A rare chord change on Wednesday — from seven notes to eight — represented the completion of about 4% of the 639-year endeavor of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt.

It was a historic moment inside the medieval Burchardi Church, in Halberstadt, Germany, that reflected the past, present and future of the project, as well as those who are following its — albeit very slow — progression.

“As fast as our world is developing, I think it’s a wonderful place to be and to come to yourself and just to be touched by this ‘being there,’"said Anneli Borgmann, chairwoman of the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt’s board of trustees.

While the project commenced in 2000, the performance began Sept. 5, 2001 — Cage’s 89th birthday — with a silent pause that lasted until Feb. 5, 2003, when the first chords could actually be heard.

The composition — called “ORGAN²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible)” — is scheduled to finish on Sept. 4, 2640.

An electric-powered blower system sends wind into the organ to create a continuous sound. A chord change, done manually, means that the sound of the organ pipes changes either because new sounds are added or existing sounds end.

More than 150 people squeezed inside the church Wednesday to witness what was the piece’s 17th chord change, with dozens more watching a livestream outside.

For three minutes, the crowd listened to the “old” chord with its seven pipes. Then, an eighth pipe was slotted into the small organ, bringing with it a new sound that reverberated throughout the church. The spectators listened for another three minutes — some filming with cellphones, others taking it all in with their eyes closed and heads bowed — before breaking out into applause and cries of “bravo!”

“It’s a very subtle difference,” said Jeffrey Lependorf, executive director of the John Cage Trust in New York. “There’s a higher sound that’s a little more prominent.”

Cage’s music inspires after his death

Cage, an American avant-garde composer, was born in Los Angeles in 1912 and died in New York in 1992. He was also a renowned music theorist, artist and philosopher whose only direction for this piece was to play it as slowly and as softly as possible. He initially composed it for the piano in 1985 and updated it for the organ in 1987. It was reimagined into the 639-year project after his death.

The interpretation of the composition in Halberstadt has resulted in the smallest unit being one month long. Other units — as well as silences — can last years.

The project has transformed the Burchardi Church, which was left largely in ruins before money was raised for a new roof and other fixes to make the piece a reality. The sound there envelopes visitors throughout the church and gives them new experiences to hear as they move through the empty space.

“I think it really is the organ playing the church and not the other way around,” Lependorf said. “You move two inches in any direction and it sounds not subtly different — very different.”

Generations of stewards ensure organ’s future

The piece will last 639 years, from 2001 to 2640. The time frame was chosen to be a tribute to a historic organ in Halberstadt that dates back to 1361, or 639 years before the project was initiated in 2000, according to Borgmann.

The time frame allows the project’s stewards and visitors to contemplate not only Cage’s legacy but their own as guardians of an organ that will outlive them as each chord change depends upon a new generation of musicians, volunteers and craftspeople to keep the piece going.

Cage fan Michael Barnett, 55, from Glasgow, in Scotland, said attending the chord change was a bucket list item.

“This is just one of those things, one of those unique things in the world of music,” he said. “It comes up and you think ‘I just want to do this thing once.’”

Barnett and other enthusiasts also debate what the world will look like by the end of the piece.

“You just wonder what will be left here in 600-odd years time,” Barnett said. “Who will come to the last performance? Will the building still be here? Will the organ still work? What will the world be like?”

The organ, at least, is built to last.

Organ builder Johannes Hüfken said the pipes he’s crafted for this will last at least another 500 years.

“This John Cage project is a good example of thinking ahead for the next generation — thinking outside the box, beyond the completely normal and traditional,” he said.

The next chord change will take place on Oct. 5, 2027, when the overall sound will be reduced by releasing the E4 pipe.

Inheritable “final tickets” for the Sept. 4, 2640, finale are already being sold for 2,640 euros ($3,045).

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Markus Schreiber contributed to this report.

“In the words of Muhammad Ali, we shook up the world,” El-Sayed told supporters Wednesday morning.

The real test of El-Sayed’s and progressives’ strength will now come in a November matchup against Mike Rogers, a former congressman who ran unopposed for the Republican nomination. The seat is pivotal to Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate and El-Sayed will face the challenge of uniting a divided Democratic base after a bruising primary.

Stevens called El-Sayed to concede Wednesday, and she issued a statement saying she would back El-Sayed’s candidacy.

“I am proud to offer my support as he takes on Mike Rogers in the general election,” she said.

Stevens added, “This was a thorough and rigorous campaign that brought out the full span of views within the Democratic Party — and that is why we have primaries.”

Curtis Hertel, the chair of Michigan Democratic Party, urged unity ahead of November.

“We have got to work together to take this country back,” Hertel said.

“I can tell you what we need is a fighter,” he added. “Abdul El-Sayed has been a fighter for the people over and over again.”

The Associated Press declared El-Sayed the winner after confirming that after Wednesday morning updates in election returns in Wayne and Oakland counties, two of the state’s largest in the Detroit area in southeastern Michigan, that there were simply not enough votes left to count that would allow Stevens to catch up and overtake him as the leader.

After confidently predicting a win, El-Sayed’s victory was ultimately so narrow that it wasn’t assured until almost all ballots cast statewide were counted. At the time AP declared him the winner, El-Sayed led Stevens by 14,893 votes — a margin of just under 1 percentage point — out of more than 1.5 million ballots counted.

Progressives have been gaining strength this year

El-Sayed’s win, however slim, represents a significant shift for the Democratic Party; in 2018 he lost the gubernatorial primary to now-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by 21 percentage points.

The former health official campaigned on “Medicare for All,” halting military aid to Israel and campaign finance reform. He had support from progressive leaders including Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who framed the race as a grassroots-focused movement and a broader fight against the establishment and big-money spending.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, another progressive leader, said El-Sayed's victory “should be a wake-up call to the Washington Democratic establishment.”

Sen. Gary Peters, the Michigan Democrat whose retirement spurred the contentious primary to replace him, said, “Congratulations to him.” Peters had endorsed Stevens.

Now comes the more difficult challenge for Democrats: uniting the party to defeat Rogers, for whom Republicans have already reserved large sums of money ahead of the general election.

El-Sayed called for unity to defeat Rogers

Tuesday evening, El-Sayed’s supporters in Detroit’s Majestic Theatre cheered as the first few batches of results came in, before mellowing. Hours later Stevens’ previously subdued partygoers roared as she narrowed the margin.

“Whatever happens tonight,” El-Sayed told a thinned but still energetic crowd, “we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite, unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the U.S. Senate.”

Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, focused on manufacturing and the economy. She stressed her past victories in tough races, saying she would be best positioned to beat Rogers.

Stevens benefited from tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, including the largest investment in a race ever from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supports pro-Israel candidates.

Michigan is a must-win Senate race for Democrats

The race will help decide which party controls the chamber in the last two years of President Donald Trump’s term. Those stakes have added heat to the rivalry, with moderates arguing that El-Sayed would have a harder time than Stevens against a Republican in the general election.

Stevens won election to Congress in 2018 after serving as chief of staff to President Barack Obama’s auto task force, which helped oversee the federal rescue of General Motors and Chrysler. Her campaign and allied groups have repeatedly highlighted that experience.

El-Sayed cast himself as the anti-establishment candidate and argued that Democrats need to reject corporate influence and embrace a more progressive agenda.

While the candidate has said he is not a democratic socialist, he found support from some of the group’s members. That included Melat Kiros, who recently beat a longtime incumbent in a Democratic primary for a Denver-based House seat and was at El-Sayed’s watch party. Also there was Hasan Piker, a progressive and controversial influencer online.

The candidates’ differences were clear to some voters.

Kenneth Woodside, 87, of West Bloomfield, said he voted for El-Sayed over Stevens because “the nation is ready for someone who wants to take some more action rather than on the road we are now, which is on the road to an oligarchy and authoritarianism.”

Nessa Fuller, 51, of Birmingham, said she voted for Stevens because she will “fight to get the right things done, and she’ll work with other people, which is really important to me.”

Outside influences spent millions on the Senate race

National groups poured unprecedented sums into the race, making it one of the country’s biggest tests of outside spending.

Groups backing Stevens spent more than $50 million, led by more than $30 million from AIPAC and its affiliates.

“We took on a machine,” El-Sayed said.

AIPAC issued a statement on Wednesday saying they would oppose El-Sayed and “his radical anti-Israel agenda” in November’s election.

The organizations' spending ensured Israel remained at the center of the race. While El-Sayed called for ending military aid to Israel, Stevens maintained strong support for the relationship.

Support for Israel is contentious within the Democratic Party. Israel has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the militant group Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages in southern Israel in October 2023.

McKinney wins Detroit US House primary

In a heavily Democratic district representing Detroit, the 13th, state Rep. Donavan McKinney defeated Rep. Shri Thanedar. McKinney argued that the city should once again have a Black representative in Congress.

After Thanedar won election in 2022, Detroit had no Black representation in Congress for the first time since the early 1950s.

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Associated Press reporters Nathan Ellgren in Washington and Jesse Bedayn in Detroit contributed.

The U.S., along with Israel, launched the war on Feb. 28, citing various goals including toppling Tehran’s government and ending its nuclear program. But the conflict has devolved into a fight over the strait as Iranian threats and attacks on shipping ground traffic through the waterway to a halt.

Closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas once passed, has driven up the price of fuel and basic goods far beyond the region, roiling the global economy. Trump is also under mounting pressure to end an unpopular war ahead of midterm congressional elections.

Trump says a deal to reopen the strait is close

The U.S. president was asked by reporters traveling with him in California about a report on the Axios news site that an announcement on the Strait of Hormuz could be made on Wednesday.

“It could happen. Tomorrow or the next day,” he said, speaking Tuesday evening California time. “A lot of progress has been made.”

Oil prices initially eased on hopes of a deal that would allow shipping to resume but later inched upward. Brent crude, the international standard, was around $80 per barrel on Wednesday — still well below the levels it hit at the height of the conflict.

The U.S. and Iran reached a deal to open the strait in June, only for attacks to resume. In recent days, Trump has again alternately threatened massive strikes and voiced support for diplomatic efforts.

Regional officials tell AP negotiators have finalized a draft of a deal

Iranian and Omani negotiators have finalized the draft deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and are awaiting a final approval from Iran’s supreme leader, two regional officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The officials, who were briefed on the negotiations, portrayed the potential deal as a temporary solution to the U.S.-Iranian dispute over vessels’ transit through the Strait of Hormuz. They said it is tied to the agreement reached between the U.S. and Iran in June that aimed at ending the fighting and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but which ultimately collapsed.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said the potential deal will pave the way for the U.S. and Iran to resume negotiations to reach a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Earlier, they had said the possible agreement between Iran and Oman calls for ships to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman. Service fees would be charged for providing security and preserving the maritime environment, the officials said.

Oman and Iran have not officially commented.

The Trump administration has previously ruled out any deal that would give Iran control over the strait, which was an open international waterway before the war, but has seen traffic reduced to a trickle.

Trump has reiterated his public opposition to tolls being charged. “I’m not going to let them charge,” Trump said on Monday. “Anybody’s going to charge, we’ll charge.”

Attacks on shipping continue

Even as hopes increased that a deal on the Strait of Hormuz could be imminent, attacks on shipping in the region continued.

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed Wednesday they had fired ballistic missiles toward a Saudi oil tanker called the Wafa in the Red Sea. Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthis, said in a prerecorded statement that the vessel was targeted off the Saudi port city of Yanbu. He didn’t provide evidence.

There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia.

The attack is part of a recent escalation between the rebels and Saudi Arabia that threatened to reignite Yemen's civil war, which pitted the Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition supporting the country’s government.

In July, the Houthis announced they were closing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that leads to the Red Sea for Saudi-linked shipping. That puts additional pressure on international shipping since the Red Sea became a key alternative route for Saudi oil exports during the war.

On Tuesday, an Indian-flagged commercial ship sank in the Red Sea off Yemen after being struck by an explosive-laden boat, Yemeni and Indian authorities said. Yemen’s coast guard rescued the crew, which included 13 Indians and a Yemeni. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Earlier Tuesday, a cargo ship reported being “hit by an unknown projectile” about 37 kilometers (23 miles) northeast of the Omani port city of Al Khasab in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.

Israel and Hezbollah’s ceasefire increasingly shaky

Meanwhile, the already shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah grew more volatile Wednesday, as the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning to residents of the southern Lebanese village of Mansouri — the first such warning in weeks. Israel said that it was in response to Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire agreement between them, which had largely held since June 20.

In a post on X in Arabic, Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Ella Waweya told residents to evacuate their homes immediately and move at least 1,000 meters north of the village. Later, the Israeli military said it had begun conducting “precise strikes” in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as “a blatant violation of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah.

UN criticizes executions in Iran

Separately, the United Nations’ human rights chief, Volker Türk, criticized what he said was an increase in executions and death sentences in Iran since March.

Türk said capital punishment is being used to instill fear and suppress dissent.

At least 56 people have been executed since March 19, he said, including 27 who were convicted in cases linked to anti-government protests that occurred across the country at the start of the year. Türk said that more than 100 more were at risk of execution on similar charges.

“Persistent lack of fair trial and due process guarantees are deeply troubling,” Türk said, alleging that confessions have been obtained under torture and ill-treatment, while saying some executions have reportedly been carried out in public and some only weeks after the suspect was arrested.

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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece, and Superville from Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington also contributed.

Early Wednesday, members of the United States Marshals Service Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Keyan Jayden Rundell in Ellenton.

The arrest comes just hours after police issued an arrest warrant for Rundell, who was considered armed and dangerous.

Police did not release any details on why they believe Rundell is responsible for the deaths of 19-year-old Dustin Rose and 18-year-old Samson Campbell.

Last Thursday, police say the bodies of Rose and Campbell were found on a vacant industrial property near the Athens Theater. The childhood friends had each been shot multiple times. One of their mothers tracked a phone and located them at the scene.

[WATCH: DeLand police investigate double homicide near Athens Theatre]

The S&P 500 climbed 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 584 points, or 1.1%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%.

The S&P 500 and the Dow both set records on Tuesday, while the Nasdaq is less than 2% from its record. Every major index has been surging this week, giving August a strong start.

The market is leaping as companies head into the closing stretch of their latest round of earnings reports with sharp overall gains. Three-quarters of the companies within the S&P 500 have reported results so far, and Wall Street expects profit growth of 50% when they are all finished.

The Walt Disney Co. rose 3% after easily beating Wall Street’s profit forecasts, helped by a $1 billion box office haul from “Toy Story 5” and theme park revenue.

Booking Holdings jumped 6.6% after reporting that strong travel demand drove profit and revenue growth during its most recent quarter.

SpaceX fell 8.8%, despite reporting a smaller loss than Wall Street expected late Tuesday in its first quarterly report as a public company. The company did help give semiconductor giant Nvidia a 3.7% boost after announcing it would exclusively use that company’s chips for its artificial intelligence technology.

Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury remained at 4.63% from late Tuesday.

Markets in Asia rose. Benchmarks jumped more than 3% in Tokyo and Seoul as computer chipmakers and other AI-related companies climbed. European markets also gained ground.

Strong corporate profits and expectations for more growth ahead have been steering stocks higher. Wall Street has also been worried about stock prices becoming unjustifiably high, especially within the technology sector and for companies focused on artificial intelligence. Profit growth, especially for some of the big chipmakers, like Nvidia, could help justify some of the big investments those companies are making in AI.

AI-focused companies have been behind many of the big market swings and most of Wall Street's gains. That remained the case on Wednesday, with Nvidia leading the market higher. Micron Technology rose 1.8% to help support the gains.

Uncertainty about the direction of the U.S. war with Iran continues hanging over the market. President Donald Trump said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come as early as Wednesday. But there have been many stops and starts during the five-month old conflict that has stifled the global supply of oil and rattled energy markets.

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.6% to $78.81 a barrel. Oil prices have been swinging for months and were as high as $102 per barrel at one point during the conflict, jolting already stubbornly high inflation. Higher oil prices pushed gasoline prices higher and increased shipping costs for a wide range of products.

Inflation concerns have been hanging over markets and the Federal Reserve. The central bank has been holding its key benchmark rate steady as it monitors the costs and the impact on the economy. Wall Street expects the central bank to raise rates at least once before the end of 2026. Household spending remains resilient, despite the stress from higher costs on everything from gas to groceries.

The jobs market has been one of the stronger areas of the economy, though growth has been slowing. Wall Street will get another update on Friday with the monthly employment report for July.

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Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Mayuko Ono contributed to this report.

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“Now everything we do here, Discovery Cove with our animals is voluntary,” a trainer told participants. “So if they would like to participate in the training session, they are more than welcome to. But if they don’t want to, we’re not going to make them.”

During the interaction, I met Triton, a full-grown male nurse shark. Trainers said he is about 9 feet long and around 200 pounds. They also use the moment to explain shark biology, including the tooth-like scales that cover a shark’s body. Known as dermal denticles, the structures can make shark skin feel rough and help protect the animals as they move through their environment.

After the trainer-led portion, participants gear up with snorkels and masks and move into deeper water for a free swim alongside several shark species. Discovery Cove said the habitat can include Pacific blacktip, nurse, zebra, whitetip reef and bonnethead sharks.

A portion of the proceeds from the Shark Interaction Program supports the Guy Harvey Foundation, which funds scientific research and educational programs focused on marine conservation, according to Discovery Cove.

The overall goal, trainers said, is to leave participants with a clearer understanding of sharks — not just as animals with teeth, but as species that play a role in a healthy ocean ecosystem.

President Donald Trump swings through Las Vegas on Wednesday for a speech on the economy after his Republican National Committee fundraiser at his Southern California golf course, where authorities arrested a man they said was claiming to be part of the security detail.

The House Ethics Committee has opened an investigation into domestic abuse allegations against Republican Rep. Max Miller as the embattled Ohio congressman faces escalating pressure to resign from his former father-in-law, Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno, and Trump. Democrats are eyeing the chance to flip Miller’s congressional seat.

Here is the latest:

JD Vance quips about future ‘President El-Sayed’

The vice president was addressing a roundtable focused on combating fraud, and making the point that the work of a task force he’s leading needs congressional approval to prevent its results from evaporating once the Trump administration is over.

“God forbid you’re going to have President El-Sayed in a few years,” Vance said, referencing Abdul El-Sayed, who clinched Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary just moments prior to his remarks.

“We don’t want him to undo all the incredible work that we’ve been doing,” Vance said.

Michigan Democrats rally around El-Sayed

Curtis Hertel, the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, urged unity within the Democratic party.

“We have got to work together to take this country back,” Hertel said. “I can tell you what we need is a fighter ... Abdul El-Sayed has been a fighter for the people over and over again.”

McMorrow said that “for all of the differences that we may have had in the primary, that those differences pale in comparison to the contrast that we face in November.”

Republicans are counting on rifts inside the Democratic Party, but “this is the start of a celebration of all of us coming together,” McMorrow said.

Democrats stress unity after difficult primary

Before speaking to supporters on Wednesday morning, El-Sayed spoke to state party chair Curtis Hertel Jr.

El-Sayed was flanked by Mallory McMorrow, the state senator who dropped her own primary campaign earlier this year after failing to gain traction. She announced her support for El-Sayed, and Stevens has as well.

Hertel stressed Democratic enthusiasm as the party looks toward November.

“Yesterday was the highest turnout for Democrats in the history of a primary,” Hertel said.

Van Hollen says El-Sayed’s win is a ‘wake-up call’ to establishment Democrats

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who backed Abdul El-Sayed, said in an interview that his victory is a “very significant win” and shows that his politics has gained traction with voters.

“This should be a wake-up call to, you know, the Washington Democratic establishment and the Washington insiders in the pundit class,” he said.

Van Hollen stressed how important winning in the fall is for the party. “We need to win Michigan, he can win Michigan,” the senator said, adding that El-Sayed’s “brand of populism can connect with voters across the political spectrum.”

Stevens backs El-Sayed, pledges to support him vs. Mike Rogers

Haley Stevens said in a statement Wednesday that she is “proud to offer my support” to Abdul El-Sayed, who won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.

Stevens said it’s important for Democrats to back him so the party can keep the Senate seat and win the chamber in the midterms.

“Donald Trump and Mike Rogers want us to come out of this primary tired and divided, so their billionaire backers can come in and let multimillionaire Mike Rogers walk away with this Senate seat,” she said.

Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Senate primary in major victory for Democrats’ progressive wing

El-Sayed’s defeat of Rep. Haley Stevens in a massive victory for the party’s progressive wing in a battleground state.

The real test of the progressives’ strength will now come in a November matchup against Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination. The seat is pivotal to Democrats’ chances of flipping the Senate and El-Sayed must now unite a divided Democratic base after a bruising primary.

The race remained tight throughout Tuesday night, with a winner not declared until early Wednesday. In his final remarks before the race was called, El-Sayed said “tomorrow we begin to mend fences.”

El-Sayed campaign says Stevens conceded in Michigan Senate Democratic primary

Rep. Haley Stevens called Abdul El-Sayed to concede in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Michigan on Wednesday morning, according to El-Sayed’s campaign.

A representative for Stevens’ campaign did not return a request for comment. The Associated Press has not yet called the race.

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Regional officials tell AP negotiators have finalized the draft of a Strait of Hormuz deal

The draft agreed to by Iranian and Omani negotiators awaits final approval from Iran’s supreme leader, two regional officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The officials, who were briefed on the negotiations, portrayed the potential deal as a temporary solution to the U.S.-Iranian dispute over shipping through the waterway. They said it is tied to the agreement reached between the U.S. and Iran in June that aimed to end the fighting and reopen the strait, which ultimately collapsed.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said the potential deal will pave the way for the U.S. and Iran to resume negotiations to reach a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.

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By Elena Becatoros, Samy Magdy and Darlene Superville

House Democrats add 12 solidly Trump districts to their midterm election target list

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has expanded its list of targets to 58 House seats it believes are competitive, including districts Trump won easily less than two years ago.

The ambitious list reflects Trump’s diminished standing with the electorate and Democrats’ belief they can capitalize on voters’ frustrations over the economy, the war in Iran and the chaotic nature of Republican control during Trump’s second term.

“MAGA Republicans who historically have considered themselves ‘safe’ have let down the people they were elected to represent, passing disastrous policies that are crushing working families and our communities,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement.

Democrats need just a handful of seats to erase Republicans’ narrow majority and control the chamber.

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Full Senate approval for Blanche is no sure thing

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche may have cleared committee but the outcome of a full Senate vote on his nomination for the permanent role is an open question. Republicans Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are question marks and Maine’s Susan Collins has said no, citing the politicization of the Justice Department.

The Judiciary Committee moved Trump’s former personal attorney along on a 12-10 party line vote after the DOJ confirmed in writing that it wasn’t moving forward with a $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who believe they were politically persecuted. That order left in place Blanche’s tax immunity deal worth millions for Trump and his family.

If all Democrats oppose him and Sen. Mitch McConnell isn’t able to vote, Blanche can afford to lose just two Republican supporters.

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Ammo-carrying man arrested at Trump golf course made ‘concerning statements,’ authorities say

Authorities have released more details about the arrest of a man who was allegedly scoping out security details ahead of President Donald Trump’s Republican National Committee fundraiser at Trump's Los Angeles-area golf course.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele was seen taking photos and video and had a 16-round magazine with ammunition in his pocket when he was arrested Sunday. Federal prosecutors say he told federal agents he was employed by the State Department and was there for a security detail. A search of his pickup truck turned up a loaded 9mm pistol, binoculars and a badge that read “security protection agent."

Authorities say a search of his home found a rifle and other firearms, magazines and ammunition, body armor and notebooks with “concerning statements."

Taele was jailed on $250,000 bond after pleading not guilty to felonies including second-degree robbery, receiving a large-capacity magazine and possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun. It wasn’t clear if he had a lawyer and family members could not immediately be reached for comment.

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It's dangerous to look directly at the sun without proper eye protection. But researchers were able to peek at its scorching surface with the help of the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

Scientists originally took the images for a different reason: to fine-tune and test the limits of the telescope. But when they looked at the results, they realized they'd photographed the sun's bright outer shell at higher resolution than ever before.

What's more, they saw strange feathery patterns rippling across the surface.

“That reminds me of famous paintings, like the swirling skies in Van Gogh's Starry Night,” said solar physicist Ruizhu Chen with Stanford University, who was not involved with the new research.

Researchers saw ripples of instability on the sun's surface caused by bits of magnetized plasma moving past each other at different speeds — similar to waves that stir when a gust of wind blows over water. It's a well-known phenomenon that guides how fluids move.

This has been glimpsed on Earth and other planets like Jupiter and Saturn, but “it has not been observed ever at that level on the solar surface,” according to study co-author Friedrich Wöger with the National Solar Observatory.

The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Scientists are curious about the sun's inner workings to better track massive bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections that can hurl toward Earth. When they hit, they can trigger solar storms, potentially scrambling GPS communications and producing colorful auroras.

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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.

The state Tass and RIA Novosti agencies said that Vladimir Tkachuk was hospitalized in grave condition following the explosion late Tuesday in Bolshoy Istok just outside Yekaterinburg, 1,400 kilometers (about 870 miles) east of Moscow.

There was no immediate comment from the authorities.

Tkachuk headed the Uraldronzavod factory that manufactures Upyr (Russian for Ghoul) drones. Tkachuk, a small-scale entrepreneur, set up a team of engineers that developed the Upyr and organized its production near Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city and a key industrial hub in the Ural Mountains

The Upyr, a cheap and simple first-person view drone, was hailed by troops for the protection it offers against jamming. In September 2024, Tkachuk was pictured presenting his designs to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a display of military drones in St. Petersburg.

Tkachuk, an ardent supporter of the Kremlin's military action in Ukraine, also has run the Obsessed with War channel that has over 650,000 followers on the Telegram messaging app. A message posted on the channel Wednesday said that he was in emergency care in stable condition after an attempt on his life.

Kommersant said that a week ago, the head of another maker of drones for the Russian military, Andrei Cherezov, was shot and wounded in the city of Tula.

Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for a series of bombings and other attacks against senior military officials and public figures after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

The explosion followed Saturday's deadly bombing at an upscale Moscow restaurant, which the Russian Embassy in Rome blamed on Ukraine, describing it as an attempt to intimidate the Italian community in Russia. It said in a statement Monday that the attack on the Balzi Rossi restaurant killed five and injured 19.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reposted the embassy statement without comment, and Russia's security agencies haven't named the suspected culprits. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has described the bombing as a “brutal terrorist act,” but did not say who was responsible.

Several Russian media outlets claimed the bombing targeted a Russian general who was celebrating his birthday at the restaurant. Some claimed that the general was Col.-Gen. Alexander Chaiko, who led the troops that made a botched attempt to storm the Ukrainian capital in 2022 and recently was appointed the chief of Russia’s aerospace forces. The claims could not be independently verified.

It wasn’t Sanders juking half the defense on one of his dynamic touchdown runs. Instead, the Hall of Fame running back who inspired a generation of running backs with his sensational, elusive, shifty style was walking up and down the sideline handing out refreshments to his teammates.

“They were talking about how great of a player he was but they had a clip of him holding Gatorade cups and he’s walking down,” Barkley said on the AP’s “On Football” podcast. “He is going to his teammates and just the way that he carried himself. So I would say I have to give my flowers to him there.”

Barkley joined Sanders as one of nine players to rush for 2,000 yards in a season in 2024 when he was the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year and helped the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl.

Barkley demonstrated he’s a team-first player by sitting out the final regular-season game when he needed 101 yards to break Eric Dickerson’s record. Earlier in the season, he told coach Nick Sirianni to let other backs get some carries after he had already rushed for 176 yards against his former Giants teammates and needed 14 more in the fourth quarter to set a new career-high.

Barkley finished with an NFL-record 2,504 combined rushing yards in the regular season and playoffs.

He credits his parents, Alibay Barkley and Tonya Johnson, for instilling in him an unselfish mindset.

“Just how my parents raised me,” he said. “Everything, who I am a person, it stems from my family, my brothers and sisters, and the coaches that I had growing up. But I don’t think you should get flowers for being a great teammate. I don’t think anything that I’ve done or that I said is rare. At least it shouldn’t be rare. It should be the norm, and it is the norm. I might have just got caught on camera, or I might've had an article written about me, but there’s other stuff that I have done that’s behind the scenes, and I have multiple teammates that have done great things for me, too. And it’s a winning culture. You want to create that culture. If you want to win football games, you want to be competing for championships, that matters. And I bought into that at a very young age and I think that’s what, I guess you could say, separated me.”

Barkley’s first season in Philadelphia after playing his first six with the New York Giants couldn’t have been scripted any better. He followed up his All-Pro campaign with 1,140 yards rushing in 2025 behind a banged-up offensive line.

The Eagles won 11 games, captured their second straight division title but lost a wild-card game to San Francisco. An inconsistent offense cost offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo his job.

Championship parades are the new standard in Philadelphia.

Some athletes don’t want to play in a pressure-packed environment. Barkley loves it.

“I embrace it. I don’t think pressure is a real thing from the outside force,” Barkley said. “You have to hold yourself to a high standard. I know Philly holds us to a higher standard already, but I feel like the way I carry myself and how I train and the standard I hold myself, I fit right into the city and into this fan base. ... You want to win every year. That’s the goal.”

Barkley’s acrobatic backward hurdle over a Jaguars player during the 2024 season ended up being the Madden 2026 cover. It also inspired DIRECTV’s recent campaign featuring Barkley jumping through hoops, flipping over a utility cart and hopping onto a crossbar.

“Watching football shouldn’t feel like jumping through hoops. That’s why I have DIRECTV,” Barkley says in the television commercial.

Of course, he lauded the brand’s team spirit.

“The kind of culture that they have and the day I was able to spend with them, I was knocked away and I’m just thankful for the opportunity,” he said.

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

Organizers for Film at Lincoln Center on Wednesday announced the 32 films selected for its prestigious main slate lineup, all of which will play at the festival running Sept. 25 to Oct. 12. Kicking off the festival will be Gray's “Paper Tiger,” a Queens-set crime drama starring Adam Driver and Miles Teller.

While few of the festival's selections will be making their world premiere in New York, one exception is Gilroy's “Behemoth!” starring Pedro Pascal as a cellist. The festival is making “Behemoth!” its centerpiece gala. Also making its world premiere is Ava DuVernay's “14th,” a documentary on the much-contested constitutional amendment and a kind of sequel to her “13th” documentary. DuVernay's latest will close the festival.

In between, the festival's principle lineup will feature many filmmakers who have previously brought films to the NYFF, including Pedro Almodovar (“Bitter Christmas”), Ryusuke Hamaguchi ( “All of a Sudden” ), Andrew Haigh (“A Long Winter”), Radu Jude (“The Diary of a Chambermaid”), Lee Chang-dong (“Possible Love”), Mike Leigh (“Tender Loving Care”), Pawel Pawlikowski ( “Fatherland” ) and Ira Sachs ( “The Man I Love” ).

Other selections include Chris Rock's “Misty Green,” which will first premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, William and David Greaves' acclaimed documentary “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” and Julia Loktev's “My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile,” the continuation of the Russian filmmaker's sprawling documentary of modern-day dissent in Russia.

“It’s hard to recall a prior main slate program in which the state of the world has been as urgently reflected in so many creative ways,” Dennis Lim, artistic director of the festival, said in a statement. “You could take any cross section of this lineup and come away with a vivid picture of what our present looks, sounds, and feels like. I’m deeply encouraged to be able to introduce New York audiences to works by so many fearless, imaginative directors whose artistry has been inspired by the shared realities of our world.”

On Tuesday, the festival announced that Takashi Yamazaki's “Godzilla Minus Zero,” his sequel to 2023's “Godzilla Minus One,” will make its world premiere at the NYFF on Sept. 26.

Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, officers responded to a 911 call reporting a crash at the intersection of W. Airport Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

According to police, a City of Sanford Class V rear-loader garbage truck was traveling northbound on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and struck a bicyclist who was also heading north and attempting to make a right turn onto Airport Boulevard.

The driver did not stop to render aid. A witness at the scene helped officers identify the vehicle and driver. The bicyclist was transported to a local hospital, where they later died from their injuries, police said.

The driver, Shawannia Smith, 46, a city of Sanford employee, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and cited for violating the right of way of a cyclist.

“The City of Sanford extends its sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of the bicyclist who lost their life in this tragic incident.

The employee involved has been employed by the City since March 1, 2021, and has been placed on suspension pending the outcome of the investigation.

The City of Sanford is fully supporting the Sanford Police Department’s ongoing investigation. We will continue to follow the appropriate administrative process while remaining committed to accountability, transparency, and the safety of our community."

The City of Sanford

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Sanford Police Department or Crimeline at 800-423-8477. Calls remain anonymous.

The 65-year-old Edwards, who is serving his second term, said that he made the decision to drop his reelection bid after “much prayer and reflection” and that he would complete the current term.

The Ethics Committee recommended the censure, an act registering its deep disapproval of a lawmaker’s conduct that does not meet the threshold for expulsion, on Monday. The panel highlighted numerous examples of actions it considered improper, including Edwards providing the young women with lavish and recurrent gifts, making comments regarding their appearance and dress, inviting them to intimate dinners and vacations, and sending notes regarding his affection.

Edwards denied that any of his conduct was intended as a sexual or romantic advance, but the committee said his behavior would “lead a reasonable observer to interpret it as such.”

“Serving Western North Carolina has been the honor of my life,” Edwards said in a post on X. “Thank you for your trust, prayers, and support. God bless WNC and America.”

North Carolina Republican Sen. Ted Budd said Edwards "did the right thing by withdrawing from the race.”

In a statement, the senator said the congressman has been “a fighter for the people of Western North Carolina as they work to recover from the impacts of Hurricane Helene, and I know he’ll continue to advocate for disaster funding for the remainder of his time in D.C.”

Budd’s spokesman, Christian McMullen, said the senator found the House Ethics Committee's report on Edwards “deeply concerning" and believed the congressman already faced a significant uphill battle trailing in the polls even before the report's publication. He declined to say whether the senator asked his colleague to step aside, saying the senator does not discuss private conversations.

The Ethic Committee described Edwards' actions as “beyond inappropriate” but said it found no evidence that he explicitly propositioned any person under his employ or engaged in any sexual activity with them.

In a response to the Ethics Committee's report, Edwards’ attorneys argued that the committee’s findings “exonerate” the congressman. His attorneys said the recommendation of censure was an “extraordinarily harsh and infrequent punishment” based on vague standards and adherence to the spirit of House rules, “not based on a direct violation of House rules addressing sexual misconduct.”

State law requires Edwards to put his intent to withdraw in writing and submit it to the state Board of Elections before ballots are mailed to overseas voters and the military. The Republican executive committee in Edwards' district will name a replacement.

Directed by Broadway veteran Michael Jablonski, a current faculty member with UCF’s musical theatre program, the musical tells a story about family, mental illness, grief, and healing.

The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning rock musical follows Diana Goodman and her family as they confront the challenges of bipolar disorder and search for stability in the aftermath of loss.

With a raw, honest look at resilience and the lasting impact of mental illness, the production pairs its deeply human story with a dynamic contemporary rock score by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey.

What makes this show even more interesting is that it allows Resident Artist interns currently pursuing BFAs in musical theatre to work alongside professionals.

Lyndi Floyd-Sweet is one of those interns. She plays Natalie in the show. She said she has learned so much through the program.

“Alongside being in Next to Normal, the interns assist and lead week-long youth theatre arts programs. Inspiring young artists is so rewarding,” said Floyd-Sweet.

“Going from Camp all day into rehearsal has not been easy, but the Interns have built such a special friendship. We all are incredibly supportive of each other, especially through the hard days.”

One of the professionals Floyd-Sweet is working with is Broadway’s Kim Sava.

“What makes this opportunity really special to me is getting to work with college-age students who are seriously considering doing this with their lives. This profession is so tough, and if I can give them any advice, encouragement, or help them in any way as they’re starting out, I absolutely will. I honestly wish we had a program like this when I was in college,” said Sava.

Most recently, she performed with the original Broadway cast of “Beetlejuice the Musical.” Before that, she toured with the cast of “Matilda the Musical.” In “Next to Normal,” Sava plays Diana.

“As an actor, this role has also pushed me in a way I haven’t experienced before. I’ve never played someone this vulnerable, and Diana asks you to go to some really raw places. It’s scary at times, but that’s also what makes it exciting. Those are the kinds of roles that remind me why I love doing this,” said Sava.

The program has become a launching pad for successful careers with performers starring in shows like “Hamilton,” “SIX,” “Kimberly Akimbo,” and “Lost Boys.”

“Next to Normal” runs August 6–9 in the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater at Dr. Phillips Center.

The show has an age restriction of 13 and up.

Rush tickets are also available for students, teachers, first responders, and veterans. The limit is 2 per person with a valid ID, $25 per ticket. Click here for details.

A recently approved park expansion in Volusia County marks a final step toward the state’s goal to protect land surrounding North Peninsula State Park. But the county’s plans for improving Highbridge Park could be derailed if Florida voters approve a proposed property tax overhaul this November.

Update: Volusia council approves land purchase to expand Highbridge Park

The park and the plans

Right now, Highbridge is a one-acre park on the Halifax River, just north of Ormond Beach. It’s one of several state, county and city parks sitting along the Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail, which is one of six designated National Scenic Highways in Florida.

Volusia County council members recently approved acquiring 14 acres of adjacent land to expand Highbridge Park. Planned improvements for the park include a floating kayak launch, an open pavilion for birdwatching and night-sky photography and more parking space.

Those overflow parking spaces are necessary because the park regularly reaches capacity on weekends and during peak seasons, Community Services Director Bradley Burbaugh said. “It is very popular, and I think that’s one of the reasons we acquired [more land], is really the roadway safety concern.”

Adding additional parking space within the park itself would reduce the likelihood of vehicles parking along nearby road shoulders, which is currently what often happens once Highbridge fills up.

Property tax proposal, if passed, would strip more than half of county parks budget

If approved by voters this November, the property tax proposal headed to Florida ballots would make it “extremely more difficult” for the county to fund Highbridge Park’s planned improvements, Burbaugh said.

“It would mean a significant cut: over half of the budget in Parks and Recreation,” Burbaugh said.

An anticipated public meeting to gather community input for improvements to Highbridge Park is currently on hold, Burbaugh said, until after the election this November.

“Given the property tax reform under consideration in November, we’ve put a hold on capital projects until we see what the will of the voters is at the end of the day,” Burbaugh said. “And so it’s on hold, unfortunately. But the vote will determine whether we move forward or not with amenitizing this piece at this time.”

The county’s role is only to educate voters on the property tax proposal, not advocate for one outcome over another, Burbaugh said. Volusia County has been sharing information on its social media channels about how property tax revenues get used and the wide range of services they fund.

“It’s not property tax reform; it’s government service reform, is really what’s on the ballot,” Burbaugh said.

A full circle moment

The county’s approved Highbridge Park expansion marks a final step toward the state’s goal of protecting land surrounding the nearby North Peninsula State Park. Those adjacent lands making up what’s known as the state park’s optimum boundary foster parkland continuity and access, and allow for the state to potentially expand future recreational activities.

“This is the last unpurchased parcel by the public in [North Peninsula],” Burbaugh said. “So we were proud to do that, and basically close out the park’s kind of footprint in Northeast Volusia County.”

Back in 1986, Volusia became the first county in the nation to vote to tax itself to buy conservation land, Burbaugh said. The program, known then as Volusia’s Endangered Lands Program, later became Volusia Forever.

In the years since 1986, Volusia County gradually bought up parcels of land which ultimately became North Peninsula State Park.

“We’ve been investing in this area because it is a treasure,” Burbaugh said.

Also next to North Peninsula State Park, another 1,100 acres of land within the Ford Marsh project are targeted for acquisition by Florida Forever, the state’s flagship program for acquiring lands for conservation and recreation.

The barrage, which lasted about two hours, was the latest in a series of large-scale Russian missile strikes that have become almost routine this summer. Moscow is exploiting Ukraine’s critical shortage of interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot systems, the sole air defense weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy has pleaded with other countries, especially the U.S., to send more of the ammunition made scarcer by the Iran war. Failing that, he wants to make Patriot ammunition in Ukraine or win permission from Elon Musk to use his Starlink satellite communications system to guide strikes inside Russia that can hit its missile launchers.

It's unclear how many interceptors Ukraine has left. Zelenskyy said after a Russian aerial attack Friday night that air defenses shot down only one ballistic missile “solely because there are no missiles for the Patriots.” Supplies of air defense missiles for Ukraine in the first half of this year fell to one-third of the 2025 level, Zelenskyy said.

“Ballistic interceptors are what could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelenskyy said Wednesday on social media. “It is very important for our partners to understand that delays in supplying them, or a reluctance to hand over anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”

The targets hit in the barrage included a brewery, a warehouse for construction material, and a mail sorting office that had nothing to do with the war, Zelenskyy said. But Russia's Defense Ministry said the businesses had military ties.

Thursday was set as an official day of mourning for the 17 people killed, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's regional military administration. In addition to the dead, at least 44 people were injured.

Ukraine retaliates with long-range drones

With U.S.-led peace efforts apparently stalled, Ukraine has stepped up its deep strikes on key Russian targets such as oil refineries to try to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. Zelenskyy has accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin has refused.

In its latest attack on facilities for Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries, Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse in the Tula region south of Moscow, the company and the region’s governor said.

Ukraine has struck over a dozen Wildberries facilities in under three weeks, saying the company provides goods that can be used by the military. Kyiv is also keen to unsettle the Russian public with high-profile attacks.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 475 Ukrainian drones overnight over 16 Russian regions, as well as in illegally annexed Crimea and the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.

Russia says it struck war-related targets

Russia fired 24 ballistic missiles, four other missiles identified as either hypersonic Zircon or supersonic Onik cruise missiles, and 115 drones, many of them jet-powered and harder to stop due to their speed, Ukrainian authorities said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it struck transport, logistics and distribution centers involved in war-related activity, four of which were in Kyiv.

“The enemy is attacking everything indiscriminately — retail warehouses, food storage facilities, logistics hubs, enterprises, building materials warehouses,” Zelenskyy adviser Serhii Beskrestnov, said on Facebook.

It was not immediately possible to independently reconcile the different Russian and Ukrainian accounts of the military value of the targets.

Kyiv warehouse worker Mykhailo Hukov said an air raid warning that included a ballistic missile threat sounded just after midnight.

“So everyone started running,” he told The Associated Press. “I turned everyone around so they wouldn’t go back inside for their backpacks.”

In an underground shelter minutes later, they heard “very loud explosions.”

Ukraine’s largest private postal operator, Nova Poshta, said a Russian cluster munition destroyed one of its sorting centers in Kyiv.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the center was “storing and distributing dual-use goods, including those used in the production of long- and medium-range uncrewed aerial vehicles, as well as robotic systems and electronic warfare systems.” It claimed that two other logistics centers in the Kyiv region stored drones or components for drones.

Separately, Russia said its forces hit three bulk carriers on the Black Sea south of Odesa that it claimed were transporting Ukrainian weapons and military equipment. Ukrainian officials didn't comment on that claim.

Truck drivers make a narrow escape

Ivan Braga, a 46-year-old truck driver from Moldova who was in Kyiv during the attack, said he and a colleague ran from their vehicle when it was struck by shrapnel in a blast wave.

“We didn’t even have time to grab our documents or anything else,” Braga told AP. “I couldn’t believe it. I’d already been in Kyiv and had heard explosions before, but nothing like today.”

One of the companies that came under heavy fire was Epicentr, one of Ukraine’s largest retail and construction chains. It said in a statement on Facebook that “in minutes, Russian missiles destroyed what the company had built over decades.” One employee was killed and three others were wounded.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Epicenter logistics center handled order processing, sorting, storing, and delivery of dual-use goods and components for drone production.

Russian drone factory chief badly hurt in a car blast

The director of a factory that makes drones for the Russian military was seriously injured when his car exploded in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, news reports said Wednesday.

Vladimir Tkachuk was hospitalized after the explosion late Tuesday just outside the city 1,400 kilometers (about 870 miles) east of Moscow, the state Tass and RIA Novosti agencies said.

His factory, Uraldronzavod, manufactured the Upyr, a cheap and simple drone that was popular with troops for the protection it offers against jamming.

Russian officials made no comment, but authorities previously have blamed Ukraine for a string of bombings and other attacks targeting military officials.

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AP reporters Illia Novikov, Volodymyr Yurchuk and Dan Bashakov in Kyiv contributed.

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

The move Tuesday closes the book on the Jan. 6 cases that were wiped out with Republican President Donald Trump's sweeping pardons and commutations last year, freeing from prison people convicted of violent of assaults on police and other crimes.

The Department of Justice in April acted to vacate the convictions of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and others in the seditious conspiracy case who had their sentences commuted but did not receive pardons. It was a stunning reversal from the Democratic Biden administration, which hailed the guilty verdicts in one of the most serious cases stemming from the Capitol attack.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who oversaw the Oath Keepers' trials, criticized the department's move, writing in his ruling that the government "asks to absolve these Defendants of crimes against the United States itself." But Mehta wrote that he had no choice but to grant the administration's request.

“This is the last of the prosecutions seeking to hold accountable those responsible for the events of Jan. 6. That book is now closed,” wrote Mehta, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama.

“Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy — the peaceful transfer of presidential power — to buckle. The court cannot write a different ending,” he wrote.

Juries in the nation's capital convicted Oath Keepers leaders and members of another group, the Proud Boys, of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump’s 2020 election loss to Biden. Rhodes was released from prison in January 2025 after Trump commuted the 18-year sentence he received in the case.

Rhodes, who did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, has denied any wrongdoing and described himself at his 2023 sentencing as a “political prisoner.” James Lee Bright, an attorney who represented Rhodes at trial, wrote in a text message that he was “disappointed in the tenor" of Mehta's opinion, adding that it was “not necessary to inject his personal opinions in such a fashion.”

Trump has argued that the Jan. 6 defendants were treated unfairly by the justice system, saying the pardons were intended to end “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people” and begin “a process of national reconciliation.”

More than 1,200 people across the United States were convicted of Jan. 6 crimes, including roughly 200 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement.

Most of the Jan. 6 defendants were granted “full, complete and unconditional” pardons, while Rhodes and other defendants in the seditious conspiracy cases only had their sentences commuted. Trump also ordered the attorney general to seek the dismissal of roughly 450 cases that were pending before judges stemming from the largest investigation in Justice Department history.

The Metropolitan Police said four men, aged 34, 39, 42, and 52 were found with stab wounds and that a 47-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and assault. They said early indications suggest that it was a mental health-related incident and that scissors were recovered at the scene

The injured were taken to a major trauma center following the incident early afternoon Wednesday in Endell Street. No further update has been given on the extent of their injuries.

There is a significant police cordon around the scene of the incident.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said the service treated four patients at the scene and took them all to a major trauma center by road.

Police previously said that three people had been stabbed in the incident, but in a statement they later confirmed four people were found with stab wounds.

Israel tells residents to leave village in southern Lebanon

For the first time in weeks, Israel's military told residents of an area in Lebanon to evacuate. The military said it was in response to what it described as “a blatant violation of the ceasefire” by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

In a post on X, military spokesperson Lt. Col. Ella Waweya told residents of Mansouri to immediately move at least 1,000 meters (yards) north of the village to open areas. The military later said it was conducting “precise strikes” in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health ministry said one person was killed and 12 wounded in an Israeli strike in the town of Tebnine.

The escalation came as Lebanese and Israeli negotiators met in Rome for a second day to discuss implementation of a deal under which Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw from areas they occupy in southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah's disarmament.

A shaky ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has largely held since June 20. The fighting erupted two days after the Iran war began when Hezbollah fired at Israel.

Trump says a Strait of Hormuz deal could come Wednesday

U.S. President Donald Trump has said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come as early as Wednesday.

Iran and Oman, the country on the other side of the strait, are inching toward an agreement on the critical waterway that could ease pressure on the global economy and potentially help end the war.

The U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, citing goals including toppling Tehran’s government and ending its nuclear program. But the conflict has devolved into a fight over the strait as Iran asserts control and its attacks on shipping have brought traffic to a near-halt. The U.S. recently reimposed a blockade on Iranian ports.

Closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas passed before the war, has driven up the price of fuel and related goods far beyond the region, roiling the global economy.

Trump is under mounting pressure to end the unpopular war ahead of midterm congressional elections later this year.

On a hot July morning, Yvette Batham welcomed this reporter into the air-conditioned interior of a small SUV.

Batham, 48, and hundreds of others were waiting in the car line of a food distribution event at the Ocala Rotary Sportsplex. A large truck from Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida had just arrived. Volunteers would soon be helping to distribute the food.

Batham said she’s responsible for feeding nine people at her Ocala-area home. She said her husband started a new business in April and they no longer have his steady paycheck.

They’ve cut the food budget to about $200 every two weeks -- or about $11 per person per week.

“[W]ith the rising price of gas and paying mortgage and electric,” she said, “the grocery budget ... that’s where the cut had to be made, and if it wasn’t for the food bank, we would just be in trouble. We’d be in big, big trouble.”

As Batham waited for the line to start, she described her dream meal.

“Oh, I would make my family a nice seafood boil,” she said. “I’d make them with corn and sausage and shrimp and crab legs, and we’d all sit around my big old table, and we’d dip it in real butter, and … I could just see, I can just visualize all their happy, smiling faces.”

Hitting low-income families hard

A federal survey shows that, on average, U.S. households spent 12% of the family budget on food in 2024. For very-low-income households, it was 33%.

And over the past year, as food costs continued to rise, a new federal law pushed hundreds of thousands of Floridians out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, America’s food security safety net.

Food banks and faith-based volunteers have responded to the increased need, but so far, the federal government has not.

This article -- part of the series “Central Florida Seen & Heard: Vote Your Budget” -- looks at those issues. It also focuses on the congressional options one voter affected by food insecurity will have on this year’s General Election ballot.

‘Cheap box meals’

Grocery prices are rising across America. They were up 2.7% in June compared to a year earlier, and some categories were much worse: beef and coffee were up around 12%, tomatoes 19%, and lettuce 32%.

In Central Florida, some families are having to choose cheaper, less healthy foods.

Twenty-one-year-old Conner Ortiz was at a food distribution at Wings of Faith Fellowship Church last month in Marion County’s Silver Springs Shores.

Ortiz said he shops for his family of four, consisting of him, his brother and their parents.

“Our budget hasn’t always been the best, but with food going up, it’s been a lot more constrained, where really the best we can do is getting cheap box meals,” he said.

They do like their meats, but those are pricey, Ortiz said. “I always wince whenever I get it because, like, I really could spend this on something that could fill them up more.”

The Second Harvest Food Bank supplies distributions like the ones in Marion County and food pantries across seven counties. Its senior director of advocacy and government relations, Stephanie Palacios, said families are making hard choices all over Central Florida.

“Rent eats first,” Palacios said. “If you are housed, you have to do what you can to protect that situation.”

And you can’t pay just 75% of your rent, she said. “You’re going to have to make the squeeze somewhere else. And people are doing it at the grocery store. So they’re going to food distributions and pantries to fill that gap. Additionally, we’re seeing neighbors that are feeling the squeeze from falling off of SNAP benefits.

Changes to SNAP

That program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is the federal government’s longstanding effort to help millions of low-income families put food on the table.

SNAP and the federal assistance provided through groups like Second Harvest are in the hands of Congress, though state lawmakers will have a say in how recent changes to SNAP play out in Florida.

President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which congressional Republicans passed last summer, makes cuts to SNAP estimated at $187 billion over 10 years. It does so by expanding work requirements and shifting costs onto the states.

The work requirements, which take effect after three months on SNAP, have been extended to parents of children 14 and older, veterans, young adults leaving foster care, and older adults up to age 65.

Since the law took effect, more than 600,000 Floridians no longer receive SNAP. The numbers as of June show a 20.8% decline.

Palacios said more dominoes will fall soon.

“As time goes on, and we get over a year or maybe two years out from the One Big Beautiful Bill, then we can see what the impacts really are on the state, on the charitable food system, and on neighbors facing hunger,” she said.

Beginning in October, the state’s share of SNAP’s administrative costs will increase from 50% to 75%.

Historically, the federal government has paid for 100% of the actual SNAP benefits. Now part of the burden will shift to states, if their error rates are above 6%.

Beginning in October 2027, the bill requires:

1. states with error rates of 6% but less than 8% to contribute 5% of SNAP benefits,
2. states with error of 8% but less than 10% to contribute 10%, and
3. states with error rates over 10% to contribute 15%.

In June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported a fiscal year 2025 payment error rate in Florida of 12.97%.

“In the future, the state of Florida is going to be responsible for 15% of those benefits, based on the error rates that recently came out,” Palacios said. “Estimates are that that’s close to a billion dollars worth of benefits.”

As SNAP takes these hits, Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks, is confronting the growing need to at least try to fill the gap. It’s asking Congress to double funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program -- known as TEFAP -- and increase the money for transportation and storage.

Those programs are paid for through the Farm Bill. The latest version passed the House earlier this year and is awaiting action in the Senate. It does not amp up funding for food assistance.

“And it’s a decision that I think Central Floridians should be interested in asking their lawmakers,” Palacios said. “What are the lawmakers’ concerns about how support for neighbors facing hunger has dwindled over the past few years, and how investment hasn’t increased, even though the need is?”

‘Free food’s not free’

As for what Batham, the Ocala mom, would like to see from lawmakers, the registered Republican said, first of all, she’s thankful and she acknowledged that “free food’s not free.”

“Somebody’s working, somebody’s paying the bill,” she said, “and so I understand that SNAP has to tighten its belt, and I understand that there has to be some red tape.”

Her family doesn’t receive SNAP benefits. With her husband’s new business, Batham said they can’t track the household income in order to report it.

But she would like to see better foods at distributions.

“It would be so much better,” Batham said, “if I could get some meat.”

On the ballot

So how would the candidates running for Congress on her November ballot address food assistance?

Her home is in Florida Congressional District 3.

Her congresswoman, Gainesville Republican Kat Cammack, will face independent candidate Mike Klein and the winner among four men in the Democratic primary.

Cammack voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“In July of last year, she supported the reconciliation package the President signed, which expanded work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents,” her campaign said in an email. “Her statement at the time said the bill ensures benefits go to those who truly need them.”

Cammack also helped to shape this year’s Farm Bill to support producers affected by natural disasters. During floor debate she called it a lifeline for farmers and ranchers …”the men and women who wake up before the sun, who work through the hurricanes and the freezes and the disease outbreaks, who have been delivering for this country.”

But bolstering TEFAP wasn’t one of her priorities. Her campaign points to a change in the Farm Bill that would allow states to spend some of those funds on fresh produce.

“This means food banks can take a share of that allocation as fresh produce instead of shelf-stable commodities,” the email states.

Klein, the independent candidate, says in an email that he favors ensuring adequate resources for food banks and protecting access to SNAP for people with genuine need.

“We should eliminate waste, fraud and abuse wherever it exists,” Klein said in an email. “But a nation cannot balance its budget on the backs of children, seniors, veterans and working families who are already struggling.”

He says food security shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

The Democratic candidates are Seth Harp, George Hubac, Troy Albers and Tom Wells.

Hubac and Harp have made opposing cuts to food assistance part of their campaigns.

In a candidate survey, Hubac says his No. 1 issue is to “reverse the cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and health insurance.”

As for SNAP, Hubac said in an email that he’ll vote to restore it.

“The cuts in last year’s budget law were written to arrive in waves,” he wrote. “The first wave already hit. Veterans used to be exempt from SNAP’s work rules, and that exemption is gone. …. We asked these folks to serve, and now we’re asking them to prove they deserve dinner.”

Harp said he teaches at a middle school in Gainesville where a high percentage of families have SNAP. He said two students came to him in early November saying they were hungry and asking for old Halloween candy because their mother’s EBT card no longer worked.

“[P]unishing adults, or the attempt to punish adults, you’re actually hurting children. ... So the thing is, if part of your platform is denying children food, you are cruel.”

Albers, an Army and Navy veteran, said more money for TEFAP would also help farmers and that, ultimately, it comes down to what Congress chooses to fund.

“But it appears that we can find money when we want to do something to hurt somebody, but we can’t seem to find money when we want to do something to help people, right?” Albers said. “And I’ll give you an example: (with) what it would cost for 12 hours of the Iran War, we could have funded this for the entire year.”

Wells said he finds it hard to concentrate on this issue with so many concerns: killings by immigration agents, corporate campaign finance and “the tyranny of the Supreme Court.”

A blessed day

Finally, Batham’s SUV was at the end of the line. Cars filed by slowly on either side of a row of tents, where volunteers transferred the food.

Batham faced backward from the front seat with her daughter behind the wheel. At each stop, volunteers piled bread, milk, juice, pastries, chicken, vegetables, a watermelon and boxes of food into the back.

She called out a thank you to each volunteer.

“You’re welcome, ladies,” said one of the women helping out. “Have a blessed day.”

And yes—those cows are kind of judgy.

What makes Joe Overstreet Road special?

Joe Overstreet Road is a really great example of old Florida and an even older Florida living side by side. It’s open pasture, scattered trees, fence lines, and big sky—the kind of habitat that makes it easier to spot wildlife because there’s nowhere to hide… except, apparently, for the animal everyone comes here to see.

At the end of the road, you’re rewarded with a pier and a view of Lake Kissimmee. The landing can be as rewarding as the road itself, with a totally different set of birds tied to the water—so even if your “target species” is being difficult, there’s usually something worth scanning for.

The “dinosaur” that brings bird nerds to the yard

But there’s one dinosaur out here that brings all the birdwatchers to the yard: the burrowing owl.

Burrowing owls are small, long-legged owls found in open, treeless grasslands. Instead of nesting in trees like most owls, they live underground, using burrows (often ones originally made by other animals). That’s part of what makes seeing them feel so random: you can be staring at a perfect-looking patch of habitat… and the owl is basically a surprise feature popping up out of the ground.

They hunt insects, reptiles, and small mammals, and one of the coolest things about them—especially for photographers—is that they can be active during the day. Daylight owls. Florida stays weird.

Why open pasture matters

Burrowing owls like wide open areas like this because they want a clear view to spot predators. They’ll pop up near the burrow entrance and watch everything like tiny, feathery security guards. If you’re lucky, you’ll even see that signature head-bob behavior—part of how they judge distance and track movement.

Other wildlife you can find out here

Even when the owls are playing hard to get, Joe Overstreet Road is still a greatest-hits album for open-country Florida wildlife.

Here are a few species that make this road worth the drive:

• Eastern meadowlark: A classic grassland songbird that loves open fields and fence posts. If you’re learning birding, this is one of those “okay, now I’m in Florida” birds.
• Loggerhead shrike (the “butcher bird”): Famous for impaling prey on thorns and barbed wire. Cute and hardcore is the correct description, unfortunately.
• Alligators: Especially closer to water. Keep your distance and don’t be the person who turns a wildlife outing into a cautionary tale.
• Green anoles and grackles: The supporting cast that makes the whole place feel alive, even when the “main character” isn’t on set.

(And depending on the day and season, birding resources note this area can also be good for additional specialties—including occasional reports of larger, rarer birds out in the pastures.)

How to bird Joe Overstreet Road without being “that person”

Quick disclaimer if you do decide to come out here: please be respectful of private property. Much of what you’re looking at is working ranchland. Birding here is typically done from the road/shoulder where legal and safe—no hopping fences, no wandering into fields, no blocking traffic because your dream bird chose the worst possible perch.

A few practical tips:

• Drive slow and stay aware of traffic.
• Pull off only where it’s safe and fully out of the way.
• Bring binoculars and a long lens (or spotting scope if you’re serious).
• Give wildlife space—especially burrowing owls near burrows.

The real reason this road works for wildlife photography

Joe Overstreet is basically a masterclass in wildlife photography expectations: you can come for one species, and the road might hand you ten others first. When your subject doesn’t show up, you don’t just go home. You look for opportunities everywhere—light, behavior, compositions, and the moments you didn’t plan for.

And if you’re chasing burrowing owls specifically, that patience pays off. Sometimes the “hole in the ground” stays a hole… until it doesn’t.

Disney also announced a global short-form content sharing deal with TikTok on Wednesday. The agreement will bring Disney-focused fan-created content from TikTok to the Disney+ app.

Shares climbed more than 4% in early morning trading on Wednesday.

The Walt Disney Co. cautioned earlier this year that its theme parks division would likely see modest growth due in part to declining tourism from abroad.

International tourism in the U.S. has waned for a number of reasons after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, including tariffs, a crackdown on immigrants, and repeated jabs at alliednations.

The Experiences division, which includes Disney’s six global theme parks, its cruise line, merchandise and video game licensing, reported that operating income climbed 20% to $3.02 billion and revenue totaled $9.97 billion. Operating income rose 27% at domestic parks, while operating income declined 13% for international parks and Experiences.

Overall attendance at U.S. parks climbed 3% from a year ago on an increase in attendance from domestic tourists and annual passholders. The company said the performance was also helped by summer promotions and new experiences being offered at the parks.

CEO Josh D'Amaro, during a conference call after the first full quarter he has overseen since taking over for Bob Iger about five months ago, said that spending was also up at domestic parks despite the current economic uncertainty.

“The consistent investments that we’ve made over time, combined with the fact that the experience Disney provides to its fans, it’s truly differentiated and highly valued,” he said.

The growth in attendance at parks is being driven by U.S. residents, but Disney is also seeing more robust traffic at domestic parks from overseas visitors.

D’Amaro became the 9th CEO of the 100 plus-year-old company after overseeing Disney theme parks, cruises and resorts for about six years.

Disney got a substantial boost from “Toy Story 5” during the third quarter, which has already pulled in $1 billion at the box office globally. The film boosted interest in other Toy Story films on Disney+ as well, and Toy Story merchandise sales helped give the company its strongest quarter of year-over-year growth in consumer products revenue in 20 quarters. The company also noted the strong performance of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” particularly overseas.

Revenue for the entertainment streaming business - which includes Disney+ and Hulu - climbed 11% to $5.53 billion. The results were helped by adding more subscribers, price increases and higher advertising revenue.

Disney earned $2.64 billion, or $1.51 per share, for the three months ended June 27. It earned $5.26 billion, or $2.92 per share, a year ago.

Removing one-time charges and benefits, earnings were $2.06 per share. That easily topped the $1.86 per share that analysts polled by FactSet predicted.

Revenue for the Burbank, California-based company rose 7% to $25.25 billion. Wall Street was looking for $25.39 billion.

Disney said it recorded an approximately $100 million tariff refund after the Supreme Court struck down some of President Donald Trump’s most sweeping levies on trade. The company said that it may receive additional refunds in future quarters, but that the monetary amounts are expected to be insignificant.

They made camp in tents and the backs of cars. One truck parked sideways across the road. They awoke at 3 a.m., their headlamps tracing the ground, as they took their positions.

An hour later, headlights appeared in the distance. A logging truck slowed, idled, then turned around. Nobody got out. Nobody spoke.

It was a small, inconclusive victory in a fight that has spanned generations. But for those gathered in the forest, it mattered.

“There is no dispute about what happened to our land,” said Bill Jones, a First Nations Pacheedaht elder who sat in the road as daylight crept in. At 86, he’s watched the forests on his nation’s territory disappear for most of his adult life. He started logging himself at age 18, he said, before he understood what he was helping to dismantle.

“There’s nothing left — it’s practically naked, bare,” he said. “There’s few remnants here and there, and so we have to save what we can.”

Vancouver Island’s old-growth rainforests are among the rarest ecosystems on Earth

Coastal temperate rainforests cover barely half a percent of Earth’s land surface. Vancouver Island’s remaining stands — some are home to thousand-year-old trees — store more carbon per hectare than nearly any other forest system, according to the Sierra Club of British Columbia.

Yet trees that took a millennium to grow can be felled in under an hour. Since industrial logging began more than a century ago, most of Vancouver Island’s productive old-growth forests — those capable of growing the large trees characteristic of the island’s rainforests — have been cut. About 20% of those forests remain, according to the Sierra Club, and most of what remains is still open to logging.

Old-growth western red cedar, defined by the province as trees 250 years or older, produces wood so durable and rot-resistant that it fetches significantly higher prices than other local species. It’s widely used in construction and, despite recent tariffs, the United States remains a major export market. Second-growth forests, by contrast, are younger stands that regenerated after previous logging and produce less-durable wood products.

Although the province says more than 11 million hectares of old growth remain, scientists say there is only about 415,000 hectares of productive old growth capable of growing the largest trees.

The fight is not unique to British Columbia. During what became known as the Timber Wars of the late 1980s and 1990s, activists occupied giant redwoods, chained themselves to logging equipment and blockaded roads across California, Oregon and Washington. The battles ultimately helped secure protections for many of the remaining ancient forests.

The conflict has flared for decades

More than 850 people were arrested during the 1993 “War in the Woods” protests at Clayoquot Sound. Nearly 30 years later, more than 1,100 were arrested at Fairy Creek, where blockades won temporary protections now set to expire in September.

As old-growth logging has continued elsewhere on the island, activists are again returning to the forests.

In the Walbran Valley, also on Pacheedaht territory, logging by Tsawak-qin Forestry, a company co-owned by the Huu-ay-aht First Nation and forestry giant Western Forest Products, has exposed tensions over whether forests on traditional territories should be managed for economic development, conservation, or both, and who within Indigenous communities can decide.

British Columbia’s forests minister, Ravi Parmar, said that if a long-term agreement with the Pacheedaht Nation is not reached before the Fairy Creek deferral expires he would seek another extension.

The province says it has deferred or protected 2.4 millions of hectares of old growth since 2021, but critics say most of those measures are temporary and some deferred areas continue to be logged. At the same time, British Columbia Premier David Eby's government has pledged to increase timber harvests in an effort to revitalize the forestry sector. Opponents argue those goals are incompatible.

The ecological consequences of losing what remains would be extensive

Some coastal old-growth stands on Vancouver Island have not experienced a major disturbance since the end of the last ice age some 12,000 years ago. Their layered canopies, nurse logs and ancient root systems create habitat for hundreds of species, including threatened marbled murrelet seabirds and salmon.

“Once an old-growth forest is logged, it will require millennia before it has the structure, composition and function of the forest that was logged — if in fact it can ever recover in times of changing climate,” said Andy MacKinnon, a forest ecologist in British Columbia.

The forests also drive tourism, which some researchers argue outweighs their value as lumber. Visitors from around the world flock to the island's ancient groves to experience towering, moss-draped cedars and Douglas firs.

Still, the transition away from old-growth logging cannot happen overnight, said Parmar, the forests minister.

He pointed to the province's old-growth deferrals and protections, alongside investments in second-growth hemlock milling, as evidence that British Columbia is moving away from dependence on old-growth timber. He said the industry is also under pressure from U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber, which now top 45%.

“Forestry is the foundation of our economy. It provides good paying, family supporting jobs — about 100,000 direct and indirect,” he said. “If we were to shut down harvesting of all old forests here in British Columbia, it would shut down our sector completely on day one.”

For some, the fight to protect old growth is personal

“This is our ivory trade,” said Steven “Shambu” Daniluk, a longtime blockader who spent nearly two years on the front lines at Fairy Creek. But unlike the illegal poaching of elephants, much of the world remains unaware of what is happening in British Columbia’s forests, he said.

“People feel unheard,” he said. “Being engaged in this way, risking that arrest, is the only way.”

Veronika Sitar, an outdoor enthusiast from Campbell River, has found her own way of reckoning with the losses. Most weekends she drives and hikes hours into the backcountry to document old-growth stands before the loggers reach them — spending time, she said, with trees she fears won’t be there when she returns.

On a recent trip into the north island’s Prince of Wales range, she pushed through dense undergrowth and snaked around thorny plants to reach General Buxton, one of the largest yellow cedars in British Columbia. She was still catching her breath when she spotted flagging tape just 200 feet (60 meters) away, marking the route of a proposed logging road.

“I don’t want to get too attached knowing what will be logged,” she said.

Back at the blockade, word spread of a new area where logging was being planned, this time on Ditidaht First Nation territory to the north. They began making calls, hoping to connect with local land defenders.

Jones, the Pacheedaht elder, said he was troubled not just by the loss of the forests, but by people's connection to them and, in turn, to themselves. That, he said, is why they continue to protect the remaining old growth.

“We’re just fighting over the leftovers.”

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Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram: @ahammergram.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

On the day that Infantino reportedly held a meeting with senior staff in Rabat, Morocco, European Leagues, which includes top competitions like the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A, described the proposal as “dangerous” and said it pointed to deeper concerns about how world soccer's governing body operates.

It said it raised “serious questions about FIFA’s governance, internal culture and decision-making.”

“Now more than ever, FIFA requires governance reform that ensures that all relevant stakeholders have a formal role in decisions that shape the future of our game.”

In the statement European Leagues hit out at the possibility of further expanding the World Cup to 64 teams and said “FIFA must not be allowed to continue taking unilaterally disruptive decisions.”

It said that until there was reform it would reject the “expansion or creation” of FIFA competitions.

European Leagues is the latest to condemn Infantino's plans after a tumultuous week, which has raised questions about his presidency of FIFA ahead of elections in March.

European soccer's governing body UEFA has applied the most intense pressure by voting to boycott the World Cup if Infantino pressed ahead with the controversial plans to sell profits in its top competition through a commercial subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) that would run tournaments.

Even after Infantino's climbdown UEFA said it had lost confidence in FIFA’s leadership — possibly paving the way for a challenge to his presidency. The governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer (CONCACAF) also said FIFA leadership had “stopped putting football first.”

On Tuesday top FIFA officials Arsène Wenger and secretary-general Mattias Grafström distanced themselves from the FFE plans, which emphasized divisions within the organization that were evident when Infantino's senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned last week and chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said staff were “deceived” by the president's lack of openness.

Wednesday's summit in Rabat was dubbed a “crisis meeting” in media reports amid growing expectation that Infantino will be challenged in next year's election when he was aiming for to win a fourth and final term in office.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

Orange County’s in-person voters won’t be mailed sample ballots for the upcoming primary, a shift that has upset some voters and election advocates.

Primary voters can view, and then print, a sample ballot via a QR code, which was provided on a mailer sent to their homes. They can also call or email the elections office and request a sample ballot be sent to them or stop in and pick one up.

But, in a shift from past elections, no paper sample ballots will automatically be sent to those who didn’t register to vote by mail, said Blake Summerlin, a spokesperson for the Orange County Supervisor of Elections, in an emailed statement.

[ELECTION 2026: Primary Election Guide|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

However, for the November general election, the county will move back to traditional paper sample ballots, as it has in the past, Summerlin added.

He did not directly respond to a question about why the office had decided against sample ballots mailed to homes for the primary. “We have used a variety of sample ballot mailer formats in the past to provide voters with important election information and help them prepare for upcoming elections,” Summerlin wrote. “Because each election is unique, the format and method of providing this information varies.”

The QR codes first landed in Orange mailboxes last year during the special election for Senate District 15 and House District 40, and that system has now been expanded for the Aug. 18 primary.

A sample ballot also ran recently in the Orlando Sentinel, which — paired with the QR codes — serves as an appropriate substitute for mailing them, Summerlin said.

But Eugenia Economos, a 73-year-old county resident, said older voters are in a panic about the change. The elderly people she knows want to vote, but they often have little understanding of technology, she said.

Contacting the elections office to request a paper sample ballot can also be too much, she argued, as it demands more use of technology, by phone or email. And an extra in-person visit can be challenging, especially for the disabled.

“They tell me they take their paper ballots into voting booths so that they can remember who to vote for,” she said. “Without having paper ballots mailed to them, they’re going to be disenfranchised. They’re not going to know where to go, how to do it, who the candidates are.”

The mailer with the QR code doesn’t mention that traditional sample ballots won’t be sent at all, she added, so some people she spoke to were still unknowingly waiting for them to arrive.

Lake, Osceola and Seminole counties are still mailing sample ballots to voters for the primary, which is consistent with past elections, officials said.

Orange’s shift worries the League of Women Voters of Orange County. Kathy Schmitz, the group’s co-president, agreed older people will more than likely be put off by the QR codes. But younger and low-income people also might not have access to printers to make their own copies of sample ballots, she said.

“Even those who are savvy enough to use the QR codes often like to mark their ballots and take them into the voting booth with them,” she said. “The tech makes that more difficult.”

The advocacy group has already reached out to the supervisor of elections office about the change, she added, and urged bringing the old system back for the general election.

For the primary, voters who want a sample ballot mailed to them can contact the Orange County Supervisor of Elections at (407) 836-2070 or at sampleballot@ocfelections.gov, or pick one up at one at the election offices at 119 W. Kaley Street, Orlando or 9401 W. Colonial Drive, Suite 360A, Ocoee.

Republican candidate for Congress Dr. Nizam Razack tells VoxPopuli that he has received death threats because he is Muslim.

“It’s crazy. I’ve had people come up to me and threaten me,” the Orlando neurosurgeon and law professor running in the Aug. 18 primary for the 11th Congressional District, said in a phone interview.

“This is the first time I have faced open bigotry like this in the United States,” said Razack, who was born in India and came to the U.S. in 1967. “I mean, people say things behind your back and stuff, but it’s the first time that people have been open and so blatant about it. No one is really challenging these people.”

[2026 VOTER’S GUIDE: U.S. House District 11 GOP Primary | U.S. House District 11 Democratic primary]

A report about a July 10 incident (completely redacted because a criminal investigation is in progress) was filed with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Razack told VoxPopuli that OCSO had advised him not to campaign door-to-door for his own safety. He has since hired his own security to accompany him to campaign events. He doesn’t answer his phone unless he recognizes the number.

Earlier this month, a group from the Florida Republican Freedom Assembly, “a Judeo-Christian grassroots organization committed to restoring the Republican Party to its founding principles,” protested outside a candidates forum in Wildwood where Razack was speaking. They held signs saying No Muslims in Public Office.

Razack said he believes one of his opponents, Tim Wilkins, and his supporters, are “stirring this up” with anti-Muslim rhetoric, memes and videos.

“He thinks [Islam] is an ideology and not a religion so that gives him the right to denigrate my religion as well as my faith,” Razack said.

“Anybody that saw the Facebook posts knows what I’m talking about,” he said.

VoxPopuli was unable to find the posts Razack referred to, but several posts on Wilkins’ Facebook page and a page associated with Gregg A. Jones, a Wilkins supporter who also runs the Summerlake Community Residential Conservative Group in Winter Garden Facebook group, are no longer available.

[ELECTION 2026:Primary Election Guide|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

Wilkins’ posts, speeches and videos — he mispronounces “Razack” the way President George W. Bush intentionally mispronounced Saddam Hussein — regularly refer to “finding a way to stop the spread of radical Islam.” Wilkins has called Islam a “cancer” and said Razack’s association with the Islamic Center of Orlando is disqualifying for office. He’s even suggested that Razack has tried to conceal he’s Muslim.

“He’s Indian, which implied that he’s Hindu,” Wilkins told VoxPopuli in an interview earlier this month.

In response, Razack said that Wilkins’ “fear-mongering hate speech” should disqualify him from office.

“Someone that wants to be an elected federal leader, a Congressman for District 11, he represents everybody, race, color, religion,” Razack said. “If he wants to be bigoted in his opinions about people’s races and their religion, then he does not qualify to be in office, in my opinion, as a law professor.”

Wilkins did not respond to a Monday email request for comment regarding the death threats that Razack said he’s received. However, in that earlier interview, VoxPopuli asked him whether he was concerned that his statements could be ginning up anti-Muslim sentiment.

“I don’t worry about that,” Wilkins replied. “I’m not concerned with calling attention to the fact that people need to think long and hard about what someone’s intentions are for holding office and say, All right, here’s a very successful guy. Why would he do this and what is his background?” he said. “My background is very transparent.”

Jones, the Wilkins supporter who posts anti-Muslim videos featuring Razack on TikTok and Facebook, often with the headline “Muslim Alert,” told VoxPopuli via Facebook that he was not behind the death threats.

Asked if he was comfortable with the idea that someone may be inspired by his content to take a shot at Razack, Jones said, “I don’t incite any violence.” Then he asked if we were “comfortable with 9/11 and Oct. 7,” referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 people taken hostage.

Razack, who said his senior law students are following this side drama to his campaign with fascination, is appalled that his religion has become an issue in the election.

“My character and my competence are the two issues that the voters should look at in terms of whether they want to vote for me or not. So, what Mr. Wilkins is doing is completely against everything that my parents came here for, everything that I stand for, everything that I teach,” he said.

“Article VI of the Constitution says there’s no religious test for a candidate to run for an office. The fact that I’m a Muslim is no different than if I was a Hindu, Jew, Christian, Buddhist. That makes no difference … People that think like Mr. Wilkins — that only Christians can hold office — that is absolutely absurd if you’ve actually had an education and read what the Constitution says … If Mr. Wilkins would take the several minutes and read the First Amendment and Article VI, then he would understand what his responsibilities as a public servant are to all people, not just himself.”

Elijah Rakha-Sheketoff contributed reporting.

Sumar, a small left-wing party that shares Spain’s government with the leading Socialists, presented a motion in the country’s Parliament on Wednesday asking Spain’s sports authorities to revisit its plan to co-host the 2030 soccer tournament with Morocco and Portugal.

Sumar only has 26 seats in the 350-member Parliament, but its voice is important because it holds ministerial positions in the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has faced criticism from other European Union members for the Ceuta crisis.

The motion would be non-binding. Sumar said it is hoping it can gain more support in the parliament, but beyond the potential backing of other small, left-wing parties, that seems unlikely at this point.

Sánchez has publicly defended the role of Moroccan authorities, saying they were quick to help in the return of almost all the 72,000 people who crossed into Ceuta last week. Some 2,000 people remain in Ceuta, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry, including one thousand minors.

But opposition voices and even Spain’s defense minister have asked for Morocco to give a more detailed explanation on its response to the crisis, which was fueled by social media posts encouraging people to cross the frontier. More than 80 people died when they tried to swim in a mass crossing around a breakwater and border fence from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish city perched on the North African coast, on Thursday and Friday.

Sumar's Nahuel González, one of the parliament members who authored the motion, accused Morocco of using migration flows for political ends.

“The Moroccan state, the Moroccan monarchy, does not respect human rights, it uses migrants to exercise political pressure,” González told Spanish broadcaster TVE.

When asked, González did not clarify if Sumar wants Morocco to not host the World Cup or for Spain to abandon hosting the event.

“We ask that Spain’s sports institutions reconsider this World Cup that is to be shared with Morocco because we believe that we must defend human rights,” González said.

A small party in Portugal’s parliament, Livre, shared the concern. It sent a letter to Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and to the President of the Portuguese Football Federation calling for a reassessment of the World Cup, calling it “unsustainable” after the Ceuta crisis.

The majority of the 2030 World Cup is to be co-hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal, with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay also due to stage a game each. The South American connection will mark the centenary of Uruguay hosting the first World Cup in 1930.

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Videojournalist Helena Alves contributed from Lisbon, Portugal.

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

A bridal shower and yard-sale barbeque were canceled. So were English-language classes. Roosevelt Toussaint, the senior pastor of the nondenominational congregation in Salisbury, said attendance at Sunday’s service dropped by more than half. Normally, more than 500 people would have heard his sermon, titled “What to do in a time of crisis.”

The reason for empty seats, Toussaint said, is that many community members are unwilling to venture from their homes, fearing arrests and deportation since the Trump administration moved to end Temporary Protected Status for more than 1 million people from numerous countries. Among those affected: roughly 350,000 Haitians who have been living and working legally in the U.S. for years.

In Salisbury, the Eastern Shore's biggest city, about 10% of the 33,000 residents are Haitian, many of them employed under TPS as farmworkers, caregivers and in the poultry plants that are the region’s economic backbone.

Like other Haitians losing TPS, they face an agonizing choice: try to stay in the U.S. and find underground work, constantly fearful of being caught by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Or return to a nation so overwhelmed by gang violence and poverty that some feel deportation is tantamount to a death sentence.

Pastor has a message for the president

Toussaint, the Word of Life Center's pastor since 1995, said he had a message for President Donald Trump.

“We’re expecting you to have compassion for our people. They haven't done anything wrong,” Toussaint said. “All they came to this country to do is to work, to make a difference in our economy. … There’s no security at home. If you really send us over there, you send us to die.”

At Sunday's service, the first since TPS protections expired, Toussaint exhorted his congregants to persevere.

“I’m praying this afternoon that God can make you invisible to the enemy,” Toussaint told them in Haitian Creole. “They put a lot of terror in your heart. But God has come to tell you: Do not be afraid!”

Some of the congregants who are U.S. citizens said they attended the service in solidarity with those losing TPS. Among them was Marjorie Estimé, who wore a Haitian flag draped around her neck.

“I want to tell the president of the United States to stop the ICE program, so that the people can work, so ICE can stop shooting them, persecuting them, and we can go back to normal,” Estimé said of the administration's crackdown on immigration.

ICE has pressed ahead, according to advocates and attorneys who say the agency is calling Haitians in for ankle bracelets and telling them not to travel more than 75 miles (121 kilometers) from their home address.

“Instead of them heavily descending on communities, they are using tactics to bring those people into their offices to either detain them or fit them with an ankle monitor, and telling them that if they don’t self-deport, they will be called back to report within a month,” said Guerline Jozef, president of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

Court rulings fueled confusion

The TPS termination affecting Haitians was challenged in district courts. On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court  sided with the government, allowing TPS to end and triggering weeks of confusion around enforcement timelines.

On July 27, the work permits were not extended and fear mounted in communities — not only due to the loss of jobs but also because it exposed them to deportation.

“It’s just like a hurricane at Category 5 — that’s how bad it is,” said Samson Orneus, a member of Toussaint's church. He helps the pastor lead the local Haitian Development Center of Delmarva and runs WOLC Immigration Services, an immigrant assistance business in Salisbury.

Throughout last week, news spread on social media about arrests by immigration authorities at gas stations and outside supermarkets.

“We had a population living legally, raising their kids, paying their bills, and with the decision (to end TPS), they were left in limbo,” said Marie D. Fouché, founder and executive director of Safe Harbor Circles. It provides support to immigrant communities across the Eastern Shore and recorded more than a dozen arrests of immigrants recently, including some with TPS.

“They have left their kids at home,” she said. “They went to the grocery, shopping at Walmart to cook for them and feed their family. But they got arrested in the parking lot, and they’ll never go back.”

Asked about ICE enforcement activities in Salisbury, the Department of Homeland Security said via email that it “does not discuss ongoing or future operations.”

“Temporary Protected Status is exactly that — temporary,” the email said. “For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent.”

At a nearly empty barber shop in Salisbury, a Haitian with TPS ventured in for a haircut. Like others, he asked to remain anonymous for fear of deportation.

“They’re not going after the people committing crimes,” said the 39-year-old man, who has been a caregiver at a nursing home since moving to Salisbury in 2020. “When I go out to the street, I’m in fear.”

TPS protections for Haitians date back to 2010

The United States initially gave TPS to Haitians following a devastating 2010 earthquake and extended it several times since.

The Trump administration pushed to end that status, saying conditions in Haiti improved. Yet almost 1.5 million people have been  displaced because of gang violence, and most Haitians need humanitarian aid.

“What this administration is doing hurts me so much because it’s inhumane,” said Leila Borrero Krouse, an immigration specialist with CATA, a nonprofit supporting Eastern Shore farmworkers.

“In all of these years that I’ve been working with immigrants, I’ve never met a criminal, a rapist, an abuser,” she said. “Most come to take jobs that others don’t want. And it’s heartbreaking to see how they’re suffering.”

The immigration crackdown has upended the life of Patricia Grace Louis-Jacques, a nursing student at Salisbury University with family members and friends affected by the end of TPS. Last week, her best friend asked her to take care of her infant child if she got detained.

“From that moment, I knew things got bad,” Louis-Jacques said at a nearly empty Caribbean Creole Cafe under a painting of Toussaint L’Ouverture, a leader of the Haitian Revolution. “Their lives have tremendously changed.”

Not far from the church, near a Perdue Farms poultry plant, a Honduran woman spoke from the home she has rarely left since the Trump administration ended TPS for nearly 80,000 Hondurans and Nicaraguans.

She said she worked at Perdue for more than two decades, repetitively cutting chickens with scissors on a fast-paced line, before losing her job last year after her TPS expired.

Her 25-year-old son, who was born in the U.S., worries that she will be detained. He often calls, reminding her to keep her living room curtains closed and avoid answering the door. Sometimes, she said, she hides by locking herself in a bathroom, where she keeps a Bible.

She used to attend church and volunteer at events advocating for immigrants' rights. These days, she only takes her two dogs to the yard and then returns indoors.

“It’s terrible to live in this anxiety,” she said. “It isn’t fair to those of us who came to this country not to cause harm, but to try to have a better life.”

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Associated Press writer Gisela Salomon in Miami contributed to this report.

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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.

Now, he can feed Bailey spoons of peanut butter while she lies on his lap and play fetch with her in Central Park. His allergies didn't go away: Bailey's saliva and hair no longer contain a key allergy-causing protein.

“The feeling right now is sort of a mix of relief and awe and gratitude that it worked,” said Walker, a geneticist. His company, Kindred Companion Sciences, created Bailey and her twin Alfie using a Nobel Prize-winning technique called CRISPR.

It'll take years before the millions who suffer from dog-related allergies can walk into a pet store and buy a pooch like Alfie or Bailey.

Scientists have to monitor the long-term health effects of the genetic tweak, and find ways to commercialize the approach to make it affordable. And experts not involved with the effort say it could hurt shelter and rescue animals waiting to be adopted.

“It opens the door to a lot more people being able to own pets. On the negative side, it may discourage people from trying to use strays and unwanted animals that are not engineered to be allergy-free,” said bioethicist Arthur Caplan with New York University's Grossman School of Medicine.

Researchers have tried to create hypoallergenic pets before, mostly using cloning. But this led to sicker pups that were too genetically similar. Two years ago, researchers used CRISPR to reduce levels of an allergy-causing protein in a cat named Alsik. But it's not yet clear whether this technique is safe to be tested on other cats.

Dogs that shed less, like poodles, are often thought of as hypoallergenic. But these pups still produce allergy-causing proteins that end up in their saliva, hair and dander, so they can still make people sniffly.

To create Alfie and Bailey, scientists started in the lab. They edited the genetic code inside dog skin cells, switching off the main gene responsible for producing allergy-causing proteins. Then they transferred the edited genetic code into eggs that went into a beagle surrogate that gave birth to two healthy female pups in September 2024. Scientists tested their saliva and fur and didn’t find signs of the allergy-causing protein.

They also performed an allergy test, pricking Walker's skin with extracts from Alfie and Bailey's saliva and dander. His skin reacted to samples from a poodle and goldendoodle, but not from the beagles.

The research, published Wednesday in the CRISPR Journal, is the first time such an approach has been tried successfully in dogs.

Walker says all dogs have the same allergy-causing gene that was edited in Alfie and Bailey. Kindred Companion Sciences hopes to test the technique on other dogs and service animals to see if they can breed an allergy-free line of pups beyond beagles.

Future research should test the gene-edited hypoallergenic dogs on more people with pet allergies to be sure they can soothe symptoms across a broader swath of the human population, said Dr. Jeff SoRelle, a pathologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Since the switched-off gene is the main — but not the only — allergy-causing culprit in dogs that was tested, “we don't exactly know just how effective or broadly useful this could be for stopping dog allergy in humans,” said SoRelle, who had no role in the study.

Bailey lives with Walker in New York, and Alfie lives in Florida with another Kindred scientist. The edit made to their genes is rare but does occur naturally in some dogs, so Walker said it's unlikely to have any negative effects on the pups. But it will still be important to monitor them at routine vet visits and make sure they stay healthy.

Walker has had Bailey for a little over a year and says she's become a member of the family.

Despite being a lifelong dog lover, his allergies kept him away from pups growing up. Even breeds that were supposed to be more hypoallergenic, like his family's goldendoodle, gave him itchy eyes and painful rashes.

But he and Bailey can play tug-of-war together in his living room, and she snuggles at his feet to comfort him when he’s sick.

“It feels just amazing to get to have a dog,” Walker 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.

And with over 60 rest areas across the state — accompanied by eight Turnpike plazas and four welcome centers — it may be tempting to catch a few winks on longer routes.

But the big question is: are you actually allowed to do that?

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

Nearly every rest area in Florida is open 24 hours a day, making them a great spot to take a nap.

However, Florida Administrative Code only allows drivers to park for up to three hours. As such, drivers might be able to take a short snooze, but it’s no substitute for a full night’s sleep.

For commercial drivers, though, that figure is hiked up to 10 hours, which can help with their often longer drives.

[BELOW: Stuck in the middle of an intersection? Trooper Steve explains the rules]

Either way, FDOT officials assure residents that Florida’s rest areas feature overnight security, so drivers can feel safer if they decide to use these spots to drift off for a bit.

That being said, picnic areas at these rest stops are not open at night, so you’ll be limited to other activities during this time.

The move brings the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's list of targets to 58, an ambitious list that reflects Trump's diminished standing with the electorate and Democrats' belief that they can capitalize on voters' frustrations over the economy, the war in Iran and the chaotic nature of the Republican president's second administration.

“MAGA Republicans who historically have considered themselves ‘safe’ have let down the people they were elected to represent, passing disastrous policies that are crushing working families and our communities,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement.

The expansion spans from GOP-held districts in swing states like Nevada to those in Republican strongholds Indiana, Arkansas and Tennessee and Democratic-dominated New York. The list includes DelBene's counterpart at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina. The targets include other incumbents and some open seats.

Democrats need just a handful of seats to erase Republicans' narrow majority and control the chamber for the final two years of Trump's tenure. Republicans lost a net of 40 House seats in the 2018 midterms during Trump’s first presidency.

Here's a look at some notable new Democratic targets:

— NORTH CAROLINA 9TH: It's notable for Democrats to target House Republicans' campaign chairman. Trump won the district by 15 percentage points in 2024 against the Democrats' presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. But Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein carried it in the same election cycle in his successful campaign for governor. Democrats note that since 2020, the district has gained 15,000 Black voters, who tend to vote for Democrats. The Democratic nominee is Richard Ojeda, who ran for Congress in West Virginia in 2018. He lost but got 44% of the vote in a district where Democrat Hillary Clinton got only 24% in the 2016 presidential election against Trump.

— ARKANSAS 2ND: Democrat Chris Jones, the party's 2022 governor's race nominee, is trying to unseat six-term Rep. French Hill in a district that once elected moderate Democrats. Trump won the district by 16 percentage points. The electorate is about 20% Black and has a growing Asian and Latino population. Democrats point to the March primary turnout, when Democratic ballots outnumbered Republican ballots for the first time since the 2018 primaries.

— FLORIDA 12TH: Held by Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis, this is one of the districts affected by Republicans' gerrymandering efforts after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision gutting a Voting Rights Act provision that protected minority voting strength. But as part of the GOP redraw, Bilirakis' Tampa Bay area district became more Democratic and about 14% less white, according to the DCCC's analysis. Democrats will choose a nominee this month, but Washington party leaders are looking to Darren McAuley, a former Air Force surgeon, as the potential challenger.

— NEW YORK 21ST: Trump won this district by about 21 percentage points in 2024, but not long after that he pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik's nomination for U.N. ambassador because Republicans did not want to risk the seat with their narrow House majority. Stefanik, who launched a 2026 campaign for New York governor but dropped out of that race, is not seeking reelection to Congress. Now it's an open-seat battle between Republican Anthony Constantino, a Trump-aligned businessman who is self-funding his campaign, and Democrat Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer. The district has been represented by a Republican since 2015, but Democrat Barack Obama won it twice in presidential contests.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Each returning migrant is met with the question: Have you seen my son? My daughter? My brother?

Authorities say all but a few thousand of the 72,000 migrants who crossed into Ceuta in recent days have since returned to Morocco. Some families were relieved to welcome them home. Others were disappointed that the migration attempt failed.

Other families still wait desperately for news.

Families hold up photos of the missing

The surge to Ceuta was largely driven by poverty and fueled by online rumors that the border was open, triggering a crisis resonating across Europe. More than 80 people died on both sides of the border, according to authorities, as people swam or climbed fences in the attempt.

Nearly all of the migrants who survived were expelled by Spanish authorities or returned voluntarily after seeing they were unwelcome. Many of those who made it back borrowed phones from strangers to reassure anxious relatives because they had lost or abandoned their phones in the journey.

As the first migrants trickled back to Morocco, an Associated Press reporter watched families hold up printed photographs of missing relatives, stopping returnees one by one in hopes that someone might recognize a face.

The migrants studied each picture, offering what reassurance they could, often saying only that they hoped the missing person was safe.

“I have been looking for my son for five days now,” said Ibtissam Chari, whose son Rayan crossed with friends after hearing that the border had opened. “He called me when he arrived, and since then I haven’t heard anything from him."

Another woman stood silently facing the border. She said she has heard nothing from her 12-year-old son, who crossed into Ceuta with his older brother. Only the older one has returned.

“I have nothing else to do but come here and wait,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her children. “I spend all my days here. I will come back tomorrow again.”

Facebook groups that helped the crossing seek the missing

An estimated 1,000 of the few thousand migrants estimated to remain in Ceuta are minors. Spanish security forces are not authorized by law to expel them, and their fate is uncertain.

It remains unclear whether all of the dead have been found or returned to Morocco. Local newspapers and a source at the morgue in Tetouan, the largest Moroccan city near Ceuta, said the facility had received more than a dozen bodies. Journalists were not allowed to enter. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

Meanwhile, Moroccan authorities have welded shut the small opening in the border fence that had been opened to allow many returning migrants to re-enter the country.

Facebook groups that had circulated videos showing where to swim and tracking Spanish and Moroccan patrols have now taken on a different purpose. Families post photos there of missing relatives, hoping someone has seen them.

“If anyone has seen this girl in Ceuta or Castillejos, please let us know. Her family is going crazy,” one user, Hiba Nakaax, wrote in the Facebook group Fnideq Bab Sebta.

Some parents hope their children try again for Europe

Migration has long been woven into the aspirations of many young Moroccans. Poverty and youth unemployment remain high, particularly in inland regions that have not shared in the economic gains seen along parts of the coast.

For many, Europe represents the possibility of work, stability and a different future. Last year’s youth-led Gen Z protests in Morocco reflected growing frustration over inequality and the quality of public services.

Some parents knew their children intended to make the journey.

After returning from Ceuta, 26-year-old Othmane El Merzoug was barefoot and hungry and desperate to communicate with his family. He asked to borrowed an AP reporter’s phone to call his father in the Moroccan city of Salé.

“Dad, I’ve returned from Ceuta. They didn’t allow me to stay,” he said over speakerphone. His father promised to send money to get him home.

A traumatized 17-year-old from Taounate, Mohamed Chakor, also asked to borrow a phone to call his father, who asked for help in finding other ways to reach Europe.

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Majd Semlali in Fnideq, Morocco, contributed to this report.

The scenes caused by a record heat wave in Northeast Asia illustrate how extreme temperatures have gripped South Korea, North Korea and Japan.

In most of South Korea, a major heat wave advisory was in place Wednesday as temperatures in densely populated greater Seoul, home to 20 million people, and adjacent areas soared as high as 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

North Korean authorities have issued a heat wave advisory in many areas and called for people to take safety steps to avoid heat-related health problems.

Japan's anti-disaster agency reported more than 18,000 people with heat stroke symptoms were transported to hospitals during the week of July 20 to 26.

South Korea heat is a ‘national disaster’

Since mid-May in South Korea, about 2,220 people have been diagnosed with heat-related illnesses and 19 have died, according to a report from Interior and Safety Ministry. About 17,140 livestock, such as chickens, ducks and pigs, and about 160,000 farmed fishes also have died.

On Sunday, the southeastern city of Yangsan saw temperatures reaching 42.5 Celsius (108.5 Fahrenheit), the highest figure recorded since weather observation began in Korea in 1904.

In a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to view the ongoing heat wave as “a national disaster” and make all-out efforts to protect lives.

On Tuesday night, a spectator in his 20s collapsed while watching a baseball game between SSG Landers and LG Twins at a stadium in Incheon city, west of Seoul. Emergency personnel administered CPR and transported him to a hospital, halting the game for about 10 minutes.

Another fan in his 20s fell unconscious and received treatment at the stadium after the game, according to the Korea Baseball Organization, which announced Wednesday that all 10 games scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday were canceled and would be rescheduled.

North Korean hospital official recommends cooling food

Min Son Yong, deputy director of the internal medicine department at Pyongyang General Hospital, told North Korea’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Sunday that people should eat dog meat and fish porridge to supplement protein to beat the heat.

Euphemistically known as “dangogi,” or sweet meat, dog meat has long been considered a stamina food in North Korea and is traditionally eaten during the hottest time of the year.

Min also recommended watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, mung beans and ginger to cool down, the newspaper reported.

Dog meat also has been eaten in China, Vietnam and African countries, as well as in South Korea, which plans to formally ban slaughtering, breeding or selling dog meat for human consumption beginning next year.

Humans and animals suffer in Japan heat

Japan’s Environment Ministry issued a heat stroke alert for most of the western and southern Japan on Wednesday. While temperatures in the Tokyo region temporarily fell this week, intense heat continued to hit southern Japan.

In the southwestern city of Kumamoto, relief and cleanup work continued following a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on July 28 that killed 38 people, including a woman in her 70s who developed heat stroke while taking shelter in a car. More than 43,000 households were still without water on Wednesday.

Three lions have died at a Tokyo zoo, with a number of their animal peers developing apparent heatstroke symptoms.

Tama Zoological Park said, Mugi, a 3-year-old female lion, developed a loss of appetite on July 19 and was unable to stand the following day. Suspecting heat problem, zoo keepers provided ventilation and a water sprinkler to cool her down. The lion eventually died on July 28 despite treatment with subcutaneous fluid, liver tonics and vitamins, the zoo said.

Two other female lions, Ichigo, 11, and Luena, 15, also died within a few days, the zoo said.

Autopsies showed dehydration and multiple organ failure in all three animals and officials say they believe heat was the cause of the health problems.

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Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

On Saturday, deputies spotted a stolen Nissan Altima near NE Jacksonville Road and NE 35th Street.

When a deputy attempted a traffic stop, the driver bolted. MCSO Air One tracked the driver from above while ground units deployed stop sticks on NE Highway 314. He drove over them anyway — tires shredding until they fell off completely, the sheriff’s office said.

The suspect, identified as 38-year-old Chad Cordey, can be seen in chopper video ditching the car and fleeing through a nearby yard, all while holding up his sagging shorts as he ran.

With help from neighbors, K-9 Koen tracked Cordey to his hiding spot beneath a parked vehicle.

Cordrey, who deputies said is a registered sex offender, was transported to the Marion County Jail and faces charges of grand theft, fleeing and eluding, and resisting arrest.

With this in mind, Edmunds’ auto experts researched which SUVs across different size and price categories are the best picks for towing, whether it’s a fishing boat to the lake, a camper to the mountains, or a car or horse trailer. All prices below include destination charges and are for the least expensive version of the vehicle that qualifies for its maximum towing capacity.

Small SUV 2026 Toyota RAV4

Fully redesigned for 2026, the entire RAV4 lineup now features a hybrid powertrain that delivers peppy acceleration and excellent fuel economy. Toyota’s revamped compact crossover also scores upgraded tech and a more upscale cabin. Although the base LE trim is limited to a 1,750-pound tow rating, SE and higher trims can tow up to 3,500 pounds when equipped with all-wheel drive. That’s enough to pull a small boat, travel trailer or an open trailer for a couple of motorcycles or watercraft. All-wheel drive is optional on the SE and XLE Premium trims, while the Woodland, XSE and Limited trims come standard with it.

RAV4 SE, properly equipped: $37,695

Midsize three-row SUV 2026 Nissan Pathfinder

The Pathfinder is Nissan’s versatile SUV that’s bigger than the Rogue but smaller than the full-size Armada. Updated styling and new technology for 2026 enhance its appeal. And when properly equipped, it also boasts a class-leading tow rating of 6,000 pounds. That’s enough to pull a midsize travel trailer, a midsize boat, or a car hauler for a relatively lightweight vehicle. SV and SL trims optioned with the Premium package and all-wheel drive achieve this rating, while the Rock Creek and all-wheel-drive-equipped Platinum trims include the necessary equipment as standard.

Pathfinder SV, properly equipped:$45,785

Full-size SUV 2026 Jeep Grand Wagoneer

Outfitted with a gusty turbocharged six-cylinder engine and a class-leading tow rating of up to 10,000 pounds, the roomy Grand Wagoneer does a great job of balancing everyday needs with robust towing capacity. This is enough to pull larger travel trailers with dual axles, large boats, or enclosed trailers for vehicles or horses. You’ll need to get a four-wheel-drive model fitted with the optional Heavy-Duty Trailer-Tow package to get the vehicle’s max tow rating. The Grand Wagoneer also offers features to make towing easier and safer, such as an integrated trailer brake controller that allows you to adjust the trailer’s brakes for smooth and appropriate stopping power.

Grand Wagoneer, properly equipped:$71,785

Luxury SUV 2026 Lincoln Navigator

If you’re looking to get a superb mix of luxury and towing capability, the Lincoln Navigator should easily satisfy. Impressive next-generation infotainment tech and an array of creature comforts make it a standout in the luxury class, while its powerful turbocharged V6 is ideal for families that want to haul in style. Navigators with four-wheel drive and the Heavy-Duty Trailer Tow package can tow up to 8,700 pounds. The Navigator also offers advanced towing features like Pro Trailer Backup Assist, which features a control knob that you can use to help steer the trailer while reversing.

Navigator Premiere, properly equipped:$96,640

Electric SUV 2026 Cadillac Escalade IQ

Cadillac’s flagship all-electric SUV is massively powerful, massively luxurious, and just plain massive. But set aside the 750-horsepower output, the 55-inch digital display that stretches across the dashboard, and the acres of interior space, and you may be surprised to learn that the Escalade IQ can also tow up to 8,000 pounds. Towing a heavy trailer can significantly reduce an EV’s range, but fortunately, the Escalade IQ has a lot to begin with. The EPA estimates that Caddy’s big electric SUV can go up to 460 miles on a single charge.

Escalade IQ starting price, properly equipped: $130,300

Edmunds says

The best towing SUVs don’t force you to choose between capability and comfort. From weekend recreation to serious towing needs, today’s top tow vehicles deliver the versatility and refinement to handle the job without feeling like a compromise on the drive home.

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This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds. Bradley Iger is a contributor at Edmunds.

Ugandan sporting news website NBS Sport said four members of the nation's boxing squad had reportedly gone missing in Scotland and did not rejoin the rest of the delegation before the team’s scheduled return to Uganda on Tuesday.

The Pakistan Today newspaper also reported a missing boxer from the Pakistan team.

“Police Scotland has received reports of several athletes who are unaccounted for. Enquiries are ongoing to assess the circumstances, and early engagement is taking place with the Home Office,” a Police Scotland spokesperson said.

There have been numerous cases of athletes seeking asylum following previous Commonwealth Games, including 2018 on the Gold Coast in Australia and in 2014 when hosted by Glasgow again.

“We’ve welcomed nearly 3,000 athletes to the city from 74 nations. We want to deliver a safe and secure games, so we work really closely with Police Scotland, the Border Force, and UK visas and immigration to make sure everyone arrives and departs in line with regulation,” Games chief executive Phil Batty said.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee is term-limited, and the GOP primary to replace him has attracted U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, four-term U.S. Rep. John Rose and state Rep. Monty Fritts. The outcome of the Republican primary has additional significance in Tennessee, which hasn’t elected a Democratic governor in 20 years.

Blackburn won reelection to a second U.S. Senate term in 2024 and launched her campaign for governor in August 2025. Rose launched his gubernatorial bid in March 2025 and has loaned his campaign about $13 million since mid-June. Aside from candidate loans, Blackburn has outraised Rose in terms of campaign contributions. She also has the support of an outside group that has spent roughly $5.1 million backing her and opposing Rose.

President Donald Trump backed Blackburn and Rose in their previous campaigns, but he has not endorsed a candidate in the gubernatorial primary.

Five candidates are running in the Democratic primary for governor, including Memphis City Councilwoman Jerri Green.

Memphis was a prime target among state Republican lawmakers who in May enacted new congressional boundaries that split the heavily Democratic city into three Republican-dominated congressional districts. Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has represented the current Memphis-based 9th District for 20 years, but he ended his reelection bid shortly after the new map was adopted.

One of the Democrats running to replace him in the new 9th District is state Rep. Justin Pearson, who originally planned to challenge Cohen for the nomination. Pearson was one of two Democratic state lawmakers expelled from office in 2023 over his role in a gun control protest in the chamber. Both won back their seats four months later. Also running are state Sen. London Lamar and former healthcare and nonprofit executive Jim Torino.

Running for the Republican nomination in the new 9th District are state Sen. Brent Taylor, state Rep. Todd Warner, retired Army sergeant and volunteer firefighter Jeremy Thompson and conservative activist Charlotte Bergmann. Taylor has outraised the rest of the combined field and has Trump’s endorsement.

Voters in the new 9th District supported Trump for president in 2024 with about 60% of the vote, compared with the current 9th District, which Democratic then-Vice President Kamala Harris won with about 71% of the vote.

Tennessee’s junior U.S. senator, Bill Hagerty, seeks a second term and is the only candidate named on the Republican primary ballot. Five Democrats are running to challenge him in November. The last Democrat to win one of Tennessee’s U.S. Senate seats was Al Gore in 1990.

The key counties in statewide elections are Shelby, Davidson and Knox, which are home to the population centers of Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, respectively. In recent statewide elections, candidates from both major political parties won their primaries by posting a large margin in one of the three counties and losing the other two narrowly while also winning the bulk of the state’s rural areas. Lee won his Republican gubernatorial primary in 2018 by posting a big win in Davidson, while his opponents split Shelby and Knox. Hagerty won his 2020 primary carrying Shelby by a large margin and losing Knox, Davidson and Hamilton, home to Chattanooga. Blackburn carried every county in both her 2018 and 2024 U.S. Senate primaries.

About half of Tennessee’s 33 state Senate seats and all 99 state House seats are up in 2026. Republicans hold overwhelming majorities in both chambers.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Although Tennessee is in two time zones, all polls in both the Eastern and Central time zones are coordinated to close at 8 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Tennessee does not register voters by party, which in other states usually means that any registered voter may choose to vote in any party’s primary. However, a 2023 law requires local elections officials to post signs at polling places with language from a 1972 law stating that primary voters must be “bona fide” members of a political party or “declare allegiance to” the party to participate in that party’s primary. The language was also added recently to absentee ballot applications. Neither law specifies what it means to be a “bona fide” member of a party.

How many voters are there?

As of June 1, there were about 4.7 million registered voters in Tennessee.

How many people actually vote?

There were about 411,000 Republican primary voters and about 205,000 Democratic primary voters in the last U.S. Senate primaries in 2024. In the last primaries for governor in 2022, the Republican contest had about 494,000 voters, while the Democratic contest had about 258,000 voters.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 55% of the 2024 state primary vote and about 54% of the 2022 state primary vote was early in person or by mail.

As of Saturday, about 397,000 Republican primary ballots and about 225,000 Democratic primary ballots had already been cast in Thursday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

In previous elections, nearly all counties tended to release the bulk of their results from mail and early in-person voting in the first report of the night, usually before releasing in-person Election Day results.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 8:02 p.m. ET, or two minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:19 p.m. ET, with more than 99.9% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

In Tennessee, recounts are held only as part of a legal challenge in the courts. There are no automatic recounts, and losing candidates may not request recounts. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Thursday, there will be 89 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was scheduled to meet with partners and President Félix Tshisekedi in the capital, Kinshasa, the WHO country office told The Associated Press. It was his second visit since the outbreak was declared in mid-May.

The Ebola outbreak had 3,874 confirmed cases, including 1,751 deaths, as of Monday, according to data published overnight by Congo’s Ministry of Health.

In Ituri, the outbreak's epicenter, families said many frontline workers have gone on strike, worsening access to healthcare that was already challenged by rebel conflict in one of Congo's most remote and vulnerable areas, its east near the borders of South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda.

While some frontline workers say they have started receiving payment in the last week for work done since the outbreak began, they are demanding improved wages.

Anicet Baluku, a resident of Bunia, Ituri's capital, blamed the death of his two brothers from Ebola on the strike. "We urge the authorities to quickly find a solution to prevent other families from experiencing the same tragedy,” he told the AP.

The outbreak has eclipsed all other Ebola outbreaks in history in its speed of transmission and is the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths.

The Bundibugyo virus that is causing this outbreak has no approved treatment or vaccine, and local officials believe it began in a remote area long before it was declared on May 15.

Nearly three months later, the outbreak is still “spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate,”​ medical charity Doctors Without Doctors said Wednesday.

“The response is expanding but is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains,” the group said.

The head of the Africa Centers for Disease and Control, Dr. Jean Kaseya, said Tuesday while visiting Bunia that contact tracing isn't working, with at least 60% to 70% of new cases coming outside of people being monitored after exposure to patients.

Late detection of cases has been a key contributor to the 45% fatality rate, officials say. The 77 new cases reported in the previous 24 hours included 44 deaths, according to the health ministry.

At least 717 patients are in isolation while 749 patients have recovered.

Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 happened just before 4 a.m. More than eight minutes later, the rocket’s first-stage booster landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic — marking the 645th Falcon 9 booster recovery in SpaceX history.

It was also the 30th flight for the booster.

The three satellites — BlueBird 11, 12, and 13 — are now in low Earth orbit.

According to SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile is building a constellation designed to deliver space-based broadband directly to unmodified smartphones. The FCC has authorized the company to deploy up to 248 satellites. It currently holds agreements with nearly 60 mobile networks globally, including AT&T, Verizon, and Vodafone.

CEO Abel Avellan said the next trio — BlueBirds 14, 15, and 16 — are close behind, with production running through satellite 42.

The Liverpool icon wore the team’s blue and burgundy striped shirt after flying in on a private jet to complete the deal.

Earlier he was filmed aboard the jet pulling on his new jersey.

“Trabzon are you ready? I can hear you. See you very soon,” Salah said in a video message posted on the club's official X channel.

Turkish TV showed still images of Salah wearing a shirt with No. 61 on it as he arrived in Istanbul, where hundreds of chanting fans waited to greet him. NTV also broadcast the Egyptian signing a Trabzon shirt and said his official signing ceremony would be held Thursday in the Black Sea city.

Salah is a free agent after leaving Liverpool at the end of last season.

There was speculation the 34-year-old Egypt international would end his career in Saudi Arabia, but it emerged this week that Trabzonspor was leading the race to sign him.

“We’ve started transfer talks with Mohamed Salah, he’s coming to Istanbul!” the club said.

The official announcement of negotiations to the Istanbul stock market saw Trabzonspor shares rise 6.5%.

Salah established himself as a Premier League great with Liverpool where he won two league titles and the Champions League among eight major honors.

He scored 257 goals in 442 appearances for the Merseyside club and is regarded as one of its greatest players of all time.

But he endured a disappointing end to his time at Anfield with a dramatic drop off in form last season and a public falling out with then-coach Arne Slot.

He only scored 12 goals in all competitions, having scored 34 in the previous campaign.

He announced in March that he would leave the club at the end of the season, despite having a year to run on the contract he signed in 2025.

Trabzonspor is a seven-time Turkish champion and finished third last season.

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Andrew Wilks in Istanbul, contributed to this report

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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

WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY

A shift to an onshore wind pattern will bring scattered showers and thunderstorms back to the forecast each afternoon, with the greatest coverage expected inland as the Atlantic sea breeze moves west. Rain chances will range from around 20 to 30 percent along the coast today and 50 to 60 percent inland, increasing slightly on Thursday.

Any stronger storms will be capable of producing frequent lightning, wind gusts up to 50 mph, and torrential rainfall that could quickly drop 2 to 4 inches in some locations.

High temperatures will reach the upper 80s to lower 90s, with heat index values climbing to around 100 degrees during the afternoon.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY

Attention then turns to a tropical disturbance moving west across the Atlantic. While this feature is not expected to become an organized system, it will transport a deeper plume of tropical moisture into Florida Friday and early Saturday.

Rain chances increase to 60 to 80 percent Friday as bands of showers move onshore during the morning before thunderstorms become more widespread inland through the afternoon.

By Saturday, some of the deepest moisture begins to lift north, but scattered to numerous afternoon storms are still expected.

Persistent easterly winds will also create rougher surf and increase the risk of dangerous rip currents at area beaches heading into the weekend.

LOOKING AHEAD

More typical summertime weather returns Sunday into early next week as high pressure becomes the dominant weather feature again.

Afternoon sea breeze storms will remain in the forecast, but overall coverage should gradually decrease.

With fewer storms around, temperatures will trend hotter, with highs climbing into the low and middle 90s and heat index values approaching 105 degrees.

The Kissimmee City Commission voted to raise the weight limit for commercial vehicles allowed in residential zones from 8,000 pounds to 10,000 pounds and to base enforcement on a vehicle’s Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, or GVWR.

Supporters say the change brings Kissimmee in line with other Central Florida cities and helps workers avoid costly storage fees, while some neighbors worry that too many commercial trucks could hurt curb appeal.

The ordinance uses GVWR — the maximum weight a vehicle can safely operate as established by the manufacturer — to determine whether a commercial vehicle is permitted in a residential area. That figure includes the weight of the vehicle, passengers, cargo, fuel and additional equipment. The GVWR standard is intended to make enforcement clearer for vehicle owners, property owners and code officers alike.

Drivers can find their vehicle’s GVWR on the Safety Compliance Certification Label, located on the driver’s side door frame or door latch pillar, in the owner’s manual or on the manufacturer’s website.

Joseph Schaefer, a Kissimmee handyman, said the ability to park a work vehicle at home can have a direct impact on what customers pay.

“If [the owner’s] got to pay for parking in a storage unit someplace, so he can’t park in front of his house, even though he’s got the room, it costs him,” Schaefer said. “And when he has a cost like that, he’s got to pass that on to the consumer — so that means everybody’s going to have to pay more if he can’t park his truck in his driveway.”

Still, Schaefer acknowledged the issue isn’t black and white.

“But as far as a neighborhood in appearance, it doesn’t look good,” he said. “So, it’s got good points and it’s got bad points, it just depends on how you look at it.”

Under the new ordinance, one commercial vehicle at or under 10,000 pounds GVWR is permitted on a residential property, provided it is used by a resident of the premises. The rule applies to vehicles parked in driveways as well as those stored in an enclosed garage. The ordinance also continues to allow many take-home work vehicles, such as vans used by plumbers and electricians.

City staff arrived at the 10,000-pound maximum after comparing rules in other Central Florida jurisdictions.

The commission had previously tabled the item at its April 7 meeting to allow staff more time to research an appropriate weight maximum, and subsequently held a workshop before arriving at the 10,000-pound figure

Yet extreme heat also disrupts flights and travel plans. On the hottest days, thinner air can make it harder for aircraft to get off the ground safely. Airlines may have to lighten the load by removing passengers or cargo, or carrying less fuel.

The snag is well known at airports in desert climates around the world, from the U.S. Southwest to the Middle East. But even less extreme heat can create similar challenges at airports with higher elevations or shorter runways. Researchers say human-caused climate change could make such disruptions more common.

With heat waves searing parts of the United States and Europe this summer, Las Vegas illustrated how extreme heat can interfere with air travel. American Airlines offered compensation to customers who voluntarily gave up their seats on a July 24 flight from Harry Reid International Airport after temperatures reached 114 degrees Fahrenheit (47 degrees Celsius).

The airline described reducing a plane's weight as a standard industry practice in hot-weather destinations when conditions require it to ensure a safe takeoff. The explanation comes down to physics.

Hot air is thinner than cool air, making it harder for a plane's wings to generate lift and for jet engines to generate the thrust needed for takeoff, explained Ross Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain and CEO of Aero Consulting Experts.

“There is a science behind all this,” Aimer said. “You can’t deny the science of flight and what it takes for an airplane to operate.”

Airplanes struggle in hot, thin air

Aimer likens the effect of high temperatures on airplane performance to athletes competing at high altitude. During this year’s World Cup, foreign teams competing in Mexico City — located more than 7,300 feet (2,225 meters) above sea level — had to contend with thinner air that can leave players fatigued more quickly.

“Just like human beings, jet engines require lots of cool, dense air to perform well,” Aimer said.

Before every departure, pilots and airlines determine whether an aircraft can safely take off by calculating several key factors, including the airplane’s weight, the airport’s elevation and the outside temperature, said Alan Price, a retired Delta Air Lines captain.

Aircraft at higher elevations are already operating in thinner air, so temperatures don’t have to climb as high to affect takeoff performance. Denver, for example, sits more than 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) above sea level.

Runway length also matters. Airliners need room to build enough speed for takeoff when temperatures soar, and shorter runways leave less distance to do that, Price said. That’s one reason airports such as New York’s LaGuardia and Washington’s Reagan National can be more likely to face takeoff restrictions or weight limits during very hot weather.

If the pilot's preflight math shows an aircraft cannot safely depart as planned, airlines may choose to reduce cargo, carry less fuel and make a refueling stop later, wait for cooler temperatures or ask passengers to volunteer for a later flight.

But there comes a point when removing weight isn’t enough to make a safe takeoff possible.

“At some point, the numbers just don’t make sense,” Aimer said. “You could roll down a runway as long as you want, and you still can’t take off.”

Delays due to hot weather could become more common

The Federal Aviation Administration does not set a single maximum temperature for takeoff. Instead, the FAA says, operating limits vary based on an aircraft's make and model, its weight and the airport’s altitude.

A 2017 study by researchers from Columbia University, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Logistics Management Institute projected that some airports could see weight restrictions on 10% to 30% of flights departing during the hottest part of the day by midcentury if greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise. The study examined 19 airports around the world and found that airports with short runways, high elevations and hotter climates would be affected most.

A more recent study concluded that current climate prediction models indicated planes taking off from four European airports would have to shed the weight equivalent of 10 passengers per flight by 2065.

While triple-digit temperatures come with desert living, the kind of hot days that might affect flights are becoming more frequent in both Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has averaged 43 days each year since 2020 when the temperature reached at least 110 F (43 C), according to an analysis of weather station data by The Associated Press. The number of such days increased gradually over several decades before surging in the 2020s to more than triple the average during the middle of the last century.

At Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, temperatures reached that threshold an average of about 18 days a year between 2020 and 2025 — more than double the annual average during the 1940s through 1960s, the AP analysis found.

The 2020s have also been exceedingly hot at Palm Springs International Airport. The airport in Southern California has recorded an annual average this decade of 55 days with temperatures reaching 110 F — an 83% increase compared to the 2000s, when the weather station there began recording data.

Safety determines when airlines reduce weight

Airlines have dealt with these issues for years. During a stretch of scorching heat in June 2016, American canceled several round-trip regional flights between Palm Springs, California, and Phoenix. The following year, the airline canceled dozens of regional flights in Arizona as temperatures in Phoenix climbed toward 120 F (49 C).

In July 2018, some airlines bumped passengers at Denver International Airport to later flights as temperatures reached 98 F (37 C), KDVR-TV in Denver reported.

Delta Air Lines also asked for volunteers to step off a plane in Las Vegas during an excessive heat warning in July 2023 because of weight restrictions tied to the extreme temperatures. That flight was ultimately canceled after passengers spent hours aboard the aircraft in the heat.

Airports can be especially vulnerable to the urban heat island effect, which is the phenomenon of built-up areas becoming hotter than their surroundings, said Jennifer Brady, a data scientist with Climate Central.

With little shade or green space, vast expanses of heat-absorbing pavement and constant activity from airplanes, ground vehicles and air conditioning systems that generate waste heat, “all of the elements are there for it being one of the hottest spaces in a city,” Brady said.

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Wildeman reported from Hartford, Connecticut.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan said the operation was one of the most technically demanding recovery missions ever carried out on the mountain. It said the bodies of Purja, Chinese climber Zhong Wang and Nepali climbers Nima Sherpa and Kilu Sherpa were brought to Broad Peak base Camp.

Search teams brought down three other bodies on Aug. 1.

The bodies will be transported to a military hospital in Skardu when weather conditions permit, local officials said.

In Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, family members, friends and supporters of the climbers gathered Tuesday evening for a candlelight vigil. Buddhist monks chanted prayers as mourners observed a moment of silence before lighting candles in memory of those killed in the avalanche.

The climbers, who came from Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, China, Britain and the United States, were swept away by an avalanche last Thursday in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, in what the Alpine Club has described as one of the country’s deadliest mountaineering disasters.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar expressed condolences to the families of those killed, saying he was deeply saddened by the tragedy and Pakistan remained committed to the ongoing operation in coordination with the embassies of Nepal, Oman, Britain and the United States.

Mountaineering accidents are common in northern Pakistan because of avalanches, falling ice and rock, extreme altitude and rapidly changing weather. A Chinese climber died last year after being struck by falling rocks while descending K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.

Bodies of foreign climbers who die attempting to summit mountains in Pakistan are typically recovered only at the request of their families and governments. If families decline recovery efforts, the remains are usually left where the climbers died.

In a statement, the Alpine Club thanked the Pakistani and Nepali recovery teams, including Pakistani mountaineers Sirbaz Khan, Abid Beg and Sherzad, and Nepali climbers Dipen Gurung and Pemba Chhewang Sherpa.

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Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. AP writer Niranjan Shrestha in Kathmandu contributed to this report.

A contempt finding could open the door to an investigation into whether Fauci had a valid constitutional right against self-incrimination when he refused to answer dozens of questions from lawmakers at a committee hearing last week focused on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Republican senators including Rand Paul of Kentucky, who subpoenaed Fauci and has called a contempt vote for Thursday, insist that a pardon the doctor received early last year from Democratic President Joe Biden left him ineligible for Fifth Amendment protections. A Senate resolution released Tuesday asserts that Paul found Fauci's privilege claims “unsupported.”

But some legal experts say Fauci had reasons to invoke the Fifth Amendment, given the threat of potential state prosecutions and questions from President Donald Trump's administration about the validity of Biden's pardons. Any testimony from Fauci could have also prompted false-statement investigations like the ones the current Justice Department has repeatedly initiated against the Republican president's perceived adversaries.

No matter what happens, the episode raises fresh and complicated questions about Congress' ability to compel testimony from previously pardoned witnesses — and the outcome could resonate beyond Fauci.

“This is an important case because I think a lot of people anticipate that President Trump is going to issue similar pardons to many people in his administration who will end up being called before Congress, and the precedent here is important,” said Mark Osler, a St. Thomas University law professor and pardon power expert.

Paul's committee is moving to transmit the contempt referral from his Republican-led committee directly to the Justice Department. Whether the Justice Department would act on the referral is unclear.

Fauci's pardon protects him for past, not future, acts

Fauci, a longtime National Institutes of Health scientist and the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, left the federal government in 2022 after more than five decades. He was among a group of perceived adversaries of Trump to be pardoned by Biden in one of the Democrat’s final acts in office. The clemency covered acts from 2014 to the date in January 2025 when the pardon was issued.

Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee say the pardon lifted the specter of criminal prosecution and left Fauci without a valid basis to invoke the Fifth Amendment — a bedrock constitutional protection found in the Bill of Rights but one typically available only to those who have a reasonable basis to believe they risk being charged over their testimony.

While a blanket pardon theoretically removes a threat of prosecution, Fauci made clear he thought he had a good-faith basis to fear criminal charges. He invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 100 times.

Before the hearing. Fauci said that Paul, the committee chairman, had an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution." The purpose of his forced appearance “is to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote,” Fauci said.

In the run-up to the hearing, Paul made dozens of Fauci-related posts on X, including ones teasing that he was going to confront the doctor for having earlier given false testimony — something Fauci has denied.

“I think his invoking the Fifth makes sense because he was invited into a situation where everyone in the country understood that Rand Paul was trying to set him up for a criminal prosecution,” said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor. “In that circumstance, one of the smartest things to do would be to make yourself a very small target and say as little as possible, and that's obviously what he did.”

In announcing the contempt vote, Paul noted on X that “Fauci refused to answer a single question, even though he knew he couldn't be charged for crimes” during the decade covered by his pardon. Fauci's deflections encompassed even seemingly harmless questions, such as the color of the tie he was wearing — a reflection of an apparent belief that it was safer to refuse any testimony.

There are factors that could tilt in favor of Fauci's strategy, including the fact that his pardon would not protect him from potential state prosecutions or from a federal prosecution related to any testimony that investigators deemed false. That may not be an idle concern given the number of false-statement investigations prosecutors have opened against Trump's political opponents.

Trump's administration also has repeatedly called into question the validity of the Biden pardons, given Biden's frequent use of an autopen for official business. Legal experts say the pardons are valid.

“The question is do you have a reasonable fear of prosecution, and Fauci's argument would be — yes, I received a pardon, yes, I believe that pardon covers and prevents prosecution but there have been statements from lots of people including Trump and other administration officials ... raising questions about the validity of that pardon,” said Ross Garber, a lawyer and expert in political investigations who has represented multiple clients who have invoked the Fifth Amendment.

“That,” he added, “is potentially a very viable argument.”

Paul has discussed trying to fast-track a contempt referral

Paul said in an interview with Fox News Channel last week that he did not think “there's any rule" requiring that a contempt referral from a committee go through the entire Senate. His committee is instead working to send the referral straight to the Justice Department.

The contempt resolution states that the president of the Senate, Vice President JD Vance, “shall certify” the committee’s referral and the accompanying report to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

That fast-tracking of the process avoids the need for a vote in the full 100-member Senate, where Republicans likely lack the 60 votes required to move a contempt referral to passage.

Tensions are simmering between the world's two biggest economies ahead of an expected visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the U.S. in September, despite signs of warming ties during his meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing in May.

The Commerce Ministry said the sanctions are in response to recent moves from the U.S., including a ban by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on imports of Chinese drones, and the Department of Homeland Security's decision to add 43 Chinese companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act entity list to prevent imports of goods made with forced labor.

The “measures seriously violate the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and severely damage China’s legitimate rights and interests. China has no choice but to take necessary countermeasures in response,” the ministry said in a statement.

It emphasized that China was acting with restraint and urged the U.S. to scrap its measures against Beijing and cease its “erroneous practices.” It also warned of further sanctions if the U.S. rolls out new restrictive measures against China.

Beijing is requiring reviews on a case-by-case basis of exports of unmanned aerial vehicles, their key components and related technologies that are on a list of export-controlled dual-use items that can serve both civilian and military purposes.

Six U.S. entities, including Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. and the non-governmental group Human Rights in China, were banned from engaging in trade or other activities with entities in China.

China also banned a company called Compliance Testing LLC from engaging in business in China because it had worked with the FCC in “harming China's sovereignty and security,” according to a separate statement from the Commerce Ministry.

The ministry also said it was investigating the possible impact on national security of imported printing software and office equipment, but it did not name affected companies.

The State Administration for Market Regulation announced that companies in the U.S. that conduct follow-up factory inspections on behalf of Chinese entities for CCC certification can no longer provide these certifications.

CCC certifications are meant to ensure electronic products meet a basic safety standard. The new rule will oblige U.S. makers of certified electronics to hire auditors based outside of the U.S. or to rely on other non-U. S. designated bodies for such certifications.

In December, the U.S. FCC banned the import of new Chinese drones, though it later revised that ban to allow for some models.

Last week, it also announced bans on imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots and power inverters, citing national security risks, in a move that in effect targets China.

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Leung reported from Hong Kong

The St. Cloud Police Department later addressed the situation in a Facebook post Tuesday, saying the group could have been issued citations but were not. As of the latest check, the post had received more than 560 likes.

The mobile business, known as “The Lemonade Boys,” is run by brothers Dyllon and Deven Thompson along with their 8-year-old brother, Dakari, with help from their father, Derrick Thompson.

Police said the concept of the lemonade stand was not the issue, but rather where it was set up. The department said businesses operating from that location need two permits, including a tent permit.

Police added that if the lemonade stand operated in a driveway, the permits would not be required.

Derrick Thompson said he has since signed the necessary paperwork to continue operating the mobile lemonade stand legally.

Brevard County Schools equipped about 400 school buses with AI-powered cameras at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year that can detect vehicles passing when the school buses’ stop arms are extended.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, which reviews video footage and approves the issuance of violation notices to the registered owners of the vehicles, began enforcement in September 2025.

Most accused violators paid the $225 civil penalty without attempting to challenge it, News 6 has learned.

Of the 414 vehicle owners who have disputed the violations, records indicate nearly a quarter had their tickets dismissed by a state administrative law judge.

Brevard Public Schools received more than $1.3 million in revenue from paid bus camera violations between September 2025 and May 2026, documents show.

BusPatrol America LLC, the private contractor that installed and administers the camera system at no cost to taxpayers, also received an undisclosed share of the ticket revenue.

According to the school district’s contract with BusPatrol, the company was to be paid $65 per collected violation plus a flat monthly fee of $225 per camera.

The school district has not yet released public records requested by News 6 that might confirm how much BusPatrol has been compensated since last fall, and the company did disclose the amount to News 6.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is reimbursed for its actual personnel costs “to the penny” and does not receive a share of citation revenue, according to a BusPatrol spokesperson.

Although school bus passing violations occurred all over Brevard County, the 500 block of North Wickham Road in Melbourne was the top location for tickets with 1,078 violation notices issued in that area, according to data provided by BusPatrol.

The sheriff’s office and school district did not respond to questions indicating whether any measures had been taken to address specific locations where violations frequently occurred.

Brevard County Schools, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and BusPatrol conducted various messaging and public service campaigns throughout the year to educate drivers about the danger of passing stopped school buses, including a kick-off news conference and several write-ups in the school district’s weekly newsletter.

“BusPatrol invested more than $35,000 of its own funds, at no cost to Brevard taxpayers, in a public education campaign that ran throughout the 2025-2026 school year,” a company spokesperson told News 6. “The campaign generated more than 7.7 million impressions across radio, streaming digital advertising, social media, and local media platforms.”

A Volusia County man contacted News 6 last year after claiming he was wrongly issued a school bus passing ticket in Miami-Dade County, which also uses the BusPatrol camera system. The sheriff’s office later dismissed the ticket.

Photographs and videos of the violator’s license plate were extremely poor resolution and difficult for Ray Shover to decipher.

“I couldn’t read it,” Shover told News 6. “It’s so blurry.”

Around the same time, the sheriff of Miami-Dade County temporarily suspended the enforcement of school bus passing violations following concerns that motorists were having trouble scheduling court hearings to dispute tickets.

The Florida legislature later amended state law to allow motorists to contest violation notices through virtual hearings conducted by the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings in Tallahassee.

Nearly 850 accused Brevard County violators have requested an administrative hearing, records show, which is a small fraction of the nearly 18,000 tickets issued in the county over the past year.

Of the 414 administrative hearings that have occurred so far, records indicate that 99 vehicle owners were found not liable and their tickets were dismissed.

A Tampa area man filed a class action lawsuit against BusPatrol and the Hillsborough County School District earlier this year claiming the administrative hearing process violates a state law requiring a “local hearing officer” to be appointed by the school board or county.

Lawyers for BusPatrol and the school district have filed motions seeking to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Stanley Shultz. The defendants argue Florida law does not define “local” as being physically present in the county.

Pittsburgh will in effect pay Weaver just $229,412 this year, a prorated share of the $780,000 minimum salary. Weaver had $2,352,941 remaining of his $8 million salary for 2026 at the time of Monday's trade and the Mets will pay the Pirates four installments of $530,882 on Aug. 24 and 28, and Sept. 11 and 25, according to trade details obtained by The Associated Press.

New York will pay the Pirates $6 million next year, offsetting most of his $11 million salary for 2027. The Mets owe $500,000 each on April 2, 6 and 30; May 14 and 28; June 11 and 25; July 9 and 23; Aug. 6 and 20; and Sept. 3.

In all, the Mets will give the Pirates $8,123,529. Weaver's $22 million, two-year contract had $13,352,941 left at the time of the trade.

Jameson Taillon from Cubs to Blue Jays

Chicago agreed to pay $4,956,791 to Toronto as part of Sunday's trade that sent the right-hander to the Blue Jays for a player to be named.

Taillon had $5,390,374 left from his $18 million salary in the final season of a $68 million, four-year contract, leaving Toronto in effect responsible for $433,583. He had been designated for assignment.

Chicago will pay Toronto $1,239,197 each on Aug. 14 and 28, and Sept. 11, and $1,239,200 on Sept. 25.

Robbie Ray from Giants to Padres

San Francisco will pay San Diego $4,176,471, leaving the Padres in effect responsible for $3,176,470 of the remaining $7,352,941 of the left-hander's $25 million salary. The 2021 AL Cy Young Award winner is in the final season of a $115 million, five-year contract.

Right-hander Miguel Mendez and shortstop Joniel Hernandez went to the Giants as part of Monday's trade. San Francisco owes $1,044,118 installments on Aug. 14 and 31, and Sept. 14, and $1,044,117 on Sept. 30.

Jeff Hoffman from Blue Jays to Twins

Toronto will pay Minnesota $3.75 million to offset part of the reliever’s $11 million salary in 2027, the final season of a $33 million, three-year contract.

Minnesota will receive $625,000 on the first of each month from April through August. The Twins took on $3,235,294 remaining of his $11 million salary this year as part of Monday’s trade that sent right-hander John Klein, left-hander Dasan Hill and infielder Dameury Pena to Toronto. The Blue Jays also receive $250,000 in international signing bonus allotment.

Daulton Varsho from Blue Jays to Astros

Toronto is paying Houston $1,609,626 as part of Monday's deal in which the Astros dealt right-hander Spencer Arrighetti to the Blue Jays.

Varsho was owed $3,161,765 from his $10.75 million salary. The Blue Jays will make payments of $804,813 each on Aug. 21 and Sept. 27.

Camilo Doval from Yankees to Pirates

New York is paying Pittsburgh $1,109,358 as part of Saturday's trade that sent catcher Omar Alfonzo and minor league outfielder Luis Cruz to the Yankees for the former All-Star reliever.

Doval had $1,859,358 remaining from his $6.1 million salary, leaving the Pirates in effect responsible for $750,000. The Yankees will make payments of $221,872 each on Aug. 14 and 29, Sept. 11 and 25, and Oct. 9.

Seranthony Domínguez from White Sox to Mariners

As part of Saturday's trade that sent three-time All-Star right-hander Luis Castillo from Chicago to Seattle, the White Sox took on a contingent obligation in the contract of Domínguez.

Chicago would pay Seattle $610,000 on Jan. 14, 2028, if the $13 million mutual option for 2028 in Domínguez’s contract is declined, which would trigger a $2 million buyout.

Domínguez had $2,133,690 remaining from a $7 million salary this season, the first in a $20 million, two-year contract.

Seattle also received catcher Boston Smith and outfielder Nolan Jones.

Jake Rogers from Orioles to Red Sox

As part of Monday's trade that sent catcher Adley Rutschman from Baltimore to Boston, the Orioles included catcher Jake Rogers and will pay the Red Sox $667,647 on Oct. 1.

Rogers was owed $897,059 of his $3.05 million salary, leaving him to cost the Red Sox in effect a prorated share of the minimum.

Baltimore received catcher Carlos Narváez, right-handers Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon, outfielder Enddy Azocar, and a player to be named or cash.

In other trades involving international signing bonus pool allocation:

— The Los Angeles Dodgers sent $250,000 in allocation and outfielder Jack Suwinski to Tampa Bay for catcher Hunter Feduccia and right-hander Jacob Kmatz.

— Pittsburgh acquired right-hander Ron Marinaccio from San Diego for $500,000 in allocation, then designated the pitcher for assignment.

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

A staple on the third Saturday in May nearly every year since 1950, the date for the 152nd rendition of the Preakness is set to be unveiled Wednesday by Gov. Wes Moore and the Maryland Jockey Club at a news conference in the state capital of Annapolis. The only time over the past three-quarters of a century it did not take place on its usual date was in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Calls to change the spacing of the Triple Crown races loudened within the sport in recent years, as owners and trainers increasingly opted to skip the Preakness because the two-week turnaround is much shorter than what is now normal for modern 3-year-old thoroughbreds. Golden Tempo became the second Derby winner in a row and third in five years not to take part, and only three horses ran in both.

But the Belmont Stakes staying on the first Saturday in June next year could extend the troubles of the condensed schedule for at least one more Triple Crown season. The return of the race to Belmont Park is set for June 5, as part of a new 3-year-old championship series announced Monday that includes the Derby, the Belmont and races into the summer and possibly early fall.

For at least ’27, that series does not include the Preakness, which is set to take place back at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore following a one-time stop at Laurel Park. Full reconstruction of the new Pimlico is expected to be completed by the spring of 2028.

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

Both addressed supporters, saying the vote count could continue well into the day.

“We knew that this was going to be a close race, and that’s exactly what we’ve got,” Stevens said. “I am feeling fired up, and you should be too.”

The bitter and expensive campaign attracted national attention not just because the general election for the seat will help decide which party controls the Senate. It also became the most notable proxy battle between the Democratic Party's establishment and progressive wings.

Candidates from the left-flank — including democratic socialists — have found surprising success in the party’s U.S. House primaries, including in New York and Denver. Those races, however, were in deep-blue cities.

Michigan has a purple hue. A progressive victory here would be a more significant notch.

El-Sayed maintained a lead as initial results rolled in Tuesday night, though Stevens made up ground as Wayne County, the state’s most populous and home to Detroit, reported more votes into the night.

Wayne has historically released results later than other counties, and its voters have tended toward establishment candidates over progressives. That meant Stevens could see a boost as the counting dragged on, though that did not guarantee victory.

The crowds' energy at each watch party was a measure of the race's competitiveness: Early in the evening, El-Sayed's supporters in Detroit’s Majestic Theatre cheered at the first batches of votes, before mellowing. Hours later, Stevens' previously subdued partygoers roared as she narrowed the margin.

“Whatever happens tonight,” El-Sayed told a thinned but still energetic crowd, “we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite, unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the U.S. Senate.”

Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is the Republican nominee.

El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health director, campaigned on “Medicare for All,” campaign finance reform and ending military aid to Israel. Stevens, a four-term congresswoman, focused on manufacturing and the economy. She stressed her past victories in tough races, saying she would be best positioned to beat Rogers.

Stevens benefited from tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, including the largest investment in a race ever from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which supports pro-Israel candidates.

Voters also chose nominees in competitive House races and for governor. In the GOP gubernatorial primary, U.S. Rep. John James, who was backed by President Donald Trump, beat businessperson Perry Johnson. In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson defeated Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.

Michigan is a must-win Senate race for Democrats

The race will help decide which party controls the chamber in the last two years of President Donald Trump's term. Those stakes have added heat to the rivalry, with moderates arguing that El-Sayed would have a harder time than Stevens against a Republican in the general election.

That divide was laid bare by the two candidates' heavy-hitting backers: Sen. Bernie Sanders supported El-Sayed, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was behind Stevens.

Stevens won election to Congress in 2018 after serving as chief of staff to President Barack Obama’s auto task force, which helped oversee the federal rescue of General Motors and Chrysler. Her campaign and allied groups have repeatedly highlighted that experience.

El-Sayed, who lost the 2018 gubernatorial primary to now-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, cast himself as the anti-establishment candidate and argued that Democrats need to reject corporate influence and embrace a more progressive agenda.

While the candidate has said he is not a democratic socialist, he found support from some of the group's members. That included Melat Kiros, who recently beat a longtime incumbent in a Democratic primary for a Denver-based House seat and was at El-Sayed's watch party. Also there was Hasan Piker, a progressive and controversial influencer online.

The candidates' differences were clear to some voters.

Kenneth Woodside, 87, of West Bloomfield, said he voted for El-Sayed over Stevens because “the nation is ready for someone who wants to take some more action rather than on the road we are now, which is on the road to an oligarchy and authoritarianism.”

Nessa Fuller, 51, of Birmingham, said she voted for Stevens because she will “fight to get the right things done, and she’ll work with other people, which is really important to me.”

Outside influences spent millions on the Senate race

National groups poured unprecedented sums into the race, making it one of the country’s biggest tests of outside spending.

Groups backing Stevens spent more than $50 million, led by more than $30 million from AIPAC and its affiliates.

The spending thrust Israel policy into the center of the race even though the ads never mentioned it. While El-Sayed called for ending military aid to Israel, Stevens maintained strong support for the relationship.

Israel became a contentious issue within the Democratic Party amid a war in Gaza that killed more than 73,000 Palestinians in its retaliatory offensive after about 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken in attacks by the militant group Hamas.

Voters also decided on governor and US House matchups

Trump traveled to Michigan on July 27 and gave a speech at a General Motors plant, at one point calling the gubernatorial hopeful James and several other Republican politicians, including Rogers, onstage.

Before his primary win, James, a second-term congressman, ran twice unsuccessfully for Senate. The primary turned uglier than Republicans hoped, with Johnson spending big sums of money on ads targeting James.

There are several competitive House races this year that will help decide whether Republicans hold their slim majority or Democrats reclaim the chamber.

In the 4th District, which stretches along Lake Michigan, Democratic state Sen. Sean McCann beat election newcomer Diop Harris II to become the nominee. He will face GOP Rep. Bill Huizenga, who again won his party's nomination.

In the 7th District, community organizer William Lawrence defeated former U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink and former Navy Seal Matt Maasdam to win the Democratic nomination. Lawrence will challenge Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in the seat representing the Lansing area.

The 10th District, which opened up due to James' run for governor, includes a portion of Oakland County and stretches across conservative communities in Macomb County.

In the GOP primary there, Trump-endorsed Michael Bouchard beat Steffan Demetropoulos and Justin Kirk. For the Democrats, former prosecutor Christina Hines defeated state House Rep. Tim Greimel and former Commerce Department attorney Eric Chung.

And in a heavily Democratic district representing Detroit, the 13th, Rep. Shri Thanedar looked to fend off a primary challenge from state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who argued that the city should once again have a Black representative in Congress. After Thanedar won election in 2022, Detroit had no Black representation in Congress for the first time since the early 1950s.

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Associated Press writers Corey Williams in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Robert Yoon in Washington contributed.

The move came after passengers and airline staff named “having bags weighed at the gate and struggling to find room in overhead lockers as the more stressful parts of the airport experience,” the carrier said in a statement on Wednesday. It makes Jetstar the latest low-cost carrier to introduce a payment system for carry-on bags, with budget airlines in the United States and Europe commonly charging passengers to use the compartments.

Passengers could stow a purse, laptop bag or small backpack that fitted within specified measurements under the seat in front of them for no charge, Jetstar said. The cost of using the overhead compartments in the cabin would start from 25 Australian dollars ($18) one way, with the price depending on the route.

Bags stowed in the lockers can weigh up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and will no longer be weighed by airline staff as passengers line up to board, Jetstar said. The existing weight limit of 7 kilograms (15 pounds) will be scrapped for the small item placed under travelers’ seats.

Like many carriers worldwide, Australian and New Zealand airlines have already introduced charges for checked luggage, seat selection, and some dining and in-flight entertainment options. An industry analyst said, however, that Jetstar was the first to charge for use of the overhead lockers.

“It will ruffle feathers because Australian travelers have got such high expectations,” said Sharon Petersen, CEO of AirlineRatings.com. “For such a long time they lived in a bubble of full-service options only.”

Jetstar said the change would reduce frustrations at boarding gates.

“By giving customers an underseat bag with the option to add Priority Carry-on, we can make better use of overhead locker space, streamline boarding and help more flights depart on time,” Jetstar CEO Stephanie Tully said in a statement.

She added that the move would ensure customers only paid for what they needed. Petersen, however, said Jetstar’s base fares remained higher than those of low-budget carriers in Europe that had brought in similar policies.

“Jetstar’s starting price is generally well above what Ryanair or Wizz Air can offer, largely because Australia lacks that level of competition and because wages, taxes and operating costs sit much higher here,” she said.

A new RentCafe analysis of over 100 metro areas found millennial homeownership jumped 74% in five years, rising to 12.41 million in 2023.

Meanwhile, the number of millennial renter households grew far more slowly — up 5.1% — reaching 12.57 million.

What it means for Central Florida

Three metros in the Central Florida area ranked near the top nationally for growth in millennial homeowners:

• Lakeland: +140.7% growth in millennial owner households from 2018 to 2023 (No. 2 nationally)
• Palm Bay: +111.9% (No. 6)
• Deltona: +108.5% (No. 9)

RentCafe’s takeaway: Many of the fastest-growing millennial homebuying markets are mid-size Florida metros where incomes for Gen Y workers have been rising while price increases remain more manageable than in the country’s most expensive markets.

Why Florida is showing such big gains

RentCafe points to a mix of forces pushing and pulling millennial buyers toward places like Lakeland and Deltona:

• Relative affordability compared with major coastal markets
• Lifestyle and quality-of-life appeal in “sunny” regions
• Pandemic-era migration and remote work flexibility, which let some households move away from dense, high-cost city centers

Florida also stood out in rental growth: Orlando posted the largest increase in millennial renters among the metros studied, with renter households up 34%.

The bigger picture

Across the country, millennials have now reached a near balance between owning and renting, and in most places, owning is now ahead.

In fact, RentCafe found that over 80 metros analyzed have more millennial homeowners than renters — a sign that the generation’s long-delayed move into homeownership is spreading beyond just a few markets.

Meanwhile, the full ranking of Florida metros where millennial homeownership increased is as follows:

That’s the opener for Southern Living’s Southern Food Hall of Fame, a reader-driven list celebrating the 50 top-rated Southern-born foods and drinks.

The picks span everything from pantry staples and bold condiments to pickled favorites, classic sodas, and breakfast essentials — proof that “Southern” isn’t just a geography. It’s a way of eating, sharing, and remembering.

[RELATED: Publix responds after ‘Pub Sub’ drama with News 6 anchors]

Among these entries, though, two were selected from the Sunshine State.

The first comes is Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company in Fort Pierce, famous for its orange juice, lemonades and margarita mix.

But many Florida residents may be familiar with the next pick: Publix’s Key Lime Pie.

“The bakery department of this chain holds a special place in many Southerners’ hearts, but the Key lime pie with the unique addition of toasted almonds really sets it apart,” the report reads.

And yet another southern favorite — Buc-ee’s Beaver Nuggets — also managed to rank on this year’s report.

“Don’t let the name intimidate you,” the report continues. “This road trip snack is worth pulling over for. The caramel-coated corn puffs are a staple of Buc-ee’s, a gas station giant that was established in 1982 in the Lone Star State and is rapidly expanding to every corner of the South.”

[RELATED: Buc-ee’s is not the most satisfying convenience store in Florida, study says]

Below is a full list of the Hall of Fame entrants as published by Southern Living.

Stock the Pantry

• Camellia Brand Beans (New Orleans, Louisiana)
• Old Bay Seasoning (Baltimore, Maryland)
• Ro-Tel (Elsa, Texas)
• Cajun Country Rice (Crowley, Louisiana)
• Blue Plate Mayonnaise (New Orleans, Louisiana)
• Bush’s Baked Beans (Chestnut Hill, Tennessee)
• Hubs Virginia Peanuts (Sedley, Virginia)
• Anson Mills Cornmeal (Columbia, South Carolina)
• Luzianne Tea (New Orleans, Louisiana)
• Duke’s Mayonnaise (Greenville, South Carolina)
• Schermer Pecans (Thomasville, Georgia)

Pickled and Punchy

• Mt. Olive Pickles (Mount Olive, North Carolina)
• Wickles Pickles (Dadeville, Alabama)
• Old South Tomolives (Alma, Arkansas)
• Mrs. Campbell’s Chowchow (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)

Take a Sip

• Ale-8-One (Winchester, Kentucky)
• Big Red (Waco, Texas)
• Cheerwine (Salisbury, North Carolina)
• Sun Drop (St. Louis, Missouri)
• Barq’s Root Beer (Biloxi, Mississippi)

Breakfast of Champions

• Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams (Madisonville, Tennessee)
• Wright Brand Bacon (Vernon, Texas)
• Steen’s Cane Syrup (Abbeville, Louisiana)
• Delta Grind Grits (Water Valley, Mississippi)
• Conecuh Sausage (Evergreen, Alabama)
• Country Pleasin’ Brand Sausage (Pelahatchie, Mississippi)
• Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company (Fort Pierce, Florida)
• Jimmy Dean Sausage (Plainview, Texas)
• White Lily Flour (Knoxville, Tennessee)
• Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit (Charleston, South Carolina)

Heated Rivalry

• Crystal Hot Sauce (New Orleans, Louisiana)
• Louisiana Hot Sauce (New Iberia, Louisiana)
• Tabasco Sauce (Avery Island, Louisiana)

Shop Local

• Rouses Markets: Mauthe’s Creole Cream Cheese (Houma, Louisiana)
• Publix: Key Lime Pie (Winter Haven, Florida)
• H-E-B: Tortillas (Kerrville, Texas)

Get Saucy

• Stubb’s Bar-B-Q Sauce (Lubbock, Texas)
• Sweet Georgia Soul BBQ Sauce (St. Simons Island, Georgia)
• Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q White Sauce (Decatur, Alabama)
• Texas Pete Pepper Sauce (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
• Bone Suckin’ Sauce (Raleigh, North Carolina)

Make a Pit Stop

• Goo Goo Cluster Candy (Nashville, Tennessee)
• MoonPie (Chattanooga, Tennessee)
• Zapp’s Potato Chips (Gramercy, Louisiana)
• Golden Flake Chips (Birmingham, Alabama)
• Blue Bell Ice Cream (Brenham, Texas)
• Buc-ee’s Beaver Nuggets (Lake Jackson, Texas)
• Stuckey’s Pecan Log Roll (Eastman, Georgia)
• Lance Peanut Butter Crackers (Charlotte, North Carolina)
• Little Debbie Snack Cakes (Chattanooga, Tennessee)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has notified the city that it has improved its National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS) classification from Class 7 to Class 5. As a result, eligible NFIP policyholders within the city will qualify for a 25% discount on most NFIP flood insurance policies issued or renewed on or after Oct. 1.

The upgraded rating follows a comprehensive five-year verification conducted by Insurance Services Office, Inc., FEMA’s CRS contractor. During the 2025 review, the city earned 2,659 CRS credit points, exceeding the threshold required for a Class 5 rating while meeting all program prerequisites.

“Flooding can affect properties throughout our community, not just those in high-risk flood zones,” City of Kissimmee floodplain manager Nagel Altrui said. “Our voluntary participation in the National Flood Insurance Program and continued investment in floodplain management help reduce flood risk, improve community preparedness, and provide eligible property owners with significant savings on flood insurance.”

The CRS program recognizes communities that go beyond the minimum floodplain management standards required by the NFIP. Discounts are available to eligible NFIP policyholders within the community and are based on the classification a community earns, ranging from 5% (Class 9) up to 45% (Class 1).

Kissimmee’s new Class 5 rating increases eligible flood insurance discounts from 15% to 25% — a meaningful jump that could add up to hundreds of dollars in annual savings for qualifying residents.

For residents of Dellwood Park, the discount hits close to home. In 2022, Hurricane Ian left the area underwater.

Karen Rodriguez was one of those residents. She told News 6 the floodwaters inside her home reached waist level.

The storm left more than water damage in its wake. Rodriguez said she had issues with her insurance company after the hurricane and even took them to court to cover damages. Much of what wasn’t covered came out of her own pocket.

“We used a lot of credit cards, there was a lot of debt,” she said.

When told about the potential 25% NFIP discount, Rodriguez said she would consider getting the coverage.

For details about NFIP flood insurance, premium rating methodology and the CRS discount for NFIP policyholders, click here.

“We must act now to stem the rise in child deaths, which this crisis is provoking,” John Aylieff, WFP’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement, adding that “it is already too late for too many.”

Afghanistan continues to recover from decades of conflict and upheaval, including the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2021 as the Taliban took power.

Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office in Afghanistan, said nutrition specialists report that “wasting among children has worsened this year in over three-quarters of the country.” Children suffering from a condition known as wasting are acutely malnourished, become very thin for their height, and need immediate therapeutic feeding.

But “too many children arrive at health facilities severely malnourished” while others never make it, Cherevko told reporters at U.N. headquarters by video from Afghanistan, where she has traveled across the country in recent months and weeks.

WFP said 142 health centers closed in 2025 because of aid reductions and more than 13,000 children lost access to nutrition treatment. It did not mention any specific donor, such as the United States, where the Trump administration has made sweeping cuts in foreign aid.

Nearly 3.7 million Afghan children are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year, along with 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women, according to WFP.

The agency said 12 Afghan provinces have reached critical levels of acute child malnutrition, a record number. It cited a combination of conflict, unemployment, rising food prices, disease outbreaks, poor water and sanitation and reduced humanitarian funding.

Deliveries delayed by the Iran war and other fighting

WFP said supply shortages linked to conflict in the Middle East and the nine-month closure of Pakistan’s border because of fighting between the neighbors have disrupted deliveries of nutrition products, leaving nearly one million malnourished women and children without essential nutrition services for five months.

From August through October, WFP said food distributions aimed at preventing famine in the worst-hit areas are being suspended due to lack of funding, even though the annual peak season for malnutrition is between July and October.

It said it urgently needs $540 million over the next six months.

WFP previously described cuts as ‘devastating’

Humanitarian groups in Afghanistan are grappling with steep funding cuts. In February, Aylieff told The Associated Press that cuts had been “devastating” and were forcing the agency to turn away three out of four acutely malnourished children.

Funding for food assistance has dropped sharply — by about 59% since 2022 — even as needs have surged, according to a recent WFP report.

In June, the U.S. pledged $800 million to WFP, which said it will help more than 38 million people in at least 37 countries.

Cherevko of the U.N. humanitarian office said the larger $1.71 billion humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan is just over 26% funded, which is “alarming,” especially since malnutrition and other indicators are worsening.

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Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Jeanine John Taele, 38, took photos and video and had a 16-round magazine with ammunition in his pocket. A search of his pickup truck in the golf course parking lot turned up a loaded 9mm pistol, binoculars and a badge that read “security protection agent.” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Law enforcement searched his home in the nearby city of Downey on Monday and found a rifle and other firearms, magazines and ammunition, body armor and notebooks with “concerning statements," federal authorities said. No details about the statements were released.

The sheriff’s department announced the arrest as Trump was preparing to arrive for the Republican National Committee dinner Tuesday at the Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes just south of Los Angeles.

“Mr. Taele’s troubling behavior at the President’s public golf course merely days before the President was expected to arrive raised serious red flags for law enforcement,” Patrick Grandy, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement. “There is no room for error, particularly in light of previous attempts on President Trump’s life.”

Last year a jury found a man guilty of trying to assassinate Trump at the president’s Florida country club. And while a candidate in 2024, Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by a shooter on a roof at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Ahead of Tuesday’s event, federal agents conducted a security assessment last Friday at the Trump course near Los Angeles. A person later identified as Taele was seen walking throughout the course, wore an earpiece and took photographs and videos of federal agents’ activities, authorities said.

Taele drove away but then returned to the course Sunday. He approached federal agents and said he was employed by the State Department and was there for a security detail. Taele said he had a loaded weapon in his vehicle and was arrested after it was searched, according to federal officials.

Taele was charged with several felonies including second-degree robbery, receiving a large-capacity magazine and possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun. He was also charged with carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanor.

He pleaded not guilty to all the charges Monday and was ordered to stay away from the golf course and not possess weapons. His bail was set at $250,000.

It wasn’t clear if Taele had an attorney, and family members could not immediately be reached for comment.

Performing on late-night has historically been a unique avenue for musicians hoping to access new audiences — think of a rising Chappell Roan on “The Late Show” or even The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” But when James Corden left CBS' “The Late Late Show” in 2023, his program — and its coveted performance space — was never revived. NBC's “Late Night With Seth Meyers” has cut back on live music, while ABC's “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” reduced performances to twice a week. As it stands, only NBC's “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” consistently books live performances.

Emerging artists still see incredible value in these performances — and are hopeful that nascent online programming will offer a new alternative.

Breaking through on late-night

March 3, 2014, was the day that changed everything for rock band Future Islands. The synth-pop group was a stalwart of America's underground music scene due in no small part to charismatic frontman Samuel T. Herring and his idiosyncratic voice, somewhere between Tom Waits and Rammstein's Till Lindemann. That day, they performed on “Late Show with David Letterman,” and the host was transfixed. “I'll take all of that you got!” Letterman cheered, and the DIY band was cast into true virality.

“At the time that we played Letterman, we were in a transitory period for the band,” said bassist William Cashion. They'd signed to the larger indie label 4AD Records, hired management and were promised a late-night TV spot but never thought it would pan out. “Our team, they told us, ‘It’ll be good for your fans and your friends and family, but it’s not really going to move the needle. These things don’t really do what they used to,’” he recalls.

But that wasn't the case.

“All the festivals that initially turned us down all of a sudden wanted us to come play. Everything kind of shifted after that moment,” he said. “It was definitely a huge turning point and gave the band much greater exposure.”

New media offers an alternative place for discovery

A dearth of late-night spots particularly affects independent acts — the kind that could really benefit from the exposure, just like Future Islands. Representatives for CBS, NBC and ABC did not return The Associated Press’ requests for comment.

Chloë Walsh, co-founder of publicity firm The Oriel, points to the music bookers behind the scenes. “Of course, they have to book all the biggest things in the world, but they also have things that they want to champion,” she says. Fewer slots means developing artists are competing with big names for dwindling opportunities.

But there are other avenues to discovery.

“We’re kind of an anomaly in the way that our song and that performance took off,” says Cashion. “But we’ve seen other bands have TikTok viral hits and stuff like that.”

There are many examples of artists cracking the code online: Singer-songwriter Gigi Perez's career was launched with the TikTok smash “Sailor Song,” as was Malcolm Todd's with a few viral hits, landing him a major label deal with Columbia Records. Indie band Beach Bunny saw their punky-pop go viral with “Prom Queen” just ahead of the pandemic, leading to performances on Kimmel and Fallon.

Even legacy artists are experiencing second winds of music discovery: Weezer's 2010s power-pop track “Go Away,” featuring Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino, recently made the rounds on TikTok and became a top song for both on Spotify.

“It seems like a lot of different aspects of the album cycle have kind of been replaced with short-form content,” Beach Bunny singer Lili Trifilio explained. “And it is a bummer because late-night is a service to musicians in such a major way. You are helping people reach new fans.”

“And I think now a lot of the responsibility of advertising is falling on the artists to be their own late-night special on TikTok or whatever,” she continued. “I don’t think that these 30-second, one-minute self-made clips hold the same value.”

Internet creators reimagine traditional formats

“The media landscape is always changing. Sometimes that’s good for music and sometimes it’s bad for music,” says Walsh. “There’s a whole breed of young creators at the moment doing really interesting stuff. … Hopefully there will be more opportunities out there and we don’t have to rely on the networks.”

She points to “Track Star(asterisk),” the online music trivia series, which has begun hosting live performances, and to Julian Shapiro-Barnum of “Recess Therapy,” who has launched a late-night YouTube show, “Outside Tonight,” that features live performances.

Shapiro-Barnum says “Outside Tonight” was born out of necessity. “We know that the entertainment industry is hard to break into. And so, what’s been so cool about digital media is that it’s circumvented that,” he says.

“How can we do late night, but different?” was his approach. The show takes place outdoors, bypassing a traditional studio. The musical bookings also lean independent. Recent performers include rapper Erick the Architect, indie rock soloist Annie DiRusso and the multi-instrumentalist and experimentalist L'Rain.

“There was no version of the show that didn’t have music,” he says. “To me, it feels like a staple.”

Beach Bunny performed during the first “Outside Tonight” episode.

“It’s so cool to see people that are like movers and makers be like, ‘Hey, this is a gap I’m seeing. Late-night is being placed on the back burner. We need to revive this; I’m gonna figure it out,’” Trifilio said. “I hope that it inspires other people to step up.”

She sees it as part of a larger YouTube renaissance, shifting away from prioritizing short-form content.

“I think that people are yearning for some longer-format stuff,” she says.

The power for live performance is exposure — not sales

In traditional late-night TV spots, artists benefit from exposure — but that doesn't necessarily mean a jump in sales. Ideally, that will also translate to these new media spaces.

“It’s a showcase for touring. And that’s really where artists make their money,” says Walsh. “People say, ‘It doesn’t really give you a bump if you’re on a late-night TV show.’ They’re looking at the sales, they’re not looking at a promoter in Minneapolis going, ‘Oh my god, I want that,’ or a radio playlist director saying, ‘Oh that was fantastic, we should add that.’”

“Every musical guest who’s come on ‘Outside Tonight,’ everyone in the crew, everyone in the audience, has not stopped listening,” says Shapiro-Barnum. “In real time, it spreads and creates all these fans. So, I have to imagine that happens online as well.”

But for many, landing a late-night TV performance is still the north star of a press run.

“For a lot of people — especially international artists that are coming to slog it out across the U.S. in some club shows they may not even be headlining — if you could get on ‘Jimmy Kimmel,’ it’s like we’ve cracked it,” says Walsh. “The whole thing was worth it. And that’s huge.”

The bill went into effect Monday after it was endorsed by the chief of Gandaki province and allows the farming and medical use of cannabis, said Prabin Poudyal, spokesman for the office of the Chief of Gandaki Province.

Farmers will have to get official permission from the provincial authority and are to be closely monitored.

The provincial law comes despite a national ban on farming, possession and use of marijuana. Anyone possessing marijuana for personal use can be jailed for a month, while distribution and sales are punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment depending on the amount seized.

Gandaki, one of the Himalayan country's seven provinces, is home to popular mountains and hiking trails and the resort city of Pokhara.

Cannabis is native to Nepal and is widely used during festivals, and activists in Nepal have been trying to get the government to change the law to allow it.

Marijuana was once widely embedded in the country's culture and religion.

But in the late 1970s, the country followed other nations in outlawing marijuana, and chased away the hippies who had flocked to the country.

During the annual Shivaratri festival in Nepal in spring, devotees freely smoke joints at the temples of the revered Hindu god Shiva. The authorities usually allow the use during the festival.

In the fifth inning, Lombard drove an 0-2 sweeper from starter Hunter Dobbins (2-2) into the left-field seats for his first career hit. As he completed his first home run trot in the majors, Lombard’s parents hugged in the stands.

Lombard’s 392-foot shot gave New York a 2-0 lead and made him the first Yankees shortstop to homer in his major league debut. It was the first homer by any Yankees player in his big league debut since Jasson Domínguez went deep in his initial plate appearance against Justin Verlander in Houston on Sept. 1, 2023.

At 21 years, 63 days old, Lombard became the sixth-youngest Yankees player since 1985 to make his debut and the second-youngest shortstop in that span. Derek Jeter debuted May 29, 1995, in Seattle at 20 years, 337 days.

Lombard also helped Ryan Weathers (5-7) pitch six strong innings by starting inning-ending double plays in the second and fifth.

In the second, Lombard ranged to his right to field Blaze Jordan’s grounder and made an off-balance throw to second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. In the fifth, Lombard ranged to his left, fielded Nathan Church’s grounder behind second base, stepped on the bag and made a clean throw to first baseman Ben Rice.

Chisholm also homered in the second as the Yankees won for the 10th time in 16 games.

Weathers allowed four hits in his second straight scoreless start. The lefty struck out six, walked none and stranded two in the sixth when Yankees newcomer Heliot Ramos charged in to catch Jose Fermin’s flyball to left field.

David Bednar got four outs for his 25th save in 27 chances to complete New York’s AL-best 12th shutout.

Dobbins allowed two runs and four hits in 6 1/3 innings.

The Cardinals were blanked for the sixth time. They scratched All-Star outfielder Jordan Walker shortly before first pitch due to right knee inflammation.

Up next

St. Louis RHP Andre Pallante (11-6, 3.72 ERA) opposes New York RHP Will Warren (11-6, 4.14) in Wednesday night’s series finale.

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This story has been corrected to show that Lombard started a double play in the second inning, not the third.

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

A few hours later, Lombard was exchanging memorabilia with the fans who caught the first home run ball of his career.

After being called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre earlier in the day, Lombard gave the Yankees a two-run lead in Tuesday night’s 2-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals by hitting a 392-foot solo shot off Hunter Dobbins in the fifth inning.

Lombard rounded the bases as his parents cheered and hugged in the stands. His father, George Lombard Sr., is the bench coach for the Detroit Tigers and a former major league player himself.

“It was really cool,” the younger Lombard said. “Being a close game, it was a big run. So it was probably a moment, a swing, a day I won’t forget.”

The 21-year-old Lombard became the first Yankees shortstop to homer in his major league debut. After the game, the touted prospect met in the hallway outside the clubhouse with the fans who caught the ball. He signed hats and traded a bat for the souvenir ball while posing for pictures.

Lombard was the 14th player in franchise history to hit a home run in his big league debut and first since Jasson Domínguez went deep in his initial plate appearance against Justin Verlander in Houston on Sept. 1, 2023. The group also includes injured captain Aaron Judge (2016) and Hall of Famer Yogi Berra (1946).

At 21 years, 63 days old, Lombard became the sixth-youngest Yankees player since 1985 to make his debut and the second-youngest shortstop in that span. Derek Jeter debuted May 29, 1995, in Seattle at 20 years, 337 days.

Lombard also started inning-ending double plays in the second and fifth.

“Obviously, a great first night for him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “The home run was great. The defense was tremendous.”

In the second, Lombard ranged to his right to field Blaze Jordan’s grounder and made an off-balance throw to second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. In the fifth, Lombard ranged to his left, fielded Nathan Church’s grounder behind second base, stepped on the bag and made a clean throw to first baseman Ben Rice.

“It’s one of those plays that you practice,” Lombard said. “I’ve made that play countless times in practice. Just getting to the game and it’s your body kind of takes over.”

Lombard wasn't the only player to make his Yankees debut Tuesday night. Newly acquired outfielder Heliot Ramos went 0 for 4 but made a nice catch in left field with two runners aboard in the sixth. Ramos was obtained from the San Francisco Giants before Monday’s trade deadline.

To make room for Lombard and Ramos, shortstop Anthony Volpe and Domínguez were optioned to Triple-A, where Volpe is expected to see time at second base.

On Monday, general manager Brian Cashman implied the Tigers and Orioles asked for Lombard in potential deals for Tarik Skubal and Adley Rutschman, who were acquired by the Dodgers and Red Sox, respectively.

Lombard, a first-round draft pick by New York in 2023, began this season by hitting .312 in 20 games with Double-A Somerset. After getting promoted to Triple-A, he batted .268 with six homers and 21 RBIs in 56 games.

Lombard’s time in Triple-A was interrupted by a left finger injury that sidelined him for nearly a month. He batted .377 in 14 games after returning and went 4 for 5 with three RBIs in a 13-3 win over Iowa on Sunday.

Ramos joined the Yankees after hitting .264 with nine homers and 34 RBIs in 74 games for the Giants.

“When I first found out about the news I started shaking a little bit because obviously I didn’t know anything else,” Ramos said Tuesday afternoon. “But then I realized, I’m like, man, I’m going to be a New York Yankee. Like, that’s crazy.”

Ramos is expected to get the bulk of his playing time in left field, where he started 64 games for the Giants this season. He did not make any errors in 111 chances after leading National League left fielders with nine errors last year.

Besides adding Lombard and Ramos to the roster, the Yankees promoted Yerry de los Santos from the minors to replace Angel Chivilli in the bullpen.

Chivilli was optioned to Triple-A after allowing three homers in the eighth inning Monday, including Alec Burleson’s third of the game. The right-hander is 1-1 with a 3.78 ERA in 15 appearances for the Yankees, who acquired him from Colorado in January.

In five appearances for the Yankees, de los Santos has a 1.04 ERA.

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This story has been corrected to show that Lombard started a double play in the second inning, not the third.

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

During much of the Trump era, Democratic primary voters have often followed the urging of party leaders and favored moderate candidates like U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. But this year, they've veered toward insurgents like Abdul El-Sayed, who tapped into widespread discontent with the Democratic establishment and the status quo in Washington.

The race was too early to call after midnight Wednesday with only a few percentage points separating the two candidates.

Democrats need to rack up as many wins as possible to take back the U.S. Senate, so the party has little room for error against the Republican nominee, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers.

Republicans faced their own test in Michigan in the governor's race, where President Donald Trump's handpicked candidate, U.S. Rep. John James, defeated Perry Johnson, a wealthy, free-spending outsider.

More primaries were taking place in Kansas, Missouri, Virginia and Washington. The contests will solidify November matchups, particularly in Virginia, where Democrats failed to redraw the state's congressional map earlier this year.

Here are some takeaways from Tuesday's elections:

Test time for Democrats in Michigan’s Senate race

The choice between El-Sayed and Stevens has become a focal point for Democrats this year, and the race has become bitter. Whoever wins will need to bring splintered factions back into the fold to beat Rogers.

Speaking at her election night party as votes were still being counted, Stevens looked ahead to the general election and said voters had to be ready to take on Rogers in the fall. El-Sayed, speaking at his own event, said that there was “so much more that unites us."

“Tomorrow we begin to mend fences," El-Sayed said.

The seat is open because Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring, and Democrats are under pressure to defend it to preserve their chance of winning control of the chamber.

The campaigns have taken sharp aim at one another. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of El-Sayed’s most prominent supporters, called Stevens “nothing more than an employee” of billionaires. El-Sayed has been a pointed critic of Israel and called the military campaign in Gaza a “genocide,” an accusation rejected by the Israeli and U.S. governments.

Stevens has criticized El-Sayed’s style, comparing him unfavorably to a celebrity who is always “running at the first mic or camera.” She has also suggested he’s not electable in the fall, saying Republicans have been propping him up because they think El-Sayed will be easier to beat.

Trump’s endorsement overpowers self-funded candidate for governor

Republican voters picked their nominee for Michigan governor on Tuesday as well, going with Trump's endorsed candidate, Rep. John James.

The president’s backing typically carries significant weight in Republican politics, but businessman Perry Johnson had lent his campaign more than $30 million, according to Michigan campaign finance records.

Trump's endorsement hasn't always overcome big spending. In Georgia’s race for governor, Rick Jackson spent $100 million, largely of his own money, to defeat Trump-backed Burt Jones in a runoff.

On the Democratic side in Michigan, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson defeated Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.

AIPAC continues to be a lightning rod

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has long been an influential force in U.S. politics, but it's been under pressure as Democratic support for Israel erodes over the war in Gaza.

The organization has suffered a series of losses in Democratic primaries that saw a surge of progressive candidates. Victors range from Rep. Analilia Mejia, who won a special election to Congress in suburban New Jersey, to Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, who captured the Democratic nomination for a U.S. House seat in Illinois.

AIPAC's biggest investment has been in Michigan, where it and its affiliates have spent more than $30 million supporting Stevens, a stalwart backer of Israel. El-Sayed and his backers have seized on the group's intervention as an example of the problems of big money in politics.

Although the outcome in Michigan remained uncertain, AIPAC had some success Tuesday. In Missouri, former Rep. Cori Bush fell short in her rematch against Rep. Wesley Bell, who defeated her two years ago.

Bush had blamed her previous loss on AIPAC, even vowing revenge on the organization in her concession speech. "AIPAC, I'm coming to tear your kingdom down!” she pledged.

However, she was quickly defeated as voters in the St. Louis-area district decided to stick with Bell.

Virginia is on Democrats' minds

One of Democrats' most bitter defeats this cycle took place in Virginia, where that state's supreme court in May overturned a voter-approved initiative to redraw the state's House map to make four more seats easier for the party to win.

The failed effort was part of Democrats' attempt to match Republicans' own redistricting campaign, which was spurred by Trump last year in hopes of making it easier for his party to hold control of the House.

Democrats are optimistic they can recover at least a couple of those Virginia seats the old-fashioned way. On Tuesday, they got what they wanted in the state's two swing seats, with former Rep. Elaine Luria winning the nomination to compete for the 1st District in Virginia Beach and prosecutor Shannon Taylor getting the nod to run in the Richmond-area 2nd District.

The longer shot comes in the heavily rural 5th District in central Virginia, where Tom Perriello, who briefly represented the region in President Barack Obama's first term, won the Democratic nomination to try to win a now even more conservative-leaning seat.

El-Sayed is a progressive who’s run against much of the Democratic machine. Stevens has establishment support, and she’s backed by roughly $30 million from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Democrats will likely need to defend the open Senate seat against Republican Mike Rogers in order to take control of the Senate next year.

Meanwhile, Rep. Wesley Bell won Tuesday's Democratic primary in Missouri's 1st Congressional District against former Rep. Cori Bush, settling a rematch that provided a test of America's evolving viewpoints on Israel.

Bell was backed by a political group affiliated with AIPAC. The pro-Israeli group also financed his ouster of Bush in the 2024 primary after Bush criticized Israel’s response to Hamas’ attack on the country in 2023.

In Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, Virginia and Washington state, voters are settling primaries in a host of races. Also in play is whether Democrats, who tried to redraw districts in Virginia to their advantage but were rebuffed by the state supreme court, can pick candidates who can defeat Republicans in the fall.

Here is a look at the Latest:

El-Sayed says ‘tomorrow we begin to mend fences’ after bruising primary

With votes still being counted, Abdul El-Sayed called for Democratic unity headed into the general election, saying the primary slog “pales in comparison to the lies that Mike Rogers and Donald Trump are going to tell.”

“There is so much more that unites us than divides us,” he said. “Whatever happens tonight, we have a responsibility to ensure that we unite, unite to make sure that Mike Rogers never sees the inside of the U.S. Senate.”

Abdul El-Sayed does not declare victory, but says he vastly overperformed expectations

El-Sayed said it was too early for him to declare victory but still praised his supporters and the movement behind his campaign.

“I wish I could tell you I was declaring victory right about now,” he said.

The crowd, which had grown quieter in recent hours, grew loud as his speech went on.

“We are not a purple state. We are a state in need of a movement,” he said.

Abdul El-Sayed takes the stage in Detroit

The crowd chanted “Abdul! Abdul! Abdul!” as the progressive candidate took the stage at Detroit’s Majestic Theatre. An election night digital display was lifted to reveal a Michigan state flag.

Stevens urges supporters to ‘get some sleep or get some coffee’ and await results

“Then we got to be ready to go,” U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens told a crowd in Detroit, focusing on the road to a general election against Republican nominee Mike Rogers.

“We got to wake up and be ready to go, because if we are going to win this thing, which we are, we are going to have to get ready and show Mike Rogers what a little stick it to ’em looks like.”

Haley Stevens tells watch party results may come in the early morning

Stevens entered the room to chants of “Haley.”

“We knew this was going to be a close race,” Stevens said. She said the primary results may not be finalized until early morning.

“Friends, I am feeling good,” Stevens said.

Michigan Democratic officials show up at Stevens’ watch party

Former U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, former Gov. Jim Blanchard and U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten appeared at Stevens’ watch party to back a candidate who has leaned heavily on endorsements from top party officials.

“She’s really a terrific legislator, and at the same time, I know she can beat Mike Rogers,” Stabenow told The Associated Press.

Stabenow, who was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Michigan, said it was essential for voters to rally behind whoever wins. She said she hopes the other candidate endorses the winner.

“I know Haley will,” Stabenow said.

Stevens campaigned earlier this week with Stabenow and Scholten at events in Muskegon Heights and Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has also been endorsed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and retiring U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, whose seat Stevens hopes to win.

William Lawrence will take on incumbent Tom Barrett for critical seat this fall

“This is a great night, but I want to make one thing clear - the JOB IS NOT FINISHED,” Lawrence posted on X following his primary victory.

The 7th District, which includes the state capital of Lansing, is one of the most competitive in Michigan. In 2024, the district flipped red when Tom Barrett won with 50.3% of the vote, though Barrett previously lost to a Democrat in 2022.

Lawrence is more progressive than his competitors, which some worry may jeopardize the seat for Democrats.

The Democratic candidate cofounded the Sunrise Movement, an environmental advocacy group. In his victory speech, he focused on opposing data centers and billionaires in politics.

“Everybody here in the 7th District, regardless of your political persuasion, we share so much more in common than that which separates us,” Lawrence said. “We share so much more in common than these billionaires in Silicon Valley, and Wall Street, and these insiders in D.C. We’re gonna find that common ground.”

US Rep. John James calls on Michigan’s ‘politically homeless’ to join him after GOP gubernatorial nomination win

James said Tuesday that his victory marked a beginning to “Michigan’s comeback.”

Warning against a “socialist agenda” he said was backed by Democratic nominee Jocelyn Benson, James added that “we should never underestimate how pain and desperation make false promises sound like hope.”

In remarks to supporters, James also thanked Trump, who backed him in his effort to defeat Perry Johnson. The businessman had lent his campaign more than $30 million, according to state campaign finance records.

If elected in November, James would become Michigan’s first Black governor.

Former prosecutor Christina Hines wins Michigan’s 10th District Democratic primary

Hines beat former state House Rep. Tim Greimel and former Commerce Department attorney Eric Chung.

Democrats have targeted the 10th Congressional District as they try to win a majority in the U.S. House. The district includes a portion of Oakland County and stretches across very red communities in Macomb County.

It’s currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. John James, who is running for Michigan governor.

El-Sayed campaign says he will speak within the hour

The campaign announced at El-Sayed’s primary night event in Detroit that he would speak no later than 1 a.m. ET even if a race call has not happened. Attendees were remaining upbeat, although the crowd in the Majestic Theatre had thinned substantially.

El-Sayed had projected confidence going into the final day of the campaign, already looking ahead toward facing Republican Mike Rogers. But after midnight, the race remained too early to call.

Democrats’ US Senate nominee in Kansas can raise money, but winning remains tough

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, pastor of the nation’s largest United Methodist congregation, emerged from an 11-person Democratic field in Tuesday’s primary after fundraising at a far faster clip than incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.

But Marshall’s status as an incumbent — and his lack of serious opposition to the GOP nomination — allowed him to start the fall campaign with far more cash on hand. History gives him another advantage in Republican-leaning Kansas: No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate race in the state since 1932.

Hamilton, founder of the 22,000-member Church of the Resurrection, raised nearly $4.4 million after entering the race in February, his campaign finance reports show. Marshall has raised about $1.6 million this year, but he didn’t start from zero.

Marshall emerged from the primary with about $5.5 million in cash on hand, spending less than $327,000 as of mid-July. Hamilton spent about $2.4 million on his primary campaign and is starting the fall race with about $2 million in cash.

Michigan state Sen. Sean McCann defeats Diop Harris II in 4th District Democratic primary

McCann is trying to flip a Republican-held district that runs along Lake Michigan in the western part of the state.

A Kalamazoo native and former state representative, McCann was elected in 2022 to the Michigan Senate. He also served as a Kalamazoo city commissioner.

Harris, a political newcomer, worked as a staff assistant and legislative correspondent for Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Trump weighs in on Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary

President Donald Trump said he expected that Michigan Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, would fare better in the Senate race if Abdul El-Sayed is the Democratic nominee.

“Based on the polls, he’ll do much better against Abdul than he’s going to do against the congresswoman (Democrat Haley Stevens),” Trump said in a pre-taped interview with the show “Fox News @ Night.”

The president said that Democrats who identify as socialist would destroy the nation’s cities if elected.

“They’re always filthy, disgusting, dirty, and that’s what you’ll get,” said Trump, who added that he is a “clean person.”

Stevens supporter says people are ready for change but questions if El-Sayed can deliver

Derryl Reed said he was so confident Stevens is going to win that he brought a bouquet of flowers to give to her.

“I want to come out and support her and congratulate her on her victory,” Reed, 79, said.

Reed, who is on the Oakland County Democratic Party’s leadership team, said he understands Abdul El-Sayed’s appeal as an outsider candidate, but it’s that same lack of political experience that would hurt his chances in the general election.

El-Sayed is “able to come out and promise things,” Reed said. “The question is, can he deliver on the things he’s promised?”

Reed said no matter who wins the primary, Stevens and El-Sayed have to meet within the week to present a united front Democratic voters can rally behind.

“Democrats need to get their acts together. Trump and the Republicans have given them so much material to work with, it shouldn’t even be close,” Reed said. “It should be a landslide in November.”

William Lawrence defeats 2 other Democrats in Michigan’s 7th District primary

Lawrence, a community organizer, will face Republican incumbent Tom Barrett, who flipped the competitive district red in 2024. Barret’s win helped Republicans keep a slim majority in the U.S. House.

Lawrence supports government funding of universal healthcare and quality housing, according to his campaign website.

On Tuesday, he defeated Bridget Brink, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam. Barrett ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

El-Sayed holds narrow lead with decisive Wayne County votes still to come

Abdul El-Sayed maintained a lead over Haley Stevens as initial results were released. He was propelled by strong performances in Kent County, home to Grand Rapids, and heavily Democratic Washtenaw County.

Stevens narrowed El-Sayed’s lead as Wayne County, the state’s most populous, released more results. Home to Detroit, Wayne has the state’s highest share of Black residents and is a Democratic stronghold in general elections. Stevens targeted a big showing there, including bringing in South Carolina U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn to stump on her behalf.

In recent establishment-vs.-progressive matchups, Wayne has delivered for the establishment candidate, although that doesn’t guarantee a statewide victory. Hillary Clinton won about 60% in Wayne in Michigan’s 2016 presidential primary but still lost the state narrowly to Bernie Sanders.

Wayne County historically releases results later than most of the state, which could result in a boost for Stevens as the night wears on.

Republican John Braun advances in battleground Washington district

State Sen. John Braun will advance to the general election in the 3rd Congressional District, challenging Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in one of the GOP’s top pickup opportunities.

Gluesenkamp Perez has won twice in the Republican-leaning district, both times defeating Joe Kent, who faced scrutiny about his ties to white nationalists.

Compared with Kent, Braun has a more conventional Republican background. He’s the president of a family business that makes ambulances and other emergency response vehicles, and he has served more than a decade in the state Legislature, rising to be the Senate Republican leader.

The district in Southwest Washington includes the northern suburbs of Portland, Oregon, as well as rural communities reliant on ports, timber, agriculture and fishing.

US Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez fends off progressive challenger in battleground Washington district

The moderate Democrat will advance to the general election despite a longshot challenge from the left in the 3rd Congressional District.

Gluesenkamp Perez, who has won twice in a battleground district that voted for Trump, is one of a dwindling number of Democrats representing a rural, working class district.

She’s been vocal in warning her fellow Democrats that their party is losing touch with blue-collar voters like those she represents.

Challenger Brent Hennrich made a progressive case against her, highlighting her votes for the Laken Riley immigration bill and a version of the SAVE Act, a voting bill favored by Trump.

But he struggled to raise money or secure support from progressive politicians and interest groups that have helped insurgent challengers topple Democratic incumbents this year in Colorado and New York.

Bush says ‘I am not down, sad’ after loss to Bell

With her supporters cheering and clapping, Bush said she remains “that same fighter that stood up for you before.”

“I don’t have to have a title to fight for my people, St. Louis,” she said.

Saying Bell had ties to Republican candidates in the past, Bush also implied that GOP forces had targeted the district for possible redrawing “because if they make this a Republican district, they already got somebody ready.”

Bell, a former St. Louis County prosecutor, was backed by a political group affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The pro-Israeli group also financed his ouster of Bush in the 2024 primary after Bush criticized Israel’s response in Gaza to Hamas’ attack on the country in 2023.

“This ain’t over, y’all,” she said. “Let them all reap what they sow.”

Bell thanks voters for putting their faith in him a second time

“There’s going to be times we disagree on issues, but that should never stop us from doing the work for regular folks,” Bell said. He went on to say that is “because progressives are supposed to make progress.”

Bell said he saw “cruelty, chaos and corruption” from the Trump administration, which the crowd chanted “yes” in response to. He said November is a chance for voters to have a voice.

“To everyone who trusted me to represent you, thank you, and when we talk about the progress we need to make, I think the folks know, and St. Louis knows, that I’m always going to wake up working for you,” Bell said.

Cori Bush, in losing rematch, says Wesley Bell ‘ran a whole campaign on smears’

The former U.S. House member was greeted with chants of “we love you, Cori” as she took the stage at an events center in Dellwood, more than an hour after U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell was declared victor of the Democratic primary rematch.

Bush, who had been part of the progressive group of House members known as the “Squad,” also says Republican billionaires “want to control this district,” referencing GOP efforts to possibly redistrict the area more favorably to their party.

Polls have closed in Washington state

In-person voting centers in Washington closed at 8 p.m. PT, which is 11 p.m. ET. The state votes almost entirely by mail. Comparable past elections can offer clues about when to expect the first vote results and how long the vote count might take.

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 11:06 p.m. ET, or six minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:43 p.m. ET, with about 51% of total votes counted. The vote count surpassed the 75% mark on the Thursday following the election at 7:56 p.m. ET and reached about 95% of the total vote six days after the election at 7:24 p.m. ET.

▶ Follow tonight’s results in Washington

Stevens’ watch party buoyed by Wayne County votes

Stevens’ supporters moved into an adjoining room with a large American flag overlooking the crowd to the tune of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.”

Buoyed by incoming votes from Wayne County, people chatted, occasionally breaking out into chants of “Haley.” Some held up signs above the crowd reading “Haley Stevens for US Senate” and “Michigan Made.”

Michigan has seen big increases in early voting and voting by mail

The number of people who voted in person early at Michigan polling places ahead of Tuesday’s primary was nearly double the number for the 2024 primary, Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie said.

Edevbie also said that the number of people voting by mail also increased by more than 20% compared to the 2022 primary.

He said during a brief news conference that 1.3 million people had cast mail ballots as of Tuesday, up 226,000 from the 2022 primary. Another 139,000 people voted early in person — compared to fewer than 74,000 in 2024.

Edevbie also told reporters that 28,000 people registered to vote Tuesday and then cast their ballots.

Chris Stigall wins Missouri Republican primary to replace longtime US Rep. Sam Graves

The conservative talk radio host’s victory in the five-person primary gives him an edge in the November election for the sprawling 6th Congressional District that includes rural northern Missouri and part of Kansas City.

Graves has represented the district for a quarter century and currently is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Stigall once worked for Graves and was endorsed by the congressman shortly after Graves announced in late March that he was not seeking reelection.

US Rep. Wesley Bell says in victory speech that he will work for the people in St. Louis

“When we think about all of the division that we hear, I think it is important that we focus on what this place can be,” Bell said.

Bell’s speech focused on the work he plans to do for the city, which was met with applause. He described St. Louis as a “sleeping giant” and encouraged applause for campaign volunteers around the room.

“I have a tremendous group of folks, and we just got to work,” Bell said.

Stevens watch party cheers for Wayne County votes

The crowd at Stevens’ watch party erupted into cheers, applause and chants of “Haley” as votes from Wayne County, Michigan’s most populous, began to roll in.

The campaign over a failed ballot measure showed Kansas what judicial races might have looked like

Spending on broadcast and digital advertising reached nearly $13 million during the campaign over an unsuccessful proposal to amend the Kansas Constitution to elect state Supreme Court justices, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Voters rejected the measure in Tuesday’s primary.

Opponents of the Kansas ballot measure spent almost $9 million on broadcast and digital ads. That was more than twice as much as the $4 million spent by supporters.

The governor now appoints the justices from among three finalists selected by a nominating commission, with no role for the Republican-controlled Legislature. The measure’s backers had hoped that if they were successful, they could start electing conservative justices in 2028.

Twenty-two states elect their justices, and some have multi-million dollar races. In Wisconsin, spending in a race last year topped $100 million.

Authorities released the names Tuesday of the people who died when the 24-year-old gunman opened fire at the Twin Falls restaurant. Police have said they are confident he acted alone but were still trying to determine a motive.

Police identified those killed as Ashley Garibay, 23, from Stockton, California; Dale Schultz, 66, of Salt Lake City; and Christopher Claunch, 59, of Hagerman, Idaho, about 28 miles (45 kilometers) northwest of Twin Falls.

Hundreds of community members, many holding candles or roses, gathered at a park in Twin Falls Tuesday night for a vigil to honor the victims. Some wrote notes to those who had been killed on large blue hearts arranged on a trio of crosses while others stood arm-in-arm and prayed.

Teresa Yocham, who lives in Twin Falls, said the shooting sickened her and she wanted to come out to show support.

“We are strong as a community and we come together in hard times and that's what this was about,” she said.

Victims of the shooting remembered

Garibay worked for the burger chain on a team that trained new employees away from her home in Stockton. Her family said she loved her work and called her an “amazing, beautiful soul who loved living life.”

“She was adventurous, outgoing, smart and driven, never letting obstacles get in her way," her family said in a statement. “She lit up a room with her bright smile and a laugh that was contagious.”

The In-N-Out location opened in late July as part of the California chain’s Idaho expansion. Garibay got her first job at one of the restaurants, and she dreamed of one day managing one of the stores, her family said.

One of Claunch’s friends, Garren Taylor, said Claunch completed a rehab program for alcohol abuse in Idaho a couple of years ago and was immediately hired at the center. Taylor said Claunch, known to those close to him as “Toph,” dedicated his life to helping others get sober.

“He helped hundreds of people,” Taylor said Monday. “He was just a gift to anyone he came in contact with. It wasn’t about the paycheck. His attitude was: ‘I get to help someone today.’ ”

Gregory Glenn, pastoral administrator for the Madeleine Choir School in Salt Lake City, described Schultz as a “beloved alumni parent" and "gifted artist” in a post on social media. He said Schultz 's wife was injured in the shooting.

“While we mourn the loss of Dale, we continue to pray for Reinette, who remains hospitalized as she recovers from her injuries,” he wrote Monday.

Police have opened a center where those who were affected by the shooting can get support and request or collect personal items left at the scene. Flags in the city will be at half-staff until next week.

Chaos at In-N-Out Burger

The attack Saturday at the In-N-Out Burger ended when the gunman, identified by police as Chad Williams, shot and killed himself.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene in and around the Idaho restaurant as shots were fired. One customer told The Associated Press that she and her daughters were waiting inside when she heard shots from the kitchen and an employee told her to get down. Another woman and her mother were waiting in the drive-thru line when they saw people running across the road and workers bolting out of the restaurant as a man directing traffic told them there was a shooter.

A man who was at a stoplight near the restaurant described seeing a person with an AR-style rifle emerge from the drive-thru and a man with a pistol start firing toward the suspect.

During the attack, an off-duty state trooper and a civilian fired on Williams, diverting him from the restaurant, police have said.

Steven Pixley was among those injured. He was riding his motorcycle near the In-N-Out when he heard a pop and his left hand dropped, his cousin Shane Klaas said Tuesday.

A bullet went into his arm above his elbow and exited right below it, Klaas said. The shooting left Pixley without use of three of his fingers, and doctors are waiting for the swelling to go down so they can do surgery, Klaas said.

“His attitude is wonderful, which is a big part of getting through this,” Klaas said. “He’s laughing, he’s joking.”

Klaas said Pixley recently moved to Twin Falls, found a job and was trying to get his life together.

“He had everything in front of him,” Klaas said. “And then this just, I mean, this is just senseless.”

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Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle and Hallie Golden contributed to this report.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner actually enjoyed the chilly reception.

Skubal pitched six effective innings in his first start with Los Angeles, but the Dodgers managed just four hits in a 5-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. The ace left-hander was serenaded with boos when he was introduced with the starting lineups and once again when he went out to the mound for his first career appearance at Wrigley Field.

“Whether they’re rooting against you or for you, I love the fans," Skubal said. “This game is about the fans as much as it’s about the players. But the fans create the environment. It's a ton of fun to play in front of crowds like that, even if they’re booing me or whatever it is.”

The 29-year-old Skubal was acquired in a trade with Detroit on Saturday night. The Dodgers are hoping he can play a key role in its third consecutive World Series championship. He went 4-1 with a 1.95 ERA in his last six starts for the Tigers, striking out 50 in 37 innings.

Skubal, who is eligible for free agency after this season, surrendered two runs and four hits in his first start with LA. He struck out six and walked two while throwing 85 pitches, 51 for strikes.

“Tarik's stuff was good. It was good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that this was the first time I saw him live, but even when it’s not perfect, it’s still pretty dang good.”

Skubal’s arrival cemented the Dodgers’ status as the majors’ most imposing franchise and public enemy No. 1 for fans of other teams. A plane flew over Wrigley hours before his first start with a banner that read “THE DODGERS RUINED BASEBALL,” but the message appeared to be upside down.

“I’m sure that’s not going to be the only, you know, rowdy atmosphere on the road,” Skubal said. “I plan on pitching in front of those atmospheres for the rest of the season. And then obviously when it comes postseason time, I’ll be ready to go.”

Skubal struck out three while retiring his first six batters. He surrendered a leadoff homer to Dansby Swanson on his first pitch of the third, and Chicago put two runners on with two down. But Skubal retired Alex Bregman on a flyball to center fielder Andy Pages, ending the inning.

Skubal allowed a second run on Nico Hoerner's infield chopper with two down in the sixth, giving the Cubs a 2-1 lead.

“I’m glad he’s on our side,” shortstop Mookie Betts said of Skubal. “He did an amazing job tonight.”

The NL West-leading Dodgers backed Skubal with a couple of stellar defensive plays. Pages robbed Seiya Suzuki and Pedro Ramírez with two terrific catches, and Kyle Tucker made a lunging grab on Hoerner’s sinking liner to right in the second.

“I mean Pages in center, he covered a ton of ground on all those kind of soft flyballs, and Tuck made some good plays, too,” Skubal said.

Skubal threw to Ben Rortvedt, who was behind the plate a day after he was acquired in a trade with the New York Mets. The Dodgers also activated catcher Hunter Fedducia, who came over in a deal with Tampa Bay on Monday. Eliezer Alfonzo was optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City, and fellow catcher Chuckie Robinson was designated for assignment.

Catching depth is an issue for Los Angeles at the moment. Will Smith is working his way back from a neck issue, and Dalton Rushing was placed on the 10-day injured list on Monday with right elbow inflammation.

MRI results revealed a slight UCL tear for Rushing, who won't be able to throw for a few weeks. It's unclear if he'll be able to catch again this season.

Skubal praised Rortvedt's work in the tough spot.

“He’s great back there,” he said. “Called a great game, you know, on the same page all night. What he was trying to do feeds right into what I’m trying to do on the mound."

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

About 1,700 people remained in shelters with the evacuations to stay in place until conditions improve, according to the country’s disaster agency CONRED.

Officials raised the alert level to red in Sacatepéquez, Escuintla and Chimaltenango, where about 29,000 people are affected by ashfall and schools remain closed. Authorities warned the next 72 hours were critical on Tuesday, as mudflows up to 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) long continue descending from the volcano, with incoming rain expected to increase the risk of additional volcanic mudflows.

Mudflows have not reached villages and no structures reported damaged or at risk. Claudinne Ogaldes, executive secretary of CONRED, recommended residents in the three municipalities cover their water deposits and use face masks as protection from ash.

The eruption started Monday morning, with clouds of gas and ash rising above the volcano as lava and pyroclastic flows rolled down the slopes. More mud and ash were emitted Tuesday.

Among those evacuated were around 250 people from El Porvenir and the hamlet of Las Lajitas. CONRED also warned of ash spreading to nearby towns.

A major highway that passes close to the volcano, National Route 14, was closed. The Education Ministry suspended classes in nearby towns.

During a previous eruption of Fuego, or the Volcano of Fire, in June 2018, hundreds of people were killed and a whole village was destroyed. Another eruption last year spurred preventive evacuations.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Friday moved to dismiss the indictment against David Hearn, saying in a 20-page filing that newly produced evidence from the Interior Department showed the former Olympic canoeist was not responsible for damage to the pool's lining.

Pirro’s office attributed the damage instead to a botched installation by a contractor as well as “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration” in the weeks surrounding July 4, as directed by President Donald Trump.

Lawyers for Hearn on Tuesday urged a judge to permanently dismiss the case and foreclose the possibility that the Trump administration could revive it. They took issue with Pirro's assertion that prosecutors only recently learned about the pre-existing defects at the pool, saying the government had “disregarded readily available evidence” that the liner was already failing because of installation flaws.

“From the outset, the evidence showed that the pool liner was already failing and that Mr. Hearn did not cause the damage alleged in the indictment,'' Hearn's legal team argued in a 28-page motion filed Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court.

The poor condition of the pool was “plainly visible” for weeks and was publicly documented through photographs, video and news reports, the lawyers wrote.

“Defying both decency and common sense, the government proceeded to indict Mr. Hearn before it had obtained or evaluated the information necessary to establish a good-faith basis for the charge,” the defense attorneys wrote.

In addition, they say, the government's key eyewitness was never presented to the grand jury, and a key prosecution witness on the question of damages “stated that the repairs at issue would have been necessary regardless of Mr. Hearn's alleged conduct and could not identify any additional cost caused by Mr. Hearn.”

The contractor, Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, “publicly acknowledged, before Mr. Hearn was indicted, that portions of the project required repair,” the lawyers said. The firm was awarded a $14.7 million no-bid contract to repaint and waterproof the pool's concrete floor.

A spokesperson for Pirro’s office did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Trump continued to insist on Tuesday night that the pool had been vandalized and defended the contractors.

“They did a beautiful job," Trump said. "There were a couple of little things, but that was not a big deal. And everybody saw the vandalism. All you have to do is look at the tape.”

The president said that Pirro was “totally wrong.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has backed Trump's claims that vandals damaged the pool.

The dismissal of charges against Hearn was an embarrassing setback for the Justice Department and marked a rare moment during Trump’s second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him.

Hearn has said he was on a bike ride June 19 when he reached in to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool. But he said he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.

Felony charges, including a possible 10-year prison sentence, were brought “without a meaningful investigation into the central and obvious question in this case: whether Mr. Hearn caused, or even could have caused, any damage to the Reflecting Pool,'' Hearn's lawyers said.

Davis, 63, is accused of orchestrating the drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip that also wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight. Davis' jury trial will begin Aug. 10, nearly three years after he was arrested in 2023. He pleaded not guilty.

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in the passenger seat of a black BMW that Knight was driving when a white Cadillac pulled up on their right side and gunfire erupted. Knight was wounded but survived. Shakur died a week later at the age of 25.

Police and prosecutors say the shooting stemmed from a fierce competition for dominance in a musical genre that pitted East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect against West Coast members of a Crips sect that Davis has said he led in Compton, California.

That night, three others were with Davis in the Cadillac, but none of them faced charges in Shakur’s killing before they died.

Here’s what we know about who was in both vehicles from authorities, court records, grand jury testimony, interviews and Davis’ 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”

Tupac Shakur

Shakur is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. He had five No. 1 albums, was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. He received a posthumous star in 2023 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and he will appear in the upcoming video game " Stranger than Heaven."

His death came as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. He also used the stage names 2Pac and Makaveli. As an actor, he starred in several films.

Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks in New York in 1971, and his name was changed a year later. His late mother Afeni Shakur, and late stepfather Mutulu Shakur, were active in the Black Panther Party in New York. Tupac Shakur was not close with his biological father, William “Billy” Garland.

Two of the rapper’s siblings, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur and Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, have criticized authorities for inaction and slowness in charging anyone with their brother’s death.

Marion “Suge” Knight

Knight founded Death Row Records, a Los Angeles-based music label that represented Shakur at the time of his death. Knight’s moniker was shortened from “Sugar Bear,” his nickname growing up in Compton.

Knight and Shakur were headed to a nightclub when their car was shot at near the Las Vegas Strip. Knight was grazed by a bullet or shrapnel.

Now 61, Knight is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing a Compton businessman outside a burger stand in January 2015. The case capped the former rap music mogul’s downfall from his heyday as one of the biggest — and most feared — names in the music industry.

Davis said he and Knight knew each other growing up and even played on the same youth football team in Compton. Knight went on to play college football at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Briefly, during the 1987 NFL players’ strike, he was a replacement player for the Los Angeles Rams.

In his memoir, Davis describes Knight and himself as the “only living eyewitnesses to what truly happened.”

“Like two rams locking horns, Suge and I looked each other dead in the eye," he writes when describing the moments right before the shooting.

Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson

Law enforcement authorities long suspected that Anderson was the gunman. He was 22 at the time. Though Davis was his uncle and 12 years older, he described their relationship as that of brothers, friends and even father-son.

Shortly before the drive-by shooting, Anderson was beaten in a brawl at the MGM Grand casino involving Shakur and his associates, including Knight. Authorities, authors and Davis himself say the shooting was an act of retaliation for beating up Anderson.

“Them jumping on my nephew gave us the ultimate green light to do something,” Davis writes in the book.

Davis said he obtained a handgun from an associate and tossed it into the back seat of the Cadillac but did not say who fired the fatal shots. Anderson was sitting in the backseat of the car, behind his uncle.

Neither the Cadillac nor the gun used in the shooting were recovered, according to retired Las Vegas police Detective Clifford Mogg, who was assigned to the investigation in early 2018.

“We were never able to identify the person who rented the car, where it was rented from, and then when it comes to the gun, we have never recovered as of this date, the weapon that was used in the murder,” Mogg said in testimony to the grand jury.

Anderson, who denied involvement in Shakur’s killing, died two years later in what police said was an unrelated shooting at a Compton car wash.

Deandrae “Freaky” Smith

Also known as “Big Dre,” Smith was in the back seat of the car that night, sitting next to Anderson.

Although authorities have said they believe Anderson pulled the trigger, the grand jury testimony challenged that theory.

Denvonta Lee, a former associate of Davis, told the grand jury that it was Smith who shot Shakur and Knight. He said Anderson tried reaching over Smith but didn’t have a “clear shot” out the left-rear passenger window.

The former associate, who wasn’t in the car but recounted a conversation he had with Smith days after the shooting, said Smith took the gun from Anderson, opened fire and let Anderson take credit for Shakur’s death.

Smith was 30 when he died in 2004 of natural causes, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Terry “Bubble Up” Brown

Brown was driving the Cadillac from which the shots were fired.

Davis said in his memoir that they were driving toward Las Vegas Boulevard that night but spotted Shakur “hanging out of the window” of the BMW and waving to fans. Davis told Brown to make a U-turn, and they drove slowly past the rapper’s convoy until Davis said they “found who we were seeking.”

Brown died in a 2015 shooting at a medical marijuana dispensary in Compton.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said his full name was Terry Tyrone Brown, although Brown has been referred to as both “Terrence” and “Terrance” in investigative records.

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Associated Press writer Jessica Hill and former Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, faces a single count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in Shakur's death. He's been jailed since late 2023 and has pleaded not guilty.

For decades, Shakur's unsolved killing has gripped hip-hop fans. He's considered one of the most influential rappers of all time with songs that speak to the human experience of love, heartache and familial relationships. When Shakur died, he was in the midst of a fierce battle for dominance in a music scene increasingly shaped by rival gangs.

The trial, which is expected to last about a month, likely won't reveal who pulled the trigger. Instead, prosecutors hope to prove that Davis was the shot caller and provided the weapon. Gunfire came from the Cadillac that Davis was in, and he's one of the only people there that night who is still alive. Prosecutors say if Davis hadn't written explicitly about the killing, or talked about it in interviews, it's likely no one would have been charged.

Cold case is revived on Tupac Shakur's killing

On Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in the passenger seat of a black BMW and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight was driving. They had just watched Mike Tyson knock out Bruce Seldon and were headed to a nightclub where Shakur was scheduled to perform. But at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, a white Cadillac pulled up beside them, and gunfire erupted.

Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived with minor injuries. Knight is serving a 28-year prison sentence for a fatal hit-and-run.

The case went cold until Davis began making public statements about his involvement as a leader of the South Side Compton Crips. In 2019, he published a tell-all memoir. The book, along with interviews Davis gave, revived the police investigation.

Davis' defense attorneys argue there is no evidence he directed the shooting and the state relies on witnesses who weren't there. The defense said Davis left the narcotics trade in 2009 and worked a steady job before illness forced him to retire in 2014.

For Shakur's family, the last 30 years have been exhausting and stressful, his stepbrother Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur said. Sitting through the trial will be retraumatizing, Shakur said, but he's “cautiously optimistic” justice will come.

“I hope that the trial is fair, and we find out the truth,” he said.

Shakur's death a result of longstanding gang feud, witnesses say

Hundreds of pages of grand jury transcripts portray Tupac Shakur's shooting as a culmination of a longstanding feud between rival record labels — Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records — and rival gang sects Mob Piru and South Side Compton Crips.

Witnesses said South Side Compton Crips hung out with and provided protection to Bad Boy Records, which was founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs and included rappers like The Notorious B.I.G., or Christopher Wallace. Mob Piru, part of the larger Bloods gang, was associated with Death Row Records, which featured rappers like Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.

The rival gangs fought and retaliated against each other both before and after Shakur's death.

Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated the shooting to get revenge after Shakur and his entourage beat up Davis' nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand hours before Shakur was killed.

Davis' book will be front and center at the trial

The prosecutors' case relies on “Compton Street Legend,” the book Davis co-authored about the shooting and his time in the Crips, as well as police and media interviews he participated in.

Davis' attorneys unsuccessfully fought to block the use of the book and a recording of a 2008 police interview in the trial. They argued the book was fictionalized and had a co-author, making it impossible to know which parts Davis wrote. They also argued Davis' interview with a federal task force investigating the deaths of Wallace and Shakur was supposed to be confidential and not used against him.

The memoir says that Shakur and his entourage “crossed the line” when they beat up Anderson.

“We couldn’t let no record company studio gangsters do us like that,” the book says.

Davis was in the passenger seat of the Cadillac and passed a gun to the back seat earlier that night, according to the book. When they encountered Shakur and Knight, Davis claimed to see Shakur reach for a weapon and wrote that “one of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back.”

No weapon was found in Knight and Shakur’s car, according to retired Las Vegas police Detective Clifford Mogg, who was assigned to the investigation in early 2018.

The trial could bring closure — or more questions

Mopreme Shakur said nothing would bring back his stepbrother.

“That would be justice for me,” he said. “But we all know that is unattainable.”

Mopreme Shakur said he wants allegations that Combs was involved to be explored further. In his book, Davis claims that Combs wanted Knight and Shakur killed. Combs has denied having any involvement in Shakur's death.

He's serving roughly four years in prison after being convicted of prostitution-related charges. Combs' attorney did not return emailed requests from The Associated Press for comment.

Shakur's influence in the music industry endures

Shakur sold over 75 million records worldwide with hits like “California Love,” “Changes” and “Dear Mama.” His songs spanned from party anthems to deep social commentary. The issues he discussed still resonate with people 30 years later, history professor Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar said.

“I can’t think of anyone else in the history of hip-hop who’s had a greater impact in such a short period of time,” said Ogbar, who is the founding director of the Center for the Study of Popular Music at the University of Connecticut.

They are a curious distraction from the summer heat crisis. The Danube’s record low water levels also have forced power plants to the brink of shutting down, and governments across Central and Eastern Europe are taking steps to conserve electricity.

In the middle of the river separating Serbia and Romania near the Serbian port of Prahovo, a rusty hull is now visible along with a broken mast where the Nazi flag used to fly.

The ships, some still laden with weapons, belonged to Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet that the Germans deliberately sank as they retreated from Romania and as Soviet forces advanced deeper into Europe near the end of the war.

Historians say up to 200 German warships were scuttled in September 1944 near Prahovo in the Danube gorge as they came under Soviet fire. The idea behind the deliberate sinking was to slow down the Soviet advance in the Balkans. But Nazi Germany surrendered months later, in May 1945.

The sight of the old warships is a reminder that the Serbian government, with European Union financial support, has long been trying to do something about them. Some were removed from the river by Communist Yugoslav authorities, but most have remained because of the explosives they carried.

Now, however, authorities are trying to keep traffic flowing on the Danube, which flows through 10 nations, as the dropping water levels create dangerous conditions. Experts have linked the unusually hot weather to global warming and other factors.

Krsta Brandic, a Prahovo resident, said the low water levels have almost stopped ship traffic: “As you can see, the (big) ships can’t pass anymore."

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Associated Press writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.

Although democratic socialists like Bush have made gains in other places around the country this year, she fell short while running to reclaim the St. Louis-based seat that she lost two years ago.

As was the case in the last campaign, Bell was backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbies for U.S. support of Israel. Bush has denounced Israel’s military action in Gaza.

But Bell said the race came down to his work in the district, not international affairs, and he pitched voters on a more pragmatic approach to Congress.

The rematch was one of several consequential primaries in the state. In western Missouri, Republicans picked state Sen. Rick Brattin to try to unseat Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in a dramatically reshaped district that is part of President Donald Trump’s attempt to retain a slim House majority in the midterms. Republicans already hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats and are hoping to pick up one more.

In northern Missouri, Republicans chose conservative talk radio host Chris Stigall as a potential successor to retiring Rep. Sam Graves, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Meanwhile, Missouri voters defeated a pair of unique ballot measures backed by the Republican-led Legislature. One would have required all citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to pass in each of Missouri’s eight congressional districts instead of by a simple statewide majority — a high standard used by no other state. The other would have directed lawmakers to repeal the state’s individual income tax while authorizing a state sales tax expansion.

St. Louis primary delivers second win for Bell

Bell’s primary victory is likely to propel him to reelection in November in the heavily Democratic St. Louis district.

“We had Cori Bush before, and a lot of things went wrong,” said Sandra Milbrandt, 58, who voted for Bell. “Wesley Bell has been doing good. So why would we not keep him there?”

The deep-pocketed American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent millions to help oust Bush in 2024 after she criticized Israel’s response in Gaza to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Bell was again supported by AIPAC this year.

Nationally, public opinions of Israel have since shifted, particularly among Democrats. A recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 58% of Democrats now say the U.S. is “too supportive” of Israelis, up from 45% in an AP-NORC poll from January 2024.

Bell said he focused his campaign on what he plans to do for St. Louis.

“When we think about all that noise that was going on, I have a tremendous group of folks, and we just got to work,” Bell said during his victory speech.

Bush offered no reconciliation in defeat, instead swiping at Bell.

“It pisses me off that for the next two years this community will be represented by someone that didn’t deem you valuable enough to show up to one candidate forum where there were audience comments,” she said.

Bush and Bell both honed their leadership skills in Ferguson amid the racial unrest that followed the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in 2014. Bell won election to the Ferguson City Council the next year, then defeated a seven-term St. Louis County prosecutor in the 2018 Democratic primary.

Bush, a protest leader, defeated longtime Rep. William Lacy Clay in the 2020 Democratic primary. She served two terms before being defeated by Bell.

Kansas City primary is part of GOP redistricting plan

Missouri was the second Republican state, after Texas, to respond to Trump’s call last year to redraw congressional districts to the GOP’s advantage ahead of the midterms. The revamped map stretches Cleaver’s previous Kansas City district eastward into rural central Missouri, giving the new 5th District a Republican tilt.

Cleaver was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Brattin, a Marine veteran and founding member of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, a conservative faction that has challenged the legislature’s GOP leadership, won in a six-person Republican primary. Brattin had the backing of some of Missouri’s top Republicans, including Gov. Mike Kehoe, and received an endorsement from Trump on the evening before the election.

Brattin quickly turned his attention to Cleaver after Tuesday’s primary, casting Cleaver as a liberal who is out of touch with the “conservative area of our nation’s heartland” in the reshaped district.

Retirement creates an opening for a Republican-held seat

Graves, who has represented rural northern Missouri for a quarter century, set off a political scramble when he announced in late March that he wasn’t seeking reelection. He endorsed Stigall, who once worked for Graves.

Stigall’s victory in the five-person primary gives him an edge in the November election for the sprawling 6th Congressional District that includes rural northern Missouri and part of Kansas City.

Graves has represented the district for a quarter century.

Failed ballot item sought to raise the bar for amendments

A constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by Republican state lawmakers would have made it harder for citizen-initiated amendments to win voter approval. The measure was put forward after voters narrowly passed several controversial citizen initiatives, including ones enshrining abortion rights into the state constitution, legalizing recreational marijuana, allowing sports betting and expanding Medicaid coverage to low-income adults.

None of those would have passed under the proposed requirement that citizen-initiated amendments win majority approval in every congressional district. Under Amendment 4, constitutional amendments proposed by the Legislature would have still needed just a statewide majority.

Voters reject proposal on whether to ax the income tax

Amendment 5 would have directed the Legislature to phase out the individual income tax as state revenue grows. To spur that along, it also would have allowed lawmakers to expand the sales tax to “any goods and services,” and given them five years to determine how to do that.

The Missouri measure marks the first time since the modern income tax began over a century ago that a U.S. state legislature has asked voters whether to eliminate the tax. Alaska is the only state so far to impose a general individual income tax and then repeal it, doing so in 1980 by a legislative vote.

Massachusetts voters rejected income tax eliminations in 2008 and 2002 that were initiated by citizens, not lawmakers.

Kehoe, who backed both defeated amendments, vowed to continue working for tax cuts and “election integrity” measures to protect the constitution.

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Associated Press reporter Nick Ingram contributed from St. Louis.

Even before practice No. 1, the Gators have gotten stronger.

Sumrall told reporters that collectively, his players are lifting 14,000 pounds more at this point than they were in January. It’s a colossal improvement and it’s thanks in part to Florida’s renovated weight room and the Gators’ rejuvenated attitude.

Sumrall and his staff have brought new energy to the football building as they try to lift the Gators back to national prominence and SEC dominance.

When speaking to reporters, Sumrall and his staff referred to the Gator glory days of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer.

Their goal is to recreate those innovative and electric offenses.

The work begins for the energized Gators now. They’ll kick off the season Sept. 5 against FAU at the Swamp.

Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank announced the birth of the 6-pound, 9-ounce (3 kilograms), girl delivered Monday in Lisbon, Portugal.

The girl was not named yet. The couple has two sons August, 5, and Ernest, 3.

Eugenie, the younger daughter of the former Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, is the niece of King Charles III.

“Their majesties the King and Queen and other members of the royal family were delighted to be informed of the news,” the palace said.

Several fires that burned through mountain communities and coastal areas west of Athens were brought under control overnight. Planes and helicopters dumped water inside the contained perimeters through the morning, dousing hot spots while the winds stayed calm.

“There is a huge fire load in the area and the risk goes up as the day progresses,” said Costas Tsingas, head of the Greek Firefighters Association. “The goal is for the day to end better than it started.”

Fires started through negligence prompt wave of arrests

Burning for a fifth day, the blaze outside Athens prompted the evacuation of more than 1,000 people and was blamed on a faulty power line from a wind farm.

Restrictions and park closures are imposed locally according to fire‑risk levels. Authorities say 33 people were arrested between June 29 and Aug. 2 for starting fires, including 30 through negligence and three on suspicion of arson. Most of the negligence cases involved farm work carried out despite local bans, including welding.

On Tuesday, crews were working against the clock: Winds typically pick up in the afternoon, a coastal phenomenon common across the Mediterranean in summer as land heats faster than the sea and draws in stronger breezes.

The army deployed tracked earth movers to carve fire breaks across the scorched hillsides, while specialist units pushed into forest areas on foot to extinguish smoldering embers before they could reignite.

The evacuations from around the seaside resort of Porto Germeno and other areas west of the capital included more than 250 rescued by boats from beaches.

Wildfires in France expose ammunition

Prolonged heat waves across Europe this summer have left France tinder-dry, fueling blazes that this week exposed long-buried ammunition in a forested area.

The massive wildfire outside the southwestern city of Bordeaux, which has scorched about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles), uncovered what is believed to be World War II-era ammunition.

Demining experts have found more than 400 shells and other munitions at Le Porge, the hardest-hit town, where 183 homes were destroyed. Residents described hearing explosions believed to be blasts from the old shells, authorities said.

The fire remained contained and thousands of evacuees were allowed to return Monday. More than 224,000 people fled in France’s largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.

In the southern Netherlands, firefighters and military helicopters battled a forest blaze for the second day Tuesday amid high temperatures and shifting winds. The fire has destroyed 100 hectares of trees and was burning out of control but was not immediately threatening homes. Nobody has been injured in the blaze. The cause is not known.

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Corbet reported from Paris.

Shannon Taylor, the elected top prosecutor in a suburban Richmond county, will take on longtime GOP incumbent Rob Wittman in the 1st Congressional District. The coastal 2nd Congressional District, a true swing district with a heavy military presence, will see a rematch between two veterans — former Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria and Jen Kiggans, who ousted her in 2022.

Taylor and Luria were backed by the House Democrats’ campaign arm and a wide array of Democratic leaders, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

Democratic primaries elsewhere in the U.S. this year have highlighted a divide between progressive challengers and more moderate, establishment-backed rivals, and in some races, outsiders have notched surprising upset wins. But in Virginia, Democratic primary voters have a history of rewarding moderate candidates, a trend that continued with the wins by Luria and Taylor on Tuesday. Taylor won in a crowded, seven-way primary that included a progressive candidate who won about a fifth of the vote, while Luria defeated three opponents.

Virginia Democrats hope they can flip at least two seats after their aggressive, voter-approved redistricting plan was overturned by the state Supreme Court earlier this year.

More bullish observers, including the governor, argue as many as four districts could flip, including the 5th District, where former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello won the Democratic primary and will face incumbent Rep. John McGuire in November.

“Virginia Democrats are going on offense. We will compete everywhere, defend our ground, flip Republican-held seats, and hold Donald Trump and his allies accountable for higher costs, attacks on our freedoms, and corruption that puts personal interests ahead of the people they serve,” state Sen. Lamont Bagby, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement.

Jeff Ryer, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, said voters would look critically at Spanberger’s leadership and instead “elect common-sense conservative leaders who will fight for lower taxes, more freedom, and greater opportunity.”

The primary sets up a rematch in the 2nd District

Virginia is currently represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans, all of whom will be seeking reelection this year.

The coastal 2nd District, with its population center in Virginia Beach, is a must-win for Democrats aiming to retake the House. Luria's primary victory sets up what will be a closely watched general election rematch with Kiggans.

Luria, a retired Navy commander, flipped the district in 2018 and served for two terms before Kiggans defeated her in 2022. Luria was a member of the Jan. 6 committee, which investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a victory speech to supporters, Luria argued that Kiggans had campaigned on a pledge to be bipartisan but had not meaningfully distinguished herself from President Donald Trump. She also acknowledged that the district has routinely swung back and forth between electing Democrats and Republicans, saying, “We have a long road and a long fight ahead."

Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot, on Tuesday defended her record as a “proven leader who brings people together and gets results for our military and families.” She said in a statement that she would be campaigning in the coming months with a focus on “lowering costs, putting more money back in your pocket, standing up for our families, and working across the aisle to deliver real results.”

Democrats are hoping momentum will help them flip the GOP-leaning 1st District

The 1st District, with a population center in the Richmond suburbs, has generally tilted Republican. Taylor won a crowded primary contest, even as many Democratic voters backed a more progressive candidate, Salaam Bhatti.

After her victory, Taylor drew a line from her experience as a prosecutor to the way she said she would govern if elected.

“I’ve spent the last 14 years prosecuting violent criminals, fraudsters and anybody who abuses our trust. If they took advantage of our community, I held them accountable. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do when I’m in Congress,” she told a crowd of cheering supporters gathered at an Irish pub in the district.

In the primary, Taylor emphasized her record on public safety and promoted an agenda she said would help fight corruption in Washington, including a ban on stock trading and a lifetime federal lobbying ban for members of Congress.

She will go on to face Wittman in the general election.

Wittman said in a statement that he had a proven record of delivering for the district and argued that Taylor had advocated for progressive criminal justice reforms.

Only two House incumbents faced primary challengers

Elsewhere, two incumbents, Democratic Rep. Don Beyer and McGuire, defeated their primary opponents.

In central Virginia’s 5th District, Trump-endorsed McGuire, a former Navy SEAL and state lawmaker, beat veteran Melanie Lucero.

He will go on to face Perriello, a former congressman who is seeking the chance at a comeback and won a three-way race for the Democratic nomination. Perriello formerly represented the district for one term beginning in 2009. Some Democrats are hopeful about the party’s chances of flipping the 5th District, though it leans solidly Republican.

Beyer won in northern Virginia’s overwhelmingly blue 8th District surrounding Washington and is expected to cruise to reelection in November.

Republicans will decide on a long-shot challenger for US Senate

Voters also settled a three-way statewide contest to pick the Republican nominee to challenge Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, a well-known former governor who was first elected to the Senate in 2008 and currently serves as the ranking Democrat on the chamber’s Intelligence Committee.

Defeating Warner, who did not have a primary challenger, is expected to be a difficult task. The race is not among those seen as a battleground that will determine control of the Senate.

Bert Mizusawa, a decorated retired Army major general, emerged as the GOP primary winner.

In suburban Richmond, Republican voter Chris Weymouth, 85, voted for Mizusawa because she believed he would put America first, support the Constitution and protect America’s freedoms. She said Democrats have moved so far left she would “never” consider voting for one.

In a release, deputies said they were asked to take over the investigation back in June by Leesburg police.

“Leesburg detectives explained that a work computer belonging to a local business had been in for repairs when suspicious material was located on its hard drive,” the release reads. “The material appeared to be inappropriate photographs of adults and adolescent girls.”

[RELATED: Church overseer arrested for filming girls inside bathroom]

The investigation led to even more materials being discovered on a cloud drive, which held videos of what appeared to be adolescent girls changing clothes and videos from inside a bathroom, deputies added.

Investigators said they eventually discovered that the videos were taken from a concealed camera inside a church bathroom and a room where adolescent girls were changing after a baptism service.

While investigators said they weren’t able to find any cameras during a search of that bathroom, they issued a search warrant for the home of the man who owned the computer — identified as Charles Lucas, 59, a longtime member of the church who served as a volunteer overseer.

Lucas was originally arrested in June and booked on charges of digital voyeurism, at least one of which involved a victim under 16 years old, deputies reported.

But on Tuesday, he was slapped with 21 more charges: 15 counts of digital voyeurism, and six counts of digital voyeurism involving a victim under 16 years of age.

As such, he was arrested again on Tuesday afternoon, though he was released later in the evening on bond of $67,500.

After Lucas’ initial arrest back in June, News 6 spoke exclusively with Administrative Pastor Melvin Davison at Heritage Community Church.

[RELATED: Heritage Community Church leaders address congregation after longtime volunteer leader’s arrest]

At the time, church leaders told members they were cooperating with investigators and focused on supporting anyone who may have been affected.

“We’re being fully cooperative and our congregation, our staff, we’re just kind of heartbroken right now over everything that’s going on,” Davison explained.

Davison said Lucas had been part of the church since it was founded in 2008.

When asked what he would say to church members searching for answers, Davison said the church remains committed to its congregation.

“Anybody that’s been part of the Heritage Church community for any time knows our hearts, knows that we love them,” Davison said. “We will do anything and everything, especially to protect the next generation.”

Now it's up to Vogt and the new-look Guardians to capitalize on the addition of outfielder Jo Adell, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and pitcher Foster Griffin for a postseason push.

“Now it’s our turn to go out and let’s go perform. Let’s go win some games,” Vogt said before Tuesday night's 5-2 loss to the New York Mets.

Adell, who batted second and played right field, reached base three times in his Guardians' debut with two hits and a walk. Lowe came in during the seventh inning and went 0 for 2.

Griffin will pitch the final game of the series on Thursday, keeping him on his usual amount of rest.

“It was awesome to come in and find a way to execute. I was excited to get out there and get started," Adell said.

Adell, Lowe and Griffin were in the clubhouse before the game, introducing themselves to their new teammates and getting up to speed before the start of a three-game series.

“I was pretty fired up about it. I think our front office did everything that we could have ever wanted from him — two impact bats and an impact starter. That’s all you can ask for," catcher Austin Hedges said. "I think it sets us up to be right where we want to be at the end of September.”

Cleveland (57-57) is 6-11 since the All-Star break, but has a one-game lead over Minnesota for the American League's final wild-card spot. The Guardians are three games behind the first-place White Sox in the AL Central.

Adell will be part of a postseason chase for the first time in his seven-year career. He was the 10th overall pick in the 2017 amateur draft by the Angels, who haven't finished over .500 since 2015.

With the front office changes in Los Angeles, Adell had a feeling that that he might be part of a sell off of players with one or two years left on their contracts.

“It’s really cool to be wanted and this team’s been playing really good baseball,” Adell said. “I’m excited to kind of be a part of that and be a part of a chase and something that is bigger than ourselves and going out trying to win a ball game every night. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”

Adell's arrival makes him Cleveland's leader in home runs (16) and RBIs (62) for a team that has been offensively challenged for most of the past two seasons.

José Ramírez is 8 for 41 in the 10 games since he returned from the injured list following left hand surgery. Ramírez was out of the lineup on Tuesday night due to left hand inflammation.

One of the few bright spots has been Steven Kwan, who was batting .212 at the end of June but has raised his batting average 46 points since July 1 to .258. He has also hit safely in 23 of his last 28 games.

Adell and Chase DeLauter will platoon between right field and designated hitter. Lowe will be in the lineup when the Guardians face right-handed pitchers, while Rhys Hoskins will primarily face left-handers.

“The talent’s all here. It’s just about execution for the next two months. We need to get ourselves in the strongest position possible to make a deep run and make something happen. And when the guys start believing that, anything could happen,” Lowe said.

The Guardians will still go with a five-man rotation. Griffin's addition means Slade Cecconi is moving to the bullpen. Tanner Bibee was slated to start Thursday but has been moved up to Wednesday, and will be on four day's rest.

“I feel like you never have enough pitching, especially going into a playoff race. So any part I can be in that department, I’m excited about,” Griffin said.

___

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

The emerging agreement calls for ships to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman, two regional officials told The Associated Press.

Any deal, though, appears contingent on the United States lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports. The Trump administration has previously ruled out any deal that would give Iran control over the strait.

Elsewhere, a mass funeral was held in Gaza City for more than 100 Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike early in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

A memorial service was also held in Beirut, for victims of a 2020 port explosion, and Yemen’s Houthis claimed they fired at a Saudi Arabian airport.

Here is a look at the most important developments in the Middle East on Tuesday:

US officials suggest strait deal imminent

Senior U.S. officials struck an optimistic tone Tuesday, suggesting a deal to reopen the strait could be reached soon.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed there has been progress made in talks between Iran and Oman, “but not finality yet.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that “there is a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait and move towards a more normalized position in this conflict.”

The Strait of Hormuz is the crucial waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed before the war. It has been effectively shut by Iran’s attacks on shipping since the start of the war in February.

Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said he also spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the Arab country tries to broker a resolution to the war.

Al Thani’s office said in a statement that on the phone call, the two discussed ways to bridge the divide “in a way that enhances the prospects of reaching a sustainable diplomatic settlement to the crisis.”

Ships attacked in Strait of Hormuz and in Red Sea

A cargo ship reported being “hit by an unknown projectile” while traversing the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center.

The center said the reported strike damaged the vessel at around 2 a.m. local time while it was about 37 kilometers (23 miles) northeast of Al Khasab, a port city in Oman.

It's unclear what flag the ship was sailing under or whether it was carrying cargo, but the British maritime security firm Ambrey said the ship sustained damage.

On the Red Sea, meanwhile, an Indian-flagged commercial ship sank off Yemen after being struck by an explosive-laden boat, Yemeni and Indian authorities said.

Yemen’s coast guard rescued the crew, which included 13 Indians and a Yemeni.

India’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, though no one immediately claimed responsibility. Iran-backed Houthi militants have repeatedly struck ships traversing the Red Sea near Yemen.

Gaza residents killed in 2023 airstrike laid to rest

Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday as bodies wrapped in Palestinian flags were laid in rows near flattened buildings in Gaza City.

The 112 victims were then carried off on stretchers through a narrow street, destined for burial in a nearby cemetery. They were among more than 300 killed during an attack on Nov. 22, 2023, in the city’s Sabra neighborhood.

First responders recovered the bodies, including 40 children and 30 women, over the weekend, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operated under Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has since killed 73,375 people, including civilians and combatants, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Around 7,400 people are still missing and presumed buried under the rubble from the war, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.

Israel discusses withdrawal from Lebanon

Israeli and Lebanese officials met in Rome on Tuesday to continue talks on implementing a U.S.-mediated deal to draw down the Israeli military from southern Lebanon and disarm the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.

A diplomat familiar with the negotiations said Lebanon had asked for the next “pilot zone” — where Israeli forces would withdraw and the Lebanese army would take control — to be either in the town of Khiam or Bint Jbeil. Both areas saw heavy fighting in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war and are currently occupied by Israeli forces.

But U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa suggested ahead of the three-day talks that no new pilot zones would be immediately implemented, saying that “moving too quickly risks jeopardizing the very civilians this process is meant to protect.”

Implementation of the June 26 agreement began last month with an initial pilot zone in an area that wasn’t occupied by Israeli forces but had previously sustained Israeli fire.

Yemen’s Houthis fire at airport in Saudi Arabia

In Yemen, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, said a drone hit a “sensitive target” at the airport in the southwestern city of Najran, without providing evidence.

He said the attack was in response to what he described as a Saudi breach of Yemen’s airspace over the provinces of Saada and Hajjah. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis recently announced a blockade on Saudi-linked shipping passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that leads to the Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia led an international coalition and imposed an air and sea blockade against the rebels after they seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen in a civil war that began in 2014. Major fighting ended in a truce in 2022.

Memorial marks Beirut port explosion anniversary

Families of the more than 200 people killed in the massive explosion at the port in Beirut in 2020 gathered at the blast site to mark six years since tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate exploded, devastating large parts of the Lebanese capital.

No one has been convicted in a long-stalled judicial investigation into the incident, but some families expressed renewed hope after government officials promised indictments would be issued by the end of the year.

The tragedy has been overshadowed by recent events, including two wars between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group and an Israeli military occupation of much of the country’s south.

___

Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Abby Sewell in Beirut, Maria Grazia Murru in Rome, Matthew Lee in Washington and Philip Marcelo in New York contributed to this report.

The United States Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida announced the arrests of Yongbo Li, 36, Huashan Lu, 62, and Yuxiang Zhao, 60. All three defendants were arrested for conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

“It’s now the marching orders coming from the Department of Justice that the tolerance level for fraud is zero,” said United States Attorney Gregory Kehoe. “Zero tolerance level for this fraud.”

In a press conference held at his office in downtown Orlando Tuesday, Kehoe described the allegations listed in a 66 page criminal complaint.

“The defendants targeted individuals by impersonating legitimate businesses, financial institutions, government agencies, and other trusted agencies to gain victims’ confidence and induce those victims to transfer money,” Kehoe said.

Investigators said the defendants deceived the victims--who were mostly elderly--into sending cashier’s checks, money orders, or cash to P.O. boxes in and around Orlando.

“For most of these people, their money was gone forever,” Kehoe said of the 28 victims who have been identified.

Kehoe said the lies and manipulation varied.

“They were told that their Apple Pay account had been used to purchase pornography in China, that the victims’ social security number was compromised so the victim should liquidate his or her financial accounts and buy cashiers’ checks to hold the funds for safekeeping,” Kehoe said.

In one instance, according to the criminal complaint, a woman was told her social security number was compromised, prompting her to be connected to a man claiming to be a United States Secret Service agent.

The man instructed the victim--referred to as M.D. in the complaint--to liquidate her funds and complete a cashier’s check for the United States Treasury “to hold the funds for safekeeping.”

Investigators said M.D. withdrew and sent more than $259,000 via Cashier’s checks to companies owned by the defendants.

Kehoe said other suspects have not been apprehended because they are in China. One of those suspects is an American citizen, according to Kehoe.

Investigators are currently trying to claw back the victims’ money that went offshore.

Miller, a senior adviser to Trump during his first presidency, was facing a deadline to decide whether to stay in his race for reelection, with Republicans nervous that the allegations surrounding the second-term congressman could cost them a seat as they try to hang on to their House majority in this year's midterms.

Leaders of the ethics committee said in their statement that the committee was reviewing whether Miller “may have engaged in domestic violence and abuse or illegal drug use.” Earlier in the day, Miller said he had requested his own investigation into the allegations made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno. It was not clear whether his request or another one prompted the committee to investigate.

Trump spoke with Miller on Monday and advised that his candidacy “doesn’t look good,” according to a source familiar with the conversation who was granted anonymity to discuss a private conversation. Trump’s conversation with Miller was first reported by Axios.

Miller said during a CNN interview Tuesday that he wasn't exiting the race, despite what he described as Trump's words of caution.

"'Maxie, it’s going to be a tough race. And he said, I don’t know if you’re going to be able to, you know, pull this one out,'” he quoted Trump as saying during their conversation.

Miller added: “I will never, ever, ever let my baby girl see her dad walk away as a quitter. I will continue to finish this.”

If Miller was persuaded to drop out of the race, he would have to make that decision soon. The election calendar published by the Ohio secretary of state sets Aug. 10 as the day political party nominating committees must certify the name of anyone filling a vacancy caused by withdrawal or disqualification.

The former Trump aide, whom the president endorsed in May, is facing a flurry of legal filings by his ex-wife, who is the Republican senator's daughter, and an ex-girlfriend.

Sen. Moreno, who until Sunday had remained quiet about the allegations at his daughter's request, on Tuesday described the impact on his daughter, granddaughter and wider family as “truly the seventh level of hell."

“This has been brutal beyond comprehension," he told reporters at the Capitol. "And if there's any minimum standard for being a public official, as I said, he fails to meet that minimum, basic standard.”

Asked about the election implications of the allegations for Republicans, Moreno told reporters, “I don't care about the politics at all.”

Moreno expressed concern for his granddaughter and told reporters that he traveled Sunday to a suburban Cleveland police station, where Miller was dropping off their daughter. Miller and his ex-wife share custody of the 2-year-old.

Miller had previewed his intention to stay in the race over the weekend when he livestreamed a video defending himself on X and posted a cache of documents related to his divorce and custody cases.

Sen. Moreno said the video prompted him to break his silence and call for Miller to no longer hold public office.

Trump declined to say publicly Monday whether Miller should exit the race, noting that the accusations against him were “allegations.”

“I know Max. He's a good person. I mean, I always thought he was a very good person. And I'm going to let the families figure that out,” Trump told reporters when asked about Miller during an Oval Office event.

The city says its drinking water is safe and meets required contaminant standards. However, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is conducting an ongoing investigation after inspectors documented 11 possible violations involving the operation and maintenance of Apopka’s public water system.

The city also confirmed it received 36 water-related customer complaints during the past 12 months, primarily involving odor and discoloration. Two of those complaints came from commercial customers.

“I’d like to know what standards they’ve achieved,” Apopka resident Bishop Eddie Harris Jr. told News 6. “It needs to be clarified and simplified so that everybody understands.”

Harris, who recently moved to Apopka, said he uses a filtration system at home. He told News 6 he has not personally noticed unusual discoloration or odor since moving to the city, but wants residents to receive a clearer explanation of what official water-quality standards mean.

What the City of Apopka says

In a written response to News 6, the city said it is “currently providing safe, reliable drinking water” that meets or exceeds applicable state and federal regulations.

The city said its water operations employees continuously monitor the distribution system, maintain treatment facilities and oversee water quality to ensure compliance.

Along with the 36 customer complaints, Apopka reported issuing 14 precautionary boil-water notices during the past year.

The city said those notices were primarily connected to water-main breaks in situations where crews could not isolate the section requiring repairs. The resulting pressure loss prompted precautionary notices for affected customers.

A precautionary boil-water notice does not necessarily mean contamination has been found. Such notices are generally issued after pressure is lost because lower pressure can create an opportunity for contaminants to enter a distribution system.

The city said affected businesses receive the precautionary notice and applicable Florida Department of Health guidance. That guidance outlines precautions businesses must follow until testing is completed and the notice is lifted.

Elevated readings at one Apopka testing location

News 6 also asked about two individual samples collected at a testing location near 2834 Park Meadow.

Apopka’s 2025 water-quality information listed total trihalomethane, or TTHM, readings of 90.05 and 84.43 parts per billion. Both individual results were above the federal maximum contaminant level of 80 parts per billion.

However, the city did not incur a drinking-water violation.

FDEP explained that compliance for disinfection byproducts is not determined by one individual sample. It is calculated using a location’s average over the previous four calendar quarters, known as the Location Running Annual Average.

A violation occurs if that four-quarter average exceeds 0.08 milligrams per liter, which is equivalent to 80 parts per billion.

The City of Apopka said operators had historically flushed the distribution system through a nearby fire hydrant to maintain water quality in that area. The city said that flushing was temporarily discontinued after nearby residents raised concerns about the process.

Apopka later installed an underground automatic flushing device. The city said the equipment allows routine flushing to continue without the same impact on surrounding residents and should reduce the potential for elevated TTHM levels in the future.

FDEP warning letter followed April inspection

FDEP conducted a sanitary survey of Apopka’s public water system on April 23.

The system serves a reported population of 71,917 people through 26,973 service connections, according to the inspection records.

On June 3, FDEP sent Apopka Mayor Nick Nesta a formal warning letter stating that inspectors had observed possible violations of Florida statutes and administrative rules.

The letter identified 11 areas of concern:

• Insufficient records showing isolation valves had been exercised
• Insufficient cross-connection-control records
• Leaking high-service pumps and wells
• Vegetative growth on an aerator at the Grossenbacher Water Treatment Plant
• Improperly threaded raw-water sampling taps
• Missing protective screens on multiple air-relief valves
• Biological growth on a wellhead
• A missing drain line
• A leaking isolation valve connected to an abandoned tank
• A leaking on-site generator fuel tank
• Late submission of Consumer Confidence Report information

FDEP stressed that its warning letter does not conclude that Apopka’s finished drinking water is unsafe or that the city exceeded federal contaminant limits.

The agency said public-water systems may receive letters documenting operational noncompliance even when federal drinking-water standards are still being met.

The warning letter is considered preliminary to potential agency action, and FDEP said its investigation remains ongoing. Possible violations must be addressed through corrective action.

Repeat recordkeeping violation and backflow concerns

One finding was identified as a repeat violation.

Inspectors said the city did not have adequate records demonstrating that distribution-system isolation valves were exercised. FDEP requires documentation showing those valves are exercised at least once every five years.

Isolation valves allow water-system operators to shut off specific sections of the distribution network when crews need to make repairs or respond to a water-main break.

The inspection report states that the city provided a follow-up report and plan intended to bring the program into compliance.

Inspectors also found deficiencies in the city’s cross-connection-control records.

Cross-connections can create a path for water or other substances to flow backward into a public drinking-water system. Backflow-prevention assemblies are intended to prevent that from happening.

The report’s deficiency table states that only 349 of 10,536 backflow-prevention assemblies had been tested. Another section of the inspection report lists 379 tested assemblies.

News 6 has asked both the city and FDEP to clarify which figure is accurate, what period the number covers and how many assemblies have now been tested.

Some corrections submitted; other work was incomplete

The inspection records show that Apopka submitted corrective-action documentation for several of the findings, including biological growth, sampling taps, missing screens and the generator-tank leak.

At the time the report was completed, leaking pumps and a well were listed as partially corrected.

A leaking isolation valve attached to an abandoned hydropneumatic tank at the Mt. Plymouth Regional Water Treatment Plant was still listed as outstanding.

FDEP did not classify any of the listed inspection findings as a “significant deficiency.”

That classification is important: It means inspectors documented violations requiring correction, but did not place any individual finding in the report’s more serious significant-deficiency category.

News 6 has asked the city whether all 11 issues have since been fully corrected and whether any of the findings affected—or had the potential to affect—water quality, pressure, reliability or service to customers.

Why water complaints do not automatically mean a health risk

FDEP regulates public drinking-water systems in Florida under authority granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Primary drinking-water regulations establish enforceable limits for approximately 90 regulated contaminants. Those limits are known as maximum contaminant levels.

Separate secondary standards address aesthetic characteristics, including taste, color and odor.

FDEP said water with a visible tint does not, by itself, indicate a human-health risk. An odor or unusual taste also does not automatically establish that a regulated contaminant is present.

That distinction is central to understanding Apopka’s 36 complaints. The complaints show that customers reported concerns about what they saw or smelled, but the number alone does not demonstrate that the water was unsafe.

Businesses depend on consistency

At Wekiva Gardens Inc., water is central to nearly every part of the operation.

The nursery does not use Apopka’s municipal system for irrigation. Its water comes from a private well extending approximately 350 feet underground.

Co-owner Kathrein Markle said the business must understand the mineral content and other characteristics of its water before employees decide how much fertilizer to apply.

“If you don’t have good water that stays consistent, you’re out of business,” Markle said.

The nursery filters its irrigation water and has the water used by employees tested quarterly for coliform bacteria. Markle said the nursery’s well has remained consistent and emphasized that the business has not experienced a problem involving Apopka’s municipal water.

Her operation illustrates the broader business stakes attached to water reliability and treatment.

“If you have to put in equipment to sterilize the water and to filter the water, it will affect the price because your cost goes up,” Markle said.

City outlines future upgrades

Apopka said several projects are underway or planned to improve water quality, reliability and capacity as the city continues to grow.

Those projects include:

• Updating the city’s Utility Master Plan
• Completing Phase 2 of its asbestos-cement water-main replacement program
• Advancing the proposed Golden Gem Water Treatment Plant
• Establishing an emergency interconnection with Orange County Utilities
• Designing an expansion and upgrades at the Grossenbacher Water Treatment Plant

The Orange County connection would provide Apopka with an additional emergency water-supply source. The Grossenbacher improvements are intended to increase treatment capacity and improve system reliability.

What News 6 is still asking

The City of Apopka maintains that its finished drinking water is safe, reliable and compliant with state and federal contaminant standards.

FDEP says its separate investigation into maintenance, equipment, recordkeeping and reporting noncompliance remains open.

News 6 has asked the city:

• Which of the 11 inspection findings have been fully corrected
• Which issues, if any, remain unresolved
• Whether any finding affected water quality, pressure or service
• Why the isolation-valve documentation problem was a repeat violation
• How many backflow-prevention assemblies have now been tested

Aaron F. Farinacci, of Spokane, was arrested Monday and booked on suspicion of first-degree arson in connection with the Old Trails Fire, the biggest of three blazes that have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. According to court records, he denied setting the fire. His bond was set at $1 million.

The other two fires burning around Spokane were also started by humans, though not necessarily intentionally, investigators said Tuesday. The exact cause remains under investigation.

No deaths have been reported and cooler, calmer weather aided firefighters again Tuesday. Only one of the three fires — the Autumn Lane fire — grew. But hotter, drier and windier conditions are expected later in the week.

Farinacci, 37, served about a decade in prison after killing his father in Arizona in 2010. Last year, authorities questioned him in two fire-related cases in Spokane, according to a probable cause statement filed in Spokane County Superior Court.

One involved several “bus-sized” fires in an area near Farinacci's apartment in July 2025, police records in that case say. The other involved a wildfire in a state park that prompted evacuation notices the following month. In neither case was he arrested.

A tip leads to an arrest

On Saturday, Paul Child, 64, was driving with his grandson along some railroad tracks in his rural neighborhood northwest of Spokane. He saw a man standing and looking toward nearby trees. About 10 minutes later, as they were returning home, the man was still there.

“He was bent over in the brush, acting nervous," Child told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "You get the feeling this guy’s up to something.”

“No longer than 10 minutes after I got home, my daughter says, ‘There’s a fire,’” Child recalled. “My first words were, ‘That SOB started a fire!’ It was the exact spot where he was standing.”

Child’s daughter called 911 and he drove back to the spot where he'd seen the man, sheriff’s detective Michael Drapeau wrote in the probable cause statement. He gave a police officer a description of the man he had seen — bald, white, wearing a green shirt and carrying a backpack.

A responding sheriff’s deputy saw a man matching that description walking more than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away and detained him. Another deputy also responded, and Child showed up to identify the person in custody — Farinacci — as the one he had seen in the area of the fire, the document states.

Farinacci had a backpack and a fanny pack, in which he had a pack of cigarettes, waterproof matches and a butane lighter, it says. He told the deputies he didn’t start the fire and he denied having been in the area where it started. He was wearing a green T-shirt that read, “who needs luck I have charm,” the detective wrote.

The deputies were unaware of Farinacci’s prior fire-related contacts and the cause of the Old Trails Fire hadn’t been determined yet, so they released him to continue working on evacuation efforts, Drapeau wrote.

But the following day, a wildland fire investigator ruled out other possible causes, including sparks from electric wires or passing trains, and police arrested Farinacci on Monday.

“As it happens in so many critical cases, it was citizens who were paying attention to their surroundings, being aware and willing to step up and say something that led to the relatively quick apprehension of Mr. Farinacci,” Sheriff John Nowels told reporters.

Child credited the heroic work of police and firefighters responding to the disaster, and said he hopes people who lost homes “can get some kind of peace of mind or a little bit of comfort” from the arrest.

Farinacci appeared in court Tuesday via video link from the jail and was represented by Colin Charbonneau, director of the Spokane County public defender’s office. A judge set his arraignment for Thursday.

In an effort to get comment from Farinacci’s family, The Associated Press sent a message to a possible social media account for a brother.

Police contacted him about earlier fires

A detective investigating the Old Trails Fire ran a criminal history check on Farinacci and found that he had been contacted by law enforcement twice before during fire investigations.

Spokane police responded to reports of several fires on July 8, 2025, near Farinacci’s apartment. The area near the Spokane River involved several “bus-sized” fires and prompted a significant emergency response, according to a police record.

The Washington State Patrol made contact with Farinacci the following month while pursuing a suspect in a wildfire at Riverside State Park. They found him on a park bench, “seemingly out of breath from possibly running.” They took photos of him. He was wearing a green T-shirt just like the one he was seen wearing on Saturday, the document says.

Convicted of manslaughter

Farinacci, then age 21, shot and killed his father in Mesa, Arizona, during a 2010 argument about washing dishes, police said. Farinacci also shot himself but survived.

He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty in 2012 to manslaughter and aggravated assault, records show.

A judge in 2011 found that Farinacci was mentally fit to assist in his own defense, though defense lawyer Jose Colon continued to raise questions about his mental health and noted that he had been hospitalized multiple times for psychiatric treatment, court records show.

In a letter to the judge, Beth Farinacci, who had married Farinacci's father, said second-degree murder, not manslaughter, would have been a more appropriate way to resolve the case.

“Manslaughter is for when someone accidentally kills another person. It is not for someone who intentionally points a loaded gun at their father and shoots him in his face and back,” Beth Farinacci wrote.

Farinacci was released from probation in Arizona in early 2024. A probation officer said Farinacci maintained a stable residence with his girlfriend and her family in the previous year, but also noted he hadn’t completed a mental health evaluation or domestic violence treatment.

Drone activity a serious concern

The fires were among dozens across the Western U.S. that have stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. More than 1,000 firefighters, many from outside of Washington state, were in the Spokane area Tuesday, and that number was expected to rise.

On Monday afternoon, during the hottest part of the day, authorities had to ground all of their firefighting aircraft for nearly two hours due to repeated airspace incursions by privately operated drones, said Tom Stokesberry, spokesperson for the critical incident team managing the fire response.

Federal authorities on Tuesday granted a law enforcement task force the authority to down, by means of electronic disruption, any drones that cross into restricted airspace, he said.

In one neighborhood, blackened vehicles, a boat twisted by the heat and melted plastic recycling bins remained. Across the street, lawns were still green and houses were spared, as residents continued to run hoses or sprinklers to water their properties.

Some residents who had to flee blazes returned to find only chimneys left standing.

“There’s nothing to save,” Miriam Sim, 76, said as she and her husband, Daniel Sim, surveyed the ruins of the home where they had lived since 2005.

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Johnson and Bellisle reported from Seattle, and White reported from Detroit. Associated Press reporters Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.

Arbaeen is held 40 days after Ashoura, which commemorates the killing of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, and members of his family, at the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D.

Karbala Gov. Nasseif Jassim al-Khattabi said Tuesday that more than 22 million people entered the city during the pilgrimage, including about 5 million non-Iraqi visitors as well as Iraqis from different regions of the country.

The event is considered one of the world’s largest annual religious gatherings.

Among the highest-profile foreign visitors was Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who arrived in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Monday and continued on to Karbala to take part in the pilgrimage.

Araghchi's presence was a reminder of the delicate balancing act that Iraq — which has close ties to both Washington and Tehran — has carried out since the beginning of the war. Iraq has found itself in the crosshairs of both sides and has sought to avoid getting pulled further into the conflict.

As usual, Iranian pilgrims arrived in large numbers, but some observers said the number of pilgrims from other countries had shrunk.

Aqeel al-Rubaie, 45, a pilgrim from Baghdad who was on his way to Karbala, said Iranian flags were particularly visible along the Najaf-Karbala road, while there were fewer flags than usual from European, Arab and other Islamic countries.

He attributed this to “the war and the events unfolding across the region, which have affected the number of Arab and foreign pilgrims."

Another pilgrim from Baghdad, Hassan al-Sarai, 35, said, “I hardly saw any flags other than Iranian ones, which were clearly visible along the road as well as inside and around the city of Karbala."

Volunteer processions providing food, water, medical care and other services lined the roads leading to Karbala from across Iraq.

The pilgrimage is taking place this year as Iraq faces difficult economic conditions following the war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has disrupted Iraqi oil exports. More than 90% of Iraqi state revenues come from oil exports, making the country’s economy highly vulnerable to any interruption in crude shipments.

It also comes as Baghdad is wrestling with a difficult task it has set for itself: disarming the country's network of militias, many of them Iran-backed.

One of the most powerful Iran-backed militias, Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement marking the occasion of Arbaeen that it rejects calls to disarm and remains committed to retaining what it described as the “weapons of the resistance."

Meanwhile in Iran, many observant Shiites unable to make the pilgrimage to Karbala held their own observances, which sometimes took on a political tone.

In the capital, Tehran, black-clad mourners rallied along a nearly 20-kilometer (12-mile) route to a Shiite holy shrine in the south of the city from a starting point in the central part of the city.

The mourners chanted slogans seeking retaliation for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in strikes by the U.S. and Israel, while some demonstrators trampled on U.S. and Israeli flags.

State media said similar rallies were held in other Iranian cities and towns.

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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed.

Netanyahu's remarks cast more doubt on the deal to disarm Hamas, which was seen as a potential breakthrough for ending the war. It also marked a rare public display of friction with the Trump administration.

The agreement called for Hamas to begin disarming and for Israel to halt its strikes and begin withdrawing from the roughly 60% of Gaza it currently controls. It was based on an October ceasefire agreement that ended major military operations and brought about the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza but has stalled on other fronts.

Netanyahu, who faces a tough battle for reelection in October, reiterated his stance that disarmament should come first. He said Israeli forces would continue to “do whatever is necessary to protect themselves, our territory, and our citizens.”

The Trump administration “sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments. … This is our position,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on social media.

Mass funeral held for dozens killed in 2023 strike

Earlier on Tuesday, Palestinians gathered for a mass funeral of more than 100 bodies finally recovered from a deadly Israeli strike in Gaza in 2023. More than 300 people were killed on Nov. 22, 2023, weeks into the war with Hamas, when warplanes flattened a residential block in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood.

Around 40 bodies were recovered soon afterward in a frantic scramble of rough tools and bare hands, but most were buried deep beneath the rubble. Reports of the high number of victims in one of the war's deadliest attacks took days to reach the public in the chaos just before its first ceasefire.

Over the weekend, first responders dug through the destroyed buildings and recovered remains of 112 victims, including 40 children, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

It said 157 bodies still have not been found.

“The only crime of these martyrs was that they remained steadfast and resilient in their homes, believing that these homes would protect them,” one relative, Taysir al-Hassayna, told The Associated Press following the funeral prayers.

For the missing, it's “as if their bodies had evaporated without a trace.”

The current ceasefire has allowed recovery of remains

Only now are some bodies of people killed in the war's ferocious early months slowly being recovered, as the fragile ceasefire allows such efforts to push ahead in parts of devastated Gaza.

Those discoveries have contributed to the war's rising toll. The Hamas-led militant attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 73,377 Palestinians, including since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

At least 7,400 people have been reported by relatives to still be under the rubble, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the ministry's records department, told the AP. The true number is likely thousands higher because in some cases entire families were killed in a single bombing, leaving no one to report the missing, al-Waheidi has said.

The people mourned on Tuesday were from a residential block belonging to the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan, and many were related. AP has identified at least 60 families across Gaza who lost 25 or more family members during the first three months of war.

On Tuesday, the remains of the victims, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were laid in rows on the ground. Many were marked with photos, and flower petals were scattered around them all. Hundreds of people surrounded the bodies for funeral prayers, some standing on the rubble.

Following the prayers, people carried the bodies on stretchers along a narrow street lined by destroyed buildings and buried them in a nearby cemetery.

Deadly strikes continue and rebuilding is on hold

At least 1,252 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and children make up most of the dead.

Israel says its strikes are against militants who endanger its soldiers, took part in the Oct. 7 attack or carry out other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

The U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement last October called for Hamas to be disarmed and for Israel to withdraw. An International Stabilization Force was to be deployed, and an independent Palestinian administration was to oversee governance and reconstruction.

Israel says everything hinges on Hamas giving up its weapons, while Hamas says Israel must end its strikes and begin withdrawing from the territory. Each side accuses the other of violating the truce.

Gaza remains largely shattered. Most of its 2 million Palestinians are displaced, many living in tent camps where poor conditions and overcrowding have led to rodent infestations and outbreaks of infectious diseases such as chickenpox.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

It took firefighters nearly a month to extinguish the blaze, which scorched 22 square miles (57 square kilometers). The Eaton fire burned at the same time as the wind-whipped Palisades fire. An AP analysis at the time showed both blazes torched more urban area than any California fire in decades.

The Eaton fire was caused by electrical arcing on the utility’s out-of-service tower atop a ridge covered with dry fuel, the agency said in a statement. When bare, uninsulated wires touch or come close together it can cause arcing, which is when electricity jumps through the air, producing sparks.

The report said SoCal Edison was responsible for maintaining and operating its electrical lines and equipment “in a manner that would minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by them.”

Utility has acknowledged potential involvement

The utility indicated previously its equipment may be involved. In early reports to the California Public Utility Commission, SoCal Edison said it detected a “fault” on one of its transmission lines around the time that the Eaton fire started.

Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokesperson for SoCal Edison, said the utility is reviewing the report.

“We have taken our potential role in the start of this fire seriously from the very beginning,” Dunleavy said.

Dunleavy added the utility has claims against other agencies over issues such as emergency response and the condition of surrounding vegetation.

SoCal Edison claimed in lawsuits earlier this year that Los Angeles County agencies failed to send timely evacuation warnings to residents in east and west Altadena. Eighteen of the 19 people who died in the fire lived in west Altadena.

“Ignition is different from spread,” Dunleavy said. “A fire of that magnitude – it’s never just one thing. There are numerous factors.”

Attorney Gerald Singleton, whose firm represents some Eaton fire victims in pending civil cases against SoCal Edison, said the report confirms that the utility's failure to maintain its equipment caused the blaze.

“For 18 months, Edison tried to shift blame onto county evacuation warnings and local water agencies instead of owning its own equipment’s failure,” Singleton said in a statement. "We will continue to fight for full accountability and fair compensation for the survivors we represent.”

Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, said the report confirms what thousands of fire victims already knew about what caused the blaze.

“The real question is who pays?” asked Chen, whose home sustained smoke damage.

Utilities have been blamed for many of California’s most destructive fires in recent years.

SoCal Edison, which provides electric service to about 15 million people in California, has paid out hefty sums due to its equipment sparking fires, including $2.2 billion to settle insurance claims from the deadly, destructive Woolsey wildfire in 2018.

The utility is facing hundreds of lawsuits from fire victims, insurers and government entities related to the Eaton fire. The U.S. Department of Justice has also sued the company over damage to National Forest land, and has asked for more than $40 million in damages to the federal, state and local governments.

Attorney Mira Hashmall, who is representing Los Angeles County in Eaton fire-related litigation, said the report shows what “Edison knew all along.”

“Enough of Edison’s strategy of delaying justice for the victims of the fire and blaming first responders despite their best efforts to protect lives and property,” Hashmall said in a statement.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that it will review the investigative report and will work with local, state and federal authorities to determine if criminal charges are warranted. The California Department of Justice didn’t immediately comment.

Another California utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, filed for bankruptcy after its outdated equipment ignited wildfires in California that killed more than 100 people and wiped out entire towns, including Paradise. The utility pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2018 Camp Fire.

The Los Angeles County Arson Fire Investigation Unit jointly conducted the Eaton fire investigation with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or Cal Fire. The blaze was sparked during extreme weather conditions that included high temperatures, low humidity and powerful winds. Two “electrical arcing events” occurred in quick succession, causing an unknown burning material to fall from the tower to the ground below, according to the report.

Investigators interviewed residents who saw flames

The report cites interviews with several residents who saw the fire in its early stages on Jan. 7, some who said it occurred below power lines. One witness who noticed flames under an electrical tower said “he observed an arc while watching the fire; he described it as a blue light,” the report said. The witness began taking photos around 6:25 p.m., then watched as the blaze spread rapidly amid heavy winds.

Another Pasadena resident told investigators she was doing dishes with her daughter when she observed a circle of orange sparks that turned into flames. “The circle of fire was located at the base of the transmission towers,” the report said.

Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said “while the cause has been determined, our focus remains on assisting our residents to rebuild their homes and livelihoods, and ensuring lessons learned drive meaningful and impactful change in memory of the 19 lives lost.”

The Palisades Fire was the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles to date and among the five worst in California’s history. That fire killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 homes and buildings in Pacific Palisades. The fire ripped through hillside neighborhoods, destroying mansions with spectacular ocean views.

The man accused of sparking the Palisades Fire will be tried again this fall after his first federal arson case ended in a mistrial in June. Prosecutors said Jonathan Rinderknecht used a barbecue lighter on Jan. 1, 2025 to spark a blaze that burned undetected deep in root systems before flaring back up Jan. 7.

—-

Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California.

The two conferences announced on Tuesday that all sides have reached final agreements to settle all pending litigation. The statement included Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State and The Board of Trustees of the California State University on behalf of San Diego State and Fresno State.

“With these matters concluded, the conferences and institutions can move forward with certainty and focus on serving their student-athletes, campuses, fans, and communities,” the statement said.

The conferences announced an agreement in principle in May.

The Pac-12 and some of new the schools joining the conference filed a lawsuit in California in 2024, claiming the poaching clause the league agreed to when it signed a scheduling agreement for its football teams was invalid. The clause called for payments to the Mountain West of $10 million for the first team that left, with the amount increasing by $500,000 for every additional team — to a total of $55 million.

The scheduling agreement with the Mountain West allowed Oregon State and Washington State to piece together football schedules after 10 schools left the Pac-12 in 2024, leaving the conference’s future in doubt.

The Pac-12 had its motion to dismiss denied by Judge Claudia Wilken in November after the sides failed to reach an agreement in mediation last summer.

Colorado State and Utah State filed a separate lawsuit — later joined by Boise State — against the Mountain West seeking to avoid exit fees ranging from $19 million to $38 million.

Colorado State, Utah State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State are set to leave the Mountain West and join the Pac-12 this fall. The conference added Texas State last year to reach the eight-team minimum to be eligible for an automatic bid for its champion in the College Football Playoff.

Gonzaga also is leaving the West Coast Conference to join the Pac-12 as a non-football member this fall.

The Mountain West has added UTEP, Hawaii and Northern Illinois for football starting this fall.

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The State Department said the decision was a reciprocal response to Brazil’s actions, and officials said the step had been delayed several times to give Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva room to back down, something he did not do. Officials said, however, that it could be quickly reversed if Brazil takes appropriate action and accepts Trump’s ambassadorial choice.

Brazil's government in a statement responded by accusing the United States of not following international law in nominating its ambassador to Brazil. It said the U.S. government's decision to revoke the Brazilian ambassador's visa was politically driven with the aim of influencing Brazil's election in October.

Trump has had a fractious relationship for some time with Lula's administration, which has opposed him on numerous policies, particularly in the Western Hemisphere regarding Venezuela and Cuba. Their relationship also has been strained by Trump’s fondness for Lula’s first term successor and then predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest, and his son Flávio, who is Lula’s main opponent in the election.

Lula has spared Trump himself from criticism and claims they liked each other when they first met at the United Nations Assembly General in September of last year. The Brazilian leader has blamed Secretary of State Marco Rubio for some of the actions against his country.

Brazil's ambassador is not being expelled

Despite the revocation of her visa, Brazil’s ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti is not being expelled from the United States, said one State Department official, who like several others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic matter. The ambassador was previously a senior United Nations official.

She could be allowed to resume her official duties if the Brazilian government accepts Trump’s choice of former Florida House speaker Danny Perez to be U.S. ambassador to Brazil. Perez was nominated to the post in June and the official said Brazil had signaled it would not act on the appointment until after the first round of Brazil's election on Oct. 4.

Perez' nomination was submitted to the Senate on June 1. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on July 22 to send his nomination to the full Senate, where a vote was expected by the end of this week.

Brazil's government said the U.S. should have asked for consent to send Perez in private, as established by the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, before the nomination was made public. It added the U.S. government's request to send Perez is still “under analysis.”

Brazil denied visas last month for Riley Barnes, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, and one of his top aides after reports emerged that the pair were going to criticize Lula or the election process.

The State Department denied the allegations and said the two had planned to visit Brasilia on July 27-30 to meet government officials, religious leaders and others about “election integrity,” religious freedom and freedom of expression.

It said the visit was routine and that “any insinuation of a ‘ploy’ to undermine a democratic nation’s election is a baseless lie.”

The Brazilian government on Tuesday stood by its assessment, saying the two Americans "were planning to visit the country to cast doubts about the integrity of the Brazilian electoral system, in an unacceptable attempt to interfere in the national political process.”

Last week, a top Brazilian diplomat told journalists the government was expecting a response from Rubio. The diplomat was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The same Brazilian diplomat told the AP on Tuesday, also under condition of anonymity, that the Lula administration is trying to figure out why the U.S. government is rushing to have an ambassador in Brasilia only months before October's election. The post in the Brazilian capital has been vacant since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

The Trump administration has taken other actions against Brazil

Lula, who is 80 and seeking his fourth term as Brazil's president, will face Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, whose father once served as Brazil's president and whose family has many ties with the Trump administration.

Sen. Bolsonaro and his brother, Eduardo, visited U.S. officials in Washington, including Trump, in late May. Shortly afterward, the Trump administration classified Brazil’s biggest drug-trafficking groups — First Command Capital and Red Command — as foreign terrorist organizations, a move Lula opposes.

The Trump administration also imposed an up to 37.5% tariff hike on thousands of Brazilian exports, which came into force Friday. The U.S. government claims the South American nation has unfair competition practices and fails to stop forced labor practices — both accusations rejected by the Lula administration as an attempt to sway the election to Sen. Bolsonaro.

Brazil's government said Tuesday's decision was not an isolated incident.

"It forms part of a deliberate escalation of hostile measures against Brazil, driven by ideological motives that are incompatible with a bilateral partnership that has always been guided by mutual respect,” the government statement said. “The improper intent to interfere in the forthcoming presidential election is also evident.”

Jair Bolsonaro has for years fed concerns about the country’s electronic voting system, without providing any evidence for his claims. He is now serving a 27-year prison sentence at home for an attempted coup. He has long insisted that the machines, used for a quarter-century, are prone to fraud.

Sen. Bolsonaro has recently repeated some of these claims, although he steered clear of those on Saturday when his Liberal Party confirmed him as a presidential candidate in Sao Paulo.

Brazil's government said it “has spared no effort to resolve these differences” with the U.S government.

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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The Bears announced the four-year deal on Tuesday, posting “The Wright Tackle is here to stay” on social media. Wright's $116 million contract includes $93 million guaranteed, according to a person familiar with the agreement who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the details had not been announced by either side.

The contract is the biggest ever for a right tackle and includes the most guaranteed money for an offensive lineman in NFL history, according to ESPN.

“Our team is rooted in being driven by belief and built by hard work, and Darnell epitomizes our culture in every way,” coach Ben Johnson said in a statement.

The 10th overall pick in the 2023 draft out of Tennessee, Wright anchored an offensive line that helped the Bears rank third in the NFL in rushing last season on their way to the NFC North title. He earned second-team All-Pro honors.

“Darnell has consistently elevated his play and the performance of his teammates since joining our team, and we look forward to his continued growth and leadership for years to come,” general manager Ryan Poles said.

Wright said during training camp last week that he was optimistic about getting an extension.

“Obviously, I know I’ll be here for a long time, hopefully my whole career,” he said. “Those things kind of just handle themselves. I just have to stay focused on the main things. That’s just getting better, consistency every day.”

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

While it may seem like the planet is baking through a record-shattering summer from hell, it's not quite in record territory. Yet.

So far this is only the third-hottest year, behind 2024 and 2025, climate statistics show. But give 2026 time. Because of a one-two punch of accelerated human-caused global warming and a supersized El Nino, there's an increasing chance that by the end of the year, 2026 could eke out the crown for the hottest year on record, eclipsing 2024 — or at least come close, scientists said.

Even if this year sets the record, it won't last long. Although scientists disagree on whether 2026 will be the hottest year on record, they agree on it being a near lock that 2027 will beat out any modern year for heat, maybe by a great deal.

With wars around the globe in the last few years people didn't pay much attention to climate change "because the world was on fire in different ways. The world is now on fire again with climate change in a way that’s increasingly difficult to ignore,” said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of Berkeley Earth. “It's going to keep getting worse.''

Increasing odds for a record hot year

Hausfather calculated there's a 35% chance that 2026 will pass 2024 as the hottest year on record. But Hausfather keeps increasing those odds nearly every month — up from only 7% in March.

Former top NASA climate scientist James Hansen, often called the godfather of climate science for 40 years of accurate long-term warnings, predicted that 2026 will edge out 2024 at the end of the year.

The world's daily sea surface temperature tied 2024 starting in May and since June it's been record hot nearly every day. With oceans more than 70% of the globe's surface, there's generally a month-and-a-half lag between heat showing up in oceans and then being reflected in the global average temperature, Hansen said. So it's about time that the entire globe starts shattering records, he said. About 82% of the world's ocean surface is overheated with marine heat waves this year, according to Europe's Copernicus climate service.

About a month ago the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast that there was a 66% chance that 2026 would be the fourth hottest and only a 0.1% chance it would be No.1 for warmth by year's end. NOAA monitoring chief Russell Vose said those odds will be rising when NOAA finishes its analysis from July.

Hausfather said what's changing outlooks is the increasingly strong forecasts for a “mind-numbing” record-setting El Nino.

El Nino is a natural temporary warming of parts of the equatorial Pacific that heats up the globe's average temperature and warps weather extremes across the planet. Most forecasts have El Nino becoming the strongest in history. El Ninos always release pent-up heat in the ocean, but because of greenhouse gases trapping heat and 90% of it going into the world's seas, there's more heat to release, said Zachary Labe, a climate scientist at Climate Central, a science and communications nonprofit.

The amount of heat in the world's oceans — a marker of human-caused climate change — keeps setting new record highs, Labe said.

This summer's heat is human caused, not from El Nino

Climate scientists said what we've seen this summer can't be blamed on El Nino because its impacts really don't kick in for a few more months. The fires, heat and extremes that have dominated the summer of 2026 are what scientists have long been warning about from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

“The driver of the record warmth is climate change in the background. And it’s a much larger — much, much larger — contribution than El Nino, which is just a tenth to two-tenths of a degree on top of that long-term trend,” Labe said.

That warming is accelerating, Hansen said.

That's because traditional industrial pollution that creates soot and smog — which cool the planet and mask greenhouse gas-triggered warming — is decreasing, Hansen said. Also, it looks as if the climate might be reacting to greenhouse gases stronger than scientists anticipated, he said.

Heat waves keep hitting

This summer’s heat waves have hit hard in places where people aren’t used to triple-digit heat, unlike in the tropics, climate scientists said. And they've been especially noticeable at night, making it hard for people to sleep, which impairs their health and their ability to be productive at work, said Samantha Burgess, global strategic lead at Copernicus climate service.

She pointed to Europe, where there was an “exceptional” heat wave in May, another in June, two in July and another one going on now in France and Spain.

“European heat waves are not in isolation. So there’s also been shocking heat waves in North America. There’s been shockingly hot conditions in South America as well. There’s been devastating heat waves in India,” Burgess said. “There’s always heat waves somewhere in the world sometime, but what is very unusual for Europe for this particular year is the frequency and extent of the heat waves.”

Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said this is what scientists have long been warning about.

"These are vivid pictures of not just the future, which is what we used to say, but on the whole of what climate change is doing. There’s no question that climate change has increased the risk of wildfires. There’s no question that the climate change increased the probability of really hot, nasty, even unprecedented summers around the world.”

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Supporters of the referendum had submitted hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in a bid to force a November election on a new U.S. House map approved by the Republican-led state Legislature. But Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins asserted Tuesday that the petition is void because congressional redistricting plans cannot be subject to voter referendums.

The number of petition signatures submitted doesn't matter, Hoskins said, because “challenging a congressional map is unconstitutional under Missouri law.”

A group backing the referendum effort said it will contest Hoskins' decision in court.

“Secretary of State Hoskins is making a last desperate attempt to silence the people’s voice in Missouri," Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said in a statement, while asserting there are more than enough signatures to qualify the referendum for the ballot.

Missouri was the second Republican-led state, after Texas, to respond to Trump's call last year to redraw congressional districts to the GOP's advantage in hopes of holding on to the party's slim House majority in the midterm elections.

The new map, which is being used in Tuesday's primaries, dramatically reshapes the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District, held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, by stretching it into rural central Missouri to give it a Republican tilt. Republicans already hold six of Missouri's eight congressional seats and hope to gain another under the new map.

Hoskins shoots down amendment on citizen initiatives

Hoskins also rejected a potential November ballot measure seeking to fortify the initiative process.

The proposed amendment would bar the Legislature from making it harder to qualify citizen initiatives for the ballot or approve them at an election. It 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 the current simple majority.

Although supporters had submitted thousands of signatures, Hoskins asserted that the petition violated a constitutional prohibition against rolling multiple subjects and sections of the constitution into a single amendment.

The Respect Missouri Voters coalition said it will take legal action to try to get its amendment on the ballot.

“This brazen disregard for the will of the people is exactly why the people of Missouri came together to gather signatures ... because we are sick of these games in Jefferson City,” said Bob Johnson, a coalition member and former Republican state senator.

For both the redistricting referendum and the citizen initiative measure, Hoskins released opinions from Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway laying out the rational for his decisions.

Missouri's redistricting plan has faced lots of litigation

People Not Politicians, the group sponsoring the referendum drive, submitted more than 300,000 signatures to the secretary of state's office in December. Local election officials reviewed the signatures' validity over the ensuing months and approved well more than the roughly 111,000 needed to qualify for the ballot.

But Hoskins waited until the last day allowed under state law to announce his decision about the referendum — a move that let the new districts be used in the meantime.

Hoskins had long signaled that he was likely to reject the referendum. He asked a federal court last fall to block the referendum petition from being submitted, arguing that congressional redistricting is not subject to a referendum under the U.S. and Missouri constitutions. A judge dismissed the lawsuit as premature, noting in a December ruling that Hoskins had the authority to reject the petition himself if he thought it was unconstitutional.

When Missouri candidates began filing for office in February, Hoskins said they were doing so under the new districts and told The Associated Press that “the referendum process was never meant to be used for redistricting.”

If Hoskins is wrong, and a court orders him to place the redistricting referendum on the ballot, it's unclear what that means for the 2026 elections. Would candidates who win Tuesday's primaries be allowed to continue running under the new districts in November while voters simultaneously decide whether those districts can be used in future elections? Would candidates run in different districts for the general election than were used in the primaries? Or would courts order a do-over for the congressional primaries using the state’s prior congressional districts?

Missouri's mid-decade redistricting effort already has been among the most litigated nationally, triggering about a dozen lawsuits over the past year.

Republicans are ahead in the national redistricting fight

Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn at the start of each decade, immediately after a census. But Trump's call for Republicans to redraw districts to their advantage led to an unusual outbreak of mid-decade mapmaking. The redistricting effort gained additional steam when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana in late April, prompting Republicans in several Southern states to also redraw districts that had large minority populations.

All told, Republicans think they could win as many as 16 additional seats from new House maps enacted in eight states — Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama. Democrats, whose counterattack faced several setbacks, think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts in California and Utah.

Voters ultimately will determine whether the new districts perform as intended. Even with redistricting, Republicans are facing headwinds. The president's party historically has lost congressional seats in the midterms, and Trump’s poor approval ratings could provide an extra hurdle for Republican candidates.

Nearly 145 million people — about two of every five U.S. residents — live in states with new congressional districts for this election. Additional states are considering redistricting before the 2028 elections. Maryland lawmakers voted Tuesday to place an amendment on November’s ballot that could pave the way for mid-decade redistricting.

The Republican president has struggled to connect with voters on the economy as elevated inflation and Americans' feelings of uncertainty have overshadowed the stock market gains he often cites along with a low national unemployment rate.

Just before Trump arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday to speak at a Republican National Committee fundraising dinner at a golf club his family owns in Rancho Palos Verdes, authorities revealed that a California man who was carrying ammunition and had a gun in his car had been arrested Sunday at the golf course. The man appeared to have been monitoring security preparations.

On Wednesday, Trump will discuss the economy during an event at Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Only 32% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy in an AP-NORC poll conducted in late July. In the same poll, most Americans, 69%, characterized the state of the economy as “poor,” and many said the cost of everyday essentials like groceries and gas was a “major” source of stress in their lives.

Trump’s overall approval rating is at 33%, slightly below where he stood at this point in his first term.

Trump is likely to take aim at Democratic Gov. Newsom

During the trip, Trump is likely to throw barbs at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat eyed as a likely candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028. Newsom has become one of the president’s highest-profile opponents.

White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said the president plans to “draw a sharp contrast between his commonsense agenda and the radical policies of Democrats like Gavin Newsom," touting his own efforts to cut taxes, reduce fraud in government programs, and crack down on immigration and crime.

California was one of Trump's first domestic stops after returning to office in January 2025. He surveyed the aftermath of wildfires that had wiped out whole neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, left thousands of people homeless and killed more than two dozen.

Newsom greeted Trump at the airport on that trip, and they chatted amiably and gestured toward cooperation despite a bitter history. But the comity did not last. Six months later, Newsom argued in a speech that “democracy is under assault” by Trump after the president sent National Guard troops and U.S. Marines into Los Angeles without Newsom's consent. This came after protests following a series of immigration raids by federal authorities.

Trump routinely mocks Newsom and refers to the governor using a derogatory nickname, while Newsom taunts the president with frequent social media posts.

The Democrat's press office put out a statement Tuesday saying that Trump was traveling to California not to help survivors of the wildfires but to raise money and attack the state with lies.

“More than anything, we’d like the President to keep the promise he made on January 24, 2025: to 'take care of Los Angeles,'" Newsom said. “18 months later, survivors are still waiting. And while you’re here, Mr. President, welcome to the world’s fourth-largest economy — growing faster than Texas and Florida combined. Enjoy your stay.”

“Trump treats California like his personal political punching bag — right up until he needs someone to write a check,” California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks said in a statement. “He may hit up a few billionaire donors who bankroll his political operation, but the people of California have already made it clear: they want nothing to do with his chaos and corruption.”

Housing prices are a big issue at Trump's second stop: Nevada

Nevada, where Trump will be on Wednesday, is led by a Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, who faces Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford in a battle for reelection in November. The contest is considered one of the most competitive governor’s races in the country.

The Nevada State Democratic Party is putting up billboard signs about Trump’s visit that tie him to Lombardo and higher costs. The state is grappling with a shortage of affordable housing, exploding energy demand from artificial intelligence data centers and federal cuts to key state programs.

Trump has tried for several months to sell voters on his income tax cuts and claims of a manufacturing renaissance. But interest rates are high, a gallon of gasoline costs more because of the Iran war, tariffs are still reshaping the economy and, by the White House’s own estimates, there is a national shortage of housing.

The president called his own housing bill a “yawn,” and past speeches advertised by the White House as being about the economy, including one he delivered at a General Motors facility in Michigan last week, gave way to Trumpian weaves about his political enemies and construction projects in the nation's capital.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price in Washington, Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles and Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

In a statement released Thursday, sheriff’s officials said an internal audit found “improper and unlawful” use of agency database systems to monitor an individual. The audit identified irregular activity tied to Detective Brandy Almany, who has been employed with the agency since 2019, the release said.

According to the sheriff’s office, a criminal investigation was opened the same day. Investigators allege Almany circumvented procedures and accessed databases including:

• CCIS (Comprehensive Case Information System)
• Flock Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR)
• DAVID (Driver and Vehicle Information Database)

Investigators said the information was sought in connection with the ex-wife of Almany’s husband, and that the searches were not tied to legitimate investigative work.

Officials also alleged Almany created electronic records that falsely indicated the searches were connected to valid sheriff’s office investigations, using unrelated case numbers and false justifications.

Almany was interviewed and “immediately suspended from duty,” the release said. The case was then presented to the Office of the State Attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit for review.

[Watch the Sumter County sheriff’s full statement below]

After that review, the sheriff’s office said an arrest warrant was issued on Thursday, charging Almany with:

• Official misconduct (F.S. § 838.022(1)(a))
• Offenses against computer users (F.S. § 815.06), including allegations she exceeded authorized access to:
• • sheriff’s office computer systems and software
  • the DAVID database
  • the CCIS database

Sheriff Patrick Breeden said that, upon Almany’s arrest, she was notified of her pending termination per procedure. The agency said it is awaiting additional audit results from the various databases, which could lead to more charges.

In the statement, the sheriff described the arrest as a step toward “accountability and transparency,” and said he would not tolerate conduct that does not meet the agency’s standards.

The sheriff’s office also said it has ordered a complete internal audit of all database activity, and has suspended the use of Flock in response to the case.

The No. 2-ranked Spaniard was hoping to return to defend his title in the hard-court tournament, which serves as an important warmup for the U.S. Open.

“We know Carlos is doing everything he can to get back to playing tournaments as soon as possible,” tournament director Bob Moran said in a statement. “We wish him the best with his recovery and look forward to welcoming him back to Cincinnati in the future.”

Alcaraz last played at the Barcelona Open, then missed the French Open and the entire grass-court season, including Wimbledon.

He is entered in the U.S. Open, where he is the defending champion. Recent photos and videos on social media have shown the seven-time Grand Slam winner on the practice courts, so it was thought he would be ready to play in the Cincinnati event that begins Aug. 11.

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

Behind the scenes, though, the Rockies were already negotiating a deal to keep him in town.

Moniak agreed Tuesday to a $16.25 million, two-year contract that covers 2027 and '28. He gets $7.25 million next season, which would have been his final year of arbitration eligibility, and $9 million in 2028, when he would have been eligible for free agency under the current labor contract.

Moniak has thrived at hitter friendly Coors Field since signing with Colorado in March 2025. He's hitting .277 with 18 homers and 49 RBIs across 75 games this season.

“It’s no secret that I love it here,” Moniak said before the Rockies faced the AL-leading Tampa Bay Rays. “Ever since I’ve stepped foot in Colorado and Denver and in this organization, it just felt like home.”

The 28-year-old, who has a $4 million salary this year, was the No. 1 overall pick by Philadelphia in the 2016 amateur draft. He's no stranger to being dealt at the deadline with the Phillies trading him to the Los Angeles Angels in 2022.

He said that after Sunday's win over the Kansas City Royals he had a handshake agreement with the team.

“It’s a crazy process. First time I’ve ever done something like this,” Moniak said. “Just extremely happy, for sure.”

Moniak has become a leader in the clubhouse as the Rockies try to turn things around behind a new front office led by Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes. Colorado made several trade deadline deals for prospects Monday, sending reliever Antonio Senzatela to Milwaukee, outfielder Brenton Doyle to the Chicago White Sox and reliever Victor Vodnik to Miami.

But after some calls with teams over the last few weeks they decided it was more prudent to extend Moniak.

“We all felt like the better thing to do for us was to keep him — and not just keep him and play out the next year and a half, but really keep him,” DePodesta said. “He's very much a part of what we’re trying to be, both on the field and off the field. To be able to give him an extension is also just a message not just to the rest of our team, but hopefully to our fans and our market that we’re actually building toward something here.

“This deadline wasn’t just about trading players away. It was actually about building toward something better going forward.”

The Rockies already have more wins this season than all of last year when they went 43-119 (their third straight 100-loss season). They haven't made the playoffs since 2018.

“I truly believe in what we’re doing here,” explained Moniak, who said he and his wife are expecting a daughter. "This is a place that’s starving for winning baseball. ... To be able to bring winning baseball back to Colorado truly would mean the world.

“You see (the support) here with the records that we’ve had over the last year and a half. Can’t imagine what it’s like when we’re competing in October and further. That’s a very attainable goal for this team and the guys we have in the very near future.”

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AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum contributed.

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

The company run by Elon Musk posted a loss of $541 million, or 9 cents per share, in the three months through June, less than half what financial analysts had forecast. Revenue jumped to $7.8 billion, up more than 90% from the year-earlier period.

A standout in the quarter was the company's big cash source, its “connectivity” business, with revenue jumping 66% from a year earlier as the number of subscribers to its Starlink satellite communications service doubled to 12 million.

“It's not out of the question that at some point, Starlink will deliver a majority of the world’s internet," Musk said in call with analysts.

SpaceX stock rose 9% in regular trading Tuesday, but gave most of the gain back after hours. The rocket, satellite and AI company's stock has fallen by roughly half since peaking in June shortly after an initial public offering that briefly made Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Investors are worried Musk has oversold them on the company's future prospects for space travel and its AI chatbot Grok. They’re also bracing for volatile trading as some company insiders get the opportunity to sell shares after the expiration of what’s known as a lockup provision later in the week.

Another area of concern is SpaceX spending on infrastructure and R&D, which jumped to $18 billion from less than $3 billion a year ago. The company's chief financial officer, Bret Johnsen, said to expect similar capital expenditures for the next two quarters.

Musk defended the outlays, a concern also weighing on many other technology companies spending heavily on AI, saying the resulting supercharged growth meant the company would reach a trillion dollars in revenue a year faster now, 2030 rather than 2031.

Shares jumped 19% on their first day of trading in June, making Musk the first-ever trillionaire. The subsequent drop, as well as a decline in the shares of Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla, have knocked his wealth down to $783 billion, according to Forbes.

Musk was asked several times about the prospects for the gigantic Starship rocket that is key to SpaceX realizing his ambitions. Starship successfully deployed satellites in space during a test late last month.

Musk said he expected SpaceX will attempt to test the reusability of Starship at the end of the month when it will attempt to grab the spacecraft and its booster with mechanical arms upon their return to their base. NASA hopes to use Starship to put astronauts on the moon again in the near future.

“We want to put boots on the ground — boots on the moon — in 2028,” said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell.

SpaceX shares could see continued volatility. Some insiders have been barred from selling in the public offering but that prohibition begins to ease on Thursday when more than 900 million shares are released for trading, more than doubling the amount currently available. The lockup release is the first of several tranches of stock that will be freed to trade over the next several months.

The company also runs the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

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An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that 900,000 shares will be released for trading later this week. It should have said more than 900 million.

Both chambers of the Democratic-dominated state legislature on Tuesday approved putting an amendment on the ballot to allow the change. Sending it to voters required three-fifths approval of both legislative chambers, which met in a special session to consider the change. It cleared the House 96-38 and the Senate 32-13.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, praised lawmakers for putting the measure before voters, and joined them in saying it was necessary to combat President Donald Trump's push for a mid-decade redistricting that favors Republicans.

“I continue to believe that our country needs national redistricting reform. But until that happens, inaction is not an option,” Moore said in a statement. “Maryland will not be caught flat-footed while Republicans engage in political redlining that guts decades of progress that the generations before us fought for.”

In a state where Democrats now occupy seven of the eight House seats, Republicans are calling the effort a blatant power grab — and a move that violates a new state law intended to give voters more time to consider proposed amendments.

In debate in the House on Tuesday, Republican Delegate Kevin Hornberger told his colleagues: “Just because we can go ultra-partisan doesn't mean we should go ultra-partisan.” Other Republicans said constituents weren't behind it and one Democratic lawmaker worried that the change could cost rural parts of the state federal resources if they're put in the same districts with suburban areas.

In the debate, Democrats emphasized that the amendment does not include approval of any specific new maps.

If the amendment is ultimately approved, it would likely be part of a rapid reconfiguration of congressional district lines that began last year when Trump urged Republican-controlled states to adjust their maps to help the party in the 2026 midterm elections. Normally, redistricting happens just once a decade after new Census data is released.

Eight states — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas — have redrawn maps to help Republicans, who could pick up as many as 16 seats due to the redistricting. New maps in California and Utah could give Democrats an advantage in six races.

Maryland moved more slowly — and with an approach that will not change districts for this year's elections — because Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson blocked an earlier initiative aimed at putting new maps in place for this year. He was worried that the state Supreme Court, with most of its members appointed by a Republican former governor, could backfire — especially because a judge in 2022 rejected a new map that could have boosted the Democrats.

Ferguson said his view changed after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in April, giving Republicans grounds for reconfiguring districts with large minority populations in Southern states.

The question that could go to voters is designed to make it hard for the court to reject redistricting. It would make it clear that the parameters the judge cited — including that districts be compact in form and have regard given to “natural boundaries” — apply only to state legislative districts, not congressional ones.

That would allow congressional districts to cross the Chesapeake Bay, which is the only way Democrats could draw a map that gives them an edge in every congressional district. Currently, the only district on the rural Eastern Shore east of the Bay is also the only one represented by a Republican, Rep. Andy Harris, the chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

But after seven years and six teams the defensive end is back where his career began after re-signing Sunday with the team that picked him first overall in 2014.

Clowney has changed a lot since he arrived in Houston as a 21-year-old.

“I’m grown,” he said after his first workout with the Texans Tuesday. “I was a big kid at first when I first got here. I grew up different than a lot of these guys. When I was born, my dad was in jail. I grew up in a single-parent home. I grew up a lot different. ... but coming back now, I’m a veteran in the locker room, a lot older, a lot smarter than I was before.”

He joins a defense that ranked among the best in the league in almost every category last season. Houston has stars Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter as its starting defensive ends but could use Clowney as a situational pass rusher after he had 8½ sacks for the Cowboys last season.

Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was asked about adding Clowney to a team that already has so much talent at defensive end.

“The rich get richer,” he said. “He’s a great player. Excited to work with him.”

Clowney signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract with incentives that could push his salary to $8 million. The 33-year-old said he could have made more money if he’d signed elsewhere but at this point in his career winning is all that matters to him.

“My whole thing was to chase the Super Bowl this year,” he said. “There’s no better place for me to do it.”

Clowney did not have any lingering bitterness towards the Texans because of how his first stint with the team ended. He said his problems back then were specific to one person.

“I didn’t have any hard feelings,” he said. “It was just (former Texans coach Bill) O’Brien at the time. Him and I bumped heads. I couldn’t really understand because I was an easygoing guy.”

Current Houston coach DeMeco Ryans isn’t worried about his past with the team.

“He’s been a successful player, had a successful career,” Ryans said. “He brings a physical aspect to the football game, to our defense. A guy who can get after the passer as well.”

Clowney is happy to have signed with the Texans early in camp after he didn’t get picked up by the Cowboys last season until Sept. 14.

“It’s going to be a lot different this year because I’m going to learn a playbook before the season starts,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot smoother season for me.”

Along with one season each in Seattle and Dallas, he also was with Tennessee, Cleveland, Baltimore and Carolina since leaving Houston. Clowney had 9½ sacks with the Ravens in 2023, which tied his career-high that came with the Texans in 2017.

Clowney loves the culture Ryans has built in Houston and he’s looking forward to playing for his fearsome defense in what will be his 13th season.

“He puts a lot of great guys around him in coaches and you can feel the energy and all the other guys can feel it,” he said. “I know great things are going to happen here for me and the team. I’m just looking forward to the opportunity.”

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

Russia has relentlessly pounded civilian areas of Ukraine, even though Moscow insists its forces target only military facilities.

Since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion over four years ago, Ukraine has developed long-range drones that can strike deep inside Russia. In the past year, its forces have battered oil facilities, major storage depots and other key infrastructure.

More than 16,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the war began, the United Nations said last month in its most recent casualty report, with the vast majority occurring in areas under the Ukrainian government’s control. Casualties have risen steadily each year.

The U.N. children’s agency on Tuesday urged both countries to uphold international humanitarian law requiring the protection of children, citing recent deaths in Russia's Belgorod and Krasnodar regions, as well as in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.

“Attacks that kill and injure children must stop,” UNICEF said in a statement.

Meanwhile, escalating attacks on shipping in the Black Sea by both sides have reawakened fears that global food security could be put at risk.

Russia is accused of using a drone to attack a street vendor

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video on social media that he said showed a Russian drone hunting a man selling vegetables from a street stall in the southern city of Kherson.

The video shows the man trying to flee the drone as it circles his vehicle, follows him and ultimately strikes the car where he was trying to hide. He suffered wounds to his back, legs and arms, according to an interview he gave to the Kherson regional military administration.

Russia's Defense Ministry did not immediately reply to an Associated Press request for comment.

Drone attacks on civilians have surged since the war began, with 967 people killed, including 10 children, and nearly 7,000 people injured, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said Tuesday.

Russian drone operators track and strike civilians going about daily activities, according to previous AP reporting. A U.N. commission concluded in October 2025 that such attacks amounted to crimes against humanity.

“The world must see this,” Zelenskyy said. “It must see every piece of evidence that Russia has gone mad and that its soldiers take pleasure in killing and abusing civilians.”

Russia says a Ukrainian drone killed 7 on Black Sea coast

The death toll from a drone strike Monday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Arkhipo-Osipovka rose to seven, including four children, regional authorities said.

On Tuesday, Krasnodar regional authorities updated the number of wounded to 58, with 21 hospitalized.

Video circulating online showed a drone slamming into a crowded beach with what sounded like gunfire in the background. Ukraine has not commented on the strike.

Ukrainian drones strike near Moscow and St. Petersburg

A Ukrainian drone attack Tuesday in the region around Moscow killed five people and wounded 10 others, said Gov. Andrei Vorobyov. Most of the damage occurred in the Chekhov municipal district, where several fires erupted at the Novoselki industrial zone, he said.

In the latest in a series of attacks on Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries, the company said its warehouse in the Leningrad region, adjacent to St. Petersburg, was on fire.

In the village of Emmaus, located between Moscow and St. Petersburg, drone debris partially damaged a wall of a Wildberries warehouse, regional Gov. Vitaly Korolyov said.

In the past 18 days, Ukrainian drones have targeted 15 Wildberries warehouses, 13 of which caught fire, said Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. Ukrainian officials say the company provides goods that can be used by the military. Kyiv is also keen to unsettle the Russian public with high-profile attacks.

Russia hits Ukrainian ports and shipping

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces on Monday night struck “Ukrainian ports, vessels and port infrastructure” used by Kyiv’s army.

In the port of Chornomorsk, in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, Russia said it hit an automobile components plant and a port terminal, where the military vehicles were being repaired and ammunition and fuel were being stored.

In the southern port of Mykolaiv, a bulk carrier with military cargo was damaged, while in Pivdennyi, another Ukrainian port, a vessel unloading military cargo was hit, according to the Russian statement.

The ministry also said two bulk carriers hauling weapons and military equipment were damaged at sea, south of Odesa.

Turkey on Tuesday repeated its appeal for both countries to ensure safe passage in the Black Sea after two Turkish-owned ships were attacked by drones after leaving the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement expressed concerns that the war is increasingly spreading across the Black Sea, threatening merchant shipping, and warned such incidents could have broader consequences, including for the global food supply, as important shipments of grain, fertilizer and other key products move through those waters.

Ukraine reports more Russian glide bomb attacks

Russian attacks on Mykolaiv, including its port, killed an 89-year-old woman and wounded seven other people aged between 2 and 83, Ukrainian regional officials said.

The Russian strike on civilian infrastructure in southern Odesa region destroyed a private home and wounded two people, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.

In Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, six Russian glide bombs killed two girls aged 5 and 10 and an elderly woman, said Oleh Hryhorov, head of the Sumy regional military administration.

Russian forces also struck Kharkiv and 18 towns and villages across the northern region in the previous 24 hours, killing one person and injuring seven, including an 8-year-old, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional military administration.

Strikes in Balakliia, also in the Kharkiv region, damaged an apartment building, a library, three stores and more than 10 houses, wounding two women, local authorities said.

Two glide bombs struck Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, injuring 24 people, local officials said. Kramatorsk sits at the northern end of Ukraine’s Fortress Belt, where Western analysts say Russia is making a renewed effort to break through after four years of attrition.

Vadym Filashkin, head of the regional military administration, urged people still living near the front to evacuate, saying authorities would help with transportation, housing and other support.

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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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

The man, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, was hospitalized Saturday after having a “medical emergency” while being held at Delaney Hall in Newark, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He died the same day.

His official cause of death will be released following further medical examination, according to ICE, which listed his age as 41. Relatives said he was 39.

At a news conference Tuesday, distraught family members said Lopez-Cornejo had complained he was not getting regular access to his medications, which he took for diabetes, high blood pressure and seizures. His mother, Maria Cornejo, said he called the day before his death to tell her he had spoken to a doctor early Friday and had lost feeling in half his face and arm.

“My son needed medical attention, and he didn’t receive it,” Cornejo said in Spanish. “He was a good father. A good son. A hardworking man. He didn’t harm anyone.”

Through tears, his 12-year-old daughter, Ashley Lopez, said the family knew his health had worsened in detention. “All of us were worried about him,” she said.

In their statement, ICE said Lopez-Cornejo “received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals” while in custody. He had been held at the facility since his arrest on June 18, according to the agency, which accused him of entering the country illegally.

In all, at least 56 people have died in ICE custody during Trump’s second term. Hundreds of people detained across the U.S. have brought lawsuits accusing immigrant detention facilities of failing to provide proper medical care.

In recent months, Delaney Hall has been the site of fierce protests by immigration advocates, with demonstrators at times attempting to block vehicles from entering or leaving the facility. Earlier this year, some people held at the jail launched a hunger strike over the conditions, according to Cosecha, an immigrant advocacy group.

The facility is owned by Geo Group, a private prison contractor that operates multiple detention centers across the country. The contractor deferred comment to ICE.

After Lopez-Cornejo's death, Democratic politicians and civil rights groups renewed their calls to shutter the 1,000-bed facility.

“This is not the first death of a detainee at Delaney Hall, and absent decisive action, it will not be the last,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Cory Booker said in a statement. “I have visited the facility myself and witnessed these conditions firsthand, so I say this plainly: Delaney Hall must be closed immediately and permanently.”

In December, Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old Haitian national, died after collapsing at the jail in what a medical examiner ruled was due to a blood clot blocking an artery in his lungs.

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who has routinely visited Delaney Hall, told reporters another person detained by ICE died in July after they had a seizure while they were being processed at the facility. Menendez said ICE granted the person a “discretionary release” from custody after they were taken to a hospital and lost consciousness, and the person died shortly afterward.

Menendez did not identify the person. ICE didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry about the case.

Menendez said ICE did not report the death, in line with a policy change announced earlier this year in which the agency no longer reports deaths that occur within 30 days of someone’s release from custody.

ICE has also not publicly recognized the July 24 death of 29-year-old Priciliano Trejo in Georgia, which came nine days after the agency released him from custody while he was hospitalized in a coma, according to a coalition of advocacy groups in the state. The agency has not responded to inquiries about Trejo’s death.

On Tuesday, Lopez-Cornejo’s brother, Danilo Lopez, called for the release of all medically vulnerable detained people, adding that the family would seek an independent state investigation into the “health crisis” at Delaney Hall.

In a statement, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, said her administration’s inspection efforts “continue to face obstruction.”

“Every effort to block oversight raises serious questions about what is happening inside Delaney Hall and what those operating the facility are trying to hide,” she added.

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Associated Press journalists Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, and Joseph Frederick, in Highland Park, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

Wenger said in a statement he knew nothing of the $20 billion plan and that it was “absolutely necessary” to drop the proposal, and Grafström sent an email to all FIFA staff — seen by The Associated Press — calling the last week a “sad and reproachable series of events.” He also said it created “turmoil which is difficult to comprehend and accept.”

Neither directly named Infantino or offered support for the now-embattled president.

Late Tuesday, media reports in Britain said Infantino would hold a crisis meeting with senior FIFA staff in Morocco on Wednesday, which the governing body hadn't confirmed.

The comments by Wenger and Grafström had echoes of the direct criticism from FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour, who said Friday that staff had been “deceived” by Infantino's private equity plan, which provoked a furor in global soccer. Lamour called it the "project of one person” and said FIFA staff “deserve better than contempt and intimidation.”

The three executives are respected and trusted figures among the 211 FIFA member federations who now hold sway over Infantino's grip on a presidency that looked unshakeable after the World Cup ended barely two weeks ago.

UEFA legal threat to FIFA

Wenger, Grafström and Lamour also were named in a letter from UEFA’s lawyers to Infantino among 18 executives whose data and communications should be retained as potential evidence.

“You do not need to worry,” Grafström wrote Tuesday to the hundreds of FIFA staff based mostly in Zurich and Coral Gables, Florida. “I assure you that you as members of the administration, you will be defended and safeguarded from the political context we currently experience.”

Wenger, who was hired by Infantino in 2019 and is FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, said he was “not involved in this strategic plan and first became aware of the project through media reports.”

Infantino withdrew his $20 billion proposal early Saturday after a furious backlash by global soccer officials, including European body UEFA warning of a boycott of all FIFA games and events.

The plan would have created a subsidiary — known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — to run the money-making parts of the not-for-profit soccer body’s work: organizing tournaments like the World Cup, selling broadcasting and sponsorship rights, tickets and hospitality.

It proposed raising $4.2 billion from investors by selling stakes amounting to about 20% in FFE, based on an equity valuation of $20 billion. The “anchor investor” would have been Thrive Eternal, launched by Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.

“The decision to withdraw the project was absolutely necessary and beyond question, because I firmly believe in an independent FIFA that serves our game with commitment, transparency, and integrity,” Wenger wrote.

Cash offers to FIFA members

FIFA’s 211 member federations — already effective owners of the governing body as a nonprofit association under Swiss law — were offered $20 million each. The deadline to accept was Sept. 19.

They also were promised a doubling of their FIFA funding for the four years through 2030 to $20 million instead of the previously announced $10 million.

Infantino shared details of the project to FIFA management just one week after the July 19 final of the financially successful World Cup in North America that drove FIFA's revenues to $15 billion for the 2023-26 commercial cycle — almost double the income tied to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Grafström, a long-time loyal aide to Infantino since their work together at UEFA, urged FIFA staff to “all continue being proud and happy” about the first 48-team World Cup.

“A sad and reproachable series of events — which were thankfully concluded with the FFE project permanently abandoned — for as much as we feel dismayed by them, should not overshadow this reality,” he wrote.

Infantino came under even more pressure when former FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin Al Hussein criticized the soccer body’s leadership on Tuesday, describing prize money withheld from his Jordan national team as a kind of blackmail.

Infantino's ties to Trump

The World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico was judged a success on the field, though it had unprecedented issues linked to Infantino's close ally Trump, who received a specially created FIFA Peace Prize at the tournament draw in December.

During the tournament, Iran's team could not stay in the U.S. where it played three games, a Somali referee picked by FIFA was refused entry, and U.S. forward Folarin Balogun was allowed to play against Belgium despite a red card in his previous game.

“We have all been thrown into the middle of a turmoil, which is difficult to comprehend and accept, but, as secretary general, I urge you to remain focused on what has always united us,” Grafström wrote. “I will continue to support our teams, our work and our mission every hour of every day for as long as my work is valued by those we serve.”

Waiting to hear from Infantino

Infantino has not commented in public on the schism in soccer since a FIFA statement early Saturday announcing that the proposal had been dropped. His official Instagram account has posted letters of support from several member federations, including 2030 World Cup co-host Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Infantino has been president of FIFA for more than 10 years and had seemed sure to be re-elected unopposed next March in Morocco. FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to come forward, with Sweden's soccer leader saying Monday that UEFA is seeking a rival candidate.

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