their legislatures by gathering signatures to place proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot. Several others allow the process for proposed laws.

In most of those states, a simple majority of voters is all that’s needed to approve constitutional amendments. Colorado requires a 55% vote for most measures, and Florida a 60% vote.

Voters in recent years rejected ballot measures to raise the approval threshold for amendments in Arkansas, Ohio and South Dakota. Still, South Dakota lawmakers have placed a proposal for a 60% approval threshold on the November ballot. North Dakota voters will consider a similar measure, and Utah voters will decide on a 60% requirement for citizen-initiated tax increases.

Missouri’s proposal would apply only to citizen initiatives. Constitutional amendments proposed by the Legislature still would need only a statewide majority. No other state has a dual standard like that.

Missouri proposal requires geographic consensus

Republican state Rep. Ed Lewis, who sponsored Missouri's measure, said he wants to ensure people in all parts of the state have their voices heard. He said activists funded by out-of-state interest groups have run up large majorities in St. Louis and Kansas City to pass controversial initiatives that failed throughout most of the rest of Missouri.

The abortion, marijuana, sports betting and Medicaid initiatives all were placed on the ballot by petitions between 2020 and 2024 after lawmakers declined to act. All passed with 53% or less of the statewide vote.

Requiring “50% in each of our congressional districts is not a difficult barrier for anything that has a consensus,” Lewis said. But “it is a difficult barrier for either a very conservative or a very liberal initiative petition,” he said.

“If you’re going to change the constitution, shouldn’t it be broadly accepted?” Lewis asked rhetorically.

Amendments to the U.S. Constitution require ratification by three-fourths of the states.

Critics say Missouri's proposed amendment could undercut consensus, because an initiative backed by large margins in seven congressional districts still would fail if opposed by a slim margin in just one district.

“It is an astonishing level of unfairness, and it crushes our notion of one person, one vote and majority rule, which we learned about in school as kids,” said Scott Charton, a spokesperson for the Missouri Realtors campaign committees, which have backed previous initiatives.

Republicans are divided over initiative restrictions

Though Amendment 4 was referred to the ballot by Republican lawmakers, people at a recent Republican club meeting in Jefferson City were divided about whether to make it harder for citizens to amend the state constitution.

Rick Kolb said he supports the tougher standards.

“Our country was founded as a republic not a democracy,” he said. When initiatives appear on the ballot, “everybody votes on these things that they haven’t put any thought into it.”

But Jim Bryan said he opposes the amendment, fearing it could allow voters in St. Louis or Kansas City to thwart measures supported by the rest of the state.

“The popular vote is what I want,” he said.

A new petition could fortify citizen initiatives

Regardless of the outcome, Tuesday's vote may not be the last on Missouri's citizen initiatives.

The Respect Missouri Voters coalition submitted more than 300,000 petition signatures — currently being verified by election officials — to try to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot protecting the initiative process. It would reverse the Legislature's amendment by requiring only a statewide majority to pass citizen initiatives. It also would bar the Legislature from increasing the number of signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, shortening the time to do so or imposing other requirements that weaken initiative rights.

The measure also would make it harder for the Legislature to reverse or amend voter-approved initiatives by requiring an 80% vote in both the House and Senate instead of a simple majority. That comes after the Legislature last year repealed a paid sick leave law approved by voters and referred a new constitutional amendment to the November ballot to reverse voter-approved abortion rights.

Supporters insist their measure is nonpartisan, noting that Democratic lawmakers also tried to restrict citizen initiatives before Republicans gained control of the Capitol.

“Politicians in power want all the power in their hands,” said Benjamin Singer, co-founder of Respect Missouri Voters. “They don’t want citizens to have a check on their power.”

The blazes that burned 42,000 hectares (about 162 square miles) of pine forest and touristic resort areas in Bordeaux's Gironde region on the Atlantic coast haven't spread for several days.

Government officials said lower temperatures and higher humidity overnight were helping ease pressures on beleaguered fire squads, who turned their attention to forests and undergrowth along dunes of fine sand.

Europe is facing an extremely hot summer, fueling wildfires from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean. The United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Greece and Turkey all battled blazes on Thursday.

The wildfire in southwest France initially forced 224,000 people to flee. Authorities have allowed 144,000 evacuees to return this week.

Officials on Friday seemed cautiously optimistic.

“It’s stabilized, but not totally stopped,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told RTL radio on Friday. Hot spots remain.”

Police and investigators were looking into the origins of the wildfire, which could have been triggered deliberately — some suspects appeared to be repeat offenders, he said — or through negligence.

As of Friday, Nunez said, a total of 308 people had been arrested in connection with the blazes — including more than 120 minors — and 33 people had either been convicted or were being held pending court rulings on their cases.

Nunez also said in a social media post that Ukraine was to dispatch 70 civil security personnel and 10 vehicles in the coming days to help strengthen the deployment.

Pockets of trouble with fires continued across other parts of Europe.

In England, where half the country has been baking under drought conditions, firefighters battled a wildfire near a nuclear power station for a third day.

The Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said a fire near Leiston on the east coast of England had “stabilized” and there was no concern about it spreading to the Sizewell B power plant, which is just a few miles away from the blaze.

More than 100 firefighters have been deployed to battle the blaze, which has now burned about 150 hectares (370 acres), in Dunwich Heath.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Henry Griffin told reporters the fire has been stabilized, but because of its scale and unpredictable winds in the area, "I wouldn’t say it is under control.”

U.S. futures rose 0.5% and oil prices resumed climbing.

The Kospi surged at the open and then wavered, eventually rocketing up 17.9% to 6,695.45, its largest single day gain ever. Shares of South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics surged 28%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix soared 30%.

Despite its big jump Friday, the Kospi remains well below the peak of over 9,000 that it hit in June. It had shed more than 17% in the previous three days as investors dumped technology stocks in part over worries about an AI bubble and rising competition from chipmaking and AI rivals in China. The benchmark's previous largest single day gain, of nearly 12%, was in October 2008 during the global financial crisis.

The rebound followed Microsoft's report Thursday of stronger than expected profits for the last quarter, which were taken as a signal that big spending on AI is translating into profits. Microsoft's shares soared 15.5% for its best day in nearly 18 years.

Traders flooded back into the market to snap up shares in tech companies that had recently swooned over doubts that the huge investments will yield adequate returns.

European shares also advanced in early trading Friday. Germany's DAX rose 0.7% to 25,779.53, while the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.9% to 8,559.92. Britain's FTSE picked up 0.5% to 10,935.00.

In other Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 4% to 64,362.02. Multinational investment holding company and OpenAI-investor SoftBank Group jumped 13.8%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron rose 6.2%.

“The market went from throwing AI stocks overboard to fighting for the remaining seats before most traders had finished writing the obituary,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

The dollar bounced back after falling sharply against the Japanese yen overnight, gaining 0.5% to 160.28 yen. Regulators in Japan and the U.S. were suspected of intervening in the market after weeks of the dollar trading above 160 yen, near 40-year highs.

Japan's Nikkei financial newspaper said the intervention was coordinated, with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York conducting what is known as a “rate check” where it asks various banks to provide exchange-rate quotes for currency trades.

Officials from both sides refrained from comment on the matter.

As expected, the Bank of Japan opted to keep interest rates unchanged Friday as it wrapped up a policymaking meeting. Analysts said officials may have stepped into the markets to limit speculative moves linked to the central bank's decisions.

“Intervention in support of the yen may not work any better now than it has previously, but the persistence of the Japanese authorities suggests to us that the yen will remain around the 160 level this year before staging a more sustained rebound next year,” Jonas Golterman of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

The Federal Reserve likewise kept its benchmark rate unchanged at its policy meeting this week. A gap between interest rate levels in Japan and the U.S. has been a key factor behind the yen's weakness.

The euro fell to $1.1509 from $1.1524.

Taiwan's Taiex surged 8%, helped by a 10% jump for chipmaker TSMC.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.1%, to 8,976.80.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher, to 25,884.83, while the Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.7% to 3,832.26.

An official survey showed China’s factory activity slowed in July, the first contraction in five months. Some analysts believe China’s weak domestic demand and recent typhoons helped to slow manufacturing activity. The economy grew at its slowest annual pace in more than three years in the April-June quarter, at 4.3%.

A meeting of China's powerful Politburo a day earlier had little impact on market levels Friday since no major policy changes were announced.

Oil prices traded lower as tensions between the U.S. and Iran kept the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil transport, largely closed.

Brent crude, the international standard, reversed earlier losses, gaining 0.8% to $87.50 a barrel. It was trading near $72 a barrel before the Iran war began in late February.

Benchmark U.S. crude picked up 0.4% to $83.92 a barrel.

On Thursday, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 gained 1.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.2% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 2.8%.

___

Chan reported from Hong Kong.

FRIDAY

After a few early morning showers, additional thunderstorms are expected to develop as temperatures heat up into the afternoon. Rain chances remain elevated at 60-70% as some storms could produce lightning, gusty winds and heavy downpours.

High temperatures will reach the lower 90s, with heat index values between 100 and 105 degrees before storms develop.

WEEKEND

Saturday through Monday looks to be the wettest stretch of the forecast. Rain chances increase to 60 to 80 percent each afternoon as deep tropical moisture remains in place and weak disturbances continue moving across the state.

Unlike a typical summer pattern, storms may develop earlier in the day or linger into the evening. The greatest concerns remain frequent lightning, gusty winds, and heavy rainfall that could lead to localized flooding.

Temperatures will stay seasonable, with afternoon highs in the lower 90s.

NEXT WEEK

By Tuesday, the overall weather pattern begins to shift. Winds are expected to weaken, allowing the sea breeze to once again become the main trigger for afternoon thunderstorms.

That means storms should return to a more familiar summertime schedule, with the highest coverage during the afternoon and evening, especially across the interior. While daily 40%-50% chance of rain remains in the forecast, the pattern should become less widespread than what is expected over the weekend.

Temperatures will remain near to slightly above normal, with highs in the mid 90s each afternoon.

Having released her new single “Shotty” on Friday, Reid wants people to meet the less pristine version of herself: a 23-year-old from Atlanta who falls in love, deals with boy problems and is still finding her way.

“I think people might think I have it all together when I really don't,” said Reid, who is known for performances in “ Euphoria, ” “ A Wrinkle in Time ” and “ The Last of Us, ” which earned her an Emmy in 2024. She graduated from the University of Southern California last year.

“I'm a normal girl trying to figure it out,” she continued.

“Shotty” follows Reid’s debut single, “Clean Sweep,” continuing a music journey she has pursued over the past year. So far, she has recorded more than 25 songs.

Reid said she hopes to focus work on her first EP after wrapping production on Teyana Taylor's feature directorial debut “Get Lite,” giving herself time to shape a project that tells a cohesive story. She's releasing music independently through her label, 1720 Music, saying the approach gives her greater creative freedom while leaving the door open to partner with a major label in the future.

“The indie route, you have a little bit more autonomy of what you want to do and how you do things,” she said.

Reid said ownership also gives her an opportunity to create doors for other artists.

“It’s the most powerful thing,” she said. “I want to sign people. I want to sign songwriters and producers and artists, and give them opportunities.”

Music has quickly become as important to Reid as acting, a career she'll continue with upcoming projects including Netflix’s “Roommates” and “Get Lite.” Preparing for Taylor's film pushed Reid outside her comfort zone as a dancer, challenging her to become more comfortable as a performer.

It's a skill Reid hopes will eventually translate to performing her own music.

“It’s as big and as important as acting is,” she said. “It’s something that I want to continue to do and want to continue to grow at.”

Reid said years in Hollywood prepared her for criticism.

“People didn’t feel like I deserved to win an Emmy, but it’s still sitting in my house,” she said. “It’s still in my mama’s house, so I don’t really care what people say.”

Since releasing “Clean Sweep,” Reid said she has largely stayed away from reading online comments.

“I don’t want to get distracted or discouraged,” she said. “Mostly I’ve been so thankful. The sentiments have been really nice and people have been supportive. ... I'm excited and can’t wait for them to hear more.”

For Reid, music has become more about who she's always been.

“Not everything is gonna be perfect. Not everything is gonna be prim, proper and pristine and eloquent,” Reid said. “Like yeah, that’s a part of me, and I can do that, and I can do it really well. But also … this is me too.”

Until now, the answer has been a doting home health aide from Haiti named Martha Nelson. But with the Supreme Court sanctioning a White House immigration crackdown, Nelson’s permission to stay in the country appears likely to be yanked within days, leaving French worried.

“She’s with me all the time,” says French. “Life would be impossible.”

As the Trump administration unwinds years of protections for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti, twin populations of vulnerable people find themselves in the crosshairs: caregivers in jobs to which those immigrants have flocked, and the older adults and disabled people who rely on them.

Around the U.S., care homes and home health agencies are bracing for the loss of workers with TPS, which stands for temporary protected status, even as they continue to reel from other immigration policy changes that have squeezed an already short-staffed industry.

For businesses, it is a predicament that could hurt bottom lines and tax remaining workers. For their clients, it threatens to upend every aspect of their lives.

“They have become like family,” says Katy Sanchez, who lives in a group home for disabled people in Nanuet, New York, run by The Arc Rockland, which stands to lose 19 caregivers with TPS, on top of 20 others it lost in immigration changes last year. “If they are forced to leave, it would be devastating.”

Supreme Court ruling paved the way

The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration last month, saying it could end temporary protected status. The ruling specifically pertained to 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, but immigration advocates and legal observers say it could be applied to a broader group of 1.3 million people from 17 countries.

The justices' move has been met with weeks of confusion. Immigration officials subsequently granted several extensions to TPS holders that carried through Monday. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued guidance Wednesday affirming TPS was over, though some attorneys and labor unions have argued work authorization remains intact until lower courts lift an injunction.

The Department of Homeland Security made light of the TPS expiration, referencing lyrics from a 1998 hit song: “It’s closing time, which means you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”

Fearful they might be in breach of the law, some employers have begun terminating TPS holders, to the dismay of their clients.

Anna Fischbein grew accustomed to visits to her home in Sunny Isles, Florida, from the same kindly Haitian health aide every week for the past 10 years. But Jewish Community Services of South Florida terminated the aide along with 17 others when their TPS lapsed.

“I lost not only a lady working for me,” the 87-year-old Holocaust survivor says, her voice broken by sobs. “I lost a friend.”

Facilities scramble to come up with replacement workers

Around 1 in 5 workers in the U.S. is foreign born, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but immigrants are overrepresented in caregiving roles. Among home health aides, for example, one-third are immigrants, according to PHI, a nonprofit focused on the caregiving workforce.

In lives upended by age or disability, a cherished caregiver is a lifeline. For someone living in their own home, they may be the last line of defense before institutionalization. For those in a care facility, they may be their strongest advocate, who notices subtle changes before anyone else, ensures small comforts like dollar-store word search books, and brings a sense of humanity to the humiliation of being incontinent.

“They are the first people they see when they wake up in the morning and they’re the last ones that they see before they go to bed,” says Simone Smith, vice president of human resources at Cabrini of Westchester, a nursing home in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where eight Haitians with TPS await word of their fate.

Like similar facilities around the country, Cabrini is prepared to scramble to secure replacement staffers from nursing agencies and plead with remaining workers to take overtime shifts. Cabrini’s workforce is about 75% immigrant. Among those with TPS, Smith senses “almost a hopelessness.”

A Haitian who loses TPS faces an unbearable choice: Attempt to stay in the U.S. and find underground work, tiptoeing through life with fear that authorities will eventually find and remove them. Or return to a country so plagued by gang violence and poverty that many believe it would amount to a death sentence.

“I’m afraid all the time,” says a Haitian man working at a Brooklyn nursing home who asked for anonymity because of concerns for the safety of himself and his family. “I pay tax to the country. I’m a good person. … All I want is to work. When you work, you are a person.”

Families wonder what they will do

Outside a simple brick house in Queens, Nelson stands guard as French steps through her door. On the porch, you might mistake the two for old friends, their bond as much an illustration of what is at risk as it is of how much things have changed.

The women made the same journey, from Port-au-Prince to New York, four decades apart.

French was drawn here in 1970 by the potential opportunities she saw. She built businesses as a hairdresser and seamstress. Her late husband made his way as an electrician and contractor. They bought their home. Their children got good educations. They believed they achieved the American dream.

Nelson came after an earthquake flattened Haiti in 2010. At home, she ran a butcher shop, but after arriving in New York she found work in caregiving roles. She began working for French about three years ago after French fell and broke her hip. Nelson, now 69, has been with her nearly every weekday since.

Both women felt welcomed by the U.S. when they arrived. But French is saddened to see how views on immigrants have evolved.

“America is a good country,” French says, “but it has changed.”

Nelson brings leftovers, tends to French’s chores and is a source of companionship. They watch the news together and talk in Haitian Creole about their families. On weekends, Nelson calls to make sure French has gotten up from bed and nags her to eat.

“On my days off, I think about her,” Nelson says.

French says Nelson has become like family. Nelson agrees, saying she sees French as if she’s her own mother, a show of affection and the source of the pair’s one ongoing dispute.

“You’re not like my daughter,” French protests. “You’re like my sister.”

For now, the two continue their routine, knowing each shift may be Nelson's last. She keeps a copy of her work authorization zipped in a black cloth pouch that she carries everywhere, in case she is stopped. Each Sunday, she sinks to her knees in church, praying for an answer. She worries for herself and for French.

“It makes me feel depressed,” Nelson says. “It could be difficult for her without me.”

___

Salomon reported from Miami.

___

Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky

Anthropic, the San Francisco-based AI company behind Claude, posted on its website Thursday that it discovered the three incidents after reviewing more than 141,000 evaluation runs.

It had launched a “large-scale” cybersecurity review which specifically looked for evidence whether its AI models were able to access the internet from within testing environments that should have been sealed off, in response to the OpenAI incident, Anthropic said.

Anthropic said the models involved in the incidents were Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5 and an internal research test model. The earliest incidents date to April, the AI company said.

“Claude compromised the impacted organizations’ infrastructure using basic techniques,” Anthropic said, such as exploiting weak passwords.

In all three incidents, the AI models were tasked with a “capture the flag” cybersecurity challenge, which Anthropic said has been one of the ways it assesses a model’s cyber capabilities.

The models were given a fictional scenario and told a piece of secret information, or the “flag,” had been hidden on a different machine on the network with the objective of breaking in and retrieving it, it said.

It added that it had already reached out to the affected organizations, which it did not name. Two of them said they had not previously detected the activity. Anthropic said it was “continuing to reach out to the third.”

Anthropic said it conducted its review with Irregular, which describes itself as the “first frontier security lab.”

“Addressing these risks will require closer cooperation across the AI ecosystem,” Irregular said in a post on X.

Last week, OpenAI said its AI models went rogue during an evaluation of its models, breaking into the servers of AI startup Hugging Face. OpenAI described it as a “significant security incident.”

These incidents have highlighted the vulnerabilities in AI security and controls and raised questions over how AI can be safely kept under human control as the technology’s usage becomes more widespread globally.

Researchers have warned for years about risks from technology and the need for stronger AI defensive engineering.

“Safety testing happens before a model is released precisely because we don’t yet know what it is capable of,” Anthropic said on Thursday on its website.

Kok Tin Gan, co-founder & CEO of cybersecurity firm NyxLab, which specializes in cybersecurity and threat detection, believes there will be more such incidents in the future.

“It is increasingly about governing what agents are available to the AI, what authorities they possess, which actions require approval, and how we ensure they remain within scope,” Gan said.

But the future of AI safety extends beyond just the safety of AI models, he said.

“If we simply give the AI a goal and allow it to decide how to achieve it, we should not be surprised when it takes actions that technically satisfy the objective, but fall outside our intended scope or expectations,” Gan said.

Therefore, stepping up the governance of the organizations and authorities behind these AI models is going to be increasingly important, he said.

Brussels aims to track the use of AI models for violations of its new regulations, like the publishing of sexually explicit material, fake photos and videos, and cyber threats to public infrastructure. When the bloc's AI Act comes into force on Sunday, AI companies will be required to make clear to consumers with labels or digital watermarks that chatbots or imagery are generated with AI.

“As enforcement begins, we are taking an important step towards AI that people and businesses can understand and trust, and whose benefits are shared widely across our society,” said Henna Virkkunen, the EU chief for tech sovereignty, on Friday.

The European Commission said in a statement that new regulations also include “systemic risks” posed by AI like “chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents, loss of control, cyber offense, harmful manipulation and threats to fundamental rights."

The team is the latest move in the 27-nation EU’s “tech sovereignty” strategy that welds landmark digital regulations with economic ambition that has seen over the past week billions of euros in fines on Big Tech companies as well as record investment in AI infrastructure inside the bloc.

The rollout comes on the heels of shocking AI safety failures that rattled the nascent industry. Political leaders worldwide are now weighing control of the technology with market leadership.

Anthropic said on Friday its artificial intelligence models hacked into three other organizations during testing, just days after ChatGPT maker OpenAI raised concerns over AI controls after it disclosed its rogue models hacked another company.

The EU is now expanding its AI Office in Brussels with an additional 38 people who will begin monitoring AI companies, from the new firms to the American and Chinese tech titans like OpenAI and DeepSeek.

Those companies must “document certain information,” said the European Commission, the bloc's tech enforcer, which reserves the right to interview AI company staff during investigations. It has also launched a Whistleblower Tool for tech workers and a Compliance Tool for tech users to confidentially alert authorities to illegal conduct.

If models or other products break the EU's sector regulations, called the AI Act, Brussels can fine the firms or cut off their access to the EU market. Recent gigantic antitrust fines on U.S. tech companies have irked U.S. President Donald Trump.

The EU now clearly sees systemic vulnerability in its deep reliance on American software companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft as well as imports of Chinese industrial goods and critical minerals. While it is seeking protections from AI, it is also keen to catch up in the AI arms race, where it is a distant third behind the U.S. and China.

More broadly, the EU is seeking more independence from both Washington and Beijing by reinvigorating specific domestic industries like manufacturing and defense and forging new trade deals from Brazil to Australia to meet the global rise in economic nationalism spearheaded by Trump.

The death toll rose to 34, the Kumamoto prefectural government said, as rescuers raced to find those still missing after the quake triggered a mall explosion, toppled a factory chimney and flattened homes.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stressed that authorities must secure water supplies by doing “whatever it takes” and called for close coordination with the military and other relevant agencies. The earthquake left thousands of homes without power, but Takaichi said electricity was fully restored by Friday evening. The local power company also said there were no immediate reports of remaining outages.

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday. As search operations entered a fourth day, it wasn’t known how many people remained missing.

More than 1,500 buildings were damaged, including 179 that were destroyed, according to preliminary assessments by Japanese officials.

Officials said 34 quake-related deaths had been confirmed, with one more death still under investigation. At least 96 people were injured, including six seriously.

Thousands are without water and power as heat soars

Kumamoto authorities said over 79,000 homes remained without water. More than 9,000 people were staying in shelters, where power sources were being added to provide air conditioning.

Fuel has also become scarce as power outages disabled gas stations and quake damage disrupted deliveries from other regions. Many have resorted to sleeping in their cars, but with the fuel shortage, they struggle to keep the air conditioning running in sweltering temperatures.

Japan's weather agency and the Ministry of the Environment issued an extreme heat alert for Kumamoto city Friday as temperatures peaked at 36 C (97 F).

Hirokazu Sato, who lost his home in the earthquake, said he and his wife and three children would remain in their car until they can move into temporary housing.

“I don’t know how soon I’d be able to move in,” said Sato. “We need to have the air conditioning on throughout the day and night, which uses up gas.”

Kumamoto is also a major industrial hub, and there are concerns that the quake could possibly disrupt semiconductor and auto-parts supply chains for months to come.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a global chip giant that operates a lab in Kumamoto, said it temporarily evacuated workers from the facility after it experienced strong shaking from the earthquake. The company said all personnel were safe and operations were gradually resuming after postquake inspections found the structure was sound, although detailed inspections and impact assessments were still underway.

Searches continue, with the number of missing unknown

Japanese officials had described Friday afternoon as a crucial point for rescue efforts as some experts say survival chances decline after the first three days.

With search dogs, rescuers continued looking for survivors across the Kumamoto area, including at the collapsed Aeon Mall in the town of Kashima, one of the hardest-hit sites. The complex was bustling with thousands of people when the quake happened.

The company said about 3,000 shoppers were evacuated to a parking lot before an explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some staff remained working. The mall’s second floor collapsed, trapping people.

At the site, seven people were confirmed dead and 11 had been rescued, Japanese Chief Cabinet Sec Minoru Kihara told reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Authorities didn't say how many were still missing.

Meanwhile, a search operation had ended at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in the Yatsushiro area where a chimney collapsed in the quake, Kihara said. Searchers rescued 11 people there, while nine others were confirmed dead.

Smaller-scale searches continued Friday at the sites of collapsed houses in badly hit towns in southern Kumamoto. Authorities haven't supplied a firm figure for how many people are missing.

Officials assess damaged homes as some bullet trains resume

In the town of Hikawa, one of the most badly damaged parts of Kumamoto, officials said more than 800 of the town’s 4,500 homes were destroyed or damaged. Many residents slept inside their vehicles in parks, at the town hall parking lot or outside their homes.

Some were scared to sleep indoors. Among them was Ayako Sudo, a woman in her 70s who was sleeping in her car with her husband.

“Since it’s a wooden house, the shaking is really intense," Sudo said. “Even when the earthquakes are small, it shakes, and it brings up this feeling of fear. So I think I’d really prefer somewhere that feels safe.”

Sudo slept in her car for two weeks before, after a powerful quake that shook Kumamoto in 2016.

“It’s exhausting," she said. "We’ve been sleep-deprived in the car.”

Meanwhile, Shinkansen bullet trains resumed between Kumamoto and Fukuoka to the north but with reduced services, according to Kyushu Railway Co., while those connecting cities down south to Kagoshima were still suspended.

Local trains in quake-hit areas, mainly in southern Kumamoto, were still suspended due to quake damage.

____

Associated Press business writer Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report.

Efforts were underway to retrieve the bodies of the four climbers despite the harsh weather, according to senior government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They did not immediately identify which bodies were found.

Bad weather continued to hamper the rescue effort Friday, according to a statement from the Gilgit-Baltistan region's Chief Minister Amjad Hussain.

The climbers lost contact with their base camp after an avalanche struck Broad Peak while they were attempting to scale the mountain, said Karrar Haidri, vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan. “The team has been out of communication since Thursday,” said Haidri, adding that army helicopters were part of the search-and-rescue operation.

According to the Alpine Club, the expedition comprised five Nepali climbers, Pakistani mountaineer Sohail Sakhi, Omani climber Nathira, American climber Mallory Geis, a Chinese climber identified only as Wang, and another foreign climber.

On Friday, China’s government said it was trying to verify whether any of its nationals were among the 10 climbers missing.

“We will provide assistance to Chinese citizens in need and are also willing to offer help in accordance with the needs of the Pakistani side,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Friday in Beijing.

The expedition leader was the renowned mountaineer Nirmal Purja, a Nepal-born former soldier in the British army widely known as Nims Dai. He climbed the world’s 14 highest peaks in a record 189 days in 2019, an achievement featured in the Netflix documentary, “14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible.” His record was surpassed in 2023.

Moving Mountains, a travel company based in Pakistan, announced late last month that the expedition team was on its way to the small town of Askole and wished them a safe journey climbing Broad Peak. The company said this was Geis’ first try at an 8,000-meter peak in Pakistan, while it was expected to be Sakhi’s final one.

Sakhi is a guide for the company, as well as a geographer and high-altitude photographer, and has climbed some of the world’s major peaks, according to Moving Mountains’ website.

Geis, 39, lives in San Antonio. She announced on social media earlier this year that she was closing her Pilates studio to take “a giant leap of faith into the unknown to see where life goes. I have a sneaking suspicion there will be lots of helmets, harnesses, and crampons involved.”

Broad Peak, at 8,047 meters (26,401 feet), is the world’s 12th-highest mountain. It lies in Pakistan’s Karakoram range, home to five of the world’s 14 peaks above 8,000 meters, attracting climbers from around the globe.

Accidents are common during climbing expeditions in northern Pakistan because of avalanches and rapidly changing weather.

___

Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. AP journalist E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

The rights group said an attack aircraft identified as a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 dropped two munitions on Kyrnia village in the Mopti region on June 15. One strike hit near the home of the village chief, killing his wife and three children. The second hit a nearby cattle market, killing four men. No fighters from the Islamic militant group JNIM, which has controlled the village for six years, were reported among the casualties.

The Associated Press was not able to independently verify the claims by Human Rights Watch.

Mali has been plagued for over a decade by militants affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, including JNIM, as well as a Tuareg separatist rebellion in the north.

Violence escalated in recent months after an alliance of JNIM and Tuareg separatists carried out the largest coordinated attack in over a decade, targeting the airport of the country’s capital, Bamako, the nearby garrison town of Kati, and several northern and central cities.

April’s attacks exposed the weaknesses of Mali’s strategy to combat the rebellion, including relying on Russia, which has partnered with the military-led government after it distanced itself from former allies such as France.

Russian mercenaries have been present in Mali since late 2021 to help its military junta fight militants and separatists. Last year, Africa Corps, which reports to Russia’s Defense Ministry, replaced the private mercenary Wagner Group in the country.

Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 19 people, analyzed satellite imagery, and reviewed a video the Africa Corps posted online describing the strike last month as targeting a “terrorist” gathering. Researchers said roughly 100 JNIM fighters were in the village at the time but were mostly gathered elsewhere, and that the strikes did not appear to target a clear military objective.

The rights group called on Mali’s government to investigate the strike and hold those responsible accountable, saying it could otherwise be complicit in war crimes.

Russia’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Housing affordability remains near historic lows as higher prices, mortgage rates, insurance costs, and maintenance expenses squeeze buyers.
• Prospective buyers should calculate the full cost of homeownership before deciding what they can afford.
• Home sellers may face unexpected capital gains taxes if their home’s appreciation exceeds IRS exclusion limits.

The U.S. housing market has entered a period of uncertainty.

After years of rapid price appreciation fueled by low mortgage rates and intense competition, higher borrowing costs have cooled demand in many parts of the country. While home prices have remained relatively resilient, affordability has become one of the biggest challenges facing prospective buyers, leaving many households questioning whether now is the right time to purchase a home.

Today’s buyers must account for more than just a monthly mortgage payment.

Rising homeowners insurance premiums, higher property taxes in some communities, and increasing maintenance and repair costs have significantly raised the overall cost of homeownership. At the same time, elevated mortgage rates mean that even buyers with solid incomes may find themselves stretching their budgets further than they expected.

For homeowners considering selling, the picture is mixed as well.

Many have built substantial equity after years of rising home values, but those gains can also create unexpected tax consequences.

As buyers and sellers navigate a market that looks very different from just a few years ago, we spoke to our favorite business analyst, Jill Schlesinger, about how careful home ownership planning – and understanding the full financial picture – is more important than ever.

Here’s the full transcript of our interview:

WKMG-TV: The housing market has stalled this year. CBS News Business Analyst Jill Schlesinger is here to discuss what you should know if you buy or sell.

Jill, where do we stand with affordability when it comes to owning a home?

Jill Schlesinger: It’s pretty tough out there. We’ve got higher prices, increased mortgage interest rates, and elevated costs of homeowner’s insurance. All this has come together and been like a toxic combination for buyers. It really does mean that if you’re looking at what share of your income you have to devote to buying a house, it’s risen dramatically over the last five and 10 years.

In fact, think of it this way.

Let’s look at a house that you could have bought five years ago. Today, just five years later, when you look at the monthly payments for the same house, they’ve gone up by 80%. So affordability is difficult right now.

WKMG-TV: And Jill, if you are hoping to buy a home, what are the specific steps you should take?

Jill Schlesinger: Well, we always say you should run the numbers, but when I say run the numbers, don’t just do what your mortgage broker’s telling you to do.

Add, in addition to the mortgage, the principal, the interest, the homeowner’s insurance, the property taxes, and the maintenance. People are really finding that to do a costly repair every year or every couple of years adds to the cost of owning a home. You just wanna make sure that your cash flow, your income, can absorb the cost of that new home.

And even if those numbers do work, I think it’s important to ask yourself that if you were to buy that home, would you have to change your spending substantially?

Would you be able to keep funding your retirement account?

If you really are looking at that and saying, ‘I can’t do anything, I would have to live like a miser and not put money into retirement or education,’ you might be overextending.

Just remember, renting is a great option, especially in a market that’s not affordable. It buys you flexibility, liquidity or access to your money and freedom.

WKMG-TV: And Jill, we’ve talked about the buyers; let’s flip it around for a second. If you’re thinking about selling, what should you know?

Jill Schlesinger: You know, I think because housing prices have gone up by so much, a lot more sellers – many more of them are actually paying taxes, and they are very surprised by that.

So think of it this way.

You know maybe you bought a home many years ago for like a hundred grand. You go to sell it and it’s five or six hundred thousand dollars. Well, the IRS allows each individual to exclude up to $250,000 of capital gains. So you would still be subject to capital gains taxes, and you probably don’t consider yourself rich.

Just know that those capital gains taxes, they’re not going to go away.

But if you are selling, you’ve got to keep some of your proceeds in a safe cash account so you can pay Uncle Sam. That way you can avoid that terrible surprise that we often find occurs in April.

WKMG-TV: Jill, thank you very much.

You can see Jill regularly on CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News. For more analysis, go to JillOnMoney.com.

After completing right-of-way acquisition, the Florida Department of Transportation is expected to begin work this fall on a stretch of State Road 434 near Ronald Reagan Boulevard.

The intersection work includes the addition of dual left turn lanes for east and westbound traffic, and a new exclusive right turn lane on eastbound State Road 434.

The project will also include bicycle lanes on State Road 434 from South Milwee Street to Ronald Reagan Blvd.

Bill Moss lives in Longwood and is looking forward to the planned improvements for drivers.

“That’s a dangerous intersection. It’s bad all the way through, and they need to do something about it,” Moss said. “They’re always doing something around here, but it’s progress.”

In addition to added lanes in the area, safety improvements will be made at five signalized intersections between Rangeline Road and US 17-92.

Planned improvements include sidewalk repairs, curb ramp reconstruction, and upgrades to pedestrian signals.

Construction on the project is expected to begin in September, and lane closures will be needed.

The traffic and safety improvements are expected to be completed in early 2028.

Rescuers recovered 32 bodies from the mine on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, and were working to retrieve the remaining two, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said in a statement.

Mine inspector Ghani Baloch said authorities initially believed 42 people had been inside the mine when the explosion occurred Thursday.

Balochistan’s Minister for Mines and Minerals Shoaib Nosherwani expressed condolences to the victims’ families and announced compensation of 500,000 Pakistani rupees (about $1,800) for the family of each victim. He said authorities would investigate the cause of the explosion and review safety measures at coal mines across the province.

Deadly accidents are common in Pakistan’s coal mining industry, particularly in Balochistan, where many mines lack adequate ventilation, gas-monitoring systems and other basic safety measures.

Despite the dangers and low wages, thousands of workers rely on coal mining for their livelihoods in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least-developed province, where poverty and unemployment remain widespread.

“It’s extremely important to us,” said Itai Nixon, who leads the diaspora department for Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. “We’re the state of the Jewish people, not just Israelis.”

Lesley Sachs, who has protested the current Israeli government and chairs the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism, also considers a close relationship with diaspora Jews a “strategic asset” for both Israel and Jews worldwide.

So she’s greatly concerned about diaspora Jews losing the sense that Israel can be a homeland for them, especially as rising antisemitism targets them regardless of political and religious affiliations.

“That was always really, really important that everybody around the world, especially after the Holocaust, knows that there is a country that will always take them,” Sachs said in her synagogue in Tel Aviv. “This is already a few generations after, and this is less prominent in their DNA. And I think that this is really a failure on the part of both Israel and world Jewry, that we have not managed to keep that prominent.”

Since 2000, Taglit-Birthright Israel has brought a million Jewish young adults from the United States and elsewhere for a free 10-day “discovery” tour of Israel. The organization’s CEO says it’s more necessary than ever to show what their connection to Israel could be like beyond controversial politics.

“That really increases the importance of my job to expose people to what they give up on,” said Gidi Mark. “What we give them is a mirror.”

The staunch Israel-US relationship shows some cracks

Israel and the United States have long been staunch allies. U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Washington earlier this week to discuss the war against Iran they launched together five months ago.

“The United States is perceived as the best friend of Israel in the entire world, and that’s still the case,” said Tamar Hermann, who directs the Israel Democracy Institute’s Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research in Jerusalem.

Divisions over the ceasefire in the Iran war, however, have weakened Jewish Israelis’ belief that Trump prioritizes Israel’s security — from 64% in March to 26% in June — according to the center.

Amid diplomatic tensions, the role of Jewish Americans who historically lobbied for political, military and financial support for Israel gains new prominence, Israelis said. And that deepens the concern that many young progressive Americans, including Jews, now see supporting Israel in any way as irreconcilable with their worldview.

The decline in support for Israel has become particularly stark since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians in southern Israel, and abducted 251 others. Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, which was part of the recently dissolved Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

That in turn ignited protests across the United States, especially on college campuses.

“Holocaust, refugees, the importance of Israel in times of need abroad, and the fact that Israel is a small country fighting for its existence … that’s history they read in a book,” Sachs said of younger Jewish Americans. “They weren’t emotionally part of it in any way or any form. And so they look at their values and the things that they believe in. And they don’t see it in Israel.”

Jewish Americans have complicated relationship with Israel

Only about 4 in 10 religious Jewish adults under 45 in the United States say that supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important for their Jewish identity, while about half of older religious Jewish adults do, according to the AP-NORC poll.

The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults — including people who identify as Jewish by religion and religiously unaffiliated people who identify as Jewish through culture, ethnicity or family background — also found that only about half of religious adults say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified. The number drops to 2 in 10 among Jewish adults without a religious affiliation.

At the same time, about 6 in 10 Jewish adults say prejudice against Jewish people is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the United States today.

To many Israelis, safety threats against Jews make it all the more tragic — and dangerous — that young Jewish Americans do not see the state of Israel as a refuge or even an ally.

“Antisemitism sadly helps us to explain why a Jewish homeland is not a bad idea,” said Asaf Zamir, a deputy mayor of Tel Aviv who served as consul general in New York. “Opposing the government is fine, but you cannot understand your history as a Jew without understanding the part of Israel in it.”

Israel reaches out to secular and liberal Jews in North America

In order to promote deeper attachment between Israel and diaspora Jews, both the government and religious organizations are reinforcing exchange programs. For decades, young Israelis have traveled to Jewish summer camps across North America, and non-Israeli Jews get free trips to Israel.

“To see Israel and meet Israelis is the gold standard,” Itai Nixon said of programs bringing teens to the country.

Taglit-Birthright’s Gidi Mark said that since 2023, with multiple wars, tour participants are fewer — and their reactions to touring Israel have also changed. He recalled one participant shouting “Israel! Israel!” outside his hotel just because he felt safe to express himself.

“These people don’t feel free to experience who they are in the places that they are coming from,” Mark said.

These and other initiatives are focusing on secular Jews and adherents to Reform Judaism. The largest branch of the religion in North America, it emphasizes progressive values such as social justice.

Orthodox Jews abroad tend to have stronger ties to Israel — and Orthodox Jews in Israel tend to see themselves as closer to diaspora Jews than do secular Israelis, Hermann said.

Within the Israeli Reform movement, which is a small part of Judaism in the country, there’s a push to send more young Israelis to the United States, including as camp counselors.

“That kind of action is important, that one-on-one connection saying, ‘You know what, we believe in the same things you do. Really, we have the same ideology in general, and we feel we need to change Israel together,'" Sachs said. “We need to be partners in making Israel the country that we all need.”

Alma Edry, 18, is spending two months as a counselor at a progressive Jewish summer camp in Ontario with teens and young adults from Canada and the United States. She said her biggest surprise has been “that Israel is such a big deal for people outside the country.”

“Most of their friends are anti-Israel,” she said of the campers. “This is their chance to celebrate their connection.”

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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 open a three-game set against the Boston Red Sox.

The two-way superstar wanted to play Thursday against the Seattle Mariners, manager Dave Roberts said, but it was the team's decision to rest him. Ohtani told the training staff of renewed soreness after Wednesday night's 4-2 win.

“I appreciate the communication,” Roberts said. “I can’t read minds, the training staff can’t read minds, so just for him to communicate that then allows for us to make a decision.”

Second baseman Tommy Edman went 0 for 3 in Ohtani’s place for the series finale, a 6-2 win.

Ohtani has been dealing with knee soreness since June 11 and hasn't pitched since July 3 while also dealing with a right biceps issue. He skipped the All-Star Game in Philadelphia to stay home and receive a lubricant injection in the knee.

He is still serving as the designated hitter. Ohtani was 5 for 7 combined in his last two games against the Mariners, with a home run, four RBIs and two runs scored.

"The last couple days he’s been on base a lot more whereas the last part of the road trip he wasn’t, so there might have been a little something to that,” Roberts said, adding that nothing occurred in the game Wednesday to precipitate Ohtani sitting out the next day.

The Dodgers expect Ohtani to return to pitching this season, but they're not rushing him back to the mound.

“If there was something structural, then we would be much more concerned,” Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, said Wednesday. “The fact that there’s not and the fact that it does keep improving suggests that we’re on the right path.”

For now, the team doesn't have any plans to shut down Ohtani entirely to give him time to recover from his ailments.

"We're talking about this constantly,” Roberts said. “Nothing should be off the table and nothing is set in stone. So I think it’s more of how he feels. With this new information we’ve got to have new conversations.”

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

The White House announcement comes nine months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was signed. Negotiations between Israel and Hamas had largely deadlocked over the implementation of its second phase, including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.

“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” Trump said on social media. “As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”

Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan calls on the militant group to surrender its weapons and destroy its vast network of tunnels. It also envisions Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, the arrival of a new technocratic Palestinian government, deployment of an international security force and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave.

Trump announced what he said was an agreement to realize one of the most difficult portions of the Gaza ceasefire while negotiations have stalled and military attacks have escalated in the war that the U.S. and Israel in February launched against Iran, a key sponsor of Hamas.

On Friday, a Hamas official said they have reached an agreement on disarmament, the most crucial part of the ceasefire deal. Israel didn't give an indication that they had agreed.

Officials offer long or unspecific timelines for Hamas to disarm

U.S. and Board of Peace officials, describing the deal to reporters on condition of anonymity under guidelines set by the White House, gave an extremely optimistic assessment of the agreement that laid out a scenario very similar to the one described by Trump and his top aides when the Board of Peace, an international body established by Trump to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza, was first formed.

The officials were unable to offer specific timelines for the disarmament of Hamas or other groups that operate in Gaza, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but said the Gaza police force would turn over weapons to the technocratic Board of Peace-backed Gaza administration in the next two weeks.

The Gaza police force, however, does not include the vast majority of Hamas militants and heavy weaponry is not included in that part of the agreement, according to the officials.

Instead, the surrender of heavy weapons and the decommissioning of Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure are to come later in a process that could take between 200 and 350 days, a Board of Peace official said.

Israel has not responded but has been deeply skeptical

A U.S. official said Israel, which has been deeply skeptical about Hamas’ willingness to give up its guns or relinquish at least behind-the-scenes control of Gaza, had been consulted at every step of the negotiation.

However, the official said Israel was not being asked to do anything more than what it had initially committed to when it agreed to Trump’s 20-point plan, which essentially involves withdrawing its forces from Gaza and committing to ending airstrikes on the territory.

The official said Trump would be “very, very disappointed” if Israel didn't adhere to the agreement. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House on Tuesday, but neither said much about what was discussed in their first face-to-face meeting since launching the war against Iran.

Israel’s U.N. Mission said it had no immediate comment.

The official added that Iran remains a wildcard in the equation because although it counseled Hamas members not to accept a deal, it is also not in a position to offer the group much support because it is preoccupied with the conflict with the United States.

Hamas previously had insisted on implementing the first phase of the ceasefire before moving to discuss its weapons. The group’s founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and it has been reluctant to give up an arsenal, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives, that lies at the heart of its identity.

Hamas announced earlier this month, however, that it had dissolved its government in Gaza and was preparing to transfer power to a technical committee backed by the United Nations as part of the ceasefire deal.

The war in Gaza began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

Israel’s military now controls more than half of Gaza, leaving Palestinians confined to squalid tent camps and heavily damaged urban neighborhoods.

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Cooper reported from Phoenix, Amiri from New York and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations.

The 30-year-old entertainer, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, wept after the verdicts were delivered in the District Court of Western Australia state in Perth.

He had pleaded not guilty to six charges of rape, three charges of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of choking in a Perth hotel room in September 2024.

The accuser cannot legally be named. She was 20 at the time.

Three days after the jury began deliberating, they found him guilty of only two of the assault charges which relate to him biting the woman. He testified during his eight-day trial that they were “love bites” and denied his victim had complained that he was hurting her.

He was found not guilty on some charges, but he could potentially face a retrial on three charges of rape on which the jury could not reach a verdict.

Despite the convictions, the Colombian-born entertainer remained free on bail until the case returns to court on Aug. 21 to discuss next steps.

Barrientos had been touring Australia and had already performed in Sydney and Melbourne before he encountered his victim in Perth. He was arrested several days later in the east coast city of Brisbane, where the tour was to end.

Prosecutors alleged the woman initially agreed to have sex but withdrew her consent because she feared for her safety.

Photos of the woman with bruising as well as bite marks on her face and neck were shown to the court.

Barrientos has been free on bail since he was charged and was allowed to return to Britain for several months.

The book was returned to the library in the seaside town of Kiama last week by a local Ross Simmons who had found it during recent home renovations inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace, Kiama Library manager Michelle Hudson said.

“We’ve never had anything that old come back to us,” Hudson said Thursday.

“I follow lots of libraries on social media and often you’ll get things that are maybe 30 or 40 years old when they’re cleaning out estates and stuff like that,” she added.

Ross Simmons, told The Associated Press on Friday he assumed the book was borrowed by his great-great-grandfather John Simmons, who had owned the house where it was found.

“I'm making an assumption. He was in residence in the cottage around about that time and his children were probably too young,” Ross Simmons said.

The library opened in 1872, and the book, “Antiquities of Athens,” published in 1858, was marked as No. 506 in the library’s original collection of around 1,000 books. Hudson suspects the book was lost within a few years of the library opening.

The late return fine would be around 28,000 Australian dollars ($19,500), allowing for inflation, Hudson said. That was calculated on the British three pence-a-week overdue fee that was printed on the inside cover of the book, along with a list of rules that applied when the library opened.

But Hudson said the library's records of borrowers in the 1870s had been lost. “Unfortunately, we have a missing link. There’s nothing in the book that tells us who the last borrower was,” Hudson said.

Library rules in the 1870s stated that a book had to be returned and an overdue debt paid before another book could be borrowed. “Maybe that’s why they never returned it to us,” Hudson said.

Antiquated rules of the day included that up to three books could be borrowed by households in which at least six members were “known to be able to read.” Proof of reading ability is no longer required to use today’s library.

In the 1870s, books were not lent to people who arrived at the library in a “state of intoxication.” Library users are now asked to leave if their behavior impacts others, but the rules are not specific about intoxication.

Ross Simmons said he had no idea why his English immigrant ancestor, who had also served as an alderman in Kiama's municipal government, would not have returned the book.

He said he hadn't been concerned by the prosect of being held liable by an angry librarian for his family's debt.

“I've spent a lifetime dealing with irate customers and being irate with customers himself. Just stick to your guns and say do your worst,” the 77-year-old said.

The returned book will be displayed in the library’s local history collection.

“We’re not going to allow it to go back out again. We don’t want to wait another 150 years for this book to be returned,” Hudson said.

Devers did get a sacrifice fly, but Tatis added on to his impressive list of home run robberies.

Tatis tracked Devers' fly ball and leaped to get his glove high above the short wall in right-center at Petco Park to make the catch. He landed and tumbled onto his backside, but flipped the ball to center fielder Jackson Merrill, who tossed it into the infield.

Merrill helped Tatis to his feet and patted him on the chest. Pitcher JP Sears raised his left arm in celebration.

Tatis was an All-Star at shortstop in 2021 and was moved to right field in 2023, after missing the 2022 season with injuries and a PED suspension. He won the Gold Glove and Platinum Glove awards in 2023 and 2025.

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

“UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions,” the European soccer body said after an urgent online meeting of its 55 member nations.

FIFA issued a statement early Friday saying that “nobody is selling football” and that it plans to continue the consultation process. But it appeared to back off from establishing the public equity move — what it calls the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — if member countries do not agree.

“FIFA acknowledges and respects feedback and concern aired in public,” it said, while blaming "erroneous reporting in the media” for disruptions to its planned consultation with member associations.

But it said that without the support of FIFA's 211 member associations, “FIFA’s commercial activities would remain unchanged. FFE would not be established.”

"Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain.”

The next scheduled FIFA tournament is within weeks in Europe — the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5 — and the four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup. That decision is due Nov. 23.

“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

The strategy meeting was called to counter FIFA President Infantino’s offer of $20 million to each of FIFA’s 211 global members that has to be accepted by mid-September.

Later Thursday, the 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) met and announced it rejected Infantino's plan.

In a statement, CONCACAF said members “expressed deep concerns about the lack of due process surrounding the proposal, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant FIFA governance bodies.” It also questioned the need for outside investment "following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history.”

Infantino’s secret project was revealed Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in the new $20 billion FFE subsidiary 20% owned by private investors. The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Infantino wrote Tuesday to the 211 members — already the effective owners of FIFA as a non-profit association under Swiss law — that if they approve FFE their promised $10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to $20 million. He projected their FIFA funding through 2038 would be $86 million each, instead of about $36 million.

“This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” said UEFA, where Infantino was a long-time staffer and its CEO-like general secretary when he was first elected to lead FIFA in 2016.

Infantino’s presidency at risk?

Infantino’s high-stakes financial gambit now could threaten his previously secure 11-year presidency of FIFA as anger and frustration with him rises among soccer stakeholders including three of the six continental bodies.

FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.

Infantino had seemed — 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey — to have a clear path to being re-elected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031, despite a furor over letting United States forward Folarin Balogun play against Belgium despite a red card in his previous game.

Soccer officials have said privately Infantino has eyed a lucrative commissioner-like role at the FFE spinoff beyond 2031.

“Game over, Gianni #InfantinOUT,” the Football Supporters Europe group, which advises UEFA on fan issues such as ticket prices, posted after the boycott threat.

Soccer’s concern at investor pressure

UEFA detailed Thursday why soccer officials fear external investors owning a stake of the global game’s biggest events, including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women.

“The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever,” UEFA said. “Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure.”

Infantino has presented the private equity offer as a chance to “turbocharge” funding development of soccer across the world, where a majority of the 211 FIFA members rely on its funding.

Officials from about 40 UEFA member spoke at the urgent meeting, with anger expressed that FIFA is not using some of its multi-billion reserves to fund extra development programs.

“As a result of today’s discussion, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive,” the European soccer body said, “unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.”

Asia adds rare criticism of Infantino

On a seismic day in soccer politics, a traditional bedrock of support in Asia for FIFA and Infantino had earlier Thursday been shaken.

“FIFA’s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football,” the Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa said in a letter to its 46 members of FIFA, warning of risks to their own competitions.

Sheikh Salman, an ally to Infantino since losing the FIFA presidential election to him in 2016, wrote “such an initiative will not succeed without the support of all the confederations, which is not the case now.”

In a video message published Wednesday by FIFA, Infantino insisted spinning off its money-making operations was “an offer, not an obligation.”

A FIFA presentation for its members, co-written with its banking advisors from J.P. Morgan and seen by the AP, set a goal for FFE as “commercial rigor and expertise to better capitalize on broadcast rights, sponsorships and a growing tournament portfolio.”

FIFA squeeze on continental games

That growing portfolio likely would include adding more teams to FIFA competitions like the World Cup and Club World Cup for men and women, and potentially staging them more often than every four years, including in the U.S.

FIFA adding teams, games and competitions would squeeze the value, status and space in the congested global fixture calendar for those that fund and are organized by the six continental soccer bodies like UEFA and the AFC. Those include World Cup qualifying games, continental tournaments and Champions Leagues.

“It is important that the AFC family has a complete understanding,” Sheikh Salman wrote, “of how such an initiative may affect key areas of global and Asian football, including the sustainability of confederation and (domestic) competitions, as well as the organization and commercial landscape surrounding the AFC’s activities.”

UEFA’s previous boycott threat

A threatened World Cup boycott from Europe helped derail Infantino’s plan in 2021 to play World Cups every two years instead of four.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

Across the country, Democratic candidates are grappling with their previous positions calling to “defund the police” — a prominent demand during the protests that followed George Floyd's death — by either reimagining public safety services altogether or redirecting some police departments’ funds to other social programs. Now, they are facing tough questions about their past positions.

Democratic leaders fear that the outlier opinions favoring police defunding may again tarnish the party's brand and sink its chances of gaining ground in Congress, governor's mansions and statehouses nationwide.

“It was a serious debate in 2020 that arguably cost us some seats that year and caused us to lose on something where we should have had the upper ground, because a few members of our party wanted to have a stylistic debate rather than one on substance,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist.

Seawright said to avoid being painted as politically toxic on safety issues, Democrats “have to define the narrative before others define us with the narrative.”

That task may become more challenging as the party grapples with a rising left flank that has captivated its base, just as Republicans move to make warnings about crime, immigration and growing support for democratic socialism core to their closing midterm message.

Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate reckons with past ‘defund’ rhetoric

In Wisconsin, a swing state known for razor-thin elections that President Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2024, insurgent democratic socialist State Rep. Francesca Hong has upended the Democratic gubernatorial primary by running far to the left in a state where independent and moderate voters are key in statewide races. A single mother and former line cook, Hong has captured the imaginations of liberal Democrats upset with the party establishment.

But she’s also raised concerns among more moderate Democrats that her past support for defunding the police would hurt her chances in the general election against Trump-backed Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany.

“I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police,” Hong said in a 2020 social media post after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A year later, while serving in the State Assembly, Hong again posted about Blake, writing: “Police exist to uphold white supremacy. Defund then abolish. Reform can’t be an option.”

But as a candidate for governor, Hong had softened her tone while not disavowing her past statements. On Tuesday night, in the only televised debate ahead of the Aug. 11 primary, Hong said she did not support cutting police funding.

“The governor cannot defund the police and I’m not here to govern by slogan,” Hong said. “I’m here to make sure that I am the governor that is most serious about public safety, and that means investing in the things that we know prevent crimes.”

New York, Michigan politicians distance themselves from ‘defund’ calls

In neighboring Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a staunch progressive, has faced questions about his past support for defunding the police. Last November, CNN reported that the public health researcher and Rhodes scholar had deleted scores of posts expressing support for defunding the police. He now says he rejects the idea.

And in New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has tried to distance himself from his past criticisms of the city’s police department and a previous call to defund the agency. He is at times still dogged by a set of social media posts he made in 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, where he described the department as “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” and pushed to “Defund this rogue agency.”

Mamdani apologized for the language during his campaign and stressed that he no longer wanted to defund the agency. He has since moved to ease lingering concerns by retaining his predecessor’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, an establishment moderate respected by the city’s business leaders and law enforcement community. That decision angered some of Mamdani’s progressive allies.

The backtracking illustrates how the politics of criminal justice have shifted since 2020, posing dilemmas for Democrats’ midterm strategy and their ability to enact their preferred solutions.

Memphis voters reject ‘defund the police’ but decry National Guard presence

The stakes are life and death for communities caught in the middle of the political debate.

In Memphis, Tennessee, residents are exhausted at being thrust into the national discourse over crime and safety. The president surged the city with National Guard troops last year as part of an “anti-crime” task force. The task force has faced renewed local backlash after federal agents earlier this month killed a man experiencing a mental health crisis and another person during an altercation while agents executed a drug warrant. The city's local Democratic lawmakers claim that the tough-on-crime policies only temporarily reduced crime while troop presence was at its peak.

“They don’t like how it was done, how President Trump and the governor were able to snap their fingers, and all of a sudden we see federal agents flooding our city,” said State Sen. London Lamar, who represents Memphis and has faced tough questions from constituents and her statehouse colleagues about how to address crime in the city.

But Lamar added that outside of frustrated local progressive activists, residents outraged by the administration's anti-crime crackdown were still skeptical of calls to “defund the police.”

“It's not really sticking because, though it's quietly kept, the vast majority of the community still wants law enforcement's presence,” said Lamar. The debate is a useful distraction, Lamar said, from real conversations over how to boost public safety.

“Our challenges are being exploited for political gain,” she added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the 13th such meeting of the Republican president's second term "will be a lot of fun and something different for the Cabinet to experience together.”

It will be the first Cabinet meeting at Camp David in Trump's second term after an earlier attempt in May was scuttled because of bad weather. During his first term, Trump held a Cabinet meeting at the retreat.

The public portion of Trump's Cabinet meetings has lasted as long as three hours, with the president letting everyone at the table update him on their departments or agencies — with added praise for him personally and his leadership thrown in. In a departure from other presidents, he allows the news media to stay for the duration of the meetings, a move that Leavitt has said proves his commitment to transparency.

More recently, however, Trump has commented on how lengthy the meetings have become. He has begun urging speakers to keep their comments brief, and he has limited the number of oral reports.

“Everybody around here has got a lot to say. But we did that once, and it lasted for like four or five hours. It was a little much,” Trump said at the May meeting.

Camp David was established in 1942 during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency and has been used by every president since.

Roosevelt had enjoyed relaxing aboard a presidential yacht, but the military and the U.S. Secret Service began to worry about his safety on open water during World War II. As a result, Roosevelt asked the National Park Service to find sites within 100 miles of the White House that he could use for rest.

He chose what is now known as Camp David. He gave it the original name of Shangri-La, from James Hilton’s novel “Lost Horizon.” President Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David, after his grandson and father.

Trump spent more weekends at the retreat in his first term but has visited sparingly in his second, most recently in June for Father’s Day.

In 2019, during his first term, Trump announced on social media that he had canceled a secret weekend meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghanistan leaders — scheduled for just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — after a bombing in the capital of Kabul killed a dozen people, including a U.S. soldier.

Presidents throughout history have turned to Camp David when they needed security and privacy for sensitive diplomatic talks with foreign leaders. Jimmy Carter took the leaders of Egypt and Israel there in 1978 for talks that produced the Camp David Accords, a peace agreement between the two countries.

Camp David is also where Carter huddled in 1979 with representatives of a cross-section of American society. He later delivered a nationally televised speech on energy policy that became known as the “malaise” speech — even though he never said the word.

The camp's primary purpose is to provide presidents a place to rest, relax and recharge.

The 180-acre (73-hectare) retreat, which is run by the Navy and guarded by Marines, has a cabin named Aspen that’s reserved for the president, plus about a dozen other cabins for guests. A main lodge has conference rooms, a dining room and an office for the president.

Guests can take advantage of a range of indoor and outdoor amenities, including a fitness center, bowling alley, movie theater, heated swimming pool and tennis and basketball courts. A chapel offers religious services.

The announcement came after local authorities in Ceuta had asked the central government in Madrid for reinforcements to manage a border crisis that boiled over Thursday with large crowds of people breaching the border fence.

Spain’s government said it would send the Armed Forces to help the Civil Guard “maintain security in the city of Ceuta.” It also announced that Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez would join Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska in a visit to Ceuta on Friday.

“The situation is absolute chaos,” Rachid Sbihi, head of the association that represents Spain’s Civil Guard officers who police the border in Ceuta, told The Associated Press. “It’s not possible to give precise numbers, but there are thousands of migrants crossing,” he said, adding that the border had “totally collapsed.”

Achraf Maimouni, a member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights in northern Morocco, described the situation as “exceptional.”

“The Tarajal border was opened under unusual circumstances this morning and people crossed," he said.

Video footage showed crowds of people, mainly Moroccans, walking around the breakwaters at Tarajal beach onto local roads. While most appeared to be young men, there were also families with women and small children.

“Viva España!” some shouted to a freelance photographer working for the AP. It was not immediately clear what prompted so many migrants to cross to Ceuta.

Spain’s government delegation in Ceuta said at least nine people died Thursday during the chaos. It did not provide details on the circumstances of the deaths but bodies could be seen floating in the water. Dozens have died this year trying to reach Ceuta, according to local authorities.

Arrivals had been increasing, but reasons are still unclear

The escalation at the frontier between Spain and Morocco comes after a surge in migrants attempting to reach the small exclave, mainly by swimming, on Wednesday.

Moroccan authorities have not publicly commented on the crossings, and Morocco's Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Spain’s Interior Ministry said the Moroccan government was “closely cooperating” with Spain to handle the situation and that Moroccan police are stopping “numerous people” who are trying to cross the border. Both countries agreed to work together “for the return, as soon as possible, of all the people who entered Ceuta illegally.”

The ministry earlier said it would guarantee the safety of citizens and the integrity of the nation’s border but that the Spanish government could not declare a national emergency — as local authorities had asked — over migration concerns.

The chaos had ripple effects in Italy, another key destination for migrants. Premier Giorgia Meloni threatened to suspend Italy's open-border Schengen agreement with Spain “to defend our borders and ensure the safety of our citizens," though Italy doesn't share a border with Spain.

Ceuta authorities had previously linked the surge to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that barred authorities from immediately returning migrants who arrive by sea without due process. The ruling does not apply to migrants who enter Spain by land, including by climbing over the border fence.

But some activists in Morocco expressed doubt that the ruling was behind the surge, arguing most migrants would have been unaware of such legal decisions.

Spain is a main point of arrival into Europe for migrants seeking better economic opportunities or an escape from violence in their home countries.

To reach Ceuta, located on the northern African coast, migrants often swim from the Moroccan town of Fnideq, covering about 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) to reach Spanish territory. Others attempt the crossing from the nearby town of Belyounech, where the distance is shorter.

The scenes of people streaming across the frontier recall the border crisis of May 2021 when more than 8,000 migrants poured into Ceuta in just two days.

At the time, Morocco was accused of easing border controls and allowing migrants to cross into Ceuta after Spain allowed Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali to receive treatment at a Spanish hospital, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Rabat and Madrid. The pro-independence Polisario Front for decades has claimed to be the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people of the Western Sahara. Morocco claims Western Sahara as its own.

Ceuta authorities ask Madrid to declare emergency, send army

Juan Jesús Vivas, the head of Ceuta’s regional government, called for the national government to declare an emergency on grounds of national security, asking for more police and for the army to be deployed on the border “to guarantee the inviolability of the frontier and citizen safety.”

He had warned Wednesday that migrant reception centers were overwhelmed with hundreds of people sleeping on the streets after more than 1,500 migrants entered the territory in the past week. Thousands more crossed overnight and on Thursday.

Spain’s Interior Ministry, which tracks irregular migration, would not confirm the number of migrants who had made it to Ceuta in the last few days but said it would publish its next migration report on Aug. 3. As of July 15, nearly 3,000 migrants had entered Ceuta by land or sea this year, according to ministry figures.

Legislation covering a declaration of national emergencies does not consider migration flows as a risk to national security, according to the ministry, which said government agencies are “coordinating to respond with speed and efficacy to the situation in Ceuta.”

Ceuta, which is perched on a historical isthmus, has been a Spanish possession since 1580. Its mixed population of Christians and Muslims, Spanish and Moroccan residents and day workers, lives in relative harmony behind a border fence that many desperate migrants from across Africa attempt to cross for a better life in Europe.

___

Brito reported from Barcelona, Spain. AP journalists Joseph Wilson in Barcelona and Akram Oubachir in Casablanca, Morocco, contributed to this report.

Time was running out to find survivors, as rescuers continued to work in the Kumamoto area on Japan ’s southern main island of Kyushu, where the magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Tuesday. The number of people missing was unclear.

Of the deaths given in the latest tally, 25 have been confirmed as related to the disaster, but there were nine more deaths under investigation as likely to be connected, the Kumamoto prefectural government said. The quake left at least 86 people injured, five of them seriously, it said.

Survivors spoke about desperately pulling family members out of the wreckage. Some had suffered injuries and were rushed to the hospital.

Thousands of people spent another night at evacuation centers set up throughout the area at schools and other big spaces. Some homes were still without water or electricity, while others were simply afraid to go back.

Nearly 19,000 homes were still without electricity and more than 9,000 people were staying in the roughly 400 shelters, where power sources were being added to provide air conditioning.

Concerns were growing about illness, including from the sweltering heat. The Ministry of Environment sent out a heatstroke alert for the Kumamoto area, with temperatures rising above 33 C (91 F) Thursday.

Some evacuees sleep in cars

In the town of Hikawa, one of the hardest-hit areas in Kumamoto, many residents are without water or electricity, or both, and some were staying inside their vehicles in parks, at the town hall parking lot, or outside their homes. More than 800 of the town of about 4,500 households were destroyed or damaged, officials said.

At the front entrance of the town hall, officials delivered bottled water and packaged instant rice, while the Ground Self-Defense Force service members came with a trolley to provide fresh water.

Hirokazu Sato, a nurse, whose house was destroyed, is staying in his passenger car at the town hall parking lot with his wife and three children, because he worries that his 1-year-old baby could be a nuisance to others if they take shelter at an evacuation center.

“I can't sleep sitting in the car, so sometimes I go out for a walk during the night,” Sato says. “I hope the town will provide temporary housing soon.”

Yoshiaki Nakashima, a 66-year-old resident who came with two bottles and his beloved pet dog to get water, said he is staying in a car because of his reluctance to stay at one of the three evacuation centers in the area. He also said he doesn’t want to sleep at home because aftershocks made him feel uneasy.

“It’s difficult to turn over while sleeping in a car,” he said, but added that living at a shelter is even more difficult.

Akiko Inazaki, another resident in her 30s, is living in a tent set up in the yard of her home, which has been without water and electricity since the quake. Inazaki, who also came to get water, said she will use it little by little.

“Fresh water is so valuable,” she said. Inazaki said she drank so little that she almost had a heatstroke.

Risks of heatstroke are a major concern among officials.

Yutaka Kobayashi, a doctor dispatched from central Japan's Aichi prefecture, said he was touring evacuation centers Thursday to assess the condition of evacuees, especially elderly people and those with injuries as they cope with a harsh environment.

“We have to make sure elderly people are not developing heatstrokes or dehydration,” he said in Hikawa.

While the town parking lot was nearly packed the first night, some residents have moved to three public schools where air-conditioning is running, Hikawa officials said.

A town official, Yuzuru Tamura, said they are starting to run out of emergency food supply, such as canned bread and instant rice.

Emergency personnel search for missing people

The most serious damage was at the Aeon Mall shopping center in the town of Kashima, which was bustling with thousands of people when the quake struck in the late afternoon.

The company said some 3,000 customers were evacuated to a parking lot before the explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some people were still working. The mall’s second floor collapsed, trapping people.

On Thursday, seven people were confirmed to have died at the mall site among the 12 people pulled out of the wreckage, according to Kumamoto authorities.

In the Yatsushiro area, where a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, 10 people were rescued, but eight others died, and one remained missing, the Kumamoto prefectural disaster team said.

Footage provided by the Japanese government and military showed rescue workers drilling through the collapsed parts of the building in an attempt to get to anyone who may still be trapped inside.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters the central government will take a lead role in coordinating the various rescue efforts. Restoring electricity, gas and water to stricken areas, while providing a supply of fresh water is key, she said.

“The needs on the ground are constantly changing. To put to rest the people's feelings of uncertainty, we will do all that needs to be done,” she said.

___

Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Amazon’s fully autonomous Zoox vehicles got approval Thursday to begin charging customers for rides in the specially designed cars that feature four inward-facing seats once they secure state and local approval. Zoox has already been offering free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco since last year. At least a couple people were waiting at most stops Thursday afternoon for rides up and down the Vegas strip aboard one of the distinctive boxy-shaped vehicles.

“It’s kind of scary at first, but when I just got used to it, it’s really cool and chilling. I really liked the music and how you can adjust the temperature,” Chloe Huu from Ann Arbor, Michigan, said after taking a ride in a Zoox Thursday. But the projected wait time for the ride kept changing, which made it hard to plan.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also proposed a rule last month to allow robotaxis to operate without brake pedals, but that proposal is still pending. Administrator Jonathan Morrison said his agency wants to update the regulations to fit these fully autonomous vehicles while still acting as the “cop on the beat to make sure that this is being done right.”

Most vehicle safety regulations were written decades ago, always with the assumption that there would be a human driver behind the wheel. But Morrison said that things like steering wheels, windshield wipers and side-view mirrors aren't really needed in an autonomous vehicle.

“If you’re going to be developing a standard in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, nobody at that time had this imagination, nobody had a crystal ball that you might have technologies that would enable the vehicle to drive itself,” Morrison said.

Questions remain about robotaxi safety

The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety group raised concerns about Zoox’s plan to operate without a steering wheel or other standard controls because the company didn’t provide detailed evidence to show that its vehicles could operate safely on public roads.

“Lots of promises, lots of glossy language, lots of ‘We believe, we think we’ll do this.’ Yet there really was no data behind the promises, and that’s really concerning to us,” said Peter Kurdock, who is general counsel for the Advocates group.

Morrison said this technology does offer the promise of never driving distracted or drunk like human drivers do, but robotaxis have had some problems. Sometimes they're just weird behaviors like stopping in the middle of the road or struggling to get out of a parking lot. But he said NHTSA responded to the incidents of autonomous cars passing school buses or interfering with first responders, with investigations, recalls and calls to action.

“Sometimes we have seen unsafe behaviors, and we jump on that really quickly again. That’s our job at NHTSA,” Morrison said. But he said Americans shouldn't be terribly worried about the safety of these robotaxis.

“By and large we’re really excited about the promise of this technology and we want to see that promise fulfilled,” he said.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said recently that the limited crash data the government requires autonomous vehicle companies to submit makes it hard to assess the safety record of these robotaxis as they continue to expand across the country.

Most companies don't report how many miles their autonomous vehicles drove, which makes it impossible to calculate a crash rate, according to the IIHS. And there isn't a clear standard for which incidents must be reported. So autonomous vehicle companies are reporting many more minor incidents than human drivers, who tend to only report a crash when there is significant damage or injuries.

Robotaxi industry is expanding quickly nationwide

Zoox and Tesla are working to catch up to the industry-leading Waymo that already operates in multiple cities. Waymo is owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet.

Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said this approval is an important milestone for autonomous vehicles.

“This achievement reflects a shared commitment to enabling innovation while maintaining the highest standards of safety,” Evans said.

Amazon hopes to eventually produce as many as 10,000 robotaxis a year at a plant near Silicon Valley as it works to challenge Waymo. Amazon paid $1.2 billion to acquire self-driving startup Zoox. Initially, Zoox will only be allowed to deploy up to 2,500 vehicles without steering wheels over the next two years as it works to prove the technology is safe. The company said that more than half a million people have already ridden in its vehicles.

___

AP Transportation Writer Josh Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.

The changes at the National Jamboree, which ends Friday, reflect shifts made by Scouting America since the organization became a target of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over what he calls “woke” policies. Some scouts who had planned to attend the event in West Virginia said they backed out because Scouting America scrapped the inclusion initiatives it previously celebrated.

Hegseth threatened to end the Pentagon's century-old partnership with Scouting America if it did not make changes including refocusing away from diversity initiatives. The organization, previously known as Boy Scouts of America, rebranded in 2024 to emphasize inclusion and the growing number of girls in the scouting ranks.

“Scouting fundamentally is a safe place for young people to have fun,” said Samuel J. Aronson, an assistant scoutmaster who has organized inclusive events at previous national events. “In the absence of these spaces, we’re denying all that, both the safety and the fun, to thousands of young people.”

Thousands attend the National Jamboree

This year, about 15,000 scouts, leaders and volunteers from across the country are attending the 10-day event in the mountains of West Virginia. In addition to activities including mountain biking and kayaking, the gathering hosts leadership programs and educational sessions.

A Scouting America spokesperson said the organization remains “fully committed to welcoming and serving all youth,” but did not address questions about the changes to the jamboree.

The Pentagon made a deal with Scouting America in February but the two sides have given conflicting accounts of that agreement. This month, a gay rights activist obtained the memo outlining the agreement from the Defense Department after filing a lawsuit, arguing that clarity was of public importance.

The six-page document spells out ways the Pentagon will monitor compliance, including that officials from each organization would have “periodic touchpoints and meet” as needed. It was obtained by James Dale, who was expelled from the Boy Scouts in the early 1990s for being gay and later sued over discrimination. He equated the Pentagon's tactics to the actions of a bully.

“They basically have their thumb on the organization, threatening them under constant pressure,” Dale said.

Deal preserves ties between Scouting America and Pentagon

The scouts and the military have long held close ties; The military provides logistical support for the jamboree and some scout troops meet on or near bases.

Asked about the implementation and monitoring of the deal, a Pentagon spokesperson referred to previous comments by Hegseth.

In February, Hegseth posted a video that said his department would “vigorously review” changes made by Scouting America and would cease the military’s longtime support of the organization if it failed to comply by late August.

Some scouts disappointed by changes to inclusion efforts

John Andrew Segebarth, a 21-year-old college student and Eagle Scout, has been disheartened by the agreement. He joined the scout ranks in first grade and said he had been looking forward to staffing the space for LGBTQ+ and Allied Scouts at this year’s jamboree.

Segebarth, who is gay and was elected by peers as a national officer for scouts in 2024, said the removal of inclusive spaces is a sharp reversal for Scouting America. National scouting events in recent years included community spaces for girls, scouts of color, LGBTQ+ scouts and persons with disabilities, according to Aronson.

“Scouting’s kind of walking back on its values that they told me they believed in,” said Segebarth who, along with Aronson, decided not to attend the jamboree this year.

It was at a community tent that Layla Grace found the first place where she could talk openly about being a transgender female. Now a 21-year-old assistant scoutmaster, Grace had also planned to staff the space for LGBTQ+ and Allied Scouts in West Virginia this year.

When the spaces were canceled, Grace said she almost didn't go to the jamboree but decided she wanted to be there to help those in need. She wound up volunteering at an area dedicated to addressing issues that include mental health, food security and education.

And she's trying to fill the gap left by the removal of inclusive areas.

“I am wearing so many rainbows on me, my right hand has my nails painted in the lesbian flag and my left hand has my nails painted in the transgender flag,” she said. “I am being as loud as I can to do my best to hopefully make up for the lack of community spaces.”

___

Associated Press reporter Ben Finley contributed to this report from Washington.

The blast was apparently triggered by a buildup of methane gas and occurred on the outskirts of the Baluchistan provincial capital of Quetta, said government mine inspector Ghani Baloch.

The bodies of seven people were recovered hours after the blast, and emergency responders later found 25 more bodies, officials and a provincial disaster management agency said in a statement. It said the search and rescue operation was continuing, with rescue teams working to locate and recover the remaining trapped miners.

Baloch said rescue operations would continue until all the trapped miners were found, but he added that officials believed the death toll likely would rise further.

“The chances of finding anyone alive diminish after methane gas explosions because oxygen levels drop to zero, and rescuers are also proceeding cautiously inside the mine,” Baloch said.

Authorities were handing over the bodies to their families for burial, while relatives of those still trapped waited anxiously for news, Baloch said.

Baluchistan’s Minister for Mines and Minerals Shoaib Nosherwani said the rescue teams were working under extremely difficult conditions.

Nosherwani expressed condolences to relatives of the victims and said the provincial government would pay compensation of 500,000 Pakistani rupees (about $1,800) to the family of each miner killed in the blast.

He said authorities would conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of the explosion, and would review mining safety measures.

A coal miners’ labor union said it suspected negligence led to the explosion and called for action against those responsible. In a statement, the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation urged the government to strictly enforce safety regulations and take tough action against companies that violate mine safety laws.

Deadly accidents are common in Pakistan’s coal mining industry, particularly in Baluchistan, where many mines lack adequate ventilation, gas monitoring systems and other basic safety measures.

Mine workers and labor groups have long accused mine owners of failing to enforce safety regulations or provide adequate protective equipment.

Despite the risks and low wages, thousands of miners depend on the coal industry for their livelihoods in Baluchistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed province, where unemployment and poverty remain widespread.

___

Ahmed reported from Islamabad.

Mayor Katie Wilson's announcement followed hours of speculation about whether Police Chief Shon Barnes would step down, as some of his supporters said he had rebuffed Wilson’s request to resign.

Wilson said she was appointing Deputy Chief Andre Sayles, a law enforcement veteran with more than two decades of experience, as interim chief.

Barnes told The Seattle Times earlier Thursday that whether he remained as chief was “up to the mayor.” He said he was off for the day and spending time with family.

In a written statement, the mayor said she was grateful for Barnes' service. The statement included comments in which Barnes called it an honor to have served the city.

“I hope this transition gives the city and this department the opportunity to return full focus to what matters most, addressing youth gun violence and preventing more tragedies,” Barnes said.

Barnes was out of town at a law enforcement conference when gunfire erupted last weekend at the Bite of Seattle, an annual three-day festival that draws hundreds of food and retail vendors and performers. Three people, including one suspect, were killed, and four people were wounded. One of the injured was a 2-year-old boy.

Dozens of officers were at the event, and at least one saw a 15-year-old suspect firing into a crowd and quickly persuaded him to surrender, according to court documents. Police are still searching for at least one other person.

While Wilson credited the quick police response with potentially saving lives, she acknowledged that the city was slow to communicate in the aftermath.

After an initial social media post announcing the shooting, it took nearly five hours for police to provide any additional information to the public, including whether there was any ongoing threat. The city also failed to send out any notifications through its emergency alert system. In the meantime Wilson announced that two people had been taken into custody, a statement she later retracted.

Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis finally provided an update around 11 p.m. Sunday during a news conference that was also attended by the mayor, Gov. Bob Ferguson and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal.

“What I did not fully understand in that moment was how little information had reached the public or the press since the incident began at 6 p.m.,” Wilson said in a video statement Thursday. “Had I known that, I would have pushed for an immediate briefing, rather than waiting for a press conference to be organized.”

Barnes was the second Black police chief in Seattle.

Several Black community organizations, including the Seattle NAACP and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, rallied to try to save his job Thursday. In an open letter to the mayor's office, they credited him with improving relations between the department and the community, helping reduce gun violence and strengthening the department's operations.

“Chief Barnes should not be made a scapegoat for the complex challenges of public safety,” the letter said.

At least six City Council members issued statements supporting Barnes. A statement signed by four of them pointed out that the city has had four chiefs in less than three years.

“Our priority must be stability, not further disruption,” it said.

Barnes was appointed by Seattle's previous mayor, Bruce Harrell, in December 2024 after serving as chief of the Madison, Wisconsin, police department.

When Wilson — a democratic socialist who once supported defunding police — won the mayor's race last year, she kept Barnes on as chief. That was a signal to the city's business establishment and community groups that she did not intend to take a radically different approach to public safety.

“Seattle had been on a positive course on public safety with police hiring trending up and crime trending down,” Jon Scholes, president of the Downtown Seattle Association, said in an emailed statement. “It’s imperative the next chief of police is able to maintain progress that’s been made and instill confidence in our community.”

Barnes faced some criticism for spending time in Chicago, where his family lives. Sgt. Patrick Michaud, a department spokesperson, said Thursday that Barnes has made four trips to Chicago this year and spent in total about 18 days traveling there.

The resignation comes as Seattle heads into another big festival weekend. Seafair Weekend Festival 2026 — a boating event, air show and festival — starts Friday.

The U.S. and Iran each fired barrages of missiles Thursday, as the pattern of back-and-forth strikes took hold again. After a brief respite, the risk of a return to all-out war emerged once more, with the fighting threatening to engulf even more countries. Jordan said Thursday it intercepted Iranian missiles for a second day, while Kuwait said a strike in the northern part of the country killed one person.

Most Americans say the war in Iran has not been worth fighting, and Trump’s approval rating on Iran has fallen slightly since last month, according to a new AP-NORC poll. The results are a stark repudiation of Trump’s approach to the conflict, which has dragged on far longer than he originally predicted.

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Body cameras will start being shipped to ICE offices next week, Maine senator says

Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she met Thursday with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for an update after the deadly shooting of a Colombian native in Biddeford, Maine.

Collins says Acting ICE Director David Venturella confirmed that its policy requires at least one ICE officer to wear a body-worn camera when conducting enforcement interactions, including any vehicle stops.

She says that by the end of August, body-worn cameras will be deployed nationwide and worn by all ICE agents in the field.

Collins, who is the chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said that Venturella told her that Homeland Security has awarded a contract to purchase additional body-worn cameras, and that they will start being shipped to field offices next week. She said he agreed with her request to prioritize Maine.

Collins helped secure $20 million for the cameras in the department’s funding package Congress approved earlier this year.

Appeals court rejects the administration’s expansion of mandatory detention for immigrants

A federal appeals court says the Trump administration cannot deny immigrants detained inside the United States a chance for release on bond.

The 2-1 decision Thursday by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals deepens a split between federal appeals courts over the administration’s mandatory detention policy.

Under previous administrations, most noncitizens without a criminal record who were arrested inside the U.S. could seek a bond hearing while their immigration cases were pending. Last July, immigration officials issued guidance expanding mandatory detention to immigrants in the U.S. interior.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement it was confident in its legal position on mandatory detention.

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The Trump administration is ending a Medicare drug subsidy program. Here’s how it could affect costs

Millions of older adults on Medicare prescription drug coverage could face higher monthly costs in 2027.

The Trump administration said this week it has decided to end a temporary subsidy program that helped offset premiums for the past two years.

The program was initially implemented by former President Joe Biden’s administration in 2024 to lower Medicare Part D prescription drug costs in response to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

While federal officials say the financial impact will be minimal, the decision opens the administration to potential political consequences in a high-stakes midterm election year.

Democrats have criticized the move, calling it an attack on healthcare affordability.

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RFK Jr. launches an HHS cooking show

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is known for eating a “carnivore” diet of red meat and fermented foods – but he’s broadening those horizons for a new online cooking show.

He and celebrity chef Andrew Gruel prepared crispy salmon cakes and an arugula, apple and white bean salad in the first episode of “The Real Food Show,” posted Thursday with the branding of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The department says the show will provide examples of nutritious and affordable meals for Americans who want to eat healthier. It comes months after the Trump administration released new dietary guidelines at the start of this year.

Bessent says US expects China to meet rare earth and agriculture commitments

After meeting on Thursday with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on social media that the Trump administration expects Beijing “to fully meet its commitments on rare earths and U.S. agricultural products.” Trade representative Greer also attended, Bessent said.

The meeting between finance and trade officials sets the stage for Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expected meeting face to face in September.

Bessent said the group also discussed implementation of the Trade and Investment Boards as a way to build more “balanced, fair, and constructive U.S.-China economic relationship.”

What to know about Trump’s nearly $1.8B fund to compensate allies claiming political targeting

Back in May, the Justice Department announced that allies of the president who believe they have been wrongly investigated and prosecuted could soon have access to a nearly $1.8 billion compensation fund.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” would represent “a lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.” Blanche’s statement made no mention of how investigations and prosecutions of Trump’s political opponents under his watch have exposed the Justice Department to the same claims of politicized law enforcement that he has said he opposed.

The fund was announced as part of a deal to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, but was subsequently scrapped and a federal judge blocked the fund’s creation.

Trump-branded commemorative USA 250 passports to become more widely available

The State Department says its limited-edition Trump-branded commemorative USA 250 passports will soon become available to Americans outside the greater Washington, D.C., area.

Beginning next month, the department’s 27 passport agencies around the nation will start one-day events, offering the so-called “Patriot Passports” that feature a page emblazoned with a stern portrait of Trump. Previously, the commemorative passports were only available at the Washington, D.C., passport office for in-person applicants.

Starting on Aug. 8, passport offices in seven cities including Chicago, New York City and Dallas will offer the Trump passports. More passport offices will be included throughout August. Applicants wanting the special passport must apply to the selected offices in person on the day specified. Those wanting a traditional passport must apply on different days.

A total of 250,000 of the commemorative passports will be available.

Trump wants more military veterans to become commercial truckers

The president hosted an event on the White House campus where he said America’s roads had been “terrorized by unqualified illegal aliens dangerously driving big rigs” and that he would replace these immigrants with “highly qualified American veterans.”

The administration has dubbed the program the “Freedom Haulers Initiative,” under which anyone who has driven a heavy truck for the military would automatically be eligible for a commercial drivers license.

Trump said that 34 states are part of the initiative.

Immigrants account for about 20% of all truck drivers, but all of these non-domiciled licenses for immigrants represent only about 5% of all commercial driver’s licenses, or about 200,000 drivers.

State Department says ‘unfortunate error’ led to badly mislabeled map of Africa at AIDS conference

The State Department is taking full responsibility for a badly mislabeled map of Africa that was presented at a global AIDS conference last week in Brazil.

It said that should not take away from the Trump administration’s commitment to fighting the deadly virus.

“This was an unfortunate error caused by a team member who hastily altered the slide deck immediately before the presentation at the AIDS 2026 Conference,” the department said Thursday after photos of the map were posted online by conference participants.

A photo of the map was shared by AIDS activist Emily Bass in a Substack post on Sunday showing six countries mislabeled. Among them, Nigeria was placed in roughly the same location as Niger; Ivory Coast, placed in southern Africa; Mozambique, placed in the Horn of Africa; and Cameroon, placed in what appeared to be the location of Ghana. The State Department confirmed that six countries were misidentified.

Senate rejects another war powers resolution to halt Iran war

Most Senate Republicans voted against advancing the measure in the Democrats’ latest effort to end Trump’s engagement in military action without congressional approval.

“We were told this president would bring peace and lower prices,” said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New Year, who sponsored the resolution. “What is President Trump doing? Pouring bills of tax dollars into an open-ended war with Iran.”

The tally was 49-50. Three Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, joined most Democrats to advance the measure. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania joined Republicans to oppose.

Since the war began earlier this year, House and Senate Democrats have introduced more than a dozen war powers resolutions. None has passed both chambers.

Democratic senators call on Treasury to move forward with new Tubman $20 bill

Ten Democratic senators are calling on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to provide more details about whether a longtime effort to place Harriet Tubman’s likeness on the $20 bill has been canceled or merely delayed.

The senators are following up on comments Bessent made to Spectrum News, saying Treasury was “not at present” planning to put Tubman on the $20 bill.

The senators in their letter are calling on Bessent to immediately reconsider and resume plans to create the new bill. They are also asking for a briefing on the matter. Meanwhile, the senators noted that Treasury has prepared the design for a $250 bill featuring Trump.

The effort to place the 19th-century abolitionist leader on the $20 bill began more than a decade ago.

Trump says he may delay Blanche nomination until dissenting senators leave office

Trump says he may withdraw Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general until Republican senators who are seeking concessions from the top prosecutor leave office next year.

Trump doubled down Thursday on choosing his former personal lawyer as the nation’s top lawman, calling him “a STAR.” He said he’ll keep Blanche as acting attorney general until Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis are gone.

Cornyn and Tillis have demanded additional assurances in writing that the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is dead and have pressed for clarification on the scope of a tax immunity deal Trump secured by suing the Internal Revenue Service. Cornyn has said he wants the administration to modify that piece of the settlement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.

Trump’s comments came after the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a planned vote on Thursday to advance Blanche’s nomination.

Senate committee advances nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz to be Trump’s CDC director

A Senate committee on Thursday advanced Dr. Erica Schwartz’s nomination to be director of the nation’s top public health agency, setting aside concerns that she won’t stand up to political meddling.

If confirmed by the full Senate, the 54-year-old would become the 22nd director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her resume includes medical and law degrees, a stint as deputy surgeon general, and a leadership position with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Schwartz appeared to be on shaky ground after Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and others questioned whether she would be willing to stand up to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if the health secretary ordered CDC to do something unsupported by science and good public health practice. Cassidy later expressed confidence that “she knows what she’s doing.”

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US-Iran conflict enters new phase as Saudi Arabia helps hit proxies and diplomacy stalls again

The stop-start fighting between the United States and Iran appears to have entered a new phase with Saudi Arabia publicly joining military escalations against Tehran-backed proxies and an already untenable diplomatic effort to end the war faltering once again.

Little is clear about what strategy, if any, American or Iranian officials have for a path forward. The Republican president has vacillated for months between insisting a deal was near to end the war and Tehran’s nuclear program, and using vulgarities and threats to try to get Iran to capitulate.

The stakes for continued U.S. military action have never been higher for Trump and his party as the conflict, unpopular among many Americans, has jolted the world economy months before voters get their say in November. The renewed fighting has killed and injured more American troops and raised concerns about drawing down the stockpiles of key U.S. air defense systems.

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Trump touts his tariffs in Michigan despite rising costs

Flying to a rally at General Motors this week, the president declared that “car companies are doing better than they’ve ever done” thanks to his tariffs, “all because of Trump.”

“It’s amazing what tariffs will do for General Motors,” he said before autographing a white Corvette. “Michigan is thriving,” he told cheering supporters.

That’s not exactly true, according to many metrics. Tariffs have cost businesses in Michigan and across the country billions of dollars while stoking inflation that continues to run hot. Many Americans believe tariffs have pushed prices higher and the war in Iran has increased gasoline prices, hurting consumer confidence in the economy.

There are few places where Trump’s boasts and economic reality are more likely to collide ahead of November’s midterm elections than in battleground Michigan, which holds its primary on Tuesday.

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Opposition to FIFA’s World Cup private equity plan grows

Global opposition is growing to FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan for selling a stake in World Cup revenue to private investors.

The FIFA project would be underwritten by a New York investment vehicle, Thrive Eternal, created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Infantino has had close ties to Jared Kushner and held secret talks with potential backers in the U.S. about creating the $20 billion FIFA Forward Enterprise subsidiary with $4.2 billion of private equity.

“FIFA’s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football,” the Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa warned in a letter Thursday to member federations that was seen by The Associated Press.

It circulated as the 55-nation European soccer body UEFA met Thursday to shape a resistance strategy. The 35-member North American soccer body CONCACAF, meanwhile, said it is “deeply concerned by the lack of due process” in Infantino’s project.

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US economy turns in sluggish 1.5% second-quarter growth and inflation remains above Fed target

The U.S. economy expanded at a sluggish 1.5% pace from April through June as rising imports weighed on growth. But consumer spending rose. And the Federal Reserve’s favored measure of inflation grew more slowly last month, by 3.7%, but remained above the central bank’s 2% target.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that growth in U.S. gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — decelerated from 2.1% in the first three months of 2026 and came in below economists’ expectations.

The Fed on Wednesday chose to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged for the fifth straight meeting. But three regional Fed presidents dissented, saying they wanted to raise rates to combat elevated inflation.

Higher costs have frustrated Americans ahead of November’s midterm elections, which will determine whether Trump’s Republicans keep full control of Congress.

US filings for jobless benefits rise to 197,000 last week, but layoffs remain historically low

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but layoffs remain in the historically healthy range of the past few years.

U.S. filings for jobless aid in the week ending July 25 rose by 9,000 to 197,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s figure was revised up by 1,000 to 188,000 but remains the lowest in more than 50 years.

Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 207,000 new applications.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the U.S. job market.

Urban League report says Trump harms Black Americans’ chances at American Dream

The American Dream may not be dead for many Black Americans, but a National Urban League report warns that it’s further away than at any point since the Civil Rights Movement.

The 50th annual “State of Black America” report released Thursday grimly describes Black Americans ’ economic and political prospects as having worsened due to Trump’s policies. A copy obtained by The Associated Press says all Americans should be concerned.

“While they have targeted and focused on Black Americans, these attacks are going to impact broadly working Americans, poor Americans, aspirational middle-class Americans, and this is what this report points to,” said Marc Morial, the league’s president and CEO.

Morial urged concerned Americans to respond at the ballot box and with their pocketbooks. “We cannot be dejected. We cannot be cynical. We must act,” Morial said.

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Most say it’s important to keep gas prices down: AP-NORC poll

Many Americans continue to be concerned about the pocketbook impact of the Iran war, the new poll shows.

About 7 in 10 U.S. adults — 72% — say it’s “extremely” or “very” important for the U.S. to prevent domestic oil and gas prices from rising, up slightly from 67% in March.

A similar share, 70%, say it’s highly important for the U.S. to reach a ceasefire agreement with Iran.

Americans’ goals for the Iran war may not be fully aligned with Trump, who has repeatedly said the war was launched to keep a nuclear weapon out of Iran’s hands.

While about two-thirds of U.S. adults say it’s “extremely” or “very” important to keep Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon — with Republicans especially likely to say this — Americans are more likely to prioritize low gas prices and a permanent ceasefire with Iran.

About two-thirds say the Iran war is not worth fighting: AP-NORC poll

Most U.S. adults say the war in Iran has not been worth fighting, according to a new AP-NORC poll. About two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran, which began Feb. 28, has not been worthwhile. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as about 37% of Republicans.

The poll shows little appetite among Americans for a prolonged conflict.

Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults want to continue military action in Iran, while about 3 in 10 say the U.S. should pause military action and seek a renewed ceasefire through negotiations. About 2 in 10 want to completely stop military action in Iran and roughly one-quarter don’t know enough to say.

Preston Tolth is the only person ever charged and convicted in connection with the 2021 disappearance of Begay, a weaver and grandmother of nine from a remote community on the Navajo Nation who has never been found. He acknowledged stealing her truck, beating her and leaving her on the side of the road.

Her case has become emblematic of the heartache felt across Indian Country when loved ones go missing or are killed. Begay's photo appears at marches. Her name is regularly invoked at rallies calling attention to the crisis.

Phoenix police arrested Tolth, 27, on Tuesday after getting a call about a home break-in. Officers found him about a block away, wearing clothing that matched the description of the suspect and carrying a pocket knife, according to court records.

Tolth was released from federal prison in June, five years to the day Begay vanished and two years earlier than his sentence was scheduled to end. The Bureau of Prisons cited a federal statue that counts time served after the commission of a crime but before sentencing, including on unrelated charges, in releasing him early.

Tolth was sent to a transitional housing facility in Phoenix. Under the terms of his plea agreement in federal court, he was not to commit any additional crimes while on supervised release. He also was barred from possessing dangerous weapons.

He faces a single charge of burglary in Maricopa County. Court records did not have an attorney listed for him, and his public defender in the federal case did not respond to an emailed request for comment Thursday.

Esther Winne, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, said the office is aware of his arrest.

“There is a process for handling violations,” Winne said in an email Tuesday, declining further comment.

Gerald Foxworth, an employee at Phoenix Oasis where Tolth was staying, said Tolth returned to the facility drunk on July 4 in violation of program rules. Tolth left on his own after refusing to be transported to a medical center, Foxworth said, and the facility informed Tolth's probation officer.

The U.S. Marshals Service had an active warrant out for Tolth’s arrest when he was picked up by Phoenix police.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages with Tolth's probation officer Thursday requesting comment.

Begay's family said they were unaware Tolth left transitional housing. His arrest is the latest frustration in a case they say has offered little in the way of justice or closure. The eldest of Begay's three children, Gerald Begay, said he is relieved no one was harmed in the break-in.

“(Federal officials) made the decision to release this person. Now he’s out here hurting people,” Begay said. “This could have ended far worse.”

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This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

Jessica Treviño, 34, filed a lawsuit through her attorney this week asking a federal judge to intervene.

Treviño and her husband were arrested in December after federal agents followed them into a Home Depot parking lot in South Texas. Both were deported and are living in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas. Their three children, all U.S. citizens, are living with family on the U.S. side near the border.

After being brought to the country as a child at the age of 7, Treviño subsequently received legal permission at 20 to remain in the U.S. under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Introduced in 2012, DACA does not confer legal status but has allowed hundreds of thousands of people who had come to the U.S. as children to temporarily remain and obtain work permits.

As a DACA recipient, she must maintain a clean criminal record and is not allowed to travel outside the United States.

Her attorney, David Rozas, filed the lawsuit. He noted her status and work permit were most recently authorized until April 2027.

Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent her a notice of intent to terminate her status for “unauthorized travel outside of the United States on or about March 25, 2026," the same day she was deported from the country by the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment as of Thursday afternoon.

Rozas filed a petition asking a federal judge in Brownsville to declare the woman's expulsion was unlawful, order the government to facilitate Treviño's return to the U.S. and allow her DACA status to remain valid.

“The government had no lawful basis to remove her, and we filed this petition to demand she be brought back home,” her attorney added.

An immigration judge under the Justice Department had issued a voluntary departure order for Treviño in February while she was in ICE custody, but a valid DACA status prevents the Department of Homeland Security from deporting her.

“I would be so blessed to be able to go back home, because that’s what I long for most right now. I’m really desperate. It’s been seven months since I’ve been home,” Treviño said Thursday. Her three children are set to start school next month and their mother said she would like to be there.

The current Trump administration has deported 86 DACA recipients and arrested 241 others, according to a DHS letter sent in February to Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois.

Advocates for DACA recipients say Treviño's deportation is part of a pattern.

“This is what a deliberate, systematic effort to destroy DACA looks like in practice: target recipients one by one, manufacture justifications after the fact, and leave their children to grow up without them,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a policy organization defending immigration rights.

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This story has been revised to correct that Treviño arrived in U.S. at age 7, not 8, later receiving DACA status at 20 years old.

Darci Combs spent Thursday packing her belongings into a U-Haul after she said Ponderosa Mobile Home Park gave her three days to leave. Combs owns the home but leases the lot beneath it. She said she has withheld rent since May because of the conditions inside the home.

“Why will they not come out here and see my home and see we can’t live like this?” Combs said. “Why does JR. Davis get to do this, and the state of Florida is backing him and paying him to do it? That’s my question.”

Combs lives just feet from work connected to the widening of Florida’s Turnpike between Partin Settlement Road and Osceola Parkway. Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise says the $321 million project will expand the highway from two to four lanes in each direction and is expected to continue through 2031.

Combs showed News 6 cellphone videos she recorded of dump trucks, heavy equipment, backup alarms, dust and nighttime work near her backyard.

“At three o’clock, I had a spotlight on my home,” she said. “I had trucks right here and a cloud of dust. I had to take a leave of absence from work because you can’t function with no sleep.”

Inside the home, Combs showed News 6 dark residue on windows, ceiling fans and an air-conditioning unit she said she has to clean repeatedly.

“I eat at work or I eat in my car,” Combs said. “I can’t live at home. I don’t live here. I come in, I sleep, I dust the bed off, and I wash my blankets every few days.”

The lawsuit, filed July 22 in Osceola County Circuit Court, names JR. Davis Construction Company as the defendant. It seeks more than $50,000 in damages and includes claims of negligence, intentional tort and injunctive relief.

The complaint alleges JR. Davis failed to erect proper barriers to prevent soot, dust and dirt from accumulating around and inside Combs’ home. It also alleges that after she complained, workers brought construction equipment closer to the home and worked during hours that made it difficult for her to sleep.

Photographs attached to the complaint show dark residue on portions of the home and other property, along with construction equipment beyond the backyard.

The lawsuit asks a judge to order JR. Davis to provide Combs with a temporary alternative place to live while the dispute is resolved. The complaint says she has been advised not to continue breathing the air around the home.

Combs’ attorney told News 6 that JR. Davis has been served with the lawsuit.

News 6 emailed JR. Davis Construction seeking a response to the allegations but had not heard back as of publication.

News 6 also contacted Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise to ask what protections were required between the construction site and neighboring homes, whether officials inspected the site and how the agency responded to Combs’ complaints. A response had not been received as of publication.

Combs said most of her belongings are going into a storage unit in St. Cloud. She expects to stay with friends but does not know where she will live permanently.

“I would rather sleep and breathe on someone else’s couch than lay in my own dirty bed,” she said.

He just got quite a confidence boost.

Malnati shot a career-best, 9-under 61 to tie a tournament record in the first round of the final Rocket Classic on Thursday, giving him a two-shot lead.

When Malnati stood on the first tee, his caddie suggested leaving the driver in his bag to play it safe and set up a solid start.

Malnati, though, went against the advice and used his driver to put a tee shot in the middle of the fairway that set up his first of seven birdies on the front nine.

“Even in the beginning before I knew it was going to be a special day, I didn’t feel the same level of like anxiety," he said.

With thoughts of a sub-60 round crossing his mind, he made a 55-foot putt for birdie at No. 11 and was nine under through 13 holes before missing some putts down the stretch in a bogey-free round.

Detroit Golf Club underwent a $16 million renovation, including converting a couple of par-5 holes into par 4s and adding a lot of bunkers, in an attempt to restore Donald Ross’ vision for it more than a century ago, while making it more challenging.

“I don’t think I took advantage of a super easy course,” said the 39-year-old Malnati, who has won on the PGA Tour in 2024 and 2015. “I played great.”

He wasn't alone.

Rickie Fowler and Ryan Gerard shot 63s, putting them two shots back and one stroke ahead of Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Fishburn.

Michael Brennan surged up the leaderboard after starting 2 over through four holes with eight straight birdies — one shy of the PGA Tour record. He finished with a 65, putting him four strokes back with a pack of players that includes Keegan Bradley.

Despite significant changes at the course, Malnati and many other players still went low at a tournament that has been a birdie fest since 2019, when a Detroit-based mortgage company ended a decade-long drought in Michigan without a PGA Tour stop that dated to Tiger Woods winning the last Buick Open.

The PGA Tour is moving to a new model for 2028, effectively creating two tours and Detroit organizers are taking an exit. The Rocket Classic wasn't interested in continuing to spend $15 million a year to be part of the second tier and didn't want to double the costs to be part of the elite tier.

“It’s definitely been a bummer to kind of come into this knowing it was the last one,” said Fowler, a Rocket Mortgage spokesman and the tournament's 2023 champion.

Malnati will have to hold off a field that is stronger than usual in Detroit.

Some of the top players in the field, though, did not get off to a good start. Cameron Young, the No. 3 player in the world, shot a 1-under 69 and U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark was 1 over.

The Rocket Classic and next week's Wyndham Championship are the last two tournaments left before the top 70 advances to the FedEx Cup postseason.

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

According to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the incident happened Monday night near County Road 452 and Felkins Road in Leesburg, just outside the property of 52-year-old Johnny Paulk.

Investigators said Paulk initially approached the workers on foot and began arguing with them about the flashing warning lights being used at the work site.

Deputies reviewed cellphone video recorded by the workers, which investigators say captured Paulk making threats during the confrontation. One worker told deputies, “He said he was going to flip our truck.”Another worker described the encounter, saying, “He tried to kill us. The ground stopped his forks.”According to investigators, a second video showed Paulk driving his tractor toward the workers. Deputies said the tractor stopped approximately 15 feet away after its front forks dug into the ground, preventing it from reaching the crew.

Business records reviewed by Sunbiz list the address where the incident occurred as the registered location for Johnny Aaron’s Tree Services, a business registered under Paulk’s name.

Former roadside flagger Nadine Winter, who lives near County Road 452, said safety lights are essential for protecting both workers and motorists.

“We’re trying to help keep people safe,” Winter said. “It’s bloody well important. That’s why we have lights like this.”Deputies later located Paulk after spotting the tractor parked behind a mobile home on his property. Body camera video captured deputies taking him into custody without further incident.

Paulk was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Jail records show he was released Tuesday after posting a $5,000 bond.

He is expected to appear in court next month.

Whether Hill — the only player in the NFL's Super Bowl era to amass 1,000 or more yards passing, rushing and receiving — continues to play professional football remains to be seen. He did not announce his retirement.

“I’ve taken time this offseason to think carefully about what comes next for my family and me,” Hill said in a social media post Wednesday night. “I still don’t have a clear answer about what the future holds, but I know that returning to New Orleans is not in the cards."

Hill's announcement was largely anticipated; he sold his New Orleans-area home during the offseason and had not signed an extension with the Saints after becoming a free agent in March.

Soon after Hill's post, the Saints posted a highlight video, narrated by record-setting, Hall of Fame-bound quarterback Drew Brees, thanking Hill for his contributions to the franchise.

On the eve of training camp, Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said he had spoken to Hill, but wanted to keep those conversations private for the time being. The uncertainty surrounding those conversations lasted little more than a day.

“As training camp begins, I didn’t want my silence to be misinterpreted," Hill said. "As hard as it is to put into words, I wanted to express my gratitude. To the city of New Orleans: thank you.”

Hill's NFL career began as an undrafted free-agent QB with Green Bay during the 2017 offseason. When he was waived at the end of training camp, the Saints, then coached by Sean Payton, claimed him.

Payton, now coaching the Denver Broncos, initially planed to groom Hill as a possible successor to Brees at QB. But not wanting to let the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Hill's athleticism go to waste, the Saints decided to try him out on special teams as a returner, an upback on punts and covering kicks.

After Hill proved effective in those roles, he became a change-of-pace, running QB who also chipped in at running back, tight end and receiver, earning him the moniker of the Saints' “Swiss Army Knife.”

“You didn't know where they were going to line him up,” said Saints linebacker Kaden Ellis, who played against Hill while with Atlanta the past three seasons. “And then, when he gets the ball, it's a whole other issue.”

Saints coach Kellen Moore said Hill's success led other clubs to explore whether they could incorporate a versatile skill player into their offenses in similar ways.

“Everyone for the last few years has been chasing — let's find the next Taysom — and there's really just one Taysom,” Moore said.

While Hill never won a full-time starting QB job, he started nine times because of injuries. The Saints went 7-2 in those games.

Hill now has career statistics of 2,554 yards and 34 touchdowns rushing; 2,426 yards and 12 TDs passing; and 1,034 yards and 11 touchdowns receiving. In 2023, Hill became the first NFL player in half a century to have 10 touchdowns rushing, passing and receiving.

During his final home game for the Saints, Hill surpassed the career 1,000 yard mark as a receiver and also threw a touchdown pass. He waved goodbye to fans as he left the field after the game, saying he wasn't sure if he'd play in the Superdome again.

If he does, it'll be in a different uniform.

“Taysom’s career to this point as a member of the Saints organization has been remarkable in all facets,” Loomis said in a statement. “His intelligence, unique athletic ability, versatility and unselfishness have benefited this team in many facets for the past nine seasons. Additionally, he’s been a great teammate, excellent leader and mentor."

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

Darnold was asked Thursday if he feels the narratives about him have gone by the wayside. For years, the discourse on Darnold centered around him being a bust, considering his pedigree as a former No. 3 overall pick, and a transient quarterback who hopped from team to team. Darnold’s first year under center for the Seahawks, after all, marked his fifth team in eight seasons.

Despite the scrutiny, Darnold said his confidence in himself has never wavered.

“I don’t allow myself to really pay attention to anything like that,” Darnold said five days into training camp. “If I do catch wind of it, I have my process on how to handle that. Like I said, it’s just about handling my process and doing it my way, so that when I get out there, it’s not about what I’ve done or what I’m going to do, it’s about what I’m doing right now.

“I think if I just continue to have that mindset as we go on, we’ll be just fine.”

What Darnold is more interested in is getting up to speed with the Seahawks’ new offensive scheme.

First-year offensive coordinator Brian Fleury and Darnold have some familiarity with one another, though. Fleury spent the last four years as the 49ers’ tight ends coach, and Darnold was San Francisco’s backup for the 2023 season.

Darnold has enjoyed getting to reconnect with the stoic Fleury, who has been tasked with replacing current Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak.

“Whether it’s a good play or bad play, his mentality never changes out there on the field, which I already knew about, being in San Francisco with him,” Darnold said. “But, he was always very even keel. Now, getting to spend a lot more time with him as the offensive coordinator, it’s fun to be able to watch him work every single day and see his mentality out there.”

Darnold would also like to keep working on his report with wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, who signed a $51 million, three-year contract in March.

Shaheed, who had 59 catches for 687 yards and two touchdowns last season for Seattle and New Orleans, spent a good chunk of the offseason training with Darnold. The two Southern California natives teamed up at Saddleback College in Orange County, which Darnold imagines will only help Shaheed further get up to speed with the Seahawks ahead of his first full season in Seattle.

“He’s a friendly receiver to throw to,” Darnold said. “... I’m looking forward to him continuing to get more reps and build that chemistry so that we can see him more often getting catches and doing his thing at the receiver position.”

Fans will have plenty of chances to get sneak peaks of Darnold’s and Shaheed’s progress on the HBO show “Hard Knocks”. As the quarterback of the reigning Super Bowl champions, Darnold understands he very well may be one of the focal points of the show.

It’s an impending experience Darnold is prepared for ahead of his ninth NFL season. After a second straight Pro Bowl season, Darnold has proven he belongs among the NFL’s elite quarterbacks after a much-criticized beginning to his professional career.

While Darnold isn’t one to reflect on how far he’s come, coach Mike Macdonald is more than willing to shower praise on his even-keeled quarterback as the Seahawks seek to defend their Super Bowl title.

“The thing I appreciate about Sam – and you can’t speak for everybody — but just every rep is a rep,” Macdonald said. “If it’s in the quarterback room and they’re going over the script, he treats that rep the same as he does here, if it’s practiced online or we’re in a game. It’s all the same. That’s the mental approach that we want all of our guys to take.”

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

The recording, released by Mississippi authorities this week, captures a July 4 call to a private marine towing company requesting assistance for a boat that was taking in water off Horn Island, where Wells was last seen.

“Our bilge pump stopped working. We’re sinking. Can y’all please come?” the caller asks, noting that there were about seven people on board. The dispatcher then speaks with a captain for the towing company, who said a relative of the boat owner reported those onboard had solved the issue and "don't need any help right now.”

The distress call was made to Sea Tow, a private company, and released to media outlets by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. Law enforcement officials have said they were told by witnesses that Wells was not on the boat when it left the island.

Speaking at the National Urban League Conference on Thursday, the civil rights attorney Ben Crump said Wells' family had retained audio engineering experts to review the recording. The legal team is also calling on prosecutors to include outside authorities in the review of phones belonging to friends who traveled with Wells to the island.

A voicemail left with the Jackson County District Attorney’s office was not returned.

Wells' parents also attended the conference, pleading for anyone with information to come forward. “We will not rest until we get answers," said his mother, Christine Wonsley.

Online speculation and suspicion mount

The teenager's death has touched off rampant speculation, deepened in part by uncertainty about his final hours, distrust of law enforcement and Mississippi’s long history of racist violence.

The teenager, who was Black, had traveled to the uninhabited island with a group of friends from high school, all of whom were white. He did not return with his friends to the mainland that evening. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.

A day after the discovery, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said Wells’ friends were cooperating with authorities and that investigators did not suspect foul play. The sheriff has released few details since but has said the investigation is ongoing.

An independent autopsy commissioned by Wells’ family was inconclusive about the cause of his death. The official autopsy will remain sealed until a grand jury reviews the evidence, which is a standard practice in Jackson County, according to the local district attorney.

In the absence of new information, social media users have seized on videos and photos shared online. Some have made unsubstantiated claims against Wells’ friends, whose attorneys and family members have since reported death threats and doxing campaigns.

Following the release of the dispatch call this week, online sleuths quickly tracked down some of the people mentioned in the audio.

In a statement Wednesday, the parents of a 21-year-old said their son had been doxed and threatened as a result of “outright fabrications” stemming from the audio.

They said he had boarded the malfunctioning boat to help, then briefly towed it a short distance with his own boat. He has since cooperated with law enforcement, provided names of potential witnesses and allowed authorities to inspect his boat and GPS device, the statement added. An attorney for the family said they had already served one person with a cease-and-desist letter for alleged defamatory claims and planned to serve others this week.

Crump defends the attention on the case

On Thursday, Crump rebuffed criticism that his attention on the case could inspire online targeting of others. He noted that Wells’ parents also have faced online attacks.

“We’re not trying to cast aspersions on anybody, we want the truth,” Crump said. “If it was your child, you’d want the same thing."

The attorney was also joined Thursday by relatives of Tyler Smith and Daniel Erving, two Black 18-year-olds who died in recent months, in circumstances that Crump described as “very similar” to Wells' final hours.

Smith, a recent high school graduate from Lexington, Kentucky, died on July 4 from a gunshot wound that police said was accidental and self-inflicted. His family has disputed the determination. Police said the investigation remains ongoing.

Erving drowned in a Texas lake in April after jumping from a railway bridge with two teenage friends, local authorities said. Earlier this month, the two friends were charged with evidence tampering because they had “failed to report the incident and later discarded items belonging to Daniel,” according to a Dallas police spokesperson.

Relatives of both Erving and Smith said their concerns about the investigations had not been taken seriously by local law enforcement.

“Three 18-year-old Black boys all within three months,” Crump said. “We want answers.”

“I can’t wake them up — I can’t get them up!” he frantically told the officers who, along with firefighters and paramedics, gave jurors firsthand accounts on Thursday of the aftermath.

The murder trial has centered on Clancy’s mental state at the time. Her lawyers do not dispute that she strangled the children with exercise bands. But they say she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.

Prosecutors say Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, acted intentionally and is criminally responsible for the deaths in January 2023.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

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The testimony came after jurors spent two days listening to testimony from Patrick Clancy and his anguished 911 call. He was still on the phone when he discovered the bodies of 3-year-old Dawson, 5-year-old Cora, and 8-month-old Callan, minutes after returning home from an errand his wife asked him to run.

Patrick Clancy has said in interviews that he forgives his ex-wife, whom he viewed as ill rather than evil. The trial marks the first time he has seen Lindsay Clancy since the killings.

She remains paralyzed from the waist down after using multiple methods to try to end her life that night. She says a voice told her, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself,” according to her lawyer.

Officers Stephen Hall and Brian Josephine testified Thursday that they were each dispatched separately to the house in Duxbury, a coastal town south of Boston. Hall said they arrived to find Patrick Clancy yelling for help from behind the home.

Patrick Clancy testified earlier this week that his injured wife told him the kids were in the basement, but she didn't say they were dead.

When the officers followed the sound of his screams downstairs, only 8-month-old Callan had a faint pulse, Josephine testified.

“Based on my training experience from previous incidents, I knew it wasn’t going to be good,” Josephine said. They began rendering aid with help from firefighters.

PJ Hussey, a fire department supervisor, arrived in time to glimpse through a basement window as Patrick Clancy unwrapped an exercise band from his child's neck.

“It turned very chaotic very quickly” as more ambulances rushed to the house, Hussey testified. Duxbury firefighter and paramedic Jennifer Stratton said the infant never regained a pulse.

If convicted of murder, Lindsay Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

In opening arguments Monday, her attorney said she had bipolar disorder, and that antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child worsened her condition.

Patrick Clancy testified about his wife’s deteriorating mental health in the months leading up to the killings. He said she told him about intrusive thoughts of harming the children, as well as thoughts of suicide.

She sought care from experts in postpartum mood disorders and was put on multiple psychiatric medications. When nothing worked, she checked into a psychiatric hospital. She killed the children 19 days after she was discharged.

Clancy and her ex-husband accuse her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her, according to lawsuits filed earlier this year.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and cosponsor of the bill, sent out a social media post that said “The cap is a hard cap. Full stop. That loophole is closed.”

But the refusal by the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference to sign off on changes to the Protect College Sports Act during a frenzied week of negotiating is a sign that they do not agree with Cruz's assessment and would like to see stronger language in the bill.

The Senate broke for the weekend late Thursday without taking action on the bill. It goes on vacation next Friday and the likelihood of the bill reaching a vote before then has grown slim.

One of the key concessions made over the past week was the addition of an up to $27.5 million (up from $25 million) “retention pool" that could be used to keep players on rosters. It would be added to the $21.3 million salary cap already in place to make the new number $48.8 million.

The new cap would then presumably include many of the third-party name, image, likeness deals that circumvent the current cap — many arranged by schools' multimedia rights groups. The bill would restrict future third-party deals to what Cruz called truly “open market” deals.

The Senate negotiators say language in the bill already does that.

“Some commissioners want more: bar any company doing business with a school from signing that school’s players,” Cruz said in his post. “So a QB couldn’t sign with Nike because Nike has a separate contract with his university. That’s not protecting a cap. That’s blocking a kid from selling his own name.”

A letter to the conferences from a key negotiator, obtained by Yahoo Sports, spelled out how the language in the bill deals with the commissioners' concerns.

The letter also addressed concerns that the new salary cap would blow past revenue-sharing amounts established in the House settlement, which dictates the terms of paying players.

“To the extent the current House settlement framework or its implementation treats these payments differently, federal statute, and the rules that are protected by it, trump the settlement,” it said.

The letter did not explain how and plaintiffs' attorney Jeffrey Kessler has said he would need to see the legislation before weighing in on how it impacts the settlement.

The NCAA, which has supported the bill, put out a statement from President Charlie Baker acknowledging the shrinking window to get this done.

“While no bill is perfect, I implore college sports leaders and Senators to support this bill now," Baker said. "It is our best chance to deliver the benefits and level playing field student-athletes deserve while providing the protections institutions need to sustain college athletics long-term.”

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Lettuce prices rose sharply in the first half of 2026 due to hot weather in Arizona, where about one-third of America’s lettuce is grown. Now, restaurants are dealing with the fallout from a cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded lettuce that has sickened thousands of Americans.

Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, said Thursday that Taco Bell's U.S. same-store sales are down 2% so far in the July-September period due to customers' concerns over the outbreak. That compares to a 7% same-store sales increase in the April-June period.

Federal health officials first tied the diarrhea-causing outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said customers in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were also affected.

Taco Bell removed shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms from its U.S. restaurants on July 17. The following day, Taylor Farms recalled iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico.

Taco Bell's sales bottomed out the weekend of July 18-19 but have been steadily improving since then, Yum Brands Chief Financial Officer Ranjith Roy said Thursday in a conference call with investors. Over the last four days, Taco Bell's U.S. sales have climbed halfway back to their year-ago level, he said.

Yum Brands CEO Chris Turner said Taco Bell's quick action to contain the issue and its clear communication on social media helped bring diners back. The brand also enticed fans with daily specials like $1 Mexican pizza.

“With respect to the consumer sentiment, we’ve seen real improvement as consumers have understood better the nature of the issue,” Turner said. “They understand that it is not a Taco Bell specific issue.”

Yum Brands shares rose 3.3% Thursday.

Other chains are also feeling some impact from the outbreak even though they haven't been named in government investigations. Chipotle Mexican Grill said Wednesday that it expects its same-store sales to rise only 1% in the July-September period because of lower traffic due to the outbreak. It had previously expected same-store sales to rise 3% in that period.

Foot traffic at Chopt, a salad-focused chain with 105 locations, plunged 24% on July 18 compared to the normal average for a Saturday, according to Placer.ai, a market research company. M Science, another market research firm, found that weekly spending at the salad chain Sweetgreen dropped 10 percentage points compared to last year during the first half of July.

Chopt didn't respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. Sweetgreen, which has 285 U.S. locations, did not confirm a drop in sales and said in a statement that its food hasn’t been connected to the current cyclospora outbreak.

“We follow rigorous food safety standards and can trace our ingredients from restaurant to farm,” the company said.

Cyclospora cases have continued to grow. As of July 27, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it has received reports of 6,707 laboratory-confirmed cases. It's investigating multiple clusters, including a new outbreak involving 72 people that was announced last week. As the FDA investigation progresses, officials should get a better understanding of which illnesses are connected and “how complex this outbreak actually has become," said Craig Hedberg, a food safety researcher at the University of Minnesota.

The outbreak came on top of an already difficult year for the lettuce industry and people who love eating salads. The retail price of a pound of iceberg lettuce jumped nearly 20% between January and June of this year, according to government data. Consumers paid an average of 33% more last month for all fresh lettuce compared to a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

Lettuce prices advertised by major grocery stores last week averaged $1.86 for a head of iceberg, 25 cents more than the same week a year earlier, according to the USDA. A head of red leaf lettuce cost 52 cents more at $1.66, and a bunch of romaine had an advertised price of $2.49, which was $1.55 higher, the department reported.

Shoppers caught a break with some types of salad mixes, though, which stores advertised at prices 7 to 24 cents cheaper than a year prior, the USDA said.

Elizabeth Canales, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University, said unusually hot weather in Arizona early in the year caused crops to mature too early. That caused big supply gaps until California production began in late April.

Fuel costs, which increased after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran and Iran blocked most oil tankers from leaving the Persian Gulf, have also been an issue, according to Canales. Lettuce is especially perishable and requires energy for cooling from the time it's picked to the time it's sold, Canales said.

“The cold chain needs to be maintained. Cooling and transporting it is very important,” Canales said.

Lettuce has been linked to multiple food poisoning outbreaks in the past, including two in 2018 involving E. coli linked to romaine lettuce grown in Arizona and California.

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Associated Press Writer Mike Stobbe contributed from New York.

Minnesota IT Services said state officials had yet to identify who was behind the attacks that took place Sunday and Monday. There were no reports that residents had been impacted by the attacks, though one city asked residents to conserve water for a couple hours while they tried to determine what was wrong.

The FBI, which is investigating, has not publicly identified a culprit and a spokesperson declined to say Thursday who the bureau thought might be responsible. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned in an advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the operational controls other critical infrastructure sectors.

Digital warfare has become ingrained in military conflict, and local water plants or healthcare facilities often lack the funds and know-how to install the latest software patches or take other security steps. That has made them a favorite target, both because of the relative ease of penetrating them and because of the panic such disruptions can cause.

Iran has the “geopolitical motivations” and a recent history of targeting water systems, said Cynthia Kaiser, the former deputy assistant director of the FBI's cyber division who has been closely monitoring threats to critical infrastructure from hackers linked to the country.

“I think most credible researchers and responders would be right to treat it like it’s Iran until proven otherwise,” added Kaiser, who is now the senior vice president of Halcyon’s Ransomware Research Center. “When it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's really important to call it out.”

Iran's interest in the operations of water systems inside the U.S. dates back years. In 2016, the Justice Department charged a group of Iranian hackers in connection with a cyberattack targeting a small dam near New York City.

Minnesota IT Services said that as of Thursday, there were no active requests from Minnesota communities for residents to modify usage of their drinking water. The state agency said most of the confirmed attacks involved technology that water systems use to remotely monitor and control equipment. It said that being impacted meant investigators confirmed there was malicious activity involving the system’s technology and didn’t mean every impacted community had their water service disrupted.

The state agency said there are similarities among the incidents, including timing and the types of technology used, but investigators haven’t determined if the same culprit was behind each one.

For a few hours on Monday, the city of Braham asked residents to minimize water use as they tried to determine why the water plant was offline. The city of about 1,700 people, located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, said in a news release that the water plant outage was due to a cyberattack, but it didn't cause any issue with water quality.

The city said the attackers shut down the operating controls that shut down the well and water treatment plant. That left the city for a time only able to provide residents with the water held in the water tower.

In Plymouth, a city of about 80,000 located outside of Minneapolis, officials said on social media that their water infrastructure communications had been restored by Tuesday afternoon following a cyberattack. The city said crews were able to continue operating the system during the outage and it didn't have any impact on water levels or quality.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti said this week at the Big Ten media days event that any proposed scheduling decisions would have to wait until a final decision comes on playoff expansion. The Big Ten is pushing for a 24-team approach to replace the current 12-team format.

That’s fine with many of the conference’s coaches and athletic directors.

“We’ve talked a lot about scheduling in our AD room and with our coaches about what’s coming next and what’s the right way to do things,” Petitti said. “I will tell you that our focus now is seeing clarity around the playoff and access and how that’s going to work before we make the next decision.”

Scheduling moves by other conferences have left the Big Ten as the lone holdout in this regard. The Big Ten has won the last three national championships, and none of those teams — Michigan in 2023, Ohio State in 2024 and Indiana last year — played a nonconference regular-season game against a Power Four program.

In the past, the Big Ten could point to its nine-game conference schedule as a reason it didn't need to force tougher standards in nonconference scheduling since some other Power Four leagues were only playing eight conference games.

That's no longer the case.

The Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference are adopting nine-game league schedules this year, and the Big 12 already was doing so. Those leagues make their teams have at least one nonconference game against a Power Four team or Notre Dame, though some Big 12 teams are using matchups with Washington State or Oregon State to fill the requirement because those games were scheduled before the previous version of the Pac-12 imploded.

Northwestern’s David Braun and Nebraska’s Matt Rhule said they would welcome a similar requirement, as long as the Big Ten gets its wish regarding postseason expansion.

“If we go into a 24-team playoff, it makes total sense,” Rhule said.

While most Big Ten teams regularly schedule at least one nonleague game against a major conference team, there are exceptions.

For example, this is the third straight season Indiana hasn’t played a nonconference regular-season game against a Power Four team. The Hoosiers host North Texas, Howard and Western Kentucky before opening their Big Ten schedule.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said he could foresee college football eventually making changes that allow for a more uniform scheduling strategy among the leagues.

“We play who’s on the schedule,” Cignetti said. “I suspect down the road something will happen with scheduling, sort of standardizing scheduling. You’ve got two conferences (the Big Ten and SEC) that are head-and-shoulders sort of above the rest right now. I think there will be some standardization."

He said it wouldn't surprise him to see it in two or three years.

Other Big Ten teams not playing nonconference games against Power Four members or Notre Dame this season include Nebraska, Penn State, Southern California and Washington. This season is just the second time since World War II that USC hasn’t faced Notre Dame.

Maryland, Northwestern, Penn State, Rutgers and Washington joined Indiana in not scheduling non-Power Four teams last year. New Penn State coach Matt Campbell was asked this week what he’d think about the Big Ten requiring teams to do so.

“There’s been so much going on in our own world that I don’t even know if I can give you an educated answer to that from my standpoint of it … I still think this landscape is constantly shifting around us,” Campbell said. “I think as we settle in, maybe I’ll have a better answer for that when I know what our landscape is.”

That reflects the general lack of consensus among Big Ten coaches regarding whether teams should be required to include a Power Four program in their nonconference schedules.

“Everybody’s going to look at it differently,” said Minnesota's P.J. Fleck, whose team hosts the SEC's Mississippi State on Sept. 12. “I like it because I think playing a team like that prepares you for Big Ten play way earlier.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The Seattle-based company said Thursday that sales in its cloud computing unit called AWS rose 37% during the April-June period, faster than the 28% clip in the previous quarter and marking the fastest rate of growth in 18 quarters.

CEO and President Andy Jassy disclosed to investors on the call that Amazon now expects capital spending to total $220 billion, which also includes outlays on robots, semiconductors and satellites. That's up from the $200 billion investment plan that was announced in February and well above the $128 billion in capital spending for all of last year. Jassy cited the higher cost of memory chips as the main reason for the increase.

Jassy told investors that even at the $220 billion level, Amazon will not have enough capacity to meet all of the demand it has this year.

“I believe this dynamic will also be true in 2027 too,” he added. “In fact, the demand we already have for 2028 is striking.”

Still, shares rose more than 9% in after-hours trading.

Investors had been closely watching Amazon’s quarterly earnings to see if the company’s big spending on AI is starting to pay off.

The Seattle-based company offered a cautious sales outlook for the current quarter.

Amazon was among the last of the tech giants to report its earnings results covering the latest three-month period. The reports offer investors a read on AI spending and cloud computing growth across the industry.

Google parent Alphabet reported better-than-expected revenue for the second quarter last week, fueled by an 82% increase in its cloud business. But the stock tumbled as the tech giant increased its full-year forecast for capital expenditures to a range of $195 billion to $205 billion. That’s up from its previous estimate of $180 billion to $190 billion.

Microsoft, which on Wednesday reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, said growth was strong for its Azure cloud business. The company didn’t announce a big increase in how much it plans to spend on AI investments. That helped to boost shares.

Investors are worried that such spending is eating into companies’ cash flows and may not ultimately be worth it if AI doesn’t deliver as much productivity and profits as promised.

In a statement released Thursday, Jassy said AWS is “booming” and noted that its AI and chips businesses each eclipsed run rates of more than $25 billion. He noted that in stores, the company set record delivery speeds for its Prime members in the first half of the year, noting that 40% more items were delivered either same-day or overnight.

“There’s a lot to be excited about, and we have much more coming for customers in the second half of the year and beyond,” he said.

Amazon’s results from the latest quarter underscored that demand keeps growing for Amazon’s services and technology.

In April, Amazon signed big deals with OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta.

Amazon announced in April what it called a “major expansion” of its partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI one day after the artificial intelligence company said it was loosening its ties to longtime backer Microsoft.

Like other retailers, however, Amazon is experiencing higher tariff costs because of President Donald Trump’s foreign trade policies. Rising shipping costs as the Iran war affects oil and fuel prices also could cut into the company’s e-commerce revenue.

Meanwhile, Amazon has been speeding up order delivery times through a combination of robotics, AI technology and more efficient warehousing. In fact, speedier delivery helped Amazon dethrone Walmart in February from its status as the nation’s largest company by revenue, according to Fortune, which compiles a ranking of the top 500 U.S. corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years.

Amazon announced in May it was rapidly opening small order processing hubs in dozens of U.S. and foreign cities for 30 minute deliveries, catering to people who can’t or don’t want to wait for cough medicine to relieve flu symptoms or tomatoes for tonight’s dinner salad.

The company said Thursday that for the first six months of the year it more than doubled the number of new customers for its online pharmacy service, while same-day prescription deliveries were up nearly five times.

Amazon also pushed up its big four-day sale event known as Prime Day to June from July this year.

Amazon reported net income of $62.65 billion, or $5.75 per share, in the three-month period ended June 30. That compares with $18.16 billion or $1.68 per share, in the year-ago period.

Net sales rose to $200.6 billion from $167.7 billion a year ago.

Analysts were expecting sales of $197.03 billion for the latest quarter.

Amazon said it expects net sales to be in the range of $197 billion to $202 billion. Analysts expect $203.9 billion, according to FactSet.

Speaking to reporters in front of the Florida Capitol on Thursday, Vindman criticized Moody, who was Florida attorney general at the time, over her office’s role in the Hope Florida scandal and claimed her involvement earned her appointment to the U.S. Senate.

“My challenge to Ashley Moody is, if she has nothing to hide, she should go ahead and call for this release,” Vindman told reporters. “If she is the reason that the grand jury report is not being released, which is my suspicion, either way, I think the electorate deserves to know.”

Hope Florida, a nonprofit organization tied to an initiative led by First Lady Casey DeSantis, approved the transfer of $10 million they received as part of an atypical settlement involving Medicaid funds to two other nonprofits.

Those organizations then gave the money to a political committee chaired by James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ then-chief of staff who later was named Attorney General after Moody left for the U.S. Senate. She was appointed to the role by Gov. Ron DeSantis after Marco Rubio left the position to become Secretary of State.

The political committee used the funds to campaign against two ballot measures on the November 2024 ballot that would have legalized recreational marijuana and installed a right to an abortion in the state constitution.

A Leon County grand jury was convened to investigate, but so far no indictments or reports have been issued or released.

In response, Moody’s campaign released a statement.

“This was an Agency for Health Care Administration agreement that AHCA chose to negotiate and settle through AHCA lawyers and outside counsel almost two years ago. This information is publicly available in previously released documents,” said Cameron Gambini, communications director for Moody’s campaign.

“The Senator has had no role in any grand jury proceedings and would certainly have no issue with the public release of any report,” he said.

Vindman said he had not spoken to State Attorney Jack Campbell’s office about the release of the grand jury report.

“This is something that people need to know about when they make a decision between Ashley Moody, a corrupt politician, and somebody that served the public good and reported corruption at the highest level,” Vindman said.

Vindman, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, gained prominence when he testified during President Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings in his first term.

Vindman testified in 2019 that while on the National Security Council he witnessed Trump on a call attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden and his son. At the time, Biden was gearing up to run against Trump in the 2020 election, which he eventually won.

For the first quarter, Vindman raised $8 million while Moody took in $2.6 million over the same period.

Vindman is running against Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, in the Democratic primary and has raised $14.5 million in total this year compared to Nixon’s $625,000.

Moody’s campaign has raised $10.8 million.

The winner of the U.S. Senate race will serve the remaining two years of Rubio’s term before facing reelection in 2028.

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Human-caused climate change made the hot and dry conditions responsible for Spain's record-sized inferno 20 times more likely to happen, and it doubled the chances of extreme fire conditions for the flames in France, scientists at World Weather Attribution calculated in a rapid analysis Thursday, conducted while fires were still burning. Warming in the past 26 years has tripled the odds of the severe fire risk conditions in Spain and increased the chances in France 40%, the same report found.

At the same time, researchers published a separate study on Thursday — written and edited long before this week's fires began — that found the number of days that Southern Europe's weather reached extreme fire-prone levels has more than doubled compared to decades ago.

Both studies examined changes in the weather that creates fire-prone conditions. The measurements factor in air temperature, drought conditions, humidity and wind.

"The change in these fire weather conditions in Spain is really extremely strong and is, I think, one of the largest changes that I've seen," said Friederike Otto, an Imperial College of London climate scientist who coordinates World Weather Attribution. Spain is having its hottest summer on record, after an incredibly wet January that allowed plants to grow before a severe drought hit, a combination that increased wildfire fuel, the report said.

Spain also had the added problem of land abandonment, which left unmanaged plants and trees to dry out, Otto said. France's Bordeaux region, meanwhile, had thick groves of pines that also burn well when a fire starts, she said.

World Weather Attribution — an international collaboration of scientists who examine extreme events to determine climate change's role, if any — did that study so quickly, the report didn't get peer reviewed, which is the scientific gold standard. But Otto and her colleagues used techniques that are scientifically accepted, and many of their reports are published in peer-reviewed journals later.

Warming world means fires ignite ‘more explosively’

Otto's team calculated how much climate change — from the burning of coal, oil and gas — increased the chances for fires of this intensity to happen. They did so by comparing fire weather severity levels to past measurements for the region and to what they would be if the world was 2.5 degrees (1.4 degrees Celsius) cooler. That is how much Earth has warmed since pre-industrial times.

“This study makes sense and provides numbers to confirm what fire scientists already knew,” said Syracuse University fire scientist Jacob Bendix, who wasn't part of either research. “We have always known that fires ignite more easily and spread more explosively under conditions of extreme heat and drought. And we’ve known for decades that extreme heat and drought are becoming more common due to anthropogenic climate change. So the general outline of these events, if not all the details, was tragically predictable.”

Thursday's other study, in the journal Scientific Reports, finds that there were about 10 extreme fire weather days a year in Southern Europe in earlier decades, but it is now up to around 25 a year, said study author Raúl Cordero, a climate scientist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. And it is not just more frequent bad fire weather days. Those days are about 50% more intense than they were from 1981 to 2010, his study said.

Fires were decreasing until climate change overwhelmed gains

The number of Southern European fires and amount of land burned had decreased quite a bit from the 1980s to 2018, mostly because of better fire suppression and management techniques, Cordero said. But then things quickly got worse fast because climate change overwhelmed that improvement, he said.

“It doesn't matter how many resources or how much money you have, you just cannot stop the propagation of a fire when the weather is so extreme,” Cordero said. “The climate forcing is so extreme nowadays that it's just amazing.”

University of California Merced fire scientist John Abatzaglou, who also wasn’t part of either research, said, “these findings make clear that climate change is not just a future problem, it’s already here.”

“We need to stop burning fossil fuels,” Otto said. “Because as long as we keep burning fossil fuels, temperatures will increase globally. And that will mean that these fire weather conditions will get worse and worse and worse. And there are hard limits to what we can adapt to.”

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The former lieutenant governor made the announcement in a video posted on his Facebook page as democratic socialist Francesca Hong has garnered strong support from the liberal wing of the party.

Barnes’ decision to drop out came a day after the release of a Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters that found Hong leading Barnes and the other candidates by a significant margin, although about one-third of primary voters remained undecided.

“It's become very clear who our nominee is going to be,” Barnes said.

Barnes’ move came on the same day that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that it had asked him about allegations of inappropriate behavior lodged with the state Democratic Party, local party officials and others against him.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party received an anonymous letter in 2024 and again in 2025 making allegations against Barnes, a person with direct knowledge of the party’s actions told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the review.

The party hired a law firm in 2025 to look into claims that Barnes used his position in the party to seek out inappropriate relationships with young adult women, the person said. The review found nothing actionable because the allegations were anonymous and unspecific, the person with knowledge of the probe said.

Barnes' campaign issued a statement saying, “There are no allegations of misconduct or wrongdoing against Mandela.”

Barnes is the third Democrat to withdraw from the race. Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez ended her run amid a campaign finance scandal two weeks ago and former state economic development director Missy Hughes dropped out in June.

After Rodriguez ended her campaign, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley rejoined the race with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers.

Crowley made a direct plea to Barnes' supporters to back him.

“There's a place for you in what we're building,” he posted on social media.

Evers told reporters Thursday that he was surprised by Barnes’ move.

“But he needs to do what he needs to do,” Evers said. “I don’t know why he’s getting out. I have to believe it’s something relatively important.”

Evers said he stuck by his endorsement of Crowley, who worked closely with Evers and Republican lawmakers on a deal to increase funding for local communities. Evers chose to endorse him over Barnes, who served as his lieutenant governor in his first term.

Evers said Crowley was the best candidate “even if Mandela was in.”

Hong did not immediately return a text message seeking comment.

Joel Brennan, a long-shot candidate in the race, said, “It’s unfortunate for voters that this primary has gotten more attention for chaos than the stakes of this election."

The shake-up comes after nearly 128,000 voters have already returned absentee ballots and on the third day of in-person early voting. On Wednesday, a judge rejected a lawsuit supported by the Democratic Party seeking to allow voters who have already returned their absentee ballots to cancel them and vote again.

The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to face U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who faces only nominal opposition in the Republican primary. Tiffany, who has the endorsement of President Donald Trump, said it's become clear the race will be a choice between a “socialist agenda” or “common sense.”

“This election is not about red versus blue,” he said. “It is about whether Wisconsin stays Wisconsin.”

Barnes ending his campaign comes after he benefited from other candidates dropping out in the Democratic primary race for Senate in 2022 to clear the field for him. He ended up losing by under 27,000 votes that year to Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.

The National Transportation Safety Board, in a report released Thursday, also found the Federal Aviation Administration's oversight of the company, Bering Air, was inadequate.

Both were contributing factors to the February 2025 crash, which was one of Alaska's deadliest plane crashes this century. The NTSB also determined the pilot did not monitor and maintain adequate airspeed, likely because he was trying to manage the plane's ice protection system while preparing to approach the airport in Nome. And it said the plane was overweight for a trip into icy conditions. The airport itself had temporarily closed its runways for de-icing, the agency said.

The Associated Press sent a message seeking comment to Bering Air. The FAA released a statement in response to questions stating it “takes NTSB recommendations seriously and will carefully review them.”

Recommendations made by the NTSB to the FAA include calling for pilot training on preventing and recovering from loss of control in flight for many charter and air taxi operators. The NTSB also raised prior recommendations, such as expanded use of flight data monitoring programs and broader load manifest requirements.

The NTSB said it found a pattern of underreported weights on Bering Air flight manifests and flights operating above weight limits.

The agency said the FAA failed to recognize the air carrier’s “increased operational complexity and rapid growth” after the pandemic and bankruptcy of its largest competitor as factors warranting increased oversight. The report said the FAA's oversight “failed to identify and address the routine operation of overweight flights.”

Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chair, in a statement said the tragedy “was not the result of a single failure, but a series of preventable breakdowns that eroded critical safety margins.”

The plane was flying as part of a regularly scheduled commuter flight from the community of Unalakleet to Nome, a 150-mile (240-kilometer) trip. Authorities have said that the aircraft went missing about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Nome. The wreckage was recovered from a drifting ice floe.

The department selected investment firm Brookfield Asset Management to develop and operate the data center at the government-owned Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. In March, the department announced a similar project at its Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio.

Both are undergoing extensive cleanup, decontamination and decommissioning after decades of fueling the nation's nuclear weapons and power plants. The project is in line with the Trump administration's efforts to make artificial intelligence superiority over China a top national security and economic priority.

The federal government is transforming former DOE sites into “engines of innovation and economic growth” to “ensure the United States wins the A.I. race,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement Wednesday.

“There will be a lot of new natural gas power plants, a large data center, thousands of jobs and tens of billions of dollars of investment in rural western Kentucky,” Wright said on the Fox News show “Fox & Friends.”

Earlier in July, the Department of Energy said it had picked engineering contractor Amentum to negotiate a lease to develop an AI data center and on-site power plant at South Carolina's Savannah River Site, a massive complex where the federal government once produced materials used in nuclear weapons, primarily tritium and plutonium-239.

Real estate, energy and data center services are cornerstones in the investment portfolio of New York-headquartered Brookfield, which reports that it has more than $1 trillion in assets under management.

A Brookfield spokesperson estimated that 30% of the $100 billion in spending would go toward construction of the data center and power components, with the rest of the money being spent on the equipment in the data centers, including servers, routers and semiconductor chips.

Discussions were ongoing with commercial partners to use the data center space, Brookfield spokesperson Simon Maine said.

Other partners in the Paducah project are power generation and transmission giant NextEra Energy and local utilities.

Florida-based NextEra Energy will build and own the power generation components, which are to include 2 gigawatts of natural gas-fired generation, upgrades to transmission networks and 2.6 gigawatts of battery energy storage to support a new 1.8 gigawatt AI data center campus, the department said.

The plant would be the largest gas-fired power plant in Kentucky. A single gigawatt, according to a general industry standard for utilities, can power about 750,000 homes.

A power service agreement must be approved by state utility regulators, and excess electricity would be delivered to the regional grid. Construction was expected to be complete in 2031, the department said.

Cleanup is continuing at the roughly 3,550-acre Paducah plant site, which was on a list of 16 federal sites released last year as locations where the department could invite technology companies to build data management and storage capacity.

It shut down in 2013 and the gaseous diffusion process to enrich uranium is considered obsolete.

The department has projected that cleanup at the Paducah site would be completed in 2065 at a cost of about $17 billion, including demolishing buildings, disassembling uranium converters, removing refrigerant and treating a large plume of groundwater contamination.

In the meantime, the department is working on plans to provide some of the uranium waste being stored for decades at the Paducah site to a pair of companies seeking to use newer technologies to re-enrich it for use in power plants.

Group raises questions about projects

A newly formed group called Protect McCracken County has raised questions about the uranium enrichment and data center projects, saying that the work is being carried out beside a river that 5 million people downstream drink from without an independent study of the impact.

Byron Gary, a senior attorney for the environmental and public health advocacy group Kentucky Resources Council, said any plans to develop the contaminated Paducah site or to withdraw water from the water table underneath it must be carefully executed.

He said the construction of a such a large gas-fired power plant — which emits planet-warming greenhouse gases — would have implications for climate change and that his organization would want to be certain that regular ratepayers are not forced to subsidize the power plants and transmission upgrades there.

Gary also said his organization will want to make sure that the Department of Energy does not circumvent permitting processes as a way to get around environmental protection laws.

“There shouldn't be a justification to get around that and end up potentially dumping a lot more burden on a rural community that can’t afford it,” Gary said.

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Follow Marc Levy at http://twitter.com/timelywriter.

The government opened 10 registration centers across Port-au-Prince in neighborhoods considered generally safe as dozens of hopeful Haitians trickled through.

“This may be the first time that I’m going to vote,” said 34-year-old construction worker Vadley Bernadel.

Haiti hasn’t held general elections in more than a decade, and the country hasn’t had a president since President Jovenel Moïse was killed at his private residence in July 2021.

Gang violence has only surged since then, but Haiti’s unelected prime minister is under pressure to hold elections, with Dec. 13 marking the first round.

“Haiti needs someone with a vision, someone who can lead the country in a better direction,” said Bernadel, who decried his country’s multiple crises.

Armed men still control swaths of land

Gang violence has displaced more than 1.4 million people, with armed men controlling an estimated 70% of Port-au-Prince and the main roads that lead to the country’s Central and Artibonite provinces, which also are under fire.

More than 50% of Haiti’s electorate live in those three regions, and it’s unclear whether all those seeking to vote will be able to register, let alone vote, given the violence.

“The country can hold elections in three months if it chooses to. The question is, what kind of elections?” said Diego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

If the government insists on holding elections on Dec. 13, “a large part of the electorate will be left out," he warned.

Da Rin noted that police and a U.N.-backed mission have seized back areas near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince and made other inroads, but powerful gangs still control vast amounts of territory.

“There has been no significant progress,” he said. “The government will not be able to organize elections in territories controlled by gangs.”

Jacques Desrosiers, president of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, said he plans to open more voter registration centers in upcoming weeks, including 20 in Pétion-Ville, considered one of the safest areas.

As for the possibility of opening centers in other communities, he said that lies in the hands of the Haitian government.

Haitians fear being killed as country prepares for elections

Lawyer Francky Cavetan said he does not plan to vote because it’s too risky, but he did visit one registration center out of curiosity.

“Elections are not going to happen because the government and electoral council are lying to the population,” he asserted. “They are making people believe that elections will bring security, but they have to have security before elections.”

More than 5,900 people were killed last year across Haiti, and more than 1,600 others from January to March of this year, according to the United Nations. In addition, 5,500 gender-based violent incidents were reported in the first half of the year, with 70% of cases involving rape, many of them gang rapes, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, recently said.

Cavetan questioned how candidates would even campaign. He was also upset because he believes a large number of Haitians are not aware that they will also be asked to participate in a referendum the same day as the elections as the government pushes to change the country’s Constitution.

“They’re not even explaining to people what they’re planning to change in the Constitution,” Cavetan said.

Da Rin echoed that sentiment, noting that the public still doesn’t know what changes the government is seeking.

His biggest concern surrounding the elections is safety, though.

“The challenge for the authorities right now is to organize elections without having defeated the gangs and to minimize their influence on the elections as much as possible,” he said.

Da Rin noted that longtime links between gangs and certain powerful elites in Haiti are still active.

Gangs have long been used to intimidate voters or convince them to select certain candidates, as well as to destroy ballot boxes when some members of Haiti’s elite believed that their candidates might not win, Da Rin said.

“Gangs have been a very important tool for elites to help their candidates win elections,” he said.

At a registration center in the community of Laboule, only three people had signed up an hour after doors opened.

Victor Valensky, a 38-year-old driver of a colorful bus known as a tap-tap, was one of them.

He said he was angry at his country’s situation but also feared gang violence.

“I want to take part in the elections, but I have to make sure I’m safe,” he said. “If I die now, my wife probably won’t be able to support my two kids by herself. … I’m going to be very careful before I step out on election day.”

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Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Apple raised the prices of its Macs and iPads last month, citing a memory-chip shortage brought on by the artificial intelligence boom. The company had called the demand spike an “unprecedented challenge” for the consumer electronics industry. While it hasn't yet raised iPhone prices, analysts and consumers expect that to happen later this year.

The maker of the iPhone and iPad said Thursday it earned $29.79 billion, or $2.02 per share, in the April-June period. That is up 27% from $23.43 billion, or $1.57 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 16% to $$109.42 billion from $94.04 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.89 per share on revenue of $109 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. Tariff refunds of 11 cents per share contributed to the quarter's earnings.

“Today, Apple is proud to report our strongest June quarter ever, with double-digit revenue growth across iPhone, Mac and Services, and in every geographic segment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. It was Cook's final earnings call. He announced his retirement in April, after 15 years at the helm of the company. John Ternus, Apple’s head of hardware engineering, will assume the role on Sept. 1.

"I couldn't be more confident in his leadership, in the executive team and the extraordinary people at Apple," Cook said.

Apple continues to generate cash without the massive artificial intelligence spending that its Big Tech peers area are dealing with “and that showed across most parts of the operation,” said Thomas Monteiro, an analyst at Investing.com. “As the market grows more worried about free cash flow trajectories elsewhere in Big Tech, Apple keeps standing out as the safe haven in the storm.”

But he cautioned that memory costs — which are continuing to increase — could challenge Apple in the coming quarters. It also won't have the tariff benefit to boost profit margins again. September's iPhone launch and more price increases should “help cushion the hit,” Monteiro said.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple, which recently regained its title as the world's most valuable company from Nvidia, fell $7.52, or 2.3%, to $325.91 in after-hours trading.

At least this year, he doesn't need to. He's on the field at camp with the New York Giants, and all eyes are on the No. 1 receiver who is starting to regain his previous dynamic form.

Now 10 months removed from tearing the ACL in his right knee and still on a lengthy road back from the injury, Nabers is not yet a full participant in practice. But the Giants' No. 1 receiver is running routes at full speed during individual drills and sparking optimism that he'll be healthy enough to play in a game sooner than later.

“It felt good," Nabers said Thursday after the second practice of camp in the mountains of West Virginia. “I mean, I might not show it. I like to be a person that you never know my facial expressions. I’m always just smooth and calm. But it felt good to be out there with the guys, get a couple throws, just move around.”

Nabers, who turned 23 on Tuesday, sounded more hopeful about his future than he did in early January, when he walked with the assistance of a cane the previous weekend as a precaution and would not commit to being ready for the season opener. Saying at the time, “If my body doesn’t feel right, then I’m not going to go out there," he began a period of lingering pessimism that began to fade a bit this week when he did not land on the PUP list and was a visible part of the team.

“Every time he’s on the field, everybody knows where he’s at,” quarterback Jaxson Dart said Wednesday. “There’s an aura that he has on the field that is exhilarating. It makes me happy. It makes everybody happy just to see him out there.”

The smiles are everywhere over the situation. But with more than seven weeks to go before New York hosts Dallas on Sept. 13 to begin the season, he and team officials are still reluctant to say if Nabers will be ready to go by then.

“No target dates," Nabers said. "Just continuing to listen to the training staff, and they continue to ask me questions. And when I’m ready, I’m ready.”

Progressing to team practice sessions would seemingly be the next step of a process that included significant rehab and even a second cleanup surgery earlier this year. On the prospect of playing in a preseason game to test the knee, Nabers deferred to new coach John Harbaugh, who praised the wideout's efforts to even get to this point.

“I really am impressed with how hard he’s worked,” Harbaugh said. “I just think he’s worked really hard. He deserves to be out there doing what he (is doing). It’s really cool to see.”

Nabers catching passes from Dart in any setting is a positive, given their limited time together last season. Nabers was injured and sidelined for the rest of the season in the second quarter of Dart's first NFL start.

All the two have really been able to do since is talk and watch video together as a way of advancing their rapport before they can play in a real game together again.

“We’re just going to continue to get him in slowly,” Dart said. “He’s doing a great job with how he’s attacking his recovery. I’ve got all the confidence in the world in him and his approach to the game.”

Nabers acknowledged it has not been easy mentally to be away from football, and he has leaned on Dart, as well as new teammate Odell Beckham Jr. and others, to get through those struggles.

“Overcoming an injury is not easy,” starting left tackle Andrew Thomas said. “If anything, (it is good) just for his mental (state) to be back out here with the guys and running around and catching the ball."

Nabers did take joy in surprising other players on Wednesday with just how smoothly he was running and cutting and catching the ball. But after going through a few weeks of that himself, he did not surprise himself.

“I felt like the training staff did a very good job on getting me ready before I even stepped foot out there,” Nabers said. "Those cuts I’ve been doing with the training staff, those routes I’ve been doing with the training staff, so it wasn’t anything (but) normal to me that I was able to go out there and do it full speed.”

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

The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Friday that the relics were discovered at Gulf Shores International Airport on July 18 after the agent observed what appeared to be a large, opaque item inside a suitcase during an X-ray screening. When he opened the luggage, he found five small cannonballs wrapped in paper towels and notified a supervisor.

“I had never seen anything quite this unique,” TSA Officer Justin Dupree said in a statement from the agency. “I’ve seen inert grenades and training munitions but never an Indiana Jones-esque stolen artifact-type situation.”

The cannonballs — the largest about the size of grapefruits and weighing about as much as a shot put ball — were inactive and didn’t contain any explosive material or active components, the TSA said. Still, cannonballs are artillery munitions and considered prohibited items on planes.

Police eventually determined the cannonballs were stolen from Fort Morgan, based on paint marking applied to the artifacts by fort staff, and that they dated to the American Civil War. The historic Gulf Shores fort played a significant role in several military conflicts, including the Civil War.

The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that a juvenile stole the cannonballs from a storage area in the fort and then placed them in their grandmother’s checked bag. The grandmother told officers she did not know they were stolen.

Spokespersons for Fort Morgan didn't respond to a email seeking comment. The sheriff's office said the institution declined to press charges, and the artifacts were returned to the fort.

Officers responded at approximately 10:40 p.m. Wednesday to 213 W. New York Ave. — a property behind the Athens Theatre.

In a news conference, DeLand Police Chief Jason Umberger said both men had been shot multiple times.

The victims were identified as Dustin Rose, 19, formerly of DeLeon Springs, and Sampson Campbell, 18, formerly of DeLand.

Police said the two were childhood friends, and it’s undetermined if they were targeted.

“Our thoughts and our prayers are with these two young men who lost their lives and their families,” Chief Jason Umberger said.

The case is classified as a homicide investigation. No suspects have been identified.

Anyone with information is asked to contact DeLand police’s Crimewatch portal or call the Criminal Investigations Division at (386) 626-7400.

The Athens Theatre is one of downtown DeLand’s most recognizable landmarks. It first opened in 1922 and regularly hosts concerts and plays.

In a social media post on Thursday, the theatre said the day’s events will continue as scheduled.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Cignetti took over a program that had gone 9-27 the three years before his arrival and led it to College Football Playoff appearances in each of his first two seasons, including a 2025 national title.

He wants his program to maintain the same edge it carried while working its way up.

“We have a way of doing things,” Cignetti sad. “We’ve got guys that have been together, and all we do is win.”

Indiana’s stunning two-year run under Cignetti already has allowed the traditional Big Ten also-ran to shed its status as the Bowl Subdivision program with the most losses in history. That dubious honor now belongs to conference rival Northwestern.

The Hoosiers obviously have bigger long-term goals than that.

They want to keep it going without Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who went to the Las Vegas Raiders with the top pick in this year’s draft after his lone season at Indiana. He was one of a school-record eight players drafted.

“We need to make sure that we keep the same blueprint as last year going into this year, and that includes maintaining the same work ethic,” offensive tackle Carter Smith said.

Indiana did a remarkable job of restocking its roster by getting one of the nation’s top collections of transfer portal talent. Indiana’s list of 18 transfer newcomers includes former TCU quarterback Josh Hoover and ex-Michigan State wide receiver Nick Marsh.

Marsh got an early indication of Cignetti’s no-nonsense approach, as the former Spartans player showed up for a spring practice in gold cleats and got criticized by his new coach. Cignetti has since praised the work habits of Marsh, who caught 100 passes for 1,311 yards and nine touchdowns over the last two seasons.

Indiana’s chances of earning a third straight playoff bid could depend on Hoover, who threw for 9,627 yards, 71 touchdowns and 33 interceptions over the last three years. He has rather large shoes to fill.

“What separated Fernando was when the game was on the line, those fourth-quarter wins, the last three minutes, four minutes, that’s when he played his best football,” Cignetti said.

Indiana could be on the verge of establishing itself as annual contenders as long as Cignetti sticks around, as the Hoosiers have followed up their portal success by making inroads in high school recruiting. Over the last two weeks, Indiana has gained verbal commitments from 2027 five-star wide receiver Monshun Sales and highly regarded 2028 quarterback Lukas Prock.

Cignetti is more focused now on making sure his current team is prepared for its title defense. Defensive lineman Tyrique Tucker was asked how it felt to enter a season as the hunted rather than the hunter.

“We prepare in a way we wouldn’t think we’re being hunted,” Tucker said. “We’re preparing like we’re predators and we’re hungry. We still have that chip on our shoulder, ultimately.”

Big Ten media may have given Tucker and his teammates some ammo in that regard. A Cleveland.com poll of reporters that serves as the unofficial Big Ten preseason media forecast had the defending national champions finishing third in the conference, behind Ohio State and Oregon.

Cignetti understands the challenge ahead after beating both Ohio State and Oregon on the way to the title last year. Cignetti, who worked as an assistant at Alabama from 2007-10, closed his news conference Thursday by explaining why he believes the Big Ten is college football’s best conference.

“We don’t run a hype machine up here in the Midwest,” Cignetti said. “We believe everything is earned, not given. When we fall short, we say, ‘We fell short.’ We don’t cry a river, whine and complain. That’s why we’re the best.”

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Bakari, a 21-year-old male western lowland gorilla, is settling into his new home and role as silverback of the family troop at Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, Disney officials said.

His arrival comes after the end of an era for the group. For nearly three decades, the troop was led by Gino, the longtime silverback at Disney’s Animal Kingdom since the park opened.

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“Bringing Bakari here is bittersweet because it means we’ve said goodbye to Gino, who was our silverback for almost 30 years since the park’s opening,” Rachel, an animal care manager with Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment, said in a statement. “But it’s also incredibly exciting. Bakari is the future of this family troop, and we’re looking forward to watching him grow into that role and hopefully help welcome new generations of gorillas for years to come.”

Disney said animal care teams are using a step-by-step introduction process to help Bakari build relationships with the females in the troop.

Before arriving at Walt Disney World, Bakari lived in a bachelor group at another Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited zoo, according to Disney. Introductions begin with the gorillas seeing each other through a protected viewing area while caretakers closely monitor behavior. As comfort levels increase, the process gradually moves to closer interactions, including opportunities for touch, Disney said.

“This is all very new for Bakari,” Rachel said. “Our goal is to help him feel comfortable and confident at every stage. We take the process slowly because building those social relationships with the females is incredibly important.”

Disney said the move is supported by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan, which aims to maintain genetically diverse populations of western lowland gorillas in managed care.

“Pairing Bakari with our females can help strengthen the long-term future of the population,” Rachel said.

Caretakers are also learning Bakari’s personality as he adjusts, Disney said, describing him as calm and observant. One behavior already standing out: He often lounges while resting his chin on his hand, watching activity around him.

Guests may see Bakari along the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail as he continues to acclimate and begin interacting more with the troop, Disney said.

Western lowland gorillas are considered critically endangered, and Disney said its animal care teams’ work supports both the animals at the park and broader conservation efforts.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this week announced it would wrap up the program, which was initially implemented by the Biden administration in 2024 to lower patients' Medicare Part D prescription drug costs in response to effects of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

While federal officials insist the financial impact on Medicare beneficiaries will be minimal, the decision opens the Republican-led administration to potential political consequences in a high-stakes midterm election year. Voters have identified cost of living as a top concern, and many older adults, who tend to vote in high numbers, are on fixed incomes where every dollar counts. The roughly 25 million Americans with Medicare Part D plans will find out about their 2027 rates in the fall, when they are casting ballots in November's elections.

Democrats slammed CMS's move as part of a pattern of federal attacks on healthcare affordability, alongside federal Medicaid cuts and the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies that had reduced premium costs for working-age Americans in that program.

“The Trump administration is actively raising prescription drug costs for 25 million seniors,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X in response to the news, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. “Heartless, cruel, and completely by choice.”

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz on Tuesday said ending the subsidy program would prevent billions of taxpayer dollars from being funneled to insurance companies. It cost the agency an estimated $3.6 billion in 2026.

He said most Medicare beneficiaries would see less than a $10-per-month increase, and some would even see lower premiums than beforehand.

“Every Medicare beneficiary still has access to low-cost plans, and we will continue to lower prescription drug prices for every American patient, from more MFN deals to our policy giving seniors access to GLP-1s for $50 a month,” he wrote on social media.

The federal government also negotiates directly with pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of some of the most expensive drugs in Medicare, through a program created by Congress in 2022.

This week's decision has no impact on the out-of-pocket cap that limits the amount that older adults with standalone Medicare drug coverage spend on their prescription drugs over the course of a year. That was set at $2,100 in 2026 and is projected to rise to $2,400 for 2027.

Part D beneficiaries paid an average of $36 a month this year for their prescription drug premiums with the subsidies in place, according to the healthcare research nonprofit KFF. The subsidies offset the average premium by $16 in 2026, according to the federal Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

It's not yet known how many Americans the change will effect, or how much more they'll pay. Older Americans have the opportunity to shop for plans each year, and prices vary widely between them. CMS has said it will release information about next year's premiums in September.

AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond said her organization, which serves Americans 50 and older, had supported the temporary subsidy.

“While it’s too early to know the full impact of this change, it would be unfortunate if this decision made Part D coverage less affordable, just as we’re beginning to see billions in savings from Medicare drug price negotiation,” she said in a statement.

Juliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF, said the price increases may be marginal for some consumers but impactful for others when combined with higher prices in other areas, like groceries, gas and housing.

“What's going to matter most for consumers is how much more or less they have to pay at the end of a month, and how much they have left after the bills are paid,” she said. “This could just make it more challenging for some people to make that math work.”

Cameron threw only 72 pitches through six innings with two walks and five strikeouts, with little solid contact by the Twins. Catcher Salvador Perez sprang forward to pick up Ryan Kreidler’s dribbler in front of the plate and make an on-target underhand toss to first base for the second out of the sixth as the 36-year-old tumbled to the grass to keep the feat alive.

But Jeffers delivered a clean single to right-center field on an 0-2 changeup from Cameron.

Cameron still stretched his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 16 by getting the next six outs for his career-long outing with a one-hitter in eight shutout innings. He threw seven shutout frames in relief last Friday after the Royals used an opener in a 2-1 loss at Detroit. This one ended even worse, when Kody Clemens hit a walk-off grand slam with two outs in the ninth inning to give Minnesota a 4-3 victory.

Former Twins right-hander Randy Dobnak pitched seven scoreless innings for the Royals on Wednesday night in a 4-0 victory.

Cameron went 9-7 with a 2.99 ERA in 24 starts last season and finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year award voting. The 27-year-old threw 6 1/3 no-hit innings in his major league debut on April 30, 2025, for a 3-0 win at Tampa Bay.

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

The S&P 500 rallied 1.7% and more than recovered its drop from the day before, which was its worst in seven weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 613 points, or 1.2%. The Nasdaq composite, which is full of artificial-intelligence stocks, rallied 2.8% a day after it fell 9.8% below its record set last month.

Microsoft led the way and leaped 15.5% for its best day in nearly 18 years after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Growth was strong for its Azure cloud business, and CEO Satya Nadella said it reflects how customers are using Microsoft to move into AI.

Perhaps just as importantly for Wall Street, Microsoft did not announce a big increase in how much it plans to spend on AI investments, something that several other Big Tech rivals have done. Worries are high that such spending is eating into companies’ cash flows and may not ultimately be worth it if AI does not produce as much productivity and profits as promised.

Meta Platforms helped demonstrate such fears after falling 8%. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, even though it made slightly more in revenue than expected. It also raised the lower end of its forecasted range for spending on investments this year.

Companies involved in the making of the computer memory and processors that such “hyperscalers” are buying to power their AI efforts rose Thursday, recovering some of the big losses they’ve taken on worries their stock prices shot too high in the euphoria around AI.

Micron Technology jumped 18.4%, for example, to trim its loss for the week to 5%. It was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 after Microsoft.

Lam Research, a supplier to the semiconductor industry, soared 18% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Chip giant Advanced Micro Devices rallied 13%.

On the losing end of Wall Street was Jersey Mike’s Subs. The sandwich chain’s stock fell 6% in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 121.48 to 7,437.63. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 613.92 to 52,208.06, and the Nasdaq composite leaped 679.24 to 25,122.18.

In the bond market, longer-term Treasury yields held steadier following their sharp accelerations Wednesday. They had jumped after the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, gave few clues about what the central bank will do with interest rates to combat the painfully high inflation that continues to hurt the country.

Higher rates could keep a lid on inflation, but they can also slow the economy and undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury was 4.67%, the same as late Wednesday. The 30-year Treasury yield ticked up to 5.22% from 5.20%, a day after it shot up from 5.09%. Those yields move with investors’ expectations for inflation and economic growth in upcoming years.

Warsh reaffirmed on Wednesday the Fed wants to get inflation back to 2%, even though the central bank decided not to raise interest rates despite inflation remaining higher than that. He also implied the bond market may already be doing some of the Fed’s work to restrain inflation, and he pointed to how yields have climbed since the central bank’s last meeting six weeks earlier.

That leaves investors questioning whether the Fed is prepared to act if inflation worsens, or whether it is relying on financial markets to achieve the same outcome, according to Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.

“If investors conclude that the latter is true, the credibility of the Fed’s inflation-fighting commitment could come under increasing scrutiny. Arguably, it already is.”

President Donald Trump, who nominated Warsh to lead the Fed, has lobbied for lower interest rates even though they could cause inflation to accelerate.

Reports released Thursday suggested the U.S. economy’s growth slowed by more during the spring than economists expected. A measure of Inflation, meanwhile, remained worse last month than the Federal Reserve’s target, but it slowed from May’s level.

In the oil market, prices eased. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.4% to settle at $86.88 per barrel.

It had swung as low as $72 early this month and as high as $102 last week on uncertainty about whether the United States and Iran could reach a deal to allow oil tankers to move freely again from the Middle East to customers worldwide.

In stock markets worldwide, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia. South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.2%, and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.9% for two of the world’s bigger moves.

Seoul’s market has been at the center of AI’s huge swings because it’s dominated by two tech titans, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. After more than doubling through this year’s first six months, the Kospi has plunged 34% so far in July.

Its drop on Thursday came as Samsung Electronics dipped 0.7%. The tech giant reported a record profit for the spring and said demand for its chips continues to outpace supply, but its earnings nevertheless fell shy of analysts’ high expectations.

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Following a few days of respite, fears of a wider war have grown, with renewed fighting threatening to engulf even more countries. Jordan said Thursday it intercepted Iranian missiles for the second consecutive day, while Kuwait said a strike in the northern part of the country killed one person. Also this week, drones caused fires on ships at an Egyptian port, and Saudi Arabia said it came under fire from Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

The war — which in its early days President Donald Trump said would last four to five weeks, although he warned it could take longer — has caused the price of fuel to spike and roiled the global economy. As months have passed, concerns have deepened about using up the stockpile of weapons the U.S. needs to defend its bases and allies.

The war is unpopular among Americans, and a new AP-NORC poll says Trump’s approval rating on Iran has dipped slightly since last month.

The recent pause in fighting, which began over the weekend and spurred hopes among mediators of diplomatic progress, ended with increasing missile and drone attacks across many countries in the Middle East.

“We note with concern that the security situation remains precarious,” said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi, whose country has been a key mediator.

Talks “are ongoing to normalize the situation, particularly the situation in the Strait of Hormuz,” he told reporters.

The US and Iran trade strikes

An Iranian strike hit a Chinese firm’s building in Kuwait on Thursday, severely damaging the structure and killing a worker, Kuwait’s military said, hours after Jordan’s air defenses shot down five missiles launched from Iran.

No injuries were reported from Jordan’s interception, the country's state-run Petra news agency said, quoting the spokesman for the country’s armed forces. Both Jordan and Kuwait host American troops.

The attacks came after the U.S. military said it completed “a heavy wave of strikes against Iran” in response to an earlier Iranian missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan.

U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces struck dozens of targets belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, including military command centers, missile and drone facilities, and coastal surveillance and defense sites.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said three people were killed and two were wounded in a strike on the island of Qeshm, which lies off the Iranian mainland in the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial waterway for the world's energy supplies that has been at the center of the conflict.

The latest barrage came after the U.S. partnered with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to strike Iran-backed militias in Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers.

Fires reported on two natural gas vessels at an Egyptian port

Also on Wednesday, British maritime security firm Ambrey said drone strikes ignited fires on two natural gas vessels at the Egyptian port of Damietta. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes on a U.S.-owned floating storage facility and a Greek-owned tanker. No injuries were reported.

The office of the Egyptian prime minister said initial investigations showed the fires had been caused by a drone. In a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly said investigators were able to recover traces of the drone and will try to determine where it came from.

Egypt, a close U.S. ally and regional mediator, has until now been spared direct military action during the war. A strike by Iran or its allies, if confirmed, would mark a significant widening of the conflict. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have denied they were behind the attack.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi didn't outright deny Iranian involvement but said: “Egypt is an important friend and partner in the region, and its security is of utmost importance to us.”

"We must all be vigilant against Israeli plots and false-flag operations designed to undermine regional peace," he said on X. “The threat is clear, mutual, and fearful of Muslim solidarity.”

The war has wreaked havoc on the global economy

The conflict has wreaked havoc on the global economy as energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have ground to a near halt. Much of the diplomacy around ending the war has focused on reopening the strait, through which 20% of oil and natural gas shipments passed in peacetime.

The already limited traffic through the strait has plunged to wartime lows during the recent exchange of strikes, from 82 ships during the week of July 13-19 to just 39 from July 20-26, Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a shipping data and analysis firm, said in an webinar.

Fighting elsewhere has squeezed energy supplies further.

Saudi Arabia has accused Iraqi militias of firing drones against its oil facilities over the past days. An umbrella group of Iraqi militias initially denied the allegations, while the Houthi rebels said they had attacked Saudi energy facilities as part of a separate but related conflict.

The Houthis have also declared a blockade of Saudi shipping and threatened to choke off another crucial Middle East trade route, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden. That route became even more important during the war, as Saudi Arabia used it to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

While some Saudi oil exports are continuing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait despite the blockade, Lloyd’s List Intelligence said much of that oil now follows an expensive and time-consuming workaround: It travels from Saudi Arabia on tankers to the Egyptian city of Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea coast before being pumped overland through a pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir. Then it's loaded on tankers again.

The Suez Canal is not deep enough to handle the largest and most economical tankers when they are fully loaded with oil.

Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman met Wednesday with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly about the private meetings.

They said the Saudi decision to join the U.S. attacks against the Iraqi militias was meant to send a message to Iran that the kingdom would not tolerate Iran or its proxies targeting the Saudi oil industry and other critical infrastructure. At the same time, the defense minister underscored to Trump and Vance that the Saudis want to see a de-escalation in the war and for Washington and Tehran to return to negotiations.

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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; Fatma Khaled in Cairo; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.

After failed negotiations forced the delay of a committee vote to advance Blanche's nomination, Trump suggested he was holding firm against pressure from Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. They have expressed concerns about the controversial settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, which a judge denounced as an exercise in self-dealing.

The senators said the Justice Department seemed interested in reaching an agreement with them, but the White House wouldn't budge to aid the confirmation of Trump's loyal former personal attorney, who has aggressively pursued the administration's priorities as acting attorney general. Instead, Trump said in a social media post that he might pull Blanche's nomination and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year.

“I think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page,” Cornyn said Thursday. “But then when the president got wind of it, he wasn’t willing to go along with it.”

Hours after Trump's post, however, Blanche held a meeting with Cornyn and Tillis and the two sides were back to working collaboratively, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations around Blanche’s confirmation.

Cornyn and Tillis have said they won't back Blanche's nomination without additional assurances in writing about the settlement, which included a deal to drop tax claims against the president and a now-scrapped plan to create a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” meant to compensate Trump allies.

With all Democratic senators opposed, just one Republican holdout on the Senate Judiciary Committee could sink Blanche’s chances for confirmation. And even if Blanche makes it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, it’s unclear if he has enough Republican support to be confirmed by the full chamber.

Cornyn wrote in a social media post Thursday that the president is “mistaken if he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis.”

While the Justice Department dropped plans for the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” after bipartisan outrage about the potential of payouts going to violent Jan. 6 rioters, officials have said that another piece of the settlement — granting Trump and members of his family immunity from tax audits — remains in place.

Though Blanche has repeatedly insisted that the “Anti-Weaponization fund” is dead, skeptical lawmakers have pushed for a commitment in writing — especially since Trump has expressed continued support for the idea. But the senators suggested the White House is resisting putting it in writing.

“The president’s getting bad advice. He should listen to Blanche and others who think if it’s dead, it should be rendered completely dead,” Tillis told reporters about the fund.

Another sticking point was the settlement's audit immunity provision that said the U.S. government is “forever barred and precluded” from scrutinizing or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization’s current and past tax examinations. Cornyn and Tillis have pressed the administration to modify the agreement to make clear that it covers only existing audits and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.

While the majority of Republican senators oppose the settlement, the main pushback to Blanche has come from Cornyn, who lost his seat earlier this year when Trump opposed him in a GOP primary. Trump has also frequently targeted Tillis, who announced last year that he would not run for re-election and has criticized the administration over the pardons of Jan. 6 rioters and other matters.

Though it would be politically embarrassing for the Trump administration, pulling Blanche’s nomination would likely have little practical impact on the management of the Justice Department.

Blanche, who took the reins of the department after Pam Bondi's firing in April, can still lead the agency as either acting attorney general or deputy attorney general, the No. 2 post to which he was confirmed last year. The deputy attorney general, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the law enforcement agency, can perform the duties of the attorney general if that post is vacant.

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Associated Press reporter Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

Richard Kohn, 21, has been held without bond at the Marion County Jail since his initial arrest on May 28, 2026.

What the new charges include

The 81 additional charges filed against Kohn are:

• 20 counts of Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)
• 20 counts of Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material with Intent to Promote
• 20 counts of Promoting a Sexual Performance by a Child
• 12 counts of Transmission of Child Sexual Abuse Material
• 9 counts of Possession of Pornographic Images of Sexual Activities Involving Animals

How the investigation started

The initial investigation began on May 28, 2026, after a School Resource Officer was notified that a juvenile student disclosed engaging in sexual activity with Kohn. The victim’s mother then discovered explicit sexual photos and videos Kohn had sent on the victim’s Snapchat account.

When Kohn attempted to meet the juvenile victim for sex at a designated location, MCSO detectives intervened and arrested him. He was originally charged with three counts of Lewd and Lascivious Battery, two counts of Lewd and Lascivious Molestation, two counts of Traveling to Meet a Minor, and Interference with Child Custody.

What detectives found on his phone

Following the initial arrest, Detective Lowder executed a search warrant on Kohn’s mobile device. The forensic examination uncovered extensive CSAM, including:

• Images and videos involving prepubescent children
• Identifiable local juveniles from Marion and surrounding counties
• The primary victim
• Images of sexual activities involving animals

Detectives also found evidence that Kohn recorded self-produced sexual abuse material with a juvenile and transmitted those files to other individuals — leading to the 81 additional charges.

Detectives believe there are more victims

Due to the nature of the offenses and evidence of self-produced CSAM, detectives believe additional unidentified victims may exist.

Anyone with information about additional crimes involving Richard Kohn is asked to contact Detective Michael Lowder at (352) 351-6408.

Crime scene tape surrounded Baldwin Meadows Apartments Wednesday evening after Orange County deputies responded to the shooting. The sheriff’s office has not released details about what happened before the gunfire or whether any arrests have been made. The investigation remains active and ongoing.

On Thursday, the sheriff’s office identified the teen as Skyler Bradford.

Resident April Ortiz said she had seen the teen around the complex several times visiting one of the families at the apartment but did not believe the teen herself lived there.

“I’m not familiar with her, but I do know the people who lives there (where the shooting happened). It’s a mother and son who live there,” Ortiz said.

She said she remembered seeing Bradford the day before the shooting.

When Ortiz stepped outside after the gunfire, she said she saw a scene she will never forget.

“Her face was swollen, blood, just seeing someone laying here not breathing was just unbelievable,” Ortiz said.

Deputies remained at the scene, speaking with multiple people as they worked to gather information. Their vehicles were parked near the area where Ortiz’s children play.

As a mother, Ortiz said she cannot imagine the pain the victim’s family is experiencing.

“I would be devastated if it happened to be my child out here like that. I can’t imagine what the family is feeling,” she said.

Ortiz said safety concerns have been a growing issue at the complex and believes more security is needed.

“Definitely need a lot more security around here,” she said.

She also expressed frustration over ongoing problems in the community.

“They just don’t care around here. They literally break through the fences and everything. It’s unbelievable,” Ortiz said.

News 6 has contacted property management about whether additional safety measures would be put in place and has not yet responded.

For Ortiz, the shooting has changed how she feels about living at the complex.

“I don’t even want to be here. I don’t want to live here, honestly,” she said.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation remains active and ongoing.

Maj. Collin Welch, 40, pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing about $54,000 in government money and inducing the Mongolian woman and her daughter to remain in the U.S. unlawfully. He’s awaiting sentencing in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Welch made a fake divorce decree to convince his second wife that he was no longer married to his first, according to a statement he signed as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. After moving her to the United States, he forged other government records to convince her that she was in the pipeline for U.S. citizenship and legally staying in the country.

Two deployments — to Afghanistan and Djibouti — and years spent away from his family put a strain on Welch, his lawyer, Gregory Rosen, said in a statement.

“None of that changes the fact that Major Welch accepts full responsibility for his actions,” Rosen said. “That alone speaks louder about his character than any statement of offense, standing alone, ever could.”

The affair began in 2019, when Welch was with the Alaska National Guard and stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It continued after he returned to Alaska in 2021 and moved to Arkansas the next year. They were married in 2022 in Mongolia.

In 2023, Welch moved to Washington with his family for a role with the District of Columbia National Guard that required extensive foreign travel. He used his government travel card to rent hotel rooms in the Washington area for video calls with his second wife, so she wouldn't know he was living with his family.

He also submitted false reimbursement expenses and lied to his superiors to get authorization for foreign travel to visit the Mongolian woman, according to the statement filed in court.

Welch charged the government for plane tickets for the Mongolian woman and her daughter to move to the United States in 2024. He married her again in Virginia, falsely saying he had never been married before. He paid for their living arrangements in Northern Virginia until they were evicted late last year when he tried to pay the rent with forged checks.

During that time, Welch knew the woman and her daughter had expired tourist visas but faked a variety of records to convince them otherwise. Those included letters from immigration authorities, Social Security cards and a Defense Department letter purporting to say the immigrants were enrolled in military health coverage.

Usually by late July or early August any drought conditions are eradicated.

Thursday’s drought update from the United States Department of Agriculture revealed little change in drought status.

The last time drought conditions were this widespread, intense and lasted this long in Central Florida was back in 2000.

That drought continued and intensified through the winter and spring of 2001.

That is highly unlikely to happen this time around as a strong El Niño is expected through at least spring.

The El Niño pattern typically brings much above normal rainfall from fall through early spring.

Long range climate models continues to be bullish on a very wet fall and winter for the state of Florida.

Like Thursday, rain and storms will be around at odd times Friday.

While not as widespread Friday morning, expect a few downpours and thunderstorms.

Storm chances increase through the early afternoon.

Highs will top out around 90 degrees.

Expect high storm chances to continue through the weekend before a more typical mid-to-late summer weather pattern returns by the middle of next week.

The two-time Pro Bowl quarterback didn’t get the contract extension he sought and plans to play out the final season of his three-year, $100 million deal.

“I’ve been pretty up front and honest about my feelings about Tampa, it being home for our family, raising kids here,” Mayfield said Thursday. “We love it here. I wanted a deal done and set the deadline and told them it was going to be all ball after that, and I did mean that. I don’t know if they thought I was gonna take some of the offers that they gave.

“I’m at the point in my career, understanding what I’ve brought to this franchise. One, I’m very thankful for the chance they gave me — do not get me wrong on that. But I also know, I really know what I’ve brought to this franchise, leadership-wise and even play-wise. It’s been some of the best years of my career, and I think it’s only going to trend upwards.”

Mayfield, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft by Cleveland, revived his career in Tampa Bay after replacing Tom Brady in 2023. He made the Pro Bowl in each of his first two seasons while leading the Bucs to consecutive NFC South titles. He was an MVP candidate through the first half of last season when the team started 6-2 but struggled with injuries and tailed off.

“It’s disappointing in that regard, to feel disrespected a little bit,” he said. “That’s really the disappointing part to feel undervalued after thinking you’ve earned it. This is not a ‘poor me’ thing. There’s a lot of other people who have it way worse off. But I can sit here and look at other quarterbacks and peers and evaluate myself based on that and put myself in certain categories that I deserved to be compensated for that.

“I think I’m a franchise quarterback. I’ve been told I’m a franchise quarterback. It’s been said publicly from ownership down here and to not have a deal done is very disappointing.”

Mayfield had set a deadline on getting a new contract by the start of training camp. He said he addressed his teammates to let them know he won’t let the issue become a distraction. He also doesn’t need it to motivate him.

“Money should never be the motivation in football,” he said. “It’s how do I help this team win? It’s never going to be the motivation for me. When it comes to having a chip on your shoulder and all that, for me it just puts me in the mindset of betting on myself. That’s something I’m pretty familiar with, and it’s a good place to be. As a highly competitive guy, sometimes you have to put yourself backed into a corner and fight your way out. I have a lot of guys and a lot of staff around me that are with me, so I’m not alone in it. We’re fighting for the same goal, and that’s to be playing in February.”

If Mayfield plays like he did in 2024 — 4,500 yards passing, 41 touchdown passes, 71.4% completion rate, 106.8 passer rating — the Buccaneers likely will have to pay him even more than he commands now. A contract that averages between $50-55 million is considered to be Mayfield’s current range.

“Baker hasn’t missed a beat or changed one bit through anything that’s going on,” offensive lineman Ben Bredeson said. “He’s still our quarterback, he’s still the same leader, friend, guy that we all love. When he says it’s all about ball, he means it. He’s probably one of the most consistent and locked in individuals I’ve ever had the chance to play with. It’s an honor going to work with him every day and no matter what’s happening outside of the building, he has not changed one bit and is ready to go at all times.”

Two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Vita Vea also is unhappy with his contract situation as he enters the final year of his deal. He has missed the first two days of practice with a back injury.

“It’s all about winning here now and what we’re going to do and hopefully gets his back fixed and gets his deal done,” Mayfield said. “Vita deserves that. He’s the anchor of our defense. I hope they take care of him.”

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

The 2-1 decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with a judge appointed by President Donald Trump in the majority, deepened a split between federal appeals courts over the administration's mandatory detention policy.

Four other appeals courts have also rejected it, while the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans and Eighth Circuit in St. Louis have sided with the Trump administration.

The expanding circuit split increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually take up the issue. The administration last month asked the high court to consider it.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement it “strongly disagrees with the Ninth Circuit panel and is confident in its legal position regarding mandatory detention.”

“President Donald Trump and Secretary Mullin are now enforcing the law as it was actually written to keep America safe,” the statement said.

Under previous administrations, most noncitizens without a criminal record who were arrested inside the U.S. were allowed to seek a bond hearing while their immigration cases were pending. Mandatory detention was generally reserved for people arrested at the border.

Last July, immigration officials issued guidance expanding mandatory detention to immigrants in the U.S. interior. The move — part of the administration's mass deportation campaign — prompted a deluge of federal lawsuits by immigrants seeking release from custody.

Some federal judges who ordered bond hearings blasted the administration for repeatedly violating their orders.

The Trump administration has argued that Congress changed immigration law in 1996 to allow mandatory detention beyond the border, but previous administrations didn't enforce that provision.

Writing for the majority in Thursday's ruling, 9th U.S. Circuit Judge Daniel Bress rejected that argument.

“Although no reading of the complicated and interrelated textual provisions at issue here is without some shortcomings, the historical understanding of the statute is the better one,” Bress, a Trump appointee, wrote.

He was joined by Judge M. Margaret McKeown, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton.

Judge Carlos Bea, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, dissented, saying the text and purpose of an amendment Congress approved in 1996 support the Trump administration's reading.

The blitz expanded Russia’s almost daily bombardment of Ukrainian cities, including the capital of Kyiv where tens of thousands spent the night sheltering in subway stations, as Moscow apparently looked to exploit Kyiv’s critical shortage of Western-supplied anti-ballistic missile defenses.

NATO said a Russian missile entered Polish airspace during the onslaught and landed in a rural area. It caused no injuries or damage but could deepen tensions between the military alliance and Moscow, as wary European countries fear the 4-year-old war could spill into their territory.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called it “yet another reckless act by Russia and a dangerous consequence of its war against Ukraine.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it was “a very serious incident,” but added: “There are absolutely no reasons to believe that Poland was the target.”

Russia's barrage struck areas of Ukraine where weapons are believed to be stored and manufactured. Ukrainian long-range drones and missiles have battered Russia's oil sector, causing a fuel crisis.

The attack came two days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Donald Trump and representatives of American defense companies as he pleads for swifter and bigger deliveries of Patriot air defense systems to stop Russia’s ballistic missiles.

The Iran war has drained stockpiles of the U.S.-made interceptors. Trump has promised to grant Ukraine licenses to build its own Patriots, but production could take many months.

“Given the critical shortage of air defense missiles from our partners, our warriors are accomplishing truly incredible things, demonstrating a very high level of professionalism,” Zelenskyy said on social media.

“This Russian terror once again proves that protection against the Russian missile threat is the most important task when it comes to saving the lives of our people,” he said.

Russia says it targeted military sites

Zelenskyy said at least 10 Ukrainian regions were attacked, with dozens of homes, businesses and infrastructure facilities destroyed or damaged.

Russia launched more than 70 missiles, a significant number of them ballistic missiles, he said, and over 280 attack drones, of which more than 260 were intercepted.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it targeted Ukrainian air bases, arms factories and military telecommunications and logistics facilities, including drone factories and storage depots, as well as plants for missiles, aircraft repairs, electronics and chemicals.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russian attack killed six people and wounded 10, said Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, in a post on Telegram. Children were among the dead — a 6-year-old girl and boys aged 11 and 17 in the area of Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy's hometown, Hanzha added.

The children’s parents were killed in the same attack, but two more children were pulled alive from the rubble, Zelenskyy said.

“It was an ordinary home, blown (to) smithereens by a ballistic missile,” he said on X.

In Kyiv, Russian forces struck the capital with ballistic missiles, killing a 31-year-old man and wounding two others, the National Police press service said.

More than 56,000 people sheltered in Kyiv’s subway stations overnight, according to the Facebook post from the metro system.

A cruise missile attack struck the western city of Lviv, killing one person and wounding over 30, including children aged 6, 13 and 15, said Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv regional military administration.

In the Poltava region, a drone hit warehouses, killing one person, said regional military head Vitalii Diakivnych.

Closer to the front line, which comes under almost daily attack, Russian forces dropped three glide bombs on an industrial zone in the southern city of Kherson, killing a 56-year-old man, local officials said.

Poland says fragments indicated a Russian cruise missile

A Russian Kh-101 cruise missile crossed into Poland overnight, violating NATO airspace, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X, calling it a clear demonstration that strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses would also guarantee wider European security.

Responding to the missile alert, NATO forces in Poland scrambled two fighter jets, an attack helicopter and two other aircraft, and activated ground defenses, said Col. Michael O’Donnell, the spokesperson for the alliance’s military command in Belgium.

The missile quickly disappeared from radar, the Polish Armed Forces said. A helicopter flew to its last known location, where the crew discovered a probable impact site in a farming area in Lublin province, the command said.

Investigators found fragments indicating that the object was a Kh-101 missile, Polish news agency PAP reported.

Tusk had met with Zelenskyy in Lublin on Wednesday to discuss defense issues.

NATO military commander Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich told Poland’s Defense Chief Gen. Wiesław Kukułan the military alliance “will continue to take all necessary measures to defend NATO territory,” O’Donnell said.

Ukr

aine hits more depots of major Russian online retailer

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 258 Ukrainian drones overnight.

A depot belonging to Wildberries online retailer was set ablaze in Russia's Penza region southeast of Moscow, in the latest strike on the company's warehouses, Penza Gov. Oleg Melnichenko said.

Four people were injured and 200 workers were evacuated, he said, adding that about 100 firefighters were deployed.

Wildberries also reported its warehouse in Sarapul in the Udmurtia region, more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Ukraine, was struck by a Ukrainian drone and set ablaze. It said the workers had been safely evacuated.

The Russian online news outlet Astra reported that another Wildberries depot in the Perm region in the Urals was also set ablaze by a Ukrainian drone strike. Regional authorities reported a Ukrainian drone attack but didn’t give information about the damage.

Thursday’s attacks on Wildberries warehouses brought to 14 the number of the retailer’s depots struck by Ukrainian drones in under two weeks. Ukraine accuses Wildberries of supplying goods that can be used by the Russian military.

Ukrainian drone units destroyed four more vessels belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” of sanctions-busting tankers, bringing the total to 205 since the operation began July 6, Robert Brovdi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, said on his Telegram channel.

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An earlier version of this story had the incorrect name for the spokesperson for NATO’s military command in Belgium. He is Col. Michael O’Donnell, not O'Connell.

AP reporter Stefanie Dazio in Berlin; Rafal Niedzielski in Warsaw, Poland; and Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed.

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

Colin Gray’s sentencing comes days after his son, Colt Gray, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at the school 45 miles (70 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta. Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded guilty to murder and other charges.

Judge Nicholas Primm, who also sentenced Colt Gray, was blunt in addressing the elder Gray: “It is clear you failed as a parent.” But he said punishing crimes of negligence is particularly difficult because there was no intent to commit a crime.

“My heart aches for everyone that was there that day, for all of you that have been impacted by it. But the law requires that I set aside emotion. I don’t get to sentence with passion. I have the nearly impossible task of sentencing you without passion despite the immeasurable heartache that you caused,” Primm said.

Gray, 55, is one of a handful of American parents who have been criminally charged after their children were accused in shootings.

A jury in March found Colin Gray guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of two 14-year-old students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo. Georgia law defines second-degree murder as causing the death of a child by committing the crime of cruelty to children. Gray was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the killings of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53.

Another teacher and eight other students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.

Families speak their pain

Family members of those who died and victims of the shooting, many of whom also spoke during Colt Gray's sentencing, condemned what they said were Colin Gray's failures as a parent and urged the judge to give him the maximum sentence.

“This wasn’t unavoidable. This was preventable. Because of the choices made inside the Gray household, four families were handed life sentences of grief,” said Breanna Schermerhorn, whose son was killed.

“He did not pull the trigger but purchased and left a firearm accessible to a minor," said Shayna Aspinwall, whose husband was killed. She said the sentence must take into account "the families left behind who must carry the grief and trauma for the rest of our lives.”

The judge addressed those in the courtroom after announcing the sentence: “This only closes the legal chapter for this horror. The pain, the heartache, they continue. I understand that. I hope all of you know this community loves you, and I ask that God gives you peace.”

Prosecutors said Colin Gray missed red flags

Prosecutors said Colin Gray gave his son the rifle as a Christmas gift along with ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories.

An investigator testified that Colt Gray carried the semiautomatic rifle onto the school bus with the barrel sticking out and wrapped in poster board. The teenager left his second-period class and went to a bathroom, emerged with the rifle and shot people in the hallway and a classroom, the investigator said.

Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, had shown signs of deteriorating mental health in the weeks leading up to the killings, according to testimony. He belonged to a “true crime community” online where he and other young people discussed their obsession with mass shooters, an investigator testified.

The teen's mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators she had argued with her estranged husband weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict their son's access.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 80 years

Defense attorney Brian Hobbs asked the judge for a sentence of 10 years in prison followed by 10 years on probation. Barrow County District Attorney Brad Smith said Gray deserved a sentence of 80 years in prison.

Hobbs argued that Colt Gray “actively hid the depth of his involvement” in the online community obsessed with mass shooters, and the red flags enumerated by prosecutors were outliers among happier moments.

Smith countered that Colin Gray ignored “a substantial and unjustifiable risk."

“This was the risk that he was ignoring, that there would be a mass shooting of children at a school, and he gave his son the exact tool he would need to accomplish this," Smith said.

Colin Gray is not the first parent to face such charges

Prosecutors have in recent years held parents responsible when they believe they can prove a parent contributed to a killing.

Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first U.S. parents to face such charges after their son, Ethan, killed four students and wounded others at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021. Like Colin Gray, they were unaware of their son’s plans but had gifted him a gun before the shooting. They are serving 10-year prison terms for involuntary manslaughter. Hobbs, the defense attorney, urged the judge to use that sentence as a guide.

The judge called these cases “divisive.” There would have been no crime by the father if the son hadn't brought a gun to school and shot people, he noted. But he said Colin Gray could have locked up the guns, kept ammunition out of the house, had someone else keep the guns and gotten his son counseling.

“You were convicted because the warning lights were flashing brighter and brighter and you didn’t get him help and you didn’t remove his access to the guns,” Primm said.

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This story has been corrected to show the school is called Apalachee High School, not Appalachee.

But it’s not actually as complicated as it sounds, and it’s all related to the broader war between the United States and Iran, currently focused on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran supports armed groups across the Middle East that allow it to project power far beyond its borders. The U.S. has thousands of troops based in allied Arab countries that have been targets of Iran's retaliation.

Here’s a look at why so many fronts seem to be heating up at once.

A struggle over the strait

The epicenter of the latest violence is the Strait of Hormuz, an elbow-shaped passage running between Iran and Oman that carried a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas before the war.

Iran says it controls the waterway and has attacked ships attempting to use an alternative route overseen by the U.S. military along the coast of Oman.

The U.S. has struck Iran in response, saying the strait should be open to all international traffic, as it was before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. When the U.S. strikes Iran, Iran retaliates by firing missiles and drones against Arab countries hosting U.S. forces, like Jordan and Kuwait.

The exchanges of fire in recent weeks led to the collapse of an interim agreement aimed at winding down the war. That has deepened mistrust on both sides. At this point, Iran appears to be more interested in cementing its control over the strait than in making a deal with the U.S. to lift international sanctions.

Yemen's Houthis are wading in

The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, who stayed on the sidelines during the initial phase of the war, have declared a blockade on Saudi Arabia, threatening shipping through another major trade route leading through the Bab el-Mandeb strait and the Red Sea up to Egypt's Suez Canal.

The Houthis also claim to have attacked Saudi oil infrastructure near an East-West pipeline that the kingdom has used to ship millions of barrels of oil since the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed.

The Houthi-Saudi tensions are rooted in a separate but related conflict going back more than a decade that seems to be reigniting. But it also presents a new front on which Iran could pressure a key U.S. ally and potentially choke off more of the world's energy supplies, with effects far beyond the region.

Ambrey, a maritime security firm, has recorded over 10 transits that U-turned in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the Houthi naval blockade against Saudi Arabia was announced. Bab al-Mandeb transits have been down 30% since July 21 compared to June, according to the latest Ambrey data.

The Saudis take aim at Iran-backed groups in Iraq

Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia accused Iran-backed militias in Iraq of launching drone attacks on its oil facilities for two straight days. In response, U.S. and Saudi fighter aircraft bombed militia sites in Iraq, killing at least 20 fighters and six Iranian advisers.

Iraq has close ties to both the U.S. and Iran and has long struggled to balance them. Since the start of the war, it has been in a literal crossfire. The government condemned the U.S.-Saudi strikes, saying they came as it was trying to investigate what had happened.

The Popular Mobilization Forces, a collection of armed groups close to Iran, are officially part of Iraq's security forces but often act autonomously, including by attacking U.S. forces stationed in Iraq.

American forces are due to finish their withdrawal from the country at the end of September, and the Iraqi government has vowed to disarm nonstate actors or incorporate them into the military. But those efforts could stall as the wider war rages.

The remaining U.S. forces are based in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, which is also home to armed Iranian Kurdish dissident groups. Iran has attacked both over the course of the war.

Drone attack on Egypt signals a possible widening of the war

On Wednesday, a drone attack on Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta set two natural gas vessels ablaze, including a U.S.-owned floating storage facility.

No one has claimed the attack, and the Houthis have denied responsibility.

Egypt, a close U.S. ally and regional mediator, is one of the only countries in the Middle East to have avoided military involvement in the war.

Israel is on the sidelines, for now

Israel, which took part in the initial weekslong bombardment of Iran and was repeatedly targeted by Iranian missiles earlier in the conflict, has remained on the sidelines since the interim peace deal.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group fired rockets into northern Israel shortly after the outbreak of the war. Israel responded with aerial bombardment and a ground invasion. It has since occupied, depopulated and destroyed large parts of southern Lebanon, saying such measures are necessary to root out militants.

A June 20 truce has largely held. Israel and Lebanon's government are currently implementing the initial stages of an agreement in which Israeli forces would withdraw and Lebanon's army would move in. The deal also states that Hezbollah must be disarmed. The group has rejected the deal and could violently resist any attempt to forcibly disarm it.

Any attack by Iran, Hezbollah or Israel could reignite those hostilities, reopening yet another front.

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Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario.

“We’re working through some things,” Belichick said before the morning’s first official practice. “We’re at a particular time of year now where there are certain things that are in play and certain things that aren’t in play that won’t happen until later in the calendar year at some other point.

“Again, we’re taking it day to day, and working through the things that are on the table now.”

The school announced Monday that Lombardi had been placed on leave but didn’t provide details as to the reason, noting that employees and athletes aren’t permitted to address the topic “as is standard procedure with personnel matters.” On Thursday morning, about 30 minutes before Belichick spoke to reporters, UNC released another statement that said its Office of University Counsel was conducting an investigation — an announcement coming just shy of a month from kickoff to Year 2 of the Belichick era in Chapel Hill.

Two people with knowledge of the situation said a human resources complaint from a former employee is involved with Lombardi’s leave. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the school isn’t commenting publicly about the specific reasons of the case.

According to university policy, the length of an administrative leave shouldn't exceed 30 days but can vary based on issues under review.

“We're going to let that process play out,” athletic director Steve Newmark said Thursday morning of the investigation while declining to discuss specific details. “It's paramount for us to do what's right to make sure it's a full and fair review, and that we don't do anything to compromise the integrity of the process.”

Speaking later after a regularly scheduled morning meeting of the UNC trustees, chancellor Lee Roberts said Thursday that the school learned of “some concerns” last week.

“If something has gone wrong, we want to know about it,” Roberts said. “If something needs to be fixed, we will be sure to fix it. There’s a standard of excellence here that all of us are entrusted with adhering to.”

Roberts added later: "It’s distressing to me and everyone else in the administration entrusted with leadership at this remarkable university that this is something that we have to have to spend time on.”

Belichick didn’t specify exactly how Lombardi’s duties have been divided among the staff, including referencing “a few adjustments” when asked about his own daily tasks.

At the college level, GMs across sports generally work what amounts to front-office roles dealing with roster construction and negotiations over player compensation, with the heaviest work coming in the offseason. In that sense, the football focus centers now more on the on-field work for a roster Lombardi helped put together ahead of the Aug. 29 opener against TCU in Dublin, Ireland.

UNC hired Belichick in December 2024, hoping the man who led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles could thrive as a first-time college coach.

Belichick immediately hired Lombardi, who was in attendance for Belichick's introductory news conference. Lombardi’s career as an NFL executive had included being the GM of the Cleveland Browns in 2013. And he secured a three-year deal paying him $1.5 million in base salary through the 2027 season, making him the country's highest-paid GM, according to a USA Today salary database.

A few months into Belichick’s tenure, Lombardi said the goal was running a college program in a way similar to the NFL, saying the Tar Heels “consider ourselves the 33rd (NFL) team” because of the staff connections to the pros. That confident statement didn't align with the on-field results, with the Tar Heels having more more double-digit losses (five) than total wins (four) in Belichick's debut season.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The department’s 27 passport agencies nationwide will start offering the special travel documents next month. They previously had only been available at the Washington, D.C., passport office for in-person applicants.

Trump, whose stern portrait is emblazoned on an inside page, is the first living president featured in the travel document.

The passports are the latest instance of Trump having his name and likeness added to buildings, documents and other highly visible tributes. His image is on a gold-finished commemorative coin celebrating the country’s founding that the U.S. Mint has begun producing, and there are efforts to put Trump’s signature on all new U.S. paper currency, also a first for a sitting president.

“In response to overwhelming demand, the Department of State is making an additional 250,000 of the special commemorative passports available to the public,” it said in a statement. “Americans all across the country will now have the opportunity to apply for one of these additional special passports, known as the ‘Patriot Passport.’”

Passport offices in Centennial, Colorado; Chicago; Dallas; Detroit; New Orleans; New York; and Stamford, Connecticut, will offer the Trump passports at one-day special events starting Aug. 8. The list will grow to include other passport offices throughout August.

Those who want the special passport must apply in-person on the day specified on the department’s passport website. Those wanting a traditional passport must apply on different days.

The commemorative passport features Trump’s picture over a gold imprimatur of his signature to an interior page, while the cover carries the words “United States of America” in bold gold print at the top and “Passport” at the bottom — a reversal of the current standard cover.

In addition, a small gold laminate American flag, with the number 250 encircled by stars, is at the bottom of the back cover.

The only presidents featured in current U.S. passports are in a double-page depiction of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Other depictions include the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and scenes of the Great Plains, mountains and islands. Current passports also contain quotations from Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower.

The addition of Trump’s picture and signature to the passport book is the newest step his aides have taken to increase the president’s visibility, including adding his name to the U.S. Institute of Peace building and the Kennedy Center performing arts venue, although that signage was later removed on a court order.

Trump also has made waves with his plans for a new White House ballroom and a massive arch to be built at one of the entrances to Washington from Virginia.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate rose to 6.66% from 6.58% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.72%.

Higher mortgage rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting homebuyers’ purchasing power. As rates rise, that can lead prospective home shoppers to delay buying a home, one reason U.S. home sales have been sluggish this year.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, also rose this week. That average rate increased to 6.04% from 5.96% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.85%, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

Rates have been mostly rising this year as the Iran war has driven crude oil prices sharply higher, fueling expectations of hotter inflation. That’s pushed up long-term bond yields relative to where they were before the conflict began in late February, causing mortgage rates to trend higher.

The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.66% at midday Thursday on the bond market. It was just 3.97% in late February, before the war broke out.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage is now the highest it’s been since July 31, 2025, when it was at 6.72%. As recently as late February, the average rate dropped slightly below 6% for the first time since late 2022.

The latest increase in mortgage rates comes a day after the Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged as it wrestles with how to tame stubbornly high inflation, which has been stuck above the central bank's 2% target for more than five years.

During the central bank's two-day monetary policy meeting this week, three regional Fed bank presidents dissented in favor of higher rates to combat high prices.

That's a signal that Fed members are no longer in lockstep on inflation and that their next move is not going to be a rate cut, said Anthony Smith, senior economist at Realtor.com.

“With the Fed signaling that its next move is more likely a hike than a cut, near-term rate relief looks unlikely,” Smith said. “Because oil remains the primary channel through which the Iran conflict feeds inflation, a de-escalation and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remains the clearest path back toward lower rates.”

The central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, but its decisions to raise or lower its short-term rate are watched closely by bond investors and can ultimately affect the yield on 10-year Treasurys.

While average long-term mortgage rates remain lower than they were at this time last year, their upward trajectory has weighed on home sales this year. Seasonally adjusted sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were up 0.7% from January to June compared with the same period last year, but they’re still hovering close to a 4-million annual pace far short of the historic norm that is closer to 5.2-million.

The trend has extended the national housing market slump that began in 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes were essentially flat last year, stuck at a 30-year low.

The latest data on mortgage applications show that the upward trend in mortgage rates has given some would-be homebuyers reason to pause.

Mortgage applications, which include loans to buy a home or refinance an existing mortgage, fell 6.4% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

"While incoming economic data will continue to shape the outlook for interest rates, elevated borrowing costs remain a challenge this summer for many prospective homebuyers,” said MBA CEO Bob Broeksmit.

The offer applies to any of the restaurant’s more than 30 cheesecake flavors, but there are a few rules. It’s dine-in only, limited to one slice per guest, and each guest must be present to redeem the discount.

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The Cheesecake Factory 🍰 (@cheesecakefactory) • Instagram photos and videos

New flavor debut: Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot Cheesecake

National Cheesecake Day also brings a brand-new menu addition: Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot Cheesecake.

The limited-time debut features creamy milk and white chocolate marbled cheesecake served on top of a rich, crunchy toffee brownie, according to the company.

“The Cheesecake Factory is very pleased to commemorate National Cheesecake Day with the introduction of our Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot Cheesecake,” said David Overton, Founder and CEO of The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated. “Every year, our Bakery team works to create a very special cheesecake for National Cheesecake Day, and I think they’ve outdone themselves with this year’s flavor.”

Giving back: Supporting Feeding America

The new cheesecake is also tied to a cause.

For every slice of Brownie Crunch Choc-a-Lot Cheesecake sold through July 29, 2027, The Cheesecake Factory said it will donate 25 cents to Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization, which works through a network of food banks.

The company said it has donated more than $7 million to Feeding America since 2008 through the sale of specially designated cheesecakes.

In the studio: A dessert-inspired, at-home recipe

To help celebrate the day, The Cheesecake Factory stopped by our studio with a cooking demonstration featuring a simplified, at-home dessert inspired by one of its indulgent menu creations: a Heath Bar Brownie Cheesecake Sundae. You can watch the full demonstration in the player above.

The idea: take familiar, easy-to-find ingredients and build a layered sundae that nods to the chain’s signature rich flavors — brownie, cheesecake-style creaminess and crunchy candy topping — without requiring professional baking skills.

You make your own Heath Bar Brownie Cheesecake Sundae by following the recipe below.

Heath Bar Brownie Cheesecake Sundaes

Ingredients

Heath Bar Toffee Streusel

• 1-1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup packed Light Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, melted & cooled
• 1/2 cup Heath Bar Toffee pieces

Fudge Brownie

• 4 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate, chopped
• 4 oz. Unsalted Butter
• 1-1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 2 ea. Eggs, Large
• 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 2 oz. Milk Chocolate Chips
• 2 oz. Heath Bar Toffee pieces

Heath Bar Brownie Cheesecake Sundaes

• Brownies topped with Heath Bar Streusel (see recipe above)
• Deeply Chilled Cheesecake Slices (we recommend Original)
• Chocolate Sauce Caramel
• Whipped Cream
• Maraschino Cherries
• Heath Bar Bits/ Brickle

Directions

Heath Bar Toffee Streusel

1. In a medium bowl, combine the Flour, Sugars, and Salt.
2. Pour in the melted, cooled Butter and stir with a fork until large clumps form and no dry flour remains.
3. Stir in Toffee pieces. 

Fudge Brownie

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare 8x8 baking pan.
3. Melt Chocolate and Butter in microwave until smooth, stirring often.
4. Remove from microwave, stir in Sugar, Vanilla and Salt.
5. Add Eggs one at a time, stirring thoroughly.
6. Stir in Flour and beat with spoon or rubber spatula for a minute or two until smooth and glossy.
7. Stir in Chocolate Chips and Toffee pieces.
8. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth to even it.
9. Sprinkle the prepared Streusel evenly over the top of the brownie.
10. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with some thick gooey batter clinging to it.
11. Allow to cool to room temperature before cutting.

Heath Bar Brownie Cheesecake Sundaes

1. Cut Brownies into rectangles and then into triangles.
2. Using an ice cream scoop, portion a deeply chilled slice of Cheesecake into two scoops. Place the smaller scoop in the bottom of a glass sundae dish.
3. Place two Brownies triangles in glass sundae dish on either side of the scoop of cheesecake with the Heath Bar Streusel facing out.
4. Place the remaining scoop of Cheesecake on top of the first scoop.
5. Top Cheesecake with chocolate sauce and caramel.
6. Garnish with whipped cream, cherry, & Heath Bar Bits - and enjoy!

News 6’s Amy Russo toured the pavilion, which Orlando Health says will bring 19 pediatric clinics under one roof.

Katie Murillo said her son, Myles, was born premature at Arnold Palmer Hospital and spent 54 days in the hospital. When he came home, she said, the family faced a long list of follow-up appointments.

“Our son Myles was born premature at Arnold Palmer — he was 1 pound, 13 ounces. He spent 54 days in the hospital… and when he came home, he came home with a list of doctors — up to 20 specialists at one time,” Murillo said.

For families like hers, the challenge was not only the medical worry, but also the logistics — scheduling and traveling from one appointment to the next across downtown Orlando.

Justin Williams, president of Orlando Health Children’s Arnold Palmer Hospital, said the new pavilion is designed to reduce that burden.

“The burden of coordinating care has fallen on our families for far too long… bringing everyone together allows us to own that burden and streamline things,” Williams said.

Inside, the pavilion is designed with kid-friendly features, including Florida wildlife-themed floors, more than 200 exam rooms, triage areas and a teaching kitchen focused on helping families build healthier routines at home, Orlando Health said.

Outside, leaders highlighted an 800-space parking garage with valet service, located steps from the entrance.

“You mention convenience… it’s beyond convenience — these things are a necessity,” said Zach Kallenbach, president of the Orlando Health Children’s Foundation.

Orlando Health expects more than 175,000 children to be seen at the children’s pavilion in the next year, including families like Myles’.

“Orlando Health Children’s Pavilion means families like ours won’t have to choose between a paycheck and a doctor’s appointment,” Alan Murillo said.

Hiya, friends. It’s Haley.

Brett Kieslich has spent 22 years as part of SeaWorld’s animal care team — more than half of it alongside sharks. During my behind-the-scenes visit, he told me about how sharks are the ocean’s most vital cleanup crew, keeping marine ecosystems healthy and balanced.

Inside the park’s massive 700,000-gallon tank, Kieslich introduced me to Dutch and Dillon, SeaWorld Orlando’s resident hammerhead sharks. The dynamic duo requires some extra attention and dedicated feeding time.

An unexpected encounter was spotting a vintage warning sign backstage that shark fans will immediately recognize from “Jaws 3″ which was filmed at SeaWorld. The grammar enthusiast in me can’t unsee the typo in the text.

Click here to see my video recap of the encounter as well as more shark highlights at the theme park.

Discovery Cove

Shark snorkel 🥽

Across the street from SeaWorld at Discovery Cove, there’s a one-of-a-kind shark experience.

The News 6 Daytrippers checked out the Shark Interaction Program, where participants wade into a shallow-water habitat alongside more than 20 sharks for a trainer-led experience focused on marine education and conservation.

I dove into the habitat two years ago. This one is an easy must-do for any shark fan.

Walt Disney World

Turtle power 🐢

Sea turtle season is here, and Disney is bringing the “shell”-ebration to Vero Beach.

Tour de Turtles — an annual conservation “migration marathon” hosted by Sea Turtle Conservancy — is back, with scientists safely attaching satellite trackers to nesting sea turtles before sending them off into the Atlantic so you can follow their journey online.

Disney has been part of this event for years. In fact, two years ago, their sponsored turtle, Ebb, became the first Disney turtle ever to take the gold.

The News 6 Insiders spotlighted Tour de Turtles this week. Click here to watch the interview.

MLP 🥒

Pickleball has gotten so popular, it now has its own major league — and this weekend, the pros are bringing the action to Disney World for one of the season’s biggest tournaments.

Hear from the Orlando Squeeze, the host team bringing pro pickleball to Disney.

The woods await 🎭

With Broadway roots and a Disney Legend title to her name, Jodi Benson knows a thing or two about bringing iconic characters to life.

The voice of Ariel will star as the Witch in Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” this weekend at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando — watch her interview by clicking here and get ticket information.

Universal Orlando

All aboard (ay, ay, ay) 🦇

The Halloween Horror Nights haunted house lineup is complete, and the Prince of Darkness himself is the final addition.

Universal Orlando is sending fans on a 45-year journey through Ozzy Osbourne’s legendary solo career — Crazy Train and all.

Passholder perks return 🌍

Universal Orlando Resort’s Passholder Appreciation Days is back with weeks of exclusive discounts, freebies and special experiences for Annual and Seasonal Passholders.

Click here to see everything Universal Orlando has in store for passholders this summer.

That’s a wrap for July! Fall events are just around the corner.

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

See you next week!

- Haley

Released on Thursday, the annual “State of Black America” report grimly describes Black Americans ' economic and political prospects as having worsened due to policy changes from President Donald Trump's administration, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.

The report contends that the challenges it highlights for Black communities are warning signs for the prosperity of all Americans.

“It may be the focus is us, but the impact is not just us,” said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. “While they have targeted and focused on Black Americans, these attacks are going to impact broadly working Americans, poor Americans, aspirational middle-class Americans, and this is what this report points to.”

Tracing the arc of American history, the Urban League describes Black Americans' struggle for emancipation from slavery and equal economic and political rights as a gruesome but optimistic part of the American story.

Now, the report says, the Trump administration is at odds with the goals and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement, citing the overhaul of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as the president’s focus on overhauling voting laws through the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, as examples of rollbacks of long-sought civil rights policies.

The report's authors offer policy and strategy recommendations for civil rights groups aiming to combat the Trump administration.

“The civil rights community must consolidate its legal resistance and turn courtroom wins into durable policy,” the report says. “The movement must build economic infrastructure that doesn’t depend on the goodwill of any one administration.”

Reached for comment on Thursday, White House spokesperson Allison Schuster said Trump was elected with a mandate to change the very policies that the Urban League contends are eroding real opportunity for Black Americans.

“(Diversity, equity and inclusion) ran rampant during the Biden administration, and Americans ultimately paid the price for these destructive policies with a restricted labor pool, higher operational costs, and workforce inefficiencies," Schuster said. "The Trump administration will always promote equal treatment under the law for every American.”

Report contributors include a potential Democratic presidential contender

This year’s report includes contributions from members of Congress, and policy and legal experts, as well as some media personalities.

U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Raphael Warnock all contributed to the report, as well as Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey contributed a video message to the report.

Moore, who is widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, submitted an essay focused on closing the racial wealth gap and Black Americans' history of economic advancement in the face of adversity.

“With wisdom and grit, my mom was able to lift me and my family to a higher rung on the economic ladder. But too often wisdom and grit aren't enough,” Moore wrote.

He later called closing the racial wealth gap “a matter of moral clarity” but cautioned that “government alone cannot close the racial wealth gap. It's going to take all of us,” referencing the private sector and civil society.

Report blasts 'economic assault' on Black Americans

Whether corporate America and major nonprofits are still willing to participate is an open question. The report condemns the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back diversity initiatives and economic advancement projects in the private sector, and expresses frustration with companies that cooperated with an “economic assault” on Americans, especially Black Americans.

“This has been a campaign of coercion and oppression directed at these institutions who have been out here working hard to, if you will, change America,” Morial said. “The important thing about companies is that every company has not bent the knee. Some may have done some cosmetic changes. Some have been in full and complete retreat.”

The DEI rollbacks are a jarring reversal for the Urban League, which held sway in the Biden White House on economic and social policies. The report lauds President Joe Biden's administration for signing a sweeping COVID-19 stimulus package, as well as laws supporting minority small businesses and a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“Not every promise was kept, and the current administration is pushing to roll our wins back, but these wins serve as a blueprint for what is possible through sustained advocacy and a clear vision,” the authors write. The agenda, the Urban League declares, was “the most consequential federal investments in Black America since the Great Society.”

The organization and its civil rights allies now find themselves in a strikingly different political environment under the Trump administration.

“Looking at our current political landscape, the calls for racial healing and righting of this nation’s wrongs in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd feel like a fever dream,” the report reads.

But the study also acknowledges that Black Americans have overcome more dire and discriminatory moments.

Latest Black America report is the Urban League's 50th edition

The Urban League's inaugural 1976 report on the state of Black America was described by the New York Times at the time as “a profoundly depressing document” that laid out the persistent disparities between the economic outlooks of Black and white Americans, a decade after the Civil Rights Movement's crowning achievements were signed into law.

The report was established as a response to that year's State of the Union address by President Gerald R. Ford and the Democratic response, neither of which mentioned the economic outlooks for Black Americans. The report offered policy recommendations on crime, education, housing, social services and general economic policy.

“It is a document that does not attempt to cover up the seriousness of the situation black people find themselves in,” the authors wrote at the time. Several of its recommendations were later taken up by President Jimmy Carter, who was elected to the White House months after the report’s release.

This year's 50th anniversary document echoes the frustration found in the inaugural report. While Morial acknowledged that the Urban League's assessments may lead to pessimism, he urged Americans concerned about civil rights and economic progress to respond at the ballot box and with their pocketbooks.

“We cannot be dejected. We cannot be cynical. We must act,” Morial said. “We have to fight to make sure that those that are really trying to kill the essence of the American dream don’t win.”

The Danube River, which runs through 10 countries from southwestern Germany to the Black Sea, has receded to never-before-seen lows along much of its course, exposing rocks, sand bars and old shipwrecks that have rarely been seen before.

In Budapest, Hungary's capital, the national water authority measured the Danube's water level at 23 centimeters (9 inches) on Wednesday morning, well below the previous all-time low of 33 centimeters (13 inches) set in 2018.

The river is expected to further ebb in the coming days with no significant rain in the forecast and temperatures expected to rise to over 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) across the region.

Drought upends boat traffic

As Danube levels sank to a new low on Tuesday, photographer Gábor Kertész went to the base of Budapest’s Margaret Bridge — typically underwater but now an exposed shoal — to document the sight.

“The bare rocks, the dry sand bars around the bridge pillars ... it’s all shocking to see how things were before and how they are now,” he said. “Where will this lead, what will happen? We don’t know that yet, but this must be the result of climate change.”

Much of Central Europe has been under a prolonged drought for most of the year, and successive heat waves have accelerated evaporation and caused waterways to dry out.

According to the Hungarian Meteorological Service, 90-day precipitation totals are between 80-130 millimeters (3.1-5.1 inches) lower across nearly the entire country compared to multi-year averages.

The low water level has forced popular cruise ships, where passengers usually disembark for sightseeing in Budapest, to dock far upriver, while cargo ships have stopped operating nearly entirely, according to Hungary’s Ministry of Transport and Investment.

In Bulgaria, where the Danube forms a border with Romania, police on Tuesday evacuated 186 tourists from a cruise ship that had run aground near the port city of Vidin.

Passengers of the Viking Ullur ran out of food and water after the vessel, which had been scheduled to take on supplies in Vidin, was unable to reach the port after running into a shallow shoal, according to Bulgaria’s state news agency BTA. The ship's 52 crew members could have to remain onboard for an extended period depending on navigation conditions and refloating options, police said.

In Serbia, hundreds of small boats and dozens of cargo ships were marooned on the dried out river bank near the northern city of Novi Sad.

One house boat owner, Radovan Segrt, who runs river excursions on his vessel, told The Associated Press that the water in the Danube had withdrawn “some 15 to 20 meters (50 to 65 feet) from it's shore.”

“The summer season is over now, as far as boat riding is concerned,” he said.

Low water levels force nuclear plant shut downs

The receding waters are also affecting nuclear energy production in numerous countries where water from the Danube is typically used to cool reactors.

In Romania, where Danube water flow had fallen to 1,630 cubic meters per second, around a third of a typical July average, authorities shut down a reactor unit at the Cernavoda power plant on Tuesday for safety reasons and announced another would be shut down soon after.

Similarly, Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant, which supplies nearly half of the country's electricity, began powering down a reactor on Wednesday due to restricted cooling-water supplies. That came after two successive reductions in power output in two reactors over the previous two days.

Drought exposes treasures and dangers

The exposed river bed can also pose dangers. Last week, authorities in Budapest closed the Margaret Bridge after a bomb dating from World War II was exposed at its base by the receding water levels.

Treasure hunter Zsolt Horváth was using the extreme conditions to fish metal objects from the exposed bank with a powerful magnet on Tuesday. He said he got a lot of pleasure from finding things like an old radio amplifier or bullet casings from the World Wars.

Horváth said that while "having so little water in the Danube is a blessing for this kind of activity, otherwise, it’s a curse.”

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Associated Press writers Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, Béla Szandelszky in Budapest, Hungary and Radul Radovanovic in Novi Sad, Serbia contributed.

Didier Gaspard Owen Maximilien, 19, admitted to licking the straw and returning it to the vending machine while recording the act for his online followers. It happened at a shopping mall in March and he was charged in April after his video spread rapidly.

Another charge of mischief was taken into consideration during sentencing. The court imposed the fine and did not order any community-based sentence after considering mitigating factors.

The public nuisance charge carries a penalty of up to three months in prison. Prosecutors sought only the maximum fine of 2,000 Singapore dollars ($1,551), saying the staged act was intended for social media and risked undermining confidence in the hygiene of a commonly used vending machine.

They noted Maximilien retrieved the straw himself, no member of the public used it, there was no evidence of harm, he was young and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Maximilien studies in a business school in Singapore, but prosecutors told the court he would also be in France from September to December as part of his studies.

Prosecutors said immigration authorities will decide if Maximilien can keep his student pass in Singapore after considering all relevant factors.

Defense counsel Kalidass Murugayan said the student has been living in Singapore without family support and expressed deep remorse for his actions. He said the video was a stunt for social media followers and that Maximilien later removed the contaminated straw from the machine to use for his own drink, meaning it was never intended for anyone else.

“He is truly sorry for having caused all this trouble,” the lawyer said. His parents will ensure that he paid the fine himself, the counsel added. The student left the court without speaking to reporters.

IJooz, the company operating the juice vending machine, filed a police report over the stunt and sanitized the dispenser while replacing all 500 straws in the machine. It has said it would upgrade its machines to include measures such as individually packaged straws and compartments that unlock only after the transaction is completed.

Singapore, a densely populated city-state, tightly regulates public behavior and cleanliness and has strong penalties for littering and vandalism.

The woman's attorney, Matthew Farley, urged the chief judge of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court to dismiss the case against Nazira Haji Zada and immediately release his client, who the government alleges is an Islamic State supporter. Judge Joan Ericksen denied Farley’s requests but said Zada's lawyers can renew them as the case proceeds in the nation's capital.

“This entire scheme is in violation of due process and unconstitutional,” said Farley, an assistant federal public defender.

The case against Zada opens a new, untested front for President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign, which has flooded the nation’s federal court system with immigration proceedings, sometimes based on novel or shaky legal foundations.

The court, established in 1996, had never received a petition until this month, when the Justice Department filed an application seeking Zada's removal. The court has a specific authority to conduct deportation proceedings for individuals whom the Department of Justice classifies as “alien terrorists.”

FBI agents arrested her Tuesday at her Fort Worth, Texas, home. She is not charged with any crimes.

“This is a runaround for bringing a criminal case,” Farley said during the court's first-ever public hearing.

Ericksen, a senior judge who sits in Minnesota and was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, acknowledged that the court was operating without a clear blueprint.

“We probably read the same law review articles. There aren't that many,” the judge told Farley.

An FBI memo dated July 15 said it “developed information” that Zada is an IS supporter who had her children pledge their loyalty to the terrorist group. The memo says she “supported” a plot by relatives to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack in the United States.

Zada is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. Court filings identify her as the mother and mother-in-law of two Afghan men who were convicted in Oklahoma for their roles in the 2024 Election Day plot. Her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, was sentenced in November to 15 years in prison and court records show he previously agreed to be removed from the U.S. after his release.

Her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, previously worked as a security guard for an American military installation in Afghanistan. He pleaded guilty to conspiring and attempting to provide material support to IS. Prosecutors have said he took steps to advance his attack plans by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan.

Zada was led into the courtroom by U.S. Marshals Service deputies. Interpreters translated the proceedings for Zada, who answered the judge's questions with head nods instead of words. The judge cautioned that the court was still in the process of building up its “infrastructure.”

“This is not a criminal matter,” the judge told her. “This is a civil matter that arises under the immigration code.”

Justice Department attorney Hayden O'Byrne read aloud a brief summary of the case but noted that the FBI's investigation of Zada involves classified information that cannot be made public. The judge assured Zada that the federal courts routinely handle cases involving classified information, even though her case is the first of its kind.

Eriksen one of five federal judges from different districts across the country who are appointed to the court by the chief justice of the United States.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that Congress created the court to deport “alien terrorists who never should have been here in the first place.”

“The allegations in this case show the matriarch of an ISIS-sympathizing family aiding in a plot to launch a mass casualty attack on American voters on Election Day. The Department’s application in this court makes clear that terrorists have no place in the United States of America,” Blanche added.

Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases in human history before it was eradicated in 1980, largely thanks to vaccination. For centuries, the virus had killed about one-third of the people it infected and left most survivors with deep and sometimes disfiguring scars.

Outbreaks struck Asia and Europe and eventually spread to the Americas, where colonial writings, administrative records and missionary reports documented how it killed millions and devastated Indigenous populations who had never been exposed to the virus.

Now there's scientific evidence for the spread: An analysis of Chilean mummies provides the strongest genetic link yet to the virus as it existed outside of the Americas, and provides a better picture of how it reached remote populations through colonization, said geneticist Shigeki Nakagome with Trinity College Dublin.

In the new study, Nakagome and colleagues examined 13 bone samples previously collected from an archaeological site at Camarones, in northern Chile.

Researchers found evidence of two smallpox infections in ancient DNA from the leg bone fragments of an adult man and woman.

From dating the remains and peeking at the genes, scientists concluded the two likely died between 1492 and 1631. Scientists also compared the genes in this version of smallpox to other versions and fit it neatly between European strains from medieval times and later versions. This was important molecular evidence, suggesting that the strains of smallpox infecting people in the Americas evolved first from Europe.

“Nobody would ever question that smallpox came to this hemisphere from colonization, but this proves it,” said Patricia Foster, a biologist at Indiana University. She had no role in the new research, which was published Thursday in the journal Science.

Exactly which population brought smallpox to the Americas from the Old World remains unclear, said the study authors. European settlers came in different waves to the Americas following the explorations of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean in 1492 and Amerigo Vespucci along the South American coast about a decade later. The disease also could have passed through Africa as part of the introduction and expansion of the slave trade.

These smallpox infections in South America were identified in an area with no previous record of the disease, opening new questions about how the virus got so far south — possibly spreading along Indigenous trading networks that had long pre-existed the arrival of Europeans.

Studying various strains of the virus also allowed scientists to pinpoint how it evolved over time, turning off certain genes to become more effective at its deadly mission.

In addition to confirming the history of smallpox, the research also shines a light on the human cost. The two sick individuals studied were between 18 and 35 years old, and the disease is likely what killed them.

The findings point to how devastating the disease was across the Americas, wiping out entire populations and leaving them vulnerable to European conquest, said study coauthor Constanza de la Fuente Castro, a biological anthropologist at the University of Chile.

“It wasn't just cultural or demographic. It's literally written into biological evidence that we can still recover and read today,” de la Fuente Castro said.

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

“He ran into that water despite those conditions that are deadly. You have 10 foot waves; you have riptides and currents coming in,” Sumit Rai told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “It is not safe for him to go into that water. So he’s risking his own safety.”

Rai’s son Nathaniel was standing in shallow water when he lost his footing and was pulled into the ocean Saturday by powerful swells that suddenly came ashore at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz, about 60 miles (about 100 kilometers) down the coast from San Francisco. Rai, who was in his home city of Dallas, said he heard about what happened when he spoke to his kids on the phone that evening.

“My son told me that he drowned and my son told me that he went unconscious,” he said. “He was very subdued, still in a state of shock.”

By the next morning, Rai had watched the video of the rescue that has since caught the attention of President Donald Trump.

Ryder Williams, 16, the lifeguard who saved Nathaniel, said he saw the boy lose his footing in ankle-deep water. He radioed in and then raced toward Nathaniel.

“After the first wave, I was unable to pull him out because he was limp and the waves were pushing so hard,” he said in a statement.

California State Parks, which employs the lifeguards at that beach, said the boy was swept about 15 yards (13.7 meters) into the ocean before the lifeguard made contact with him.

In the video, Williams can be seen diving into a coming wave while holding tight to the boy.

Another lifeguard jumped in to help, along with some bystanders, who Williams said he warned to go back to the shore.

“I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to return the child to his family safely,” he said. “This is my job and I love what I do. I’m thankful to my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day.”

The boy had no serious injuries, and after an medical evaluation he was released to his family, the California State Parks said in an emailed statement.

Rai said his son told him that he got sand in his lungs and was coughing it out after getting to the shore. Now his son, who is expected back from California in a few days, is dealing with the psychological effects of what happened.

“He’s still been thinking about it a lot. It’s on his mind,” he said. “It bothers him when he’s sleeping. So it’s obviously traumatizing.”

Rai has reached out to Williams and said he hopes to be able to thank him directly.

“What he did, I can never ever repay," he said. "I'm forever grateful.”

The players won't be punished for the bet, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

The league posted the initial video from All-Star Weekend, days before Bueckers’ Dallas Wings and Reese’s Atlanta Dream were set to play Wednesday night. The clip featured Bueckers and Reese placing what appeared to be a personal wager on the game. It was presented with the caption, “We did?” with a laughing emoji followed by, “Paige Bueckers on the bet she made with Angel Reese at All-Star Weekend on tonight’s matchup.”

The WNBA moved quickly to delete the message, but not before it was shared on social media.

“While the social media post was intended to be lighthearted, WNBA players are well aware of the league’s policies prohibiting betting on WNBA games and receive training every year reinforcing those policies,” a league spokesperson said Thursday. “We recognized that the post missed the mark, removed it shortly after it was published, and addressed the matter internally.

“We will also use this as an opportunity to reemphasize with the players involved that conversations about wagering on WNBA games, even when intended as a joke, can have negative consequences.”

The Wings and the Dream both deferred to the league statement when asked for comment.

The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that any kind of wagering is strictly prohibited and that players can be fined, suspended or even disqualified from the WNBA at the sole discretion of the commissioner.

The Dream rallied from a 15-point deficit to beat the Wings 82-81 on Wednesday, with Reese notching 22 points and 12 rebounds and Bueckers finishing with 16 points and six assists.

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

The emergency appeal comes after a lower court reinstated the damages in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that followed more than two decades of litigation.

The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority said in court documents that paying the hefty judgment now would “destabilize critical government services Petitioners provide in the West Bank, injure innocent citizens, and jeopardize regional security.”

They asked the justices to pause payment as they appeal the reinstatement of the verdict.

The lawsuit was filed by victims of attacks in Jerusalem in the early 2000s that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more. Families brought their lawsuit under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law aimed at opening U.S. courts to victims of international terror attacks.

A federal court in New York tossed the original verdict on appeal and continued to rule in favor of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority as Congress revised the law to allow suits to go forward. In 2025, the Supreme Court sided with the families and revived the lawsuits.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to reinstate the verdict in March. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said at the time that the families were pleased and relieved by the decision, saying it would allow “justice to be done.”

They declined to comment on Thursday's petition.

The suspension came a day after the team apologized for an exchange that took place between one of its co-owners and two fans during the team’s 105-95 loss Tuesday night to the Indiana Fever. The Storm didn’t elaborate on the nature of the incident and didn’t say which Storm co-owner was involved.

But on Thursday the team said it respects the league’s decision to fine and suspend Keaton.

“We remain committed to creating a welcoming and respectful environment for anyone who attends a Storm game,” the team said.

The incident occurred Tuesday night during an evening that began with a demonstration outside Climate Pledge Arena. The team didn't say if the exchange was related to the protest.

Ahead of the game, a crowd of a few dozen gathered to both support Fever guard Sophie Cunningham and to promote a statewide ballot initiative, IL26-638, that would bar transgender students from participating in girls’ athletics at Washington schools.

Some members of the group carried signs in support of Cunningham or wore T-shirts depicting the XX and XY chromosomes. Some of them were also inside the arena during the game.

Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports in an ESPN article published last week. Cunningham was booed by Storm fans when she checked into Tuesday’s game, as well as when attempting her first free throws of the night.

Cunningham was not made available to answer postgame questions.

Kelsey Mitchell and Monique Billings addressed the media instead, alongside head coach Stephanie White.

When White was asked about the rally and Cunningham’s recent comments, a Fever public relations representative intervened with the following statement:

“Neither our organization nor Sophie had any knowledge of this demonstration and no contact with its organizers,” the statement said. “Our only goal as a team, whether at home or away, is to win basketball games and make Fever fans for life, and we are united in that mission.”

Storm head coach Sonia Raman also briefly addressed a question about the pregame protest following her team’s seventh consecutive loss.

“Seattle and this organization and Climate Pledge, we always want to be an area where people feel welcome coming into this building,” Raman said. “I think we’ve always done a really good job with that. So, I know our organization was working closely with Climate Pledge and the security just to make sure that everybody feels safe and included and welcome when they walk in this door.

“From what I understand, that was successful.”

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

Europe is sweltering under an exceptionally hot and arid summer, creating tinderbox conditions for unprecedented fires that have flared from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean and forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate homes and vacation spots.

Firefighters battled flames in the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Greece and Turkey on Thursday and were tamping down smoldering forests in southwest France where 224,000 people had been forced to flee. Romania shut down both reactors at its Cernavoda nuclear power plant due to low water levels in the Danube River used to cool them.

Hollywood star George Clooney wrote to his local mayor that his family evacuated the southeastern French town where they've settled and that “we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment.” Clooney's publicist Guido Gotz shared the message to Brignoles Mayor Didier Brémond with The Associated Press.

Clooney wrote that he and his wife Amal, a human rights lawyer, were committed to the town and that, whatever happens, “we’ll be part of making it whole.”

The fire near Brignoles, in the Var region, flared Wednesday, forcing 700 people to evacuate, the mayor's office said. It said they were allowed back Thursday once the fire was tamed.

Returnees in France clear away ash

In the Bordeaux region of southwest France, wildfire evacuees streamed back to nine localities that authorities now deem safe after round-the-clock combat with the huge fire that ignited last week. Returnees included 50-year-old Sanachit Pho Ne Keo and his wife, relieved to discover that apart from black ash on an outside terrace, their home in Martignas-sur-Jalle wasn't damaged.

“Everything seems OK and it’s a good feeling!” he said.

“The fire was pretty close, the last smoking embers are still close,” he added. “But we could’ve expected worse.”

Regional health authorities recommended that returnees wear gloves and face masks as they clean up and wash children’s toys and pets’ feeding bowls and paws. France’s public health agency reported that call-out doctors and hospital emergency wards in Bordeaux had seen a spike in cases involving asthma sufferers last weekend when the raging wildfire was still spewing choking smoke clouds.

“It's the first somewhat optimistic day,” said Sophie Brocas, prefect of Bordeaux's Gironde region who gave the go-ahead for nearly two-thirds of the 224,000 evacuees to go home, including 60,000 allowed back to three Bordeaux suburbs on Tuesday.

Still, returnees were told to keep phones on and pack bags in case they have to be evacuated again.

The A63 highway south of Bordeaux also was reopened, clearing a major artery for road traffic with Spain and vacationers as France enters its peak August holiday period.

“Our feeling is that we’re getting back to the path of a normal life,” Brocas said Thursday evening.

Fire still smoking but not spreading

Gironde authorities said the blaze is no longer growing beyond the 420 square kilometers (about 162 square miles) already affected — an area four times that of Paris.

Capitalizing on the shift of momentum, police water cannons usually used for riot control are being added to the effort to extinguish embers and flare-ups, involving 3,300 firefighters and two dozen planes and helicopters dumping water and retardants, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.

More aid came from other countries, with Luxembourg, Slovakia, Latvia, Germany and Serbia sending fire crews, adding to aircraft and other assistance provided by other countries, and Ukraine also offering help, Nuñez said.

Crews using heavy diggers continued ripping up trees and bushes to carve barriers of land between woodlands that burned and those that didn't, boxing in the blaze with firebreaks — now exceeding a total of 130 kilometers (80 miles) through the forests.

Emergency crews also set fires deliberately to burn away scrub that could fuel the wildfire.

“If we light a fire here, we know that our fire will move toward the incoming fire. So we’re not taking much of a risk,” said Lt. Col. Jérôme Jallet, overseeing a burn.

A heat wave — France's fourth of the year — gave way Thursday to cooler weather, higher humidity and even a little rain, helping the effort.

Tinderbox conditions across southern Europe

Successive heatwaves have created tinder-dry conditions across swaths of southern Europe and whack-a-mole emergencies for fire crews, with blazes flaring as others are extinguished.

Greece was tackling large fires on the islands of Crete, Paros and Andros, a day after three firefighters died.

In Spain, firefighters fought blazes in northwestern Zamora and eastern Castellón, after making progress against infernos in the Madrid region and Ávila that prompted the government to declare a national fire emergency for the first time.

At the peak of evacuations, a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain.

In France, two firefighters suffered light injuries battling a woodlands blaze in the eastern Burgundy region and four were injured in the southern Var region on a fire brought under control with a dozen planes and helicopters dropping water and retardant, authorities said.

In Germany, firefighters using drones and helicopters battled an Alpine forest fire near the Austrian border, the dpa news agency reported.

On a heath of birch trees, heather and wildlife in Suffolk, east England, wind-whipped flames burned across an area the size of 140 soccer pitches and forced hundreds of people to evacuate homes, vacation cottages and a mobile home park, fire services said. New U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham called it “a very serious incident.” The southern half of the U.K. is suffering drought.

In Turkey, firefighters and aircraft battled forest fires in four western provinces, including tourist areas Mugla and Antalya.

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Turnbull reported from Martignas-sur-Jalle, France, and Leicester reported from Paris. Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Jill Lawless and Samuel Petrequin in London, Suman Naishadham in Madrid, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Stefanie Dazio in Berlin, Andrew Wilks in Ankara, Turkey, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England contributed to this report.

U.S. filings for jobless aid in the week ending July 25 rose by 9,000 to 197,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week's figure was revised up by 1,000 to 188,000 but remains the lowest in more than 50 years.

Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 207,000 new applications.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered representative of layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the U.S. job market.

Despite surging oil prices resulting from the U.S.-Iran war, the American job market remains healthy. However, analysts say a prolonged war and higher than normal energy costs may eventually upend that, forcing companies to trim their costs by reducing head counts.

Following a 6.6% rise a day earlier, the price for a barrel of U.S. crude fell slightly more than 1% Thursday to $83.36 a barrel. Gas prices in the U.S. are also back up above $4 a gallon on average. Besides squeezing consumers’ budgets, it also hits businesses hard, especially those which are heavily dependent on fuel.

Also Thursday, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric, PCE, came in at 3.7%, still well above its 2% target. On top of that, the government reported Thursday that the U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly sluggish 1.5% pace in the April-June quarter.

If inflation remains elevated, Fed officials say they are ready to raise interest rates to combat higher prices, raising costs for businesses and making them less likely to hire.

In its expansive June jobs report earlier this month, the government reported that employers pulled back on hiring, adding only 57,000 jobs. That’s less than half the previous month’s total and a sign that companies remain cautious about adding to their head counts. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% from 4.3% in May, though that decline is mostly because many out-of-work people gave up looking for jobs and were no longer counted as unemployed.

June’s tepid hiring comes after a relative surge in job gains the previous three months, countering concerns that the war in Iran could trip up an already wobbly labor market.

Weekly jobless aid applications have stabilized in a range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. economy emerged from the pandemic recession. However, hiring began slowing about two years ago and tapered further in 2025 due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his purge of the federal workforce and the lingering effects of high interest rates meant to control inflation.

Among the companies that have trimmed their workforce recently are Verizon, UPS, Amazon, Disney, Starbucks, Walmart and Microsoft.

The Labor Department's report Thursday also showed that the four-week moving average of weekly jobless claims, which softens some of the weekly volatility, fell by 5,000 to 202,750.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending July 18 was 1.78 million, a decline of 7,000 from the previous week.

The Hollywood star behind the “Ocean’s Eleven” franchise and other films made the statement in a letter to Didier Bremond, the mayor of the town of Brignoles, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of Marseille, publicist Guido Gotz told The Associated Press in an email.

Addressed “Dear Didier,” the letter said Clooney and his wife Amal, a human rights lawyer, had “no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment." But as they evacuate Brignoles they wanted to assure Bremond that, whatever happens to the community, “we’ll be part of making it whole,” the letter said.

The fire near Brignoles broke out Wednesday afternoon and burned some 100 hectares (250 acres), local officials said. The blaze was far smaller than a vast inferno that has swept up the region around Bordeaux in southwestern France in recent days.

About 700 residents were evacuated and were allowed to return to their homes on Thursday after the fire was brought under control, they added.

Water-bombing helicopters remained deployed over the area after the evacuation order was lifted, the regional administration said. It said weather conditions remained unfavorable, with high temperatures and winds expected to pick up again in the afternoon.

The French government in December announced that the Clooneys along with their twins Ella and Alexander were awarded French citizenship.

The couple purchased their estate in France in 2021, and have been living there with their children. In an interview with Esquire last October, Clooney described their “farm in France” as their primary residence.

Superintendent Mark Rendell said the academy serves both brand-new educators and those who have relocated to the area.

“These are all the teachers that are new to our district. They may be brand new to teaching, fresh out of the box. Or they may be teachers who’ve moved to Florida or Brevard County that have some teaching experience from out of state. We want to welcome them, give them kind of the lay down on how we do things in Brevard,” Rendell said.

This year, 270 new teachers attended the academy — down from previous years — but officials say that’s a good sign. The district had fewer vacancies to fill heading into the new school year.

“So, we had to hire fewer teachers. So, it’s awesome. We actually are set to open the year at 99% filled in our classroom teacher positions. We actually only have about 50 vacancies right now,” Rendell said.

The district is hoping to reach 100% staffing by the end of the year.

One new recruit is no stranger to the classroom. Pat Kelly is returning to Brevard Public Schools after having taught there in the past, bringing with him five decades of teaching experience.

“This is my 51st year,” Kelly said. “I taught here for two years, from 2019 to 2021.”

Kelly says he’s back because he believes in the work the district and its schools are doing.

“They have a very family-oriented team and I’m just looking forward to doing whatever I can do to help in the community, the classroom, on the athletic and basketball court as well. So, I’m really excited about coming back to Brevard,” Kelly said.

The first day of school in Brevard County is Aug. 10.

In a release, deputies said they responded to the 5500 block of Old Cheney Highway around 5 p.m. after receiving reports about the shooting.

Upon arrival, they found the teen girl, who had been shot, deputies added. She was taken to the hospital, where she later died.

“All parties remained on scene, and there is no threat to the community,” the release reads. “The investigation is still in its early stages, and we have no further information to release at this time.”

On Thursday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office identified the victim as Skyler Ley’shea Bradford.

No additional information has been provided at this time.

The Oakland hip-hop pioneer is still recording, touring and talking slick more than four decades after he began selling homemade tapes on the streets of the Bay Area. While the genre has long treated aging like an unwritten career-ending offense, Too $hort is breaking the rule and challenging the culture’s elder statesmen to keep going with him.

His latest proof is “Sir Too $hort Vol. 2: Drink & Smoke,” his 23rd studio album, produced entirely by longtime collaborator Lil Jon. It arrives Friday, exactly 20 years after the release of his enduring hit “Blow the Whistle.”

Too $hort, whose catalog also includes classics like “The Ghetto” and “Shake That Monkey,” says he isn’t interested in slowing down anytime soon. That was certainly evident when he and E-40 performed at the NFL Honors in February.

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Too $hort reflected on turning 60, challenging hip-hop’s age limits, preserving the legacy of Lil Jon’s late son, DJ Young Slade, the staying power of “Blow the Whistle” and why he has no plans to stop until “the wheels fall off.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

AP: You recently turned 60, but you’re still releasing albums, touring and influencing the culture. When you first started selling homemade tapes on the streets of Oakland, did you ever imagine you’d still be doing this more than four decades later?

TOO $HORT: At the age of 14 or 15, my mentality was, “Let people hear this music. We’re going to rock some house parties and high school dances and sell some tapes to fans in the streets.” When I got my foot in the door, I knew this was going to be my job. It was always “till the wheels fall off.” It was never, “Let’s do this for 30 or 40 years.”

I’ve always said the day hip-hop is no longer my job is probably the day I’ll stop. But the love I have for hip-hop won’t allow me to stop recording. I’ve never taken a long break. I’ve continuously been in the studio, continuously doing shows. I just keep it going because it’s my job.

AP: Why do you think you’ve remained relevant when so many careers have come and gone?

TOO $HORT: I truly love making music. It’s never felt like work. I could have stopped after “Blow the Whistle” and been like, “Story told.” But somebody’s got to go out into these uncharted waters and blaze the trail. Look at E-40,Snoop Dogg,Fat Joe and the other guys who kept going after the kids were grown and the grandkids were on the way.

Who laid the rule down that in hip-hop you gotta stop at 40? Every milestone they said was old. First it was 30, then it was 40, then it was 50. Now we got senior citizen rappers, and this ... is real. Hip-hop is entering the place where jazz, blues and R&B have older artists who are still performing and recording. We should too.

AP: Twenty years after its release, “Blow the Whistle” is still played everywhere from NBA arenas to the Olympics. Why do you think that record has endured?

TOO $HORT: I don’t know if you could give me the ingredients and tell me how to do it again; I don’t think I could. It had to happen organically. I give Lil Jon a lot of credit because he’s made a lot of songs we’ve loved since the day they came out. We make good music together, and that’s why I’m excited for people to hear what we’re still doing 30 years after we first worked together.

AP: This album reunites you with Lil Jon, but it also features work from his late son, Slade, who died in February. What did that collaboration mean to you?

TOO $HORT: His son passed away after we finished recording. We had actually done about twice as many songs as ended up on this project. I saw how it affected Jon, and I had recently lost my brother, so I knew that feeling of loss. The whole time, Slade was producing or co-producing a lot of the tracks I was working on. The first thing that came to me was that I’d be more than proud to be part of his son’s legacy and give something to the world that would help him live forever. Jon keeps saying, “Slade’s legacy,” and I’m just trying to be a part of that and show the world we lost another good, talented person.

AP: You and E-40 celebrated Bay Area hip-hop together during your 2020 Verzuz appearance. Fans still love seeing you two together. Would you ever team up again, whether for another Verzuz, a tour or something else?

TOO $HORT: We did one in 2020, but it wasn’t a battle. We had a good time. We did a lot of laughing, a lot of togetherness. I didn’t want to battle 40 then, and I don’t want to battle him now. That’s my best friend in hip-hop. I’d sign up for me and 40 against anybody. That’d be fun. They haven’t had two groups. … I put that out there: Who wants to battle Too $hort and E-40 in Verzuz?

Elijah Bieniemy was arrested Monday in connection with the late-Sunday shooting. He has been charged with malicious wounding, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and discharge of a firearm inside a dwelling.

Bieniemy remained in the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center on Thursday. He had a court date to hear motions scheduled for later in the day, and a preliminary hearing date had been set for Aug. 31. But both appearances have been continued pending a mental health evaluation, according to records available from the Virginia judiciary system.

The sheriff's office in Loudoun County, Virginia, has said the investigation is ongoing. No motive has been provided.

Eric Bieniemy remained away from the Chiefs on Thursday as they continued with their second full-squad workout of training camp. Pass game coordinator Joe Bleymaier and offensive line coach Andy Heck have assumed most of his responsibilities, while coach Andy Reid continues to have a significant role overseeing the offensive system.

“Eric's a big part of this, and so I love having him here,” Reid said, “but right now it's important that he takes care of business, and everybody knows that. So everybody's game is picked up, and they're working hard, and Eric will be back soon enough to jump in there and do his thing. But he's got to take care of that first.”

Reid declined to provide a timetable for Bieniemy's return to the team.

Mia Bieniemy, the coach's 57-year-old wife, has been released from the intensive care unit, where she was being treated for multiple gunshot wounds. Reid said that she was “doing better, and great from where she was.”

Eric Bieniemy helped the Chiefs reach three Super Bowls and win two of them, then left to become the offensive coordinator with the Washington Commanders — the reason the Bieniemy family still has a home in Virginia. The staff there was fired after one season, though, and Bieniemy spent a season apiece at UCLA and coaching running backs with the Chicago Bears.

He was hired to replace Matt Nagy as the offensive coordinator in Kansas City earlier this year.

“We stay in touch with him and keep him abreast of everything that's going on,” Reid said. “He's got the tape (of camp practices). He can watch with whatever spare time he's got there.”

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

The Squeeze, currently in 14th place, need a few wins to get into the playoffs, and they’re hoping for some magic in front of a good crowd.

“It’s incredible, especially being the home team,” said Squeeze player Jack Sock about playing pickleball at Disney. “I think we will have amazing crowds and a lot of support this weekend. It’s going to be really fun; the energy will be great, and I’m excited to play pickleball here at Disney.”

The professional pickleball players got a chance to play with Minnie Mouse and Goofy, a moment New Jersey 5s player Anna Leigh Waters said she didn’t see coming.

“I would have been very surprised if you told me I’d be playing pickleball with Minnie Mouse,” she said. “Most surprising partner for sure.”

The tournament will run Thursday through Saturday with championship games on Sunday. Tickets can be found on the main website to see the pros up close.

Orlando Squeeze player Yates Johnson encourages people to come out and see the difference on the professional level.

“Some people are like, ‘Bro, there’s pro pickleball? That’s crazy,’” he said. “But once people see it in person, they’re pretty amazed at how fast it is because we are so close to each other. It’s kind of unlike anything in sports.”

Interlochen Center for the Arts operates a summer camp and performing arts school that draws students from around the world. It hired a law firm in 2024 to investigate reports of sexual abuse by faculty and staff. Subsequently, it expanded the work to include information about Epstein, the 66-year-old financier who killed himself in jail in 2019.

Interlochen removed Epstein's name from a lodge after he was convicted of sex offenses in Florida in 2008. The building, renamed the Green Lake Lodge, was recently demolished after the U.S. Justice Department released millions of pages about him that had been compiled over the years.

Sanghavi Law Office says it collected 70 accounts from alumni alleging “physical conduct of a sexual nature” by 47 faculty and staff members affiliated with Interlochen from the 1950s through the 2010s, most before 2000.

“The information gathered during this investigation is, simply, devastating,” the 97-page report says, noting that alumni reported grooming, flirting, sexual touching and sex.

Interlochen said it has provided names of people accused of misconduct to Grand Traverse County authorities in northern Michigan to determine what steps, if any, might be taken. None are currently employed there, and more than a third are dead.

“We are deeply sorry for the harm experienced by members of our community and extend our apologies to those impacted by abuse at Interlochen,” president Trey Devey and board chair Barrett Rollins said in a letter to the community posted online.

“While the vast majority of the incidents described in the investigation took place many decades ago, and reports of abuse at Interlochen have significantly decreased over the past 25 years, the passage of time does not diminish the experiences of our alumni,” they said. “Sexual abuse committed by an adult in a position of power or trust against a student is wrong, then and now.”

Interlochen today “is fundamentally different from the institution described in this report,” Devey and Rollins wrote, with comprehensive safety policies and a changed culture.

Epstein, who played the bassoon, was an Interlochen camper in 1967. He donated more than $400,000 to the school between 1990 and 2003.

Two women told investigators that Epstein engaged in conduct of a sexual nature with them, one of them at the Interlochen lodge that bore his name.

He brushed against her body “over her clothes, in a manner in which he indicated was accidental,” according to the report.

Epstein also paid for her to visit him in New York while she was a student. She said “every time he was ‘handsy’ with her, she would freeze until he would stop,” the report states.

The other woman said she gave Epstein a massage at his home, according to the report, and he may have asked her to remove her top. She never had any further contact with Epstein or his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Outside of the school investigation, at least two Interlochen alumnae made allegations of grooming and abuse against Epstein and Maxwell, according to federal records and media reports. Their identities were not made public.

One testified against Maxwell in 2021 when she was convicted of sex trafficking. It’s unclear whether those women spoke to the law firm hired for the Interlochen investigation.

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This story has been corrected to show the name of the center's president is Trey Devey, not Trey Davey.