In a letter sent to New York officials, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas March Bell accused the state of not securing enough criminal indictments and convictions and said millions of dollars in funding would be suspended through at least Sept. 30.

The move is the second suspension of a state Medicaid fraud unit this year by the Republican Trump administration, and part of a barrage of anti-fraud actions it has aggressively promoted in the healthcare sector. They have included the creation of a new task force, targeted investigations, funding deferrals and demands for revalidation of healthcare providers that have touched all states but focused largely on Democratic ones.

The pulled funding also comes after the administration admitted a glaring error in figures meant to help justify a fraud probe into New York’s Medicaid program earlier this year, a mistake critics said revealed a Trumpian tendency to attack first and verify the facts later.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, immediately vowed to fight Tuesday's funding freeze.

“During my time as Attorney General, my office has recovered over $627 million for Medicaid and was recognized by this very administration for leading the nation in anti-fraud efforts,” she wrote. “We are considering all legal options to stop this outrageous action.”

Letter accuses New York of low performance

Bell's letter to James and New York MFCU Director Amy Held argues that the unit is moving too slowly on cases and amassing too few indictments and convictions for wrongdoing in the Medicaid system. It notes that compared to four similarly-sized units in other states, it secured the lowest number of criminal fraud convictions between 2023 and 2025.

The letter acknowledges that one reason the state has fewer criminal convictions than other states is that it made a deliberate choice to focus on “high impact, complex fraud cases” rather than smaller-scale individual cases, but says that tradeoff didn't produce sufficient results.

“Enough is enough,” Bell wrote. “The New York MFCU has failed to comply with the terms and conditions of its MFCU grant award.”

Bell said in the letter that the funding suspension could be lifted before Sept. 30 if New York takes corrective action, “showing it has remediated concerns that formed the basis for this suspension.” He said if the state doesn’t fix the problems, the freeze will continue.

New York officials dispute the Trump administration's claims

New York's attorney general's office said in a statement that it has “long been recognized as a national leader in effectively investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud schemes,” including by the HHS inspector general's office. A 2025 report from the office notes that New York is one of four states that made up half the total civil recoveries in that year.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said most of the unit’s criminal convictions focus on company owners, executives and corporations that would return large amounts to Medicaid.

“Under the leadership of Governor Kathy Hochul, New York State has taken concrete steps to root out waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid," said New York health department spokesperson Cadence Acquaviva. “We look forward to the day when these disingenuous attacks end.”

The funding cutoff follows a similar move in Hawaii. In early June, Bell told Hawaii officials that Medicaid fraud funding would be cut off there, saying that it had a three-year stretch without a Medicaid fraud indictment or conviction.

Joan Alker, executive director and co-founder of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said there's an irony in the federal government cutting off money intended for prosecuting fraud when its stated goal is to do just that.

“If you want to fight fraud, don't take away money from states' fraud control units,” she said. “I chalk this up to more political theater to distract voters from historic Medicaid cuts before the midterms.”

Move follows months of federal warnings and deferrals

For months, the Trump administration has contended that states – especially some Democratic-led ones – have been lax about fraud in social safety-net programs, including Medicaid.

It has demanded at least five states, four of them governed by Democrats, share information about how they identify, prevent and address Medicaid fraud.

The federal government has also withheld some Medicaid funding from Minnesota and California over fraud concerns. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who was Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, accused Trump of making cuts because of retribution.

The fraud-busting efforts have also targeted Medicare programs. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced a six-month moratorium on new enrollments for providers of hospice and home care nationally.

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Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Avi Loeb, a cosmologist who studied black holes and served as head of Harvard’s astronomy department until 2020, was recently appointed to helm a new scientific advisory council tasked with investigating the origins of mysterious orbs and other objects reported by military personnel in recent years. It's part of President Donald Trump's push to declassify more information about the issue.

Loeb's team will report to a new White House panel focused on UFOs, now often referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.

“It’s like a detective story,” Loeb said in an interview. “It’s a lot of fun, as long as you don’t pay too much attention to the critics.”

For the last decade, Loeb has been scanning the skies and seas for evidence of intelligent alien life. He began the quest in 2017 as scientists puzzled over an interstellar object soaring by Earth. While others proposed it was a comet or ice chunk, Loeb said it could be a thin “light sail” detached from an alien spacecraft.

His theories have won praise in UFO circles but often put him in conflict with academic peers. Other astronomers accuse him of making exotic claims with little evidence. Some chafe at his habit of skipping the peer review process and bringing claims directly to the public.

Steve Desch, an Arizona State University astrophysicist who has challenged some of Loeb's theories, said Loeb uses flawed methods to reach wild conclusions about alien life — all while shunning a more established branch of science searching for life beyond Earth.

Loeb's role on the White House panel casts doubt on the entire endeavor, Desch said.

“I don’t know what’s going to come of this, but we’re not going to get any closer to answering these questions with him in charge,” Desch said.

The team includes scientists, UFO activists and a billionaire

Loeb brushes his critics aside, saying they lack the imagination to consider new ideas. He's promising a grounded approach to his work for the White House. As he analyzes UAP, he's starting with the assumption that they're the work of humans, he said, approaching it from a national security perspective.

Nonetheless, he envisions an outcome where his work could lead to something bigger. If the government invests in better data collection on UAPs, Loeb said, it could settle the alien debate once and for all.

His hand-picked team includes more than a dozen scientists and UFO activists. Among them is Timothy Gallaudet, a retired rear admiral who has warned about UAP controlled by “nonhuman intelligence,” claiming the United States has recovered crashed aircraft. Also on the team is Ben Lamm, a billionaire working to revive extinct species.

After its first meeting last month, the team sent a request to the Pentagon asking for more than 50 videos, images and other documents related to known UAP incidents. Loeb's group meets behind closed doors, but he has vowed to brief the public and create a website to share findings.

“At a time when science is not so much celebrated, this is an opportunity to actually do good for all sides involved,” Loeb said.

New UAP board created in response to Trump's order for transparency

Earlier this year, Trump directed his administration to provide more transparency on questions of UFOs and alien life. So far, the Pentagon has released three batches of files ranging from decades-old FBI reports to more recent military videos showing orbs darting or soaring through the sky.

Trump's directive led to the creation of a UAP Governance Board overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The board met for the first time in June, and is supported by Loeb's team and several other advisory groups, the office said.

It comes as a bipartisan group in Congress pushes the White House to go further, with some Republicans amplifying claims the U.S. is hiding evidence of alien encounters. The White House has encouraged anyone with information to come forward. A Pentagon office that investigates UAP says it has seen no evidence of alien life.

Loeb said he doesn't buy into cover-up theories. “My impression is the government is baffled by not being able to infer the nature of some of these objects,” he said.

Before looking for aliens, Loeb studied black holes and galaxies

Before he became known for his alien theories, Loeb was a respected cosmologist who authored hundreds of papers, specializing in black holes and the birth of galaxies. He served as chair of Harvard's astronomy department for nearly a decade.

Loeb's career took a turn with his “light sail” theory in 2017, which he presented in a paper and later a book. He went on to found the Galileo Project at Harvard, with a stated mission to search for artifacts from alien civilizations.

His team drew attention in 2023 when they used magnets to retrieve hundreds of small spheres from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, near the possible site of a 2014 meteor crash. After analyzing the metallic “spherules,” Loeb suggested they came from a distant planet or, alternately, from alien technology.

Other scholars challenged the claim, saying it was probably volcanic rock or coal ash.

Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist who previously investigated UAP at the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, said Loeb is “not viewed favorably” in the scientific community and lacks national security experience. He said the makeup of Loeb's team suggests the White House is more interested in fringe theories than hard science.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the criticism.

Loeb, meanwhile, said he aims to follow the science without distraction. “Let’s keep our eyes on the orbs,” he said, “not the social media.”

The decision, in line with the longstanding judicial interpretation of the 14th Amendment, comes on the final day of a Supreme Court term that has centered on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power — and largely ruled in his favor.

In its other Tuesday rulings, the court upheld laws in roughly half the states that prohibit transgender girls and women from playing on their public school and college sport teams and struck down limits on party spending in federal elections.

Here's the latest:

‘A very narrow decision’

A lawyer representing trans female athletes in pending litigation in multiple states described the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams as “a very narrow decision.”

Susan Cirilli, whose clients include former Swarthmore College cross-country runner Evie Parts, reiterated that there remains no federal law in the country that prohibits transgender women from participating in sports and argues that President Trump’s executive order cannot supersede state law.

Venezuelan woman who is part of another birthright lawsuit received court decision in tears

“I feel a great sense of tranquility,” said the woman, one of the five plaintiffs in the lawsuit at the Maryland district court. “It is a triumph for our children; I fought hard for this day,” said the asylum seeker.

The woman, who asked not to be identified from fear of being detained, said she filed the lawsuit Jan. 21, 2025, the day after President Trump announced his executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. She was pregnant with her first child, who was born in August 2025.

As an asylum seeker, she did not believe she could request the Venezuelan citizenship for the baby and wondered what citizenship the child would have.

“There was a lot of uncertainty and fear. I wondered: if my son wasn’t going to be from here, then where would he be from?” said the woman, who was a doctor in her country and arrived to the U.S. in 2019 after receiving death threats in Venezuela.

On Tuesday, she said she felt a “sea of emotions” when she saw the news on TV.

ACLU celebrates the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship ruling

“This should have been a unanimous decision,” attorney Cody Wofsy, deputy director at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, told reporters after the decision was announced. “The text of the Constitution is clear, the history is clear, and the precedent is clear.”

“That said, regardless of what the vote count may have been, this is a rejection of the Trump administration’s extreme attempts to rewrite the Constitution and to exclude entire portions of American-born children from our country.”

Birthright could become a powerful wedge issue in US politics, critic of decision says

“The president was never going to win, in the sense that his executive order was going to be overturned,” said Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank favoring restrictive immigration policies. “The question was if the Supreme Court would accept the ACLU’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment.”

The ruling “constitutionalized the question” of birthright citizenship, he said, requiring changes through a constitutional amendment.

That, he argued, is highly unlikely: “Congress can’t rename post offices, let alone do anything else.”

But, he said, birthright could now become a powerful political wedge issue, similar to the court’s 1973 abortion ruling, which was overturned in 2022.

“It’ll distort our politics the way Roe vs. Wade did in energizing a political movement,” he said.

Could pregnancy now be a question on visa application?

Mark Krikorian, a prominent Washington voice favoring restrictive immigration policies, said he expects the ruling to result in new U.S. visa applications, with potential visitors being asked if they are pregnant.

“It’s something that visa officers are often reluctant to ask about — it’s awkward,” said Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

“But if it’s on the application then you have the answers, and if you lie you’ve committed a felony,” he said.

The Trump administration says birthright citizenship has created what it calls a birth tourism industry.

“It is unacceptable for foreign parents to use a U.S. tourist visa for the primary purpose of giving birth in the United States to obtain citizenship for the child,” the State Department said in a post on X. “Those who abuse our immigration system through birth tourism may be ineligible for future visas or travel to the United States.”

Justice Thomas says the majority misunderstands the 14th amendment

He insists the majority opinion perpetuates a misunderstanding and misapplication of the 14th amendment.

The citizenship clause and related Reconstruction statutes granted citizenship “to persons born and domiciled in the United States regardless of their race,” he wrote. But “neither guaranteed citizenship to persons who were not domiciled in the United States.”

He continued: “Blacks were entitled to citizenship because they were Americans. They had no other homeland, owed no allegiance to any foreign power, and were subject to no other authority.”

That highlights the argument over what it means to be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S.

The majority holds that, with exceptions like foreign diplomats, being on U.S. soil makes a person subject to U.S. laws. Thomas and dissenters reason that no one who is separately subject to another foreign government should be considered “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S., at least when conferring citizenship.

Justice Jackson takes issue with Thomas in citizenship reasoning

Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent in the birthright case argued the 14th amendment’s citizenship clause applied only to formerly enslaved people and not more broadly.

That prompted Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to pen a concurrence to Roberts’ majority opinion.

“Despite his longstanding endorsement of a ‘colorblind’ Constitution, Justice Thomas now surprisingly suggests that the Citizenship Clause was a race-conscious remedial measure, relating only to ‘freed slaves such as Dred Scott,’” she wrote, calling that a “narrow vision” of Reconstruction’s intended expansion of democracy.

“This alternative account pitches Black Americans against immigrants when the advocates who promoted the Fourteenth Amendment did no such thing,” Jackson wrote. “Freed Blacks fought for the shared humanity of all people.”

Jackson is the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Thomas is the second Black man, succeeding Thurgood Marshall, who argued the Brown v. Board case that struck down segregated schools.

Trump says Congress should end birthright citizenship and calls court ruling ‘too bad’

The president said the Supreme Court’s decision upholding that anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen was “too bad for our Country,” but that Congress could “easily” address it with legislation.

Trump declared that “No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!”

But the Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday makes it clear that it would be necessary to amend the Constitution. Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the opinion for the court, pointed to the Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.

Justice Department reacts to the ruling on birthright citizenship

The Justice Department said in a statement that it’s “committed to tackling illegal birth tourism schemes by working diligently with U.S. Attorneys across the country to uphold the law.”

“Actors seeking to exploit loopholes to obtain automatic citizenship for their children pose a national security threat and will be brought to justice,” the department said in a post on X.

Dred Scott case featured in the justices’ birthright citizenship writings

U.S. Supreme Court justices have long distanced themselves from the pre-Civil War decision that declared Black people — enslaved and free — were not U.S. citizens.

The 1857 Dred Scott case was featured again Tuesday, being mentioned 48 times in 194 pages of the birthright citizenship opinion, concurrences and dissents.

Roberts’ majority opinion explained how U.S. birthright citizenship originates with English common law: Anyone born in the monarch’s realm was considered a “natural-born subject.”

The “odious” Scott case, Roberts said, deviated from that once-accepted understanding and “was met with shock.”

In response, he detailed, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause restored common law understanding, with lawmakers making clear they were explicitly rebuking the Scott decision.

Yet, Roberts wrote, “the Government and the principal dissent propose a return to its core tenet,” that “for certain people, being born on American soil will not suffice to confer citizenship.”

Supreme Court denies report that Justice Samuel Alito is retiring

The Supreme Court’s public information office is denying a published report, since retracted, that the court announced Alito’s retirement Tuesday.

The unusual statement followed a story from NPR saying the court had announced that Alito was stepping down. NPR pulled the story a short time later. Chief Justice John Roberts announced the retirement of several court employees Tuesday, as he customarily does after the court’s final opinions are out. Alito was not among them.

Speculation had swirled about the justice’s future plans earlier this year, but Fox News and CBS reported this spring that he planned to remain on the bench.

NPR’s editor-in-chief released a statement saying the story had been incorrectly reported and that correspondent Nina Totenberg would appear on “All Things Considered” Tuesday afternoon to explain what had happened.

Court will consider striking down assault weapons bans in Connecticut and the Chicago-area

A Supreme Court that has expanded gun rights will consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles, often called assault weapons, violate the Second Amendment.

The justices said Tuesday they will take up appeals asking the court to strike down bans on the AR-15 and similar semiautomatic firearms in the Chicago area and Connecticut.

Similar laws are in place in about a dozen states, covering major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Congress allowed a national assault weapons ban to expire in 2004, but Democrats have supported renewing it in response to a series of mass shootings and states have continued to pass their own laws.

The cases are the latest high-profile disputes over guns to reach the court since its conservative majority handed down a landmark ruling in 2022 that expanded Second Amendment rights and spawned challenges to firearm laws around the country.

The case is expected to be heard in the fall.

▶ Read more

More reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision on campaign spending

The conservative-leaning Institute for Free Speech hailed the decision as “a landmark victory for the First Amendment.”

“More than half the states have operated for years without restricting coordinated party expenditures, and there is no evidence of the corruption the federal government fears,” institute senior attorney Brett Nolan said. “The Court corrected a two-decade-old mistake.”

Meanwhile, Jacquelyn Lopez and Rachel Jacobs, partners in the Elias Law Group, which represents Democrats in voting rights cases and election contests, said the decision “needlessly” destroyed “a long-standing pillar” of federal campaign finance laws.

However, they also said Republicans have “pushed the boundaries” of the limits to help weak candidates. They said the Elias Law Group had anticipated the outcome for months.

“In the long run, Democratic campaigns will benefit from the level playing field this ruling provides,” they said. “Now, both parties are free to offer unlimited support to their candidates, not just the party willing to ignore the law to do so.”

From a descendant of the man at the center of the 1898 birthright citizenship ruling

Norman Wong, the great-grandson of Wong Kim Ark, the Chinese American cook at the center of the landmark 1898 Supreme Court decision establishing birthright citizenship, applauded Tuesday’s ruling.

“My great grandfather, Wong Kim Ark, never set out to become a symbol. He was one man, only a cook, and yet he stood up for what was right, and I believe that it has made a difference,” Wong said in a statement. “As a result, he stood up for the rights of all of us Americans — it just so happens that I am related to him. Today’s ruling shows that his victory remains as important now as it was in 1898.”

‘By the grace of God, the president does not manage to do everything he wants’

For a Mexican mother with six children born in the United States — ranging in age from 18 years to 18 months — the Supreme Court’s decision brought happiness.

“I am happy for our children,” the 38-year-old woman said in a telephone interview. “I am happy because they don’t face any risk like we do.”

The woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of being detained and deported, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2007 in search of a better life. She has not applied for asylum or any other immigration status.

She works at a plant nursery in South Florida, where her children attend school.

The woman said one of her children called her as soon as he found out about the decision to share his joy with her.

“By the grace of God, the president does not manage to do everything he wants,” the mother said. “I was confident that, with God’s help, he would not succeed.”

Birthright citizenship survived racist eras, and now Trump, Global Refuge leader says

The head of Global Refuge said the Supreme Court averted a catastrophe with its 6-3 opinion upholding the 14th Amendment and rejecting the Trump administration’s attempt to overturn a Reconstruction era amendment.

“Birthright citizenship survived the Chinese Exclusion Act, Jim Crow, and today, it survived an executive order that would have essentially turned the maternity ward into a customs checkpoint,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refugee.

“The Justices rightly recognized that the U.S. Constitution is clear and unambiguous: if you are born in this country and subject to its jurisdiction, you are a citizen of this country,” she said. Vignarajah said a different outcome would have denied citizenship to more than 250,000 children born in the U.S. each year.

“This was a constitutional stress test.”

Trump says Republicans won ‘big’ on Supreme Court’s party spending ruling

The president applauded a Supreme Court ruling that struck down a federal election law and made it easier for major donors to avoid caps on individual contributions to candidates by going through the party.

“A BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS and, more importantly, The First Amendment!” Trump posted on social media.

House Speaker Mike Johnson ‘very disappointed’ over birthright citizenship ruling

The Republican leader’s news conference was interrupted by the ruling as reporters instantly sought a real-time reaction.

“Oh dear,” Johnson said as a reporter read out the decision.

Johnson said he believes it will subject the country to “serious challenges going forward and we’ll have to deal with that.”

Johnson, who has worked as a constitutional lawyer primarily on religious issues, said the 14th Amendment is being abused by people who are coming to the U.S. to have children in a “birthing tourism trend.” It’s not illegal but is a practice the Trump administration has tried to reduce.

Republican senator calls for constitutional amendment restricting birthright citizenship

Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri called the Supreme Court’s decision “wrong, dangerous, and disastrous for American sovereignty and the American people.” He denounced the decision’s majority, including “squish conservatives,” in a post on X.

Schmitt added that Congress may need to act to restrict birthright citizenship following the court’s ruling.

“I will be announcing a forthcoming constitutional amendment to restore the sacred bond between American citizens and their government,” Schmitt wrote.

He said the amendment “will ensure that citizenship once again reflects allegiance, permanence, and membership in the American nation.”

Nation’s largest Latino civil rights group touts victory in birthright citizenship case

“This decision confirms a truth that generations of Americans have lived by: a child born on this soil is a citizen of this nation,” Roman Palomares, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said in a statement. “The Court has made clear that no president can override the Constitution by decree.”

LULAC was one of the plaintiffs in the birthright citizenship case. The organization sued the Trump administration last year over the president’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.

In transgender sports dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor says details matter

In her dissent on the West Virginia transgender athlete case, Sotomayor emphasized that Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 16-year-old high school sophomore, identified as a girl at a young age and started hormone therapy before going through puberty as a male.

That matters, Sotomayor said.

The justice did not argue that West Virginia could not set policies that set restrictions on transgender participation in girls’ sports to ensure safety and fairness. Such a policy, Sotomayor argued, could conceivably allow Pepper-Jackson to compete as she wishes. Meanwhile, the justice wrote, an absolute ban could violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

But the immediate issue, Sotomayor said, is that courts haven’t resolved the factual question of whether Pepper-Jackson’s circumstances put her on the same competitive level with other female athletes. Sotomayor said justices should have returned the case to lower courts to settle that question.

Opposing reactions to the Supreme Court’s trans athlete decision

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, hailed Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision barring transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, while the American Civil Liberties Union senior lawyer Joshua Block called it “heartbreaking.”

Morrisey said the decision “will be remembered as one of the most important victories for women’s athletics since the enactment of Title IX itself…We defended a simple principle most Americans instinctively understand: that women’s sports exist to provide women and girls a fair opportunity to compete and succeed.”

Block said: “The reality is that the equality of transgender women and girls takes nothing away from, and in fact promotes, the equality of all women and girls. We will continue to advance the fundamental principle that all young people deserve equal opportunity to thrive and succeed.”

The trans teenager at the center of the Supreme Court’s decision on sports

Becky Pepper-Jackson is at the center of Supreme Court decision upholding states’ ban on transgender athletes participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

The teenager from Bridgeport, West Virginia, is a state-qualifying track and field athlete who placed third in the 2025 discus competition.

Six years ago, at age 11, Pepper-Jackson challenged a then-new state law banning trans athletes from competing in female sports in middle school, high school and college.

Now, in high school, Pepper-Jackson is the only trans person who’s sought to compete in girls sports in West Virginia.

Tuesday’s ruling means Pepper-Jackson’s recently completed track season will be her last in the state.

Divides over political party spending have mostly split along partisan lines

After President Trump took office for his second term, the Federal Election Commission dropped its defense of the law limiting party spending and joined with Republicans in urging that it be overturned.

Democrats had called on the court to uphold the law, even though there’s wide agreement that the spending limits have hurt political parties in an era of unlimited spending by other organizations.

Entrenched divisions between liberal and conservative justices over campaign finance restrictions were on display when the court heard arguments in December.

“Every time we interfere with the congressional design, we make matters worse,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a dissenter in Citizens United and the court’s other campaign money cases.

By contrast, Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the Citizens United majority, described the decision as “much maligned, I think unfairly maligned.” The effect of the decision was to ”level the playing field,” Alito said, by expanding the right to spend freely that had previously belonged only to media companies.

Group supporting tough restrictions on immigration says Supreme Court ruling is a mistake

“Birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens will continue to be a ballooning negative consequence of the failure to enforce our immigration laws,” said Dale Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “But that very fact makes it all the more urgent to step up enforcement to the maximum possible extent and end illegal immigration.”

Trump says Supreme Court ruling on transgender athletes is a ‘big win’

The president has made his opposition to transgender athletes a key feature of his speeches and he embraced the Supreme Court decision that states can ban the athletes from girls and women’s teams.

“BIG WIN,” Trump said on social media. “Wow! That takes that ridiculous situation off the table!!!”

The justices said Tuesday they will hear appeals challenging bans on the AR-15 and similar semiautomatic firearms in Connecticut and the Chicago area.

Similar laws are in place in about a dozen states, covering major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Congress allowed a national assault weapons ban to expire in 2004, but Democrats have supported renewing it in response to a series of mass shootings. States have also continued to pass their own laws, including recent measures in Virginia and Rhode Island.

It is the latest high-profile dispute over guns to reach the court since its conservative majority handed down a landmark ruling in 2022 that expanded Second Amendment rights and spawned challenges to firearm laws around the country.

Arguments are expected to be heard in the fall.

The Connecticut law was passed after a mass shooter used an AR-15 to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. The state says the guns are a preferred weapon of mass shooters, and they can be banned because they are similar to military-grade weapons.

“These laws are critical public safety measures, and they are consistent with the Second Amendment," said Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment litigation at the gun-control group Everytown Law.

Gun rights groups, on the other hand, argue it’s unconstitutional to ban semiautomatic rifles, which are legally owned by millions of Americans.

“The Second Amendment protects arms in common use for lawful purposes, and it’s hard to argue that a type of rifle that potentially outnumbers Ford F-150 trucks in America doesn’t meet that standard,” said Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation.

Four conservative justices on the nine-member court, enough to grant review of a case, had signaled that it was only a matter of time before the court took up the issue.

The ban in Cook County, Illinois, was first passed in 1993. Lower courts have upheld both laws.

“If the Second Amendment does not protect the most popular rifles in the country, it is hard to see how it protects any firearms at all,” aside from handguns kept in the home, the challengers wrote.

Attorneys for Cook County, on the other hand, say the measure does pass constitutional muster. "The trauma that assault weapon massacres have inflicted on the public at large has been staggering,” they wrote.

The Supreme Court backed Second Amendment rights in two cases this term, striking down gun carry restrictions in Hawaii and a broad federal ban on gun ownership by marijuana users. They've previously upheld some restrictions, though, including a law barring people under domestic-violence restraining orders from having guns.

Also Tuesday, the court rebuffed a series of cases over restrictions on guns for young adults under age 21, declining to hear an issue that's sharply divided lower courts in recent years.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Three defenders converged on Patrick Berg as he moved into the penalty area with the ball. He kicked it over to a wide-open Haaland, who scored his fifth goal in three games at this year's tournament.

Antonio Nusa scored in the first half with a curling kick for Norway, which is in its fourth World Cup and will next play five-time champion Brazil in the round of 16 on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The match comes 28 years after what many considered the greatest win ever for the Norwegians against Brazil.

Norway is playing in its first World Cup since that 1998 appearance, when the team got to the knockout round only after scoring goals in the 83rd and 89th minutes for an incredible 2-1 comeback win over then-reigning World Cup champion Brazil in the group finale.

Amad Diallo, who had kept Norway from taking a two-goal lead earlier in the second half, evened the match for Ivory Coast with a left-footed kick in the 74th minute.

After Haaland’s goal, his Norway-record 60th in 53 matches, Ivory Coast kept pressing and had a chance to equalize with a direct free kick by Diallo in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Orjan Nyland made a leaping stop, the last of his four saves, when he deflected the ball away with his extended right hand.

Haaland, who won the Golden Boot in the Premier League last season with 27 goals for Manchester City, has scored in 13 straight competitive international games — a total of 25 goals in that span.

The Elephants, ranked 31st by FIFA, had never before won twice in the same World Cup. This was the fourth World Cup appearance for the West African nation, the same as Norway.

Nusa scored his first World Cup goal in the 39th minute when he took a few strides past the left corner of the area and sent a right-footed kick between two defenders toward the far post.

Ivory Coast goalkeeper Yahia Fofana made a diving attempt at the ball that was just beyond his extended reach, and he was still in air when he turned his head back to see the ball curl into the net. It was Nusa’s ninth international in 28 games for Norway.

Diallo evened the score at 1-1 after a give-and-go with Nicolas Pepe, who scored both Ivory Coast goals in its previous game and was stopped by Nyland in the 55th minute. Diallo found space in the area for his left-footed blast.

That came only about eight minutes after Torbjorn Heggen had a shot for Norway that was deflected away by Diallo, who was right next to his keeper.

Ivory Coast had one more good scoring chance before halftime after Nusa drew a yellow card in stoppage time. Pepe took the free kick but the ensuing header inside went left of the post.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Scorching temperatures, especially combined with high humidity, pose risks particularly for children, older people and those with certain health conditions. Anyone can suffer from heat-related illness.

Climate change is also exacerbating heat waves and heat stress.

So here are some tips to stay safe:

When heat becomes dangerous

Dangers posed by hot weather depend on more than the temperature. The most detailed measurement is called the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), which includes temperature, humidity, cloud cover and wind. The heat index, which measures temperature and humidity, is less descriptive but easier to find on weather apps. Both explain why a shaded soccer field on a 90 degree F day (32 degree C) in arid Phoenix may be less risky than an exposed park on an 80 degree F (27 degree C) day in soupy Little Rock.

Just based on heat index, NOAA has a chart that calculates how dangerous prolonged exposure can be. For example, a day in which temperatures reach 96 degree F (36 degrees C) and 45% humidity would fall into the “danger” category for prolonged exposure or strenuous activity.

The WBGT threshold isn't exact, but recent research suggests that even some young, healthy people can't endure hours of exposure to high heat and humidity.

How to cool down

Overnight temperatures can be a particularly dangerous part of a heat wave, said Ashley Ward, director of the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke University.

“Your body needs a reprieve,” she said. “You don't get that overnight, we start the next day at a deficit.” Heat can worsen labor productivity and lead to more visits to the emergency room.

“When we have overnight temperatures that don't drop below 75 degrees" F (24 degrees C), she said, “you start to see some pretty extraordinary outcomes with respect to heat illness and heat stroke, and even mortality.”

Ward said air conditioning can help, but she acknowledged that not everyone has access.

If you can't afford to cool the whole house, Ward said, create a “cool corner" and sleep there, so your body is prepared to tackle the next day.

Evaporative or “swamp” coolers can help in dry heat, but they increase humidity and can make it more difficult to cool down. In humid places, just use a fan.

If you don't have air conditioning, find public places that do, including movie theaters, malls and libraries. Some communities set up cooling centers.

Depending on where you live, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program can help you buy a window air conditioning unit, according to the National Council on Aging. Some local nonprofits and civic organizations can also help.

Know your rights if you work outside

Knowing what workplace protections you have is important. Some states have them, including Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota and Maryland, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Other states don't have any.

If your state has work rules, try to learn them — though there are still challenges to ensuring regulations are actually enforced, said Bharat Venkat, director of the University of California, Los Angeles Heat Lab.

He notes that sometimes shaded areas are too far away for workers to take breaks without losing wages, or that management can make it impossible for workers to advocate for themselves. “Most workers don’t actually have control over their time or control over where they work," Venkat said.

Within those constraints, finding ways to stay hydrated and lower your body temperature are important. You can do this by drinking lots of fluids, wetting clothing or putting cold water or a cold rag on your hands, feet, armpits and neck. A portable handheld fan or a cooling vest can also help.

If you're exercising, avoid the hottest times of day and bring more water than you think you need.

Knowing heat illness symptoms

Heat illness symptoms can vary by person, Venkat said. Medications or existing health conditions can also make it harder to regulate body temperature or notice you're getting too hot.

Early trouble signs include heavy sweating, muscle cramps and headache. That's when you stop what you're doing and cool yourself off, for example by splashing yourself with cold water or finding an air-conditioned space.

As heat exhaustion sets in, new symptoms arrive, including faster heart rate and dizziness. Next comes heat stroke, which can include confusion, slurred words and fainting. Ward said that's when to call 911.

“Don’t be embarrassed to call 911 or go to urgent care when you think you might have overdone it in the heat,” he said.

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Walling and Wells are former Associated Press reporters.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Located in the state of Nuevo León, Monterrey is the only Mexican host city not to feature the country's national team — but this hasn’t stopped swaths of fans from wearing dark green and enjoying the World Cup spectacle in their hometown.

“It’s a good deal for the country and also for the city,” said Manuel Pérez, a resident of Monterrey who attended the round of 32 game between Netherlands and Morocco on Monday. “We are all together in this special moment."

No matter who is playing at Estadio BBVA, Mexican fans control the atmosphere through their various chants.

“It’s part of a culture, and we support each and every team that comes here,” said Sebastian Roa, a fan who traveled from Guadalajara.

During the match between the Netherlands and Morocco, Mexican fans could be heard throughout the stadium chanting “no era penal” (it wasn't a penalty) and “Mexico.”

The phrase “no era penal” was coined at the 2014 World Cup, during Mexico’s round of 16 match against the Netherlands.

In that game, the Netherlands earned a penalty in stoppage time when the referee deemed that Dutch winger Arjen Robben was clipped in the box by Mexico’s Rafael Márquez. The penalty was converted by Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, eliminating Mexico. However, many Mexican fans are convinced that Robben dived and a penalty should not have been awarded.

Within the first 10 minutes of the match on Monday, which was also the anniversary of that game, the Mexican fans reminded the world of their 12-year grudge against the Oranje.

Morocco coach impressed by Monterrey fans

While local fans in the United States and Canada have also attended other nations’ matches, the Mexican fans have taken complete initiative in showcasing their country.

Their dedication toward the sport has not gone unnoticed by visiting teams.

“I’ve always said that the 1986 (World Cup in Mexico) made me fall in love with the sport,” Morocco head coach Mohamed Ouahbi said. “I want to say that hopefully at the next World Cup — when it’s played in Morocco — I think (the Moroccan people) want to have Mexican fans and make them feel at home.”

The 2030 World Cup will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

In addition to the round of 32, Monterrey featured five teams in the three group stage games it hosted: Sweden, Tunisia, Japan, South Korea and South Africa.

While some sets of fans were larger than others, like Japan and South Korea, there was never a game that lacked Mexican green in the crowd.

“We love watching every game,” Roa said. “Even if it’s (other teams) like Cabo Verde or Uzbekistan, you’re gonna see us.”

In Guadalajara, South Korea’s opening day win against Czech Republic was headlined by empty seats, which FIFA blamed on several fans watching the game from the stadium concourses. But Monterrey’s Estadio BBVA featured sell-out crowds of 51,243 fans in three of its four matches.

“I didn’t go to (a game in Guadalajara) because the prices were crazy high,” Roa said. “But I managed to get a ticket here.

Mexico became the first nation to host three World Cups: 1970, 1986 and 2026. But for many locals it’s the first time they’ve seen the tournament in-person.

“It’s a special moment to come to the World Cup and enjoy the match,” said Alejandro Cuellar, who attended Sweden vs. Tunisia with his brother. “We don’t know when it’s going to be here again.”

The craving for international soccer in Monterrey is not reserved only for the World Cup.

A state of the art stadium

Monterrey has drawn high attendance numbers in other international matches. Estadio BBVA held over 49,000 spectators in the inter-confederation playoff between Iraq and Bolivia.

Estadio BBVA, which was built in 2015, is considered to be one of the most modern in Mexico. Those sitting in the northwestern section of the stadium get a perfect view of a nearby mountain called “El Cerro de la Silla,” which is one of the biggest attractions for foreigners visiting the stadium.

“We already know the type of stadium that we have,” Pérez said. “It’s so beautiful to know that many people are (starting to know) this big stadium worldwide.”

Estadio BBVA regularly hosts Liga MX games as the home ground for Rayados. But the atmosphere at the World Cup is completely different.

“It’s another whole new level because here you have international people,” Roa said. “It’s pretty exciting for all of us Mexicans, because we breathe soccer and we love partying. So it’s two things combined that we just love.” __

Maya Koluder-Ramirez and Ethan Wilcox are students in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

One of the killed firefighters worked for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, created this year without customary congressional approval by drawing personnel from four agencies within the Interior Department. The victims were part of an elite, helicopter-based crew that got trapped Saturday in a fast-growing wildfire near the Utah border as they attacked the blaze on the ground.

Authorities say they were among five firefighters who tried to shield themselves by deploying tentlike emergency shelters as flames overran their position. Two survivors were hospitalized with burn injuries.

The consolidation of thousands of personnel into the fire service has sown confusion among some firefighters about who their bosses are and what their responsibilities should be, according to former government officials.

And the administration’s focus on “full suppression” of new fires marks a sharp reversal from a decades-long trend toward embracing flames as a tool — to burn off old vegetation and growth that acts like fuel and lessen the risk of catastrophic blazes being stoked by a warming planet.

The changes benefit private fire aviation companies that are key to hitting blazes fast.

Federal officials have not released details on the circumstances preceding the weekend deaths, including the firefighters’ objective at the site where they were overrun.

“The question is, why were they attacking that fire in the first place?” asked Timothy Ingalsbee, a former federal firefighter and cofounder of the advocacy group Firefighters United For Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “What was actually at risk? If it was a bunch of shrubs on remote mountaintops, what was the real risk that justified putting those firefighters at risk?”

98% of fires are extinguished

Wildfires ignited over the past week all across the West following months of dry weather and a record lack of snow in some places.

Acting under an order from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Wildland Fire Service will use full suppression “for every wildfire under its management,” federal officials said in a statement to The Associated Press.

“Any wildfire that represents a threat to life, property, infrastructure or the environment should be extinguished as quickly as possible,” the statement said. “Our experienced fire managers retain the authority to select the safest and most effective tactics based on conditions on the ground.”

But critics say the administration is trying to fix something that isn’t broken: The four agencies the firefighters were drawn from — the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and National Park Service — have a record of extinguishing 98% of the fires they handle.

The new agency and policy won’t eliminate catastrophic wildfires that occur due to dense forests where people are increasingly moving and extreme weather caused by climate change, said Steve Ellis, who retired as a Bureau of Land Management deputy director and chairs the National Association of Forest Service Retirees. Land managers must be a part of the solution, he said.

“Severing forest management and forest managers from fire suppression will make firefighting less safe and put communities at greater risk,” Ellis said.

The two other wildland firefighters killed in Colorado worked for the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, which handles most U.S. wildfires and is also operating under a full suppression policy. Trump had wanted the new agency to include Forest Service firefighters, but Congress blocked that part of the plan.

Fire aviation companies pushed for the consolidation

Under Trump, federal officials have been bringing in aircraft more quickly once fires ignite, said Austin Moeller, senior aerospace analyst for Canaccord Genuity group, an investment firm.

“Anyone that has an air tanker benefits from this more aggressive contracting activity,” Moeller said.

A chief beneficiary is Bridger Aerospace, a Montana-based company founded by U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy. Before his 2024 election, Sheehy hired lobbyists in a failed attempt to persuade the Montana Legislature to create a statewide fire service analogous to the one just created at the federal level. Within a month of taking federal office, he sponsored a bill to codify the consolidation of federal firefighters into one agency.

Sheehy stepped away from his company during the 2024 campaign and put his Bridger assets into a blind trust, said Sheehy spokesman Tate Mitchell.

Mitchell said Trump was behind the idea to create a new fire agency, but Sheehy supports it.

“One of Senator Sheehy’s top priorities in the Senate is using his experience to stop the catastrophic fires destroying American communities and he won’t apologize for it,” Mitchell said.

Bridger describes itself as one of the nation's leading aerial firefighting companies. CEO Sam Davis has said the company's fleet of Super Scooper aircraft, its surveillance aircraft and its fire observation technology make it “uniquely positioned” to respond to the renewed emphasis on attacking fires to put them out.

New full suppression policy dates back decades

The aircraft will help the administration's new full suppression policy, which harkens back to a 1935 policy known as the 10 a.m. rule because it required agencies to put out new fires by 10 a.m. the following day.

Michael Dudley, a retired director of fire, aviation and air management at the Forest Service, said that old policy is why forests today are overgrown.

Wildfires serve a purpose — they clear out the small and dead material. But officials became so good at putting out fires that the forests kept growing and more fuels built up, so when a fire hits now, it's easy for it to get out of control, he said.

Scientists who study wildfires say trying to stop all fires is unrealistic since some of the most destructive blazes in recent years have evaded efforts to put them out. Some fires simply grow too fast, are too remote, or result from multiple ignitions that makes them impossible to stop.

“The narrative that if we just try harder, we’re gonna make these fires go away isn’t true,” said former Forest Service wildfire researcher David Calkin. “The fire paradox is not beatable: The more you make fire go away, the more fuel accumulates. The more fuel accumulates, the harder it is to make fires go away.”

Firefighters: New agency needs work

Firefighters in the consolidated agency are working under newly appointed Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy, who had served as chief of California's Orange County Fire Authority since 2018.

“There’s a level of confusion as everyone’s trying to sort out responsibilities and who’s in charge and who do you report to,” Dudley said.

An Interior spokesperson said Fennessy was highly respected with decades of experience, including managing some of the nation's most complex fire challenges in densely-populated southern California.

Luke Mayfield, a founder of the group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said he believes the consolidation will better serve firefighters, but significant work remains to get the new agency fully running.

“Everyone was aware of the potential fuel and fire conditions we face this fire season,” Mayfield said. “Those conditions are surfacing and have resulted in firefighter fatalities with weather conditions that won’t let up in the near future.”

Two months, and only one major, are all that remain for the PGA Tour in 2026 to find some definition. There have been good tournaments, great finishes, redemptions and breakthroughs, and Scottie Scheffler as steady as he has always been.

It's just that no one has stood out this year.

Rory McIlroy became only the fourth back-to-back Masters champion, and the first since Tiger Woods in 2002. It was an example of how much freedom he felt from finally having the green jacket and the career Grand Slam. But that's his only win this year, and except for a late rally at Riviera, he really hasn't come close.

The eight signature events were won by eight players, no different from last year when seven players won the seven $20 million tournaments. But a year ago, all seven winners were among the top 25 in the world when they won. This year that applied to only three winners — Collin Morikawa (19) at Pebble Beach, Matt Fitzpatrick (7) at Hilton Head and Cameron Young (4) at Doral.

It also is not unusual to start a season with three different major champions — that's been the case each of the past 11 years. But it's the first time since 2010 that two of the three major champions were not among the top 30 when they won.

Aaron Rai was at No. 44 when he captured his first major at the PGA Championship, and Wyndham Clark was at No. 34 when he won at Shinnecock Hills for his second U.S. Open title.

(This requires an asterisk because Brooks Koepka was No. 44 when he won the 2023 PGA Championship. He was No. 19 when he left for LIV, and his two wins came with no ranking points).

There were two multiple winners of individual tournaments last year at this point — Scheffler and McIlroy. There are four this year with Clark, Young, Fitzpatrick and Chris Gotterup.

The last two months, highlighted by the final major at the British Open and three FedEx Cup playoff events, should go a long way toward shaping the season. Scheffler and Xander Schauffele won the British Open each of the past two years, and it was their second major of the season.

Even in a game that moves slowly, outlooks can change quickly.

Scheffler looks about the same minus the trophies

Scheffler began his year with a four-shot victory in The American Express. Thirteen tournaments later, he still only has one victory.

He still leads the PGA Tour in overall strokes gained and tee-to-green, though his numbers are down from a year ago. Scheffler has nine finishes in the top 5 in his 14 starts. His playoff loss to Viktor Hovland at The Travelers Championship was his fourth runner-up of the year.

Take only the money from those four runner-up finishes — $8.9 million — and that would rank him at No. 4 on the PGA Tour money list. He hasn't been as sharp at times. He had a bad habit of giving the field too much of a head start. But he doesn't appear to be going anywhere.

The other Fitzpatrick seizes on the opportunity

Fitzpatrick leads the PGA Tour in victories this season with three because one of them was Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he teamed with younger brother Alex to win. That gave Alex Fitzpatrick a two-year exemption, seen at the time as one of the great gifts ever from big brother.

Instead of flying to Turkey for the next European tour event, Alex Fitzpatrick headed to Doral for a signature event. And he got in the next one, and the one after that. He went from that supposed “gift card” to registering four top 10s in the signature events against the strongest fields.

His world ranking has gone from No. 140 to No. 62. More importantly, he is at No. 17 in the FedEx Cup and a lock for all the big stuff next year — and all the majors if he reaches the Tour Championship.

Clark has to be the front-runner for player of the year

Clark is dangerous when he gets on a heater, and he's on a heater.

He won his first U.S. Open in 2023 a little over a month after dusting the field at Quail Hollow. He shot 60 to win at Pebble Beach in 2024, then was runner-up two straight weeks to Scheffler at Bay Hill and The Players Championship the following month.

Clark had another closing 60 to win at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson, followed that with contending late Sunday afternoon in the Memorial and early Sunday afternoon in the Canadian Open, and then he stood down a hostile gallery at Shinnecock to win the U.S. Open. And then running on fumes, he got within two shots of the lead late Sunday at the Travelers and tied for fifth.

How long will it last? Two more months and it might be enough to end Scheffler's four-year run as PGA Tour player of the year.

But that depends on Scheffler.

He is the defending champion at the British Open, and a victory by him or a half-dozen others could be what it takes to bring some clarity to the season.

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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

In a release, the sheriff’s office revealed that the woman — identified as Reagan Cox, 30 — had been pulled over and arrested on a charge of resisting without violence on Saturday morning.

But when she was being processed at the jail, the scanner caught an “abnormality” in her “Jail Purse,” deputies added.

“Our Corrections Deputies moved Cox to a change out room where she was observed trying to cover her buttocks area with her hand,” the release reads. “After moving her hand, a baggie dropped to the floor containing approximately 3.8 grams of cocaine!!”

[RELATED: 3 teens arrested after ‘drug deal gone bad’]

Once the baggie dropped to the floor, though, Cox spontaneously uttered that she didn’t know anything about the drugs and that someone must have put it in there during an “intimate encounter,” the sheriff’s office reported.

As a result of the incident, Cox now faces an additional charge of introducing a controlled substance into a detention facility.

“Folks, if not realizing that someone left cocaine in your ‘Jail Purse’ is not a good enough reminder to not do drugs, then I don’t know what is!!” Sheriff Wayne Ivey stated.

His name is Gadi Eisenkot. On Tuesday in Israel, his centrist political party “Yashar!” or “Straight!” formally launched its election season campaign.

“This time it’s on us,” said Eisenkot at the launch event Tuesday. “Will we turn a blind eye to the disaster that has befallen us? Will we accept the continued division and rush to the next disaster? Or will we heal and rebuild?”

His rise from the highest ranks of the military could sharpen scrutiny of Netanyahu and his stewardship of Israel through multiple wars. Like nearly all of the prime minister’s rivals, Eisenkot has broadly supported Israeli military operations in places such as Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. He did not mention any of those conflicts in his speech Tuesday.

But he has also accused Netanyahu of strategic failure in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and said his vision of a more isolated Israel is a threat to the future of the state.

In recent days Netanyahu, who leads Israel’s right-wing Likud Party, has fired back, saying if he had listened to Eisenkot, who was opposed to certain operations in Gaza, then “all of Hamas” would still be in control in the territory.

As a political newcomer, however, Eisenkot “looks like a front-runner because he’s everything Netanyahu is not,” said Gideon Rahat, senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank in Jerusalem.

“He’s not polarizing, he’s not a populist like Netanyahu, and he will try to unify the country,” Rahat said.

An anti-Netanyahu biography

A 66-year-old son of Jewish Moroccan immigrants, Eisenkot stands in stark contrast to Netanyahu, a U.S.-educated elite who is on trial for corruption. He comes from a working-class family. His English is unpolished. He spent four decades in Israel’s military.

He has also never campaigned on having ties to U.S. President Donald Trump. And his 25-year-old son, Gal Meir Eisenkot, was killed in combat in Gaza, while Netanyahu’s son, a podcaster, lived part-time in Florida.

Losing a son — as well as two nephews — to the war has raised Eisenkot’s profile among Israelis and given him credibility as someone who, having paid the ultimate price, won’t needlessly sacrifice soldiers.

“People trust him to be a real person and a patriot. They expect him to take care of the country and not himself,” said Rahat, who is a professor at Hebrew University.

His platform includes a pledge to strengthen Israel’s national security, including through regional cooperation, although he has said that he supports Jewish settlements that are “in line with Israel’s interests” in the occupied West Bank. He said Tuesday he would focus on establishing a state commission of inquiry to investigate the failures leading to the Oct. 7 attack, rebuild the north and south of the country and invest in education and healthcare.

He has also adopted the slogan “Service for All,” a nod to mandating military service for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities. For Israelis who have grown tired of war or sending their loved ones off to fight, such arguments may resonate.

“He presents as an everyman, a reflection of the ordinary Israeli,” Joshua Leifer, a columnist for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, wrote. He is “a kind of antipolitician,” he said.

In 2024, Eisenkot resigned from Netanyahu’s war Cabinet, citing what he said was the prime minister’s lack of strategy as Israel prosecuted its war in Gaza. He sent a blistering letter to fellow Cabinet members warning that they were mistaking incremental battlefield gains for decisions that could actually neutralize Hamas and make Israel more secure.

But his qualms weren’t with the level of destruction in Gaza or the high civilian toll, both of which drew global outrage. And while at times he has emphasized diplomacy as a way to address Israel’s security challenges, Eisenkot is also credited with formulating Israel’s so‑called “Dahiyeh Doctrine,” named after the area in Beirut’s southern suburbs where the Hezbollah militant group has a stronghold.

He elaborated on the doctrine in a 2008 interview with the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, after serving as a top military official during Israel’s war with Lebanon in 2006.

“What happened in the Dahiyeh quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which shots will be fired in the direction of Israel,” he said. “We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases.”

Despite anti-Netanyahu sentiment, challengers face difficult path to unseating him

In Israel’s fractured multi-party system, prime ministers rarely finish their four-year terms. Coalitions collapse and new alliances are formed. Because of that — and despite Netanyahu’s unpopularity — it would still be difficult for any of the prime minister’s challengers to form a coalition broad enough to unseat him.

If Eisenkot’s party wins more seats than Netanyahu’s, it will still need to form alliances with enough other parties to constitute a majority. Eisenkot has said he will not compromise on legislation mandating military service for the ultra-Orthodox, who also wield political power.

He will also need to decide whether to include Arab-led parties to get over the threshold — something Netanyahu and his far-right allies have already used as an attack line.

Meanwhile, the number of official rescues has dropped dramatically in the last three days, the government said, from 5,380 people saved in the first two days after the quakes to just four people found alive Monday by authorities. The prime window for finding earthquake survivors is typically 48 to 72 hours, but it is possible to survive longer depending on factors such as temperature and access to water or food.

The sole survivor rescued by Tuesday afternoon was a toddler who had been trapped for six days under a collapsed building, said Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly.

Those numbers do not include the many rescues carried out across the country by volunteer groups that, frustrated with the government's sluggish response, scrambled to save their trapped loved ones days before the arrival of expert international teams.

The government puts the death toll at over 1,900. Experts say that is a significant undercount as more bodies are hauled from the rubble every day and morgues struggle to handle the influx.

Among the living, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. United Nations agencies expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open or in crowded, unsanitary shelters.

A healthcare system in crisis

The Venezuelan healthcare system, strained by decades of underinvestment and years of economic crisis is “under extreme pressure now, with facilities operating beyond the capacity of the surge of the trauma cases,” said World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier at a media briefing in Geneva.

Venezuelan officials say that more than 15,800 people have been affected by the earthquakes — a figure that reflects the official number of displaced people, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Carlotta Wolf said Tuesday. Newly homeless Venezuelans are sleeping in cars, parks and elsewhere.

Wolf said that number would continue to rise. Many of those displaced in the hardest-hit state of La Guaira are suffering from widespread food shortages, she said.

Without access to toilets, showers or soap, displaced Venezuelans have also become increasingly vulnerable to the outbreak of preventable diseases like measles, given the population’s low vaccination rates, Lindmeier said, adding that conditions are ripe for waterborne infections such as dengue, yellow fever and malaria to spread.

According to the government, last week's earthquakes damaged or otherwise compromised 38 hospitals nationwide. WHO said it so far has evaluated 21 of those facilities, three of which are no longer operating. Another six have sustained damage and the rest are now buckling under the influx of injuries.

Many specialist doctors are missing in the ruins, including officials in charge of maternity care in La Guaira, WHO said, compounding the challenges to health care in a country that 8 million people, including many doctors and nurses, have fled in recent years.

“Findings reveal chaotic service delivery and patient flow, marked by overcrowding, growing surgical backlogs ... and a breakdown in biosafety measures,” Lindmeier said.

A struggle to grasp the true toll

With the government tight-lipped about victims and survivors and offering no official count of missing people, ordinary Venezuelans are struggling to find relatives. Many have turned to WhatsApp groups and nongovernmental digital databases to report their loved ones as missing. One such registry listed at least 43,220 people as missing.

In his daily televised casualty update, Jorge Rodríguez, brother of interim President Delcy Rodríguez, said that the official toll stood at 1,943 people killed and 10,571 injured as of Tuesday, urging the public to share only government information.

But his numbers left thousands of Venezuelans unaccounted for. He said the government estimated there were around 30,000 people in the hardest-hit parts of La Guaira state at the time of the earthquake, and that around 20,000 of them managed to escape the area or were later rescued.

NASA estimates that nearly 59,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes, which would put the number of people affected by the quakes in the hundreds of thousands. The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, on Tuesday said 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance nationwide.

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano and Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, and Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

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

In a release, FWC officials said that the attack happened on Sunday in the Little Big Econ State Forest, along the Econlockhatchee River near the Barr Street Trailhead.

At the time, the woman — Brittany Clark, 31, of Orlando — was swimming in the river with friends when she was bitten by an alligator, resulting in serious injuries, FWC officials added.

[RELATED: Boyfriend, best friend witnessed deadly alligator encounter in Florida, FWC says]

“The victim’s friends assisted her to shore and called 911,” the release reads. “First responders transported the victim to an area hospital for treatment; she later died as a result of her injuries.”

After the attack, a trapper was called in to catch the offending alligator, the release states.

The FWC noted that two alligators were found: a 13-foot alligator at the incident location, and a 12.5-foot alligator located around half a mile away. Both were caught and killed.

Meanwhile, officials also said that samples were collected from the alligators, and the investigation remains active.

[RELATED: Woman killed by alligator in Seminole County, FWC says]

“The FWC extends its deepest sympathies to the victim’s family and loved ones,” the release continues. “Our thoughts are with you during this difficult time.”

Anyone with concerns about an alligator is urged to contact the FWC’s toll-free Nuisance Alligator Hotline at (866) 392-4286.

A mere 16 years after his first famed “decision” — the one that saw him leave Cleveland for Miami — James is getting ready to change uniforms once again. He has told the Lakers that his eight-year run with them is over and that he'll play a record-extending 24th NBA season elsewhere.

James has made clear many times in recent years that more championships are his motivation, which means it's almost certain he'll pick a team that he believes can contend for an NBA title in 2027. Golden State is believed to be on his list, though there are certainly some who will wonder if reunions with Cleveland and Miami are possible. Or, perhaps, a new landing spot awaits such as San Antonio, where he could partner with 7-foot-4 global megastar Victor Wembanyama.

“I’ve done it all. I’ve seen it all,” James said when the Lakers' season ended in May — after what was his last game with the franchise. “Just being able to compete and trying to win championships, I think that’s a motivating factor.”

The first half of his decision is complete: He's back for at least one more year, which means his family agreed to that part of the plan — James had said his wife Savannah and 12-year-old daughter Zhuri would have big says in whether or not he continued to play.

His next decision — where to play — is among the biggest dominoes that will fall during the NBA's offseason player movement window, alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo being traded by Milwaukee to Miami.

The Lakers released a statement Tuesday thanking James for his eight seasons with the club.

“LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes in history,” said Jeanie Buss, part of the Lakers’ ownership group. “We will always be thankful for his eight years with the Lakers, including the title he led us to in 2020 under the toughest imaginable circumstances, and the countless records he broke in purple and gold. We wish him all the best in the future, both on the court and off. He will always be a cherished part of the Lakers family.”

ESPN, citing James’ longtime agent and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, first reported James’ plans.

What happens now

James can begin talking officially to new clubs after 6 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, when the league’s free agent period opens. He will not be able to sign with a new team until the league’s offseason moratorium is lifted on July 6.

The momentum toward Golden State seemed to pick up when longtime Warriors forward Draymond Green did not exercise his $27.6 million option for this coming season earlier this week in large part to allow his team flexibility to make other roster moves. It doesn't mean Green won't be back in Golden State — all indications are that he will — but it gives the team options.

“Personally, I’m always willing to work with the team on whatever is best, especially at this point in my career,” Green said on the latest episode of his podcast, which was released Tuesday. “So my decision to opt out was for a few reasons. As you all know, I’ve always taken the approach of working with the organization. I’ve been in one place for 14 years. It’s more of a family to me than anything.”

Golden State is a franchise James faced four times with Cleveland in the NBA Finals. He also has close relationships with Green, Stephen Curry and Warriors coach Steve Kerr; Curry was his teammate and Kerr was his coach for USA Basketball's run to the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games.

James spent eight seasons with the Lakers, the longest he spent in one stint with one NBA team and led them to the 2020 NBA championship. He became the NBA’s all-time points leader while wearing a Lakers uniform and surpassed a slew of other records while in purple and gold.

He spent the first seven years of his career in Cleveland, then left for four years in Miami where he won the first two of his four championships. That was followed by another four-year stint with the Cavaliers (so he had 11 years there total), and in 2018 he joined the Lakers.

A career like none other

James is the NBA’s oldest active player; he turns 42 in December. He was the first player in league history to log 23 seasons; he’ll add at least one more to that this season. He also became the first player in the league to have a son as a teammate, with Bronny James playing alongside him with the Lakers.

The list of James’ accolades to this point are beyond comparison.

He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was part of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team. He’s coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game, and for his career, he’s averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.

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He noted that the newly unveiled reforms were neither mentioned nor discussed in earlier talks between the two nations.

“The recently announced (measures) are a matter of total and absolute sovereignty,” Rodriguez said. “We have neither listened to nor are we interested in the U.S. government’s opinion on them.”

But he said it was striking that they “were met with a new package of unilateral coercive measures ... against Cuba.”

Earlier this month, the U.S. slapped new sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz Canel and other officials, as well as on companies key to the island’s crumbling economy.

Some of the sanctions were announced after Cuba’s Communist Party and the National Assembly of People’s Power approved 176 economic measures representing the biggest economic shift since the revolution. They align with some of the demands made by the United States, which is pressuring for a change in Cuba’s political and economic model.

The reforms include more space for private businesses, free hiring of personnel and authorization for private banks and investment by Cubans abroad.

Rodriguez added that while the conduct of U.S. government officials was “generally respectful” during earlier talks, he said it is accompanied by “constant aggressive statements against Cuba, threats of military aggression, and the imposition of additional coercive measures.”

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rodríguez made the statements during a press conference in which he announced a July 7 debate at the U.N. General Assembly on the energy embargo imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in late January.

“The blockade and the policy of aggression and hostility of the United States government against Cuba are a threat to the existence and well-being of the Cuban people, and to the exercise of their human rights,” Rodríguez said.

He also denied that Cuba is a threat to the U.S., which he called “a major military and nuclear power.”

The oil blockade has further paralyzed Cuba’s economy, leading to prolonged blackouts, fuel rationing, internet outages, and the suspension of public transportation and flight cancellations. Basic services such as garbage collection and water delivery have been suspended, and workdays have been reduced.

The article was written by NPR’s veteran Supreme Court reporter, Nina Totenberg, who planned to address the issue on air later in the day, the news organization said.

An editor's note posted by some NPR affiliates said: “Earlier today, we erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. Neither Alito nor the court’s public information office has announced his retirement, and we have retracted the story.”

Later, a statement from Editor-in-Chief Tommy Evans said NPR regretted the error and the confusion it may have caused.

“Due to a misunderstanding, NPR’s Supreme Court and Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg incorrectly reported that Justice Samuel Alito had retired. Neither Justice Alito nor the Supreme Court Public Information Office has announced his retirement,” Evans said.

“As soon as the error was realized, the story was retracted and removed from NPR’s website and an on-air correction was broadcast. We regret the error and any confusion this may have caused,” Evans said.

He added that Totenberg would address the issue on Tuesday’s edition of “All Things Considered,” and that she had reached out to Alito to apologize.

NPR had pulled the story after the Supreme Court’s public information office denied the report earlier Tuesday.

On a busy day for the court. Chief Justice John Roberts had announced the retirement of several court employees, as he customarily does after the court’s final opinions are out. But Alito's name was not among them.

Speculation had swirled about the justice’s future plans earlier this year, but Fox News and CBS reported this spring that he planned to remain on the bench.

Alito has been on the court since 2006, when he replaced Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He was nominated by President George W. Bush, a Republican.

A new AP-NORC poll shows Republicans and older, white adults are especially likely to say they fly the American flag, while younger Democrats and Black adults are more likely to say they don’t fly it, reflecting deeply divided views on what patriotism means.

And on this final day of a Supreme Court term centering on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power, the justices have upheld the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump's effort to deny the right to the children of noncitizen parents. Follow live updates on the rulings.

Here's the Latest:

Lacking tough rules, federal officials seek voluntary enforcement on cyberscams

The AP found no evidence to suggest these companies were doing anything illegal. However, the patterns of abuse AP identified raise questions about how vigorously they are enforcing their own terms of service, which prohibit illegal activity.

Some other countries have new laws imposing financial penalties if companies don’t do more to protect consumers from scams. In Washington, lawmakers and government officials have been asking American tech companies to cooperate on a voluntary basis to cut scammers off from U.S. infrastructure.

AP/‘FRONTLINE’ investigation shows how US tech is abused for global scams

The technology of American companies is being used to power a revolution in the cyberscam industry, playing key roles in the industrialization and globalization of fraud in ways that have not been clear until now, an AP/“FRONTLINE” investigation has found.

Most public scrutiny of the technology that fuels scams has focused on the social media that platforms victims see, but the infrastructure exploited to commit fraud begins much farther upstream, the investigation showed.

Watchdogs say satellite internet, AI and internet infrastructure companies along the digital supply chains that fraudsters abuse have the technical capacity to do more to protect consumers but lack the legal, regulatory and business incentives to crack down on a crime the Federal Trade Commission estimates cost Americans nearly $200 billion in 2024.

Court will consider striking down assault weapons bans in Connecticut and the Chicago area

A Supreme Court that has expanded gun rights will consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles, often called assault weapons, violate the Second Amendment.

The justices said Tuesday they will take up appeals asking the court to strike down bans on the AR-15 and similar semiautomatic firearms in the Chicago area and Connecticut.

Similar laws are in place in about a dozen states, covering major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Congress allowed a national assault weapons ban to expire in 2004, but Democrats have supported renewing it in response to a series of mass shootings and states have continued to pass their own laws.

The case is expected to be heard in the fall.

Republican Tom Kean Jr. said he was treated for depression during absence from Congress

New Jersey Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. revealed Tuesday that he spent months away from Congress being treated for depression.

“It is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be,” he said on the House floor.

Kean, whose battleground district includes Trump’s Bedminster golf club, missed more than 100 votes in Congress this year. His reappearance comes after he won an uncontested primary on June 2.

“Today I stand before you healthier, stronger and excited to return to the work that I love,” Kean said.

Kean’s office has said he’s still running for reelection against Democratic nominee Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot. Democrats have targeted the district as a prime pick-up opportunity.

▶ Read more

Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s proposed limits

The Court ’s ruling released Tuesday upholds a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.

The justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and more recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.

▶ Read more about Tuesday’s Supreme Court rulings

US job monthly openings hold at a surprising 7.6 million despite Iran war shock

May’s job openings were surprisingly strong in the data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing American labor market resilience to the war’s economic shock. Forecasters had expected employers to post just 7 million openings in May.

Rebounding from a miserable 2025, U.S. employers have added nearly 114,000 net jobs a month on average this year, up from just 9,700 in 2025, the weakest outside a recession since 2002.

Because of baby boomer retirements and Trump’s immigration crackdown, fewer people are competing for work, and the United States doesn’t need as many jobs as it used to keep the unemployment rate stable. Economists say the so-called “break-even’’ rate of hiring could be as low as zero jobs a month, down from perhaps 150,000 a year or so ago.

▶ Read more

Supreme Court backs state laws banning transgender girls from sports

The Court ’s conservative majority added to its repeated rulings against transgender Americans by deciding that bans in Idaho and West Virginia don’t violate the Constitution or the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

The ruling seems certain to extend to the dozens of other Republican-led states that have banned female transgender athletes. Left unresolved are lawsuits challenging state laws and regulations in Connecticut, California and elsewhere that permit transgender athletes to compete consistent with their gender identity.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people ages 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

▶ Read more about Tuesday’s Supreme Court rulings

US envoys arrive in Qatar for meetings on Iran, with tensions high over Hormuz

Trump’s special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner plan meetings with mediators about the implementation of an initial deal to end the war in Iran, following more crossfire in the Persian Gulf.

They won’t directly negotiate with Iranian diplomats, instead using mediators as go-betweens, said Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry.

Iran was also sending a delegation to Qatar, but has no plans to meet with the American side at any level, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said. His statement left open the possibility of messages being passed through the Qataris.

▶ Read more

Who flies the American flag for holidays — and who never flies one, according to an AP-NORC poll

American views of “Old Glory” are divided by politics, age and race, according to a new survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration.

Whether people see it as a unifying or divisive symbol tracks with other deep divisions among Americans, who see their country’s history and accomplishments very differently. About 7 in 10 Republicans and about 6 in 10 Americans ages 60 and older fly the flag at least during holidays. About 6 in 10 Democrats and independents, on the other hand, say they “never” fly the U.S. flag. That includes the vast majority, 75%, of Democrats under 45.

Only about 3 in 10 Black adults say they ever display the American flag, compared with about half of white and Hispanic adults.

The survey of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20.

▶ Read more

What the Supreme Court’s Cook ruling means for Federal Reserve independence

The Supreme Court on Monday said the Federal Reserve, unlike any other agency in Washington, has a measure of independence from the presidency and day-to-day politics. But the court didn’t define to what extent.

The case is the latest round in an unprecedented fight between the Fed and Trump. More political interference at the Fed could upend financial markets around the world, which closely follow its interest rate moves.

Trump has repeatedly demanded that the central bank cut its key interest rate to lower borrowing costs for homeowners, businesses, and even the government itself. Trump sought to fire a Fed governor, Lisa Cook, last August after accusing her of mortgage fraud — a charge she denies.

In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the president cannot fire the seven members of the Fed’s board of governors without a clear cause. The decision endorses the Fed’s independent structure even as the court eliminated such protections for leaders of other agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, whom the president can fire at-will.

▶ Read more

Trump nominates acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling as permanent chief

Trump said Monday he will nominate Keith Sonderling to be the secretary of labor, elevating him from the agency’s acting director two months after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid abuse-of-power allegations.

Sonderling, a lawyer who has held a variety of acting positions and leadership roles across Trump’s government, was previously the deputy labor secretary and a Republican member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“Throughout his career, Keith has proven his dedication to delivering strong results for the Hardworking People of our Country, and I know he will do an incredible job in his new role,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing Sonderling’s nomination.

Sonderling’s nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.

During Trump’s second term, in addition to his Labor Department post, Sonderling has been the acting director of U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, one of several agencies Trump targeted for closure in an executive order last year.

▶ Read more

The Supreme Court it issue momentous rulings on Trump’s power

The Supreme Court is wrapping up a term that has focused on Trump’s expansive claims of presidential power.

Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, fire the heads of most independent agencies at will and remove a sitting Federal Reserve governor are among the remaining eight cases the justices are expected to decide this week, beginning Monday.

The court also is weighing, in cases from West Virginia and Idaho, whether to uphold laws in roughly half the states that prohibit transgender girls and women from playing on their public school and college sports.

Two election-related cases remain, over state laws that allow a grace period for the receipt of mailed ballots, provided they are sent by Election Day, and limits on political party spending in support of candidates for Congress and president.

Also outstanding is a dispute over geofence warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes. Critics say the practice is a fishing expedition that violates civil liberties.

▶ Read more

The 44-year-old Williams was given a standing ovation Tuesday as she walked onto the grass court where she won seven of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles.

Several supporters held up signs with messages like “Welcome Back” and one wore a T-shirt with the text “Unstoppable Queen.”

Williams’ two daughters, her husband Alexis Ohanian and sister Venus were all in attendance. After a brief warmup under the closed roof, Williams began her first-round match against Maya Joint by returning in the opening game. It is her first singles match since the 2022 U.S. Open after opting to return to the sport she dominated for so long.

After losing that first game, Williams easily held serve for 1-1 with the help of a perfect backhand lob that drew another loud ovation.

Williams’ match was the third and last on Centre Court on Day 2 of the tournament, after defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek and men’s French Open winner Alexander Zverev both won.

But the American's return was the main attraction as she went up against an opponent less than half her age in the 20-year-old Joint.

Her return has certainly created a buzz around the All England Club, which is without some of its usual star power after two-time men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz and home favorite Emma Raducanu both withdrew with injuries.

Williams practiced for about 50 minutes a few hours before her match, with good friend Caroline Wozniacki — another former No. 1 — looking on.

“I’m very excited, it’s always good to have the GOAT back,” Wozniacki told The Associated Press. “She is fun to watch, not only as a friend but also as a tennis fan. Anytime you can have her back and playing, I think it’s exciting for the game.”

After returning to play doubles at Queen’s Club this month, Williams accepted wild cards to play in both the singles and doubles tournament — with Venus — at Wimbledon.

After the opening day featured wins for No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, along with Novak Djokovic, Zverev and Swiatek also made it into the second round.

In a match between hard servers, the second-seeded Zverev beat Alexander Blockx 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (0).

Swiatek, who had her father and sister watching on in the Royal Box on Centre Court, struggled with her serve and committed nine double-faults before overcoming Townsend 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

No. 2 Elena Rybakina also advanced, beating Lois Boisson 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

Fifth-seeded Alex de Minaur and No. 6 Taylor Fritz were among the early winners in the men’s bracket. But No. 4 Ben Shelton, a quarterfinalist here last year, lost to 140th-ranked Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen in five sets, going out 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-6 (9).

Fritz beat Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 on No. 1 Court, having originally been set to face Jack Draper on Centre Court before the British player withdrew with an injury.

Women’s No. 6 Amanda Anisimova also advanced, along with former Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini.

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

Depression, Kean said, “is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it is difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be.”

Kean’s reappearance came weeks after his victory in an uncontested primary on June 2 and months after he last cast his vote in the House. His speech ended the silence on his condition, yet left questions unanswered. Kean said he first entered the hospital due to health concerns and underwent testing, but offered no further details.

After the speech, Kean left the Capitol quickly without answering questions from reporters.

Kean last voted in the House on March 5. His absence had complicated matters for House Republican leaders, who have been struggling to pass bills with their threadbare majority.

Kean said he was diagnosed for depression and that doctors recommended he remain in the hospital. Addressing his earlier statement that he expected to return to work in a matter of weeks, Kean said he believed that at the time and it was his doctors’ best estimate then.

“But as the over 48 million of my fellow Americans being treated for this illness have come to discover there is no timeline for healing," Kean said.

“Today I stand before you healthier, stronger and excited to return to the work that I love."

A second-term lawmaker and scion of a New Jersey political family, Kean represents a battleground district that includes President Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club.

What the House speaker says about Kean’s return

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he would leave it to Kean to decide whether his remarks Tuesday provided sufficient transparency.

“He spoke to it," Johnson said. “It’s his personal issue, and, you know, I thought the speech on the floor was, well, I thought he explained it.”

Johnson said he had “encouraged him all along to be as transparent as possible” and was “glad he finally has” been.

The mystery over Kean's absence had potential political implications, given the competitive district he represents and the Republican Party's narrow control of the House. His office has said he is still running for reelection and is set to face Democratic nominee Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, in New Jersey's most high-profile contest in November.

Democrats have targeted the district as a prime pickup opportunity, given that the seat has changed hands in the last two midterm elections. Kean won in 2022 by defeating Democrat Tom Malinowski, who had defeated Republican Leonard Lance in 2018.

Johnson added Tuesday he is confident Kean would be “easily” reelected in November. Trump has endorsed Kean’s reelection, without mentioning his absence.

Kean comes from a long line of public servants, stretching 250 years to the country’s founding when one of his ancestors became New Jersey’s first leader since independence.

Kean's great-grandfather was a senator, his grandfather was a congressman and his father is the former two-term governor, Tom Kean Sr.

Absent from public view

Lawmakers vary in how transparent they are about extended absences.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history, was hospitalized more than two weeks ago, and his office has released few details about his condition since.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat, checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment for clinical depression weeks after being sworn into office in 2023. Fetterman, who has dealt with the effects of a stroke he suffered in May 2022, disclosed the hospitalization the day after he was admitted.

Fetterman has talked openly about his struggle with depression and urged people to get help.

“There are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties," Fetterman said in 2023 after a six-week inpatient treatment. “If you need help, please get help,.”

Kean and House Republican leaders kept the public in the dark about his condition for months. He missed more than 100 House votes this year and was not seen publicly in Washington or his district.

New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat who has spoken openly about living with depression, wrote on social media after Kean's remarks that he has “deep sympathy for anyone struggling with mental illness.”

“At the same time, public office carries a duty of transparency," Torres wrote. “When a public official is absent for an extended period, the public has a right to an honest explanation.”

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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

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Prodded by a Republican-led lawsuit that includes Vice President JD Vance, the court's six conservative justices were again in the majority of the latest decision that upended congressionally enacted limits on raising and spending money to influence elections. The court’s 2010 Citizens United decision opened the door to unlimited independent spending in federal elections.

The limits on party spending stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the money will be spent on behalf of the candidate.

The Supreme Court had previously upheld the limits, in 2001.

But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the court, said that decision was wrong and should be overruled. “In short, constitutional text, history and precedent establish that the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits violate the First Amendment,” Kavanaugh wrote.

Justice Elena Kagan's dissent for the three liberal justices said the court “ushers in untold harm” by enabling parties to funnel large contributions to individual candidates, far in excess of what donors can give those candidates directly.

National parties now will be able to make direct contributions to candidates’ campaigns,

The decision is likely to give Republicans at least a short-term boost because they maintain a sizable cash advantage over Democrats.

The Republican National Committee and its Senate and House campaign fundraising arms have dwarfed Democrats’ in the months before congressional elections where the GOP is defending narrow majorities in both houses.

At the end of May, the RNC reported having more than $125 million to spend, its highest-ever cash on hand total, according to its most recent Federal Election Commission filing in May. Meanwhile, the National Republican Senatorial Committee had more than $48 million on hand in its most recent report and the National Republican Congressional Committee had more than $81 million.

In the same period, the Democratic National Committee had $14.4 million on hand, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had roughly $37 million and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, roughly $73 million.

The Republican committees for House and Senate candidates filed the lawsuit in Ohio in 2022, joined by Vance, then a senator from Ohio, and then-Rep. Steve Chabot.

After President Donald Trump took office for his second term, the Federal Election Commission dropped its defense of the law and joined with Republicans in urging that it be overturned.

Democrats had called on the court to uphold the law, even though there is wide agreement that the spending limits have hurt political parties in an era of unlimited spending by other organizations.

Last year, the coordinated party spending for Senate races ranged from $127,200 in several states with small populations to nearly $4 million in California, the most populous state. For House races, the limits were $127,200 in states with only one representative and $63,600 everywhere else.

Entrenched divisions between liberal and conservative justices over campaign finance restrictions were on display when the court heard arguments in December.

“Every time we interfere with the congressional design, we make matters worse,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a dissenter in Citizens United and the court’s other campaign money cases.

By contrast, Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the Citizens United majority, described the decision as “much maligned, I think unfairly maligned.” The effect of the decision was to ”level the playing field,” Alito said, by expanding the right to spend freely that had previously belonged only to media companies.

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Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

The attack has renewed attention on decades of FWC data tracking one of Florida’s most dangerous wildlife encounters.

“Serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in Florida,” FWC said in an official statement following the incident.

The data, however, tells a nuanced story — one that points to larger animals as the most significant factor in Florida’s deadliest encounters.

500 unprovoked bites recorded since 1948

FWC has tracked unprovoked alligator bites in Florida since 1948. Through February 2026, the agency recorded 500 total unprovoked bites statewide — 346 classified as major, 153 as minor, and 32 confirmed fatal prior to the June 28 incident.

All bites included in the FWC summary are considered unprovoked, defined as attacks by wild alligators not provoked by handling or intentional harassment. Major bites are defined as injuries requiring medical care beyond first aid. Minor bites are defined as superficial injuries requiring no treatment beyond first aid.

Bite totals have risen in recent years

Annual bite totals have fluctuated over the decades, but recent years reflect a notable upward trend as Florida’s human population has grown and recreational use of natural areas has increased.

Florida recorded 23 total unprovoked bites in 2023 — the highest single-year total in more than a decade — including two fatalities. The years 2024 and 2025 each saw additional incidents, with 11 and 13 total bites recorded, respectively.

Two deaths were recorded in 2025 alone: Cynthia Diekema, 61, killed while canoeing on Tiger Creek in Lake Wales in May, and Deborah Herndon, 73, found deceased at a residential pond in Palm Harbor in October.

The 10-year period from 2016 through 2025 produced 116 total unprovoked bites and 10 fatalities — accounting for nearly one-third of all recorded fatal attacks in Florida’s history.

Large gators involved in Florida’s deadliest attacks

Of the 32 confirmed fatal attacks on record prior to June 28, the responsible alligators in cases where size was recorded ranged from 6 feet, 8 inches to 13 feet, 8 inches. The pattern is clear: the larger the alligator, the greater the risk of a fatal outcome.

The largest alligator involved in a previously recorded fatal Florida attack measured 13 feet, 8 inches — a male responsible for the September 2023 death of Sabrina Peckham, 41, found at McKay Creek in Largo. The two alligators captured following the June 28 attack — measuring 13 feet and 12-and-a-half feet — fall at the very top of that historical size range.

Several other fatal attacks involved alligators of 12 feet or more:

• A 12-foot, 4-inch male killed 54-year-old Janie Melsek while she was landscaping near a pond in Sanibel in 2004.
• A 12-foot, 4-inch male killed 47-year-old Shizuka Matzuki while she walked her dogs along a lake in Davie in 2018.
• A 12-foot, 3-inch male killed 20-year-old Michelle Reeves while she was swimming in a retention pond in Lee County in 2004.
• A 12-foot, 2-inch male killed 41-year-old Kevin Murray while he was swimming in a canal in Port Charlotte in 2005.

Not every fatal attack has involved a record-sized animal, however. A 6-foot, 8-inch alligator was responsible for the October 2025 death of 73-year-old Deborah Herndon at a residential pond in Palm Harbor. A 6-foot, 6-inch male killed 2-year-old Alexandria Murphy at Lake Cannon in Polk County in 2001. Even a 7-foot male was responsible for the 1977 death of George Leonard in Charlotte County after Leonard was bitten while swimming in the Peace River Canal.

FWC urges caution in all Florida freshwater bodies

FWC Lt. Grant Eller offered a straightforward advisory for anyone near Florida’s waterways following the June 28 incident.

“All freshwater bodies in the state of Florida do contain alligators — just use caution when swimming in freshwater,” Eller said.

FWC Public Information Officer Chad Weber echoed that message, noting the risk is statewide — not confined to any single location.

“In the state of Florida, we have alligators in all 67 counties — every body of water could potentially have an alligator in it,” Weber said.

FWC administers the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program to address complaints about alligators believed to pose a threat to people, pets or property. Anyone with concerns about a specific alligator can call the Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 1-866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286), and a contracted trapper will be dispatched to resolve the situation.

The Panthers sent Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and the rights to pending restricted free agent Ben Steeves to the Devils for Markstrom and winger Angus Crookshank. Florida got goalie Akira Schmid from Vegas on Monday night for a 2028 third-round pick.

“Jacob is an established veteran leader in this league who possesses size and a relentless drive to win,” Panthers general manager Bill Zito said. “We are excited for him to compete alongside our established group and return to South Florida.”

Markstrom at 36 returns to Florida, where he started his NHL career a decade and a half ago. He was one of the top prospects at the position after getting taken with the 34th pick in the 2008 draft and played his first 43 games in the league with the Panthers during their down years, long before becoming a contender again.

Bobrovsky, 37, backstopped Florida to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2024 and ’25 and another trip to the final in ’23. He is expected to be among the top players available when free agency opens Wednesday.

Markstrom is beginning a two-year contract at an annual salary cap hit of $6 million. That was signed in late October by former Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald, who left the organization in April. Moving on from him is the first big roster shakeup for successor Sunny Mehta. New Jersey now has Jake Allen in net and will likely go shopping for his tandem mate in free agency.

Rodrigues, who turns 33 on July 28, gives the Devils another top-nine forward. The Panthers shed his salary of just over $3 million after getting Brady Tkachuk from Ottawa to play with brother Matthew.

In other moves around the NHL:

— The St. Louis Blues put winger Jonathan Drouin on unconditional waivers to buy out the final season of his contract. They got Drouin at the trade deadline from the New York Islanders as part of the return for Brayden Schenn.

— Utah signed goalie Sebastian Cossa to a two-year, $4 million contract after trading a first-round pick to Detroit for his rights.

— Fresh off winning the Cup, Carolina reacquired defenseman Kyle Masters' rights from Anaheim for forward Noah Philp. The Hurricanes sent Masters to the Ducks on Saturday along with a sixth-round pick for the rights to pending free agent John Carlson.

— Vegas, which lost to Carolina in the final, made a one-for-one defenseman swap with Pittsburgh, sending Kaedan Korczak to the Penguins for Parker Wotherspoon. Pittsburgh is retaining half of Wotherspoon's $1 million salary in a cap-saving deal for the Golden Knights.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

The S&P 500 rose 0.8%, though it's still heading for its first losing month following two fabulous ones. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 140 points, or 0.3%, as of 2:20 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% higher.

The main reason for this month’s weakness has been a fall to Earth for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry. After soaring to tremendous heights in the frenzy around AI, such stocks have come under pressure because of worries that they shot too high. That’s a big deal for all investors because AI stocks have grown into some of Wall Street’s largest and most influential, pulling indexes behind them.

AI stocks were stronger Tuesday, with Nvidia rising 2% to trim its loss for the month. It was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500.

Microsoft, which is investing heavily in AI, rose 0.6% to bring its loss for the month back below 18%. Oracle, though, fell 0.8% to bring its drop for June to 35%. It's another company contending with concerns that big spending on AI may not yield enough productivity and profits to make it worth it.

Outside of AI, the economy seems to be rumbling along, even though U.S. households are still feeling sour about it. A report released in the morning said that U.S. employers were advertising many more job openings at the end of May than economists expected, the latest signal that the job market remains resilient.

But a second report said that confidence among U.S. consumers improved by less than economists expected. More Americans are saying it's hard to get a job, according to a survey by the Conference Board, even with data suggesting continued hiring.

Tuesday's relatively quiet trading came as companies close their books for the quarter running from April through June. Investors want to see strong growth in profits to justify the big gains stocks made early in the quarter. Despite June’s drop, the S&P 500 is still on track for its best quarter since six years ago, when stocks rocketed out of the crash caused by the COVID pandemic.

Concentrix tumbled 13.1% after the technology company reported profit and revenue for the latest quarter that were just shy of analysts’ expectations.

In the oil market, prices drifted as two U.S. envoys arrived in Qatar for talks with mediators about the implementation of an initial deal to end the war in Iran. The Americans will not be having direct negotiations with Iranian diplomats while in Doha.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, erased an early, modest rise and fell 1.1% to $73.12. The hope is that an end to the war will restore full access to the Strait of Hormuz, allowing oil tankers to move more crude and lower its price.

Expensive oil has already sent inflation jumping around the world, which in turn has raised worries that the Federal Reserve and other central banks may have to raise interest rates. Higher rates would keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow economic growth and hurt prices for investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.41% from 4.38% late Monday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

Germany’s DAX returned 1.5%, and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1% for two of the world's bigger gains.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.9% as the value of the Japanese yen dropped near its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in 40 years.

U.S. government bonds are paying much higher yields than their Japanese counterparts, and the possibility of rate hikes by the Fed is putting more pressure on the yen. Speculation is rising that Japan’s government may try to prop up the yen’s value, but Japan’s finance minister said only that the government was ready to “respond appropriately whenever necessary.”

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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

“Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” the l atest book on the Trump presidency, written by political journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, has sold more than 300,000 copies in its opening week, according to publisher Simon & Schuster.

They’re the kind of sales that numerous works about Trump reached during his first term, but had been rare during his second term. Publishers had speculated that the public had tired of Trump books, believing there was little left to know.

The total figures include preorders, print book sales, ebooks, and e-audiobooks and orders that have yet to be fulfilled because of demand, the publishing house said. Simon & Schuster said the book is into its third hard copy printing, with 200,000 copies on order, after it sold out quickly in bookstores and on Amazon. It's the best first-week clip of any hardcover nonfiction book in 2026.

The book covers the first 14 months of Trump's second presidency and takes readers inside the West Wing, White House residence and Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, aboard Air Force One and on foreign trips with the president.

Trump, who has a long history with Haberman from her days covering him as a New York City business and society figure, has trashed the book as “mostly made up.” Haberman and Swan are now New York Times reporters.

Their manuscript depicts meticulous details of Trump's military decisions, how he's wielded the power of the Justice Department against his political opponents, his conversations with other power players, and the time and attention he's devoted to remaking the aesthetics and structure of the White House.

The book spells out a thesis that Trump himself believes: Had he not lost the 2020 election, he would not be as powerful in his second term as he is now — emboldening him to trample norms, dismantle established institutions and push the limits of presidential power.

Haberman and Swan have been featured regularly across news talk shows promoting the book and sharing details of their reporting, including a sit-down with Trump in which he boasted about being compared to some of history's great villains.

Sean Manning, vice president and publisher at Simon & Schuster, said the book “has entered the national conversation” and will hold up as “a work of historic importance.”

Minetree, said “Elle” executive producer Lauren Neustadter, “actually recreated her own version of the Harvard admission video featured in the 2001 movie that starred Reese Witherspoon, "and she hit it out of the park.”

The preparation to play Elle in the series debuting on Wednesday, didn't stop there. Minetree says she watched “Legally Blonde” about “200 times at this point,” studying Witherspoon's performance, but steering clear of an outright impression of the Oscar winner.

“Reese brought her essence to the character,” Minetree said. “And that is something that no one could ever replicate. It would be a disservice if I tried to do that, so I tried to bring the parts of myself that I thought were reflected in Elle."

A fish out of water

In “Legally Blonde,” we met Elle as a sorority girl who applies to Harvard Law School, gets accepted, and is a star in her class.

“When I read the script it reminded me a lot of old Goldie Hawn movies, or ‘Working Girl,’ Witherspoon told The AP in 2001. “You think this girl is certainly not very smart because of the way she speaks and the way she looks, and then she just turns the tables on everybody and becomes smarter than everyone, and I just love that.”

Like the film, “Elle” underscores that people don’t have to sacrifice their true selves in order to achieve success.

How we meet Minetree's Elle is at her blowout 16th birthday party, shortly before her parents (played by Tom Everett Scott and June Diane Raphael) break the news that they're all moving to Seattle.

The students at her new school are less than friendly and shun Elle's sunny disposition and pink attire. This is Seattle in 1995 and both grunge music and its culture are everything. Even the cheerleaders wear flannel. It takes time for the student's to warm up to their new classmate, whose ice breaker is “I like iced coffee, the month of July and when people dress kind of tennis-y even if they don't play tennis.”

“Such an integral part of the ‘Legally Blonde' IP is not judging a book by its cover," said Chandler Kinney, who plays Kimberly, one of Elle's schoolmates who is particularly judgy — at first.

The lasting influence of ‘Legally Blonde’

The time seemed right to explore more of Elle's story when Witherspoon noticed the pressures young women feel to live up to unrealistic standards curated online. Studies have linked social media to mental health issues among teens.

Witherspoon “really saw what was happening to young women," said Neustadter of Witherspoon's desire to explore the character as a young woman. "She felt like this was the right moment to give Elle to the next generation.”

"Elle reminds us that we should feel good about being ourselves, feel proud of who we are and to be kind and good to others. It feels like a good reminder for this moment in time.”

Telling an origin story of this character just makes sense, Raphael said. We've seen prequels about all kinds of male characters — but “we rarely get to do that with the iconic female characters that we love," she said.

A surprise cast member

— James Van Der Beek

Viewers will recognize a familiar face in the first season of “Elle.” James Van Der Beek, who died in February after a diagnosis of bowel cancer, plays Dean Wilson, superintendent of Elle's new school and a mayoral candidate.

Raphael had the most scenes with Van Der Beek and says it was an honor to share scenes with him.

”It’s so special to me," she said. "His work on the show is so lovely, and he is such a lovely person. I’d never met him before, and I was so excited to work with him. I was really blown away by his charm and his charisma and mainly his ease."

More ‘Elle’ is coming

Season 2 of “Elle” wrapped filming earlier this month, and Minetree is happy viewers won't have to wait long to see a continuation to the story.

“Honestly, Season 2, it’s so good," Minetree said. “Season 1 is amazing, but season 2 might be better.”

There are also plans to make a third “Legally Blonde” film starring Witherspoon.

“Absolutely, we’re on it,” Neustadter said. "Don’t you worry. We’re in the kitchen we’re cooking something up.”

The National Weather Service was blunt: Conditions were “dangerous” as the heat index, a combination of air temperature and humidity, exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in some areas. It warned about a risk for heat-related illnesses, especially among people without air conditioning.

Detroit's air temperature was in the high 90s, the Weather Service said, and could even reach 100 at some point through Thursday. The city said a dozen recreation centers were open, some until 11 p.m., for people to cool off. Big chunks of Michigan, as well as Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and much of Iowa, were under an extreme heat warning.

The Northeast, including New York City and Boston, will next feel major heat through the Fourth of July holiday. Norristown, Pennsylvania, 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Philadelphia, canceled a Saturday parade because of the weather.

The Chicago History Museum offered free admission to state residents who wanted a cool space Tuesday. Roads in a few places in Illinois buckled under the heat. When the surface has no room to expand in the heat, it can rise and crack.

At 9:15 a.m., window washer Stephen Mason, 72, was wiping mayflies off glass at a Detroit convenience store. He got an early start to avoid the worst conditions of the day, but it was already 85 (29.4 C).

“It's the only way to beat it. But it's already starting to cook out here,” Mason said.

Adam Schubatis, 36, a runner who was shirtless in Detroit's Indian Village neighborhood, said he was cutting his route to 6 miles (9.6 kilometers).

“I know where all the drinking fountains are,” he said. “My wife thought I was crazy. She offered to pick me up if I got tired or if there was anything I was doing that wasn't safe.”

In Milwaukee, more than 100 firefighters spent hours controlling a fire at a school in the extreme heat. Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said crews were rotating and shedding their thick coats while they rehydrated.

George Liller, 64, was a hero in Grosse Pointe Park, a Detroit suburb. He added air conditioning to his home, so he offered a window unit for free on Facebook — extension cord and remote control included.

“It was probably on my porch maybe 15 minutes,” Liller said. “That air conditioner was given to me. I thought, ‘Somebody needs it.’ I know how it feels to be in an old house when it’s this hot.”

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Associated Press reporters Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed.

The board is proposing paying cash and offering the issuance of new bonds to bondholders that have not settled and are seeking some $8.5 billion in claims.

The proposed settlement represents $1.4 billion more than previously offered.

Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority has been trying to restructure its debt for roughly a decade, after the U.S. territory announced in 2015 that it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion debt load. That prompted U.S. Congress to create the federal board in 2016. A year later, Puerto Rico’s government filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Since then, the board and bondholders of the power company's debt have been at odds over compensation, with multiple mediation attempts failing.

“Puerto Rico must be able to close this last chapter of its fiscal crisis and move forward,” said Robert F. Mujica Jr., the board’s executive director.

He stressed that restructuring the company’s debt “is essential to Puerto Rico’s recovery — to the reliable, affordable electricity and the new investment its residents and businesses deserve.”

The board said it has not yet identified the source to finance the proposed settlement.

Some worry that the source of funds could come from an increase in power bills, which already are among the highest in any U.S. jurisdiction as chronic outages persist.

The board noted that previous agreements reached with several creditors and some bondholders in the power company’s case remain in place.

The board said that overall, it has completed 12 debt restructurings for Puerto Rico’s government, eliminating more than $55 billion in debt payments over 40 years.

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

The players return to a homeland still in the grips of an unresolved conflict with Israel and the United States. But their fans say they should be proud.

“I think even though they lost, it gave people a sense of hope,” said Mohammad Modarres, 38, who traveled from San Diego to bid the team farewell.

Heartbreak over missed chances

After its three group stage matches ended in draws, Iran's World Cup future depended on either Algeria or Austria winning their match on Saturday.

Watching from the lobby of their Tijuana hotel, the team erupted in celebration when Algeria took the lead in stoppage time.

“I've never seen a room explode like that,” said Kimia Ranjbar, 25, a lifelong fan of Team Melli who had driven down from the Los Angeles area. But minutes later, Austria tied the game again, leaving the lobby in dismayed silence.

It was the last of many disappointments throughout the tournament, including when a late goal by Shoja Khalilzadeh gave Iran the lead in its last match, against Egypt, before being ruled offside.

Facing challenging circumstances

Distractions abounded off the pitch before and during the tournament, beginning with questions over whether Team Melli would even be allowed to play in light of Iran's war with the U.S. and Israel. What followed was Iran's denied request to move its matches to Mexico, a relocation of its base camp from Arizona, and the U.S.'s refusal to grant visas to key members of the Iranian team's staff. The U.S. also rejected Iran's request to travel to the U.S. two days before its Los Angeles matches, though it relaxed some restrictions for Iran's last match.

During a World Cup security briefing Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters that the U.S. had made several accommodations for Iran's travel and repeated assertions that many of the people Iran originally requested to travel with the team to the U.S. were associated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

“I'm just glad they're done and they're not coming back," Mullin said, adding that he “might have sung a song or two or maybe even danced a happy dance.”

FIFA did not respond to request for comment.

In a statement to The Associated Press on Monday, the Iranian team said Mullin's remarks showed a lack of commitment to international law and the basic standards expected to host a global tournament.

“The fact that he openly celebrates Iran’s elimination says far more about him than it does about our team. It reflects a level of pettiness that cannot even tolerate the presence of a football team competing on the world’s biggest stage,” said the team, which declined requests to interview players and staff.

Before decamping Tuesday, the team thanked Mexico and Tijuana for their “kindness” but questioned its treatment at the tournament by the U.S.

“What we experienced was a series of decisions, logistical arrangements, and circumstances that undermined the sense of fairness — an impression only reinforced by the events of the final matchday of our group,” the team said in a statement.

Members of the Iranian diaspora were also divided about whether supporting the team showed tacit backing for Iran's theocratic government, which many of them oppose. Some wanted to keep politics and sports separate.

“You don't see someone screaming at (U.S. soccer star) Christian Pulisic for something Trump does,” Modarres said.

Though the team spoke out against its travel restrictions, it avoided commenting directly on the war. But it didn't shy away from spotlighting the victims of a deadly missile strike on an elementary school at the start of the conflict.

Players wore pins with the number “168” when they first landed in Mexico, referencing the number of people, mostly children, killed in the attack, which was likely launched by the U.S. They left a note in the locker room at Los Angeles Stadium, calling for peace “among all nations” and with the hashtags #168 and #minab, the school’s name.

Sherry Ghaemi, an Iranian living in Los Angeles, called their stand for the young victims “honorable.”

New friendships are forged

Amid the strife, players tried to focus on the sport. There were high notes, like when goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand made seven saves to hold Belgium to a scoreless draw, and when Ramin Rezaeian scored off the outside of his boot to equalize against New Zealand.

“They’re going home not as losers, they’re going home as winners," said Ghaemi. “We’re proud of them.”

Meeting some of the players was a thrill for Siavash Khosrowshahi, a 32-year-old Iranian American who drove from Los Angeles to Tijuana on Sunday, the day after the team was eliminated.

“It’s been really tough and stressful,” Khosrowshahi said of the months since the U.S. and Israel started the war. There were times during the conflict when he couldn't reach his parents in Tehran — but not Sunday, when he called his mother from the hotel and surprised her by putting Beiranvand on the phone.

“It’s a source of happiness for her,” he said.

Iranians and Mexicans also deepened a bond, as Tijuana embraced the team throughout its visit.

“Irán, hermano, ya eres Mexicano!" fans chanted in Spanish whenever they saw Team Melli: “Iran, brother, now you are Mexican!”

“Iran is taking home the best of our country, and this city, which is the way in which outsiders are received,” said Arely Ramírez, a Tijuana resident who turned up at the team's hotel Sunday hoping to meet some of the players.

The feeling was mutual.

“We’re leaving Tijuana today, but our heart and soul stay here,” head coach Amir Ghalenoei said Tuesday through an interpreter before the Iranian team left for the airport.

On Monday, many players still looked solemn as they passed their last hours in Mexico. A few signed final autographs and stood for photos with fans, their smiles more muted than the week before.

Despite the disappointment, some supporters were already looking ahead. “This whole year has been bad events, bad luck after bad luck” for Iranians, said Ranjbar. But the AFC Asian Cup is six months away, a new chance for Team Melli, she said. “I'll be watching them play for that.”

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Associated Press reporter Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed.

Shelton was eliminated 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (8), 6-2, 7-6 (9) on Tuesday, losing in the first round at the grass-court Grand Slam for the first time in his young career.

The 23-year-old Shelton led 8-5 in the deciding 10-point tiebreaker against his 140th-ranked opponent and had match point at 9-8 but made an unforced error and then lost the next two points.

“I thought I put myself in a great position to win at the end. He came up with the goods,” said Shelton, who reached the quarterfinals last year at the All England Club.

The left-handed American said he “wasn’t getting many free points.”

“The way that he was playing, hitting the ball, it definitely forced my hand. He’s playing aggressive,” Shelton said. "He wasn’t really making any mistakes. Towards the end, any ball I left semi-hanging, he was ripping a winner, especially in that last game before the tiebreak.

“In the tiebreak,” he continued, “I was trying to get to the net as much as I could, try to really rush him and not allow him to swing away from the baseline.”

The 25-year-old Virtanen came through the qualifying tournament and earned the biggest win of his career in eliminating Shelton, who is ranked No. 5.

“I had a great month. I played a lot of grass matches,” Virtanen said in his on-court interview after 4 hours, 21 minutes on No. 2 Court.

He reached the second round in his Wimbledon debut in 2024 and missed last year's tournament.

Shelton said he'll try not to dwell on the defeat.

“I’m usually the type of person that gets back on the court or in the gym the next day. This is definitely one of the toughest losses of my career, coming here at Wimbledon. First time I’ve lost in the first round here,” he said. “I didn’t even think I played a poor match today. Things just didn’t go my way. ... I’ll be right back on the practice courts in a couple days.”

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

Participants, ages 14–17, took part in a full CPR certification course designed to prepare them to respond to cardiac arrest emergencies and provide lifesaving care before first responders arrive.

The multi-hour course covered chest compressions, rescue breaths, and proper use of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) for both adults and infants.

“It’s been very fun, very fun. Very exhausting,” 15-year-old Olivia Thomas told News 6.

“It’s good to practice, it’s good to keep practicing every chance you get.”

The course is conducted through the city’s Take Heart Orlando program, which offers free hands-only CPR training to all city residents and certified CPR courses at a discounted rate.

Every minute without CPR decreases a cardiac arrest patient’s chance of survival by 10%. On average, first responders arrive on scene within four to six minutes, reducing a patient’s survival rate to between 40% and 60% without bystander CPR.

“If we get more people hands-only CPR or learn CPR in general, that would make for a safer city,” Orlando Fire Department Public Information Officer Jesse Canales said.

Beyond CPR, Teen Academy students will receive Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, including participation in a mock disaster scenario where they can apply the skills they’ve learned.

CERT members are trained in disaster response techniques including light search and rescue, fire safety, basic first aid, CPR, and Stop the Bleed.

After finishing the course, participants received CPR certification valid for two years.

“It’s great because you never know what can happen. It could be you and your friends somewhere, it could be you and a whole group of people, and you’re the only one who knows CPR, so it’s good to be certified and know how to save someone’s life,” Thomas said.

From dazzling fireworks to drone shows and deep discounts, there’s no shortage of ways to celebrate liberty in style.

Below is a round-up of what you can expect.

Walt Disney World

Celebrating America at The Most Magical Place on Earth makes a day at Walt Disney World all the more memorable, as the resort is known for its decorations, experiences, and cuisine.

• Dazzling fireworks: Red, white, blue and more brightly-colored fireworks will light up the night sky over the Magic Kingdom. “Disney’s Celebrate America! A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky” will take place on July 3, 4 and 5 at 9:20 p.m. At EPCOT, “The Heartbeat of Freedom” will follow Luminous: The Symphony of Us” on July 3, 4, and 5.
• The Flag Retreat: Every day at 5 p.m. in Magic Kingdom’s Town Square, a ceremony retires the American flag for the night in a tribute to U.S. veterans. The gratitude among cast members and guests is all the more appreciative on a day when freedom rings loudly.
• Hall of Presidents: The newly updated attraction includes a President Donald Trump animatronic front and center.
• Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress: It’s the “hottest Fourth of July we’ve had in years” — and your last chance to see Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress in its current form before it closes July 6 for a major makeover.
• Soarin’ Across America: EPCOT’s flight simulator attraction takes guests on a limited-time coast-to-coast journey, featuring famous landmarks and breathtaking landscape views.
• Voices of Liberty Harmonies at EPCOT: The legendary a cappella vocal group will perform patriotic numbers throughout the day in the rotunda of The American Adventure.
• Spaceship Earth: Red, white, and blue lights will envelop EPCOT’s flagship attraction.

• Special photo ops: Mickey, Donald Duck, and Goofy don their “Spirit of ‘76″ attire, something that only happens on July 4.
• “Portraits of Courage:” The special exhibit from the George W. Bush Institute has been extended through July 4, 2026, at The American Adventure. The exhibit features 60 oil paintings of service members and veterans who have served in military uniform with honor since 9/11.

Universal Orlando Resort

For Independence Day, Universal Orlando guests can enjoy character meet-and-greets, a DJ, and pyrotechnics, while Universal CityWalk offers live music and entertainment to keep the party going.

This time of year, the Universal Movie Magic Parade comes with a patriotic twist. The Amity 4th of July Celebration float, inspired by “Jaws,” makes an appearance, complete with the iconic shark and energetic performers dressed in red, white, and blue marching band uniforms.

SeaWorld Orlando

SeaWorld Orlando is honoring America’s 250th birthday with big savings and a packed lineup of patriotic festivities.

• Fourth of July sale: Guests can save up to 55% on tickets, Fun Cards and Annual Passes for a limited time.
• July 4 celebration: SeaWorld Orlando hosts a family-friendly Fourth of July Celebration featuring a patriotic fireworks display and drone show.
• Red, White & BBQ: Starting July 4 and running through Aug. 23, guests can enjoy regional barbecue, live music and patriotic entertainment.

Legoland Florida

Legoland Florida Resort is celebrating July 4 with extended park hours, a DJ dance party, character meet-and-greets, and its biggest Red, White & BOOM! — a 12-minute fire show over Lake Eloise featuring special glasses that transform bursts into LEGO brick shapes.

For families looking to elevate the experience, a VIP Fireworks Seating Package is available for $30 plus tax per guest, in addition to park admission.

[WATCH: FIFA World Cup celebration kicks off at Legoland Florida]

Fun Spot America

Fun Spot America is ringing in the nation’s 250th birthday with a fireworks spectacular at its Orlando and Kissimmee locations on July 4, starting at 9:30 p.m. The Kissimmee park is also partnering with Old Town Kissimmee for the show.

Gatorland

While Gatorland isn’t hosting specific Independence Day celebrations this year, Uncle Sam will be on hand.

The massive, 10-foot, 700-pound alligator was rescued from The Villages during Fourth of July weekend last year, which inspired its name.

Dezerland Park

Dezerland Park will host Military Appreciation Days July 3-5 as a tribute to active-duty military personnel, veterans, and their families.

During the three-day event, military personnel will receive one complimentary Auto Museum ticket. Service members also have the opportunity to purchase up to four additional Auto Museum tickets at 50% off.

ICON Park

Blue Man Group is marking America’s 250th birthday with a special ticket offer — guests can save 50% on every second ticket for select performances through July 31.

The deal is valid on all non-Saturday shows and must be purchased online by July 5 at midnight.

Old Town

Old Town Entertainment District’s 7th Annual All-American Fourth of July Celebration offers families a full day of free festivities, including a classic car show, live music, the iconic Saturday Night Classic Car Cruise, and a patriotic fireworks spectacular presented with Fun Spot America.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on two Mexican men and nine companies involved in transportation, financial services and real estate, accused of being tied to a cartel-linked fuel theft ring intended to evade Mexican taxes while generating tens of millions of dollars annually for the cartel.

Additionally, Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network arm issued an alert to financial institutions that point out red flags of fuel smuggling from the U.S. into Mexico in schemes involving Mexican tax evasion.

“Today’s action highlights the extent to which Mexico’s cartels are expanding beyond traditional drug trafficking to generate revenue for their criminal organizations, which continue to traffic deadly drugs that kill Americans,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has acknowledged the New Generation Cartel’s presence in 21 of Mexico’s 32 states, surpassing the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which is estimated to operate in 19 states. Last year, President Donald Trump designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and five other Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Mexican authorities have in recent years seized million gallons of stolen diesel, gasoline and petroleum distillates from states bordering Texas. Organized crime taps pipelines and diverts fuel to service stations forced to buy from cartels or sell it directly in the streets.

U.S. authorities have even accused the Jalisco New Generation cartel of operating its own service stations.

The four-time MVP rolled her ankle in the fourth quarter of the Aces' win over the Chicago Sky on Sunday. She came back into the game after a quick trip to the locker room.

“It’s when you get off the court that you realize you probably tweaked it a little worse than you originally thought," Aces coach Becky Hammon said at shootaround Tuesday.

Hammon said that it's just a tweak and that Wilson should need “a few days to move.”

Wilson, who leads the league in scoring at 25.7 points a game, has been remarkably durable in her career. She's now only missed seven games since the 2020 season.

Besides her scoring, defense and rebounding are two areas that Hammon said the Aces will need to focus on against the Liberty, who beat Las Vegas on the road last week.

“Everybody's got to be that much better," Aces guard Chelsea Gray said. “It’s no secret, she’s a big, huge part of our team. She's the best player in the world. Let’s, let’s lock in for this one game and do what we have to do.”

The Aces are no stranger to having to play the Liberty short-handed in big games. Gray and Kiah Stokes were hurt in the 2023 WNBA Finals and the Aces beat New York without them.

“Focusing on ourselves, that’s really the thing,” said New York star Breanna Stewart. “This is one game, winner takes all and you never know what’s going to happen in one game. We need to make sure that we’re our best tonight.”

New York will be missing Satou Sabally, who is in concussion protocol after unintentionally getting hit in the face by an elbow against the Aces.

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

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially begun its cosmic survey, meant to capture swathes of the sky in more depth and detail. Perched on a Chilean mountaintop, the telescope will point its eye at the southern sky for the next 10 years, taking hundreds of images per night.

Researchers hope Rubin's observations will help them take a better census of the universe, mapping billions of stars in the Milky Way and billions more galaxies beyond it. It takes pictures quickly and will grab images of the same areas of sky multiple times, allowing scientists to glimpse fainter objects that previously eluded detection.

“We’re going to see large numbers of scientists across the world working with this data set, studying the universe in a way that they haven’t been able to before,” said Phil Marshall, the observatory's deputy director of operations.

Rubin released its first images last year, including colorful shots of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas located thousands of light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

Since then, researchers have tuned up the equipment so it's ready to take pictures at the depth and accuracy required for the decade-long survey. The images may help scientists discern how galaxies form and cluster over billions of years, and how the universe came to be.

Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, the observatory is named after astronomer Vera Rubin, who offered the first tantalizing evidence that a mysterious material called dark matter might be lurking in the universe. Researchers hope the effort may yield clues about dark matter as well as an equally puzzling force known as dark energy.

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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.

That law — SB 606 — was first signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis back in June 2025, though a few key rules are slated to kick off on Wednesday, July 1.

Under this law, if a restaurant charges an automatic fee called an “operations charge” (this can include things like a service charge, automatic gratuity, delivery fee, or credit card surcharge), it must be clear with customers about it:

• Explain the Fee: Menus, contracts, and ordering sites/apps must explain the fee. The notice has to say the amount or percentage of the operations charge and the purpose of the charge. It also has to be easy to see (in a font at least as large as menu descriptions or contract fine print).
• Visible Notices: If there’s no menu or table service, the notice must be posted clearly on a menu board or on a sign near the register where people pay.
• Clear Amounts: The bill must include a clear notice that an operations charge is being added, and it must show the percentage or amount.
• Receipt Charges: Receipts must separate the charges so customers can easily tell what they paid for. Each receipt must list separate lines for gratuity (tip), operations charge, and sales tax. If the operations charge includes an automatic gratuity, that must be shown separately on the receipt.
• Business Lawsuits: The law also says this section does not create a right for customers to sue a business just for not following these notice rules.
• Other Situations: It doesn’t apply to certain pre-disclosed deals like a dining plan or a fixed-price meal/package where the total price is shown before purchase.

Meanwhile, there are over 100 other laws also taking effect on July 1. You can find the full list of those laws here.

Both are Black.

For Esters, the flag represents the opportunities that allowed the great-great-grandson of slaves to find success and flourish. Pistochini, 79, simply says the America identified by the flag is not the same country she saw growing up.

Americans' views of “Old Glory” are divided by politics, age and race, according to a new survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research ahead of the nation's 250th birthday celebration.

Republicans and older, white adults are especially likely to say they fly the American flag, while younger Democrats and Black adults are more likely to say they don't fly it. Views of the flag — and whether it's a unifying or divisive symbol — track with other deep divisions among Americans, who see their country's history and accomplishments very differently.

“A lot of Black Americans see the flag as a symbol of both inclusion and exclusion,” said Matthew Delmont, professor of American history at Dartmouth College. “Black Americans, more so than white Americans, also understand the flag can be used to justify a version of patriotism that is rooted in exclusion, with the flag being used to say ‘you don’t belong here.’”

The survey of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20. It suggests that older white Americans, especially Republicans, are more likely to see the flag as unifying.

About half of U.S. adults said they display the flag at home throughout most of the year, or during holidays. About 7 in 10 Republicans and about 6 in 10 Americans ages 60 and older fly the flag at least during holidays.

About 6 in 10 Democrats and independents, on the other hand, say they “never” fly the U.S. flag. That includes the vast majority, 75%, of Democrats under 45.

Opportunities worth fighting for

Esters, a 64-year-old retired clay sculptor for a Detroit automaker, flies three American flags at his Sherwood Forest home on the city’s west side.

“When these homes were built, Black men like me, my mother and my family ... we couldn’t even buy these homes,” he said. “To me, that’s one reason I fly the flag. We went through a lot to be able to own nice homes, and this is what we fought for.”

The other reason is Moriah Martin, Esters’ great-great-grandmother, who was born into slavery.

“I’m kind of living out her dreams — what I did for a living, having a business, having a nice home,” he said. “I think that’s the American way, but we got to fight for it and we, as Blacks, fought for it.”

He's in the minority among Black adults, according to the survey, which found that only about 3 in 10 Black adults say they ever display the American flag, compared with about half of white and Hispanic adults.

Pistochini says current divisions over political leanings and perspectives, and inequality of opportunities for the poor and people of color are not what she believes the flag should stand for. People confuse flying it with being patriotic, she added.

“Just because you fly a flag doesn't make you a patriot,” Pistochini said. “If there was patriotism, we would not have all this. We can't look at (what's going on) and say this is America.”

For country and freedom

Ben Gaskins, chair of political science at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, says the flag is an important symbol of patriotism for many Americans.

“It is those who are older people, who are white and people who are more conservative,” Gaskins said. “They take it as more central to their identity.”

Nancy Hansen, a 73-year-old retired Customs and Border Protection clerk in Culvertson, Montana, believes “you have to be for the country, no matter what” and that the flag means “freedom.”

“Freedom to live where we want to live, travel where we want to travel, raise our kids where we want to raise our kids,” said Hansen, who is white and identifies as Republican.

Each year around July 4, the American Legion posts flags outside businesses and homes in Culvertson, including Hansen’s home.

Linda and Greg Cunningham also equate the flag with freedom.

The white, conservative Pontiac, Michigan, couple are going all out this summer. The exterior of their home northwest of Detroit is awash in red, white and blue. The flag sits atop a flagpole just feet from their door.

“It's no political thing, at all," said Linda Cunningham, 63. “It's our freedom. I love the American flag. I love the whole concept of it. I love America. I know there’s so much going on in the world, right now, and I know everyone has their own views, and I'm just sad that politics have to be brought into the flag.”

Flag as a ‘painful reminder’

Of those who took the survey, 47% see the flag as a “more unifying” symbol. About 16% call it a “more divisive” icon, while 36% say it's neither divisive nor unifying.

Only 22% of Black adults see the flag as a unifying symbol, compared with 55% of white adults and 42% of Hispanic adults.

“It’s a painful symbol. It’s a reminder of what we could be and how it’s failed to live up to that for Black people, for Indigenous people and people of color,” said Allison Wiltz, a Black author and founder of Writers and Editors of Color.

Paul Walthour, 71, occasionally flies the flag outside his Minneapolis-area home on special occasions and some holidays. Walthour says that when he’s away from home and at his cabin, the flag goes up each morning and is taken down at the end of the day.

“This is antiquated, perhaps,” said Walthour, who is white and a retired advertising agency creative director. “I feel it’s a symbol that you’re proud to be an American.”

“Unfortunately, I kind of think it’s kind of a symbol of dividing more than uniting,” added Walthour, who identifies as a Democrat. “The people who fly it on the far right have one kind of feeling about it, and the people who fly it on the left have a different kind of feeling about it.”

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Williams is a member of AP's Race & Ethnicity team. Sanders and Parwani reported from Washington.

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The AP-NORC poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

The court’s six-justice conservative majority, which has repeatedly ruled against transgender Americans in the past year, ruled that state bans in Idaho and West Virginia don’t violate the Constitution. The court unanimously agreed that barring transgender girls and women also doesn't run afoul of the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court that, “states may maintain women's and girls' sports for biological females" to address safety and competitive fairness concerns. “The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America."

More than two dozen other Republican-led states have adopted bans on female transgender athletes, and the decision seems certain to extend to them as well.

Left unresolved by the outcome are lawsuits challenging state laws and regulations in Connecticut, California and elsewhere that permit transgender athletes to compete consistent with their gender identity.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, saying from the bench that the majority opinion was wrong to reject an equal-protection claim from 16-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson.

With the science still evolving, transgender students shouldn't automatically be shut out of team sports, she said. “We just simply do not know scientifically that transgender students pose dangers,” she said, reading from a dissent joined by her liberal colleagues.

Pepper-Jackson, a high school sophomore in Bridgeport, West Virginia, has been taking puberty-blocking medication, has publicly identified as a girl since age 8 and has been issued a West Virginia birth certificate recognizing her as female. She is the only transgender person who has sought to compete in girls sports in West Virginia.

Pepper-Jackson has progressed from a back-of-the-pack cross-country runner in middle school to statewide champion in the shot put. She beat the second-place finisher by two feet in last month's West Virginia championship meet.

In the Idaho case, Lindsay Hecox sued over the state’s first-in-the-nation ban for the chance to try out for the women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University in Idaho. She didn’t make either squad because “she was too slow,” her lawyer, Kathleen Hartnett, told the court during arguments in January, but she competed in club-level soccer and running.

Prominent women in sports have weighed in on both sides. Tennis champion Martina Navratilova, swimmers Summer Sanders and Donna de Varona and beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings are supporting the state bans. Soccer stars Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn and basketball players Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart back the transgender athletes.

Kavanaugh, who has coached girls' basketball, underlined the importance of women's sports and athletes' dedication. “No student-athlete on either side of the issue, whether a biological female or transgender, deserves to be ostracized or vilified,” he wrote.

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled LGBTQ people are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace, finding that “sex plays an unmistakable role” in employers’ decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate.

But last year, the six conservative justices on the nine-member court declined to apply the same sort of analysis when they upheld state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

The states supporting the prohibitions on transgender athletes argued there is no reason to extend the ruling barring workplace discrimination to Title IX.

Idaho’s law, state Solicitor General Alan Hurst said, is “necessary for fair competition because, where sports are concerned, men and women are obviously not the same.”

Republican President Donald Trump applauded Tuesday's decision, calling it a “BIG WIN” in a social-media post.

Lawyers for Pepper-Jackson argued that such distinctions generally make sense but that their client has none of those advantages because of the unique circumstances of her early transition. In Hecox’s case, her lawyers wanted the court to dismiss the case because she had forsworn trying to play on women’s teams.

NCAA president Charlie Baker told Congress in 2024 that he was aware of only 10 transgender athletes out of more than half a million students on college teams. But despite the small numbers, the issue has taken on outsize importance.

Baker’s NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women’s sports after President Donald Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to compete only on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people ages 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

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Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Universal Orlando Resort announced a haunted house inspired by the first three “Hellraiser” films as part of the annual Halloween Horror Nights event.

According to a news release, guests will enter the iconic Lament Configuration puzzle box, summoning the Cenobites and opening a gateway to a dimension of unspeakable horrors. The journey ends in The Labyrinth, where Pinhead and the Cenobites await.

The house draws from “Hellraiser”, “Hellbound: Hellraiser II” and “Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth”. “Hellraiser” actor Doug Bradley, who originated the role of Pinhead, will also lend his voice to the experience.

Limited-release merchandise, including a T-shirt and Pinhead acrylic figure, is available now at Universal Orlando Resort and launches Wednesday online.

Running Aug. 27 through Nov. 1, Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights is celebrating its 35th year with 10 all-new haunted houses, outrageous entertainment, terrifying scare zones and street experiences.

Right now, guests can buy:

• • Single-night tickets (valid on any one night)
  • Halloween Horror Nights Universal Express Passes (allows you to skip the line)
  • R.I.P Tour (provides a number of premium benefits)
  • Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour (a special behind-the-scenes look)
  • A number of package savings

Tickets for a limited-capacity event are also on sale. Those nights are Thursday, Aug. 27, and Monday, Oct. 19.

For ticket information, click here.

By a 6-3 vote, the court struck down Trump’s order. A bare majority of five justices, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, makes a citizen of anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions,

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that promise today.”

A sixth justice, Brett Kavanaugh, disagreed about the constitutional ruling, but pointed to a federal law that he said broadly conveys birthright citizenship.

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas would have upheld Trump’s proposed restrictions.

“The Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President’s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a 91-page dissent, more than three times as long as Roberts' opinion. “In doing so, the Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.”

The Republican president's restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts and had not taken effect anywhere in the U.S.

Trump said the decision was “too bad for our Country” and wrongly suggested that Congress could “easily” address it with legislation. The majority decision rests on constitutional grounds. It would take an amendment to overcome the decision.

During arguments in April, both conservative and liberal justices questioned the order’s legality in a momentous case that was magnified by Trump’s unprecedented attendance in the courtroom.

The case framed another test of Trump’s assertions of executive power that defy long-standing precedent for a court with a conservative majority and a robust view of presidential power that has largely ruled in his favor. In the notable exceptions when the court has not, Trump has responded with starkly personal criticisms of the justices.

The justices ruled on Trump’s appeal of a lower-court ruling from New Hampshire that struck down the citizenship restrictions.

The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term, is part of his administration’s broad immigration crackdown.

Birthright citizenship was the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the court for a final ruling. The justices previously struck down global tariffs Trump had imposed under an emergency powers law that had never been used that way.

Trump reacted furiously to the late February tariffs decision, saying he was ashamed of the justices who ruled against him and calling them unpatriotic.

He also seemed to recognize the court was likely to rule against him on birthright citizenship, too, using his Truth Social platform to criticize “dumb judges and justices” and wealthy pregnant women from China and elsewhere who come to the U.S. to give birth so their newborns will have American citizenship.

Trump’s order would have upended widely held views that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born in the U.S., excluding only the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.

The amendment was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship, though the Citizenship Clause is written more broadly. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” it reads.

In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down Trump's executive order as illegal. The decisions have invoked the high court’s 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark, which held that the U.S.-born child of Chinese nationals was a citizen.

Roberts, joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the three liberal justices, said the amendment's language, the historical context and the 1898 case make clear that children born to parents illegally or temporarily in the U.S. “are citizens at birth.”

But there was only a bare majority of five justices on the constitutional question.

Kavanaugh sided with the majority because of a federal law that makes those children citizens. But he joined the dissenters in finding that Trump's order does not violate the Constitution. His view would enable a future Congress to change the law to restrict birthright citizenship.

The Trump administration had argued that the common view of citizenship is wrong, asserting that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.

More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would have been affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.

While Trump has largely focused on illegal immigration in his rhetoric and actions, the birthright citizenship restrictions also would have applied to people who are legally in the United States, including students and applicants for green cards, or permanent resident status.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante found that the request to provide the state’s voter registration list did not comply with a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 pertaining to federal election records. His ruling, issued Monday, also found that the Justice Department failed to allege any violation under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which established standards for states’ voting systems and voter registration lists.

That prevents "allowing the Attorney General unrestricted access to New Hampshire’s (voter list) to conduct a line-by-line audit to assess a ‘possible’ violation of a federal statute,” wrote LaPlante, an appointee of former President George W. Bush.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan, a Republican, welcomed the ruling.

“I am committed to protecting the private information of New Hampshire voters to the fullest extent required by law," he said in a statement.

The dismissal in New Hampshire brings to 10 the number of states where the Justice Department has lost similar cases. The department has sued to force release of detailed state voter data — which includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers — in 30 states and the District of Columbia.

In addition to New Hampshire, judges have rejected those attempts in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit because it had been filed in the wrong city, prompting the government to refile elsewhere.

In explaining their push for the records, federal officials have said they need the voter data to ensure that states are complying with federal election laws related to maintaining voter registration lists, even though states already have detailed processes to do that. In the case out of Rhode Island, a Justice Department attorney acknowledged that the department was seeking unredacted voter roll information so it could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to check citizenship status.

Democratic and some Republican officials have objected to the Justice Department requests for detailed voter data and said such a demand violates state and federal privacy laws.

At least 13 states have either provided or promised to provide their voter registration lists to the department, according to the Brennan Center for Justice and Associated Press reporting: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

“I have this file on my phone of Indian dishes or weird words.” Coffin says. “People come up to me and say, ‘You should say that!’ and I write it down.”

“The hardest thing,” adds Coffin, “is just to find the melody.”

It’s been 16 years since Coffin co-directed Illumination's “Despicable Me.” He has made three more movies in the franchise, directing “Despicable Me 2,” “Despicable Me 3” and “Minions.” But the Minions, like Coffin’s personal version of Frankenstein’s monster, have often remained a deviling, even mystifying force to him.

Coffin, a French Indonesian animator who lives in Paris, where Illumination productions are based, has struggled with both the dictates of Hollywood franchise-building and the strange narrative conundrums of movies based around a supervillain and gibberish-speaking henchmen.

“That’s why I kind of disappeared from the series,” Coffin said in a recent interview from Paris. “I mean, the first one was really good. A bad guy becoming a good guy after contact with three little girls, I could see it. The second one was a little bit more shady because it was like: That guy who’s no longer a bad guy falls in love and there’s a marriage at the end. That’s literally how Chris (Meledandri) pitched it to me. My French sensibility threw up a little bit.”

If you can’t tell, Coffin — the still-mischievous 59-year-old son of a French diplomat and an Indonesian novelist — is unusually candid about the franchise he helped create. Even movies that he directed, he’s highly critical of.

The previous “Minions” spinoff, 2022’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” Coffin won’t even talk about because, he says, “I don’t necessarily like it and it’s strange to me.” “Despicable Me 3,” the 2017 sequel was the last movie Coffin directed, but he says he didn't even want to make it. Afterward, Coffin told Meledandri, the Illumination chief executive, that he was done.

“I told him: I got to move on. I did my trilogy, my prequel — I’m good. I can help with the voices, no problem. But I want to move on,” Coffin says. “I worked on separate things, but I always get pulled back by the Minions.”

The Minions have a way of manipulating their bosses, Coffin included. After walking away from them, he's back for “Minions & Monsters,” the third standalone feature for the “Banana!”-shouting little guys.

“All the other ones I had doubts about. I was guided into a direction that I did not necessarily like or understand,” says Coffin of the previous sequels. “But the things were a huge success. I was humbled. OK, there has to be something I don’t understand.

“This one is horrible because I’m thinking I really like it,” Coffin says, laughing. “And I’m thinking, man, maybe I just killed the franchise.”

Making the Minions main characters

On the contrary, “Minions & Monsters,” which opens in theaters Wednesday, may be the best “Minions” movie yet. In it, the Minions turn filmmakers. Alongside Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, they try to make a monster movie in 1920s Hollywood.

The premise, suggested by Meledandri, was too enticing for Coffin to turn down. He even wanted to write the script, which he did with cowriter Brian Lynch. “Minions & Monsters” makes the yellow troublemakers something more than chaos-inducing sidekicks. They’re silent film stars who for the first time feel like actual protagonists.

“This movie has so much for people who were kids when they first encountered the Minions,” says Meledandri. “More than any previous Minion movie, it incorporates all of that wonderful silliness of the Minions but it's also a terrific story.”

Even after seven films and more than $5 billion in box office, the Minions are still revealing themselves to Coffin. They were, in the first place, a product of evolution. For “Despicable Me,” they were first designed like hulking thugs, then more like robots, then more like mole men. Coffin, Chris Renaud and art director Eric Guillon kept refining. Add in some goggles, overalls and names like Stuart and Kevin and, bingo: movie history.

How to speak Minionese

Yet given that the Minions are impossible to understood, except for a word or two, they make for tricky protagonists. Hand them over to a new boss, and you risk making the Minions second bananas again. At the same time, long sections of uninterrupted Minionese can grow tiresome without some human interpreter.

“If it’s too long and annoying to the ear, we just kill it,” Coffin says. “All of these movies, we do until we find the little formula.”

Even just writing for the Minions isn’t a clear process. Coffin, who voices all the Minions, is accustomed to improvising their dialogue back and forth. (For the first “Minions” movie, he'd begin his mornings with two hours alone with a microphone before commuting to the studio.) Putting pen to paper came less naturally.

“Brian didn’t know how to write them,” Coffin says. “He tried writing gibberish. I told him, ‘Don’t write gibberish. I don’t understand what they’re saying. Let’s write them in English.’ It took us a while to establish that dumb thing.”

Coffin can sound almost parental about the Minions. The characters he gave voice to aren’t just in the movies. They're like mascots for Illumination, generated billions in merchandising. Not every treatment nails their singular nature.

“I don’t want to criticize what the others have done with the Minions, but when someone else does something with the Minions, I feel that they’re considering them creatures,” Coffin says. “But they’re not creatures. They’re creatures with a spirit, with a personality.”

Even he’s still figuring them out. In writing “Minions & Monsters,” Coffin wanted to think about the origins of friendships. He began surveying people about how they met their best friends. Many of the replies inevitably went back to when someone was 8 or 10 years old.

“That made it very clear to us: The Minions are kids,” Coffins says. “I discovered that on this movie. It dawned on me. They’re irresponsible, they don’t listen, they make a mess, they don’t listen to authority. From that moment onward, it was very easy.”

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose 0.6 point to 91.2 in June, a figure that is still below its year-ago reading of 95.2. Consumer attitudes worsened after the Iran war caused oil and gas prices to spike, accelerating inflation and causing Americans' inflation-adjusted incomes to decline. Before the pandemic, the index regularly topped 120.

The report suggests that consumer confidence is recovering only slowly from the hit caused by the Iran war. Even so, Americans have continued to spend despite their dour outlook, which has kept the economy growing even as inflation accelerated. Measures of consumer sentiment have been less predictive of how Americans actually shop since the pandemic.

“Consumer confidence inched up in June as falling oil prices in recent weeks provided some relief to consumer inflation fears,” Dana Peterson, the Conference Board's chief economists said in a statement. “Consumer appraisals of current business conditions were slightly more positive compared to last month. However, perceptions of the current labor market softened measurably."

Earlier this month, a government report showed that consumers stepped up their spending in May despite higher gas prices. Analysts expect the steady consumer outlays kept the economy growing at about a 2.5% annual rate in the April-June quarter.

Falling gas prices may also help boost Americans' outlook in the coming months. On average nationwide, gas prices spiked above $4.50 after the U.S.-Iran conflict began Feb. 28. They have since fallen back to $3.85 a gallon, according to AAA.

The survey also found that consumers had a dimmer view of hiring and the job market this month. The proportion of Americans who said jobs are “hard to get” rose to 22.5% from 19.8% the previous month, a noticeable increase.

But on Wednesday the government released a report showing that the number of open jobs remained at a solid 7.6 million in May, indicating that companies are showing more interest in recruiting workers.

The Labor Department will release its monthly jobs report for June on Thursday, and economists forecast it will show that employers added 100,000 jobs, a solid gain. The unemployment rate is expected to stay at a low 4.3%, according to data provider FactSet.

“We’re going to shoot about 10 fireworks per second for 25 straight minutes,” City Manager Frank Martz said. “It’s going to be an intense, incredible show.”

Admission is free for the festival, which includes musical performances by country singer-songwriter Chris Lane, along with Wish Radio and Blue Stone Circle.

With more than 200,000 people expected at the event, city leaders are urging attendees to plan for crowds and traffic in the area.

“Regardless of how you get to the event, be patient. That is the most important thing,” Martz said. “Parking is going to fill up here very, very quickly. With 200,000 people, the majority of the people who are going to get here will park someplace else and walk.”

[WATCH: 2025 Red Hot & Boom]

Attendees at Red Hot & Boom are urged to prepare for the heat and also the possibility of afternoon thunderstorms.

“Wear the light colored clothing, the loose-fitting clothing, and start hydration early. The moment you start getting thirsty, you’re already behind the eight ball,” Seminole County Fire Department Lt. Dave Williams said. “We do have mobile teams out here. We have foot teams, cart teams, and bike teams. They’re going to be out the entire time during the event.”

The city also said safety is the top priority, with hundreds of officers among the crowd, medical tents, and numbers fixed to light poles that help direct first responders where they need to be in the case of an emergency.

“We will have a lot of partners here with us from multi-agencies to help us, coming from even outside of the county to help us with this event,” Public Information Officer Deana DiPaola said.

People attending the event are urged to plan for road closures and prepare for traffic. A road closure map and traffic route map can be found on the city’s website HERE.

Parking is available at the Altamonte Mall and surrounding areas. disabled parking is available in the parking lot near Festival Drive and Central Parkway, as well as a designated area in the Altamonte Mall Parking lot north of the AMC Theater.

Information on what you can and cannot bring to the event, along with other activities, is available HERE on the city’s website.

Red Hot & Boom is from 5-10 p.m. at Cranes Roost Park. The fireworks are scheduled to begin at 9:30 p.m., weather permitting.

Germany should be getting used to disappointment, but it doesn’t make it any less painful for a traditional soccer heavyweight that had been tentatively hoping for a fifth World Cup title to restore lost pride.

Germany did manage to survive the group stage for the first time since winning the trophy in 2014, but it’s little consolation after Monday’s loss to unheralded Paraguay on penalties sent the team home after the first knockout game.

“We messed it up,” Joshua Kimmich told reporters after the match in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

It was a familiar feeling for the Germany captain who also struggled for explanations after the team’s group-stage exit at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“As a child, when you watched the national team during tournaments, it was always semifinals, finals, or world champions. There was always lots of success. You grew up with that, cheering them on,” the 31-year-old Kimmich said Monday, when he apologized for the team failing to meet expectations.

“All of us who were on the pitch should feel that, rather than looking to blame someone else. We blew it,” Kimmich said in comments reported by dpa.

Coach under fire

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann is in the firing line after some contentious calls — particularly after recalling veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from international retirement just before the tournament after months of denials.

The 40-year-old Neuer failed to justify his inclusion at the expense of Hoffenheim’s Oliver Baumann, and was arguably at fault for Ecuador’s winning goal in the last group game.

“I gave it my all,” Neuer said.

Nagelsmann finally bowed to pressure and gave forward Deniz Undav his first start against Paraguay, but the move didn’t pay off as the Kurdish Yazidi player was unable to add to his three goals and two assists from his first two games as a substitute.

Nagelsmann was also criticized for not playing forward Nick Woltemade at all until he sent him on with extra time looming against Paraguay. Woltemade was among three players who missed in the penalty shootout.

False hope

Nagelsmann had raised expectations by saying Germany was aiming to win the title. Ultimately, his team failed to show any justification for such hopes.

Germany played four games at the World Cup, winning two against debutant Curaçao and Ivory Coast, before the losses to Ecuador and Paraguay.

While Paraguay’s win was joyously celebrated on the streets of its capital, Asunción, it was considered a major shock — few German fans knew any of the Paraguayan players before the match, and they were already looking forward to a likely Round of 16 meeting with France, which plays Sweden on Tuesday.

“You have to beat such a team,” Neuer said of Paraguay. “That’s a fact when you want to measure yourself against teams like France.”

Nagelsmann has vowed to stay on as coach, though he was also criticized for his prickly responses to questions after the game.

“I’m still convinced that he’s probably the right one to continue,” Germany team director Rudi Völler said. “It’s not only up to me.”

Serious talks ahead

Bernd Neuendorf, the president of the German soccer federation, said Tuesday he already met “at length” with Nagelsmann, Völler and sporting director Andreas Rettig, and they agreed “our performance at the World Cup fell short of our standards.”

“In the coming days, we will calmly look at the reasons why the team was unable to realize its potential and failed to meet both its own expectations and those of the German football community,” Neuendorf said. “After such a crushing blow, we cannot and do not wish to simply return to business as usual.”

Nagelsmann has a contract running through the European Championship in 2028.

Schadenfreude takes over

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz illustrated the disconnect between the German team’s hopes and reality better than most when he wrote on social media, “What a match, @DFB_Team! You thrilled our country with your commitment and team spirit at this World Cup. We’re proud of you.”

Merz was quickly mocked for his post on X, where many users asked which match he was referring to. The words “which match” began trending.

“I honestly don’t know which was worse. The match or this analysis,” FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann wrote.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

Eight other children were injured and being treated at a hospital, senior police official Faisal Kamran said, adding that the owner of the tutoring center and another person have been arrested.

Kamran said rescuers were searching through the rubble after receiving reports that more children could be trapped beneath the debris. He said the tutoring center was housed in an aging building and that the roof of an unfinished second floor apparently collapsed because of poor construction quality.

Building collapses are common in Pakistan, where construction standards are often poorly enforced. Many structures are built with substandard materials, and safety regulations are frequently ignored to reduce costs.

Witnesses said ambulances and rescue workers rushed to the scene after the roof collapsed. Residents also joined the search, using shovels and their bare hands to remove rubble in an effort to reach children trapped beneath the debris.

Hours later, as the bodies of the children were being handed over to their families, scenes of anguish unfolded outside hospitals and in the neighborhood on the outskirts of Lahore where the private tutoring center was located in a house. Parents wept over the loss of their children, while mothers and other female relatives cried and beat their chests in grief.

Most of the victims lived nearby, and funeral prayers were expected later Tuesday.

Grief was mixed with anger as residents demanded stern punishment for the owner of the tutoring center, blaming him for operating classes in what they described as an aging and unsafe building. Dozens of mourners were seen gathering outside the victims’ homes to offer condolences.

“We don’t know whose home to visit first to offer condolences for the loss of their children,” resident Zafar Iqbal said as he moved from one bereaved family’s home to another nearby street.

Lahore is the capital of Pakistan's most populous Punjab province, where many parents send their children to private tutoring centers in the afternoon and evening.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the collapse of the roof of an evening school building in Lahore. In separate statements, they offered condolences to the families of the victims, prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured, and said effective safety measures were needed to prevent similar tragedies.

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Associated Press writer K.M. Chaudhry in Lahore contributed to this story.

Foundation President Dame Louise Richardson said the awards, launched in 2006, have never been meant to be political. Earlier this month, the foundation changed its name from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to emphasize its nonprofit status and connection to famed industrialist Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant.

“We’re not articulating it in response to this moment,” Richardson told The Associated Press. “But it seems especially important at this moment that we celebrate immigrants and their contributions and also that we present a view of immigrants different from the ones so often portrayed in the media.”

The immigration debate continues at the highest levels of power, as President Donald Trump’s administration executes his agenda to increase immigration enforcement and reduce the numbers of legal immigrants and asylum seekers in the country. On the other side, Pope Leo XIV said, “Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value when crossing a border,” as he visited a once-notorious epicenter of the European migration debate in Spain earlier this month.

Richardson — a naturalized American citizen, born in Ireland — said the entire issue has “become so fraught, especially with the movement against legal immigration and, in particular, the visas for highly skilled people.”

“That just strikes me as an act of self-harm on a national level,” she added, “because so many of these people are the engines of the economy.”

CEO Iman Abuzeid wants to inspire other immigrants

Honoree Dr. Iman Abuzeid, co-founder and CEO of the artificial intelligence-driven healthcare career platform Incredible Health, sees the award as recognition not just for her accomplishments, but for everyone who helped her along the way.

“And if my story makes it feel like it’s more possible for someone else, then that’s probably the part that I care about the most,” added the native of Sudan, who now lives in San Francisco.

Abuzeid said she specifically chose to emigrate to the United States after living in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and completing medical school in England.

“It is the best country for what I’m trying to do,” she said. “I think if you’re ambitious and you’re willing to work hard and you’ve got some skills, it is probably the best country in the world for you.”

Being an immigrant, Abuzeid said, has given her the drive to take on risk and bet on her own abilities. It has also influenced her to build Incredible Health in a way that balances the needs of employers looking to hire health care workers with the career needs of the workers, about 20% of whom are immigrants.

“I think being from Sudan does make me a little bit more attuned to topics like bias and diversity,” she said. “Because we’re operating a marketplace at scale, we can see these patterns in our data where workers of certain last names were seeing bias against them. … So when we removed that, we were able to improve that part of the marketplace.”

Conductor Cristian Măcelaru sees immigration as ‘opportunity’

Honoree Cristian Măcelaru, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, said immigration offers both the immigrant and their new home country a chance to improve their lives.

“This is an opportunity we should hold dear,” the native of Romania said. “It really makes for a unique kind of country.”

It also creates a unique artistic point of view, said Măcelaru, who moved to Michigan to study music at Interlochen Arts Academy when he was 16.

“I’ve met so many incredible people that were supportive of my arrival to the United States and embracing of who I was,” he said. “But, at the same time, there is that nostalgia for what you’ve left behind that accompanies you on a daily basis. … The immigrant experience never leaves you.”

Măcelaru, who conducted the Orchestre National de France during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony viewed by more than a billion people in 2024, said culture becomes stronger when it appreciates the strengths of others.

“I think all of us actually love the cultures of different places,” said Măcelaru, who makes a point of diversifying the music presented by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. “It doesn’t matter where we are on the planet, you end up loving music that is from a different place. You end up loving food that is from a different country.”

Harvard's Gregory Nagy ‘awestruck’ by influx of new cultures

Honoree Gregory Nagy, Harvard University’s Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature and a professor of Comparative Literature, takes it a step further.

“To have an influx of new cultures and new ways of looking at things — that variety is the human fabric,” said the native of Hungary who emigrated with his family as a boy following World War II. They first went to Canada, and then to the United States when his father was invited to become a professor of classical piano at Indiana University. “I’m just awestruck by how important the melting pot is.”

Nagy, who prides himself on being “a friendly Midwesterner” after spending his formative years in Bloomington, Indiana, uses the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s thoughts on repetition — how a person changes an idea even if they only repeat it — to back up that belief.

But he also supports it with his ongoing teaching. Nagy’s class on “The Ancient Greek Hero,” which he has taught for more than 50 years and is currently the longest-running class at Harvard, continues to change with the times, while remaining true to its subject matter.

He has studied how “The Oath of the Ephebes,” from more than 2,400 years ago, connects the importance of environmentalism to being a good citizen. He says the ancient Greek idea of heroism is closer to modern comic book heroes than to the idealized, perfect versions many Americans hold dear.

That evolution is driven by young people, as reflected in the election of Péter Magyar as prime minister of Nagy’s beloved Hungary in April, the social changes that followed, and the new perspectives brought by immigration, Nagy said.

“I was very fortunate to become an immigrant,” he said. “And I was lucky enough to achieve puberty in Indiana, so that Americanizes you very well.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Chitwood said the gang, known as the “Cut Throat Murderers,” has been linked to multiple fatal overdoses and shootings across the east side of the county over the past year. About a dozen suspects are in custody as of Tuesday, with the search for the remaining individuals still active.

Deputies executed search warrants at 10 properties Tuesday morning. Among them was a house in Holly Hill adjacent to Greater Harvest Church — a property authorities say was used to store many of the weapons and drugs. The sheriff said the home is owned by the church’s pastor.

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office and Daytona Beach Police Department launched the investigation last year after realizing several overdoses and shootings were connected to the same group. The FBI was later brought in to assist.

Investigators say the break in the case came largely from tips provided by residents in the affected neighborhoods.

“They don’t like what’s been going on in this community which is why they gave us the tips that we got in order to get where we are in this investigation,” said Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young.

Surveillance footage gathered during the investigation allegedly shows a steady flow of armed individuals at the property near the church. Sheriff Chitwood said the volume of activity at the location left little doubt the pastor was aware of what was happening.

“Clearly there is a lot of activity going back and forth and on the surveillance it’s the who’s who of gun-toting drug dealers on the East side of the county who was there. People who have multiple convictions for firearms, shootings, guns — there’s no way the good pastor there didn’t know what her son was up to,” Chitwood said.

Chitwood and Young both expressed confidence the operation would significantly reduce drug activity on the county’s east side. Authorities say they are actively monitoring known locations and expect to take the remaining suspects into custody soon.

This story will be updated as new information becomes available.

Millyan Lagares, a detective who works in the department’s Major Crimes Unit, manages a personal TikTok account that includes videos of her private and professional activities.

Like many law enforcement agencies, the Kissimmee Police Department allows employees to express themselves as private citizens on social media sites if the content does not negatively impact their official duties or the agency.

Several of Lagares’s TikTok videos show her promoting personal care products that can be purchased directly through the social media site.

“I’m going to have a link down below for you guys on my TikTok shop,” Lagares said in one of the videos advertising a bottle of perfume.

In most of those promotional videos, Lagares wears casual clothing and does not identify herself as a law enforcement officer.

But Lagares’s TikTok page recently featured a video of the detective dressed in her Kissimmee Police Department uniform while advertising a deodorant spray.

“I found something that’s actually going to remove odors instead of masking them,” Lagares said while pointing to a bottle of Arrest My Vest, a deodorant designed for law enforcement equipment. “I use it on shoes. Tactical items. Pet gear. Anything that traps odors, really.”

[RELATED: Orange County deputy suspended over TikTok videos]

The Kissimmee Police Department seal on Lagares’s shirt and vest is clearly visible throughout the minute-long promotional video.

“If you guys are interested, I’m going to have a link down below,” Lagares said on the TikTok video while gesturing towards an icon of a shopping cart. “If you see the orange cart, that means it’s still available.”

Although the TikTok website indicated Lagares was “eligible for commission”, it is unclear how much money she could have potentially earned for each $18 bottle of deodorant spray that was sold.

Another TikTok video advertising specialty eyeglasses featured multiple photos of Lagares wearing the product while in dressed in her police uniform or displaying her gold badge.

“As someone who stares at the screen all day trust you need these!” stated a caption on the video that also included emojis of a police car and a smiley face wearing eyeglasses.

Lagares did not respond to multiple messages from News 6 sent to her personal email address displayed on the TikTok page.

Less than an hour after News 6 contacted Lagares and the Kissimmee Police Department with questions about the TikTok page, the videos promoting the deodorant spray and eyeglasses disappeared from the social media site.

Days later, most other TikTok videos showing Lagares dressed in her police uniform or displaying her badge were no longer visible.

“The information you provided is being reviewed for potential policy violations,” a Kissimmee Police Department spokesperson told News 6 in response to questions about the TikTok videos.

According to the agency’s policy, employees are “free to express themselves as private citizens on social media sites to the degree that their speech does not impair the working relationships of this agency, impede the performance of duties, impair discipline and harmony among coworkers, or negatively affect the public perception of the agency.”

Under the policy, speech deemed detrimental to the agency may form the basis for discipline.

“Agency members may not make any statements, speeches, appearances, endorsements, or publish materials that could reasonably be considered to represent views or positions of this agency without written permission from the Chief or their designee,” the social policy states.

Employees are “cautioned” to avoid displaying agency logos, uniforms or similar identifying information on personal social media pages “for safety and security reasons”.

A separate agency policy requires employees to obtain approval before participating in outside employment.

The Kissimmee Police Department spokesperson did not respond to questions from News 6 inquiring whether permission was required for employees to operate a TikTok store and, if so, whether Lagares had applied for approval.

Law enforcement agencies in Florida and nationwide have occasionally disciplined employees for social media posts that violate policies.

An Orange County deputy sheriff received a three-week suspension in 2021 after the agency said she posted TikTok videos that showed her dancing to explicit music while dressed in uniform.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police published guidance to law enforcement agencies about social media use in 2019.

“Social media site content may be used by defense attorneys to impugn a person’s reputation or show bias,” the association’s report states. “Agency employees must be made aware of the fact that, regardless of privacy settings, the pictures, videos, and text they post online could be made available to individuals for whom it was not intended.”

The Kissimmee Police Department did not immediately share information about Lagares’s employment history.

In one of the now-removed TikTok videos, Largares said she has worked in law enforcement for nearly four years. After serving in a patrol unit for about two years, Largares said she became a detective and is now assigned to the major crimes unit.

Another deleted or hidden video showed a trophy for “Detective of the Year” that appeared to have Lagares’s name etched into it. The agency did not immediately comment on when she may have received that award.

“I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” Leo wrote in a letter to the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the superior of the Society of St. Pius X.

Leo issued the last-ditch appeal a day before the society plans to consecrate four new bishops at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland. Under church law, the consecrations constitute a schismatic act, or an intentional rupture of the unity of the Catholic Church, and incur automatic excommunication for the four bishops and the bishop administering the consecration.

Pagliarani responded by writing a formal letter to Leo asking him to take time before deciding any penalty.

“Far be it from us to separate ourselves from the Roman Church. We desire, on the contrary, to serve her by means that are extraordinary, as one would assist a mother in distress who requires particular help, even if such help is not understood by everyone,” Pagliarani wrote.

SSPX asks pope for more time

The ceremony poses the first major crisis for the American pope, who has stressed the need for church unity since the start of his pontificate. He has worked especially hard to heal tensions with traditionalist Catholics who prefer the old Latin Mass, that worsened in some ways during the Pope Francis pontificate.

The society was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the council revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with other religions and the laity, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in vernacular languages rather than Latin.

Its members celebrate the ancient Latin Mass and have accused the modern church of being rife with heresies and errors. The society insists that only the SSPX is upholding the true faith of Christ and has justified the consecrations, citing a “state of necessity” to minister to its faithful.

In response to the pope’s letter, Marc-André Mabillard, media manager for the society, expressed “great sadness to not be understood by our leader,” and added: “We are changing absolutely nothing in our plans.”

Asked by phone about the prospect of excommunication, Mabillard said: “We don’t fear it. It pains us immensely, but we believe that the good we seek is greater than the pain that will be inflicted upon us.”

Previous excommunications and outreach

In 1988, SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four other bishops, and the group today still has no legal status in the church.

The Vatican in 2009 lifted those original excommunications as part of its outreach to try to bring the group back under its wing. But the Vatican has warned that a similar fate awaits the new bishops if Wednesday's consecrations go ahead.

In his letter, Leo repeated the Vatican's offer of dialogue and said that going through with the consecrations would be counterproductive for the SSPX faithful.

“I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit, and in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments,” he wrote.

Despite the original 1988 schismatic act, the group has continued to grow and today poses a threat to the Holy See as a parallel, ultra-Catholic, pre-Vatican II church. The SSPX counts two bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities, according to SSPX statistics.

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Jamey Keaten in Geneva 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.

Like other NATO countries, the U.K. is under pressure to increase defense spending to counter a more aggressive Russia and less reliable United States. But its Defense Investment Plan has been repeatedly delayed as military leaders and Treasury officials wrangled over the cost.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the plan reflects a world of conflicts transformed by technology and will keep Britain safe in “a more dangerous and volatile world."

“When the world is arming and aggression is rising, the best way to avoid war is to prepare for it," he said.

But the blueprint does not commit to spending 3% of U.K. GDP on defense by 2030, one of the factors that spurred John Healey to resign as U.K. defense secretary on June 11. Healey accused the government of underspending on the military at a time of “rising threats," citing a British intelligence assessment that Russia could attack a NATO member country by 2030.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Healey said that “with European security at stake,” Britain needs "to develop a clear, credible funding plan that will hit 3% and that will meet our NATO commitment of 3.5% by 2035."

Starmer said Healey’s successor, Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis, had worked to “sharpen and strengthen" the plan. Its 15 billion pounds in new spending is more than the 13.5 billion pounds ($18 billion) Healey was offered by the Treasury, but far less than the 28 billion pounds ($37 billion) that defense officials had called for.

UK faces pressure to hit NATO target

Under the plan, defense spending will hit 2.7% of GDP by 2029. Starmer said the 3% target will be reached “in the next Parliament,” a period that could extend to 2034. The U.K. remains committed to hitting NATO’s 3.5% target by 2035, though it's unclear how it will get there.

The government said the new funding will boost spending on defense to almost 300 billion pounds ($400 billion) over the next four years. Big-ticket items include 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) for drone technology, 8 billion pounds ($10.6 billion) to build new stealth fighter jets alongside Japan and Italy, and 11 billion pounds ($14.5 billion) to increase weapons stockpiles. The U.K. will also spend 64 billion pounds ($85 billion) modernizing its nuclear weapons.

Starmer said some road and energy projects would be scrapped to help pay for the military.

The U.K. military is seeking to reverse years of decline in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia, which invaded its neighbor Ukraine in 2022 and increasingly tests the defenses of European nations with overt and covert activity.

The U.K. has watched how drones have transformed war in Ukraine, which uses 200,000 of them a month to defend against Russian forces. Britain plans to invest billions in drone systems across all branches of the military. Instead of a planned fleet of new destroyers, the Royal Navy will get hybrid vessels that will act as command hubs for drones.

“The very nature of conflict is changing before our eyes,” Starmer said during a speech at a drone manufacturer near London. He said that, armed with cutting-edge technology, Ukrainian forces have destroyed Russia’s Black Sea fleet, “struck deep into Russian territory and stopped the advance of one of the biggest armies in the world.”

Critics say more money is needed

Britain and other NATO member nations have faced pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to increase military spending. Trump has long questioned the value of the military alliance and complained that the United States provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.

The resignations of Healey and junior Defense Minister Al Carns were among a series of blows that prompted Starmer to announce last week that he will resign. A NATO summit in Turkey on July 7 and 8 may be his final overseas trip as prime minister.

His replacement, likely the former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, will be under pressure to stick to the commitments in the defense plan.

“It is a platform on which I know my successor will build," Starmer said.

Opposition Conservative Party defense spokesperson James Cartlidge said the plan was “too little, too late.”

And retired Gen. Richard Barrons, who helped lead a defense review in preparation for the investment plan, said “we have to find more money for defense sooner.”

“We’re not keeping up with our allies, we’re certainly not keeping up with our enemies, and we know that the U.S. is no longer going to come and save European security in the face of a Russian threat,” he told the BBC.

Lively's lawyers disclosed the amount, covering nearly $7.5 million in attorney’s fees from two law firms that represented her and about $500,000 in other expenses, in a court filing Tuesday.

Lively and Baldoni settled last month just before a trial was to start in federal court in Manhattan on Lively’s claims that he engineered an effort to damage her public reputation and credibility after she accused him of sexually harassing her while shooting the movie.

Baldoni, who directed the dark romantic drama and starred in it with Lively, denied her claims.

Lively received no money in the settlement, but a judge subsequently ruled that she is entitled to recover some legal costs she incurred after Baldoni filed a countersuit against her. The judge must still approve the amount she is seeking.

One of Lively’s lawyers, Michael Gottlieb, wrote in a court declaration that he charged her an average hourly rate of $2,187 — a discount from his usual $2,795 per hour. He said he billed 224 hours for work on her defense to Baldoni’s countersuit, totaling $457,000 in fees.

Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios LLC, “employed scorched-earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively’s resources,” her lawyers wrote in their filing.

“They could have ended it (and offered to reimburse Lively) at any time. Having refused to do so, they should be ordered to reimburse Lively for all of the costs, attorney’s fees, and expenses they improperly forced her to incur,” they wrote.

A message seeking comment was left for Baldoni’s lawyer.

Lively, 38, sued Baldoni, 42, and Wayfarer Studios in December 2024, accusing them of conspiring with publicists to preemptively destroy her reputation after she privately accused him of sexual harassment on the “It Ends With Us" set.

Weeks later, Baldoni sued Lively, accusing her, her husband — “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds — and their publicist of defamation and extortion.

Baldoni denied harassing her or orchestrating a smear campaign. He claimed the complaints about his behavior were made up by Lively as part of an effort to seize creative control of the movie.

Judge Lewis J. Liman threw out Baldoni’s countersuit last year and then dismissed Lively’s sexual harassment claims, saying she could not bring them because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee on the movie set.

In allowing Lively to recover legal costs, the judge cited a California law designed to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory lawsuits meant to intimidate and silence victims.

Liman said the law requires that the plaintiff must pay the defendant’s legal fees and costs if a defamation claim made in response to a lawsuit is dismissed, even if the facts of the case have not been developed through the gathering of evidence.

Liman said an exception would be if Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, could prove malice fueled Lively’s claims, but that they had produced no evidence to show that.

In their court filing, Lively's lawyers said $4.5 million should be paid to Gottlieb’s firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and about $3 million should go to the firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP.

The judge rejected Lively's claims to triple any damages and pursue punitive damages as well under the California law, saying that they did not fall within “carefully crafted federal procedural rules designed to protect the rights of the parties.”

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel about a relationship devolving into domestic violence, was released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations.

Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.

The Kissimmee Police Department named Nicolas Alexander Lopez as a person of interest in the case. Lopez is currently in custody at the Seminole County Jail and has also been charged with grand theft auto in connection with the theft of Harper’s vehicle.

Harper, 71, was found dead Thursday at a home on Heather Way, in a neighborhood off Mill Slough Road. Police responded after receiving a report of a person with “apparent injuries.”

Harper’s dark blue Nissan pickup truck — bearing Florida tag 89E-EYV and missing paint in several places — was taken from the home. It was later recovered by the Altamonte Springs Police Department near Montgomery Road and West Central Parkway after officers observed the driver making an unsafe lane change.

Police identified the driver as Lopez, 32. According to investigators, Lopez initially refused to identify himself and provided officers with a false birthdate.

Lopez was booked into the Seminole County Jail on charges of resisting an officer without violence and providing false identification to law enforcement, in addition to the grand theft auto charge.

Neighbors told News 6 the home where Harper was found is vacant. They said Harper had been mowing the lawn for the homeowner Thursday morning when he likely encountered the suspect.

Several neighbors also said Harper knew the homeowner through a church they attended in Orange County.

Authorities canvassed the neighborhood Thursday, asking residents whether home surveillance systems captured the truck leaving the area.

Anyone with information can call Crimeline and remain anonymous at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477).

The visit by Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special Mideast envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, comes after a weekend of crossfire in the Persian Gulf over efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic.

The envoys won’t be having direct negotiations with Iranian diplomats while in Qatar’s capital, Doha, said Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry. Instead, mediators are working for the time being as go-betweens for the talks, which won’t include any high-level officials, he added.

The U.S. and Iran have held indirect negotiations before. However, the two previous rounds collapsed and preceded the 12-day war Israel launched against Iran in 2025 and this year's war, launched jointly by the U.S. and Iran on Feb. 28.

Iran is also sending a delegation to Qatar this week. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tuesday that Iran has had no plans for a meeting with the American side at any level in the coming days.

“What will take place in Doha tomorrow is a discussion with the Qatari side about implementing parts of the memorandum of understanding, including the release of Iran’s blocked assets,” Baghaei told journalists at his own briefing.

It is possible the two sides could exchange messages through the Qatari mediators.

The U.S. and Iran agreed to an interim deal earlier this month that calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium. It also waives U.S.-backed oil sanctions on the country, calls for free traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and gives each side 60 days to hammer out broader agreements.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that Qatar plans to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive negotiations, confirmed the release amount, saying it would be used to buy U.S. food products for the Iranian people.

A fifth of the world's oil was shipped through the Strait of Hormuz before the war began. Iran’s attacks and threats stopped cargo ships and tankers from moving through the strait, creating a global energy crisis.

The strait has long been considered an international waterway despite being in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters.

Both sides traded strikes amid efforts last week to open Oman’s territorial waters in the strait to both inbound and outbound ship traffic from the Persian Gulf. That raised concerns that negotiations to formally end the war could be disrupted.

Iran twice attacked vessels in the strait — including a tanker filled with Qatari crude — and drew retaliatory American airstrikes. Iran also launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday.

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AP reporter Josh Boak in Washington contributed.

The concept stems from the 14th Amendment, which affirmed that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The Trump administration insisted the amendment did not mean that people who were born in the U.S. to parents who were illegal or in the country temporarily were citizens.

The distinction is important, because the 14th Amendment also contains two important legal clauses: the due process and equal protection clauses.

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

You can read President Trump’s executive order HERE.

You can read the full ruling and the dissenting opinions for yourself below.

U.S. Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship by Christie Zizo

Speaking at Lucky Goat Coffee, the governor said the campaign commissions statues in counties named after Founding Fathers and honors figures who exemplified founding principles.

DeSantis acknowledged Lincoln had less of a direct connection to Florida than other figures already honored in the statue campaign, but said Lincoln’s life story made him worthy of recognition.

The governor described Lincoln as a self-taught lawyer from humble beginnings who faced repeated political failure before winning the presidency and navigating the Civil War.

“He’s really an example of being able to persevere and overcome a lot of obstacles that are put in your way,” DeSantis said. “There’s a lot of people that have told him to pack it in. And instead he believed in these key ideas. And so we plowed forward.”

DeSantis also touted Florida’s civics education record, a $3,000 teacher bonus program and four consecutive years of state budget reductions, contrasting Florida’s roughly $117 billion budget with New York’s $268 billion despite Florida having more residents.

DeSantis was joined by Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Visit Florida President and CEO Bryan Griffin, among other state officials.

The parliament published a letter urging the International Olympic Committee to recognize the semi-autonomous territories as “independent National Olympic Committees and to participate in the Olympic Games under their own flags.”

The revival of a longstanding Olympic proposal previously made 20 years ago comes weeks after Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen formed a new coalition government. She has pledged support for Greenland against U.S. President Donald Trump’s wish to acquire the island.

The IOC recognizes 206 national Olympic bodies, which is 13 more than the United Nations has member states, and is unlikely to support Denmark’s request.

The Olympic body's policy since 1996 has been to recognize only independent states, such as Kosovo in 2014 and South Sudan the next year. The Olympic Charter defines “country” as “an independent state recognized by the international community.”

Two biathletes from Greenland competed for Denmark at the Milan Cortina Olympics in February.

The Faroe Islands has competed in qualifying games for international soccer tournaments since the 1992 European Championship and 1994 World Cup.

The Danish parliament said its presidium’s June 18 letter to the IOC would “reflect a clear and current political commitment by Denmark to support enhanced and more equal international participation for both the Faroe Islands and Greenland.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

A search was underway for a suspect who fled on foot after the blast late Monday, Prosecutor Stéphane Thibault said, adding that the motive was unclear.

Media reports identified Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the injured. He has said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship nearly a decade ago, and he was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for ties to Russia. A woman and a child were also hurt.

“It appears that the family was specifically targeted,” said Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco. He said the suspect “had walked around the area several times while waiting for the victims,” according to surveillance footage.

It was not clear why the family was targeted or by whom.

Russia has a long history of targeting its enemies abroad, and Western intelligence officials have recently said that a campaign of targeted killings has ramped up since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine is also believed to have carried out attacks and targeted killings of Russian figures in the course of the war, although those attacks have largely been confined to Ukrainian or Russian territory.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said its embassy in France, which is also responsible for Monaco, was in touch with local authorities. Ukrainian diplomats were at the scene providing assistance, it said.

Attack shocks glamorous Monaco

The attack shocked the country on the Mediterranean coast, one of the world’s smallest sovereign states known for its high concentration of wealthy residents. Monaco’s Prince Albert II described it as “an odious act” and said all public services were mobilized to ensure security.

Monaco police opened an attempted murder investigation into the attack, but they did not describe it as a terrorism investigation, Thibault told reporters.

The family members are “regular” residents of Monaco, and authorities did not yet know whether they had been threatened in the past, Mirmand said.

The blast occurred around 9 p.m. Monday at the entrance of a residence near the French border.

The woman who was wounded was in life-threatening condition, Thibault said. He did not provide the identities of the people who were hurt.

The woman was being treated at a hospital in Nice, Mirmand told French news broadcaster LCI. Her partner and the 13-year-old child suffered less severe injuries but were still hospitalized Tuesday, he added.

The suspect got away via steps to a small street to the neighboring French town of Beausoleil, according to surveillance footage.

In a picture captured by surveillance cameras and published by French media, the suspect could be seen in a street wearing a black jacket, light-colored pants, white shoes and a black bucket hat that partly concealed his face.

The three people were “apparently returning home peacefully,” Mirmand said, citing surveillance footage. “They were caught in the explosion as they crossed the threshold of their apartment building."

Ukrainian tycoon is a well-known real estate developer

Yermolaiev, a Ukrainian-born businessman originally from the city of Dnipro, built his fortune through the Alef Group, a diversified business that includes commercial real estate, manufacturing and agriculture. He became one of the country’s best-known property developers, leading projects that reshaped parts of Dnipro’s city center. He has regularly appeared in rankings of Ukraine’s wealthiest entrepreneurs.

In an interview with Forbes Ukraine, Yermolaiev said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and became a Cypriot citizen in 2017.

In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on Yermolaiev as part of a broader package targeting individuals and companies Kyiv said had business links to Russia or Russian-occupied territories.

The Cyprus Registrar of Companies lists a man called Vadym Iermolaiev as the director of Vespano Ltd., a company in the Cypriot city of Limassol first registered in January 2019. Cyprus’ Interior Ministry told The Associated Press it could not provide information about the man’s citizenship status due to confidentiality rules.

A coastal playground for the rich and famous, Monaco is renowned as much for its tax-friendly incentives and Formula 1 Grand Prix as its glamorous royal family. The small principality is widely regarded as one of the safest places in the world, in part because of its network of thousands of surveillance cameras covering most public spaces.

Monaco’s population of 38,000 is multinational, with only a fifth of the population actually citizens of the principality.

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Associated Press journalists Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine; Menelaos Hadjicostis in Nicosia, Cyprus; and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

Forecasters had expected employers to post just 7 million openings in May.

The job market is sturdy but not exactly booming. Layoffs rose in May, and the number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects — ticked up only slightly. That's according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday.

Employers are advertising openings, but they aren't actually doing much hiring. Gross hiring — before counting people who lost or quit their jobs — dipped to 5.17 million in May from 5.26 million in April. When the job market was booming from mid-2021 to mid-2023 after COVID-19 lockdowns, gross monthly hiring regularly topped 6 million.

“The hiring switch needs to fully turn on for the labor market to feel alive again,” ZipRecruiter economist Nicole Bachaud said in a commentary.

After the United States and Israel attacked Feb. 28, Iran retaliated by closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas passes. Energy prices soared, squeezing Americans already frustrated by the high cost of living.

But the American job market has chugged along, continuing to rebound from a miserable 2025. In the first five months of the year, U.S. employers have added an average of nearly 114,000 net jobs a month. That is up from just 9,700 a month in 2025, the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002.

High interest rates and President Donald Trump's unpredictable economic policies discouraged employers from making hiring decisions last year. Trump's tax cuts and the fact that the United States is an energy producer have limited the economic damage from the war this year.

When the Labor Department releases its jobs report for June on Thursday, it is expected to show that companies, nonprofits and government agencies added another 100,000 jobs and that unemployment stayed at a low 4.3%.

Because of baby boomer retirements and Trump's immigration crackdown, fewer people are competing for work, and the United States doesn't need as many jobs as it used to keep the unemployment rate stable. Economists say the so-called "break-even'' rate of hiring could be as low as zero jobs a month, down from perhaps 150,000 a year or so ago.

Lady Lake officials say 20-year-old Bryson “Swift” Leverette was one of two people shot at a home in the Skyline Hills area of town on June 30, 2023.

Leverette was leaving the Caroline Avenue home when police say he and the other victim were attacked by a group of people with several firearms, who then fled the area in unknown vehicles.

Leverette was killed, while the other victim survived.

Police have not been able to identify any suspects in the case. A neighbor News 6 spoke to at the time said the gunfire woke up the whole neighborhood, but they never saw anyone.

The police department says Leverette’s girlfriend has since given birth to the 20-year-old’s son, and his family continues to wait for a break in the case.

“Three years later, Bryson’s family is still waiting for answers,” said Detective Ronnie Williams. “Someone knows what happened that night, and we are asking them to come forward. Even the smallest piece of information could help bring justice to Bryson’s family.”

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Detective Williams directly at (352) 751-1542 or rwilliams@ladylake.org. Anonymous tips can be submitted to CRIMELINE at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477).

A reward of up to $5,000 is available for information leading to an arrest.

Protocols designed to protect tennis from doping are in the spotlight as players open up about their experiences navigating the system in the aftermath of a four-year ban handed to 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova — not for testing positive but for refusing to take a test.

Players are required to provide a 60-minute time slot each day to be available for testing, plus the International Tennis Integrity Agency says that if a doping control officer "locates and notifies a player outside of that hour, they must complete the test.”

Naturally, there's a need for communication between players and testers.

“I’m not going to lie, some of them can be pushy, make you feel like you’re doing something wrong,” Gauff, the No. 7 seed, said after her first-round victory at Wimbledon.

“One time she came outside my time slot. But the way she was speaking to me on the phone, it literally made me cry afterwards," the 22-year-old American said. "I found out I was in the right, and I didn’t have to do anything.”

Ahead of her first-round match Tuesday, Ajla Tomljanovic described her close calls.

“I’m very scared of the system because it feels broken," she said. "I’ve had a few experiences of my own where it was about technicalities and when I speak to people in charge they’re not helpful — I don’t want to say they don’t care — but they weren’t very helpful at all to explain things or just show some sort of compassion when I was nowhere near missing a test or testing positive.”

The Australian player said she was seeking help about how the app works.

“I was new to the whole system. And I was at two fails for a month and I knew if I get a third one accidentally I would be out for at least two, three years,” she said. “It’s in a way, I won’t say no fault of my own but it’s not to the degree of being banned and smearing your name. In that sense, I think there’s so much to improve on.”

Williams, who makes her Wimbledon return on Tuesday, said the testing system was “a big reason why I didn’t want to come back either, because it’s just so hard."

The Vondrousova case

The 27-year-old Czech player, who became Wimbledon’s first unseeded female champion when she beat Ons Jabeur in the 2023 final, refused to take a test in early December 2025 after a doping control officer rang her apartment's intercom at 8 p.m.

This month, following a hearing by an independent tribunal, Vondrousova received the maximum four-year ban for a first offense.

ITIA published a video explainer of the case, saying Vondrousova on the night in question challenged the timing of the test because it was outside her designated time slot.

The agency noted: “If a Doping Control Officer, or DCO, locates and notifies a player outside of that hour, they must complete the test.”

Vondrousova had described the tester as “aggressive” and said the frequent ringing of the intercom “triggered a state of distress," the ITIA video says.

The tribunal's June 22 decision confirmed that Vondrousova refused the test and that the evidence “provided no compelling justification for doing so.”

The ITIA added that under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, “test refusals can be sanctioned as severely as positive tests." One rationale is an athlete who is doping could simply refuse a test and seek a lighter punishment.

Last year, the ITIA said it conducted over 8,000 tests both in and out of competition “and received a handful of complaints. We take all feedback on board and encourage players to share their views with us.” Other organizations, such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, also conduct player testing.

On possible changes to the system, the ITIA noted that tennis follows WADA rules and processes, which "will be refreshed in 2027. As part of this process, WADA consults with athletes from across global sport.”

“We understand the system can seem challenging," the ITIA said, “but it is there to protect players, not to trip them up. If players are ever unsure about a test, have questions, or would like to provide feedback on their experience, we want to hear about it.”

Some players say a 4-year ban is harsh

Jessica Pegula, the No. 4 seed, said she didn't know the full details of Vondrousova's case but that “I feel, like, for Marketa.”

“For something like that, for four years, you’re ruining someone’s career over something that could have really just been a complete misunderstanding, and I just don’t think that’s fair. I think the sentencing is so harsh," Pegula said.

“I don’t quite understand the difference between that and then obviously what happened with (Jannik) Sinner and Iga (Swiatek),” she said. “They justified what the rules were and why it was the way it was.”

Top-ranked Sinner, the defending men's champion at Wimbledon, accepted a three-month ban in a settlement with WADA in early 2025 following his two positive doping tests from the prior year. WADA had challenged ITIA's decision not to suspend Sinner for what it judged was accidental contamination — entering his system through a massage — by a banned anabolic steroid.

Swiatek, Wimbledon's defending women's champion, accepted a one-month suspension in 2024 after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication. The ITIA accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and caused by the contamination of a nonprescription medication, melatonin, that Swiatek was taking for issues with jet lag.

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

The decision announced over the weekend came as the outbreak of a type of Ebola with no approved treatment or vaccine continues to grow, with 1,307 people infected and 377 dead across three provinces in eastern Congo. It could be the worst Ebola outbreak yet.

Congo’s ministry of interior on Saturday said gatherings and demonstrations were forbidden in the provinces of Kinshasa, Tshopo, Haut-Uele and Bas-Uele as fears grow about the outbreak spilling into new areas. None of the provinces have any confirmed cases.

Separately, the mayor of ​Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city and now under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, also banned public gatherings and demonstrations, including celebrations linked to sport events, on Monday. Congo is in its first World Cup in over half a century.

Congo’s political opposition has denounced the ban as unconstitutional. Prince Epenge, the spokesperson for the Lamuka coalition, has said the ban aims to prevent a planned demonstration in the capital, Kinshasa, early next month. The protest is against proposed constitutional changes that would allow Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi to run for a third term.

Civil society organizations also condemned the ban in a statement on Monday, citing freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

In a televised address on Monday evening, Tshisekedi announced a $319 million response plan to the Ebola outbreak, and called on people to respect health guidelines, report suspected cases and not give in to misinformation. He did not directly address the bans.

“Ebola is neither a rumor nor a source of shame,” Tshisekedi said. “It is a health emergency that demands responsibility, solidarity, and truth.”

Health workers have reported some skepticism and attacks over Ebola from residents in the affected areas of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

Cases also have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda, as well as one in France in a doctor who returned from Congo.

The United Nations ​warned in a report on Tuesday that if the virus spreads into other neighboring countries including Rwanda and Angola, it could cost Africa up to $3.6 billion and result in 328,000 job losses.

More than a month into the outbreak, officials believe it continues to outpace response efforts and no one knows its true scale. They are yet to identify patient zero and struggle to trace contact cases.

The World Health Organization has warned that violence from rebels in eastern Congo is complicating the response to the outbreak. In Ituri, attacks by the Islamic State group-backed Allied Democratic Force have cut off access to many villages and forced people to flee their homes, adding to already overcrowded camps of people displaced by years of conflict.

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Pronczuk reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writer Janvier Barhahiga in Bukavu, Congo, contributed to this report.

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins filed a lawsuit Monday that accuses opponent James Fishback of failing to meet the residency requirement to be Florida governor.

In the complaint, Collins said Washington, D.C. records show Fishback registered to vote in the district on Nov. 3, 2020, voted that day, and was listed on the active voter roll in Washington, D.C. as recently as June 1, 2026.

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

The complaint also says Fishback bought a home in Washington, D.C. in 2021 and filed for a homestead exemption. Collins says Fishback got a property tax bill for that home as recently as Feb. 17, 2026, and in April the D.C Office of Tax and Revenue issued a “corrected property tax bill” that removed the homestead exemption and reassessed the property going back to 2023.

Qualifications for Florida governor require a candidate to be a resident of the state for seven years when elected. That would be from Nov. 4, 2019, to Nov. 3, 2026.

You can read the full lawsuit at the end of this story.

Fishback, in a post on X.com, accused Collins of illegally suing to remove him, and also accused him of acting on behalf of Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Rep. Byron Donalds. In response, Fishback posted a photo of his Florida driver’s license from 2016.

.@JayCollinsFL, acting on behalf of Byron Donalds, is now illegally suing to remove me from the ballot, just like Democrats tried to do to Trump in 2024.

His claim? That I, a fourth generation Floridian who has lived here my entire life, haven’t lived in Florida for the past 7… https://t.co/4JC3LMArAD pic.twitter.com/J1dDawfHBz

— James Fishback (@j_fishback) June 29, 2026

“His claim? That I, a fourth-generation Floridian who has lived here my entire life, haven’t lived in Florida for the past 7 years,” Fishback said.

“This baseless lawsuit is nothing more than a desperate and illegal attempt to stop our momentum because they know we’re going to win on August 18,” Fishback added.

News 6 checked the address on the driver’s license: 14631 N. Beckley Sq. in Davie.

According to the Broward County Property Appraiser’s website, Jay Thomas Fishback and Aydee E. Fishback sold that house in 2017.

Checking Florida’s publicly available voter rolls, Fishback used that Davie address for his voter registration until 2024, when he moved his voter registration to Madison County.

He is listed as a registered and active voter on Florida’s voter rolls since at least 2020.

Fishback’s voting history also showed that he voted in the 2022 elections in Broward County, before voting in 2024 in Madison County. His voting history does not show that he voted in 2020 in Florida.

The Florida voter history data is publicly available through the Florida Division of Elections. The data only specifies whether Fishback voted, not who or what he voted for.

News 6 also looked into the D.C. property records and confirmed that a James T. Fishback has owned the home mentioned in Collins’ lawsuit since 2021, and it had a homestead exemption on it in 2021 and 2022.

Florida’s residency rules

While Florida law does make a residency requirement to run for office, it does not specify what it means to hold residency. This has been an issue in recent election lawsuits over residency in the past few years.

In 2024, a candidate for Florida Senate, Randolph Bracy, threatened to sue to remove incumbent State Sen. Geraldine Thompson from the ballot, accusing her of not living in her district. While she and her husband had a home outside the district, Thompson maintained she was living in Ocoee to help her daughter raise her children. Thompson’s voting record showed she was registered to vote in Ocoee, within her district.

The lawsuit was never filed.

Thompson would later accuse Bracy of living in Lake County and keeping a home in Oakland so he could claim he was in the district. Property appraiser records show he had homestead exemptions on both houses.

News 6 wrote about the race when it happened HERE.

In the case of the 2024 race, Thompson claimed that Florida Senate rules accepted her candidacy because it took into consideration the totality of her circumstances.

Just this past year, a residency lawsuit mired the race for Apopka mayor.

Former Mayor Bryan Nelson sued his opponent, former Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore, accusing her of not living within city boundaries for a year before the election, as required.

Moore had lived just outside the city boundaries for years, and was in the process of buying a home within city limits. However, since the home wasn’t ready yet, Moore said she rented a home to meet the candidacy requirements.

In his lawsuit, Nelson accused Moore of using the rental as a residence in name only, and said she was photographed dozens of times at her first home before moving into the new house.

In the end, both Nelson and Moore lost the Apopka mayoral election. The lawsuit was dismissed in March.

Florida officials’ ‘ministerial role’ in qualifying

When a candidate runs for office, they affirm in their sworn oath of candidacy that they meet the requirements.

However, as Collins notes in his lawsuit, the Florida Division of Elections only takes a ministerial role when it comes to candidate qualifying.

In other words, the office makes sure the paperwork is in order, and if it is and the candidate has paid their qualifying fee or gotten enough petition signatures, they qualify for office.

Florida law even says, “the filing officer may not determine whether the contents of the qualifying papers are accurate.”

Collins v Fishback Complaint by Christie Zizo

The largest U.S. oil company and its consortium partner, QatarEnergy, consider the most likely option for getting the gas to market would be conveying it through a pipeline to existing processing facilities in Egypt where it can be liquefied for export, ExxonMobil's Vice President of Global Exploration John Ardill said.

Other options including building onshore facilities in Cyprus or a floating one in waters over the deposits are considered too costly at this point.

“Everything you’ve seen between the government of Cyprus and the government of Egypt gives us a lot of confidence that there’s good government to government coordination, the agreements in place to leverage that eastern Mediterranean energy hub concept,” Ardill said.

He was speaking after ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy signed a deal with Cyprus declaring the two deposits commercially viable.

The deposits — dubbed Glaucus and Pegasus — are located in Block 10 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and are estimated to hold together roughly 7 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Ardill said the consortium is looking to expand its presence off Cyprus, expressing interest in exploring an area, or block, on the southwestern corner of the EEZ that is adjacent to an area where it already holds drilling licenses.

The consortium will carry out additional drilling at the Pegasus deposit around the end of this year to collect more key data for its development, he added.

“So what we should tell ordinary people is we have been working very diligently together between government and investor to make these discoveries and we’re working very diligently to get the gas flowing for the people of Cyprus,” Ardill said.

Cyprus is trying to position itself as a new energy source for Europe and beyond following the initial discovery of natural gas off its southern shore in 2011.

Apart from ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy, two other consortiums hold exploration licenses in the Cypriot EEZ.

A consortium composed of Italy’s Eni and French TOTAL holds licenses for four blocks where two deposits hold an estimated 5.6 trillion cubic feet of gas combined, while a partnership between Chevron, Dutch Shell and Israeli NewMed is licensed for one bloc where the oldest discovery — Aphrodite — holds approximately 5.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Earlier this year, Eni’s Chief Operating Officer Guido Brusco said the company was close to making a final decision on developing the Cronos gas field that could deliver the hydrocarbon to European markets by late 2027 or early 2028.

The first incident happened Saturday, June 20, when the homeowner says a man came to her door early in the morning.

“I check and see who’s at the door it’s nobody I recognize. I’m not expecting company and it’s 6:30 in the morning,” she said.

She says she saw the man leave and went about her day, but he returned later.

“He comes back again this time he rings the doorbell a little more aggressively. First time was like ding dong. This time, it was like dinging ding ding ding,” she said.

The homeowner says the situation escalated when she heard the man move toward another entry point.

“So I heard him then come to this door and this was closed off like this and he was peeking in the window. He was here standing on the steps,” she said.

She decided to confront him from inside her home.

“And I just said hey can I help you, and he says, I’m supposed to meet someone here, and I said, no you’re not,” she said.

The homeowner says the man left and she called Orlando police. She says she noticed patrol cars in the area for about 15 minutes after officers arrived.

Then, she says, it happened again.

Fast forward to this past Saturday, the homeowner says a second man showed up at her home. She says it was around 3:30 p.m. when she caught up to him as he was walking away.

“I’m mad at this point,” she said.

The homeowner says the second man also claimed he was supposed to meet someone at that address.

“And he said he’s supposed to meet somebody here and again I was swearing and he said you don’t need to get rude I have text messages and I said I don’t give a shhh and get outta here you’re not welcome and don’t come back,” she said.

She says police returned a second time to take down her report. In both cases, she says she focused on staying safe and did not ask the men additional questions.

Now, the homeowner says she is working to get security cameras and is strongly considering taking a women’s self-defense class.

Speaking during the budget signing ceremony, DeSantis said the finalized budget reflects the fourth straight year Florida has lowered state spending after line-item vetoes.

“The budget that I sign today after doing my line-item vetoes will represent the fourth straight year in Florida that we’ve actually reduced our state budget,” DeSantis said. “Who else is doing that?”

The budget includes more than $1.5 billion aimed at increasing teacher salaries across the state. DeSantis said the investment is designed to help Florida recruit and retain educators.

“Our minimum salary has increased by about $10,000 over the last five years,” DeSantis said. “That’s basically a way to recruit and retain folks.”

Transportation also received major funding in the spending package. More than $14 billion is allocated to construct and maintain Florida’s transportation network, with another $5 billion dedicated to highway construction and maintenance projects.

The governor pointed to ongoing improvements along Interstate 4 in Central Florida as an example of infrastructure investments making a difference for drivers.

“Just the temporary lane we did with Moving Florida Forward has made a big difference,” DeSantis said. “That’s a very tough stretch of road.”

Law enforcement funding was another focus in the budget. Nearly $20 million is designated for pay increases for officers, while an additional $20 million will continue Florida’s recruitment bonus program, which offers up to $5,000 for first-time officers.

“The new recruit bonus has been very good,” DeSantis said. “We’ve done over 10,000 officers that have gotten that.”

Despite the spending priorities, the governor also vetoed more than $800 million from the final budget, cutting several projects across Central Florida.

In Brevard County, vetoes included $2.5 million for the Brevard Zoo Indian River Lagoon Innovative Wastewater System and Education Hub, along with $400,000 for a replacement facility for the Melbourne Fire Department Training Center.

In Volusia County, DeSantis cut $1 million intended for the county’s agriculture center, $750,000 for a new Orange City Police incident command center and $450,000 for a new Orange City fire station.

Additional vetoes included $750,000 for an expansion of the Kissimmee Police Department evidence room and $350,000 for improvements to Eatonville’s public safety building.

“I did want to make sure the budget was reduced,” DeSantis said. “It had to be lower.”

DeSantis also said Florida’s rainy day fund has increased to $5 billion.

The new state budget takes effect Wednesday.

Nadiem Anwar Makarim was convicted of pushing his ministry to buy Google Chromebook laptops for schools during the COVID-19 pandemic as the American tech giant was considering an investment in Gojek's parent company. Makarim denied wrongdoing.

A panel of five judges at Jakarta’s Corruption Court ordered Makarim to repay 809 billion rupiah (about $45.2 million) — a figure prosecutors said represented the value to him of Google's investment in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa — and imposed a fine of 1 billion rupiah (about $55,870). Prosectors said the purchasing decision also caused $125 million in state losses.

“The defendant, as a minister who should serve as a role model, abused his authority. His actions were deliberate, structured and systematic,” said presiding Judge Purwanto S. Abdullah, “As a high-ranking official, the defendant exacerbated the situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the education sector was already in crisis.”

The court didn't find that Makarim's push to buy Chromebooks actually influenced Google. Three former Google executives testified during the trial that Google’s investment in GoTo was unrelated to the Indonesian government’s decision.

Following the verdict Makarim, 41, criticized what he called an excessive punishment and said he would appeal because “there is not a single part of the accusation by the prosecution that has not been refuted, that has not been proven otherwise, no form of bribery, no conflict of interest, there is no state lost.”

Speaking to The Associated Press in a brief interview after the hearing, he said the policy to select the cheapest laptop based on an operating system that is free has saved at least 3.6 trillion rupiah (about $201 million).

“It’s very disappointing decision today and was shocking because the judges in their decision didn’t mention anything about enriching myself,” he said.

“So, I believe that this trial is about the picture of justice in Indonesia and about how every honest person who wants to serve their country are not save in this country,” Makarim added.

The 10-year sentence was far below the 18 years sought by the prosecution, which had told the court that Makarim had abused his position to influence policy decisions and corporate dealings.

The three-judge panel said they reduced the penalty because Makarim is still in his productive age and the sentence imposed should not deny the defendant the opportunity for rehabilitation and a return to contributing to society. They also ordered the time he has served since he was arrested in September to be deducted from the sentence.

Makarim was detained with two former education ministry officials and a former tech consultant who were sentenced up to four-and-half years in the case, while another staff member is wanted by authorities but remains at large.

The trial, which started in January, has drawn significant public attention, often attended by hundreds of motorcycle taxi drivers showing support for the man who helped create their industry.

The judges said Makarim’s decision to use ChromeOS and Chrome Education Upgrades — products licensed exclusively by Google — was driven by a conflict of interest, disregarding advice from the ministry’s legal bureau and policies that required to prioritizing domestic products.

“The defendant maintained the Chromebook policy by systematically removing officials who opposed it during his tenure as education and culture minister,” Abdullah said.

In a dissenting opinion, a member of the panel, Andi Saputra, argued that there was not enough evidence and Marakim should be acquitted.

As of the latest forecast, expect a classic early July pattern with hot and humid afternoons, highs in the low 90s, and scattered showers and thunderstorms developing each day. Not everyone will see rain, but afternoon and evening storms will remain possible throughout the holiday weekend.

The biggest question mark is an area off the coast of the Carolinas that is being monitored by the National Hurricane Center. As of Monday, there is a low 10% chance of tropical development.

Conditions remain marginally favorable for some tropical development over the next few days, as it drifts south and west.

At this point, forecast confidence is still leaning towards a typical Florida summer pattern, but it’s still too early to determine whether the low will play a role locally.

Be sure to check back with the News 6 weather team for the latest updates as the forecast evolves.

FWC trappers have since caught two large alligators in the area — one measuring 12 feet and the largest measuring 13 feet. Officials say DNA lab results are still needed to confirm which animal was responsible, but the 13-foot gator is considered a strong candidate.

On Monday afternoon, during a press conference at an FWC facility in Titusville, officers revealed that both the woman’s boyfriend and best friend witnessed the attack.

[WATCH: Woman killed by alligator in Seminole County, FWC says]

Their frantic call for help directed first responders to the Econlockhatchee River near Geneva, off Barr Street.

“Bad, real bad. Please hurry,” a caller said. Another voice can be heard later saying, “Please. We’re right off the water.”

The chaos and desperation in the call is unmistakable — voices overlapping, someone screaming in the background, a dispatcher working to pinpoint the group’s exact location along the river while urging the caller to stay with the victim. First responders, including a helicopter, were dispatched to the scene.

[RELATED: Alligator mating season kicks off in Florida. It could prove deadly]

The woman was transported to a hospital, where she later died from her injuries. FWC confirmed the victim was 31 years old and from Orlando. Her name has not yet been publicly released out of respect for family members who live out of state and have not yet been formally notified.

FWC Public Information Officer Chad Weber said the group had been hiking when they stopped to swim.

“They were hiking and they just stopped to swim,” Weber said. “Right now, in this part of our investigation, it doesn’t seem like they were doing anything that was malicious to an alligator.”

The woman was bitten on both arms while kneeling in approximately 3 feet of water. Her boyfriend grabbed hold of her and attempted to pull her free.

“The boyfriend was able to — while maintaining a hold of the victim — the gator did release,” said Lt. Grant Eller of FWC’s Office of Law Enforcement. “The gator remained in the area from witness statements.”

Witnesses described the alligator as very large — a description consistent with the 13-foot gator subsequently trapped at the exact location of the attack, Eller said.

FWC officials said DNA samples taken from both harvested gators will be sent to the agency’s lab in Gainesville within the next day or so.

“Our lab is going to push it to the front of the line,” Eller said. “So we’re hoping to get it back pretty quick.”

In the meantime, FWC and the Florida Forest Service have established what officials call a “targeted harvest area” near the attack site. That means any additional large alligators spotted in the area can be quickly removed by trappers.

“We’ll be able to address this as an issue as the gators pop up in the future,” Eller said.

Weber noted several possible factors may have triggered the attack, but said it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact cause at this time.

“It could be any number of things,” Weber said. “With low water levels that we have, we are coming into the end of mating season. Alligators become very territorial.”

What to know about encountering alligators

Our News 6 team spoke with Brandon Fisher, an alligator expert at Gatorland, about alligator behavior.

“Not knowing the full details of the size of the gator or what it was doing, it could have very well been a mom protecting their nest. It could have been one just hanging out, swimming,” Fisher said. “They don’t have the best eyesight underwater. They rely heavily on their sense of feeling. So anything that brushes up against their face, on their body, there’s potential for them to think that it might be food and bite for it.”

He added that large alligators are remarkably difficult to spot even in shallow water.

“A 12-foot alligator, which is a big male alligator, can fully submerge in a foot and a half of water and you not be able to see it, especially if it’s really dark water,” Fisher said. “An adult alligator can hold its breath — if it’s sitting real still, not moving around — for an hour and a half to two hours without popping up for another breath of air.”

Florida is home to approximately 1.3 million alligators — a healthy, stable population that inhabits all 67 counties and every wild area of the state that can support them. According to FWC records, this latest incident marks the 33rd confirmed fatal unprovoked alligator attack in Florida since 1948, making deadly encounters extremely rare but a real risk for anyone spending time near the state’s waterways.

“They’re built to be here in Florida, built to camouflage and hide really well,” Fisher said. “But if they get scared, they get spooked, they’re going to protect themselves.”

FWC officials are also reminding the public that alligators can be found in virtually every freshwater body in the state.

“Just be mindful that all freshwater water bodies in the state of Florida do contain alligators, and just use caution when swimming in freshwater,” Eller said.

Fisher offered several safety tips for Floridians and visitors alike: swim only in designated safe swimming areas, keep pets at least 25 feet from the water’s edge, avoid fishing from the water’s edge when possible, and never feed wild alligators.

“You want to see them up close and personal? Come to places like Gatorland, where you can see them and learn all about them,” Fisher said.

The Barr Street Trailhead was closed Monday afternoon. Visitors seeking updates on closures are directed to the Florida Forest Service website.

Those who spot a nuisance alligator can contact FWC’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program at 1-866-FWC-GATOR (392-4286).

LibTech, located inside UCF’s John C. Hitt Library, allowed students to check out laptops, cameras, chargers, headphones and other equipment. The technology lending desk closed Thursday, leaving shelves that once held those items empty.

The Curriculum Materials Center on the main campus also closed, along with the UCF Downtown Library.

Student Chelsey Lake said she discovered the changes only after returning to campus to return a laptop she had borrowed from LibTech.

“I went to the other library and this one, and I was like, that’s kind of weird, but I didn’t know that this was being closed down for good,” Lake said.

When asked whether the university had notified students before the closures, Lake said she had not received any notification.

“I didn’t know,” she said.

Lake said the technology lending program was widely used by students.

“We use all of their laptops, their speakers, their portable chargers. We use everything,” she said. “So it’s kind of disappointing and sad to see it go.”

News 6 contacted UCF asking why the university closed LibTech, the Curriculum Materials Center and the downtown library, how many students are affected, why student employees were not given advance notice and what alternatives are available for students who relied on the services.

In an emailed statement, the university said the closures followed “a comprehensive review of library usage, academic priorities, and available resources.”

UCF said the operational changes are part of an effort to better align library services with the university’s priorities.

However, the university did not answer News 6’s specific questions about how many students are affected, why student employees were not given notice or what long-term replacement services will be available.

Library staff who declined to be interviewed on camera directed students to UCF’s online feedback page to submit comments about the closures.

As of Monday, the UCF Library website listed both LibTech and the UCF Downtown Library as “no longer available.”

After News 6 followed up seeking additional information, a university spokesperson said they had “nothing further to offer at this time.”

News 6 will continue to follow up with UCF regarding the impact of the closures and what options will be available for students moving forward.

We’ve compiled a non-exhaustive list of upcoming Space Coast launches so you can know what to expect.

[RELATED: Best spots to watch a rocket launch]

Keep checking back, though, because as most space enthusiasts know, launch schedules are subject to change due to weather, technical reasons, and range restrictions.

I repeat: All launch dates and times are tentative!

• Date: July 3
• Vehicle: Falcon 9
• Mission: Starlink
• Launch Time: 7:20 a.m. to 11:20 a.m.
• Location: Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

• Date: First half of 2026
• Vehicle: Blue Origin New Glenn
• Mission: Blue Origin will launch a Blue Moon lunar lander carrying NASA payloads on a demonstration mission.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 36

• Date: TBD
• Vehicle: Boeing Starliner
• Mission: An uncrewed Boeing Starliner will deliver cargo to the International Space Station and undergo in-flight validation of a series of system upgrades.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: TBD

• Date: July 2026
• Vehicle: ULA Atlas V
• Mission: Amazon Project Kuiper
• Launch Time: 12:27-12:56 p.m.
• Location: Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

• Date: Q4 2026
• Vehicle: ULA Vulcan
• Mission: Sierra Space will launch its uncrewed Dream Chaser space plane atop a ULA Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 41

Those brightly colored engagement tactics long ago jumped from smartphone games to everything from online shopping to sports betting and classrooms. So it should come as no surprise that many nutrition-tracking apps like MyFitnessPal and Noom also use gaming features to keep users coming back.

But as nutrition apps proliferate, some researchers are raising alarms that gamification features may do more harm than good for some people.

Isabella Anderberg, a psychologist researching digital dieting behavior at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, said calorie tracking can reinforce behaviors associated with body dysmorphia and disordered eating.

“We do know that not everyone’s going to experience harm from using the apps, but there are certainly factors that might increase risk,” Anderberg said. “Approach with caution.”

The case for nutrition tracking apps

Anderberg said there is certainly a place for the apps. Health professionals she interviewed during her research reported that apps can be especially helpful as meal-planning tools for people managing chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. And physical activity apps remind people to move their bodies.

Many users report enjoying them, finding tactics like streak notifications to be motivating.

Angela Drury, an English professor in Woodstock, Georgia, began using MyFitnessPal more than 10 years ago to track protein, fat, carbohydrate and calorie intake when she started CrossFit. She has since cycled through several other apps, including Weight Watchers, Lose It and now Nourish, which is paid for by her insurance and includes blood work and weekly meetings with a dietitian.

Drury said the apps have helped her stay on track with fitness goals and have sometimes steered her away from high-calorie foods when she uploaded photos of meals she was considering eating. She feels a little boost when she gets a badge for continuing a streak for logging meals, but a notification that says she hasn’t entered lunch has the opposite effect.

“Then it felt like it was scolding me,” she said.

Be wary of what the app tells you

The way most apps work, users enter height, weight, age and other information and then set a goal. The app says how many calories or macronutrients are needed to reach that goal, using gamelike elements such as badges, streaks, rewards, points and notifications to encourage user engagement.

Many nutrition tracking apps are free but offer premium versions that users must pay for.

The Centers for Disease Control and others say that how many calories you need depends on factors including your age, sex and level of physical activity. The CDC provides a tool to calculate how many calories an individual needs.

Critics warn that food databases are often inaccurate, with estimated portion sizes and calorie counts that vary widely.

Courtney Simpson, a behavioral psychologist and director of eating disorders at the Evidence-Based Treatment Centers of Seattle, said some apps encourage people to set calorie goals that are far too low for any adult. That's not only unhealthy but can set people up for failure.

The gaming features keep people coming back to unrealistic goals, creating shame that may contribute to binge eating or other behaviors people are trying to change, Simpson said.

“It’s not that gamification itself is bad. It’s about what it is promoting,” she said. “Is that actually going to be beneficial?”

MyFitnessPal and Noom did not respond to several requests for comment.

Listen to your body

Anderberg said people who already believe that thinner is better are more likely to misuse the apps. Calorie and macronutrient tracking can then become obsessional, which creates more negative feelings when daily goals aren’t met.

She urged users to be skeptical of what the apps tell them to do and instead rely on their own intuition. If you feel the need to rest, nurse an injury or treat yourself to something delicious, do so.

“We are sort of losing that ability to read our body cues,” she said.

Simpson noted that focusing on weight as a measure of overall health, besides being inaccurate, makes it more likely to lose and regain weight. Such cycling is linked to worse health outcomes over time.

“If you really want lasting change, then you need to be doing behaviors that are feasible and sustainable for you over time,” she said.

Drury could see how the apps could be harmful for people predisposed to disordered eating, but she said the most important consideration for her is to set realistic goals and listen to your body.

“I’ve ultimately learned that you cannot starve yourself into being in the shape you want to be in,” she said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Albert Stumm writes about wellness, food and travel. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com

Around 11:30 p.m., crews responded to the 1500 block of NE 162nd Street after reports of a house fire. When crews arrived, the home was fully engulfed in flames, the sheriff’s office said.

Firefighters attempted to rescue an adult male who was unable to escape the home. He was found deceased at the scene. Once the flames were extinguished, Marion County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes detectives responded to begin a death investigation, deputies said.

The identity of the deceased has not yet been released pending notification of next of kin.

The state fire marshal is investigating.

TUESDAY

A weak front drifting south into Central Florida, combined with daytime heating and the sea breeze, will help spark showers and thunderstorms through the afternoon and early evening. Rain chances will be highest inland, where scattered to numerous storms are expected with coverage at 70-80%.

A few storms may become strong enough to produce wind gusts between 35 and 50 mph, small hail, frequent lightning, and heavy rainfall.

Before storms develop, it will feel hot and muggy. Afternoon highs will reach the upper 80s to low 90s, with heat index values climbing between 100 and 107 degrees.

OUTLOOK

The unsettled pattern continues through the rest of the week, with daily afternoon and evening thunderstorms remaining in the forecast. Rain chances increase slightly on Thursday before typical summertime weather continues into the holiday weekend (60-70%). Highs are expected to remain near normal in the low to mid 90s.

Corum and her wife have made it a priority to teach financial lessons to their three children, using engaging activities to encourage their interest in topics like saving and budgeting.

“My goal is for them to have a healthy relationship with money and not have insecurities,” said Corum, an Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity professional.

Not everyone feels as confident. Money can be a difficult conversation, especially if parents don’t feel totally comfortable with the topic themselves. But Jennifer Seitz, director of education at Greenlight, a family personal finance app, said that's starting to change.

“This generation is really committed to doing better for their kids even though a majority of parents don’t feel equipped,” Seitz said.

There are more banking products available to help parents think about their children's financial futures, including debit cards for kids that can be used under parental supervision and apps that gamify money to make it approachable for kids.

Some people actually start learning while they are parenting, like Naseema McElroy, a nurse who became a money content creator. When McElroy's oldest daughter was a year old, she felt inspired to learn more about personal finance to pay off debt. As she learned more, she started to share her knowledge with friends and then a wider audience online.

“I started just from wanting to share the lessons that I was learning about money with my friends because I felt like we learn so late in life and then we all had daughters,” McElroy said.

Many parents want to start talking about finances with their children because they didn't have financial education growing up, Seitz said.

Here are some expert recommendations if you want to start talking about money with your kids:

Talk about money openly and often

Money conversations can feel uncomfortable, especially if your family didn’t encourage them. But if you want your children to engage with money in a healthy way, it’s best to talk about it, said Carrie Joy Grimes, a personal finance expert and founder of WorkMoney, a personal finance nonprofit.

“Have conversations about money in front of your kid to normalize it,” Grimes said.

In Corum’s family, the topic of money has become part of their daily lives.

“We talk about how we have a budget for the house, that everything that their mom and I bring into the house has an assignment, a job,” Corum said.

A great way to start is by talking about the cost of things, said Courtney Pettway, CEO and founder of KidVestors, a financial literacy platform for children. Pettway recommends asking questions like: What does this item cost? Why do you want this item? Is it a need or a want? And if they're getting an allowance, you could ask: How long would it take for you to save up for this item?

At the dinner table, while you’re at the grocery store, when you travel or shop for clothes, take day-to-day situations and turn them into money lessons.

Teach children how to make money decisions

A key aspect of personal finance is knowing how to make choices with money. This can be taught by giving kids small amounts of money and allowing them to choose how to spend it, Grimes said.

“I gave (my daughter) enough money that she could make choices with it. So she learned early on that she had enough she could save up for something, so she could say no to things and say yes to other things,” said Grimes. “Learning to say no, learning to hold money to yourself for long enough to get the thing you want, it’s a really hard skill.”

When giving children the opportunity to choose, it's crucial parents don't impart judgment on their decisions, said Bobbi Rebell, consumer finance expert at BadCredit.org, a personal finance website. Framing choices as personal preferences rather than right or wrong answers will build children's confidence in their decision-making process, she said.

Parents can find free financial literacy worksheets for children from Hands on Banking, a free financial education service by Wells Fargo.

Teach how to set financial goals

For many children, their first access to money is through an allowance. Whether it’s saving for a new video game or a bicycle, setting a goal for their money can be a good way to teach children the value of saving.

“Recognizing the progress, seeing how close they’re getting to the goal, visualizing the end goal, and then really celebrating when they achieve that goal can help them learn that when they can make small financial goals a reality,” Seitz said.

Tip jars can be an analog way to track progress, Pettway said. Encourage your child to add a portion of the money they receive to a “savings” jar, an “investing” jar and a “giving” jar. As children see their jars getting full, they begin to be motivated to continue adding money.

It can also be beneficial to make children active participants in future plans, recommended Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, financial therapist and founder of Mind Money Balance, a financial wellness service. If, for example, your child wants to go to an expensive sports summer camp, encourage them to save a portion of the cost from their allowance or summer job.

Allow them to make mistakes

It's inevitable that kids will make mistakes while learning about money. These can be approached as opportunities to learn important money lessons that will be useful for their future, Rebell says. However, it’s important that you let your children make the mistakes rather than solve issues for them.

“If you constantly bail them out, they’re not gonna learn to manage it,” Rebell said.

Bryan-Podvin also recommends that you avoid responding to mistakes in a negative way. Showing intense frustration or anger can hurt children's trust and make them feel like they cannot turn to their parents when they make normal mistakes.

“Help them learn how to manage their emotions, help them think about how they might do things differently,” she added.

Get creative

Money can often seem boring, so making it fun, engaging, and entertaining can be the key to keeping your children’s interest alive.

For example, when shopping for things like school supplies, Corum chooses an appropriate amount from her own budget for her daughter to decide which items she wants. However, when shopping for toys or other non-essential items, Corum gives her daughter a portion of her allowance or other extra money she might have from special chores.

Corum gave her children debit cards and uses a family personal finance app connected to the cards to distribute their allowances and monitor their spending. Her children have access to their debit cards through their own app portal where they can see their spending, save, invest and learn more about personal finance topics.

Apps like Acorns Early, Greenlight and BusyKid are among the most popular family personal finance apps.

——

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

“That’s how much the water quality has changed over a 20-year period,” Gleichmann said. “And it’s going to take us another 20 years to fix it.”

But Gleichmann isn’t waiting. The retired Ormond Beach resident is doing something about it.

In early 2024, Gleichmann came across an article in Florida Sportsman magazine about vertical oyster gardens, or VOGs, and how they had made a significant impact on water quality in Tampa Bay.

“I was intrigued by it,” he said.

He reached out to researchers at Whitney Laboratory in St. Augustine and the Coastal Conservation Association, both of which affirmed that VOGs could work just as well on Florida’s East Coast as on the West Coast.

Gleichmann then pitched a conservation piece to a local waterfront magazine. Ten days after the story ran, 38 people showed up at his living room, ready to get involved.

Gleichmann started the community group, Oysters for My neighborhood, enlisting more neighbors to get involved too.

“Surprised would be an understatement,” Gleichmann said. “We have since then had so many people come on board, so many people show excitement about what we’re doing.”

A VOG is simple by design. Each one is made up of about 30 recycled oyster shells, collected from local restaurants, that are spread out in the sun for about six months to ensure everything inside the shell is dead before they’re returned to the water.

“Believe it or not, these were probably on someone’s dinner plate eight months ago,” Gleichmann said.

The shells are strung on biodegradable crab trap line, assembled in alternating, back-to-back fashion to create small pockets where crabs, shrimp and eventually oysters can take hold. Three shells-strung assemblies are packaged in a bag with full installation instructions and all the hardware needed to hang them from a residential dock.

“Simple to assemble, simple to install,” Gleichmann said. “You can build it, hang it off your dock, be done.”

No permits are required. That’s a key distinction from other oyster restoration efforts. The only rule is that the bottom shell cannot touch the river bottom.

Once in the water, a VOG typically takes 12 to 18 months to grow a mature oyster. When it does, some studies show, each oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water per day.

After that first growing season, the process accelerates. Oysters on the VOG begin producing their own spat - larval oysters - so the garden essentially replenishes itself year after year.

“Year two, year three, you actually get significantly more growth on the VOG because you get some local oysters on the VOG,” Gleichmann said.

Gleichmann’s program currently has approximately 1,500 VOGs in the water across Ormond Beach, Flagler Beach, Daytona Beach and Edgewater. By comparison, Tampa Baywatch has more than 20,000 in Tampa Bay, where Gleichmann says VOGs have been credited with a measurable improvement in water quality.

“We’ve got a long way to go before we get to 20,000,” Gleichmann acknowledged. “And we have an awful long river to take care of.”

Perhaps the most surprising part of the program has been the community response. Gleichmann hosted a build party last year that drew 100 volunteers in a single Saturday, producing 500 VOGs in one day.

Participants have included Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Brownies, cheerleaders from Mainland High School, and families spanning multiple generations.

“It has just grown in leaps and bounds since 2024,” Gleichmann said. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the kind of excitement we’ve generated.”

Gleichmann points to more than just the cloudy water as evidence of the river’s decline. The fishing he once enjoyed from his dock is largely gone. Redfish, trout and flounder, once common, are now rare sights.

“The days of catching anything other than a stingray or a catfish are pretty well gone,” he said.

His wife, Pat, echoes his concern.

“We’ve seen a big drop in the amount of fish that have been in the water because it’s not clean enough for them,” Pat said. “They go elsewhere. There’s not enough bait in the water.”

Chuck attributes the deterioration to a combination of factors, nitrogen runoff, aging septic tanks and overdevelopment.

“Everything here ends up in the river,” he said. “We can put in as many VOGs as you want, but we’ve gotta fix the other stuff too.”

Still, signs of life are encouraging. An adopted sheepshead visits Gleichmann’s dock nearly every evening around 5 p.m., tugging at the VOG lines to shake loose small crabs for dinner.

“Maybe things are changing a little bit,” Gleichmann said. “Gives me hope. I hope I’m here to see it all.”

For now, Gleichmann - affectionately known in his community as “the oyster guy” - is focused on growing the program, spreading the word and encouraging his neighbors to hang a few bags off their own docks.

“I’ve been called a hell of a lot worse than that,” he said of the nickname. “As long as I can get people to sign up to these things and do installs and call us up and tell us, hey, I want to be involved - they can call me pretty much whatever they want.”

Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the 6-3 court that people don’t forfeit expectations of privacy even when they opt into Google’s location history.

“A cellphone user is not to be viewed as sharing private information with third parties—which then can be freely passed on to the government—just by doing the ordinary things cellphone users do,” Kagan wrote.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote in dissent that Okello Chatrie had no expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turned over to Google.

The decision is the court’s latest effort to apply a constitutional provision ratified in 1791 to technology the nation’s founders could not have envisioned.

Police obtained a geofence warrant after a bank robbery in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia, and used it to locate cellphones that were near the bank around the time it was robbed in May 2019.

One of those phones belonged to Chatrie, who had eluded the police until they turned to the powerful technological tool.

The warrant kick-started the investigation. After determining that Chatrie was among those near the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian at the time, police obtained a search warrant for his home. They found nearly $100,000 in cash, including bills wrapped in bands signed by the bank teller.

Chatrie pleaded guilty to robbing the bank and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison. His lawyers argued on appeal that none of the evidence should have been used against him.

They challenged the warrant as a violation of his privacy because it allowed authorities to gather the location history of people near the bank without having any evidence they had anything to do with the robbery. Prosecutors argued that Chatrie had no expectation of privacy because he voluntarily opted into Google’s location history.

The Supreme Court did not decide Monday whether the search complied with the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable searches and seizures. It sent the case back to a lower court for more work.

A federal judge had ruled that the search violated Chatrie’s rights, but allowed the evidence to be used because the officer who applied for the warrant reasonably believed he was acting properly.

The federal appeals court in Richmond upheld the conviction in a fractured ruling. In a separate case, the federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that geofence warrants “are general warrants categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.”

• Neo-banks have surged in popularity by offering mobile-first banking and fewer fees.
• Have you heard of Chime, So-Fi, Current, or Dave? They’re all neo-banks.
• Here’s the catch: many (but not all) neo-banks aren’t actually banks.

You’ve seen these commercials hundreds of times. Generic footage of generic people in a beautiful (but generic) neighborhood. Everything is in slow motion. Impossibly clear close-ups. Everyone is laughing. The streets are spotless. The weather is perfect.

And then there’s... the bank.

Friendly tellers. Helpful branch managers. Lots of smiles, and of course, the slow-motion handshake.

It’s the neighborhood bank. Part of the community. A place you trust. Then comes the familiar closing line. You know it by heart and can probably say it with me:

“Member FDIC.”

Hold on to those two words, because we’re coming back to them.

And when we do, they may not mean quite what you think they do.

Today’s Dollars & Sense is about neo-banks. If you’ve never heard the term, chances are you’ve heard of some of the biggest players: Chime, Current, Dave and SoFi. Unlike traditional banks, neo-banks operate almost entirely through smartphone apps and websites, not through physical brick and mortar branches you can walk into.

And here’s where things get interesting: most neo-banks aren’t actually banks. Many neo-banks are what are called financial technology companies, or fintechs.

A fintech is a company that uses technology to deliver financial services in a faster, simpler or more convenient way than traditional financial institutions. Think mobile banking, payment apps, online investing, or even applying for a loan – all from your smartphone or computer.

And how do neo-banks fit in? Instead of building branches, neo-banks build software.

The goal of a neo-bank isn’t to become the next Bank of America or Chase – it’s to build a better banking experience: easy-to-use apps that make banking faster, simpler, and, in many cases, cheaper. Combine that with smart marketing and a strong social media presence, and it’s easy to see why millions of consumers have embraced neo-banks.

But if a neo-bank isn’t really a bank, how is it allowed to do banking things? To close the loop, a neo-bank partners with an FDIC-insured bank to provide the actual checking and savings accounts.

So – when you deposit money into a neo-bank, you’re usually not depositing it into the fintech itself – you’re depositing it into a partner bank behind the scenes. Think of it this way: the fintech builds the house, but the partner bank installs the essentials: the plumbing, the electricity, and the foundation. One creates the experience – the other provides the infrastructure that makes it all work.

For millions of people, all they want to know is that if something goes wrong, the money sitting in a bank that’s “Member FDIC,” is protected. What could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, quite a bit.

Yotta: When the Plumbing Breaks

In 2019, a new neo-bank debuted: Yotta. And right from the start, Yotta was unlike anything else on the market.

While many neo-banks aggressively pushed high-yield savings accounts, Yotta took a completely different approach. At launch, it offered a modest 0.20% APY – slightly better than many traditional banks, but hardly a game changer. Instead of competing on interest rates, Yotta’s marketing hook was simple: turn saving money into a sweepstakes.

Here’s how it worked: for every $25 a customer deposited, they received an entry into a weekly prize drawing. Most prizes were small, but Yotta advertised the possibility of life-changing jackpots worth millions of dollars. The more money customers saved, the more entries they received – and the better their odds of winning.

Customers weren’t chasing interest – they were chasing excitement.

Yotta gamified the act of saving money.

Instead of buying a $2 lottery ticket every week, people could put another $25 into savings. If they won, great! If they didn’t, they still had their $25. And for hundreds of thousands of customers, Yotta seemed like the future of banking.

Then, almost overnight, many of them couldn’t access their money – not because their bank failed, but because the system connecting everything together failed. And this is where we get back to “Member FDIC” for a third time in this story, because what happened next exposed an important distinction: FDIC insurance protects depositors when an insured bank fails.

That isn’t what happened here.

The Invisible Middleman

Most Yotta customers thought there were only two parties involved with their money: themselves and Yotta. Some understood that Yotta wasn’t actually a bank – that instead it was a fintech company partnering with FDIC-insured banks to hold customer deposits.

What many customers likely didn’t know was that there was another company in the mix: Synapse.

Synapse wasn’t a bank and it wasn’t a neo-bank. Synapse was a banking technology company that connected fintechs like Yotta to a network of FDIC-insured partner banks.

When Yotta launched, customer deposits were held primarily by Evolve Bank & Trust. But as the business grew, Synapse expanded to include a broader network of partner banks for Yotta, including Lineage Bank, AMG National Trust, and American Bank, N.A.

Again, every one of those banks was FDIC insured and everything was business as usual. But then in April 2024, Synapse filed for bankruptcy.

When Synapse failed, the system connecting Yotta, its customers, and those partner banks snapped. As bankruptcy proceedings unfolded, significant discrepancies emerged between Synapse’s records and those maintained by the partner banks. Translation: no one could immediately determine exactly which customer funds were being held at which bank – or in what amount.

The records simply did not match.

Member FDIC... But Not the Way You Think

At this point, everyone is asking the same question: “If funds were sitting in FDIC-insured banks, why couldn’t customers get their money?”

The answer is surprisingly simple: the bank didn’t fail, the middleman did. And the conditions that trigger FDIC protection of deposits never occurred.

The collapse of Synapse triggered a reconciliation crisis.

The immediate problem wasn’t that the partner banks had lost the money – it was that significant discrepancies between Synapse’s records and those of the partner banks made it impossible to immediately reconcile customer balances.

In other words, before customers could be paid, someone first had to figure out exactly who was owed what.

Ultimately, many customers recovered all or part of their deposits, but the process wasn’t completed in days – it took months. As banks, bankruptcy officials, and outside consultants worked to reconcile millions of transactions, some customers received their full balances, while others disputed the amounts they were paid and pursued legal remedies. For many, the uncertainty lasted long after Synapse filed for bankruptcy.

Yotta is a cautionary tale, but it doesn’t mean neo-banks are inherently unsafe. Millions of Americans use them every day without incident. The real lesson is this: before trusting a financial app with your money, understand who is behind it, where your deposits are held and what protections apply if something goes wrong.

“Member FDIC” remains one of the strongest consumer protections in banking. But as the Yotta case demonstrated, understanding who – and what – stands between you and your money is just as important.

If you’re considering a neo-bank, take a few minutes to look beyond the app.

Find out which bank actually holds your deposits, confirm that it’s FDIC insured, and understand how your money moves through the system. It’s information most people never think to ask about – until they need it.

By viewing retirement savings as a five-stage life cycle, investors can minimize the IRS’ take and maximize what stays in their pocket.

1. The seedling stage: The working advantage

The most powerful tool in the tax code is time. If a child has earned income—perhaps from a family business or a summer job—they are eligible to jump-start their future immediately.

The Strategy: Parents should encourage their teens to find a job or even employ them on their own for legitimate work. In 2026, the standard deduction is $16,100. Most teens likely will earn less than that, so they’ll pay 0% in income tax. Furthermore, if they are working for a parent’s unincorporated business, they are typically exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes until age 18.

The Benefit: The child can contribute up to the amount of their earned income or $7,500, whichever is less, into a Roth IRA. Because they are in a 0% bracket, the “cost” of the Roth is zero, but the reward is massive: decades of compounding where both the principal and the interest are tax-free forever.

2. The early career: Roth renaissance

When a young adult first enters the professional workforce, their tax bracket is usually at its lifetime low. This is the optimal time to prioritize Roth contributions over current tax deductions.

The Strategy: Early-career workers should contribute to a Roth IRA or a Roth 401(k). At a minimum, they should contribute enough to their company’s plan to capture the full employer match—that’s free money!

The Benefit: Paying a 10% or 12% tax rate now (which, for a married couple in 2026, covers taxable income up to $100,800) to secure tax-free withdrawals 40 years from now is a bargain. Investors are effectively “buying” a tax-free future while their “tax price” is at a discount.

3. The peak earnings years: pivot to deduction

As workers hit their 40s and 50s, they typically enter their highest-earning years. Now, the math flips. Their goal shifts from paying taxes now to deferring taxes while they are in a top-tier bracket.

The Strategy: Highly paid workers should shift their focus to traditional IRAs and deductible 401(k)s. In 2026, investors can defer up to $24,500 ($32,500 if over 50) into a 401(k). Every dollar contributed reduces their taxable income today at what is likely their highest marginal rate.

The Benefit: Earners are betting that their tax bracket in retirement—when they no longer have a salary—will be lower than it is today. They save 37 cents on the dollar now and aim to pay it back at a much lower rate down the road.

4. The ‘gap years’: The Roth conversion window

The period between retirement and the start of required minimum distributions, which now begin at age 73 for most, is the golden age of tax planning. Often, investors’ income drops significantly, putting them in an artificially low tax bracket.

The Strategy: Retirees should use this low-income window to enact Roth conversions and move money from their traditional IRA to their Roth IRA, paying the tax at today’s low rates.

The Benefit: This strategy “shrinks” the size of future forced RMDs and builds two distinct pools of capital: one taxable and one tax-free. This flexibility is retirees’ greatest defense against future tax law changes.

5. Late retirement: The legacy and distribution phase

In the final stage, the goal is to maintain the lowest possible average tax bracket while fulfilling charitable and familial goals.

The Strategy: Retirees should draw strategically between their two pools, using the traditional IRA for their taxable floor and the Roth for a spike in expenses (such as a new car or a big trip) to avoid being pushed into a higher bracket.

There’s also a charitable/legacy play retirees can use: Qualified charitable distributions satisfy RMDs tax-free once retirees hit age 70½.

The Benefit: For their heirs, retirees can leave their Roth IRA to their kids (giving them 10 years of tax-free growth) and leave the traditional IRA to charity, which pays zero tax on the distribution.

The bottom line

Retirement planning is a living life cycle. By matching your account type to your current tax reality, you aren’t just saving for the future, you’re outmaneuvering the IRS at every stage of the game.

______

This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.

Sheryl Rowling, CPA, is an editorial director, financial adviser for Morningstar.

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The International Skating Union said Tuesday it was lifting a ban since February 2022 on skaters and officials from Russia and Belarus taking part in its events, though without their national symbols of flag and anthem.

Still, athletes could face issues getting entry visas from countries hosting ISU events.

In 2027, the world championships of figure skating is hosted by Finland and South Korea hosts in short track. China will host the next speed skating worlds.

The ISU cited the success of some skaters from Russia and Belarus qualifying for and competing at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics “without related incident.”

In figure skating in Milan, Russians Adeliia Petrosian and Petr Gumennik were cleared to compete with neutral status and both finished sixth in their individual events. Viktoriia Safonova of Belarus also competed with Individual Neutral Athlete status.

Guidance from the International Olympic Committee also was noted by the ISU. The IOC advised sports bodies on May 7 to readmit athletes from Belarus without vetting for neutral status.

Skaters approved with neutral status must not have “at any time since February 2022, actively and publicly supported that war,” the ISU said.

The governing body said the decision “does not affect the ISU’s continued condemnation of armed conflict, nor the ISU’s ongoing support for Ukrainian skaters.”

The exclusion of Russian and Belarus skaters since 2022 was, the ISU said, not a punishment for the war but a decision taken “exclusively in the interests of the safety of participants and the integrity of the competition.”

___

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

In a release posted to X, Uthmeier claimed that the competition — the North American Irish Dance Championships — allow transgender women to compete in the same category as women.

“Florida law protects fair competition for actual women and girls,” he wrote. “Sex-based categories are rooted in biological reality, not ideology.”

The upcoming North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando currently allow men who identify as women to compete in and earn recognition as women.

Florida law protects fair competition for actual women and girls. Sex-based categories are rooted in biological reality, not… pic.twitter.com/8Dg4PbVNSM

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 29, 2026

As such, Uthmeier reportedly issued a letter to the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America, which is set to host the event at the Rosen Centre Hotel from July 2 - 7.

In his letter, Uthmeier asserts that allowing transgender women to compete in the women’s category violates legal protections for biological women.

“Holding athletic competitions divided by biological sex protects women from discriminatory treatment,” the letter reads. “Males, after all, possess physical advantages over females, such as greater muscle mass and strength, and those biological advantages confer an obvious competitive edge that warrant sex-based sports categories.”

[RELATED: Florida plans to shut down ‘teen takeovers,’ AG says]

Uthmeier ended his letter with a warning: to confirm by Tuesday, June 30, that the organization will not permit men to compete against women in the women’s categories or any future Florida-based competitions.

“Should CLRF and IDTANA refuse to do so, my office will take appropriate action to protect the rights of women in Florida,” he concluded.

The rules come as part of HB 7031E, which was rolled into this year’s overall state budget plan. The bill takes effect in full on Wednesday, July 1.

Below is a lineup of these new tax rules, per legislative analysts:

SALES TAXES

• Back-to-School Tax Holiday — The new back-to-school sales tax holiday created last year will now begin on July 20 (before school starts) and run through Aug. 20 each year.
• New Tax Holiday — Creates a new hunting, fishing and camping sales tax holiday from Sept. 1 - Dec. 31 this year. The items covered by this provision are as follows:

• Home Hardening — Allows purchasers of home hardening products — such as impact-resistant doors, garage doors and windows — to seek a sales tax refund for purchases between July 1, 2026, and June 30, 2029.
• Propane Tanks — Creates a permanent tax exemption for propane tanks with a capacity of 20 pounds or less.
• State Universities — Allows state colleges and universities to obtain refunds for sales tax paid by contractors on materials used in public works contracts.
• Sports Tournaments — Exempts admissions to any Association of Tennis Professionals’ ATP Masters 1000 tournament or any Women’s Tennis Association’s WTA 1000 tournament from sales taxes through July 1, 2029.
• Heavy Trucks — Allows purchasers of certain heavy trucks to designate up to $105 of sales tax paid to an eligible nonprofit scholarship-funding organization under the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program.

PROPERTY TAXES

• Mobile Home Parks — Limits annual assessment increases for certain mobile home parks to 3% starting on Jan. 1, 2027.
• Save Our Homes — Allows the “Save Our Homes” benefit to transfer to a new homestead from any homestead abandoned in the prior three years.
• Listing Websites — Requires online property listing platforms to include the estimated property taxes for residential properties.
• Intelligence Officers — Lets a homeowner continue to qualify for homestead benefits when the property is rented to another person, so long as the homeowner is a diplomatic, intelligence, consular, or foreign service officer of the federal government who is required to live outside of Florida.
• Military Members — Adds additional named military operations for the deployed servicemember property tax exemption and allows deployments in 2023, 2024 and 2025 on named operations to qualify for the exemption.

OTHER RULES

• School Levies — Removes the requirement for a board of county commissioners to call an election for school district levies, instead requiring school board-approved resolutions to be voted on by voters in the next general election held over 90 days after adoption.
• Alarm Systems — Extends a temporary exemption through June 30, 2028, for non-interest-bearing written obligations to pay $3,500 or less, when given by a customer to an alarm system contractor for the sale of an alarm system.
• Slot Machines — Reduces the tax on slot machine revenues from 35% to 34%.
• Cardroom Revenues — Reduces the gross receipts tax on cardroom revenues from 8% to 5%.
• Childcare Program — Extends the Child Care Tax Credit Program through FY 2027-2029.

Meanwhile, all other new Florida laws signed on Monday include the following:

SB 2506-E — Fuel Taxes

Senate Bill 2506-E amends state statutes relating to distributions from the fuel sales tax.

The law provides an increase to the Agricultural Emergency Eradication Trust Fund; the Marine Resources Conservation Trust Fund; the State Game Trust Fund; and the Invasive Plant Trust Fund.

This aims to conform the law to the most recent budget act.

The law takes effect on July 1

SB 2508-E — Law Enforcement Radios

Senate Bill 2508-E continues a $3 surcharge on certain criminal offenses and noncriminal moving traffic violations, which would otherwise expire on July 1.

Funds from this surcharge support the cost of the Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System.

This aims to conform the law to the most recent budget act.

The law took effect immediately upon being signed.

HB 5001-E — Budget Act

House Bill 5001-E is the budget act for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

This time around, the state budget amounts to roughly $117.6 billion — a total figure after the governor vetoed nearly $810 million line items.

The law takes effect in full on July 1.

HB 5003-E — Budget Implementation

House Bill 5003-E helps implements the state’s budget act for FY 2026-2027 by making a variety of statutory changes.

The statutory changes provided by this law will remain in effect until next year.

The law takes effect in full on July 1.

HB 5201-E — Collective Bargaining

House Bill 5201-E provides that the resolution of collective bargaining issues at an impasse for FY 2026-2027 regarding state employees will ultimately be resolved based on spending decisions included in the budget act.

The law takes effect on July 1.

HB 5205-E — Retirement Contributions

House Bill 5205-E conforms state law to the budget act, as retirement contributions are included in the budget act.

The law revises employer contribution rates for the normal costs and the unfunded actuarial liability of the Florida Retirement System based on the annual actuarial study for FY 2026-2027 and the following FRS changes:

• Authorization of an elected officer (other than a lawmaker) who has completed his/her Deferred Retirement Option Program participation to receive his/her accumulated funds after reaching 59.5 years of age without terminating from office
• Establishment of an alternative cost-of-living adjustment for eligible Special Risk Class members of 1.5%

The law takes effect on July 1.

HB 5301-E — Health Care

House Bill 5301-E conforms several statutes to the budget act, including:

• Makes changes to the FDOH’s revolving loan program, new newborn screening testing, infant nutritional needs, and trauma centers
• Establishes a formula to allocate funds related to the Slots for Doctors Program
• Makes the Step into Success Workforce Education and Internship Program permanent
• Establishes the Foster and Family Support Grant Program
• Establishes the Eligibility Assistance Program to provide Medicaid eligibility information, referral, and navigation services for people with disabilities

The law takes effect on July 1.

HB 5403-E — Correctional Facilities

House Bill 5403-E conforms current law to the budget act, establishing Legislative intent to provide funding to address critical fixed capital outlay needs of the Department of Corrections (FDC). Changes include:

• Requires $50 million in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund over the next 30 years
• Requires FDC to use funding to develop a capital improvement plan for new and existing correctional facilities
• Directs FDC to begin planning a new 600-bed correctional hospital unit starting on July 1

The law takes effect on July 1.

HB 5601-E — Higher Education

House Bill 5601-E conforms current law to the budget act, making the following changes:

• Revises performance metrics used by the Board of Governors (BOG) to allocate performance-based funding among state universities
• Creates the Disaster Preparedness Center at Florida International university as a statewide center for disaster prep, response, recovery and resilience training
• Allows each university board of trustees toe stablish out-of-state fees for nonresident students
• Allows the State Board of Education and the BOG to approve, reject or amend the list of general education courses for Florida College System institutions and state universities

The law took effect immediately upon being signed.

HB 5701-E — Petroleum Cleanup

House Bill 5701-E conforms current law to the budget act, amending the Petroleum Cleanup Participation Program and the Florida Petroleum Liability and Restoration Insurance Program.

This law removes program deductibles, copayments, and monetary caps for eligible parties and has the costs absorbed by the Inland Protection Trust Fund.

The law takes effect on July 1.

SB 7040 — Emergency Fund

Senate Bill 7040 recreates the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund within the Executive Office of the Governor.

The fund is meant to be used to prepare for or respond to disasters declared by the governor as a state of emergency.

The law took effect immediately upon being signed.

Guo Wengui, who fled China a decade ago and reinvented himself as a U.S.-based Communist Party critic, was sentenced in a Manhattan courtroom packed with his supporters by Judge Analisa Torres. She said he “preyed on those seeking to bring Democracy to China,” taking their money so he could live lavishly.

Before he was sentenced, Guo protested his treatment in jail, saying he was taken to the hospital early Monday. He disputed a prosecutor's portrayal of him as a malingerer faking illness, saying he repeatedly vomited as he was returned to jail before being brought to court.

“When I came here, I said: ‘I have a tummy ache, I need to go to the bathroom, I don’t feel well,’” Guo said through an interpreter of his courthouse arrival. Later, Guo wiped his mouth repeatedly with a tissue.

He only briefly addressed the criminal case, defending his intentions by saying in reference to the Chinese Communist Party: “The reason I came to the U.S. was to destroy the CCP."

The judge, in sentencing him, read snippets of letters she received from victims who described losing their life savings and feeling severely anxious and shamed and having family members turn on them for their poor investment choice.

Torres said Guo “takes no responsibility for his actions and instead insists incredibly his conduct caused no loss and harmed no one.” She said he “has called upon supporters to harass and intimidate those who dare to speak out against him.”

The judge ordered Guo to forfeit $889 million in restitution.

Wei Chen, a victim who testified at trial, told Torres that Guo's fraud "destroyed my life" and that of her family.

As Guo left the courtroom after the sentencing, supporters applauded and shouted toward him.

Before his arrest and detention without bail three years ago, Guo grew so close to conservative political strategist Steve Bannon that they announced a joint initiative to overthrow the Chinese government in 2020. He lived in a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park and had joined President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Florida golf club.

Prosecutors had requested he serve at least 30 years in prison, saying his "astonishing" fraud from 2018 to 2023 “destroyed hundreds of lives” and left “a wreckage of victims and families who have been devastated financially, emotionally, and psychologically.”

Prosecutors said in court papers that his ill-gotten riches fueled “a lifestyle of extraordinary excess and indulgence, a gilded life of mansions, yachts, race cars, designer clothes and luxury furnishings.”

Guo was convicted of nine of 12 criminal charges during a seven-week trial that prosecutors said showcased his deception of thousands of investors in bogus deals that enabled Guo's lavish lifestyle.

In a court filing, Guo's lawyers wrote that he was the victim of the Chinese Communist Party's “grand, pervasive, and life threatening” pursuit of him. They alleged that the party recruited elites in U.S. business, entertainment and politics to conspire against him.

They said in presentence court papers that a lengthy prison term would only validate China's smear campaign and “embolden further efforts to eliminate Chinese dissidents from public life” while defendants in similar cases received prison terms of two-to-four years.

The lawyers noted that a court probation officer wrote to the sentencing judge that Guo, also known as Miles Guo and Ho Wan Kwok, had scars and disfigurements from physical torture he endured in China and subsequent surgeries he underwent from 1993 to 2022 to repair the injuries.

Defense lawyers said Guo's wealth grew as his family became the largest shareholder of China's largest publicly traded securities company, but he became a target of Chinese government officials as he exposed them as corrupt. Eventually, the lawyers wrote, Guo moved to Hong Kong, London and then New York in 2017.

Chinese authorities accused him of rape, kidnapping, bribery and other crimes, but Guo said those allegations were false.

On Monday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they had noted the sentencing, and that Guo is wanted by the Chinese government and has an Interpol “Red Notice” on him. The notice is a request to police forces around the world to arrest a suspect, pending extradition.

Prosecutors say Guo convinced hundreds of thousands of people to invest more than $1 billion total in entities he controlled, including his media company, GTV Media Group Inc., and his so-called Himalaya Farm Alliance and the Himalaya Exchange.

Guo, the government alleged in presentence court papers, was “entirely unrepentant” for his crimes after he took advantage of lax U.S. asylum laws to flourish in America.

Bruised around his left eye and across much of his body, 46-year-old Serrano is recovering from the ordeal he endured with his son and mother Wednesday.

The three were buried beneath rubble and twisted steel when their eight-story apartment building collapsed in the city of Caraballeda in La Guaira, the state hardest hit by the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes.

“It is a miracle from God,” Serrano said as he recalled how, in total darkness, he clawed through debris with his bare hands before rescuing his 8-year-old son and 69-year-old mother with the help of two passersby.

The two earthquakes have killed more than 1,700 people and injured more than 5,000, according to the government. Hundreds of buildings collapsed or were damaged, primarily in La Guaira. Significant damage was also reported in the capital, Caracas, and in the states of Carabobo, Miranda, Aragua and Yaracuy.

La Guaira — known as Vargas until 2019 — is Venezuela’s second-smallest state but one of its most strategically important. About 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Caracas, it is home to the country’s main international airport and second-largest seaport.

Its roughly 440,000 residents are largely low-income and depend on tourism, commerce and jobs tied to the airport and seaport.

Speaking from his brother's home in Caracas, Serrano recalled the terror he felt last week, his thoughts inevitably returning to Dec. 15, 1999, when he was jolted awake by the screams of their household employee, who had seen a nearby river overflow after days of heavy rain.

From his window, he watched the swollen river sweep away trees, massive boulders and vehicles with people trapped inside, banging on the windows and pleading for help.

Driven by instinct, Serrano fled his fourth-floor apartment with his mother, sister and nanny, climbing to the roof. From there, they watched floodwaters engulf the building’s lower floors as massive trees slammed into its columns, fearing it would collapse like others nearby.

Their fears eased at dawn as the rain stopped and the floodwaters began to recede. After waiting in vain for rescue, the family made their way through mud, rocks, debris and fallen trees to his grandparents’ home in a nearby neighborhood.

The 1999 floods and landslides known as the “Vargas Tragedy” killed 782 people, another 2,000 were reported missing and about 250,000 residents were affected, according to Ángel Rangel, who led rescue operations as director of Venezuela’s Civil Protection agency.

Still shaken by the devastation left by the earthquakes, Serrano believes La Guaira — bordered by the Caribbean Sea and the Ávila mountain range — is under a curse.

“It isn’t normal for such horrible things to happen in the same place,” he said.

Rangel, a disaster specialist, sees it differently. The engineer said the buildings that collapsed in La Guaira were built on terrain formed over centuries by sediment carried down from the surrounding mountains.

“That type of terrain is particularly risky for construction,” Rangel said, adding that building in such areas requires “strict adherence to seismic-resistant engineering standards” adopted after the powerful 1967 earthquake that struck Caracas.

Many of the buildings that collapsed in La Guaira were built in the 1970s, and it remains unclear whether they met those standards.

After losing his home and all his belongings, Serrano said he does not know what comes next. But one thing is certain: He will never live in La Guaira again.

“That’s twice now,” he said. “Sometimes I think if there’s a third time, it’s going to win the battle.”

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

Born in Lebanon to Palestinian refugees, Kabouli had never seen her parents’ homeland. But more than just making pretty designs, the threads in her needle were stitching a connection to her heritage.

It's known as “tatreez,” and Kabouli, 48, started doing the traditional form of Palestinian embroidery in her teens to make money. Besides an economic lifeline, tatreez has provided her with a bridge to the land her parents fled during the 1948 mass displacement that Palestinians call their Nakba, or catastrophe.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes in present day Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. Israel refused their return.

Kabouli's work allows her to send a message of resilience, of survival.

“We’re still here,” she said. “All what has been happening in Gaza … and we’re still standing and we’ll not forget the cause.”

From refugee camps to stitching circles and from museum halls to online classes, many in the Palestinian diaspora communities worldwide engage with tatreez as far more than a decorative aesthetic.

They're finding in it a celebration of cultural heritage, a bridge to their homeland and dispersed communities and — with its myriad embroidered symbols — a visual language of storytelling. To many, refugees or not, it's become a symbol of Palestinian identity and pride, a vehicle for documenting history and a form of resistance.

With the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, some have also used it to raise funds for people there or stitched designs to focus attention on Palestinian suffering in the enclave.

“We had a lot of people who came and they’re like, ‘OK, we want to do a T-shirt with a Gaza chest or we want to do a scarf with the Gaza motif,’” said Ali Jaafar, general manager of Inaash Association, where Kabouli works. The Lebanese organization provides Palestinian women in refugee camps in Lebanon with much-needed income through tatreez, while also aiming to help preserve and promote the heritage. It sells embroidered fashion, home decor and art pieces, and showcases the art form in exhibitions and museums.

Protecting heritage and ‘struggling through culture’

Efforts to preserve and raise awareness about tatreez in Palestinian communities at home and abroad are part of a larger push to safeguard a heritage and connections to a history and a place that many fear are at risk of being erased.

“Palestinian tatreez is an identity and a document of our presence in every Palestinian village and town," said Maha Saca, founder and director of the Palestinian Heritage Center in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, adding that old embroidered thobes, or dresses, show the presence of Palestinians in particular locations before the dispersal of many.

“The Palestinian woman has written the story of her village through motifs from her surrounding environment and her beliefs,” Saca said. “We’re struggling through culture and saying we have roots.”

The Palestinian embroidery art form was added in 2021 to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In New York, Lina Barkawi, whose small business teaches tatreez, said the “constant fight for liberation and having a Palestinian identity that’s recognized globally is really what has been driving a lot of this documentation.”

A generational practice and window into history

In Arabic, tatreez refers to embroidery in general as well as the specific Palestinian form, which is often a social practice taught through generations by grandmothers and mothers. Some seek formal training.

With motifs that Palestinian women had historically adopted from their surroundings, the old embroidered thobes can offer clues through stitched patterns, design and color about facets of a woman's personal story, her environment and regional identity, Saca said.

In the Palestinian context, such connections to time and place, including areas now in Israel, gain added importance as testament to what was, she said. “How do we have a Jaffa thobe if we hadn’t been in Jaffa?" she said. "We write history on our thobes.”

There's also an element of continuity. Saca said her grandmother’s embroidered wedding thobe bears the hallmarks of Bethlehem dresses, and that her own granddaughter’s baptism dress included embroideries copied from that dress.

Tatreez also can be political, both through preservation and creation.

“Just being able to have some of the dresses from pre-1948 is a political act,” Barkawi said.

There's also the making of the so-called “intifada thobe” that included embroidered political and Palestinian symbols, such as the flag. It's linked to the “first intifada,” or uprising, which erupted in 1987 against Israel’s occupation and was met with a fierce Israeli response.

Stitching, mourning and documenting

After the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, fashion designer Hama Hinnawi expressed grief through tatreez work. Tatreez is usually colorful, she said. But that was no moment for color.

The result? Black embroidery on black fabric, a statement of mourning for the killings, destruction and displacement in Gaza. She's also experimented with turning some iconic scenes from the war into new embroidery motifs.

“We have a big responsibility on our shoulders to tell this story, not to be buried for the next generations … through tatreez, through art, through speaking.”

Born in Jordan to Palestinian parents, Hinnawi wanted to bring awareness to heritage through her fashion brand by marrying tatreez with contemporary fashion.

To her, tatreez simply means home. It’s “identity, pride, storytelling,” said Hinnawi, who shuttles between Chicago and Jordan.

She's provided embroidery work opportunities to Palestinian women in refugee camps in Jordan and talked in the U.S. about tatreez. Before the war, she also worked with women in Gaza.

Barkawi runs an online community of Palestinian and non-Palestinian embroiderers, some of whom have created designs sold to raise funds for Gaza families. One incorporates a “water and seeds” motif with an embroidered message to “Feed Gaza Now.”

Members in different countries recreated a tapestry that once hung in a bombed Gaza home, each stitching a part and mailing it to another.

Born in the U.S. to a Palestinian father and Panamanian mother, Barkawi said learning about tatreez deepened her Palestinian identity.

New dresses with woven stories

Embroidering her first thobe took two years. Barkawi incorporated motifs with personal meanings, such as palm trees that represent her name in Arabic. She added orchids, the national flower of Panama, for her mom.

Technically imperfect, it was the perfect dress for her Islamic marriage ceremony.

“I embedded my story as a Palestinian in the diaspora into this dress.”

In Lebanon, Kabouli, too, once dreamed of owning a tatreez piece for her wedding trousseau. She couldn’t afford one.

After their parents died, an older sister had turned to tatreez with Inaash to help support the large family. Kabouli learned from her.

Now a production supervisor at Inaash in Beirut, Kabouli sees her younger self in the women working in refugee camps in Lebanon, many in the south, which was hard hit by the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. The vibrancy of tatreez often contrasts with harsh living conditions in camps amid employment and other restrictions the refugees face. Contending with power cuts, women, eager to finish a piece and get paid, may work on rooftops to grasp the last ray of sunlight, Jaafar said.

Besides the income, Kabouli said doing tatreez can be grounding, almost meditative.

She has another yearning: to see her parents’ homeland. They came from an area in what’s now Israel.

For now, tatreez provides her with hope.

“I don’t feel like I am far away. I keep working on Palestinian heritage, following the cause,” she said. “It connects me to my homeland, especially since we’re deprived of it.”

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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.

With the shootout tied at 2-all after four rounds, Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou made a strong save of Crysencio Summerville's attempt, batting it away with his left hand. Saibari then sent the winner into the low left corner as goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen went the other direction. The midfielder tore off his shirt and screamed with joy as he was mobbed by teammates.

Earlier in the shootout with Morocco trailing 1-0, Verbruggen appeared to have stopped an attempt by Soufiane Rahimi, but the goalkeeper couldn’t secure the ball and deflected it over the line with the back of his leg.

“We know when we do everything on the pitch, it’s God that gives something back to us as well,” Morocco head coach Mohamed Ouahbi said. “We give all the energy that we have on the field. Rahimi’s goal could have not been a goal, but it went in thankfully.”

The Netherlands had reached at least the Round of 16 in 11 previous World Cups, including a quarterfinal appearance four years ago in Qatar, when Morocco made a breakthrough run to become the first team from Africa to reach the semifinals. In this year's expanded tournament, 32 teams reached the knockout stage for the first time.

Morocco moves on to face co-host Canada in the Round of 16 on Saturday in Houston. The Atlas Lions previously beat Canada 2-1 in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup.

Morocco was on the front-foot for major stretches of the game Monday. The Netherlands instead focused on counterattacking.

“I think Morocco has gained everybody’s respect now,” said Ouahbi, who took over as head coach in March. “I saw (the Netherlands’ style of play) as a form of respect.”

Cody Gakpo scored in the 72nd minute for Netherlands. After the goal, which was assisted by Summerville, the Dutch bench ran onto the field to embrace the 27-year-old Gakpo, who broke down in tears. Gakpo and his partner, Noa van der Bij, recently announced that they lost their unborn child.

Morocco’s Issa Diop tied it in the 91st. Chemsdine Talbi sent a looping cross into the box from about 28 yards out on the left side and connected with Diop for a clean header that Verbruggen had no chance to stop.

Neither team had a strong scoring opportunity in 30 minutes of extra time at Estadio BBVA.

In the second half of extra time, Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman used one of his substitutions to bring on Justin Kluivert. Kluivert was one of three Dutch players to miss his penalty.

“The last substitution I made was to bring in Justin (Kluivert) because he’s one of the best at penalty shootouts,” Koeman said. “But he missed his penalty and that’s even more bitter for him and for us.”

It was the third consecutive time the Netherlands has been eliminated from the World Cup in a penalty shootout.

It was the second game of this tournament to conclude with a shootout. Paraguay beat Germany on penalties earlier Monday.

The teams entered with the highest combined ranking of any Round of 32 match. Morocco was sixth in the world and the Netherlands was seventh.

“We need to be telling ourselves that no one can stop us,” Ouahbi said. “Nobody is unbeatable. If we get things wrong, we’ll go home.”

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Ethan Wilcox is a student in the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

At one fountain, a folk band dipped their toes in the water on Saturday, as festivalgoers clapped along or cooled their hands under the flowing stream.

From Friday to Sunday, singers and alphorn players filled the streets and spontaneous bursts of yodeling echoed through restaurants, where diners initially reacted with surprise before joining in.

In Petersplatz, in central Basel, seamstresses remained on call throughout the festival to repair the traditional Alpine folk costumes worn by participants in case of emergency.

This year, however, it was the fountain rehearsals that became the festival’s defining image, as the city battled record temperatures of around 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).

Around 12,000 performers and nearly 200,000 visitors traveled to Basel for the Eidgenössisches Jodlerfest, Switzerland’s national yodeling festival. It was the first time the northwestern Swiss city hosted the event since 1924.

Swiss yodeling was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2025, making this the first national festival since the tradition received international recognition. It is a distinction many Swiss take great pride in.

Unlike the brighter, more melodic style often associated with Austria and the Tyrol region, Swiss yodeling is slower and more melancholic — an emotionally nuanced tradition rooted in distinct regional dialects.

"I’ve always loved music, and I left here as a child. When I moved back to New Zealand, I wanted to stay connected to Swiss culture, so I joined a New Zealand-Swiss-Kiwi yodeling club,” said Freddie Conquer, a member of Jodlerclub Echo Basel, one of the clubs hosting the festival.

The participants competed in three disciplines: yodeling, alphorn playing and flag-throwing.

The alphorn is a long wooden instrument traditionally used by herdsmen in the Alps. It can stretch to more than 3 meters (10 feet) in length, with its sound carrying across valleys — or, during the festival, through Basel’s streets. It produces all of its pitches using natural harmonics alone, with no valves or keys.

“Everything is down to the mouthpiece, hearing the note in your head, and then using your lips to shape the pitch. The higher the note, the harder you have to blow,” said Pierre-André Karlen, who was rehearsing on a school lawn.

On Sunday morning, participants gathered outside the town hall, eagerly awaiting the competition results. Members of Jodlerklub Balfrin, from the town of Visp in the canton of Valais, were nervously examining the lists and later celebrated loudly after receiving a perfect score of one, one of several such teams.

As flags were carried through the old town during the festival’s closing parade, members of Jodlerklub Muttenz rode past on a tractor to cheers from the crowd. Alphorn players followed — their instruments and costumes almost certainly a burden in the heavy heat, but the smiles remained.

Wednesday's match against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California, marks the eighth time the U.S. has played in an elimination round in 12 World Cups. But only once, in 2002, have the Americans a won a match in the knockout rounds.

Because this year's tournament was expanded to 48 teams, the first knockout round includes 32, creating an extra round of elimination play.

Here's a look at the short and mostly unsuccessful U.S. record once the World Cup reaches the win-or-go-home stage.

Uruguay, 1930: Semifinals

The first World Cup was played with 13 teams and the U.S. advanced straight to the semifinals as winner of its group. That's where the Americans' tournament ended with a 6-1 loss to Argentina.

Italy, 1934: One and done

The second edition of the World Cup was the only tournament that did not use groups for the early matches. Instead, all 16 teams played a straight knockout format. The U.S. was immediately eliminated with a 7-1 loss to host and eventual champion Italy.

US, 1994: Round of 16

The U.S. didn't qualify for the World Cup from 1954 through 1986, was eliminated in the group stage in 1990 and then got an automatic bid as the host nation in '94. A 1-1 tie with Switzerland and shocking 2-1 victory over Colombia in the Rose Bowl in the group stage earned the Americans a match against Brazil in the knockout round.

Brazil was down to 10 men after a first-half red card: Leonardo threw an elbow that fractured American midfielder Tab Ramos' skull. The Brazilians still controlled the match and won 1-0 on the way to their fourth World Cup title.

South Korea-Japan, 2002: Quarterfinals

The best U.S. showing in the modern era of the tournament. An upset of European heavyweight Portugal and a draw with co-host South Korea sent the Americans to the knockout round against regional rival Mexico. Goals from Brian McBride and Landon Donovan led to a 2-0 victory.

The U.S. run ended in the next match with a tense 1-0 loss to eventual finalist Germany that was decided on Michael Ballack's goal in the 39th minute. Americans remember the match for an infamous no-call when a German player appeared to block a likely U.S. goal with his arm. There was no video review in use at the time.

South Africa, 2010: Round of 16

Donovan's frantic, last-minute goal against Algeria secured a dramatic 1-0 victory in the final group match that sent the U.S. to the next round.

Facing Ghana, the U.S. went down 1-0 after just five minutes. Donovan tied it on a penalty kick in the second half. Asamoah Gyan’s extra-time goal secured a 2-1 victory for Ghana that sent the U.S. home.

Brazil, 2014: Round of 16

The U.S. advanced out of the group stage with a 2-1 win over Ghana, a 2-2 draw with Portugal and a 1-0 loss to eventual champion Germany. Their tournament ended with a 2-1 loss to Belgium.

Qatar, 2022: Round of 16

The U.S. started group play with draws with Wales and England, and advanced with a 1-0 win over Iran on Christian Pulisic's goal. The Netherlands then made quick work of the U.S., winning 3-1.

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See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

It followed back-to-back rulings last week that barred his two sweeping executive orders seeking to change national election rules, more court rulings preventing his Department of Justice from obtaining detailed state voter data and his stalled attempts to get the Senate to pass the SAVE Act. That measure would eliminate nearly all absentee voting, require citizenship documents to register to vote and impose photo identification requirements nationwide right before the midterm elections.

“It’s been a mixed bag for Republicans,” said University of Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller. But the president, he added, “has come up mostly empty-handed.”

Trump's efforts have not been entirely fruitless. Republican-run states have satisfied his demands to redraw congressional district lines, efforts buoyed by the Supreme Court striking down a key section of the Voting Rights Act, and he has been directing his Department of Justice to investigate voting and election operations, which Democrats see as a possible prelude to their involvement in November.

All the activity around how the nation votes and runs its elections is a reflection of the Republican president's long fixation on his false claim that his 2020 election defeat was rigged. He has been so frustrated by the inability of the Senate to pass the SAVE Act that he has refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill.

He weighed in again Monday after the Supreme Court's decision in the mail ballot deadline case, saying on his social media account that he is trying to “save America from crooked elections.” Voting rights groups and Democrats see him abusing power and attempting to suppress legal voters to gain an advantage in the midterms, when control of Congress is at stake.

Regardless, Muller said Trump faces legal and political realities: The Constitution gives the states and Congress authority over elections while providing no such role for the president.

“That’s how federalism works,” Muller said.

Here’s a look at Trump’s efforts to reshape election rules and what options he might have left for the November midterms.

Focus on noncitizens and voter data has met roadblocks

The president has repeatedly said U.S. elections are riddled with fraud in part because of noncitizen voting. Research shows the problem to be rare, accounting for a minuscule percentage of fraud cases. Convictions are measured in the hundreds over periods in which tens of millions of ballots are cast.

Trump’s view resulted in a multiagency push to nationalize voter data and use federal resources to help states remove voters from the rolls. The Department of Justice has sought detailed voter files from multiple states, data that would include dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers. Democratic and some Republican secretaries of state balked, and federal lawsuits followed. The administration has lost every case so far.

Homeland Security citizenship check rejected in court

Trump's Department of Homeland Security, with help from the DOGE effort led by Elon Musk, revamped a government tool called SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements). The program has been a key pillar of his efforts to cull potentially ineligible voters from state rolls.

Last week, a federal judge blocked its use as a mass citizenship check.

The administration, according to its own news releases, had allowed local election administrators to search users by the thousands, using a wider range of metrics rather than DHS-issued identification numbers. At least 67 million registrations, primarily in Republican-controlled states, were analyzed. Tens of thousands were flagged as potential noncitizens or people who have died, but some voters were wrongly identified as ineligible.

U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ruled that Trump’s changes aggregated Americans’ sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from the rolls.

“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan said in her order.

Executive orders used in place of legislation

As presidents before him, Trump signed executive orders when Congress would not enact his policy preferences.

Trump’s first order reflected his emphasis on noncitizens. Like the SAVE Act pending on Capitol Hill, it sought to require would-be voters to document their citizenship to be able to register to vote.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper put a temporary block on the order last year as she considered the case and last week made her decision permanent. The Constitution, Casper wrote, “does not grant the President any specific powers over elections.”

Trump issued a second order in March, as the SAVE Act’s rough path in Congress became obvious. He called for a national voter list using data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security Administration. Further, the order would have empowered the U.S. Postal Service to determine who gets an absentee ballot and threatened local elections officials with prosecution.

Absentee voting is a staple of U.S. elections, but Trump describes the practice, incorrectly, as allowing fraud — even as he has used it himself. A 2025 report by the Brookings Institution found that mail voting fraud occurred in only 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast.

Democratic secretaries of state sued, and U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani made the same legal assessment as Casper. The provisions, she wrote last week, “unconstitutionally violate the separation of powers.”

The White House has indicated it will appeal.

Even Trump says the SAVE Act has long odds

Trump on Monday called the Senate logjam “crazy” and one of the holdouts, Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, “Trump-deranged.”

It’s the latest legislative tussle that prompted Trump to demand Republicans scrap the filibuster, which requires most major legislation to get support from 60 of the 100 senators. But that likely wouldn’t matter in this case, with four of the Senate’s 53 Republicans declaring their opposition to the bill itself: Murkowski, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

The president acknowledged Monday that the SAVE Act is “probably not going to happen.”

Trump still has options for the November elections

Both major parties have national operations to monitor elections, including legal teams ready to file challenges.

Despite the Republican National Committee losing the mail ballot case, Chairman Joe Gruters on Monday alluded to those efforts: “We are not going to be deterred by this decision, and the RNC will keep fighting to have elections end on Election Day,” he said.

Meanwhile, Trump has been developing a possible roadmap for more aggressive actions.

His U.S. attorney in Los Angeles said in June that he had opened multiple election fraud investigations, and he sent a prosecutor to the county's vote-tabulation center after California's June primary. Six months earlier, FBI agents executed a warrant and seized ballots and other records from the 2020 election in Georgia's Fulton County, which includes Atlanta.

Muller, the law professor, said local elections officials “already are having conversations about chain of custody disputes” for ballots as they are cast, collected, counted and stored.

He and UCLA law professor Rick Hasen noted that judicial warrants are required for the kinds of actions that happened in Fulton County. Muller predicted “the bar would be even higher” for any warrant the administration requests during a live election.

Hasen added that he's working to educate judges around the country on the importance of chain of custody for ballots.

“Republicans believe him when he says the election is rigged. And then when Republicans try to change voting rules to tighten things up, that causes Democrats to also think that the election system is being rigged,” Hasen said. “So, if what he’s trying to achieve is undermine voters’ confidence in the election process, he seems to have succeeded spectacularly.”

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

"Well for a long time, before the civil rights movement, it meant to be more inclined toward states' rights and limited government," says Meacham, the National Constitution Center's Semiquincentennial Scholar. He then pauses, and asks to start over, recalling how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt evoked Jefferson as an “apostle of liberty” who would have supported the U.S. fighting the Nazis in World War II.

You could define it in so many ways. Historians may argue over the “greatness” of individual founders, but as the country's 250th anniversary approaches many agree that no one's life and work resonates like Jefferson's. He embodied the “very best and the very worst” of the United States, Meacham says.

And a great deal in between.

America’s birth is rooted in his most profound contradiction — the man who proclaimed that “all men are created equal” while being a slaveholder to the end of his life. But Jefferson advanced and explored both sides of so many issues and world views that have defined the country's path: agrarian self-sufficiency and worldly innovation, pluralism and separatism, limited government and dreams of an “empire of liberty.”

“There is no more malleable figure in early America than Jefferson,” says Andrew Burstein, a professor of history at Louisiana State University who has summed up Jefferson's legacy in a book he published a decade ago: “Democracy’s Muse: How Thomas Jefferson became an FDR Liberal, a Reagan Republican, and a Tea Party Fanatic, All the While Being Dead.”

“There have been times in American history when just about everyone would have considered themselves ‘Jeffersonian,’" says historian Peter S. Onuf, author of numerous works on Jefferson. “Yet even at those moments, he was a controversial figure.”

It's an argument without end

Jefferson's legacy is debated even in settings that owe their existence to him.

On the campus of the University of Virginia, the college he founded and regarded as a signature achievement, stands a memorial to thousands of enslaved people who lived and worked there.

At Monticello, the mountaintop estate and plantation outside of Charlottesville where Jefferson lived when not in public office, a banner near the entrance features the Declaration and the caption, “After all, our guy wrote it.” But once on the grounds, reminders of his enslavement of hundreds are found throughout, from its “Burial Ground for Enslaved People” that includes dozens of graves to an exhibit dedicated to Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman with whom Jefferson is widely believed to have had six children.

Monticello's director of historic interpretation and audience engagement, Brandon Dillard, cites the staff's mission “to tell unflinching stories of America’s complex origins and fitful progress toward the ideals Jefferson articulated in the Declaration of Independence."

Jefferson regarded Monticello as a refuge from the times, but the times inevitably find their way here. A guide on the gardens and grounds tour points out that a foldable plant Jefferson tried and failed to grow — the “Mimosa Pudica,” or “sensitive plant” — now thrives because of climate change. The visitors' center is LEED Gold-certified for green energy, Dillard says, and geothermal systems have been installed in other buildings for temperature control.

Monticello raises questions old and new about race. Virtually all of the guides are white, an issue Dillard notes is prevalent nationwide. A recent survey released by the American Association for State and Local History found that around just 10% of workers at museums, historic sites and historical societies were nonwhite and that many “Latino/a/x, and multiracial respondents reported higher rates of discrimination and harassment.” (Dillard declined to answer in detail the experience of guides of color at Monticello.)

There is a Jefferson for every occasion

Jefferson’s contradictions date back through much of American history; he was claimed by both sides of the Civil War and both sides of the civil rights movement.

Nineteenth-century Confederates and 20th-century segregationists cited his defense of states' rights, while Abraham Lincoln and civil rights leaders emphasized Jefferson as the author of the Declaration of Independence. In the space of a few months in 1963, he would be invoked in the inaugural speech of Alabama Gov. George Wallace as he vowed defiance of federal efforts to integrate the state’s schools and by the Rev. Martin Luther King as he delivered his “I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington.

Roosevelt enlisted Jefferson as an ideological ally for the New Deal (the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., began as a New Deal project) and a former New Dealer-turned conservative, President Ronald Reagan, held up Jefferson decades later as a foe of wasteful spending. Jefferson has been cited often by free-speech advocates for his crucial support for the Bill of Rights, while President Donald Trump has quoted Jefferson's 1807 lament that “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper” as an implicit endorsement of his modern war against “fake news.”

Jefferson has also been placed on either side of today's divide over immigration. Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to Be an Anti-Racist,” cites his well-documented belief in colonization for Black people as inspiration for contemporary scapegoating and xenophobia. Meanwhile, at a time when the Trump administration is aggressively trying to restrict immigration and even denaturalize some citizens, Monticello continues its decades-old July 4 naturalization ceremonies, with Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger scheduled as this year's keynote speaker.

“As new citizens share their personal stories every Fourth of July," Dillard says, “we are reminded that the values uplifted in that Declaration are values toward which people from all backgrounds aspire.”

Many Monticello visitors, many reasons to visit

Monticello attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. They come for many reasons.

Erin Porter is a Virginia native in her 40s who until recently had never been to Monticello and wanted to cross it off her bucket list, while Nathan Jaycox of Connecticut is a former nuclear engineer now seeking to absorb history for a class he hopes to teach. Duane Cromwell, a longtime resident of Vancouver, was here on a very personal mission.

Cromwell, 70, grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, where she was taught that slavery was “an economic necessity” and learned nothing about Jefferson's history of enslavement. In town last month for a family reunion, she arrived at Monticello anxious to get past the “whitewashed Southern version” and the myths of evil “yankees” and the victimized rebels who defied them.

“Did you (ever) notice kudzu growing up over trees and buildings while in the South? It is an invasive plant brought to the region to control erosion. Well, it is like racism. It is pervasive, part of the horizon, always there but soon you don’t notice it,” she says.

“Having said that, I do think that people do go along better, there is more interactions, relationships than when I was growing up. Everyone needs each other and in the South, there is a great sense of humor and friendliness that help people navigate the awkward moments.”

For Cromwell, Monticello was a chance to educate herself, to become a better person — and, like countless others before her, using Thomas Jefferson as a prism.

“Isn’t that what it’s all about?”

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AP National Writer Hillel Italie frequently writes about American history.

The pull to return home to help is real. That isn't an option for Contreras at the moment, so on Monday night against Washington, he did what he could to show that what's happening back home isn't far from his mind.

Contreras unleashed a massive bat flip after ripping a 421-foot homer in what became a 6-3 Boston victory. He then broke down in tears in the dugout, the anguish that's been a constant since portions of his homeland were turned into rubble last week pouring out of him.

“Everything that’s going on in Venezuela, it’s not easy to hide,” Contreras told reporters after the game. "It’s not easy just to show up and play with everything that is going on in my country.”

The urge to do something, anything, to help is real. Contreras looked toward the Boston dugout and shouted “Venezuela” before making the trip around the bases following a three-run shot that marked his 18th homer of the season.

“I feel like I could be there helping people and I can’t do that,” Contreras said. “And the homer just represents something that I pray to God for it to happen, because that’s the only thing I can do for Venezuela right now physically. And that’s why I was emotional.”

The 34-year-old Contreras was born in Puerto Cabello, about three hours west of the capital of Caracas. He described frustration over reports of volunteers and aid packages having trouble getting through to those who need it.

“It sucks seeing so many bad things going on in Venezuela,” he said. “I don’t think we deserve all of this. We’re a good people. Good country. We are good people.”

Contreras' night on the field ended a bit early. First base umpire Nic Lentz ejected him in the second inning after Lentz ruled Contreras failed to check his swing on a Miles Mikolas pitch that ended up being a strikeout.

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

In a release on Monday evening, police said the remains were found near Midway Avenue.

“Detectives, with assistance from the Medical Examiner’s Office, are working to identify the individual and determine the circumstances surrounding the death,” the release reads. “The investigation is in its early stages and remains ongoing.”

No additional information has been provided at this time.

Portland sent forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray to the Grizzlies as part of the deal.

It’s a big swing by the Trail Blazers and could suggest Portland — with new owner Tom Dundon, whose Carolina Hurricanes just won the Stanley Cup — might not be done making moves. Morant adds to a logjam at point guard right now for Portland, with Jrue Holiday, Damian Lillard and Scoot Henderson also on the current roster.

Morant has averaged 22.4 points for his career but has played only 79 games over the last three seasons because of injuries and suspensions — including a 25-game banishment after he was seen on a livestream holding a gun while he was in the passenger seat of a vehicle. That came not long after an eight-game suspension for flashing a gun in a Denver-area nightclub, also captured on social media.

The suspensions, combined, cost Morant — who was Rookie of the Year after being the No. 2 selection in the 2019 draft, as well as the league's Most Improved Player in 2021-22 when he appeared to be on a path toward superstardom — about $9 million in lost salary. He said in April 2025 that he's made his peace with being a lightning rod for constant criticism.

“I’m kind of used to it,” Morant said at that time. “I was pretty much a villain for two years now. Every little thing, if somebody can say something negative about me, it’s going to be out there. So, yeah. I don’t care no more.”

Grant averaged 18.6 points last season for Portland and will be joining his sixth team by going to Memphis. Murray averaged 5.8 points this past season for the Trail Blazers.

Morant's MIP-award year in 2021-22 saw Memphis win 56 games, tying a franchise record. That team was built around a young core four of Morant, Dillon Brooks, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane.

And now, they're all gone. Brooks played only one more season with the Grizzlies after that and has changed teams twice since, Bane went to Orlando last summer and Jackson was traded to Utah in February.

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AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.

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

He made his first start a memorable one.

Canale scored on the first sudden-death penalty kick, Orlando Gill made two key saves in the shootout, and Paraguay beat Germany 4-3 on penalties Monday to earn the biggest upset of the 2026 World Cup.

It was a major triumph for the landlocked South American country of 7 million people that's surrounded by soccer giants like Argentina and Brazil. And it was the latest surprising exit by Germany, a four-time champion that has struggled at the World Cup since it last lifted the trophy in 2014.

“I think we deserved one more game and to be honest, considering everything that was said, everything we went through,” Canale said. “What I want to highlight from our team is how united we are. ... Today was a game we really needed to show our true colors.”

Paraguayans celebrated in the streets of the capital, Asunción, screaming, jumping and hugging when the match ended. Some cried and dropped to their knees in disbelief, with the familiar beat of the team’s song “Soy Albirrojo” reverberating through the crowd.

Paraguay became the first team to defeat Germany in a penalty shootout at the World Cup. The Germans missed three of six penalty tries, the last by Jonathan Tah, who blasted his attempt high over the crossbar in the first sudden-death round, setting up Canale for the winner. Tah's miss followed a save by German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer of Fabian Balbuena's attempt that would have won it for Paraguay.

Tah also thought he had the go-ahead goal in extra time. He headed in a corner kick by Nathaniel Brown in the 102nd minute, but officials concluded after a video review that Waldemar Anton has pushed Gill to the ground before the shot and the goal was disallowed.

The Round of 32 match ended 1-1 after extra time. Paraguay took the lead when Julio Enciso scored on a header late in the first half, but Kai Havertz equalized in the 52nd minute for Germany.

“We had to analyze every player, every detail. Thanks to that I was able to only miss two penalties,” Gill said. “This is for all the people of Paraguay.”

Paraguay, which entered the match ranked 41st by FIFA, became the deepest betting long shot to win a match in this World Cup. Germany came in as the 10th-ranked team in the world.

The Paraguayans will face the winner of Tuesday’s match between France and Sweden in the Round of 16 on Saturday in Philadelphia. A win on the 250th anniversary of the United States' founding would send Paraguay back to Foxborough for the quarterfinals on July 9.

Germany had won six of seven penalty shootouts in major tournaments, including six straight since losing to Czechoslovakia in the 1976 European Championship final.

“It’s not enough for German football,” coach Julian Nagelsmann said.

In the only previous World Cup match between the teams, Germany beat Paraguay 1-0 in the round of 16 at the 2002 tournament. Nearly a quarter-century later, Paraguay got its revenge.

Paraguay had appeared in five previous knockout games but failed to score in each. It had advanced only once, winning on penalty kicks against Japan in the round of 16 at the 2010 tournament in South Africa. It fell that year to eventual champion Spain in the quarterfinals.

Monday was Germany’s first knockout game since the 2014 final in Brazil, when the Germans beat Argentina 1-0. The Germans were eliminated in the group stage at the last two tournaments.

“We had very big plans for this World Cup. It’s very difficult to disappoint again,” Havertz said. “It was difficult to create chances and keep the pace.”

Paraguay broke the early stalemate in the 42nd minute Monday with some perfect ball movement to set up Enciso.

Miguel Almiron split Germany’s Aleksandar Pavlovic and Nathaniel Brown with a left-footed pass to Matias Galarza. Galarza sent a cross to Enciso, who was unmarked by Germany’s defenders and easily headed it past Neuer.

In the second half, Havertz took a cross from Florian Wirtz, which he got just enough head on to redirect it past Gill.

Germany, whose 10 goals in the group stage was tied for the most of any team, struggled to find a way through Paraguay’s 4-5-1 setup. The Germans had 78% of the possession in the first half.

Paraguay was without defender Omar Alderete, who left with an injury in the second half of its 0-0 draw against Australia. Canale started in his place.

Paraguay opened the World Cup with a 4-1 loss to the United States, then beat Turkey 1-0 while playing the entire second half with 10 men. A scoreless draw against Australia was good enough for Paraguay to reach the knockout stage as the third-place finisher from Group D.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

But of these, the bulk are set to take effect on July 1.

In all, there are 131 laws that will kick off next month.

[RELATED: Florida’s new driver’s license rule kicks off on July 1]

In the meantime, you can find the full list of laws taking effect in July below. The list has been updated as of Monday, June 29.

HB 33 — New Road Names

House Bill 33 renames the following roadways in Florida:

• Charlie Kirk Memorial Avenue — The portion of State Road 985 between Southwest 24th Street and State Road 90 in Miami-Dade County
• President Donald J. Trump Boulevard — The portion of State Road 870 between West Tradewinds Avenue and the eastern end of Commercial Boulevard in Broward County

Under this law, the FDOT must erect suitable markers for these new designations.

HB 35 — Traffic Offenders

House Bill 35 revises the term “habitual traffic offender” to add the offense of driving without a valid license.

This crime will be added to the list of offenses for which a certain number of convictions in a five-year period requires the state to designate the person as a habitual traffic offender.

Once a person is designated as a habitual traffic offender, he/she can generally be prosecuted for a third-degree felony for driving a motor vehicle thereafter.

HB 47 — Medical Diagnoses

House Bill 47 lets parents whose child is removed from their home by the DCF ask for a second medical evaluation (or a compilation of differential diagnoses) within five days of an initial examination.

The healthcare practitioner who performs the second evaluation must submit a written report to both the DCF and the parents within 10 days.

Furthermore, the law allows the DCF to delay forwarding allegations of criminal conduct to law enforcement pending the outcome of the child protection investigation if the parent alleges the child has a certain preexisting condition or asks for a second evaluation.

SB 52 — Security Services

Senate Bill 52 refers to a state statute that regulates private investigative and security services.

More specifically, the law expresses that this statute doesn’t apply to volunteers who provide armed security services at churches, mosques, synagogues or other places of worship.

HB 89 — Veterinary Prescriptions

House Bill 89 requires licensed veterinarians to clearly inform clients of their right to receive a written prescription for medication that can be filled at the pharmacy of a client’s choice.

The law also mandates that if the veterinary clinic is able to fill the prescription, the vet should disclose that option to the client, as well.

SB 124 — Florida Virtual Schools

Senate Bill 124 amends state statutes regarding the Florida Virtual School, which was founded in 1997 to provide students in the state with tech-based educational opportunities.

More specifically, the law makes several technical changes, such as including all full-time and part-time FLVS students for the purposes of full-time equivalent student calculations.

HB 131 — Estate Curators

House Bill 131 amends the state’s Probation Code, which outlines how estates may be administrated.

More specifically, the law modifies provisions like curator bond requirements and when courts may appoint curators.

HB 167 — Phosphate Mining

House Bill 167 establishes a defense from strict liability in lawsuits related to environmental pollution brought under the WQAA.

More specifically, the defense kicks in if the lawsuit is related to pollution caused by a former phosphate mine and certain requirements are met.

SB 168 — Public Nuisances

Senate Bill 168 declares any place that has been used as a gambling house at least twice within a 12-month period a “public nuisance.

The law also increases maximum fines if nuisance activity persists beyond one year from $250 per day to $500 per day.

HB 177 — Conflict of Interest

House Bill 177 refers to capital cases in which the CCCRC represents an indigent defendant but determines that it can’t continue to provide representation due to conflicts of interest or similar reasons.

In these scenarios, a judge may appoint a CCCRC from a different region to represent the defendant rather than a private attorney under certain conditions.

HB 178 — School Athletics

House Bill 178 requires that head coaches of sports teams be allowed to use personal funds to support the welfare of students under the FHSAA.

Under this law, coaches may provide help in the form of food, transportation and recovery services.

That said, coaches are limited to using $15,000 in personal funds per athletic team per year.

SB 182 — Teacher Mentors

Senate Bill 182 establishes the School Teacher Training and Mentoring Program, aimed at improving teacher effectiveness in public schools.

Under this program, qualified teachers can be placed as mentors in schools that have a “D” or “F” grade, thereby improving the performance of these schools.

SB 192 — Patient Funds

Senate Bill 192 deletes the $1,500 cap on advances a chiropractic physician may collect for examination or treatment.

HB 199 — Veterans Affairs

House Bill 199 amends existing requirements for admission to a veterans treatment court program at any stage of a criminal proceeding.

More specifically, the law repeals requirements for the state attorney to approve placement into such a program, as well as an application from a defendant for participation.

SB 212 — Sex Offenders

Senate Bill 212 amends state statutes regarding sexual offenders and predators in the state.

Under this law, those convicted of certain sex offenses against children 16 years of age or younger may not live within 1,000 feet of a public swimming pool.

Current law already prohibits these sorts of sex offenders from living near schools, childcare facilities, parks and playgrounds, though this bill cracks down even harder via the following rules:

• Contacting Children: Such offenders may be arrested without a warrant if they knowingly contact a minor at any park, playground or public swimming pool.
• School Grounds: Such offenders may be arrested without a warrant if they’re purposefully present in any pre-K-12 school while the school is still in operation, with few exceptions.
• Prowling Offenders: The bill increases the restricted distance for loitering and prowling by such sex offenders from 300 feet to 500 feet of places where children congregate.

HB 245 — Child Pornography

House Bill 245 replaces the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” under state law.

This shift does not change any other elements of the law, including offenses related to child pornography.

HB 249 — State Flagship

House Bill 249 redesignates the official state flagship.

More specifically, the law replaces the current state flagship (the schooner Western Union) with the S.S. American Victory.

HB 253 — Dental Care

House Bill 253 expands eligibility for the Veterans Dental Care Grant Program.

The law accomplishes this by providing explicit statutory authorization for the program to provide services to veterans with incomes of up to 400% of the federal poverty level.

HB 271 — Bail Bonds

House Bill 271 subjects foreign and alien bail bond insurers doing business in Florida to the same reporting requirements as domestic bail bond insurers.

HB 273 — Special Districts

House Bill 273 requires that when state or federal money is used to help special districts in rural areas, the agreement must allow those districts to get paid for approved work they finish.

HB 277 — Domestic Violence

House Bill 277 enhances domestic violence penalties if the suspect has already been convicted of that crime in the past.

The bill also increases the funding amount for relocation assistance claims for victims of domestic violence from $1,500 to $2,500 for a single claim (lifetime maximum bumped from $3,000 to $5,000).

Furthermore, the bill adds threatening to kill/injure a family pet and the existence of a military protective order to the list of factors that judges can consider when determining whether to grant a domestic violence injunction.

SB 288 — Electric Cooperatives

Senate Bill 288 revises a state statute that prohibits certain bylaws, tariffs and policies from being used by rural electric cooperatives.

Under this law, the statute is limited to only those cooperatives that sell electricity at retail.

SB 290 — FDACS

Senate Bill 290 makes a number of changes to state law related to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS).

Some of these changes include a prohibition on local governments from banning gas-powered landscape equipment, and criminal penalties for those receiving unauthorized help on a CDL exam.

You can read a list of more changes here.

SB 296 — Domestic Violence

Senate Bill 296 requires the Division of Telecommunications to investigate the feasibility of a domestic and dating violence 911 alert system.

The results of the study must be reported to the Senate President and House Speaker by Jan. 31, 2027.

SB 298 — Public Records (Domestic Violence)

Senate Bill 298 expands two existing public record exemptions for victims of domestic violence who participate in the state’s confidentiality program.

SB 302 — Coastal Resiliency

Senate Bill 302 prohibits any dredging or filling of submerged lands at the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, with some exceptions provided for public safety and environmental protection.

This law is also expected to streamline the permitting process for nature-based methods aimed at improving coastal resiliency, helping to accelerate restoration timelines.

SB 340 — Human Trafficking

Senate Bill 340 requires graduates of professional and practical nursing programs to complete a two-hour course on human trafficking to be eligible to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX).

The NCLEX is a prerequisite for full licensure. Furthermore, this requirement applies to students who apply to take the NCLEX on or after July 1, 2027.

HB 355 — Patient Protection

House Bill 355 requires the AHCA to establish minimum standards for pediatric patient care in hospital emergency departments.

Furthermore, the bill requires all hospitals with emergency departments to develop and implement policies and procedures for pediatric patient care in the department.

HB 359 — Search Warrants

House Bill 359 generally requires law enforcement agencies to return a search warrant to the issuing court within 10 days, except for the following scenarios:

• 20 days if the search warrant is issued to an out-of-state provider for electronic communications data
• 30 days if the search warrant is issued to search for and seize specimens for DNA analysis or entry into the DNA database
• 365 days if the search warrant is issued for a computer, computer system, or electronic device

SB 386 — Farm Equipment

Senate Bill 386 sets up a process for consumers and manufacturers to remedy defective farm equipment.

If farm equipment is defective, this law lets buyers report the defect to the manufacturer during the warranty period or the one-year period after the original delivery date of the farm equipment.

The law also requires the manufacturer to either replace or refund any defective farm equipment.

SB 394 — Reinsurance Managers

Senate Bill 394 exempts an underwriting manager who manages assumed facultative risks for a reinsurer from reinsurance intermediary manager licensing requirements.

This applies if the facultative reinsurance business managed by the underwriting manager is less than 10% of the assumed annual gross written premium of the insurer.

SB 418 — Blue Envelope Program

Senate Bill 418 creates the “Blue Envelope Program” to improve communication between autistic people and law enforcement officers during motor-vehicle related interactions.

Under the program, individuals may be identified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder, with blue envelopes including communication guidelines for officers to keep in mind about specific individuals.

These blue enveloped will be available upon request from the FLHSMV or the local tax collector starting on Jan. 1, 2027.

SB 422 — Airport Broadcasts

Senate Bill 422 prohibits airports from using information derived from automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) systems emitted from certain aircraft as a means of collecting fees from owners.

This rule is limited to aircraft with a gross weight of 12,499 pounds or less operating under FAA rules and applies under the following two scenarios:

• The operation for which a fee would be assessed is a departure or a landing, including touch-and-go landings
• The fee would be assessed based on an aircraft entering into the airspace of the airport where the fee is assessed

HB 425 — Historic Cemeteries

House Bill 425 provides that if a recorded historic African-American cemetery sells excess vacant land to fund the cemetery’s long-term upkeep, the local government must administratively approve an application to rezone the excess land to allow for development consistent with adjacent land uses.

Furthermore, the law lets local governments use reasonable discretion to determine the new zoning, provided that it’s consistent with the surrounding area.

SB 428 — Drowning Prevention

Senate Bill 428 amends the Swimming Lesson Voucher Program, raising the age limit to include children between 1 and 7 years of age.

SB 436 — Felony Battery

Senate Bill 436 expands the list of qualifying prior offenses that allow for misdemeanor battery to be upgraded to a third-degree felony.

More specifically, if someone has a prior conviction of resisting an officer with violence, any subsequent battery charges may be bumped up to a third-degree felony.

HB 441 — Conservation Lands

House Bill 441 requires that when a water management district considers selling conservation lands, the governing board publish the following information at least 30 days before meeting:

• The district-owned parcels of land for sale or proposed for exchange
• The privately owned parcels proposed for exchange
• The portions of those parcels that will be preserved in a permanent conservation easement
• A statement from the district explaining why those lands are no longer needed for conservation purposes

HB 445 — Dangerous Crimes

House Bill 445 adds certain offenses dealing with child exploitation and certain kinds of computer porn to the list of dangerous crimes under Florida law.

This means that someone arrested for one of these offenses can’t be given nonmonetary pretrial release at a first appearance hearing.

HB 453 — High School Diplomas

House Bill 453 allows student with disabilities to substitute one school year of participation in the Special Olympics for the P.E. requirement for a standard high school diploma.

Furthermore, the law specifies that two years of marching band satisfies both the one-credit requirement in P.E. and the one-credit requirement in performing arts.

SB 474 — Military Affairs

Senate Bill 474 revises laws relating to military service leave for public employees.

For example, the law expands eligibility for certain leave protections to include public officials who are also members of the U.S. Coast Guard or Florida State Guard.

SB 474 also expands the eligibility requirements for financial assistance from the Soldiers and Airmen Assistance Program.

HB 477 — Drug Paraphernalia

House Bill 477 expands the type of narcotic-drug testing products excluded from the definition of “drug paraphernalia.”

More specifically, the law excludes products that are used solely to determine whether a controlled substance contains xylazine.

SB 484 — Data Centers

Senate Bill 484 prohibits utilities from passing data center costs — including electricity costs — onto residential and small business customers.

Furthermore, the law prohibits utilities from serving data centers controlled by foreign countries of concern, and it allows local communities to set stricter standards on such centers.

HB 491 — Faith-Based Content (BIPs)

House Bill 491 allows Batterers’ Intervention Programs (BIPs) to offer supplemental faith-based activities as a voluntary service to participants referred to a BIP by court order or by consent for acts of domestic violence.

That said, the law also preserves current rules, which require all mandatory BIP curricula to be based on a psychoeducational or cognitive behavioral therapy intervention model.

SB 504 — Body Cameras

Senate Bill 504 requires governmental agencies that allow code inspectors to wear body cameras to set up policies addressing proper use and storage of these cameras, as well as the recorded data.

SB 506 — Public Records (Body Cameras)

Senate Bill 506 creates a public records exemption for code inspectors’ body camera recordings if the footage is recorded:

• Inside a private residence
• Inside a facility that offers health care, mental health care, or social services
• In a place that a reasonable person would expect to be private

HB 538 — Extracurricular Activities

House Bill 538 revises student eligibility and participation requirements for extracurricular activities, including athletics. It makes a variety of changes, including:

• Allowing districts to use funds raised through high school booster clubs for activities to pay the coaches of those activities
• Authorizing districts to classify athletic coaches and activity sponsors of extracurricular activities as administrative personnel and thusly negotiate salary compensation
• Permitting students who wish to participate in a sport that their current school doesn’t offer to participate in that sport through another school in the same district

HB 561 — Educator Preparation

House Bill 561 makes it easier for teachers whose licenses expired to get back into the classroom, but without having to retake subject area exams that have already been passed.

The bill also gives these educators a temporary license so that they can work and earn the classes or training hours they need, and it sets up free training to help them renew or fix their license.

HB 565 — Persons With Disabilities

House Bill 565 requires the Agency for Persons with Disabilities to recognize Tatton-Brown-Rahman syndrome as a qualifying condition for APD services.

The law also requires all employees — not just managers and supervisors — of APD-licensed adult day training and residential facilities to undergo a level 2 background screening.

HB 569 — Forensic Client Services

House Bill 569 allows the Agency for Persons with Disabilities to house non-forensic clients and forensic clients within the same wards in secure APD facilities.

SB 578 — Alzheimer’s Awareness

Senate Bill 578 requires the DOEA to contract for the development of a statewide Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Initiative.

The initiative must provide Florida residents affected by Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias with greater support and access to helpful information.

SB 584 — Commercial Driving Schools

Senate Bill 584 allows for county tax collectors to enforce statutory provisions related to commercial driving schools.

More specifically, the law allows these agencies to enter into agreements with the DHSMV to better crack down on fraudulent or deceitful business practices by these sorts of schools.

SB 590 — Statute of Limitations

Senate Bill 590 extends the window to prosecute someone who willfully fails to make a required report of suspected child abuse, abandonment, neglect or sexual abuse.

This is done by pausing the statute of limitations until a law enforcement agency becomes aware of the reporting violation.

SB 594 — Housing Assistance Plans

Senate Bill 594 helps mobile home owners keep their homes by letting local housing programs use funds to help pay up to six months of lot rent.

SB 598 — Funeral Services

Senate Bill 598 makes several revisions to a state statute that regulates funeral and cemetery services.

For example, the law prohibits licensees from contracting to become the sole provider of funeral services for any firm that provides medical or end-of-life care to the public.

Furthermore, SB 598 allows licensees to dispose of human remains that have been in their lawful possession for at least 90 days if the legally authorized person of the decedent fails to direct the disposition.

HB 625 — JAC Members

House Bill 625 increases the number of the Justice Administrative Commission from four to seven.

SB 628 — Trump Highway

Senate Bill 628 renames over a dozen roadways across the state.

The bill also designates the Tallahassee airport at 3300 Capital Circle SW as the “Bobby Bowden-Tallahassee International Airport.”

Furthermore, SB 628 designates 124 miles of SR-80 stretching from SR-A1A in Palm Beach County to US-41 in Lee County as the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.”

HB 655 — Public Records (Attorney Meetings)

House Bill 655 creates a public meeting exemption for state and local agencies to meet privately with their attorneys under the Bert Harris Act.

More specifically, the law exempts the meeting’s transcripts from public disclosure until the relevant property-rights claim is settled (or when the statute of limitations ends, if there’s no litigation).

SB 656 — Crimes Against Children

Senate Bill 656 renames the “Online Sting Operations Grant Program” to the “Internet Crimes Against Children Grant Program.”

Under this program, grants may be awarded to local law enforcement agencies to help them combat online child exploitation and to target those preying on children online.

HB 679 — Trademark Registration

House Bill 679 mandate that the Florida Department of State use the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s schedule of classes of goods and services as the state’s classification for trademark purposes, rather than the general classes for trademarks for goods and services set in statute.

Furthermore, the bill requires that agency to set up a website where applicants can apply for a trademark or renew a trademark and provides that the website must safeguard the applicant’s information to ensure data integrity.

SB 686 — Agricultural Enclaves

Senate Bill 686 deals with agricultural enclaves: pockets of agricultural land that are mainly surrounded by development.

Under this bill, enclave owners may submit development plans for single-family housing.

Local governments won’t be allowed to enact regulation for one of these enclaves that is more burdensome than for other types of applications for comparable uses, either.

HB 697 — Drug Prices

House Bill 697 makes it unlawful for a PBM to force a pharmacy to take a loss when dispensing a drug or to reimburse a nonaffiliated pharmacy less than an affiliated pharmacy.

Furthermore, the law requires PBMs to allow in-network pharmacies to submit consolidated appeals comprised of multiple adjudicated claims featuring identical drugs, day supplies, and dates of service.

HB 753 — School Counselors

House Bill 753 exempts prospective school counselors from certain professional preparation and educational competence requirements otherwise imposed on classroom teachers by state law.

However, the bill clarifies that individual school districts may still require these requirements as a condition of employment for school counselors.

SB 772 — Eyewear Insurance

Senate Bill 772 expands Florida’s limited-license portable electronics insurance agent license to also cover eyewear insurance, including smart glasses and non-electronic eyewear.

HB 797 — Nonprofits

House Bill 797 revises the Florida Not For Profit Corporation Act to conform with the Model Nonprofit Corporation Act and the Florida Business Corporation Act.

SB 800 — Engineering Violations

Senate Bill 800 provides an escalating fine schedule for subsequent violations of engaging in the unlicensed practice of engineering. These fees are as follows:

• $10,000 for a second violation
• $15,000 for a third violation
• $20,000 for a fourth violation
• $25,000 for a fifth and subsequent violation

HB 803 — Building Permits

House Bill 803 limits local government regulation of glazing requirements on commercial buildings, and provides for lower fees when a private provider is retained for commercial construction projects.

The law also mandates that certain building permits expire after one year after issuance or on the effective date of the next edition of the Florida Building Code — whichever is later.

SB 816 — Diabetes Research

Senate Bill 816 codifies the University of Florida Diabetes Institute as a statewide resource for diabetes research, prevention, treatment and education.

SB 820 — Problem-Solving Court Reports

Senate Bill 820 specifies additional data that must be presented in the annual problem-solving court reports prepared by the Office of the State Courts Administrator.

The law creates data reporting requirements for early childhood court and veterans treatment court programs, and amends reporting requirements for mental health and drug courts.

SB 824 — School Property

Senate Bill 824 requires each school district to submit an annual inventory of unimproved real property owned as of June 30 each year.

This information will be compiled into a report for state leaders, along with possible recommendations for how to best use the land.

SB 844 — Sickle Cell Disease

Senate Bill 844 requires that the standard continuing education course on prescribing controlled substances include information regarding the treatment of pain for patients with sickle cell disease.

SB 848 — Stormwater Treatment

Senate Bill 848 allows ERP applicants to use compensating stormwater treatment as a mitigation measure when existing ambient water quality prevents compliance with water quality standards.

Furthermore, ERP applicants for regional stormwater managements systems must provide documentation of adequate financial responsibility, along with a graphic depicting the drainage area served by the system.

HB 851 — Autism Learning

House Bill 851 requires each school district to provide at least one annual autism-specific professional learning opportunity for instructional personnel and school-based administrators.

HB 867 — Dry Needling

House Bill 867 allows occupational therapists to perform dry needling, and establishes minimum experience, education, and training requirements to do so.

HB 883 — Insurance Companies

House Bill 883 allows protected cell captive insurance companies to operate and be domiciled in Florida, thus creating a regulatory framework for such companies.

HB 905 — Foreign Influence

House Bill 905 aims to limit influence in the state from “foreign countries of concern,” including places like Iran, North Korea, Cuba, China and Russia.

The law accomplishes this by prohibiting charities from accepting contributions from these countries, restricting preplanned adoption/surrogacy agreements with citizens of these nations, and setting up harsher penalties for crimes committed to benefit such groups.

HB 913 — Inmate Services

House Bill 913 requires money in the Contractor-Operated Institutions Welfare Trust Fund to be used exclusively for programs to help inmates reintegrate back into society, as well as environmental/health upgrades in contractor-operated institutions.

HB 919 — Donald Trump Airport

House Bill 919 preempts to the state the ability to name major commercial service airports.

More specifically, the law renames the Palm Beach International Airport as the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.”

All other major airports, including the Orlando International Airport, may keep their current names for now.

HB 925 — Court Clerks

House Bill 925 increases funding to the Clerks of the Court.

However, the law doesn’t raise any existing service charges or fees, or create any new service charges or fees that the Clerks may assess.

HB 927 — Local Land Planning

House Bill 927 requires certain local governments to create a registry of qualified contractors to conduct pre-application reviews of plans, permits or plats submitted in line with local land development rules.

HB 929 — Chickee Regulation

House Bill 929 prohibits local governments from enacting an ordinance that prevents a member of the Miccosukee or Seminole tribes from constructing a chickee under certain conditions.

HB 961 — Electronic Signatures

House Bill 961 requires that insurance companies implement secure control processes and procedures for electronic signatures that are acceptable to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

SB 984 — Firefighter Benefits

Senate Bill 984 expands the eligibility for disability and death benefits available to firefighters after a cancer diagnosis.

Current law provides a $25,000 one-time payout as a disability benefit resulting from an initial diagnosis.

However, the bill would make that available to a former firefighter regardless of whether he/she elects to continue coverage in an employer-sponsored health plan or group health insurance trust fund.

SB 1004 — Pet Sales

Senate Bill 1004 implements several new consumer protections related to pet sales in Florida.

The new provisions include the following:

• Requiring pet dealers to disclose financing terms before a sale is finalized
• Allowing consumers to terminate financing agreements without penalty if an animal is later found unfit for purchase due to illness or disease
• Requiring pet dealers to provide veterinary medical records documenting examinations, medications, and treatments provided to the animal
• Requiring written notice informing consumers of their rights under Florida law, including the ability to return or exchange a sick animal and seek reimbursement of veterinary costs
• Making violations enforceable under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act

HB 1019 — Firefighting Foam

House Bill phases out the use of firefighting foam that contains intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

SB 1022 — Children’s Initiatives

Senate Bill 1022 provides for the creation of the Bay County 32401 Children’s Initiative in Bay County, and the Pompano RYZE Children’s Initiative in Broward County.

These sorts of initiatives are community-based service networks located in disadvantaged areas of the state to improve education, economic and health outcomes for local residents.

SB 1030 — Recovery Residences

Senate Bill 1030 changes rules for licensing of substance-abuse treatment providers, which is regulated by the DCF.

Under this law, already-licensed providers with a clean record over the prior year may add new services without being forced to take clients during a “probationary” license period just to prove they can operate.

HB 1031 — Callback Queues

House Bill 1031 sets up a pilot program to implement callback queues at two state agencies: the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Children and Families.

HB 1069 — Background Screenings

House Bill 1069 makes several changes to background screenings in the state, including:

• Prohibits a person from acting as an athletic coach if he/she doesn’t pass specified background screening qualifications
• Specifies that volunteers required to undergo such background screenings are limited to volunteer coach, assistance coach, manager, or referee for a youth athletic team
• Prohibits a person from denying or failing to acknowledge arrests covered by expunged or sealed criminal records if he/she is screened through the Clearinghouse by a qualified entity

HB 1073 — School Board Bill of Rights

House Bill 1073 establishes a District School Board Members’ Bill of Rights, which does the following:

• Provides members with access to school district documents necessary to fulfill the duties required under the State Constitution and Florida
• Allows members to consult with the district’s CFO on budget information
• Lets members request documents or information from school staff, subject to legal restrictions and administrative approval
• Grants members the ability to publicly comment on district school board business, except for student/employee disciplinary matters or other issues prohibited by law

HB 1081 — Cybersecurity

House Bill 1081 requires Cyber Florida at the University of South Florida to develop a Cybersecurity Experiential Learning Program.

HB 1085 — Cyber Security

House Bill 1085 creates the Local Government Cybersecurity Protection Program within the University of South Florida, to be administered by Cyber Florida.

The program must help eligible local governments with developing cybersecurity risk management programs to defend against cybersecurity threats.

HB 1093 — Vertiports

House Bill 1093 includes vertiports and charging systems as qualifying projects for funding under public-private partnerships between state and private entities.

In addition, the law allows the FDOT to fund all of the project costs of a public vertiport if federal funds aren’t available.

HB 1103 — Vessel Restrictions

House Bill 1103 allows local governments to administer provisions of law concerning vessels at risk of becoming derelict and long-term anchoring permits.

Furthermore, the law lets cities and counties regulate vessel speed and operation within 300 feet of a confluence of water bodies presenting a blind corner (up to 1,000 feet) if the extended area is necessary to ensure safe navigation and visibility for approaching vessels.

HB 1113 — Vessel Restrictions

House Bill 1103 allows local governments to authorize a code enforcement officer to administer the provision of law concerning vessels at risk of becoming derelict on state waters.

This can be done by way of local ordinances.

HB 1115 — Genetic Counseling

House Bill 1115 creates the Genetic Counseling Education Enhancement Grant Program to support graduate genetic counseling programs at state universities.

HB 1121 — Disability Services

House Bill 1121 revises aging and disability services provided by the Department of Elder Affairs.

More specifically, the law adds food and nutritional supplements as allowable uses of subsidy payments under the Home Care for the Elderly Program.

HB 1159 — Sexual Offenses

House Bill 1159 sets up harsher penalties for various sexual offenses. These changes include:

• CSAM: Replacing the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” in Florida statutes
• Harsher Penalties: Increases penalties for use of a child in a sexual performance; possession and transmission of child porn; creation of generated child porn; possession of a child-like doll; and certain sex acts involving animals
• Mandatory Sentencing: Adults must receive a mandatory minimum sentence for certain offenses related to using children in sexual performances and transmitting child porn
• Repeat Offenders: Raises mandatory minimum sentences for certain repeat sex offenders
• Life Felony: Creates a life felony for aggravated use of a child under 12 years old in a sexual performance
• Generated Child Porn: Creates a second-degree felony for transmitting generated child pornography
• No Pets: Prohibits anyone convicted of certain sex offenses involving animals from owning or working with animals for at least five years

HB 1175 — Office Surgery Suites

House Bill 1175 requires new safety design standards for office surgical suites.

More specifically, the law dictates that such standards allow up to six patients on an outpatient basis.

This is in lieu of the current limit of four patients who, due to treatment, illness or injury, are unable to act in self-preservation during an emergency.

SB 1180 — Community Development Districts

Senate Bill 1180 revises rules for Community Development Districts (CDDs).

More specifically, the law sets up a recall election process for members of a CDD’s board of supervisors, which largely mirrors that of recall procedures for local governments.

HB 1201 — Student Health

House Bill 1201 updates statutory provisions regarding the care of students with epilepsy or seizure disorders and expands the definition of schools to include charter schools.

The law also requires schools to display a poster identifying the basic steps of responding to someone having a seizure.

Lastly, the law requires the FDOH to include required education and training for schools in its epilepsy education program.

HB 1217 — Greenhouse Gases

House Bill 1217 prohibits the state and local governments from adopting or enforcing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions policies, including carbon taxes.

HB 1219 — Spoil Island

House Bill 1219 designates a mangrove island within Jupiter Sound as the “Andrew ‘Red’ Harris Spoil Island.”

The island will be named for Andrew “Red” Harris, a native of Jupiter who started his own insurance brokerage agency in 2011 and was killed in a boating accident roughly three years later.

SB 1246 — Nursing Education Fund

Senate Bill 1246 expands the scope of the Linking Industry to Nursing Education Fund to address workforce shortages in health science education programs, in addition to nursing education programs.

HB 1279 — Teacher Funding

House Bill 1279 lets school districts provide immediate pay incentives to high-performing teachers who choose to teach in lower-performing schools, even without collective bargaining.

The law also allows bonuses for districts and teachers who offer Florida Advanced Courses (FACTs), in line with bonuses offered for other advanced courses like AP, AICE and IB.

SB 1296 — Union Crackdown

Senate Bill 1296 provides for the decertification of partisan school unions, fast-tracking salary increases that some unions have stalled.

The law requires at least 50% participation in union certification elections, meaning that unions can no longer be recertified through elections with just a handful of voters.

Furthermore, SB 1296 increases penalties for illegal strikes, raising the maximum fine from $20,000 per day to $40,000 per day for such organizations.

HB 1337 — Estate Authority

House Bill 1337 amends several provisions of Florida law to reduce the necessity for court involvement or formal proceedings in the distribution of a decedent.

More specifically, this bill does the following:

• Gives a personal representative more authority with respect to a decedent’s safe deposit box
• Expressly allows a personal representative to institute a proceeding to enforce his/her authority as personal representative
• Increases the amounts of what Florida law considers “small estates,” such that procedures other than formal probate proceedings may be instituted to dispose of the subject property under certain conditions

HB 1343 — Insurance Qualifications

House Bill 1343 provides that anyone who’s earned a high school diploma in Florida satisfies the education requirement for an insurance customer representative’s license.

This applies if the person in question completed a course in insurance and personal finance as part of his/her curriculum.

That said, the law also directs the development of a 0.5-credit course in insurance and personal finance, which school districts may use starting in the 2027-2028 school year.

HB 1347 — Lab Personnel

House Bill 1347 revises current requirements for performing moderate- or high-complexity laboratory testing.

To do so, the law adopts federal qualifications as the minimum licensure requirements for clinical lab technologists and technicians to perform such testing.

HB 1389 — Affordable Housing

House Bill 1389 updates the Live Local Act to make it easier to build certain affordable apartment or mixed-use housing on certain properties owned by local governments and school districts.

The law also limits how local governments can block these projects, like using rules that effectively shrink how tall a building can be.

HB 1405 — Missing Persons

House Bill 1405 reestablishes the Missing Persons with Special Needs Statewide Project.

The project would be implemented through centers for autism and related disabilities (CARD), each of which must provide personal search-and-rescue devices for distribution to project participants.

HB 1407 — Civil Actions

House Bill 1407 sets clear time limits for people who claim to have been illegally discriminated against at work to file a lawsuit after they complain to the state.

HB 1417 — Department of Environmental Protection

House Bill 1417 repeals the Environmental Regulation Commission, which is expected to streamline rulemaking for environmental protection.

This law also requires erosion and sediment control plans for the construction of solar facilities to include stormwater best management practices.

HB 1443 — Parkinson’s Disease Registry

House Bill 1443 requires the Florida Institute for Parkinson’s Disease at USF to set up a statewide Parkinson’s disease registry.

Under this legislation, physicians who diagnose a patient with Parkinson’s disease must report nationally recognized performance measures to the registry beginning on Jan. 1, 2027.

HB 1445 — Public Records (Parkinson’s Disease Registry)

House Bill 1445 creates a public record exemption for patient-identifying information held in the Parkinson’s disease registry set up by HB 1443.

The exemption will be repealed on Oct. 2, 2031, unless reenacted by lawmakers.

HB 1471 — Terrorist Organizations

House Bill 1471 makes several changes to state law regarding terrorist organizations. Many of those revisions are as follows:

• Terrorist Designations: Creates a process by which the state may designate groups as domestic or foreign terrorist organization if certain conditions are met
• Religious Laws: Courts and tribunals are prohibited from enforcing religious or foreign laws against someone if such application would violate his/her constitutional rights
• Private Schools: Prohibits private schools participating in state scholarship programs from being owned or funded by terrorist groups, terrorist supporters, or criminal gangs
• State Universities: Prevents institutions in the Florida College System from using state funds to support programs that advocate for terrorist organizations
• Visa Students: Public colleges must report information about the current status of students who are attending on a visa if they promote terrorist organizations
• Student Expulsions: If a student promotes a terrorist organization while enrolled at a public university, the student must be immediately expelled and assessed an out-of-state fee

HB 1473 — Public Records (Terrorism)

House Bill 1473 creates a public record exemption tied to HB 1471 for certain information that would require Florida’s Chief of Domestic Security to provide to the governor and cabinet in certain situations.

HB 1509 — Veterinarian Licensure

House Bill 1509 revises requirements for veterinarian licensure by endorsement.

More specifically, the law removes the requirement that such applicants have held a valid, active out-of-state license for the three years immediately preceding their application.

Instead, such an applicant’s valid, active out-of-state license be “in good standing.”

HB 1515 — Public Records (Uterine Fibroid Research)

House Bill 1515 creates a public record exemption for patient-identifying information submitted to the FDOH for inclusion in the Uterine Fibroid Research Database.

SB 1602 — Veteran Housing

Senate Bill 1602 creates the “Homes for Veterans Property Management Incentive Pilot Program.”

The pilot program provides that landlords may apply to receive funding from a trust fund to hold a vacant dwelling for a veteran for up to 45 days, and to cover property loss at the dwelling caused by the veteran that may extend beyond the deposit of up to $2,000.

SB 1614 — Florida Building Code

Senate Bill 1614 removes a current provision of law that allows a local government to use excess funds from enforcing the Florida Building Code to build a structure that houses a local government’s code enforcement agency.

SB 1690 — Early Learning Services

Senate Bill 1690 makes several statutory changes relating to early childhood education and childcare regulation.

For example, the law requires the DCF and local licensing agencies to disseminate electronically certain information regarding all childcare facilities to the community.

SB 2506-E — Fuel Taxes

Senate Bill 2506-E amends state statutes relating to distributions from the fuel sales tax.

The law provides an increase to the Agricultural Emergency Eradication Trust Fund; the Marine Resources Conservation Trust Fund; the State Game Trust Fund; and the Invasive Plant Trust Fund.

This aims to conform the law to the most recent budget act.

HB 4085 — Okeechobee County

House Bill 4085 grants over 400 acres of state lands to the Okeechobee Utility Authority. These lands are the site of a wastewater treatment plant operated by the authority.

HB 5001-E — Budget Act

House Bill 5001-E is the budget act for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

This time around, the state budget amounts to roughly $117.6 billion — a total figure after the governor vetoed nearly $810 million line items.

HB 5003-E — Budget Implementation

House Bill 5003-E helps implements the state’s budget act for the 2026-2027 fiscal year by making a variety of statutory changes.

The statutory changes provided by this law will remain in effect until next year.

HB 5201-E — Collective Bargaining

House Bill 5201-E provides that the resolution of collective bargaining issues at an impasse for FY 2026-2027 regarding state employees will ultimately be resolved based on spending decisions included in the budget act.

HB 5205-E — Retirement Contributions

House Bill 5205-E conforms state law to the budget act, as retirement contributions are included in the budget act.

The law revises employer contribution rates for the normal costs and the unfunded actuarial liability of the Florida Retirement System based on the annual actuarial study for FY 2026-2027 and the following FRS changes:

• Authorization of an elected officer (other than a lawmaker) who has completed his/her Deferred Retirement Option Program participation to receive his/her accumulated funds after reaching 59.5 years of age without terminating from office
• Establishment of an alternative cost-of-living adjustment for eligible Special Risk Class members of 1.5%

HB 5301-E — Health Care

House Bill 5301-E conforms several statutes to the budget act, including:

• Makes changes to the FDOH’s revolving loan program, new newborn screening testing, infant nutritional needs, and trauma centers
• Establishes a formula to allocate funds related to the Slots for Doctors Program
• Makes the Step into Success Workforce Education and Internship Program permanent
• Establishes the Foster and Family Support Grant Program
• Establishes the Eligibility Assistance Program to provide Medicaid eligibility information, referral, and navigation services for people with disabilities

HB 5401 — State Court System

House Bill 5401 terminates the Mediation and Arbitration Trust Fund within the State Courts System.

All current balances and revenues of the fund will instead be transferred to the State Courts Revenue Trust Fund.

HB 5403-E — Correctional Facilities

House Bill 5403-E conforms current law to the budget act, establishing Legislative intent to provide funding to address critical fixed capital outlay needs of the Department of Corrections (FDC). Changes include:

• Requires $50 million in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund over the next 30 years
• Requires FDC to use funding to develop a capital improvement plan for new and existing correctional facilities
• Directs FDC to begin planning a new 600-bed correctional hospital unit starting on July 1

HB 5701-E — Petroleum Cleanup

House Bill 5701-E conforms current law to the budget act, amending the Petroleum Cleanup Participation Program and the Florida Petroleum Liability and Restoration Insurance Program.

This law removes program deductibles, copayments, and monetary caps for eligible parties and has the costs absorbed by the Inland Protection Trust Fund.

In all, 231 bills have already been approved by the governor as of Monday, June 29, with many of these new laws set to take effect later this year.

You can find the full list below. Be sure to check back, as News 6 will update this list as more laws are signed.

HB 1D — Redistricting

House Bill 1D redistricts the state’s congressional districts using 2020 Census data.

Signed, Sealed, and Delivered. pic.twitter.com/mKFQdQ2Xbo

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 4, 2026

DATE OF EFFECT: May 4

SB 4-F — Local Property Taxes

Senate Bill 4-F gets rid of a provision that lets local governments raise rolled-back rates based on the state’s per-capita income growth.

The law also sets up higher voting thresholds for local governments who want to increase their rolled-back rates.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 24

SB 14 — Bus Crash Victim

Senate Bill 14 appropriates $4.1 million to compensate Jose Correa, who was critically injured after being struck by a Miami-Dade County bus while crossing the street in 2021.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 33 — New Road Names

House Bill 33 renames the following roadways in Florida:

• Charlie Kirk Memorial Avenue — The portion of State Road 985 between Southwest 24th Street and State Road 90 in Miami-Dade County
• President Donald J. Trump Boulevard — The portion of State Road 870 between West Tradewinds Avenue and the eastern end of Commercial Boulevard in Broward County

Under this law, the FDOT must erect suitable markers for these new designations.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 35 — Traffic Offenders

House Bill 35 revises the term “habitual traffic offender” to add the offense of driving without a valid license.

This crime will be added to the list of offenses for which a certain number of convictions in a five-year period requires the state to designate the person as a habitual traffic offender.

Once a person is designated as a habitual traffic offender, he/she can generally be prosecuted for a third-degree felony for driving a motor vehicle thereafter.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 47 — Medical Diagnoses

House Bill 47 lets parents whose child is removed from their home by the DCF ask for a second medical evaluation (or a compilation of differential diagnoses) within five days of an initial examination.

The healthcare practitioner who performs the second evaluation must submit a written report to both the DCF and the parents within 10 days.

Furthermore, the law allows the DCF to delay forwarding allegations of criminal conduct to law enforcement pending the outcome of the child protection investigation if the parent alleges the child has a certain preexisting condition or asks for a second evaluation.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 52 — Security Services

Senate Bill 52 refers to a state statute that regulates private investigative and security services.

More specifically, the law expresses that this statute doesn’t apply to volunteers who provide armed security services at churches, mosques, synagogues or other places of worship.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 89 — Veterinary Prescriptions

House Bill 89 requires licensed veterinarians to clearly inform clients of their right to receive a written prescription for medication that can be filled at the pharmacy of a client’s choice.

The law also mandates that if the veterinary clinic is able to fill the prescription, the vet should disclose that option to the client, as well.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 91 — Candidate Qualification

House Bill 91 requires that someone who wants to run for office must affirm that he/she hasn’t changed his/her name in the year prior to qualification, with few exceptions.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 110 — Homestead Exemptions

Senate Bill 110 clarifies homestead property tax eligibility for certain long-term leaseholders.

Under this law, lessees who holds a bona fide home or condo lease of at least 98 years gets to enjoy the same homestead exemptions as someone who would otherwise own that property.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 25

SB 118 — R.V. Park Assessments

Senate Bill 118 revises how special assessments may be levied against R.V. parks.

The bill does this by prohibiting local governments from levying special assessments against areas over 400 square feet for each R.V. parking space or campsite.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 21

SB 124 — Florida Virtual Schools

Senate Bill 124 amends state statutes regarding the Florida Virtual School, which was founded in 1997 to provide students in the state with tech-based educational opportunities.

More specifically, the law makes several technical changes, such as including all full-time and part-time FLVS students for the purposes of full-time equivalent student calculations.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 131 — Estate Curators

House Bill 131 amends the state’s Probation Code, which outlines how estates may be administrated.

More specifically, the law modifies provisions like curator bond requirements and when courts may appoint curators.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 156 — Jayson Raynor Act

Senate Bill 156 — dubbed the “Jayson Raynor Act” in honor of a slain Daytona Beach officer — expands law enforcement officers’ protection from a citizen’s use of force during an arrest.

More specifically, the law prohibits anyone from using or threatening force to resist any arrest or detention, or to resist an officer who is performing official duties in good faith.

The law also provides that those guilty of manslaughter must be sentenced to life imprisonment without the eligibility of release upon conviction if the offense was committed against such officers.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 16

HB 167 — Phosphate Mining

House Bill 167 establishes a defense from strict liability in lawsuits related to environmental pollution brought under the WQAA.

More specifically, the defense kicks in if the lawsuit is related to pollution caused by a former phosphate mine and certain requirements are met.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 168 — Public Nuisances

Senate Bill 168 declares any place that has been used as a gambling house at least twice within a 12-month period a “public nuisance.

The law also increases maximum fines if nuisance activity persists beyond one year from $250 per day to $500 per day.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 175 — Stablecoin Payment

House Bill 175 creates a regulatory framework for issuers of “payment stablecoin,” a type of cryptocurrency that’s typically pegged to a currency like the U.S. dollar to maintain stability.

The law requires money services businesses to obtain a license from the Office of Financial Regulation to issue payment stablecoin.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 26

HB 177 — Conflict of Interest

House Bill 177 refers to capital cases in which the CCCRC represents an indigent defendant but determines that it can’t continue to provide representation due to conflicts of interest or similar reasons.

In these scenarios, a judge may appoint a CCCRC from a different region to represent the defendant rather than a private attorney under certain conditions.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 178 — School Athletics

Senate Bill 178 requires that head coaches of sports teams be allowed to use personal funds to support the welfare of students under the FHSAA.

Under this law, coaches may provide help in the form of food, transportation and recovery services.

That said, coaches are limited to using $15,000 in personal funds per athletic team per year.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 182 — Teacher Mentors

Senate Bill 182 establishes the School Teacher Training and Mentoring Program, aimed at improving teacher effectiveness in public schools.

Under this program, qualified teachers can be placed as mentors in schools that have a “D” or “F” grade, thereby improving the performance of these schools.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 192 — Patient Funds

Senate Bill 192 deletes the $1,500 cap on advances a chiropractic physician may collect for examination or treatment.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 199 — Veterans Affairs

House Bill 199 amends existing requirements for admission to a veterans treatment court program at any stage of a criminal proceeding.

More specifically, the law repeals requirements for the state attorney to approve placement into such a program, as well as an application from a defendant for participation.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 212 — Sex Offenders

Senate Bill 212 amends state statutes regarding sexual offenders and predators in the state.

Under this law, those convicted of certain sex offenses against children 16 years of age or younger may not live within 1,000 feet of a public swimming pool.

[BELOW: Florida attorney general unveils Sanford ‘house of horrors’]

Current law already prohibits these sorts of sex offenders from living near schools, childcare facilities, parks and playgrounds, though this bill cracks down even harder via the following rules:

• Contacting Children: Such offenders may be arrested without a warrant if they knowingly contact a minor at any park, playground or public swimming pool.
• School Grounds: Such offenders may be arrested without a warrant if they’re purposefully present in any pre-K-12 school while the school is still in operation, with few exceptions.
• Prowling Offenders: The bill increases the restricted distance for loitering and prowling by such sex offenders from 300 feet to 500 feet of places where children congregate.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 245 — Child Pornography

House Bill 245 replaces the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” under state law.

This shift does not change any other elements of the law, including offenses related to child pornography.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 246 — Specialty Plates

Senate Bill 246 grants permission for five new specialty license plates, which are as follows:

• Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
• Miami Northwestern Alumni Association
• Outsider
• St. Petersburg College
• First Responders Resiliency

The bill also revises certain requirements for the existing “Florida Wildflower” and “Fraternal Order of Police” plates.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 249 — State Flagship

House Bill 249 redesignates the official state flagship.

More specifically, the law replaces the current state flagship (the schooner Western Union) with the S.S. American Victory.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

[BELOW: New Florida bill could change meaning of ‘criminal gang member’]

HB 253 — Dental Care

House Bill 253 expands eligibility for the Veterans Dental Care Grant Program.

The law accomplishes this by providing explicit statutory authorization for the program to provide services to veterans with incomes of up to 400% of the federal poverty level.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 271 — Bail Bonds

House Bill 271 subjects foreign and alien bail bond insurers doing business in Florida to the same reporting requirements as domestic bail bond insurers.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 273 — Special Districts

House Bill 273 requires that when state or federal money is used to help special districts in rural areas, the agreement must allow those districts to get paid for approved work they finish.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 277 — Domestic Violence

House Bill 277 enhances domestic violence penalties if the suspect has already been convicted of that crime in the past.

The bill also increases the funding amount for relocation assistance claims for victims of domestic violence from $1,500 to $2,500 for a single claim (lifetime maximum bumped from $3,000 to $5,000).

Furthermore, the bill adds threatening to kill/injure a family pet and the existence of a military protective order to the list of factors that judges can consider when determining whether to grant a domestic violence injunction.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 288 — Electric Cooperatives

Senate Bill 288 revises a state statute that prohibits certain bylaws, tariffs and policies from being used by rural electric cooperatives.

Under this law, the statute is limited to only those cooperatives that sell electricity at retail.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 290 — FDACS

Senate Bill 290 makes a number of changes to state law related to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS).

Some of these changes include a prohibition on local governments from banning gas-powered landscape equipment, and criminal penalties for those receiving unauthorized help on a CDL exam.

You can read a list of more changes here.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 296 — Domestic Violence

Senate Bill 296 requires the Division of Telecommunications to investigate the feasibility of a domestic and dating violence 911 alert system.

The results of the study must be reported to the Senate President and House Speaker by Jan. 31, 2027.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 298 — Public Records (Domestic Violence)

Senate Bill 298 expands two existing public record exemptions for victims of domestic violence who participate in the state’s confidentiality program.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 302 — Coastal Resiliency

Senate Bill 302 prohibits any dredging or filling of submerged lands at the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, with some exceptions provided for public safety and environmental protection.

This law is also expected to streamline the permitting process for nature-based methods aimed at improving coastal resiliency, helping to accelerate restoration timelines.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 327 — Uterine Fibroid Research

House Bill 327 requires healthcare providers to submit identified information to the FDOH for inclusion in the Uterine Fibroid Research Database.

Furthermore, uterine fibroids are added to the list of diseases of public health significance, which requires providers to submit identified uterine fibroid data to the FDOH for epidemiological research.

DATE OF EFFECT: Same as HB 1515

SB 340 — Human Trafficking

Senate Bill 340 requires graduates of professional and practical nursing programs to complete a two-hour course on human trafficking to be eligible to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX).

The NCLEX is a prerequisite for full licensure. Furthermore, this requirement applies to students who apply to take the NCLEX on or after July 1, 2027.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 355 — Patient Protection

House Bill 355 requires the AHCA to establish minimum standards for pediatric patient care in hospital emergency departments.

Furthermore, the bill requires all hospitals with emergency departments to develop and implement policies and procedures for pediatric patient care in the department.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 359 — Search Warrants

House Bill 359 generally requires law enforcement agencies to return a search warrant to the issuing court within 10 days, except for the following scenarios:

• 20 days if the search warrant is issued to an out-of-state provider for electronic communications data
• 30 days if the search warrant is issued to search for and seize specimens for DNA analysis or entry into the DNA database
• 365 days if the search warrant is issued for a computer, computer system, or electronic device

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 386 — Farm Equipment

Senate Bill 386 sets up a process for consumers and manufacturers to remedy defective farm equipment.

If farm equipment is defective, this law lets buyers report the defect to the manufacturer during the warranty period or the one-year period after the original delivery date of the farm equipment.

The law also requires the manufacturer to either replace or refund any defective farm equipment.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 394 — Reinsurance Managers

Senate Bill 394 exempts an underwriting manager who manages assumed facultative risks for a reinsurer from reinsurance intermediary manager licensing requirements.

This applies if the facultative reinsurance business managed by the underwriting manager is less than 10% of the assumed annual gross written premium of the insurer.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 397 — Pretrial Release

House Bill 397 creates a new criminal offense for purposefully violating an order of no contact imposed by a court as a condition of pretrial release after the suspect was arrested over violent offenses.

Under this law, the new offense is treated as a first-degree misdemeanor, with subsequent violations being bumped up to third-degree felonies.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 399 — Development Regulations

House Bill 399 requires application fees for development permits to be reasonably related to the costs associated with processing the application and prohibits fees based on a percentage of project costs.

The legislation also mandates that each local government’s land development regulations must include factors for assessing compatibility of residential uses.

DATE OF EFFECT: March 27

SB 418 — Blue Envelope Program

Senate Bill 418 creates the “Blue Envelope Program” to improve communication between autistic people and law enforcement officers during motor-vehicle related interactions.

Under the program, individuals may be identified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder, with blue envelopes including communication guidelines for officers to keep in mind about specific individuals.

These blue enveloped will be available upon request from the FLHSMV or the local tax collector starting on Jan. 1, 2027.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 422 — Airport Broadcasts

Senate Bill 422 prohibits airports from using information derived from automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) systems emitted from certain aircraft as a means of collecting fees from owners.

This rule is limited to aircraft with a gross weight of 12,499 pounds or less operating under FAA rules and applies under the following two scenarios:

• The operation for which a fee would be assessed is a departure or a landing, including touch-and-go landings
• The fee would be assessed based on an aircraft entering into the airspace of the airport where the fee is assessed

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 425 — Historic Cemeteries

House Bill 425 provides that if a recorded historic African-American cemetery sells excess vacant land to fund the cemetery’s long-term upkeep, the local government must administratively approve an application to rezone the excess land to allow for development consistent with adjacent land uses.

Furthermore, the law lets local governments use reasonable discretion to determine the new zoning, provided that it’s consistent with the surrounding area.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 428 — Drowning Prevention

Senate Bill 428 amends the Swimming Lesson Voucher Program, raising the age limit to include children between 1 and 7 years of age.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 429 — Gang Members

House Bill 429 revises what constitutes a “criminal gang member” under state law.

Current law defines this as someone who meets at least two points from a list of criteria, such as admitting to criminal gang membership or having a criminal gang’s tattoo.

But under this law, even more criteria will be added, such as admitting online to being a gang member or being identified as such by a live-in spouse.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

SB 432 — Xylazine Trafficking

Senate Bill 432 provides that selling or manufacturing certain forms of xylazine is a first-degree felony, with a mandatory 3-year prison term.

The law also creates a first-degree felony for trafficking in xylazine, with mandatory minimum sentencing depending on how much xylazine was involved in the offense.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

SB 436 — Felony Battery

Senate Bill 436 expands the list of qualifying prior offenses that allow for misdemeanor battery to be upgraded to a third-degree felony.

More specifically, if someone has a prior conviction of resisting an officer with violence, any subsequent battery charges may be bumped up to a third-degree felony.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 441 — Conservation Lands

House Bill 441 requires that when a water management district considers selling conservation lands, the governing board publish the following information at least 30 days before meeting:

• The district-owned parcels of land for sale or proposed for exchange
• The privately owned parcels proposed for exchange
• The portions of those parcels that will be preserved in a permanent conservation easement
• A statement from the district explaining why those lands are no longer needed for conservation purposes

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 445 — Dangerous Crimes

House Bill 445 adds certain offenses dealing with child exploitation and certain kinds of computer porn to the list of dangerous crimes under Florida law.

This means that someone arrested for one of these offenses can’t be given nonmonetary pretrial release at a first appearance hearing.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 453 — High School Diplomas

House Bill 453 allows student with disabilities to substitute one school year of participation in the Special Olympics for the P.E. requirement for a standard high school diploma.

Furthermore, the law specifies that two years of marching band satisfies both the one-credit requirement in P.E. and the one-credit requirement in performing arts.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 474 — Military Affairs

Senate Bill 474 revises laws relating to military service leave for public employees.

For example, the law expands eligibility for certain leave protections to include public officials who are also members of the U.S. Coast Guard or Florida State Guard.

SB 474 also expands the eligibility requirements for financial assistance from the Soldiers and Airmen Assistance Program.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 477 — Drug Paraphernalia

House Bill 477 expands the type of narcotic-drug testing products excluded from the definition of “drug paraphernalia.”

More specifically, the law excludes products that are used solely to determine whether a controlled substance contains xylazine.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 484 — Data Centers

Senate Bill 484 prohibits utilities from passing data center costs — including electricity costs — onto residential and small business customers.

Furthermore, the law prohibits utilities from serving data centers controlled by foreign countries of concern, and it allows local communities to set stricter standards on such centers.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 488 — Transportation

Senate Bill 488 amends various provisions related to topics like motor vehicle registration, licensing and tax-related requirements. These new rules include the following:

• Creates penalties for counterfeiting or illegally altering fuel tax licenses and the related permits
• Revises penalties and interest calculations for delinquent tax payments
• Provides penalties for specific offenses related to the misuse of motor fuel-tax related documents and establishes detailed requirements for recordkeeping by motor carriers
• Increases the amount of estimated damage resulting from a crash that is required to be reported to law enforcement from $500 to $2,000

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

SB 490 — Public Records (FLHSMV)

Senate Bill 490 expands a public records exemption for email addresses collected by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

This expansion includes email addresses that are used to provide customers with general notifications.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 491 — Faith-Based Content (BIPs)

House Bill 491 allows Batterers’ Intervention Programs (BIPs) to offer supplemental faith-based activities as a voluntary service to participants referred to a BIP by court order or by consent for acts of domestic violence.

That said, the law also preserves current rules, which require all mandatory BIP curricula to be based on a psychoeducational or cognitive behavioral therapy intervention model.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 504 — Body Cameras

Senate Bill 504 requires governmental agencies that allow code inspectors to wear body cameras to set up policies addressing proper use and storage of these cameras, as well as the recorded data.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 505 — Virtual Currency Kiosks

House Bill 505 expands the definition of “money transmitter” to include owners and operators of virtual currency kiosks.

This consequently requires them to obtain a money transmitter license, though they’re also exempt from licensure fees.

DATE OF EFFECT: Jan. 1, 2027

SB 506 — Public Records (Body Cameras)

Senate Bill 506 creates a public records exemption for code inspectors’ body camera recordings if the footage is recorded:

• Inside a private residence
• Inside a facility that offers health care, mental health care, or social services
• In a place that a reasonable person would expect to be private

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 538 — Extracurricular Activities

House Bill 538 revises student eligibility and participation requirements for extracurricular activities, including athletics.

The bill accomplishes this by defining key terms and establishing an “eligible student” framework for home education, charter, private, Florida Virtual School, alternative and traditional public-school students.

Under this bill, public schools are also allowed to assess an activity fee on homeschool students who wish to participate in interscholastic or intrascholastic extracurricular activities at the public school.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 559 — Animal Welfare

House Bill 559 establishes a new third-degree felony offense if an adult:

• causes or entices a minor to commit aggravated animal cruelty; fighting or baiting animals; or sexual activities involving animals
• commits in the presence of a minor aggravated animal cruelty; fighting or baiting animals; or sexual activities involving animals

The law also requires a juvenile court to order a minor who commits animal cruelty to undergo a psychological evaluation and potentially receive certain treatments.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 561 — Educator Preparation

House Bill 561 makes it easier for teachers whose licenses expired to get back into the classroom, but without having to retake subject area exams that have already been passed.

The bill also gives these educators a temporary license so that they can work and earn the classes or training hours they need, and it sets up free training to help them renew or fix their license.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 565 — Persons With Disabilities

House Bill 565 requires the Agency for Persons with Disabilities to recognize Tatton-Brown-Rahman syndrome as a qualifying condition for APD services.

The law also requires all employees — not just managers and supervisors — of APD-licensed adult day training and residential facilities to undergo a level 2 background screening.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 569 — Forensic Client Services

House Bill 569 allows the Agency for Persons with Disabilities to house non-forensic clients and forensic clients within the same wards in secure APD facilities.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 572 — Public Ethics

Senate Bill 572 revises the term “relative” in the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees to include foster parents and foster children.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 578 — Alzheimer’s Awareness

Senate Bill 578 requires the DOEA to contract for the development of a statewide Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Initiative.

The initiative must provide Florida residents affected by Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias with greater support and access to helpful information.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 584 — Commercial Driving Schools

Senate Bill 584 allows for county tax collectors to enforce statutory provisions related to commercial driving schools.

More specifically, the law allows these agencies to enter into agreements with the DHSMV to better crack down on fraudulent or deceitful business practices by these sorts of schools.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 589 — Sewage Treatment

House Bill 589 refers to owners and builders of single-family homes that need to have an onsite sewage treatment and disposal system (OSTDS).

Under this law, local governments may no longer require these people to receive a construction permit for the OSTDS before issuing a building or plumbing permit, so long as there’s proof that the OSTDS permit has been applied for.

DATE OF EFFECT: May 6

SB 590 — Statute of Limitations

Senate Bill 590 extends the window to prosecute someone who willfully fails to make a required report of suspected child abuse, abandonment, neglect or sexual abuse.

This is done by pausing the statute of limitations until a law enforcement agency becomes aware of the reporting violation.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 594 — Housing Assistance Plans

Senate Bill 594 helps mobile home owners keep their homes by letting local housing programs use funds to help pay up to six months of lot rent.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 598 — Funeral Services

Senate Bill 598 makes several revisions to a state statute that regulates funeral and cemetery services.

For example, the law prohibits licensees from contracting to become the sole provider of funeral services for any firm that provides medical or end-of-life care to the public.

Furthermore, SB 598 allows licensees to dispose of human remains that have been in their lawful possession for at least 90 days if the legally authorized person of the decedent fails to direct the disposition.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 625 — JAC Members

House Bill 625 increases the number of the Justice Administrative Commission from four to seven.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 628 — Trump Highway

Senate Bill 628 renames over a dozen roadways across the state.

The bill also designates the Tallahassee airport at 3300 Capital Circle SW as the “Bobby Bowden-Tallahassee International Airport.”

Furthermore, SB 628 designates 124 miles of SR-80 stretching from SR-A1A in Palm Beach County to US-41 in Lee County as the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.”

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 655 — Public Records (Attorney Meetings)

House Bill 655 creates a public meeting exemption for state and local agencies to meet privately with their attorneys under the Bert Harris Act.

More specifically, the law exempts the meeting’s transcripts from public disclosure until the relevant property-rights claim is settled (or when the statute of limitations ends, if there’s no litigation).

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 656 — Crimes Against Children

Senate Bill 656 renames the “Online Sting Operations Grant Program” to the “Internet Crimes Against Children Grant Program.”

Under this program, grants may be awarded to local law enforcement agencies to help them combat online child exploitation and to target those preying on children online.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 679 — Trademark Registration

House Bill 679 mandate that the Florida Department of State use the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s schedule of classes of goods and services as the state’s classification for trademark purposes, rather than the general classes for trademarks for goods and services set in statute.

Furthermore, the bill requires that agency to set up a website where applicants can apply for a trademark or renew a trademark and provides that the website must safeguard the applicant’s information to ensure data integrity.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 686 — Agricultural Enclaves

Senate Bill 686 deals with agricultural enclaves: pockets of agricultural land that are mainly surrounded by development.

Under this bill, enclave owners may submit development plans for single-family housing.

Local governments won’t be allowed to enact regulation for one of these enclaves that is more burdensome than for other types of applications for comparable uses, either.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1 (Provisions expire Jan. 1, 2028)

HB 697 — Drug Prices

House Bill 697 makes it unlawful for a PBM to force a pharmacy to take a loss when dispensing a drug or to reimburse a nonaffiliated pharmacy less than an affiliated pharmacy.

Furthermore, the law requires PBMs to allow in-network pharmacies to submit consolidated appeals comprised of multiple adjudicated claims featuring identical drugs, day supplies, and dates of service.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 753 — School Counselors

House Bill 753 exempts prospective school counselors from certain professional preparation and educational competence requirements otherwise imposed on classroom teachers by state law.

However, the bill clarifies that individual school districts may still require these requirements as a condition of employment for school counselors.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 757 — School Safety

House Bill 757 expands the state’s Guardian program to include public colleges and universities throughout Florida.

The law also prohibits anyone from discharging a weapon within 1,000 feet of a school during school hours or during a sanctioned school activity. This crime is punishable as a second-degree felony.

DATE OF EFFECT: May 15

[RELATED: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs new school safety law]

SB 772 — Eyewear Insurance

Senate Bill 772 expands Florida’s limited-license portable electronics insurance agent license to also cover eyewear insurance, including smart glasses and non-electronic eyewear.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 797 — Nonprofits

House Bill 797 revises the Florida Not For Profit Corporation Act to conform with the Model Nonprofit Corporation Act and the Florida Business Corporation Act.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 800 — Engineering Violations

Senate Bill 800 provides an escalating fine schedule for subsequent violations of engaging in the unlicensed practice of engineering. These fees are as follows:

• $10,000 for a second violation
• $15,000 for a third violation
• $20,000 for a fourth violation
• $25,000 for a fifth and subsequent violation

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 803 — Building Permits

House Bill 803 limits local government regulation of glazing requirements on commercial buildings, and provides for lower fees when a private provider is retained for commercial construction projects.

The law also mandates that certain building permits expire after one year after issuance or on the effective date of the next edition of the Florida Building Code — whichever is later.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 809 — Temporary Certificates

House Bill 809 allows health care practitioners who hold temporary certificates for practice in an “area of critical need” to continue providing primary care services in that area even if it loses that designation.

DATE OF EFFECT: May 22

SB 816 — Diabetes Research

Senate Bill 816 codifies the University of Florida Diabetes Institute as a statewide resource for diabetes research, prevention, treatment and education.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 820 — Problem-Solving Court Reports

Senate Bill 820 specifies additional data that must be presented in the annual problem-solving court reports prepared by the Office of the State Courts Administrator.

The law creates data reporting requirements for early childhood court and veterans treatment court programs, and amends reporting requirements for mental health and drug courts.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 824 — School Property

Senate Bill 824 requires each school district to submit an annual inventory of unimproved real property owned as of June 30 each year.

This information will be compiled into a report for state leaders, along with possible recommendations for how to best use the land.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 844 — Sickle Cell Disease

Senate Bill 844 requires that the standard continuing education course on prescribing controlled substances include information regarding the treatment of pain for patients with sickle cell disease.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 848 — Stormwater Treatment

Senate Bill 848 allows ERP applicants to use compensating stormwater treatment as a mitigation measure when existing ambient water quality prevents compliance with water quality standards.

Furthermore, ERP applicants for regional stormwater managements systems must provide documentation of adequate financial responsibility, along with a graphic depicting the drainage area served by the system.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 851 — Autism Learning

House Bill 851 requires each school district to provide at least one annual autism-specific professional learning opportunity for instructional personnel and school-based administrators.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 867 — Dry Needling

House Bill 867 allows occupational therapists to perform dry needling, and establishes minimum experience, education, and training requirements to do so.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 883 — Insurance Companies

House Bill 883 allows protected cell captive insurance companies to operate and be domiciled in Florida, thus creating a regulatory framework for such companies.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 895 — Trustee Settlement

House Bill 895 establishes a summary procedure for trustee liability and claims discharge under the Florida Trust Code.

This applies to non-adversarial irrevocable trust administrations where the trustee has substantially complied with certain trustee duties, negating the need for judicial process to achieve such discharge.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 29

HB 905 — Foreign Influence

House Bill 905 aims to limit influence in the state from “foreign countries of concern,” including places like Iran, North Korea, Cuba, China and Russia.

The law accomplishes this by prohibiting charities from accepting contributions from these countries, restricting preplanned adoption/surrogacy agreements with citizens of these nations, and setting up harsher penalties for crimes committed to benefit such groups.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 913 — Inmate Services

House Bill 913 requires money in the Contractor-Operated Institutions Welfare Trust Fund to be used exclusively for programs to help inmates reintegrate back into society, as well as environmental/health upgrades in contractor-operated institutions.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 915 — Disabilities Program

House Bill 915 codifies the Working People with Disabilities Program, which was created by the Legislature in 2019-2020.

More specifically, the program allows adults with developmental disabilities — who are employed, and enrolled in a Medicaid home and community-based services waiver — to have increased income and asset limits while enrolled in Medicaid.

DATE OF EFFECT: May 21

HB 919 — Donald Trump Airport

House Bill 919 preempts to the state the ability to name major commercial service airports.

More specifically, the law renames the Palm Beach International Airport as the “President Donald J. Trump International Airport.”

All other major airports, including the Orlando International Airport, may keep their current names for now.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

[BELOW: New Florida law could let lawmakers rename Orlando airport]

HB 925 — Court Clerks

House Bill 925 increases funding to the Clerks of the Court.

However, the law doesn’t raise any existing service charges or fees, or create any new service charges or fees that the Clerks may assess.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 927 — Local Land Planning

House Bill 927 requires certain local governments to create a registry of qualified contractors to conduct pre-application reviews of plans, permits or plats submitted in line with local land development rules.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 929 — Chickee Regulation

House Bill 929 prohibits local governments from enacting an ordinance that prevents a member of the Miccosukee or Seminole tribes from constructing a chickee under certain conditions.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 961 — Electronic Signatures

House Bill 961 requires that insurance companies implement secure control processes and procedures for electronic signatures that are acceptable to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 962 — Live Local Act

Senate Bill 962 provides that for the purposes of the Live Local Act, farms and farming operations are excluded from the definitions of commercial, industrial or mixed-use zoning that would require the local government to approve certain affordable housing developments.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 25

HB 967 — Electronic Payments

House Bill 967 requires local governments to accept the following forms of payment:

• Credit cards
• Charge cards
• Bank debit cards
• Electronic funds transfers (EFTs)

DATE OF EFFECT: Jan. 1, 2027

SB 984 — Firefighter Benefits

Senate Bill 984 expands the eligibility for disability and death benefits available to firefighters after a cancer diagnosis.

Current law provides a $25,000 one-time payout as a disability benefit resulting from an initial diagnosis.

However, the bill would make that available to a former firefighter regardless of whether he/she elects to continue coverage in an employer-sponsored health plan or group health insurance trust fund.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 991 — Elections

House Bill 991 makes several revisions to the Florida Election Code, including:

• Driver’s License: Requires the state to include a person’s legal status on any new, replacement or renewal driver’s licenses and ID cards
• Voter Oath: Voter registration applicants must affirm that they are U.S. citizens and may face criminal penalties for perjury if that is not the case
• Forms of ID: Debit/credit cards, student IDs, retirement center IDs, neighborhood association IDs, and public assistance IDs are no longer acceptable forms of identification for voters
• Campaign Contributions: Political parties and candidates may not willfully accept a contribution from a foreign national in connection with any election held in the state.
• Federal Courts: Requires the state to provide voter registration lists to federal courts to aid in their jury selection process, and requires those courts to provide the state with information about voters being ineligible due to convictions, death, or being a non-U.S. citizen
• Statute of Limitations: Creates a five-year statute of limitations for the prosecution of a felony under the Election Code
• New Penalties: Provides new fines and penalties for those who violate the law of involvement of foreign nationals in state elections
• Early Voting: Election supervisors must use local time when uploading the results of all early voting and vote-by-mail ballots by 7 p.m. the day before the election

DATE OF EFFECT: Jan. 1, 2027

SB 1004 — Pet Sales

Senate Bill 1004 implements several new consumer protections related to the sales of cats and dogs in Florida.

The new provisions include the following:

• Requiring pet dealers to disclose financing terms before a sale is finalized
• Allowing consumers to terminate financing agreements without penalty if an animal is later found unfit for purchase due to illness or disease
• Requiring pet dealers to provide veterinary medical records documenting examinations, medications, and treatments provided to the animal
• Requiring written notice informing consumers of their rights under Florida law, including the ability to return or exchange a sick animal and seek reimbursement of veterinary costs
• Making violations enforceable under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1019 — Firefighting Foam

House Bill phases out the use of firefighting foam that contains intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1022 — Children’s Initiatives

Senate Bill 1022 provides for the creation of the Bay County 32401 Children’s Initiative in Bay County, and the Pompano RYZE Children’s Initiative in Broward County.

These sorts of initiatives are community-based service networks located in disadvantaged areas of the state to improve education, economic and health outcomes for local residents.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1028 — Citizens Insurance

Senate Bill 1028 requires the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation to create new “clearinghouses” for commercial property insurance so that private insurance companies can make offers to businesses before or when Citizens renews coverage.

If an authorized private insurer offers coverage that is at least as good as Citizens and costs no more than 20% more, the property can become ineligible for Citizens.

If a qualifying surplus lines insurer makes a similar offer and the customer still chooses Citizens, Citizens can add a one-time extra charge to help “equalize” the cost difference.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 16

SB 1030 — Recovery Residences

Senate Bill 1030 changes rules for licensing of substance-abuse treatment providers, which is regulated by the DCF.

Under this law, already-licensed providers with a clean record over the prior year may add new services without being forced to take clients during a “probationary” license period just to prove they can operate.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1031 — Callback Queues

House Bill 1031 sets up a pilot program to implement callback queues at two state agencies: the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Children and Families.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1069 — Background Screenings

House Bill 1069 makes several changes to background screenings in the state, including:

• Prohibits a person from acting as an athletic coach if he/she doesn’t pass specified background screening qualifications
• Specifies that volunteers required to undergo such background screenings are limited to volunteer coach, assistance coach, manager, or referee for a youth athletic team
• Prohibits a person from denying or failing to acknowledge arrests covered by expunged or sealed criminal records if he/she is screened through the Clearinghouse by a qualified entity

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1073 — School Board Bill of Rights

House Bill 1073 establishes a District School Board Members’ Bill of Rights, which does the following:

• Provides members with access to school district documents necessary to fulfill the duties required under the State Constitution and Florida
• Allows members to consult with the district’s CFO on budget information
• Lets members request documents or information from school staff, subject to legal restrictions and administrative approval
• Grants members the ability to publicly comment on district school board business, except for student/employee disciplinary matters or other issues prohibited by law

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1074 — Penny Extinction

Senate Bill 1074 lets vendors round cash transactions to the nearest nickel if the penny is no longer available. The businesses are expected to round transactions as follows:

• If the final digit ends in 1 or 2 cents? Round to 0 cents.
• If the final digit ends in 3, 4, 6, or 7 cents? Round to 5 cents.
• If the final digit ends in 8 or 9 cents? Round to 10 cents.

However, this doesn’t apply to noncash transactions, such as gift cards, credit cards or checks.

DATE OF EFFECT: May 11

HB 1081 — Cybersecurity

House Bill 1081 requires Cyber Florida at the University of South Florida to develop a Cybersecurity Experiential Learning Program.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1085 — Cyber Security

House Bill 1085 creates the Local Government Cybersecurity Protection Program within the University of South Florida, to be administered by Cyber Florida.

The program must help eligible local governments with developing cybersecurity risk management programs to defend against cybersecurity threats.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1087 — Public Records (OFR)

House Bill 1087 expands and continues several public record exemptions related to specific data obtained by the Office of Financial Regulation from qualified payment stablecoin issuers, virtual currency kiosk businesses, and custodians of gold and silver coin.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 11

SB 1092 — Podiatric Medicine

Senate Bill 1092 limits the existing controlled substance prescribing continuing education requirement for all podiatric physicians to only those registered with the DEA and allowed to prescribe such substances.

This means podiatric physicians who don’t prescribe controlled substances will be exempt.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 11

HB 1093 — Vertiports

House Bill 1093 includes vertiports and charging systems as qualifying projects for funding under public-private partnerships between state and private entities.

In addition, the law allows the FDOT to fund all of the project costs of a public vertiport if federal funds aren’t available.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1103 — Vessel Restrictions (I)

House Bill 1103 allows local governments to administer provisions of law concerning vessels at risk of becoming derelict and long-term anchoring permits.

Furthermore, the law lets cities and counties regulate vessel speed and operation within 300 feet of a confluence of water bodies presenting a blind corner (up to 1,000 feet) if the extended area is necessary to ensure safe navigation and visibility for approaching vessels.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1113 — Vessel Restrictions (II)

House Bill 1103 allows local governments to authorize a code enforcement officer to administer the provision of law concerning vessels at risk of becoming derelict on state waters.

This can be done by way of local ordinances.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1115 — Genetic Counseling

House Bill 1115 creates the Genetic Counseling Education Enhancement Grant Program to support graduate genetic counseling programs at state universities.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1121 — Disability Services

House Bill 1121 revises aging and disability services provided by the Department of Elder Affairs.

More specifically, the law adds food and nutritional supplements as allowable uses of subsidy payments under the Home Care for the Elderly Program.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1134 — DEI Policy Ban

Senate Bill 1134 prohibits local governments from funding, promoting, or enacting any DEI policies, initiatives, and programs.

DATE OF EFFECT: Jan. 1, 2027

HB 1137 — Alcoholic Beverage Taxes

House Bill 1137 allows alcoholic beverage distributors to take a deduction from alcoholic beverage excise taxes for standard product losses, including breakage, spoilage, evaporation, and expiration.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 21

HB 1153 — Juvenile Justice

House Bill 1153 includes “juvenile detention officers” and “juvenile probation officers” in multiple state statutes related to correctional officers.

This allows such positions to be eligible for a Medal of Heroism or Valor, as well as subjects a person to first-degree aggravated manslaughter if he/she causes such an officer to die through culpable negligence.

DATE OF EFFECT: March 30

HB 1159 — Sexual Offenses

House Bill 1159 sets up harsher penalties for various sexual offenses. These changes include:

• CSAM: Replacing the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” in Florida statutes
• Harsher Penalties: Increases penalties for use of a child in a sexual performance; possession and transmission of child porn; creation of generated child porn; possession of a child-like doll; and certain sex acts involving animals
• Mandatory Sentencing: Adults must receive a mandatory minimum sentence for certain offenses related to using children in sexual performances and transmitting child porn
• Repeat Offenders: Raises mandatory minimum sentences for certain repeat sex offenders
• Life Felony: Creates a life felony for aggravated use of a child under 12 years old in a sexual performance
• Generated Child Porn: Creates a second-degree felony for transmitting generated child pornography
• No Pets: Prohibits anyone convicted of certain sex offenses involving animals from owning or working with animals for at least five years

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1175 — Office Surgery Suites

House Bill 1175 requires new safety design standards for office surgical suites.

More specifically, the law dictates that such standards allow up to six patients on an outpatient basis.

This is in lieu of the current limit of four patients who, due to treatment, illness or injury, are unable to act in self-preservation during an emergency.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1180 — Community Development Districts

Senate Bill 1180 revises rules for Community Development Districts (CDDs).

More specifically, the law sets up a recall election process for members of a CDD’s board of supervisors, which largely mirrors that of recall procedures for local governments.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1201 — Student Health

House Bill 1201 updates statutory provisions regarding the care of students with epilepsy or seizure disorders and expands the definition of schools to include charter schools.

The law also requires schools to display a poster identifying the basic steps of responding to someone having a seizure.

Lastly, the law requires the FDOH to include required education and training for schools in its epilepsy education program.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1217 — Greenhouse Gases

House Bill 1217 prohibits the state and local governments from adopting or enforcing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions policies, including carbon taxes.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1219 — Spoil Island

House Bill 1219 designates a mangrove island within Jupiter Sound as the “Andrew ‘Red’ Harris Spoil Island.”

The island will be named for Andrew “Red” Harris, a native of Jupiter who started his own insurance brokerage agency in 2011 and was killed in a boating accident roughly three years later.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1246 — Nursing Education Fund

Senate Bill 1246 expands the scope of the Linking Industry to Nursing Education Fund to address workforce shortages in health science education programs, in addition to nursing education programs.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1279 — Teacher Funding

House Bill 1279 lets school districts provide immediate pay incentives to high-performing teachers who choose to teach in lower-performing schools, even without collective bargaining.

The law also allows bonuses for districts and teachers who offer Florida Advanced Courses (FACTs), in line with bonuses offered for other advanced courses like AP, AICE and IB.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1285 — Biosolids Management (Permits)

House Bill 1285 prohibits the DEP from issuing or renewing land application site permits that allow the disposal or land application of septage as Class B biosolids if there is a permitted wastewater treatment facility within 30 miles of the site that accepts septage for higher levels of treatment.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1, 2027

HB 1293 — Fraudulent Entry of Homes

House Bill 1293 creates a new crime of fraudulent entry of a residential dwelling unit.

This statute prohibits someone from entering into or taking possession of a residential dwelling unit by purposefully:

• Making a materially false statement in writing, relating to the person’s identity in any rental application for a residential tenancy
• Presenting forged or counterfeit documents to the landlord of a residential dwelling unit
• Impersonating another person in whose name a rental application is submitted to a landlord for the purpose of executing a rental agreement or taking possession of a residential dwelling unit

Violations of this law are punishable as third-degree felonies.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

SB 1296 — Union Crackdown

Senate Bill 1296 provides for the decertification of partisan school unions, fast-tracking salary increases that some unions have stalled.

The law requires at least 50% participation in union certification elections, meaning that unions can no longer be recertified through elections with just a handful of voters.

Furthermore, SB 1296 increases penalties for illegal strikes, raising the maximum fine from $20,000 per day to $40,000 per day for such organizations.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1311 — Legal Tender

House Bill 1311 ratifies the rules promulgated by state agencies for another state law to take effect.

This law designates qualifying gold and silver coin as legal tender.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 11

HB 1329 — Budget Posts

House Bill 1329 requires local governments to post their tentative or final budgets on their websites.

These posts must include summaries for budgets, revenue, expenditures and staffing.

The law also requires a budget-cutting exercise be performed at least two weeks before a local government’s final budget is adopted.

DATE OF EFFECT: Jan. 1, 2027

SB 1332 — Career Offenders

Senate Bill 1332 makes several changes to registration requirements for career offenders in the state.

For example, the law requires initial registration in person at the sheriff’s office within 48 hours of establishing a residence or release, and it expands the list of required information to include addresses, vehicles, professional licenses, and immigration status.

Furthermore, the law requires career offenders to have their driver’s license and ID cards marked with “775.261″ — the statute number of the Florida Career Offender Registration Act.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 1337 — Estate Authority

House Bill 1337 amends several provisions of Florida law to reduce the necessity for court involvement or formal proceedings in the distribution of a decedent.

More specifically, this bill does the following:

• Gives a personal representative more authority with respect to a decedent’s safe deposit box
• Expressly allows a personal representative to institute a proceeding to enforce his/her authority as personal representative
• Increases the amounts of what Florida law considers “small estates,” such that procedures other than formal probate proceedings may be instituted to dispose of the subject property under certain conditions

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1343 — Insurance Qualifications

House Bill 1343 provides that anyone who’s earned a high school diploma in Florida satisfies the education requirement for an insurance customer representative’s license.

This applies if the person in question completed a course in insurance and personal finance as part of his/her curriculum.

That said, the law also directs the development of a 0.5-credit course in insurance and personal finance, which school districts may use starting in the 2027-2028 school year.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1347 — Lab Personnel

House Bill 1347 revises current requirements for performing moderate- or high-complexity laboratory testing.

To do so, the law adopts federal qualifications as the minimum licensure requirements for clinical lab technologists and technicians to perform such testing.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1389 — Affordable Housing

House Bill 1389 updates the Live Local Act to make it easier to build certain affordable apartment or mixed-use housing on certain properties owned by local governments and school districts.

The law also limits how local governments can block these projects, like using rules that effectively shrink how tall a building can be.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1404 — Memory Care

Senate Bill 1404 creates a new assisted living facility specialty license type for “memory care services.”

DATE OF EFFECT: May 22

HB 1405 — Missing Persons

House Bill 1405 reestablishes the Missing Persons with Special Needs Statewide Project.

The project would be implemented through centers for autism and related disabilities (CARD), each of which must provide personal search-and-rescue devices for distribution to project participants.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1407 — Civil Actions

House Bill 1407 sets clear time limits for people who claim to have been illegally discriminated against at work to file a lawsuit after they complain to the state.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1417 — Department of Environmental Protection

House Bill 1417 repeals the Environmental Regulation Commission, which is expected to streamline rulemaking for environmental protection.

This law also requires erosion and sediment control plans for the construction of solar facilities to include stormwater best management practices.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1434 — Infill Redevelopment

Senate Bill 1434 preempts certain local land development regulations and oversight for “qualifying parcels” to promote infill redevelopment in urban areas.

These parcels are plots of land that span at least 5 acres and are located next to other parcels zoned for residential uses in certain counties. They must also be environmentally impacted.

Under this law, local governments must allow a qualifying parcel to be developed with residential uses up to either the average density of all applicable zoning districts in the same jurisdiction, or 25 dwelling units per acre — whichever is lower.

DATE OF EFFECT: May 21

HB 1443 — Parkinson’s Disease Registry

House Bill 1443 requires the Florida Institute for Parkinson’s Disease at USF to set up a statewide Parkinson’s disease registry.

Under this legislation, physicians who diagnose a patient with Parkinson’s disease must report nationally recognized performance measures to the registry beginning on Jan. 1, 2027.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

[BELOW: Here’s what to know about Florida’s ‘license plate’ law]

HB 1445 — Public Records (Parkinson’s Disease Registry)

House Bill 1445 creates a public record exemption for patient-identifying information held in the Parkinson’s disease registry set up by HB 1443.

The exemption will be repealed on Oct. 2, 2031, unless reenacted by lawmakers.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1451 — Utility Services

House Bill 1451 limits any excess rates, fees and charges that a local water or sewer utility may impose on customers outside their boundaries to no more than 25%.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 11

SB 1452 — Department of Financial Services

Senate Bill 1452 makes a load of statutory provisions relating to the Department of Financial Services.

This includes specifying that any interest which becomes due and owing must be paid from the appropriation charged for such goods or services.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 26

HB 1471 — Terrorist Organizations

House Bill 1471 makes several changes to state law regarding terrorist organizations. Many of those revisions are as follows:

• Terrorist Designations: Creates a process by which the state may designate groups as domestic or foreign terrorist organization if certain conditions are met
• Religious Laws: Courts and tribunals are prohibited from enforcing religious or foreign laws against someone if such application would violate his/her constitutional rights
• Private Schools: Prohibits private schools participating in state scholarship programs from being owned or funded by terrorist groups, terrorist supporters, or criminal gangs
• State Universities: Prevents institutions in the Florida College System from using state funds to support programs that advocate for terrorist organizations
• Visa Students: Public colleges must report information about the current status of students who are attending on a visa if they promote terrorist organizations
• Student Expulsions: If a student promotes a terrorist organization while enrolled at a public university, the student must be immediately expelled and assessed an out-of-state fee

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1473 — Public Records (Terrorism)

House Bill 1473 creates a public record exemption tied to HB 1471 for certain information that would require Florida’s Chief of Domestic Security to provide to the governor and cabinet in certain situations.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1509 — Veterinarian Licensure

House Bill 1509 revises requirements for veterinarian licensure by endorsement.

More specifically, the law removes the requirement that such applicants have held a valid, active out-of-state license for the three years immediately preceding their application.

Instead, such an applicant’s valid, active out-of-state license be “in good standing.”

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1515 — Public Records (Uterine Fibroid Research)

House Bill 1515 creates a public record exemption for patient-identifying information submitted to the FDOH for inclusion in the Uterine Fibroid Research Database.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 1525 — Indecent Exposure

House Bill 1525 creates a third-degree felony for indecent exposure of sexual organs while observing a child under 16 years of age for the purpose of sexual arousal.

This crime applies if either of the following is true:

• The person is intentionally exposing his/her sexual organs in a lewd or lascivious manner
• The person intentionally performs any sexual act that doesn’t involve actual physical or sexual contact with the child, such as sadomasochistic abuse, bestiality, masturbation or simulation of sexual activity

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

SB 1568 — Digital Currency

Senate Bill 1568 establishes the “Florida Stablecoin Pilot Program,” which allows the Department of Financial Services to accept stablecoins to pay certain governmental fees.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 26

SB 1602 — Veteran Housing

Senate Bill 1602 creates the “Homes for Veterans Property Management Incentive Pilot Program.”

The pilot program provides that landlords may apply to receive funding from a trust fund to hold a vacant dwelling for a veteran for up to 45 days, and to cover property loss at the dwelling caused by the veteran that may extend beyond the deposit of up to $2,000.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1614 — Florida Building Code

Senate Bill 1614 removes a current provision of law that allows a local government to use excess funds from enforcing the Florida Building Code to build a structure that houses a local government’s code enforcement agency.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 1668 — NICA Revisions

Senate Bill 1668 revises provisions relating to the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association (NICA).

For example, the law prohibits the board of directors from adding new benefits if NICA is incurring cash flow deficits.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 11

SB 1690 — Early Learning Services

Senate Bill 1690 makes several statutory changes relating to early childhood education and childcare regulation.

For example, the law requires the DCF and local licensing agencies to disseminate electronically certain information regarding all childcare facilities to the community.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 2506-E — Fuel Taxes

Senate Bill 2506-E amends state statutes relating to distributions from the fuel sales tax.

The law provides an increase to the Agricultural Emergency Eradication Trust Fund; the Marine Resources Conservation Trust Fund; the State Game Trust Fund; and the Invasive Plant Trust Fund.

This aims to conform the law to the most recent budget act.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

SB 2508-E — Law Enforcement Radios

Senate Bill 2508-E continues a $3 surcharge on certain criminal offenses and noncriminal moving traffic violations, which would otherwise expire on July 1.

Funds from this surcharge support the cost of the Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System.

This aims to conform the law to the most recent budget act.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 29

HB 4001 — Jefferson County

House Bill 4001 limits the compensation of healthcare providers for medical services to inmates housed in a Jefferson County detention center to 110% of the Medicare allowable rate if the provider doesn’t have a contract with the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4003 — Marco Island

House Bill 4003 mandates that the city of Marco Island hold a special election to fill city council vacancies that occur over a year before a general election.

If a vacancy occurs within one year of a general election, the bill instead requires the city council to appoint a qualified citizen within 60 days who will hold the office until the next general election.

If the city council fails to do so, the governor would instead be allowed to fill the vacancy or call a special election.

DATE OF EFFECT: Subject to approval by Marco Island voters on Nov. 3

HB 4005 — Naples Airport Authority

House Bill 4005 revises the method of selection for the Naples Airport Authority board from a body appointed by the city to one elected by the residents of Collier County.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 6

HB 4007 — Martin County

House Bill 4007 requires Martin County to set up a process for the distribution of funds from the County Health Care Fund to be disbursed between all licensed hospitals in the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4011 — St. Lucie County

House Bill 4011 expands the boundaries of the St. Lucie County Mosquito Control District by around 95,000 acres.

DATE OF EFFECT: Pending approval by voters in the areas proposed to be added to the county

HB 4013 — Lee County

House Bill 4013 merges the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District into the Iona-McGregor Fire Protection and Rescue District.

DATE OF EFFECT: Pending approval by voters in both districts during the 2026 general election

HB 4017 — Nassau County

House Bill 4017 dissolves the Nassau County Recreation and Water Conservation District, whose assets will instead be transferred to the county board of commissioners.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4019 — Lake County

House Bill 4019 limits the compensation of healthcare providers for medical services to inmates housed in a Lake County detention center to 110% of the Medicare allowable rate if the provider doesn’t have a contract with the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

HB 4027 — Hillsborough County Schools

House Bill 4027 provides that the superintendent of Hillsborough County schools will be a partisan office elected for four-year terms beginning in 2028.

This law is subject to approval by Hillsborough County voters in the general election on Nov. 3.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4029 — Hillsborough County Charter

House Bill 4029 increases the size of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners from seven members to nine members beginning with the 2028 general election.

Under this bill, that number increases further to 11 members if the county’s population grows past 2.5 million residents.

The law is subject to approval by Hillsborough County voters in the general election on Nov. 3.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4033 — Family Day Care

House Bill 4033 revises the terms “family day care home” in Palm Beach County.

More specifically, the law says that the number of children who receive services at a family day care may not exceed the number of children allowed to receive services in such settings as provided by general law.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4035 — Palm Beach County

House Bill 4035 revises the Palm Beach County Construction Industry Licensing Board’s process for issuing certificates of competency.

The law does this by requiring applicants to pass the required exam before their application is reviewed by the board.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4037 — Pasco County

House Bill 4037 revises term limits for board members on the Pasco County Mosquito Control District from two terms to three terms, starting with the 2026 general election.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 23

HB 4039 — Monarch Hill Landfill

House Bill 4039 requires Broward County to commission a feasibility study and conduct a public hearing before issuing any application, zoning change or permit that would allow for a physical expansion of the Monarch Hill Landfill.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 4041 — Indian River County

House Bill 4041 limits the compensation of healthcare providers for medical services to inmates housed in an Indian River County detention center to 110% of the Medicare allowable rate if the provider doesn’t have a contract with the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

HB 4043 — Citrus County

House Bill 4043 dissolves the Citrus County Hospital Board as of Oct. 1, with all assets instead going to the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners to distribute according to the dissolution plan.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4045 — Jacksonville Aviation Authority

House Bill 4045 gives the Jacksonville Aviation Authority responsibility for the economic development of Cecil Airport.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4047 — Lee County

House Bill 4047 increases the number of board members appointed to the Lee County Tourist Development Council from nine to 11 by adding an additional elected official and a member representing the tourism industry.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4049 — Duval County Schools

House Bill 4049 allows the Duval County School Board to employ a general counsel who is independent of the Office of General Counsel of the city of Jacksonville.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4051 — Pace Fire Rescue District

House Bill 4051 revises the maximum non-ad valorem assessment rates that the Pace Fire Rescue District may impose.

Furthermore, the bill creates an exemption for churches and other religious institutions that are already exempt from ad valorem taxation.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4053 — Santa Rosa Fire Protection District

House Bill 4053 revises the maximum non-ad valorem assessment rates that the Avalon Beach-Mulat Fire Protection District may impose.

Furthermore, the law creates an exemption for churches and other religious institutions that are already exempt from ad valorem taxation.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4055 — Lake Wales

House Bill 4055 provides an exception to the Beverage Law, allowing licensed vendors in the Lake Wales Arts, Culture, and Entertainment District to sell alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption within the district.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4057 — DeFuniak Springs

House Bill 4057 grants over 7 acres from the state to the city of DeFuniak Springs in Walton County, which must be used for recreational, governmental, public safety, and community purposes.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4059 — Polk County

House Bill 4059 limits the compensation of healthcare providers for medical services to inmates housed in a Polk County detention center to 110% of the Medicare allowable rate if the provider doesn’t have a contract with the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 14

HB 4061 — Land Reserve Stewardship District

House Bill 4061 creates the Land Reserve Stewardship District, an independent special district in Hillsborough County.

The district is responsible for installing, operating and maintaining community infrastructure.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 16

HB 4063 — West Palm Beach Police

House Bill 4063 revises provisions of the West Palm Beach Police Pension Fund to reflect an agreement between the Florida State Lodge, Fraternal Order of Police, and the city of West Palm Beach.

More specifically, the law revises benefit accrual rates, procedures for reviewing denials of benefits, and procedures for purchasing service credits to reflect changes in federal law.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4065 — West Palm Beach Firefighters

House Bill 4065 revises provisions of the West Palm Beach Firefighters Pension Fund to reflect an agreement between the West Palm Beach Association of Fire Fighters and the city of West Palm Beach.

One of these changes increases the normal retirement benefit calculation by 0.2%, effective starting Oct. 1.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4067 — Plantation

House Bill 4067 transitions the Plantation Acres Improvement District from an independent special district to a dependent district of the city of Plantation.

DATE OF EFFECT: Upon approval by voters in the district

HB 4071 — Palm Beach First Responders

House Bill 4071 provides that a municipal service taxing unit in Palm Beach County whose primary purpose is the provision of fire rescue and EMS may continue to provide services to real property in the county annexed after Jan. 1, 2027, for six years.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4079 — Marion County

House Bill 4079 creates the Uplands Stewardship District, an independent special district in Marion County tasked with installing, operating and maintaining community infrastructure.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 25

HB 4081 — Franklin County

House Bill 4081 expands the boundaries of the Eastpoint Water and Sewer District to include parts of Eastpoint, an unincorporated area of Franklin County. This includes all of St. George Island.

DATE OF EFFECT: Upon approval by voters of the proposed annexation area in the general election on Nov. 3

HB 4085 — Okeechobee County

House Bill 4085 grants over 400 acres of state lands to the Okeechobee Utility Authority. These lands are the site of a wastewater treatment plant operated by the authority.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 4087 — Highlands County Hospital District

House Bill 4087 allows the Highland County Hospital District to commence an evaluation of leasing, selling, or entering a management agreement concerning the hospital owned by the district.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 4089 — Trenton

House Bill 4089 grants a parcel of state land — including the Trenton Train Depot property — to the city of Trenton in Gilchrist County, which must be used for public purposes.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 4091 — University Town Center

House Bill 4091 creates the University Town Center Improvement District, an independent special district in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

The district is responsible for installing, operating and maintaining stormwater and flood control facilities.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 16

HB 4093 — Indian River County (I)

House Bill 4093 reduces the size of the Fellsmere Water Control District from 34,441 acres to just over 14,000 acres.

The law also makes the remaining district a dependent district of the county.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 4095 — Indian River County (II)

House Bill 4095 creates the Headwaters Water Control District, an independent special district in Indian River County tasked with providing water control services.

DATE OF EFFECT: Oct. 1

HB 5001-E — Budget Act

House Bill 5001-E is the budget act for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

This time around, the state budget amounts to roughly $117.6 billion — a total figure after the governor vetoed nearly $810 million line items.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 5003-E — Budget Implementation

House Bill 5003-E helps implements the state’s budget act for the 2026-2027 fiscal year by making a variety of statutory changes.

The statutory changes provided by this law will remain in effect until next year.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 5201-E — Collective Bargaining

House Bill 5201-E provides that the resolution of collective bargaining issues at an impasse for FY 2026-2027 regarding state employees will ultimately be resolved based on spending decisions included in the budget act.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 5205-E — Retirement Contributions

House Bill 5205-E conforms state law to the budget act, as retirement contributions are included in the budget act.

The law revises employer contribution rates for the normal costs and the unfunded actuarial liability of the Florida Retirement System based on the annual actuarial study for FY 2026-2027 and the following FRS changes:

• Authorization of an elected officer (other than a lawmaker) who has completed his/her Deferred Retirement Option Program participation to receive his/her accumulated funds after reaching 59.5 years of age without terminating from office
• Establishment of an alternative cost-of-living adjustment for eligible Special Risk Class members of 1.5%

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 5301-E — Health Care

House Bill 5301-E conforms several statutes to the budget act, including:

• Makes changes to the FDOH’s revolving loan program, new newborn screening testing, infant nutritional needs, and trauma centers
• Establishes a formula to allocate funds related to the Slots for Doctors Program
• Makes the Step into Success Workforce Education and Internship Program permanent
• Establishes the Foster and Family Support Grant Program
• Establishes the Eligibility Assistance Program to provide Medicaid eligibility information, referral, and navigation services for people with disabilities

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 5403-E — Correctional Facilities

House Bill 5403-E conforms current law to the budget act, establishing Legislative intent to provide funding to address critical fixed capital outlay needs of the Department of Corrections (FDC). Changes include:

• Requires $50 million in recurring funds from the General Revenue Fund over the next 30 years
• Requires FDC to use funding to develop a capital improvement plan for new and existing correctional facilities
• Directs FDC to begin planning a new 600-bed correctional hospital unit starting on July 1

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 5401 — State Court System

House Bill 5401 terminates the Mediation and Arbitration Trust Fund within the State Courts System.

All current balances and revenues of the fund will instead be transferred to the State Courts Revenue Trust Fund.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 5601-E — Higher Education

House Bill 5601-E conforms current law to the budget act, making the following changes:

• Revises performance metrics used by the Board of Governors (BOG) to allocate performance-based funding among state universities
• Creates the Disaster Preparedness Center at Florida International university as a statewide center for disaster prep, response, recovery and resilience training
• Allows each university board of trustees toe stablish out-of-state fees for nonresident students
• Allows the State Board of Education and the BOG to approve, reject or amend the list of general education courses for Florida College System institutions and state universities

DATE OF EFFECT: June 29

HB 5701-E — Petroleum Cleanup

House Bill 5701-E conforms current law to the budget act, amending the Petroleum Cleanup Participation Program and the Florida Petroleum Liability and Restoration Insurance Program.

This law removes program deductibles, copayments, and monetary caps for eligible parties and has the costs absorbed by the Inland Protection Trust Fund.

DATE OF EFFECT: July 1

HB 6507 — Neglect Victim

House Bill 6507 appropriates $3.8 million to compensate L.E., a young Florida girl who suffered several injuries at the hands of her parents due to neglect by the DCF.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 6509 — Tractor Crash Victim

House Bill 6509 appropriates $2.2 million to the estate of Mark LaGatta, a man who was critically injured after a crash with a tractor in 2020.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

HB 6515 — Gate Arm Victim

House Bill 6515 authorizes Miami-Dade County to pay $500,000 to compensate Lourdes and Edward Latour after Lourdes Latour was seriously injured by a malfunctioning automatic gate arm while leaving the Gables by the Sea community on her bicycle in 2017.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 25

HB 6517 — Bus Crash Victim

House Bill 6517 seeks to appropriate $2.3 million to compensate Heriberto Sanchez-Mayen, who was left severely injured after an encounter with a police officer in 2023.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 8

SB 7000 — Public Records (Emergency Shelters)

Senate Bill 7000 continues a public records exemption for addresses and telephone numbers of those who provide public emergency shelter during a storm or catastrophic event.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 23

SB 7002 — Public Records (Military)

Senate Bill 7002 keeps in place a public records exemption related to records held by the Department of Military Affairs.

These records include those stored in a U.S. Department of Defense system, that are transmitted using a DoD network, and that pertain to the DoD pursuant to federal statute.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

SB 7004 — Public Records (Integrity Units)

Senate Bill 7004 continues a public records exemption for materials generated by a state attorney’s conviction integrity unit while it reinvestigates cases of previously convicted people to review plausible claims of innocence.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 16

SB 7006 — Public Records (Florida PSC)

Senate Bill 7006 continues a public records exemption for for portions of hearings conducted by the Florida Public Service Commission.

More specifically, this exemption extends to proprietary confidential business information that is already exempt under state law.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 7008 — Public Records (FGCC)

Senate Bill 7008 keeps in place a public records exemption for portions of a meeting conducted by the Florida Gaming Commission wherein confidential information is discussed.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

HB 7011 — Public Records (Aquaculture)

House Bill 7011 continues a public records exemption for certain aquaculture records held by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

That exemption refers to the following:

• Shellfish receiving and production records generated by licensed shellfish processing facilities
• Audit records and supporting documentation required for submerged land leases
• Aquaculture production records and receipts generated by certified aquaculture facilities

DATE OF EFFECT: March 27

SB 7012 — Public Records (DHSMV)

Senate Bill 7012 keeps in place a public records exemption for information held by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

Such information must be a result of an investigation or examination of suspected violations of certain state statutes, such as those relating to motor vehicle titles, registrations, or driver’s licenses.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

SB 7014 — Public Records (Social Media)

Senate Bill 7014 continues two public records exemptions for information received by law enforcement about whether a social media platform has committed an antitrust violation.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 16

SB 7016 — Public Records (Loan Programs)

Senate Bill 7016 continues a public records exemption for certain details held by an economic development agency pursuant to the administration of a state/federally funded small business loan program.

More specifically, the exemption protects tax returns, financial information and credit information.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 1

SB 7022 — Public Records (Exam Instruments)

Senate Bill 7022 expands the public records exemption for examination and assessment instruments.

It does so by adding public schools, district school boards, university boards of trustees, the State Board of Education, and the Board of Governors as additional records custodians.

The law also extends the existing public records exemption through 2031.

DATE OF EFFECT: May 11

SB 7024 — Public Records (Cybersecurity)

Senate Bill 7024 expands the current public records exemptions for certain cybersecurity information held by local and state government agencies.

The law also consolidate from other agency-specific cybersecurity provisions some other exemptions, including login credentials, internet protocol addresses, and geolocation data.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 10

SB 7026 — Public Records (Trade Secrets)

Senate Bill 7026 continues a public records exemption for trade secrets held by an agency, which are kept confidential.

DATE OF EFFECT: April 23

HB 7031 — Internal Revenue Service

House Bill 7031 adopts the IRS Code as of Jan. 1, 2026 for Florida corporate income tax purposes, with the exception of the changes made by the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 11

SB 7040 — Emergency Fund

Senate Bill 7040 recreates the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund within the Executive Office of the Governor.

The fund is meant to be used to prepare for or respond to disasters declared by the governor as a state of emergency.

DATE OF EFFECT: June 29

The firefighters were part of a specialized crew that goes into remote areas by helicopter to quickly put out new and rapidly escalating wildfires, federal officials said Monday.

Their deaths Saturday came almost 13 years to the day since an elite crew of 19 wildland firefighters died when they were trapped in a steep canyon in Yarnell, Arizona.

Like this weekend's victims, the men in Arizona tried to deploy emergency shelters that are a “last resort” for firefighters when there's no other way out. Investigators didn't blame anyone for the deaths in 2013, but cited radio communication problems that contributed to the Granite Mountain Hotshots becoming trapped. Arizona's workplace safety commission also fined the state's forestry division for not pulling them out.

Wildfires have erupted over the past week all across the West, fueled by months of dry weather and a record lack of snow in some places this past winter. Wildfire experts have warned for months that extreme fire dangers are likely this summer.

U.S. Wildland Fire Service Chief Brian Fennessy said he would not speculate about whether the crew overrun by the weekend fire in Colorado should have been where they were.

“I will say the fact that they were there was, I’m 100% sure, based on good decision-making,” Fennessy said during a news conference Monday. “The fires in this region over the decades, you know, killed many firefighters. They weren’t being foolish. They weren’t being careless. They were there because they thought they could do what needed to be done to suppress that fire. And many times the weather changes.”

With more than two dozen large fires burning, almost 8,000 wildland firefighters and dozens of firefighting helicopters have been deployed. About half the largest blazes are in Alaska while the rest are mostly in Western states.

Even as firefighting resources were increasingly strained, evacuations were ordered near seven fires, including in Arizona, Washington state, New Mexico and Utah. About 800 people living in and around the small town of Beulah in eastern Colorado were told to evacuate as a wildfire threatened the area on Monday afternoon, Gov. Jared Polis said.

“We're really at the mercy of the winds,” Polis said.

Firefighters were part of a specialized crew

The U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department identified the firefighters killed as Emily Barker, 38, of Clinton Township, Michigan; Nick Hutcherson, 27, of Glendale, Arizona; and Sydney Watson, 26, of Warrior, Alabama.

Two others who were with them sustained burn injuries. They were in stable condition but remained hospitalized in the Denver area, officials said at Monday's news conference.

“The loss we experience here is not felt by just one agency. It is felt by an entire wildland fire community,” Fennessy said. “We grieve together, we support one another and we continue the mission together.”

A long line of fire trucks and vehicles from a wide array of emergency response agencies made their way slowly through Grand Junction, Colorado, Monday with their lights flashing. A scattering of people, some with their hands on their hearts, watched silently from the sidewalk as they passed.

The procession ended at a cemetery, and the bodies of two of the firefighters draped in American flags were taken into a funeral home as officials from fire agencies saluted.

The three killed were assigned to a Helitack crew that can be dropped into remote areas by helicopters and whose mission is to prevent new fires from growing into out-of-control blazes. But it can be extremely dangerous, often taking place in areas where fires are rapidly expanding.

Watson worked for the Wildland Fire Service and the other two firefighters who died were assigned to the Forest Service. All were part of an interagency response to fires just west of Grand Junction.

The Snyder Fire in the area has burned about 44 square miles (114 square kilometers), authorities said.

Watson's death was the first within the the new Wildland Fire Service, which was created within the Department of Interior earlier this year to coordinate firefighting on public lands.

The deaths are being investigated by the Forest and Wildland Fire services, a process that typically results in recommendations for how to prevent or reduce the risk of a similar accident. Agencies can also convene an accident review board to suggest any further actions.

High wildfire threat for much of this week

More hot, dry and windy weather across the Southwest will elevate the fire threat at least until the weekend, according to the national Storm Prediction Center.

Among the concerns were high winds in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, in the Black Hills of South Dakota and across portions of the High Plains.

Utah already has restricted firework usage going into the July Fourth holiday.

The national “preparedness level” for wildfires was increased to a 4, on a scale of 1 to 5, the National Interagency Fire Center said Monday. That’s a sign resources are beginning to be strained, and officials warned of a high potential for new, large fires in multiple parts of the country in coming days.

There are enough firefighting resources for now across the Rocky Mountains to deal with the blazes, said Mike Morgan, director of Colorado’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control. But that could change quickly if conditions worsen in other parts of the country, Morgan said, adding that crews that battle fires on the ground already are in short supply.

“We know hand crews are always a hot commodity. We're getting a little short on those, so that would be one I would say we're a little concerned with,” Morgan said. “At the moment, I would say I feel pretty good about where we're at, but I'm very concerned about where we go.”

So far this year, wildfires have burned more than 4,800 square miles (12,400 square kilometers) — the most by this point in the year since 2022 and significantly above the 10-year average.

___

Brown reported from Billings, Montana, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the Islamic Republic had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts and that they planned to convene Tuesday in Doha, Qatar.

But one of Iran's senior negotiators denied talks had been scheduled. And the spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry said Tehran was sending its delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in the negotiations, to discuss terms of the interim deal without involving the U.S.

Hostilities mounted in recent days in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil had been shipped before war began. After four days of trading strikes, both sides appeared to pause their attacks Monday.

The U.S. and Iran agreed to an interim deal earlier this month that calls for Tehran to dilute its stockpile of enriched uranium. It also waives U.S.-backed oil sanctions on the country, calls for free traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and gives each side 60 days to hammer out broader agreements.

Confusion mounts over next round of Iran-US talks

After Trump said Monday morning on social media that the U.S. and Iran planned to meet, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, were flying to Qatar.

Pakistan, also a key mediator, had said talks between Iran and the U.S. would resume Tuesday.

But Kazem Gharibabadi, a senior negotiator for Iran, said in comments published by Iranian state media that no talks had been confirmed. And Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said that its delegation was traveling to Qatar this week to discuss the planned release of frozen Iranian assets and other issues related to the deal.

“There are no negotiation meetings with the U.S. side at any level scheduled in the coming days,” Baghaei said.

However, that left open the possibility messages being passed to the Qataris between the two sides.

Increased tension in waterway vital to world energy supplies

During the war that began Feb. 28, Iran’s attacks and threats stopped cargo ships and tankers from moving through the Strait of Hormuz, creating a global energy crisis.

In recent days, Iran has twice attacked vessels in the strait — including a tanker filled with Qatari crude — following efforts to open Oman’s territorial waters to both inbound and outbound traffic from the Persian Gulf.

The attacks drew retaliatory American airstrikes and raised concerns that negotiations to reach a formal end to the war could be disrupted. Iran launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday.

The strait has long been considered an international waterway despite being in Iran and Oman’s territorial waters.

The Trump administration was operating Monday on the understanding that the U.S. and Iran are standing down after the recent back-and-forth strikes and that vessels can move freely through the Strait of Hormuz, said a U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations.

Iran's president, U.S. official say $6 billion coming to Iran

The U.S. official also said that Qatar planned to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets that would be used to purchase U.S. food products for the Iranian people.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had announced the expected release of funds earlier Monday in comments published by the state-run IRNA news agency.

Pezeshkian, a reformist within Iran's theocracy, is the highest-ranking official within Iran to reference the release of the funds held by Qatar.

Oman, Iran discuss possible fees for ships transiting the strait

Oman's foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, said Monday that Oman and Iran are considering charging service-related fees for commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Al-Busaidi said services could include water safety measures, pollution prevention, navigational assistance and preparedness for incidents such as fires. He told Radio Monte Carlo that Oman does not support imposing transit fees on ships.

“This is internationally forbidden," he said, "and we are abiding by these rules."

But there had never been any fees charged in the strait — and other Gulf Arab states and the U.S. firmly oppose the imposition of any costs for transit.

Iran and France clash over clearing mines from strait

An Iranian official warned France against “provocations” Monday after French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X that France and others were coordinating efforts to clear mines from the Strait of Hormuz.

Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian deputy foreign minister, said on X that under the interim deal “demining is carried out solely by Iran and by no other country.”

Macron's post came after he greeted Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman ahead of high-level diplomatic talks in Paris.

Lebanon's president says it will deploy troops as part of deal with Israel

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun separately said Monday that Lebanon is determined to deploy troops along its entire southern border as part of a framework agreement with Israel signed Friday. He made the remark while meeting with Adm. Brad Cooper, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East.

The deal was rejected by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which triggered the latest war with Israel on March 2 when it fired rockets across Lebanon's southern border and into northern Israel.

The Israel-Lebanon deal calls for Hezbollah to be disarmed before Israel will withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. Israel agreed to withdraw initially from a couple of “pilot zones” where the Lebanese army would then deploy, but no details have been shared about how that will work in practice.

Hezbollah officials have warned that attempts to implement the plan could lead to civil war.

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Boak reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Bassem Mroue and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut; Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

Dong had been locked up in China several times, including for his activities commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and past efforts to flee.

“It’s like living in a cage. Very suffocating,” he said in an online video interview with The Associated Press from Toronto, referring to the lack of freedom of expression in China.

After his release from prison, the 68-year-old dissident said he was unable to receive retirement benefits or renew his passport and was under constant police monitoring.

China's Foreign Ministry said the government handles the entry and exit of its citizens in accordance with the law and that Chinese citizens must abide by the Constitution and the law.

Dong attempted to flee at least three previous times: in 2015 to Thailand, where authorities deported him back to China; in 2019 when he tried to swim to a Taiwanese island off China's east coast; and in 2020, when he reached Vietnam, only to be deported back again.

Last month, he tried again.

Dong says he shook off the fear of death

In the early hours of May 24, he set off in a gray rubber dinghy fitted with an engine from Weihai, a coastal city in eastern China’s Shandong province, under fine weather. He was eyeing Japan, confident that the government there would not send him back to China.

But the next day brought fog. When he noticed his phone, which he relied on for GPS navigation, was on its last bar, he became terrified. His power bank also died. He quickly switched to his contingency plan — South Korea.

Dong recalled that dread ran deep because his tiny boat might capsize if the winds and waves picked up. But he had no way to return and shook off the fear of death.

“Living conditions back in the country are so terrible that being alive is little different than being dead. So there is no point fearing death,” he said. “If you move forward, there’s a chance at life.”

In the evening, he saw lights in the distance and moved toward them. The first vessel could not hear his cries for help and left. Later, he encountered a fishing boat that agreed to pull him on board. He asked the fishers to call the police to help him.

The South Korean coast guard detained him for allegedly violating the country’s immigration law. They sought a warrant to formally arrest him, but a court refused, saying it’s “difficult to recognize sufficient grounds and necessity” for his arrest.

From refugee center to Canada

Dong was later sent to a refugee center in Incheon, a port city near Seoul. Earlier this month, the U.N. refugee agency contacted him via video call, he said.

A refugee center manager later asked about his height, weight and his eye color. He was worried at first but it turned out to be a good sign. His lawyer told him it was at the request of the Canadian diplomatic mission, he said.

About a week later, Dong boarded a flight and he arrived in Toronto Friday. He was still unclear what legal procedures were involved in his move, but guessed it was based on cooperation between the South Korean and Canadian governments and the U.N. agency.

“I feel very surprised, extremely surprised. It's like still in a dream. It's very fast,” he said.

He believed the resettlement status in Canada that his family secured in 2015, before Thai authorities deported him back to China, was still valid.

The Canadian Embassy in South Korea declined to comment on Dong's case. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the country handled the case “in accordance with law and principle,” but did not specify Seoul’s role in arranging Dong’s transfer to Canada. The U.N. refugee agency declined to comment on individual cases for reasons of confidentiality and protection.

Dong vows to press on with his activism

Dong said he feels at home after arriving in Toronto, saying he finally tasted freedom for the first time in over a decade.

“There’s not even a hint of fear,” he said.

He hopes to make a living, possibly by being a truck driver or an Uber driver.

But the joy doesn't help Dong let go of the deportations by the Thai and Vietnamese authorities.

In 2015, Dong and his family went to Thailand to seek refugee status from the U.N. refugee agency, but Thai authorities later arrested him and returned him to China, according to Amnesty International. His ex-wife and daughter managed to settle in Canada.

The activist fled to Vietnam in 2020, but was sent back in 2022. He was jailed each time he was returned to China. He said he plans to consult a lawyer to see if he can sue both Thailand and Vietnam.

For Dong, the fight is far from over. He also plans to press on in his call for China's democratization.

In the late 1990s, the former police officer distributed leaflets with his articles on topics such as the Tiananmen crackdown. He was imprisoned for three years in 2001 for inciting subversion of state power.

He also spent more than eight months behind bars over his participation in a memorial for victims of the crackdown after being arrested in 2014, he said.

“My ultimate goal is for China to achieve constitutional democracy,” he said.

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Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.