It was Shavuot, the Jewish holiday commemorating God giving the Torah to Moses. Hallegua reached the 458-year-old Paradesi Synagogue where he knew he would pray alone — without a minyan, the quorum of 10 males required for a communal service.

Hallegua is the synagogue's last local congregant — the only Jew left in Jew Town.

Across the city at the centuries-old Kadavumbagam Synagogue, Elias “Babu” Josephai remembered the “chukkunda" — fried dough balls his grandmother used to make for Shavuot.

“It wasn’t much,” he said, wiping away tears. “But at that time, it was everything."

They ache for what’s already gone and work to preserve what's left.

In the 1950s, much of the Jewish community in Kochi (historically known as Cochin), a seaport on India’s southwestern coast, immigrated to Israel, leaving behind their homes, synagogues and cemeteries.

The burden of being the last Jews

Hallegua and Josephai stayed. Now they represent the final chapter for the Cochin Jews who have lived peacefully — and without fear of antisemitism — for centuries alongside Hindu, Muslim and Christian neighbors. There are now fewer than 5,000 Jews in all of India, the world's most populous country.

But the Cochin Jewish community's complex history includes both religious freedom and internal divisions over class and colorism. Hallegua is a Paradesi Jew, the once-dominant group whose fair-skinned, Sephardic ancestors from Spain and Portugal fled the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century. They brought enslaved people with them, and their freed descendants, known as the Meshuchrarim Jews, were relegated to a lower social status and had to fight for religious equality.

Josephai is a Malabari Jew. The group's darker-skinned ancestors trace their roots back more than 2,000 years, to King Solomon’s time. They also faced past discrimination from the Paradesi community. While these divisions didn't survive after the Cochin Jews migrated to Israel and elsewhere, the bitter remnants still haunt the community's legacy.

Though Hallegua and Josephai rarely meet, both are intensely proud of their ancient heritage.

Josephai spent years resurrecting Kadavumbagam Synagogue, the last functioning Malabari house of worship. Services are rare; it's up to Josephai to light the lamps and keep the prayers going, often alone. He weeps for the past, when the synagogue was filled with people, prayers and songs.

“That will never come back,” he said.

Hallegua is the last local member of Paradesi Synagogue, which now relies on tourists and visitors to have a quorum for services.

“Quite often, I walk to the synagogue and I ask HaShem (God), why have you done this?” Hallegua said. “I never hear a response.”

Locals and global community strive to preserve history

On a recent morning, tourists crowded the Paradesi Synagogue and Synagogue Lane, the street it anchors. Former homes are now occupied by spice warehouses and stores selling antiques and handicrafts. Historically, the Jewish community played a major role in the spice trade in Kochi, a hub for black pepper, cardamom and nutmeg.

The synagogue’s entryway leads to a main hall with blue and white Chinese porcelain tile floors. Nineteenth century Belgian crystal chandeliers and colorful glass lanterns adorn the sanctuary. A carved teakwood Torah ark stands at the western wall facing Jerusalem. As in other Kochi synagogues, the women’s section is upstairs. Visitors slip off their shoes, in keeping with regional etiquette.

Synagogue trustee M.C. Praveen says his life's mission is protecting Cochin Jewish history. Praveen, a Hindu, spent his childhood in Jew Town, attending school with Hallegua's family members, eating Shabbat dinners, playing cricket near the synagogue.

“I want to make sure future generations know the history of this town and the people who lived here,” said Praveen, who seeks guidance from the community's former residents and their far-flung children.

The connections transcend geography. Trustee Shulamit Kotzer, 55, was born in Jew Town and spent vacations there after moving to Israel at age 2. She dreams of opening a hotel in the neighborhood.

“I consider Cochin not a second home, but my home,” she said.

Earlier this year, synagogue leaders opened a museum showcasing Kochi's Jewish history. It features the settlement's original deed: two copper plates bearing a Hindu king's charter from 1000 CE granting the community religious freedom.

Preservation efforts transcend religious ties

Praveen is not the only non-Jew trying to ensure the community's culture survives.

Thaha Ibrahim, a Muslim, forged a profound connection with the late Sarah Cohen, one of the neighborhood's Jewish matriarchs. He now runs her embroidery shop on Synagogue Lane. Cohen, or “Sarah aunty” as he calls her, taught him how to do Cochin Jewish embroidery.

“I'm teaching my son to do this embroidery so he can continue Sarah aunty's legacy,” he said.

Ibrahim lights Shabbat candles on Fridays and closes his shop on Saturdays. Muslim-Jewish tensions elsewhere in the world are not a deterrent, he says.

“This is not about religion, it's about human connection."

Across the city in Ernakulam, Josephai shoulders the preservation of Malabari Jewish heritage. The 12th century Kadavumbagam Synagogue, which he saved after vandals destroyed it, is tucked behind the store where he sells aquarium fish and plants. The renovated interior features hand-crafted tile and a red-and-gold Torah ark.

Josephai is proud that people of different faiths helped him rebuild. A Muslim donated the lamps, a Christian gave a Ten Commandments plaque, a Hindu foundation paid for the chandeliers.

An oil lamp hangs in front of the ark, its flame kept burning by Josephai. He also keeps the synagogue prayers going, a promise made to his grandmother after his siblings moved to Israel in 1972.

“Every Jew has a dream that his last breath should be in Israel," he said. “I believe my last breath should be inside this synagogue.”

Josephai, 70, hopes a Jewish organization will take over the synagogue, along with the library and museum he is building.

“Once I’m gone, there is no one who can tell these stories,” he said. “But this is our fate and that’s how it is.”

Thapan Dubayehudi, a Malabari Jew who moved to Vienna in 2022, called Josephai “a one-man army” keeping the history alive. He remembers sitting with Josephai as they assembled and lit hundreds of lamps in the sanctuary during Hanukkah.

“I’d carry that memory with me if God gives me 90 years of life,” he said.

A strong identity that is both Indian and Jewish

Keith Hallegua also stayed to fulfill family responsibilities.

“Never did I ever think that I would be the last Jew in Jew Town,” said Hallegua, who remained to care for his brother and mother.

His mind teems with memories. Singing the Paradesi Jewish tunes that blended Sephardic chants with local folk elements. The aroma of his mother's chili chicken. His grandmother's frantic cleaning ahead of Passover, Hallegua’s favorite season. The new clothes for Rosh Hashanah.

“That’s never going to come back,” Hallegua said.

He realizes his memories will vanish with him. It's deeply painful, and some days he wants to leave Jew Town. But he is grounded by his homeland and its history.

As he once explained, “I was born a Jew in India and I shall die in India, a Jew.”

___

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.

They are a curious distraction from the summer heat crisis. The Danube’s record low water levels also have forced power plants to the brink of shutting down, and governments across Central and Eastern Europe are taking steps to conserve electricity.

In the middle of the river separating Serbia and Romania near the Serbian port of Prahovo, a rusty hull is now visible along with a broken mast where the Nazi flag used to fly.

The ships, some still laden with weapons, belonged to Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet that the Germans deliberately sank as they retreated from Romania and as Soviet forces advanced deeper into Europe near the end of the war.

Historians say up to 200 German warships were scuttled in September 1944 near Prahovo in the Danube gorge as they came under Soviet fire. The idea behind the deliberate sinking was to slow down the Soviet advance in the Balkans. But Nazi Germany surrendered months later, in May 1945.

The sight of the old warships is a reminder that the Serbian government, with European Union financial support, has long been trying to do something about them. Some were removed from the river by Communist Yugoslav authorities, but most have remained because of the explosives they carried.

Now, however, authorities are trying to keep traffic flowing on the Danube, which flows through 10 nations, as the dropping water levels create dangerous conditions. Experts have linked the unusually hot weather to global warming and other factors.

Krsta Brandic, a Prahovo resident, said the low water levels have almost stopped ship traffic: “As you can see, the (big) ships can’t pass anymore."

___

Associated Press writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed from Belgrade, Serbia.

___

This story was first published on Aug. 5, 2026. It was updated on Aug. 7, 2026, to correct that the ships being exposed because of low water levels are warships and not battleships, which are a specific type of very large vessel.

The shooting happened at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of the national capital, Royal Thai Police spokesperson Trairong Piwpan told The Associated Press.

He later told news broadcaster Channel 3 the shooter was being hospitalized in serious condition and 15 others were injured, with two in critical condition.

He said the motive was still being investigated. He said the gun was believed to have been taken from a member of the student’s family.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul offered his condolences and said he had ordered relevant officials to take care of the victims.

Images from the scene about an hour after the shooting showed people standing outside the school comforting one another and police and first responders walking around inside the school.

A witness told reporters that students hid inside a classroom while they heard gunshots from another building before police officers knocked on the door and cleared a way for them to leave the building.

In February, a 17-year-old stole a gun from police and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand, briefly taking people hostage in a two-hour attack that killed one person and injured two others.

In 2023, a 14-year-old boy was accused of a shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall.

Customs data released Friday showed China’s trade surplus narrowed to $112.5 billion from $125.6 billion in June.

Exports rose nearly 24% in July from a year earlier, compared with a 27% increase in June. Imports climbed 27.5% year-on-year, but that was lower than June's jump of 36%.

Disruptions to port operations due to typhoons helped to slow trade, analysts said.

“The boom in Chinese trade slowed a touch in July but the big picture is that export and import values remain elevated, helped by soaring global demand for electronics and green tech products,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

The Iran war interfered with shipments of aluminum from the Middle East, leading to an increase in Chinese exports of the metal, he noted.

Trade data show China has fully transitioned from providing mostly low cost manufacturing to supplying vital machinery and components for advanced manufacturing.

Exports of high-tech items surged nearly 41% in January-July from the same period the year before, while shipments of vehicles jumped 55% and overall exports of electronics and machinery rose 26%.

China's exports to the U.S. climbed just 2.6% year-on-year in the first seven months of this year, while imports from the U.S. grew 1.4%.

Exports to the European Union were up nearly 17%, while exports to Southeast Asia, which as a bloc is now China's biggest trading partner, surged 25%.

Investigations are ongoing into how cyanide found its way to an ecosystem where wild and domestic animals coexist and farms grow tomatoes and onions, but growers are disputing claims that cyanide from their tomatoes killed the elephants.

The elephant deaths and disputes about the cause have intensified concerns over growing human-wildlife conflict in the region due to expanding agricultural activities near Amboseli park. Kenya has until recently been widely recognized for rebuilding its elephant population from historic lows to more than 36,000 individuals by reducing poaching and protecting elephants.

Farmers skeptical cyanide from their farms killed elephants

Elvis Muchai has farmed on the edge of Amboseli for two decades. In all that time, he said, he has never heard of farmers poisoning wildlife.

That is why he was skeptical of reports last month that the 15 elephants had died from suspected cyanide poisoning after consuming tomatoes believed to have been contaminated with the chemical.

Muchai, who farms tomatoes in Kimana area, said local communities have long coexisted with elephants despite suffering repeated crop losses when the animals cross the park’s electric fence and raid farms, particularly during the dry season.

“We are used to the animals eating from our farms,” he said.

Fifteen elephants died in one month

Last month, the Kenya Wildlife Service announced that 15 elephants had died in the Amboseli ecosystem in a span of a month. Preliminary laboratory tests detected cyanide, while postmortem examinations found tomatoes in the animals’ stomachs.

The head of veterinary services at Kenya's wildlife agency, Dr. Isaac Lekolool, said the elephants had shown signs of “paralysis and difficulty breathing” before they died. Initial tests pointed to cyanide poisoning, although further laboratory tests are being done to determine the concentration of cyanide.

“We are yet to find out where this cyanide came from,” Lekolool said, adding that the elephants had also consumed watermelons. He urged caution over the handling and use of pesticides on farms.

One of Kenya's most productive farming regions

Kimana, which borders Amboseli, is one of Kenya’s most productive agricultural areas, growing tomatoes, onions and French beans that are transported to markets to the capital, Nairobi.

The samples tested for toxic chemicals were obtained from the elephants' stomach contents and the analysis of blood samples is ongoing, Dr. Lekolool said. He disputed earlier claims that cyanide, which is regulated by the government for use in mining, may have been present in the park due to illegal mining.

Farms have expanded near the park and conflict between people and elephants remains the second leading cause of deaths after poaching, according to Kenya’s National Elephant Plan. Between 2000 and 2020, at least 1,160 elephants died in incidents linked to self-defense or retaliatory killings as communities sought to protect their crops, property and lives, the Plan notes.

But Duncan Juma, communications director of Kenya’s wildlife service, ruled out human-wildlife conflict in the death of the elephants, saying “the community loves these animals.”

Urgent need to tackle human-wildlife contact

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, or IFAW, said the recent suspected cyanide poisoning highlights the urgent need to tackle the underlying causes of human-wildlife conflict.

“As people and elephants increasingly share space, protecting wildlife and safeguarding communities’ livelihoods must go hand in hand,” IFAW wrote in a statement.

IFAW’S East Africa Director Ben Wandago said the reported cyanide poisoning must be “urgently and thoroughly investigated” and recommended that coexistence solutions to protect communities living near the park be implemented.

“This tragedy also underscores the urgent need for the strict control and responsible handling of highly toxic substances to prevent them from entering the natural environment,” he said.

Farmers are doubtful that the cyanide could have originated from commonly used agricultural inputs.

Muchai said he has never encountered cyanide among the pesticides or chemicals sold to farmers in the area and insisted that products available on the market are regulated by the Kenyan government.

“The chemical they are talking about, we’ve never seen it or heard of it here,” he said.

Last season alone, Muchai said elephants destroyed about half an acre of his tomato crop, costing him an estimated 500,000 Kenya shillings ($3,800).

“We have lived with these animals for years. They eat our crops, and many of us have never received compensation,” he said.

Another farmer, Rymondy Mrosso, also questioned whether pesticides used by local farmers could explain the deaths and wondered why only elephants appeared to have been affected.

“We have goats, cows and other wildlife such as gazelles that also feed in these areas,” he said. “If the crops were poisoned, why were only the elephants affected?”

___

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The 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.

And tell you. And tell you.

Trump has spoken repeatedly of his prowess with green lawns since returning to the White House — at some events even spending more time talking about it than the war in Iran, the economy or November's midterm elections.

It was on the president's mind just five weeks after his second inauguration, when he pointed out the Oval Office window during an interview with The Spectator. “You see the grass outside, right?” Trump asked before detailing his plans to pave over much of it. “Some people would like to leave it. But the problem is, you can’t."

Trump has kept on the topic constantly ever since, saying as recently as Monday at a White House event with military spouses: “Grass is like humans. It has a life.”

All told, he's mentioned grass in at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months — or at least once every 12 days. That doesn't include the numerous social media posts that Trump has also made on the topic.

His gravitation toward grass speaks to Trump's decades as a New York real estate developer and personal love of building things and overseeing construction projects, but also to the amount of time he spends on the golf course and his extensive, second-term efforts to revamp the White House and greater Washington in his own image. He's already far outpaced the 26 times he mentioned grass during the entirety of his first four-year term.

The White House declined to comment. But Trump has made clear where his interest in — and knowledge of — grass comes from.

“I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses," he said while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last August. "And, if you don’t have good grass, you’re not in business very long.”

A week later, while visiting park police officers in Washington, the president declared, “I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.”

Trump frequently touts his Washington overhaul and Rose Garden patio

Matt Koch, the lawns research fellow for gardening giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, met recently with the president to discuss planting new grass on the White House’s South Lawn. He proudly considers himself a “grass nerd” and came away convinced Trump is an honorary one.

“An amazing dialogue, talking grass for half an hour,” Koch said of the Oval Office discussion. “Going back and forth about grass.”

Trump has managed to bring up grass at events as varied as the signing of an executive order on TikTok and the 2025 White House celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. He mentioned it while pardoning turkeys last Thanksgiving, while addressing the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, and while signing a directive on quantum technology.

Last September, while hosting Republican lawmakers for dinner, he pledged of green spaces around Washington, “We’re gonna re-grass them with the best guys in the country.” That same month, during an event announcing the intended renaming of the Department of Defense, Trump assured attendees, “I’m very good at grass.”

Trump most frequently mentions grass while promoting his Washington beautification efforts. In May, he spent 10 minutes of a Cabinet meeting detailing his efforts to fix fountains and give D.C.'s parks and monuments a facelift — sometimes sounding more like a small-town mayor than the leader of the free world.

Ironically, the president brings up the topic while defending his decisions to remove grass for new construction — like when he covered the lawn near the White House's Rose Garden with a stone patio.

“Problem with the grass, you couldn’t do anything with it,” he said during a 2025 Oval Office tour for hosts of the “All-In” podcast.

The president also frequently recounts that hordes of women, including journalists, Cabinet members and administration officials, used to complain to him about their high heels getting stuck in the mud in the old, grassy Rose Garden.

“The women would be lifting up their shoes, saying, ‘You’ve destroyed my shoes,'” he said during a luncheon last fall. When hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in July, he relayed that women in heels “would go down like quicksand.”

Trump's helipad is wiping out even more grass

Erecting a UFC octagon to mark his 80th birthday in June reduced large swaths of the South Lawn to dusty dirt. In the weeks since, crews have been building a sprawling helicopter landing pad, meaning even more grass has been removed from the lawn.

Trump said the helipad was needed because the new, more powerful fleet of helicopters now being used as Marine One tore up the previous sod.

“When you land on the grass, it’s not that the grass gets discolored — it gets ripped out,” he said in June. Trump even described tufts of turf going “all over” and said, “Half of the grass was sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.”

Scotts Miracle-Gro donated $1 million in monetary and product support to the National Park Service to restore the South Lawn after the UFC fight, and Trump used the meeting with Koch in June to select a custom turfgrass blend of four kinds of tall fescues and four Kentucky bluegrasses. The company's CEO, James Hagedorn, is a Trump supporter.

Trump, Koch said, asked good, detailed questions as he was shown carpet sample-like swaths of each grass variety.

“You can tell he spends a lot of time on golf courses," Koch said. “He obviously owns courses, and he knows grass from being around it.”

Koch returned to the White House last week as crews began resodding some areas of the White House lawn outside the helipad construction area. There are plans next spring to plant seeds from the grass blend Trump selected. By then, growth will be optimal, and the helipad work should be complete, making the lawn restoration easier.

Many golfers are obsessed with grass

Also key to the president's grass fixation is his love of golf.

Bert McCarty, a Clemson University professor of turfgrass science and management, said golfers like how top courses are so different — from incorporating the ocean in places near beaches to relying on inclines in the mountains.

Trump, McCarty said, is “like most golfers. He likes the challenge of the course and the differences of the course to add variety."

Last August, Trump pledged that, after his administration's various improvements, parks in Washington will “look like Augusta" — a reference to the home of the iconic Masters tournament, where aesthetics are so important that bags from the pro shop and food wrappers are green so that any possible litter blends in with the grass during TV broadcasts.

McCarty said most people “look at the beautiful flowers and the striped-up fairways, and they just think it’s heaven." But “Augusta basically spares no expense to achieve the look they're after," he added, and municipalities “can't compete with that.”

Cost aside, though, Trump may be thinking even bigger than Augusta, pointing to his own golf course in Northern Virginia.

“It’ll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club,” he said. “That’s even better.”

Any concession would be tough for the Republican president, who has insisted there is no truth to his sagging poll numbers, the sluggish economy and the U.S. military’s dwindling stockpiles of key weapons following the Iran war he launched with Israel more than five months ago.

“He divides the world into winners and losers, and this would make him a loser,” said Eliot Cohen, who served as counselor of the State Department in the George W. Bush administration. “And the image of being a loser, I think, would be intolerable for him.”

The sticking point has been over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows. While both sides say a deal is close, the Trump administration has ruled out any arrangement that would cement Iran’s grip over the Persian Gulf waterway, including Tehran charging fees.

But Iran has insisted on some measure of control, saying the strait will not go back to being an open international waterway as it was before the war. Despite thousands of U.S. strikes, Iran can still fire drones and missiles at vessels, giving it a chokehold over commercial shipping.

Cohen said yielding ground to Iran would be difficult for the president, even if the conflict keeps gasoline prices elevated and poses problems for Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

But David Schenker, a former State Department official in the first Trump administration, said the increasing economic pressure may actually prompt Trump to compromise on the strait, even if it's likely to have profound implications on global trade.

“There will be a lot of spin both ways, but my guess is that the president has tipped his hand as to the urgency for him of resolving the crisis,” said Schenker, now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is a concession he may very well be willing to make.”

Trump says weapons stockpiles are ‘a little bit tighter’

Trump, however, has so far conceded little about the war.

He posted on social media Thursday that the U.S. military still has “massive amounts” of weapons and that large amounts are being manufactured. He threatened jail time for the alleged “leakers” of information on the nation's weapons stockpiles.

Trump was referencing a Washington Post story that reported his frustration with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the shrinking inventories of advanced weapons, as the Cabinet had gathered at Camp David last week.

A senior administration official said there had been a “robust and healthy” discussion about Iran in the Cabinet meeting and would not provide additional details except to say there had not been a "knock-down, drag-out fight” over the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

Experts say the U.S. military is running short on weapons like advanced missile interceptors that have defended American troops from Iranian attacks. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, has released reports on declining inventories based on budget documents and other public information.

When asked later about weapons stockpiles, Trump told reporters that “we need more all the time.” He claimed that certain kinds of munitions are in “virtually unlimited supply” and others are “a little bit tighter.” He didn't offer more specifics.

He insisted that “we’re in great shape. But, with that being said, we always want more. We have to have more,” noting that the military could tap into U.S. supplies of munitions around the world if needed.

Hegseth was on Capitol Hill this week, meeting privately with Republican senators as he makes the case for billions of dollars in additional Pentagon spending as part of a major GOP budget package.

Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy pilot, said the weapons shortfall stems from a war that lacked a well-defined goal and strategy beyond striking more than 14,000 targets.

“My contention on this is, if you knew what the goal is, maybe the target list would have been 500 targets. Maybe it would have been 200 targets," Kelly said, adding the Pentagon wants "billions and billions of dollars to fix their self-inflicted problem.”

Trump has made a dubious claim about polling

Trump also has claimed in a social media post Tuesday that his polling numbers are the best “they have ever been.” He cited accomplishments including employment numbers and the “Denuclearization of Iran.”

But about two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran has not been worthwhile, according to a poll from late July by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as about 37% of Republicans.

On employment, the United States had nearly 159 million jobs in June, not including farmworkers, which was a record. In Trump’s second term, however, job growth has slowed considerably.

Trump also continues to claim that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial shipping. He said Thursday that the strait is “sort of open right now” and pointed to the Navy's blockade of Iranian ports.

“But they can always shoot something, they always have something or drop a mine,” Trump said of Iran. “And if you have one mine sitting out there, you sort of mess things up because people don’t want to take their billion-dollar boats and accidentally get hit by a mine.”

At least two ships were hit in the Strait of Hormuz in the past week, while several others reported near misses or warnings from entities claiming to represent Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Vessel traffic through the strait increased to 84 transits last week, up from 45 the week before. But traffic is still far below the more than 700 transits seen in a typical week before the crisis, Lloyd’s List said.

A deal over the Strait of Hormuz could hinge on fees

U.S. and Iranian officials say they are close to reaching an agreement to reopen the strait. That is even as the U.S. military insists the strait is open through a route it helps oversee near Oman’s coast, saying this week that it “remains free and open for all commercial vessels seeking to transit the international waterway.”

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the potential deal is being portrayed as a temporary solution to the dispute over the strait, and that it would allow ships to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through an Omani-controlled route.

The Trump administration has said repeatedly that it is strongly opposed to any arrangement that would see Iran charge fees.

Any temporary routes through the waterway will not have tolls, charges or other impediments, according to a U.S. official not authorized to comment publicly who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity. The official said Trump’s preferred choice is diplomacy and he “holds all the cards” in dealing with Iran.

____

Associated Press reporters Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

But underneath the headline numbers, the job market is sending mixed and confusing signals.

Companies in some industries can’t find enough workers and have to pay premium wages to fill vacancies. Others are making such efficient use of technology that they don’t need to hire much at all.

Normally, the American labor market looks either good or bad. Lately, it’s been a bit of both.

Layoffs are rare — but times are tough for jobseekers

Americans who have jobs are enjoying unusual job security. Layoffs are low by historical standards. Companies, scarred by the surprise labor shortages that followed COVID-19 lockdowns a few years ago, don’t want to risk giving up the staff they have.

One week in July the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in more than 50 years. The jobless rate tumbled to 4.2% in June, the lowest in a year, and is expected to have stayed there last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.

But Americans who have lost their jobs – or are seeking to bust into the job market for the first time – are struggling to catch a break. One sign of their trouble: In May 27.5% of the unemployed had been out of work for six months, the most in four and a half years; the share dipped slightly but remained high in June.

Economists have used the term "no hire, no fire'' to describe the unusual job market conditions.

The Labor Department releases July employment numbers on Friday. They are expected to show that companies, government agencies and nonprofits added nearly 98,000 jobs last month, according to the FactSet survey.

That would be an improvement on the disappointing 57,000 jobs employers created in June.

Rebounding from a miserable 2025

And it would mark a continued rebound from 2025 when the economy generated fewer than 10,000 new jobs a month – the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. Last year, high interest rates and uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s economic policies discouraged companies from adding staff.

So far in 2026, employers have added an average 92,000 jobs a month.

In the past, that would have been an unimpressive level of hiring.

But the United States doesn’t need as many jobs as it used to keep the unemployment rate from rising. Trump’s immigration crackdown and the ongoing retirement of baby boomers mean fewer people are competing for work. So the “break-even’’ rate of monthly hiring, 155,000 in 2023-2024, has dropped, perhaps to nearly zero, according to a Federal Reserve study.

“There are just fewer people available to hire,’’ said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. For some, labor shortages translate into higher wages. The payroll processor ADP reported Wednesday that people who changed jobs last month pocketed a 7% raise, the biggest year-over-year gain in almost a year and a premium over a 4.4% increase for workers who stayed where they were.

At the same time, companies have become more productive in recent years, using technology to do the work that humans used to do. “We are seeing companies produce more with their current staff,’’ Guatieri said. “So there’s less need to take on new workers.’’

Shortages of available workers and rising productivity, he said, “will keep the lid on the rate of hiring and monthly job growth.’’

Moreover, the outlook for hiring is clouded by the ongoing fighting in the Persian Gulf, which has pushed up energy prices and squeezed family budgets, and by the rise of artificial intelligence, which could either make workers more efficient and better-paid -- or take their jobs.

Quirks in the jobs data

The June jobs report contained an oddity that might have reversed in July. The Labor Department numbers showed that 720,000 people dropped out of the labor force in June – and a surprising 700,000 (97%) of them were ages 25 to 34.

A smaller labor force means fewer people are competing for work and tends to push the unemployment rate lower. If the June drop was a statistical quirk – and the labor force rebounded last month and increased the number of people vying for jobs – the unemployment rate could surprise and tick back up.

In a report out this week, researchers Ingrid Chen, Marianna Kudlyak and Riva Mikhlin of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco found that landing a job has gotten tougher in the past couple of years – surprisingly so.

Normally, this deep into an economic expansion – it's been more than six years since the last recession – employers would need workers so badly that they’d be taking chances on young people and on those with less education. Not this time. “Instead of being pulled in, the pipeline into employment is shrinking such that the recovery is no longer reaching workers at the margins,’’ Chen, Kudlyak and Mikhlin write.

Moreover, the unemployed people who normally get back to work the fastest – those in their prime working years (25 to 54) and with college educations – are struggling to find new jobs. The San Francisco Fed researchers aren’t sure what’s making the job search so tough. They suspect it might have to do with the immigration crackdown, hiring slowdowns specifically at tech companies and government contractors, uncertainty over the direction of government policy or “early signals of broader labor market deterioration.’’

The extreme weather has pushed temperatures above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in several countries, prompting health warnings for millions of people. Scientists and officials warn that such events are becoming more frequent and intense as the climate warms.

The current heat wave has exposed vulnerabilities in public health systems, power generation, transportation networks and tourism infrastructure, forcing governments and businesses to adapt to more frequent periods of extreme weather.

Italy's red alert in all major cities is a first

Italy’s Health Ministry placed all 27 cities monitored under its national heat surveillance system on red alert Thursday — the first time this year that the entire network has been under the highest warning level simultaneously.

The alerts stretch from Trieste in the northeast to Palermo in Sicily and signal a health risk for the entire population, not only vulnerable groups such as older adults and people with chronic illnesses.

Authorities urged residents and tourists to avoid direct sunlight during the hottest hours of the day, remain indoors where possible and drink plenty of water.

The heat has also forced adjustments at major tourist attractions. The ministries of tourism and culture extended evening opening hours at landmarks including Rome’s Colosseum and Pantheon.

Mist fans and an 'urban beach' set up to cool residents

Cooling mist fans have been installed at the Colosseum’s entrances and additional medical stations have been made available.

Rome has also introduced another unusual response to the heat emergency: a free municipal “urban beach” along the Tiber River in the Marconi neighborhood, where residents can cool off in swimming pools, water fountains and shaded areas.

The site, known as Tiberis, has become a refuge for families and children seeking relief from record temperatures. Residents praised the initiative, saying it allowed them to better cope with the heat and offered a rare opportunity to escape the city’s scorching asphalt and concrete.

“It is excellent, it is a great initiative. They did the right thing, specially with such hot days it is important to cool down with water, specially for children," Rome resident Claudio Rocchi said.

Austria and Slovakia break national temperature records

Later on Thursday, Slovakia recorded another all-time high temperature. The new record set at Dolne Plachtince in the south was 42.2 C (108 F), the Slovak Meteorological Institute said.

In Slovakia, the low levels of water in the Danube forced the country’s biggest hydroelectric power plant in Gabčíkovo to shut down seven of its eight turbines, the TASR news agency said.

So far this year, the power plant produced 15% less electricity than a year ago due to a lack of water in the river.

The authorities recorded the lowest flow of water in the Danube for July on record, the Academy of Sciences said.

An all-time high temperature of 41.2 C (106.2 F) was also recorded in Austria on Wednesday in the village of Bad Deutsch-Altenburg near the Slovak border, according to GeoSphere Austria.

Austria is also facing severe drought. Rainfall from Jan. 1 through June 30 was 27% below the long-term average nationwide, while some eastern regions received only half their normal precipitation.

Climatologist Alexander Orlik said some parts of the country had not experienced such dry conditions since 1885.

Hungary cuts power use as drought hits nuclear plant

In Hungary, prolonged drought and record-low water levels on the Danube River have severely affected the country’s only nuclear power plant, which relies on river water to cool its reactors.

Plant operators have reduced output to about 10% of normal production, prompting the government to introduce emergency conservation measures as a record-breaking heat wave grips the country.

Authorities have asked major industrial users and households to cut electricity consumption, particularly during peak demand hours between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Freight trains have been barred from operating during those hours, while decorative lighting on landmarks in Budapest has been switched off.

Several major companies, including energy company Mol, pharmaceutical maker Gedeon Richter and automakers Suzuki, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW have announced plans to curb electricity use.

The government also canceled parliamentary sessions this week in an effort to conserve power.

The heat wave has shattered temperature records across the country. On Wednesday night, Budapest recorded its warmest overnight temperature on record, with temperatures falling only to 28 C (82 F), underscoring the persistence of the extreme heat.

Germany worries about shrinking rivers

Germany faced growing concerns over the impact of drought on transportation and industry as water levels on the Rhine and other rivers continued to fall.

Transport Minister Steffen Bilger met affected organizations Thursday and warned that low water levels posed major challenges for inland waterway shipping, industry and the broader logistics chain.

Environmental group BUND urged authorities to focus not only on the economic impacts but also on making rivers more resilient to climate change by retaining more water in landscapes and reducing withdrawals during periods of drought.

France remains on high wildfire alert

In southeastern France, firefighters maintained a large presence in the Var region after authorities said a major wildfire there was no longer spreading but remained capable of reigniting.

The blaze, which began July 20, has burned more than 60 square kilometers (23 square miles), making it the largest recorded in the region in recent decades.

Authorities warned that strong winds and extremely dry conditions left southeastern France at very high risk for additional wildfires.

Temperatures cooled in England, but the impact from the driest July on record was on display as a grass fire temporarily shut down the southern runway at Heathrow Airport in London on Thursday.

Balkans battle fires and drought

The heat wave reached its peak across the Balkans on Thursday as temperatures neared 40 C (104 F) and authorities battled drought and wildfires.

In Serbia, firefighters struggled to contain several blazes after days of dry weather. One major fire burned through pine forests west of Belgrade, while another spread near the central town of Kraljevo, where difficult terrain complicated firefighting efforts.

In neighboring Croatia, tourists in Dubrovnik sought refuge in shade and avoided beaches during the hottest hours of the day as temperatures soared along the Adriatic coast.

———

Associated Press journalists Paolo Santalucia in Rome, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, Karel Janicek in Prague and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.

Then she took the blame for the Indiana Fever's stinging 86-84 overtime loss to defending champion Las Vegas.

“Obviously, it just can't happen,” the three-time All-Star said just hours after she was one of 12 players named to the FIBA Women's World Cup team. “Those are free throws I usually make and certainly frustrating. Obviously, one of them gives us a two-possession lead and kind of caused my pain there, for sure, so that's on me.”

It wasn't a great night for Clark by any measure. While she scored 20 points, had eight assists and made two go-ahead 3-pointers in the final 4 1/2 minutes of regulation, it was the miscues she rued after first watching a 20-point first-half lead slip away and then failing to protect a three-point lead in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and a two-point lead at the end of overtime.

Jackie Young took advantage of the first opening by scoring a franchise-record 15 consecutive points to finish the second quarter and start the third. Chelsea Gray then made the Fever pay for their late miscues — making a buzzer-beating 3 to tie it at 75 following the missed free throws and then making another buzzer beater to win it following Clark's final turnover, forced by A'ja Wilson.

Clark went 7 of 20 from the field, 2 of 10 on 3s and had more fouls (four) than rebounds (three). Still, she didn't make any excuses.

“I didn't know we scored nine points in the third quarter, but you know we still battled, still fought, we put ourselves in position to win the game,” Clark said. “And then, honestly, it was me that made the costly errors for us. So that's on me to helps us win. That's my job. That's what I get paid to do.”

As usual, though, it wasn't just Clark.

Kelsey Mitchell, July's WNBA Player of the Month, missed one of two free throws with 9.2 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. And then, instead of fouling to prevent the tying 3-point attempt, or corralling the loose ball, Gray got her chance to tie the score.

“Aliyah Boston read it perfectly, her timing was perfect,” coach Stephanie White said, noting they gave up 18 points on turnovers, too.. “It's a loose ball and it bounced their way. We've got to come up with that play.”

White also acknowledged making her own mistake — not calling timeout at the end of overtime when they were struggling to get a shot, which led to Clark's turnover.

And, though, that seemed of little solace to Clark, White saw it another way.

“Players already hate that they miss free throws, right? They hate that they miss plays,” White said. “You've just got to keep them positive in those moments."

___

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

The rookie quarterback ran in from the 5 on the final play to give the Carolina Panthers a 33-30 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame game that kicked off the NFL preseason on Thursday night.

King, who was the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year last season at Georgia Tech, was 21 of 34 for 180 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for 39 yards and the winning score.

“Well, that was a lot of fun. Just the back and forth of it. Just a really good game,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said. “The guys were resilient and finish is what we preach as a team. We practice for these situations, end of half, end of game. ... Haynes did a fantastic job, just keeping the play alive, doing whatever he had to do, run it, throw it. Really proud of the group.”

Carson Beck also had an impressive debut for Arizona.

After Beck left, Kedon Slovis tossed a 1-yard TD pass to Bryson Green with 1:55 remaining to give the Cardinals a 30-27 lead.

But King rallied the Panthers on a night when both teams didn’t play their starters. Bryce Young was King’s biggest cheerleader on the sideline.

King’s 4-yard TD pass to Anthony Tyus III in the opening minute of the fourth quarter put Carolina ahead 24-20. King threw a 15-yard TD pass Ja’seem Reed in the second quarter. He had a 26-yard run on third-and-14 to keep the final drive going.

“These are things that he did throughout his career,” Canales said of King. “The bottom line is move the chains.”

Both teams gave their backups and reserves opportunities to shine.

Beck, Slovis and King took advantage.

Beck, a third-round pick from Miami, completed 15 of 19 passes for 188 yards and one touchdown. After leading the Hurricanes to the national championship game — a loss to Fernando Mendoza and Indiana — Beck wasn't overwhelmed by the national stage.

“It was a cool environment and for him to just kind of, it’s just another game and that’s the way he took it and he’s been in big ones and that’s how his mindset works,” rookie Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur said.

Slovis was 9 of 10 for 106 yards.

Veteran Jacoby Brissett is the Cardinals' starter and their backup is journeyman Gardner Minshew. But expectations are low for Arizona in a division that includes the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks, Rams and 49ers.

So Beck may get a chance to play at some point if he develops under LaFleur. Canales raved about what he saw from the opposing sideline.

“He operated like a professional. He looked fantastic,” Canales said. “He was accurate. He was on time. Our rush was decent. He got the ball out, threw some really beautiful passes down the field, up the sideline on some double moves, over the middle, to keep the drive alive in some third-down situations, so tip my hat to him.”

King is expected to be Carolina’s No. 3 QB behind Young and veteran Kenny Pickett.

The Panthers won the NFC South last season at 8-9 and lost to the Rams in a wild-card game.

Pickett started and was 8 of 11 for 62 yards before King replaced him.

Beck completed all six of his passes on a 98-yard touchdown drive that included a 35-yard strike to Jalen Brooks on third-and-7 from Arizona’s 7.

He threw a perfect deep ball to Brooks for a 49-yard gain and finished that drive with a 5-yard TD pass to Simi Fehoko.

Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love, the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, sat out even though he hoped to persuade LaFleur to let him play.

Gold jackets

Quarterback Drew Brees, running back Roger Craig, kicker Adam Vinatieri, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and linebacker Luke Kuechly make up the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

Tomlin makes his TV debut

Former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin made his first appearance with the NBC broadcast crew. Tomlin left Pittsburgh after 19 seasons and became the lead studio analyst for “Football Night in America.”

Brissett and McBride in the Hall

Brissett and All-Pro tight end Trey McBride stopped by the Pro Football Hall of Fame Museum to see their jerseys displayed for breaking records last season. McBride set an NFL record for receptions by a tight end in a season with 126. Brissett set a record for completions in a game with 47 against San Francisco last Nov. 16.

Honoring Fitz

Cardinals players wore red T-shirts with Larry Fitzgerald's No. 11 in warmups and on the sideline.

“It's a great feeling to know your organization stands behind you,” Fitzgerald said. “I'm really happy they would honor me like this.”

Up next

Panthers: At Buffalo on Aug. 15.

Cardinals: At Las Vegas on Aug. 13.

___

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

During a news conference, Sheriff Grady Judd announced that the incident stems back to Monday, when 27-year-old Angel Bowers was supposed to show up to court in a case where he was accused of having “unlawful sex with a minor.”

However, Bowers failed to appear, leading a warrant being issued for his arrest, Judd explained.

This led to the bondsman trying to contact Bowers at 3895 Chart Prine Road around 9 a.m. on Thursday, Judd said, though the sheriff explained that Bowers likely shouldn’t have been staying there as a condition of his release.

[RELATED: Watch the full news conference with Grady Judd below]

“He shouldn’t have been there because there are children at that residence,” Judd stated.

When the bondsman showed up to arrest Bowers, the door locked, leading to the bondsman notifying the sheriff’s office, Judd said.

Deputies responded to the property, but they received no response even after repeatedly knocking on the door, so they left.

“The bondsman, in the meantime, who has this huge bond at risk, works with the family. And quite frankly, some of the family cooperated,” Judd continued. “The girlfriend, according to the bondsman, called and talked to Angel this afternoon, and he said, ‘I’m staying in my tent in the woods.’”

Later, deputies reportedly tracked Bowers into the woods, though shortly after they arrived at the tent, a shootout occurred, the sheriff explained.

A SWAT team later raided the tent, finding Bowers dead with a firearm in his hand, according to Judd.

He added that no deputies were hurt in the shooting, though a K-9 Deputy “Ace” was shot and critically injured. Ace was then taken to a clinic for treatment.

“It was an arterial shot,” Judd said. “Our K-9 almost bled to death before we could get him medical care. We returned fire. We shot into the tent. Angel Bowers got exactly what he asked for.”

As of the time of briefing, Judd explained that Ace was being prepared for transport to receive advanced care in Lakewood Ranches.

“He’s going to be airlifted there,” Grady Judd said. “And the reason he can be airlifted there is because the Florida Legislature and Gov. DeSantis signed a law allowing our four-legged deputy sheriffs and police officers to receive the same quality and level of emergency care from the scene of an event in order to save their lives.”

No additional information has been provided about Ace’s status at this time.

Voters also picked a pair of Memphis-area lawmakers to square off in another vastly reconfigured U.S. House district. Trump-backed state Sen. Brent Taylor will face Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson, who gained national prominence when he was expelled from the Tennessee House for protesting in support of gun control measures and then reelected by voters.

The primaries provided the first test of a new U.S. House map that was redrawn in May by Republican state lawmakers after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. Trump cheered along the redistricting as part of a broader national plan to try to hold on to a slim House majority in the midterm elections.

Republicans already hold eight of the state’s nine congressional seats and will be going for a clean sweep of the districts in November.

The previously compact 9th Congressional District, based in Memphis, had a majority Black population and is represented by a Democrat. But it was cracked apart by Republicans this year, causing a ripple of changes that also reconfigured Ogles’ 5th District.

A Trump-endorsed candidate is defeated

Ogles, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, had faced controversies related to his campaign finances and his resume, among other things. But Trump gave him an early endorsement last fall — and praised him on Election Day as “a Conservative Warrior” — as Ogles sought a third term.

Ogles capitalized on a previous redistricting in the 2022 elections, winning a formerly Democratic-held seat that was reshaped to Republicans’ advantage by splitting the Nashville area among three districts.

The new 5th District stretches from Ogles’ base in central Tennessee to the northwest corner of the state before snaking south along the Mississippi River to Memphis — with 82% of its voters new, according to an Associated Press estimate.

Although he lacked Trump’s endorsement, Hatcher was backed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, under whom he served for seven years. Hatcher campaigned as pro-Trump while emphasizing his farming background.

“The message resonated, and the message was: Work like a farmer, get things done and serve others,” Hatcher told the AP after winning the primary.

Ogles' campaign declined to comment.

Ogles' controversies have included the FBI seizing his cellphone in 2024 as part of an investigation into his campaign finance reporting. The Justice Department recently agreed to return the device, signaling that it was abandoning the probe, which began under the Biden administration.

In 2023, Ogles acknowledged that he had graduated with a liberal studies degree from Middle Tennessee State University, saying he was “mistaken” for previously describing it as an international relations degree.

Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder won the Democratic primary in the 5th District.

Pearson and Taylor to face off in revamped Memphis district

The new 9th District stretches about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east from Memphis across rural areas before reaching north toward Nashville. It previously favored Democrats but now tilts Republican, with 71% of voters new to the district, according to an AP estimate.

After the redistricting, longtime Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen announced that he would no longer seek reelection.

Pearson noted to supporters Thursday night that it was 61 years ago to the day that the Voting Rights Act was signed. He said the Supreme Court and Tennessee lawmakers have effectively undone portions of it, leading to the redrawing of the formerly majority-Black district.

“The political dilution and degradation of our rights is happening,” Pearson said. But he added: “We’re one step closer to Washington, D.C.”

Taylor said in a statement to supporters that “Pearson is the face of the extreme left in this race — the same activist who has repeatedly put chaos over order.”

While Pearson opposed Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to address crime in Memphis last year, Taylor joined other Republicans in supporting it, calling it “an investment.”

Taylor also sponsored a 2024 law that required law enforcement agencies to communicate with federal immigration authorities if they discover people are in the country illegally.

Memphis voters voice dismay over redistricting

For decades Memphis, the most populous city in Shelby County, formed the base of its own congressional district. Now the county is split among three districts that extend outward like spokes into rural areas.

Lonzo Taylor, a retired postal worker and military veteran, said Black voters like himself have had their voices diluted.

“We only had one district in the whole state of Tennessee, and you don’t even want that to be fair? It’s just terrible,” said Taylor, 72. “I love this state, but I am very disappointed in our governor,” who called lawmakers into a special session for the redistricting.

Terrice Thomas, 45, an educator who votes for Democrats, had to learn a lot more about the candidates when she got switched from District 9 to District 8. She is concerned Memphis constituents could get overlooked.

“Is everybody going to have an equal say on what’s happening in their communities or even the people that you’re voting for?” Thomas said. “Are they going to really take into account the different areas and what makes us unique?”

Garrett wins Republican primary for open seat in the 6th District

Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose opted not to seek reelection in the 6th to run for governor instead. That created a contentious primary for the GOP-leaning district, which stretches east from Nashville.

State Rep. Johnny Garrett won a Republican contest that included Rose’s recent chief of staff, former U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary. Mike Croley won a five-way Democratic primary.

Republican voters pick Blackburn for governor

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn defeated Rose in the GOP primary to succeed Gov. Lee, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection. Memphis City Council member Jerri Green won for the Democrats.

Republicans have held the governor's office since 2011 and won every U.S. Senate election since 1994.

Sen. Bill Hagerty won the Republican primary without opposition and will face Marquita Bradshaw, who won the Democratic nomination, in November.

___

The story has been updated to correct the day of the primary election to Thursday, from Tuesday.

___

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. AP writer Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey, contributed.

“We were already calling around to funeral homes in our area just to see if they had vehicles that they would be able to lend us because I think everyone was pretty busy today,” Mendiola said.

The damaged vehicles have since been repaired, but Mendiola said the crime was costly and created immediate stress for staff trying to make sure families were still taken care of.

She credited Alex at Fire Tire for stepping in quickly to help get the vehicles back on the road.

“He answered the phone on the first ring. He was here in 10 minutes. He did it all himself and took care of everything for us really, really quickly,” she said.

Even with the repairs completed, Mendiola said she wishes whoever is responsible had handled the situation differently.

“It could’ve been a conversation… I really can’t think of who,” she said. “We didn’t have anyone disgruntled… so I just kind of wish that whatever it was, it could’ve been a phone call — a conversation in person — so that I could understand, because we always try to do the right things by families, even if they are upset.”

Her bigger concern now is safety.

“It worries me because I have employees coming and going throughout the night. It worries me for their safety,” Mendiola said.

Police are reviewing surveillance images and asking anyone who recognizes the suspect or has information to contact Titusville Police.

Titusville PD also tells News 6’s Ashley Garrett this case has potential to be treated as a felony.

Clark missed two free throws with seven seconds left in regulation and Indiana up by three, then lost the ball with seven seconds to go in overtime and the Fever a point ahead. Clark had 20 points and eight assists along with eight turnovers.

A’ja Wilson had 26 points, 13 rebounds and the key defensive stop against Clark that set up Gray’s winner. Jackie Young added 22 points, including a franchise-record 15 in a row to close the first half and open the second. Gray had 11 points, hitting three 3s.

Las Vegas overcame a 20-point first-half deficit, a three-point deficit at the end of regulation and a two-point deficit at the end of overtime to salvage a win in the three-game season series.

Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with 28 points, but missed a late free throw in regulation before Clark's misses. Aliyah Boston added 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Las Vegas erased its big deficit by closing the first half on a 15-0 run to cut a 42-22 deficit to 42-37. Young scored the final 13 points of the half, the first basket of the second half and five of the first seven points in the second half to give the Aces a 44-42 lead.

Indiana finally found its shooting touch midway through the fourth quarter.

It rallied from a 64-55 deficit with 6:16 left and led 75-72 when Gray hit the first of her two buzzer-beaters. Gray did it again in overtime knocking down a shot to erase an 86-84 deficit. Both plays withstood replay reviews.

The game was stopped for several minutes with 4:38 left in the third quarter when security escorted a woman, who was sitting in the front row directly across from the Aces bench, out through a tunnel. A few minutes later, she assisted back to her seat and two men who were seated near her were taken out.

The Fever issued a statement that said one fan was removed then elected not to return when it was determined the fan conduct policy had not been violated. Young told reporters someone had been “chirping" all night and at that point, she thought he had crossed the line. Young declined to elaborate on what was said.

Up next

Aces: At Minnesota on Saturday.

Fever: At Chicago on Saturday.

___

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

After the Rams held their final practice of camp Thursday, McVay said Donald's formal workout with the team went well at their regular training complex in Woodland Hills on Wednesday.

“He looked great, and he's still continuing to go through his process,” McVay said. “No new news on that front. ... We've had a plan in place for a while, and the workout was one of those things. (Calling it an official workout) was kind of semantical to be able to use the equipment and things like that under the (rules) of the CBA. He's very deliberate and intentional about what this looks like. I'm careful to say things are going in the right direction. He's feeling good, but we're not to where we're able to say he is or isn't ready to do it. But he's doing great, and he looked outstanding, as I think all of us would expect.”

McVay reiterated that the Rams will wait indefinitely for Donald's decision on whether to end his 2 1/2-year retirement. McVay also wouldn’t speculate on whether Donald would entertain the notion of returning to the Rams later in the regular season.

“He has earned the right to be able to say how he feels,” McVay said. “I saw (video of) the workout. I've been seeing the things that he's been doing. He and I probably talk every day, so it's one of those deals that if he wants to do it, we'd be excited about the possibility. And I think it's really important to acknowledge that if he doesn't, this guy gave this organization everything he had for 10 years. So if he is going to do it, he's going to do it the right way.”

Donald only began to entertain the notion of a comeback in early June after the Rams traded for Myles Garrett, and he has been working to get in football shape for several weeks. He has worked out at the Rams’ complex and at home while the team went through the past two weeks of training camp, which formally ends Friday.

___

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

The latest incident happened Tuesday in Port Orange, where a Flock camera was found cut down along Taylor Road.

Roberto Sabatino said he noticed the damaged camera while driving Tuesday morning and recorded a video that has since gone viral on social media.

“I think I had about 50 followers,” Sabatino said. “Since then, now I have 2,000 followers, and it’s up to 980,000 views.”

The video shows the camera lying in the grass near the roadway while a Port Orange police officer was at the scene.

“The pole is very recognizable if you pay attention to Flock at all,” Sabatino said. “It has that solar panel on it, so when I drove past, I was like, ‘Oh, someone cut a Flock down,’ because I know Flocks have been getting cut down.”

The Port Orange incident is one of several recent cases involving damaged license plate readers in Central Florida.

According to a Volusia Sheriff’s Office report, deputies responded July 20 to Bill Keller Park in DeBary after receiving a report that a Flock camera had been damaged. Investigators found the black camera and its pole lying on the ground. The criminal mischief report does not list any arrests.

Two days later, on July 22, sheriff’s dispatch records show deputies responded after a license plate reader in Osteen went offline. Investigators found the camera destroyed, with pieces scattered on the ground. Deputies reported the damage appeared to have been caused by a blunt object.

More recently, on July 31, the Clermont Police Department responded to reports of vandalized Flock cameras in the Ivey Ridge subdivision. Police said two camera poles had been intentionally cut in half, causing an estimated $10,000 in damage to the system.

The recent incidents come as Flock cameras continue to generate debate among residents. Supporters argue the automated license plate readers help law enforcement solve crimes and locate stolen vehicles, while critics say the technology raises privacy concerns.

Sabatino said opinions on his viral social media post reflect that divide.

“For the most part, most of the people that are commenting are against Flock cameras,” he said. “There are a few people that are for it. Everyone has their own point of view when it comes to that.”

News 6 reached out to the Port Orange Police Department for information about Tuesday’s incident, including whether any suspects have been identified, but had not received a response as of publication. The investigation remains ongoing.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they arrested Ángel Aguirre, Guerrero's former governor, on accusations of “concealing evidence to determine the whereabouts of the students" of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College.

The former governor, belonging to a party that gave rise to Mexico's ruling Morena party, is the highest-profile arrest in the case to date since the detention of former federal Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, who is facing criminal charges of forced disappearance, obstruction of justice and torture. Aguirre governed Guerrero from 2011 until he resigned in October 2014, one month after the students disappeared.

The disappearance of the students from the rural teacher’s college of Ayotzinapa after they commandeered several buses on their way to a protest shocked Mexico and the international community, and continues to fuel outrage as the truth of the case continues to trickle out nearly 12 years later.

According to Mexican authorities, a cartel in Guerrero state's city of Iguala attacked the students in collusion with security forces as well as local, state and federal authorities, including the military. Officials were presumably involved by taking part in the crime or concealing it.

Ernestina Godoy, the Attorney General of Mexico, stated that two testimonies gathered this year indicate that Aguirre not only requested that officials hand over the security camera footage from one of the locations of the attack that night but also ordered the destruction of any evidence related to the events.

“The Attorney General’s Office has evidence proving that this order to conceal the evidence was issued directly by the then-governor, with the participation of high-level state officials,” she said.

“Far from being an isolated act or a technical oversight, the concealment of the recordings was the result of a malicious operation, deliberately orchestrated from the highest levels of the State Executive Branch.”

Godoy did not explain why the testimonies of a collaborator and a protected witness, collected in January and May 2016 respectively, were obtained more than a decade after the events. She only indicated that when she arrived at the Attorney General’s Office at the end of last year, she began a “reanalysis” of the case with a “new investigative approach.”

Hours later, the Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, which represents the families, stated in a social media post that neither the students’ parents nor their attorneys had been notified of the arrest and that they were unaware of the charges. “If it is solid and in accordance with the law, the process that is beginning could help settle a debt of justice for the families,” the center said.

The current federal administration had committed to inform parents first of any developments, a key demand from families for years.

Clemente Rodríguez, the father of one of the students, recalled that from the beginning families asked for Aguirre to be investigated. “He has to tell everything he knows,” he told The Associated Press.

After three administrations, dozens of arrests and an investigation plagued by irregularities, key questions remain unanswered. Authorities believe the students were killed, but only bone fragments from three of them have been found, and the motive for the attack remains unclear, although it is believed to have been linked to heroin trafficking in buses to the U.S. operated by the local cartel in collusion with authorities.

On Sept. 26, 2014, students were attacked in a coordinated manner at various locations. In one instance, cameras recorded the moment when security forces stopped one of the buses outside the Palace of Justice, the seat of the courts, but initial official statements claimed that this footage did not exist. Now, the federal prosecutor’s office confirms what investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounced years ago: that these recordings were hidden or destroyed to conceal evidence.

The administration of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who served from 2018 to 2024, described the Ayotzinapa case as a “state crime.”

During President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, which began in October 2024, the president said that new lines of investigation were reopened, some of which, according to the prosecutor, have led to the arrest of the former governor.

On Aug. 6, Stetson introduced an emotional Gierke to a crowd of family and supporters on campus. Gierke, who spent over 20 years as an assistant college coach, admitted he wasn’t sure he would ever get a head coaching job. When Stetson made the offer, Gierke said it was “overwhelming” and he felt “a lot of emotion especially because it is home.”

The Apopka native served as an assistant at Stetson from 2021-2025, helping build some of the program’s most successful seasons. He knows the strong tradition of Hatter baseball built by former longtime coach and Stetson Hall of Famer Pete Dunn and enhanced recently by Trimper. The Hatters have made the NCAA Tournament nineteen times and have produced several Major League Baseball players.

“Honoring that tradition with our current players,” said Gierke, “is something that will be a daily mission for us.”

Knox, now 39, said Thursday in a post on Instagram that her show “honors Meredith Kercher’s memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me.”

The show is called “Cartwheel,” a reference to a story that claimed Knox did cartwheels in the police station after Kercher's death. The show debuts Friday evening and is due to run for 11 straight nights at the annual mish-mash of stand-up, theater and musical offerings in the Scottish capital.

The show is being marketed as a woman “approaching forty, juggling motherhood and finally getting around to being furious about the whole wrongful-imprisonment thing. Especially when half the world is telling her to get over it, while the other half still thinks she’s guilty.”

Knox was a 20-year-old student in Perugia when Kercher was found stabbed to death on Nov. 2, 2007, in her bedroom in the apartment they shared with two Italian women.

The case made global headlines as suspicion quickly fell on Knox and her boyfriend of just days, Raffaele Sollecito. She served nearly four years in prison during the investigation, initial murder trial and when she was freed by an appeals court in Perugia. The couple were acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

Another man, Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was eventually convicted of murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene. He was freed in 2021, after serving most of his 16-year sentence.

Knox returned to the United States in 2011, after being freed by the appeals court in Perugia, and has since established herself as a global campaigner for the wrongly convicted. She has a podcast with her husband and last year published a memoir titled, “Free: My Search for Meaning.”

Knox's post follows an interview that Meredith Kercher's sister, Stephanie Kercher, gave to the BBC during which she said the show “normalizes and trivializes violence against women.”

While insisting that Knox is “naturally free to continue with her life as she wishes,” she said “the problem with this particular project is that it is comedy.”

“It’s not about whether people think she’s guilty or innocent, if someone else was doing the show specifically against Meredith, I would still feel the same, it is obviously an added wound that it’s coming from her at the same time, but I do feel very strongly that it should be something that’s not given a platform,” she said.

An online petition calling for the show to be canceled has been launched and so far has more than 4,400 signatories. It states that the show “mocks the horrific events surrounding Meredith’s murder and aims to somehow turn this tragedy into entertainment.”

Knox said “a petition to cancel a show no one has seen, on the grounds of false accusations intended to shame and vilify a wronged woman into silence, is not an argument against Cartwheel.”

The Edinburgh Fringe, she added, “is the perfect place for a show like this.”

In an interview after his arrest, Aaron Farinacci said “fire is powerful, beautiful, and that things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth," Spokane County Detective Michael Drapeau wrote in a court filing Wednesday.

Farinacci, 37, is charged with starting the Old Trails fire, one of three blazes in the Spokane area that have burned more than 850 buildings, destroying whole neighborhoods and streets. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate and many still can't return home. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

Farinacci is also charged in connection with four smaller fires ignited in the summer of 2025 and last month.

He was scheduled to be arraigned on five first-degree arson charges Thursday, but his lawyer asked for a competency evaluation before he enters a plea. Spokane Superior Court Judge Jeremy Schmidt said he would review that request. He set bond for $2 million, ruling that Farinacci was a risk to community safety, a flight risk and that there was potential for a violent offense.

Defense attorney Colin Charbonneau did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Farinacci denied starting the Old Trails fire when police initially contacted him, but during an interview with Drapeau, he confessed to that fire as well as others last year and last month, the detective wrote. That led to the four additional arson charges.

He told the detective that he always carries marijuana or cigarettes so he would have a legitimate reason to have a lighter and matches.

“He knows arson is an easy crime to get away from if you have time, and he had time,” Drapeau said.

Farinacci researched the weather to predict a day that would be hot and windy and have low humidity for starting the Old Trails fire, Drapeau said. He also looked up the work of a well-known serial arsonist and purchased items to make a “time delay device” for igniting a wildfire, using notebook paper, matches, a cigarette and a rubber band, the detective said.

Farinacci picked Saturday, Aug. 1, to start the fire because he knew there would be strong winds — reaching 50 mph (80 kph), the detective said.

Farinacci said he knew it was going to get bad but claimed he didn’t intend for it to grow as much as it did, Drapeau said.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said Thursday that it’s going to be weeks before people can safely return to their homes in areas burned in the Spokane fires. The other two major blazes, the Autumn Lane and Fairview fires, were also started by people, though not necessarily deliberately, investigators have said.

Paul Child, 64, has been credited with leading police to Farinacci. He was driving with his grandson along some railroad tracks when he saw a man standing there and looking toward nearby trees. About 10 minutes later, the man was still there.

“He was bent over in the brush, acting nervous,” Child told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “You get the feeling this guy’s up to something.”

Drapeau said Farinacci also admitted responsibility for 25 fires near his apartment building in summer 2025. Most were near the Spokane River or the Centennial Trail.

Farinacci admitted to starting the Aubrey White fire that ignited on July 6, 2025, near the Centennial Trail and threatened homes and structures, the court filing said. It led to evacuations and road closures. An investigation determined it was caused by arson, but police didn't have any suspects at the time.

Farinacci also faces arson charges for the Meenach fire that started on July 8, 2025, the Fort George fire on Aug. 11, 2025, and the Indian Bluff fire on July 24, 2026.

Farinacci served about a decade in prison after killing his father in Mesa, Arizona, in 2010. He also shot himself. He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty in 2012 to manslaughter and aggravated assault. Farinacci’s lawyer repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health during the case.

Drapeau said Farinacci indicated that he moved to the Copper River Apartments in the Spokane area in October 2022.

The detective said Farinacci's son was born in 2025, and he started having difficulty dealing with “life issues” and began smoking marijuana.

__

Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden contributed to this story from Seattle.

The Mount Dora Police Department’s school-zone speed cameras are back for the new school year, and unlike last year, citations begin immediately. The cameras issue $100 citations to drivers caught speeding in designated school zones.

The cameras were installed last year near Triangle Elementary School, Round Lake Charter School and along Lincoln Avenue near Mount Dora Middle School. Police said the locations were chosen after a traffic study identified them as some of the city’s biggest hot spots for speeding and other traffic violations.

Corey Bowman, who lives near Triangle Elementary, said he has noticed a change since the cameras were installed.

“I know that it’s been a lot easier to get out of this road without having to worry about someone speeding down the road,” Bowman said.

Police said the cameras are intended to improve safety and help officers enforce speed limits in busy school areas.

“Everything’s layered in law enforcement and security,” said Jim Deleu, deputy chief of the Mount Dora Police Department. “So it’s basically considered a force multiplier. These cameras can do things that maybe 20 officers throughout the week couldn’t do.”

Last year, the city had a three-month warning period before citations were issued. After that period ended, more than 2,600 citations were mailed in December. By April, that number had dropped to just over 1,900, a 27% decrease that police said shows more drivers were slowing down.

Over the course of the school year, Deleu said more than 11,000 citations were mailed.

Some parents have questioned whether the cameras are accurate, but Deleu said the department verifies the information collected before citations are finalized.

“They are calibrated on a continual basis based on industry standards, to the point where we receive documents before there’s a magistrate hearing,” Deleu said.

Police said they hope the number of citations continues to decline this school year as more drivers follow the speed limit in school zones.

But when he arrived Tuesday at a mobile clinic in the West Bank village of Iktaba, pulling the tattered prescription from his pocket, a local aid group finally gave him the medication he needs.

Musleh, who has a pacemaker, is one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians struggling to get healthcare in the West Bank, where a report released Thursday by Physicians for Human Rights Israel warns that Israeli policies have pushed the territory's health system to the brink of collapse.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza began nearly three years ago, Israel has withheld billions of dollars of tax and customs revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, the government body that administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Without those funds, the PA has struggled to pay health workers, buy medications and support public hospitals, pharmacies and clinics, 75% of which have reduced operations and are functioning just once or twice a week.

At the same time, Israeli military raids and a surge in new checkpoints are also impeding the ability of Palestinians to get adequate medical care, with life-threatening consequences.

“If this continues, it is patients — not institutions — who will pay the price,” said Milena Ansari, PHRI's director of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Department, who wrote the report.

Israel has withheld at least $2.5 billion in revenues from the West Bank

Because Palestinians don't control their own borders, the PA relies on Israel to collect taxes on goods that enter the West Bank through Israeli ports. But rights groups for decades have accused Israel of weaponizing the funds as a means of political pressure.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stopped sending monthly clearance revenues to the PA last year and, as of June, Israel had cumulatively withheld at least $2.5 billion from the PA since 2023, according to the International Crisis Group.

Smotrich's office and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.

In an interview with the AP, Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan said that unpaid staff aren't showing up to work, creating a backlog of cases and delaying routine surgeries. Earlier this year, Palestinian doctors went on strike and some primary healthcare centers closed.

Some of the most impacted are those with cancer, kidney and heart problems, older people and those who have been displaced, health officials said.

At PHRI's mobile clinic in Iktaba, hundreds of people streamed in seeking treatment.

Mohammed Sarris said it's been weeks since he's been able to get the eye drops he needs for irritation caused by his diabetes.

The 64-year-old has been relying on the mobile clinic since he was forced from his home last year in the Nur Shams refugee camp, where he had easier access to healthcare provided by UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.

A retired government worker, he earns a meager pension, often rationing medicine so he can afford food.

"It's degrading. ... All of this has affected us a lot,” he said.

The UN and other aid agencies say more patients are coming to their clinics

Physicians for Human Rights Israel said the number of patients at its mobile clinics has doubled in the last two years, from about 250 a day to around 500.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA's West Bank director, said there's been a marked increase in patients at its health centers across the territory. The agency is trying to bridge the gap, but lacks funds to scale up health services and faces Israeli restrictions on imports of medications, he said.

Earlier this year, Israel revoked the licenses of more than three dozen humanitarian organizations, among them Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF.

Last year, MSF had 12 mobile clinics operating in the South Hebron Hills. But because they could no longer coordinate their movements with the Israeli military, the group reduced the number of clinics it runs by half, impacting more than 40,000 people, said Joan Tubau, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

More Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks prevent Palestinians from accessing care

The lack of medicine, staff shortages and reduced services are being compounded by harsher Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement in the West Bank.

In recent years, the military has erected new barriers, checkpoints and roadblocks, closing off towns and cities, sometimes with little warning.

In July, at least two women gave birth in ambulances because checkpoints were closed, said Aseel Baidoun, deputy director of advocacy and campaigns for Medical Aid for Palestinians, or MAP, an international organization. One of the babies was stillborn.

She said three others also died trying to get to hospitals this year, including two more infants and a 30-year-old woman who died of a heart attack after an ambulance was stopped at a checkpoint near Sinjil, outside Ramallah.

The Israeli military has denied that it prevents medical treatment for civilians and said there is no intention to delay treatment or medical evacuations.

In response to questions about the stillborn infant, who was delivered in an ambulance near Nablus, the army said the emergency vehicle hadn’t completed “required coordination” prior to arriving at the checkpoint. It said the military conducted a security check, which only lasted a few minutes.

Dr. Leen Ibrahim, who works with MAP, said one of the consequences of this crisis is the impact on mental health.

“People here feel suffocated by everything they’re going through," she said.

At the clinic Tuesday, some Palestinians broke down waiting for hours to be seen.

“The line is so long,” said Asala Wawi, 65, wiping tears from her face as she got her eyes checked. “I'm tired."

———-

Associated Press journalists Jalal Bwaitel in Ramallah, West Bank, and Koral Saeed in Herzliya, Israel, contributed.

The possible change comes after Florida passed the Boaters Freedom Act last year. The law prevents local governments from banning boats based on the type of fuel or energy they use.

Residents who live around Lake Gracie said the state law is unfair and frustrating, especially because they believe the existing ordinance has helped preserve the lake for two decades.

“It’s a private lake,” Eustis resident Harry Crook said. “Now you get Tallahassee telling us how to run our lake. And we’ve been doing a pretty good job of it.”

Lake Gracie is not the only waterway affected. The new law also impacts the Pine Meadows Conservation Area in Eustis, Lake Elsie in Tavares, and Lake Yale and Blue Lake in Lake County, along with other waterways across Central Florida.

Dennis Kirst, a Eustis resident who helped push for the Lake Gracie ban in 2003, said the ordinance was created after a resident put a jet ski on the lake, causing noise and disruption.

“It was just creating chaos out there with the noise,” Kirst said.

Since then, residents said they have worked to restore the lake by clearing cattails, improving water quality and protecting wildlife. They worry allowing gas-powered boats again could harm those efforts.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for the size of the lake,” Kirst said. “Plus the fact that it’s basically a wildlife sanctuary.”

Residents also raised concerns about noise and the potential impact of larger engines on the lake.

“Having an unlimited-size engine on the lake would impact water quality,” Kirst said. “But the noise it would generate would disrupt the tranquility of the lake that we have now.”

Kirst and other residents plan to attend the Eustis City Council meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday to share their concerns before city leaders make a decision.

Four other soldiers were seriously wounded, the military said. An Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with the army's policy, said that “an explosion was detonated” when the soldiers entered a site in the village of Majdal Zoun and that the nature of the explosive was under review.

Israeli media reported the two deaths a day earlier.

The Israeli army launched strikes Wednesday in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire and called on residents of the village of Mansouri to flee — the first such warning Israel has issued in Lebanon for weeks.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said one person was killed and 12 wounded in an Israeli strike in the town of Tebnine Wednesday and another eight wounded in overnight strikes on the village of Burj al-Shemali. Artillery shelling also targeted the areas of Mansouri and Majdal Zoun, the state-run National News Agency said.

There was no statement from the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets across the border two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their attacks on Iran. More than 4,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since then, including hundreds of civilians. About 40 soldiers and three civilians — including a military contractor — have been killed on the Israeli side.

A precarious truce between Israel and Hezbollah has largely held since June 20, but Israeli forces have continued to occupy swaths of southern Lebanon and to carry out periodic airstrikes and shelling.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL said it had recorded 113 projectiles launched by the Israeli military on Wednesday, the highest number recorded since June 21.

The latest escalation came as Lebanese and Israeli negotiators met in Rome to discuss implementation of a June 26 deal reached between Israel and the Lebanese government under which Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw from areas they occupy in southern Lebanon and allow the Lebanese army to take control, in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Hezbollah has refused to disarm and opposed the direct Lebanon-Israel talks. It was not a party to the deal. The group has accused the Lebanese government of making too many concessions without guaranteeing an Israeli withdrawal.

Wednesday’s talks ended early due to the escalation on the ground, but resumed on Thursday.

The talks in Rome have focused on implementation of “pilot zones” where Israeli forces would withdraw and the Lebanese army would take control. Implementation began last month with an initial pilot zone in an area that wasn’t occupied by Israeli forces but had previously sustained Israeli fire.

The Lebanese army entered the town of Zawtar al-Gharbieh and some civilians returned, although many came only to find their homes destroyed and left again.

A diplomat familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly said earlier this week that Lebanon had asked for the next pilot zone to be either in the town of Khiam or Bint Jbeil. Both areas saw heavy fighting in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war and are currently occupied by Israeli forces.

But U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa suggested ahead of the three-day talks that no new pilot zones would be immediately implemented, saying that “moving too quickly risks jeopardizing the very civilians this process is meant to protect.”

___

Saeed reported from Herzliya, Israel. Associated Press writer Maria Grazia Murru in Rome contributed to this report.

Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federally funded preschool program, said the proposed changes would encourage more local decision-making. But the proposal has sparked alarm across the Head Start community, where advocates say it threatens the backbone of the antipoverty initiative. Head Start centers serve around 700,000 of the nation’s most vulnerable children, including those who are homeless, in foster care or disabled.

The Associated Press previously reported on the proposed rule, which became public Thursday when it was posted online. Americans have 60 days to weigh in before it goes into effect, though it could face legal challenges that might delay implementation.

Alex J. Adams, an assistant secretary at Health and Human Services, said the department is hoping to give Head Start centers flexibility to change the way they operate by eliminating most of the program's regulations, such as standards for low staff-to-student ratios.

"Federal mandates can certainly hinder local decision-making, drive up costs and limit the program’s reach,” Adams said on a call with reporters.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy spoke reverently about Head Start, which was started by his uncle Sargent Shriver under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

“It’s a program that works for the most vulnerable of the poorest kids in our society, and it’s really important we protect it,” Kennedy said.

But the changes would undermine many of the things that make Head Start distinct from other early education programs, according to current and former Head Start leaders.

“This version of Head Start is a shell of the program,” said Khari Garvin, who oversaw Head Start under Democratic President Joe Biden. “This is a deeply diluted version of the program, which, in my view, will cause child and community outcomes to wane.”

What makes Head Start different

Head Start is governed by more than 100 pages of regulations. They require centers to have low staff-to-student ratios, a research-backed curriculum and bevvy of wraparound services for kids in poverty, including medical and dental screenings.

The Trump administration wants to toss out nearly all of that rule book, erasing some 1,400 regulations. Instead, Head Start’s operators — which include nonprofits and school districts — would look to state and local childcare licensing requirements for guidance, including on matters of child safety and class sizes. The proposal also scraps detailed requirements on preventing lead exposure in Head Start facilities.

Other aspects of the program would be scrapped entirely. Family engagement requirements, which mandated that staff meet with parents to help them set and achieve goals, would be erased. So would deadlines for providing health and developmental screenings. Gone, too, is a mandate that children brush their teeth at school.

But parents say these comprehensive services are what made the difference in their lives — and the lives of their children. Lori Pittman, an advocate from Washington state, said her family was in crisis when she enrolled her son in Head Start, with a husband struggling with substance abuse. Head Start staff encouraged her to go back to school and eventually employed her. She credits the preschool with helping her family escape poverty.

“I was given the opportunity, while my child was in Head Start, to learn about leadership, to go back to school,” Pittman said. “I know Head Start works.”

The proposal was cheered by conservatives, who believe Head Start should be shuttered because it should be states — not the federal government — overseeing preschools.

“If the goal here is to make it more efficient for taxpayers, then the type of regulatory changes they’re thinking of here are good steps,” said Jonathan Butcher of the Heritage Foundation.

While the proposed rules largely loosen requirements, Adams emphasized centers have the option to continue to operate as they had in the past. He estimates deregulation could save the program more than $2 billion, money that could be reinvested back in to the program to create more than 200,000 new slots. That savings would be driven in part by cutting staff, including teachers, and allowing class sizes to rise, the Trump administration says.

But Head Start advocates are skeptical the changes could help grow the program. Head Start enrollment has been declining for a decade, in part because of rising costs that have outpaced federal funding, forcing programs to scale back the number of children they serve. Staff shortages have also contributed, and they aren't likely to improve if programs start asking teachers to supervise more students.

Advocates also worry financial pressures will force programs to forgo aspects of the program that would become optional under the Trump administration rules.

“They're saying they're going to serve all these other kids,” said Jenny Mauer, head of the Wisconsin Head Start Association. “What are you going to lose to do that, to serve more children without more money?”

Alongside the deregulation, the proposal would add some new requirements. Staffers would have to deliver all instruction in English, except in tribal communities that run immersion programs in native languages. There would be a 5% cap on administrative expenses, down from 15%. The proposal also includes a requirement for 30 minutes of physical activity — outside if the weather permits — for every three and a half hours of the program. New nutrition standards, championed by Kennedy, would require programs to provide more nutrition education for families, including warning them of “the negative health consequences of sugar-sweetened beverages and grain-based desserts.”

State rules are more lenient

Overall, experts emphasize, state childcare licensing requirements are far more lax than Head Start's current regulations. State rules are largely focused on ensuring children are healthy and safe. They generally do not require centers to provide things like medical screenings, they don't specify ways to engage with parents, and they don't speak to what — if anything — should be taught in childcare settings.

Shantel Meek, who heads the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University, co-authored an analysis that compared state licensing requirements with Head Start standards and found massive gaps.

“Whereas licensing is, like, the bare minimum to keep kids safe, Head Start includes keeping kids safe but also ensuring that kids are developing, growing, learning well,” Meek said. “It’s a totally different purpose.”

Critically, states allow adults to care for far more children than is allowed under Head Start standards. If the proposal goes through, about 80% of Head Start students would have worse staff-to-student ratios, Meek's analysis found. In Mississippi, for example, one Head Start teacher is only allowed to teach up to four 2-year-olds. State childcare regulations would permit up to a dozen 2-year-olds to be supervised by one adult.

Head Start, which operates in all 50 states, has long had support from Democrats and Republicans. But it has faced repeated threats under the Trump administration. Not long after Trump, a Republican, took office again in early 2025, some Head Start programs had to briefly shutter because they had problems accessing their federal money. Later, a budget draft eliminated Head Start’s funding, but it was restored after widespread backlash.

___

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

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said in a ruling late Thursday that the bulk of the money — $420 million — will be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years.

The new penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

The total amount Meta is responsible for — $942 million — is a small fraction of of its annual profit, which was about $60 billion in 2025. Investors seemed to shrug off the New Mexico ruling in after-hours trading Thursday, sending Meta’s stock down less than half a percent to $589.44.

Still, the ruling is another setback for Meta, which faces an avalanche of lawsuits from thousands of families of children harmed by social media.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said it sends an unmistakable message that companies will be held accountable when their product designs knowingly put children at risk.

“Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online,” he said in a statement.

Meta vowed to appeal.

“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content," the company said in a statement. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

The look of Meta's platforms could change

The judge ordered Facebook and Instagram to build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices and tools to address inappropriate comment, for example, and display them regularly. Those changes and an educational campaign in New Mexico would be subject to review by the state.

The court said federal children’s privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, means it cannot order Meta to request children to submit personal data or be passively tracked online, even for age verification purposes.

The court also noted that ordering verification of children’s ages only for Meta and not other social media companies would be “inequitable and unduly injurious” to the company.

Instead, the court ordered Meta to continue to improve its age assurance tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people’s age based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume. Meta must also attempt to develop a dedicated “under-13-years-of-age prediction model” in the next two years.

Additionally, Meta should also request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If it determines a user to be under 13, or under 18 but without being able to estimate a specific age, Meta must treat the user as under 13 or under 18 until the user verifies their age.

The company must also partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13. And it must delete personal information it has collected on users under 13. The court also ordered Meta to report on its progress twice a year on how it’s complying with the abatement measures.

Meta is gearing up for a trial this month in California amid flood of lawsuits

Meta is also gearing up for a trial later this month in federal court in Oakland, California. Here, Meta will face the first four of 29 states that sued it in a federal multi-district lawsuit filed in 2023 for contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.

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

And late last month, Meta, along with TikTok, Snap and Google’s YouTube, were sued by the families of four teenagers who died by suicide over what they describe as “years of escalating harms” from using their platforms that eventually resulted in their deaths.

What comes out of New Mexico is the first of many dominoes that will fall for Meta, said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University focusing on social media and cybersecurity.

“America is not going to pass a law that bans social media," Edelson said. "But if companies like Meta know they’re causing harm to users by product design, the states are finally finding a way to rein this in.”

____

This story has been updated to correct the judge's last name to Biedscheid, not Biedcheid. ___

Ortutay reported from Oakland, California, and Yu from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix contributed. Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

These records show that the reported eateries experienced violations like rodent droppings, roaches, and storage issues, among others.

That said, all of the Central Florida eateries that were forced to close down last week were eventually able to reopen after meeting health standards.

The full list of Central Florida eateries required to close last week is as follows:

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS

• Chef Nina and Co. — 1146 W. State Road 436
• • Closed on July 30
  • • Forty rodent droppings found on premises
  • Met inspection standards on July 31

DAYTONA BEACH

• Mama Kitchen — 2200 W. International Speedway Blvd.
• • Closed on July 30
  • • Over 20 dead roaches found on premises
    • Six live roaches found on premises
    • Two flying insects found beneath three-compartment sink
    • Operating with an expired Division of Hotels and Restaurants license
    • Dried mushrooms stored on sanitizer
    • Purple chemical stored with paper towels
  • Met inspection standards on July 31

HAINES CITY

• Taqueria Don Gonzalo — 103 US Highway 17 92 N.
• • Closed on July 29
  • • Nine dead roaches found on premises
    • Eleven live roaches found on premises
    • Nine roach egg casings found beneath handwash sink
    • Washed and cut bell peppers stored in nonfood-grade bag
  • Met inspection standards on July 29

OCALA

• Healthy Hub — 1821 NW 21 Ave.
• • Closed on July 30
  • • Over a dozen dead roaches found on premises
    • Over 20 live roaches found on premises
    • Several egg sacs found inside tracks on bottom of reach-in make table
  • Met inspection standards on July 31

SANFORD

• Mel’s Family Diner — 3221 S. Orlando Drive
• • Closed on July 29
  • • Thirteen rodent droppings found beneath prep tables
    • Over 30 rodent droppings found beneath prep sink
  • Met inspection standards on July 30

ST. PETERSBURG

• Hungry Howie’s — 5570 N. 4 Street
• • Closed on July 27
  • • Around 60 rodent droppings found on premises
    • Two flies found in dry storage areas
    • Time/temperature violations for shredded cheddar cheese; lettuce; sausage; and shredded ham
  • Met inspection standards on July 29

Nearly half of the Team USA athletes who competed in Italy came to the East Room reception, according to the White House, along with coaches, staff, and other representatives.

Among those attending was speedskater Jordan Stolz, whom Trump said was the single most-decorated American Olympian of the 2026 Games while marveling at his “very strong legs.” Stolz, during a rally with the president in Wisconsin earlier this summer, briefly placed a gold medal around Trump's neck.

“Today, we’re truly honored to welcome to the White House perhaps the greatest group of Winter Olympians in American history,” Trump said, as athletes in USA windbreakers filled rows of risers behind him.

They gave Trump a Team USA jacket and sneakers, and the president promised to hand out special coins and invited attendees to a post-event tour of the Oval Office.

Three hundred U.S. athletes participated in this year’s Winter Olympics and Paralympics, winning 57 medals in total. Thursday's event was originally scheduled to be held in the stone patio area that Trump had built near the Rose Garden, but was moved indoors as heavy evening rains fell.

“These men and women sacrificed years of their lives and countless early mornings to be the best in the world,” Trump said.

Then, apparently recalling himself as a one-time athlete, the president added, “That’s right. I guess you get up early in the morning, don’t you? I remember those days. But I didn’t do it as well as you. Not quite.”

Trump also asked who was already training for the next Olympics and most the athletes raised their hands. He noted that the 2034 Winter Olympics will be held in Salt Lake City and that Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Summer Games.

The Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. men’s hockey team visited Trump at the White House in February and later received about a two-minute bipartisan standing ovation during his State of the Union address that night. Members of the gold-medal-winning U.S. women's hockey team declined an invitation to attend the speech, citing previously scheduled academic and personal commitments.

Trump said at the time that the women's hockey team would be honored at a later date, and two of its members, Abbey Murphy and Joy Dunne, attended Thursday's celebration and got shout-outs from Trump. He also spoke at length about the men's team, even though its members didn't make a return to the White House trip.

In a video posted earlier Thursday on social media, ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik indicated that they did not want to come to the White House.

Trump stayed mostly focused on the Olympics and not politics in his remarks, though he told those assembled, “We’ve done a lot to help save women’s sports,” drawing only a muted reaction from some athletes. At his “Make America Great Again” rallies, Trump often gets cheers for declaring his opposition to transgender rights.

Trump also said Thursday that we’re “saving college sports” and called on Congress to pass legislation overhauling the way such sports are governed, promising to sign it.

“We’re doing everything we can to protect the cherished sporting traditions that have long been part of our nation from the beginning,” the president said.

Durian lovers prize the Malaysian premium varieties such as Musang King and Black Thorn, but their growers face a harsher reality. Climate change, caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal, is making it costlier for growers like Chow to produce quality durians, adding pressure as they compete with Thailand and Vietnam, which dominate a booming export market to China.

Extreme weather has dealt repeated blows to Chow’s orchard, which is in Karak, a small town about an hour drive from Kuala Lumpur. In 2021, heavy rainfall triggered flooding that damaged about 100 of his durian trees and his machinery. Over the following three years, persistent rain during flowering season caused pollination failure, cutting into his yield. And now, Chow is facing other challenges.

“Breaking even would already be very good. Most likely there’ll be a loss this year,” Chow said.

Between February and April, afternoon temperatures hit 33 to 35 degrees Celsius (91 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit), and rain fell mostly at night, he said. Such weather favored flowering, and Chow responded by pruning to prevent deformed or small fruit while stepping up watering and fertilization because of the heat. A rise in fuel and fertilizer prices because of the Iran war, however, meant those extra efforts came at a higher cost.

An oversupply of durians in Malaysia — driven by hot and dry weather and more orchards reaching maturity — also pushed prices down. Grade A Musang King durians from his orchard sold for the equivalent of $8.6 per kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) in local currency in early July, about half compared to the same period last year and roughly one-third of the peak price in 2024.

China's love for durians fueled boom

Durians' overpowering smell is fragrant to those who love it and foul to those who don't. Beneath a spiky shell, their flesh offers a rich, creamy texture with varying flavors. Some taste like sweet custard with fruity flourishes, others carry a hint of bitterness, an alcohol tinge or even a peanut butter-like flavor.

Official data showed Malaysia's durian crop covered 92,100 hectares (227,600 acres) in 2024, up almost 40% from 2016, a size even larger than the total land area of Singapore, the city-state island just south of Malaysia. During that period, Malaysia's production grew nearly 90% to 568,800 tonnes.

The boom was fueled by China beginning to import whole frozen Malaysian durians in 2019. Fresh durians followed in 2024, as Beijing expanded what has been dubbed “durian diplomacy” by welcoming more Southeast Asian countries to export the fruit.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said China procured about 95% of global durian exports between 2020 and 2022. It imported 1.87 million tonnes of fresh durians worth $7.5 billion in 2025, with the volume jumping six times in the past decade, according to China's customs data.

Consumers there can find the fruit in supermarkets, grocery stores and durian specialty shops. Shanghai resident Song Xiaohua, in her 30s, said she would eat durians once a week instead of once a month if it weren’t for the high calorie count. To her, durians taste creamy and are like both fruit and dessert.

“It feels like celebrating Lunar New Year every time I have a durian,” Song said.

Malaysia lags far behind Thailand and Vietnam in exports to China. But the Malaysian industry touts its durians as higher quality. Unlike their counterparts, Malaysian growers typically do not harvest early, instead collecting only naturally ripened fruit.

Delivering quality durians requires resilience

As global average temperatures rise, extreme weather events like heat waves, floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and intense worldwide, often forcing farmers to scramble to adapt.

Peninsular Malaysia recorded a significant jump in average temperature from 1969 to 2025, with an increase of 0.24 degrees Celsius (about 0.43 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, according to the country's meteorological department.

Ooi Teik Hock, whose orchard in Perak state is near the border with Thailand, said there were fewer fruit quality problems when temperatures were lower two decades ago. Concerned about the heat, he moved his orchard from the plains to the highlands about 10 years ago, where nights are cooler and air is more humid.

Still, global warming remains a threat, fueling the proliferation of once-rare pests and forcing Ooi to use pesticides more frequently, which he said have jumped some 30% in price from three years ago.

For the first time, Ooi didn't see fruit bats, a main pollinator, at his orchard during this year's flowering season. He said it could be a result of extreme heat or the widespread use of pesticides for pest and disease control.

The weather changes also affect overall quality, especially for the Musang King variety, which is sensitive to weather conditions, said Lim Chin Khee, an adviser to the Durian Academy, which trains durian growers in Malaysia.

Too much rain during the fruit's rapid development period can cause white and grayish patches on golden yellow flesh, while water shortages during that time can cause some black spots around the flesh, he said.

Some growers turn to technology

With expectations that El Nino, a periodic warming of Pacific Ocean that leads to warmer temperatures, could bring Malaysia record-high temperatures between March and May, Lim advised farmers to expand water reservoirs or prepare to install tube wells as a backup if their ponds dried up.

He said producing good fruit depends equally on the weather and the farmer’s effort. Extreme weather events would reduce supply while simultaneously driving up prices, he said.

“So for those farmers (who) are well prepared, actually when any disaster strikes, that is an opportunity,” he said.

Grower Kie Kim Hwa learned how to farm durians from his grandfather at a young age. When he took charge of the orchard in Penang Island off Malaysia's western coast, he chose to do things slightly differently than previous generations.

He installed sensors and instruments to track rainfall, humidity and wind speed, among other data, which was sent to a cloud drive for him to review anywhere and keep a record. Some were placed among the trees and grass, and others deep in the soil. Not everything required high technology: he also checked the surface of a bucket of water for insects to gauge pest levels.

The data allowed Kie to intervene early before problems arose and ultimately control fruit quality and quantity to match market demand.

“We live and die by the weather,” he said. “But we can still prepare.”

___

Associated Press writer Fu Ting in Washington contributed to this report.

___

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.

Towle was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, an aggressive form of cancer in the bile ducts, in August 2023. Her mother, Elizabeth Morrow, and brother, Austin Towle, posted a video to her TikTok account confirming she died Wednesday.

“Syd went peacefully last night after an almost three-year long battle with cholangiocarcinoma,” her brother said. “She fought really hard, and we’re so proud of her, and we thank all of you for your support over the years.” Towle's mother said they appreciated the messages of support and that “she will not be forgotten.”

Her family described her as “an endless ray of sunshine” and a friend to many. Sydney Elizabeth Towle was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on Nov. 15, 1999, and grew up in Hobe Sound, Florida, according to the New York Times. The newspaper reported that she died at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

At the time of her diagnosis, Towle already had a presence on social media where she shared videos from her everyday life. She often posted from the beach and loved the outdoors. She was an avid surfer and runner.

Once she received the diagnosis at age 23, she began posting her unvarnished reality of the disease and treatment while holding fast to her hobbies, style and positive attitude. She had over 1 million followers on TikTok alone.

In a video posted days after she was diagnosed, Towle said, “I’m in good spirits, I’m smiling. If anything, it just makes me appreciate life more.” That essentially became the ethos that guided her online presence, where she shared videos of herself running, going out with friends and traveling alongside videos from a hospital bed or at chemotherapy appointments.

In a column this year advocating for increased funding for research of the rare disease, Towle’s mother wrote that she had seen her daughter become “a beacon of hope for so many” through her candid online presence. “Thousands of people send her messages, stop her on the street and leave comments on her videos, describing how her vulnerability has helped them through their own struggles,” Morrow wrote in February.

Towle graduated from Dartmouth College in 2022, where she studied government and environmental studies. She worked as a social media manager at Epic Games.

She had posted on her LinkedIn account about plans to run the 2026 New York City Marathon in November to raise money for the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. She had raised more than $10,000 for the nonprofit that advocates for research and provides patients and caregivers with resources.

“I know it might seem crazy to try to run a marathon with everything going on,” she wrote on the platform months ago. But she noted the importance of hope in her experience with the disease. “Hope keeps us alive, it keeps us going, it makes the impossible seem possible.”

Towle is survived by her mother and brother. Her father, Philip Towle, died in 2016.

The addition of Barnett III could be the ultimate game-changer. A year after the Knights went 5-7 with four different quarterbacks seeing playing time, Barnett III comes to Orlando with considerable success and confidence under his belt.

He helped lead the Dukes to a spot in the College Football Playoff this past season, and brings immediate stability to the most critical position on the field.

Barnett’s addition to a more mature roster was a major talking point of the Knights’ media day on Thursday.

Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times at the hearing.

Also, Iran said Wednesday it's in the “final stage” of drafting an agreement with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, and U.S. President Donald Trump has said a deal could be announced this week. The agreement is likely to be contingent on the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports.

Here's the latest:

Trump honors Winter Olympians and Paralympians at White House

Nearly half of the Team USA athletes who competed in Italy attended the reception in the East Room, according to the White House, along with coaches, staff, and other representatives.

Among those attending was speedskater Jordan Stolz who, during a Trump rally in Wisconsin earlier this summer, briefly placed his gold medal around the president’s neck.

“Today we’re truly honored to welcome to the White House perhaps the greatest group of Winter Olympians in American history,” Trump said.

Two of the athletes presented Trump with a Team USA jacket and sneakers, and he gave them special coins and invited them to join him in the Oval Office.

Judge dismisses Reflecting Pool case against ex-Olympian

The former athlete, David Hearn, had been charged with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which had turned an algae green after renovations were made to keep it a deep blue.

But last week, the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case against Hearn, saying that newly received evidence suggested that a “rushed and botched installation” was the likely culprit, and not vandalism.

Hearn’s attorneys also asked for the dismissal, but retorted that evidence that the flaw was the installation was “readily available” all along.

Judge Todd Edelman dismissed the case on Thursday.

Trump says some US munitions supplies are ‘a little bit tighter’

The president was asked by a reporter why his administration’s budget request includes $21 million for munitions stockpiles while disputing on social media reports of munitions shortages.

Trump said, “We need more all the time” and said there are some types of munitions of which the U.S. has a “virtually unlimited supply.”

But, he said, “We have others where it’s a little bit tighter.”

He did not specify which.

Trump won’t say whether Rep. Max Miller should step aside

Trump is declining to say whether Rep. Max Miller of Ohio should withdraw his reelection bid following domestic abuse allegations leveled against him by his ex-wife.

Trump was asked about the embattled Republican congressman while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office at a Thursday signing event.

“Well, I’m not going to get involved in that,” Trump said. He echoed his earlier comments, calling it a “very sad situation.” Miller was a senior adviser to Trump during the president’s first term.

Miller’s ex-wife is the daughter of Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, who has said Miller should not be serving in the House. Ohio’s other Republican senator, Jon Husted, on Thursday called for Miller to resign and not seek reelection.

Under Ohio law, Miller would need to withdraw by Saturday to allow enough time for the replacement process to play out before the 4 p.m. Monday deadline.

Trump says the Strait of Hormuz is ‘sort of open’

Asked if a deal has been reached with Iran to reopen the vital waterway, Trump said he didn’t want to say.

“It has been sort of open right now,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump signs immigration orders on ‘birthright citizenship’

The president says he’s signing two executive actions on immigration.

Trump signed an executive action that he says will limit the number of people eligible for U.S. citizenship after being born in the United States.

A second order seeks to curb what Trump called “birth tourism” by increasing restrictions on visitors to the U.S. obtaining visas if they want to give birth while in the country.

Details weren’t provided, but Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional.

In June, the Supreme Court upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump’s previous efforts to declare that children born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily aren’t American citizens.

Trump says it’s way too early to think about endorsing Vance in 2028

The president told reporters at the White House that he heard about a report in the Washington Post on Thursday that he has privately told donors they need to back Vance for president in 2028.

Trump didn’t deny the report but said, “No, no,” when asked if that was his official endorsement of his vice president.

“I think he’s great, but we’re way too early to even be thinking about that,” Trump said.

Trump says he’s taking action to boost US polysilicon industry

Trump says he’s ready to impose tariffs and minimum prices on imports of polysilicon to help increase domestic production of the material.

Polysilicon is important to the chip-making industry and to manufacturing solar panels.

Trump discussed his plan during an appearance in the Oval Office but didn’t immediately provide details.

Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio says Rep. Max Miller should leave House and fall campaign

Sen. Jon Husted is calling on Rep. Max Miller of Ohio to resign his House seat and abandon his fall reelection bid.

Husted’s comments on the social platform X on Thursday pile onto pressure from Ohio’s senior senator, Republican Bernie Moreno, Miller’s former father-in-law, who Sunday said Miller is unfit to serve.

Miller is facing a congressional ethics investigation related to domestic abuse allegations leveled against him by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, but is insisting he won’t withdraw.

Miller has vigorously defended himself against the allegations made in a custody fight over their 2-year-old daughter.

Husted said stepping aside as a candidate and legislator is in the best interest of the child.

Miller’s determination to push ahead comes as a Monday deadline looms for replacing him on the November ballot should he change his mind. The second-term congressman’s actions in a parade of public appearances — beginning with a livestream from his X account on Sunday — are heightening concerns among Republicans that his reelection chances are vanishing.

Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

▶ Read more

Sen. Mitch McConnell says he’s been discharged from rehabilitation center

The Kentucky Republican and former Senate leader was first admitted to the hospital on June 14. He disclosed weeks later that his hospitalization was the result of a fall and said he was undergoing physical therapy.

McConnell in a statement Thursday, gave no specific date for his return to the Senate.

“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business,” McConnell said.

McConnell’s absence was felt in the Senate as Republicans were unable on Thursday to advance a farm bill out of committee without his vote.

Last week, Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear urged McConnell to either prove that he is fit to continue serving in office or resign.

Brazil’s president to call Trump after his ambassador to Washington had visa revoked

Two days after the U.S. government revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador in Washington, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said late Wednesday he intends to call Trump.

Lula’s comments came during a podcast in which he discussed the war in Ukraine and the United Nations’ inaction. In the same interview, he said the latest move by the U.S. government against his administration is “irresponsible.”

“Last week, I called (Chinese President) Xi Jinping to speak about the need for the (U.N.) Security Council to meet. Yesterday (Tuesday), I spoke with my friend (Russian President Vladimir) Putin so they would meet, and I am going to speak with Trump as well,” said Lula, who is bidding for reelection in October.

The Trump administration revoked the visa of ambassador Maria Luiza Viotti in retaliation for Brazil’s denial of visas last month for two American diplomats who sought to visit ahead of the elections.

Trump administration will buy back company’s offshore wind leases off 3 states in $1.2B deal

An offshore wind company says it’s reached a $1.2 billion deal with the Trump administration to walk away from projects under development off New York, California and Louisiana.

RWE U.S. Offshore says its leases represented years of planning, investment and partnership with federal agencies.

But the company determined there was no path forward to permit the projects for the foreseeable future. In exchange for $1.22 billion, RWE is relinquishing the wind power leases.

The president often talks about his hatred of wind power. His administration has been buying back offshore wind leases to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuel development.

States that are losing offshore wind energy are suing. California intends to sue.

▶ Read more

Vance to meet with Senate Republicans on Thursday

The vice president is joining the Senate GOP’s lunch, where he’s expected to discuss a government funding bill and a proof-of-citizenship voting bill Trump is pushing to pass, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The person said the vice president wants to ensure that Republicans are working to get as much of the SAVE America Act passed through the budget reconciliation process. That would allow grant money tied to voting rules to pass the Senate by a simple majority.

Vance also planned to thank Senate Republicans for working to try to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general.

Trump denies report that he is upset with Hegseth

The president’s post on social media was a response to a Washington Post report that Trump angrily confronted the defense secretary last week at Camp David over the U.S.’s depleted defense stockpiles in the wake of the Iran war.

“The Fake News, as usual, is spreading false and completely unfounded rumors. I am extremely happy with the job that Pete Hegseth is doing,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He added that the war with Iran “is going very well!” and said he believed the newspaper’s reporting of the alleged disagreement was “treasonous.

Trump’s ‘Golden Fleet’ of battleships to cost $275 billion, CBO says

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the first ship in the Navy’s new nuclear-powered battleship program would cost about $23 billion. The other 15 ships that would be purchased through 2056 would average slightly more than $18 billion each, it said.

“Congress cannot throw hundreds of billions of dollars at Trump’s ‘Golden Fleet,’ including plastering his name across a new battleship,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, who requested the assessment.

The White House had requested $1 billion for early work on a new “Trump-class” battleship as part of a government funding package that the Senate is considering this week to prevent a government shutdown this fall. Democrats blocked that provision from the package.

For contrast, the last of the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers cost around $11 billion to build, while the newer Ford-class carriers will cost the Navy between $13 billion and $15 billion.

Trump’s IndyCar race: Doing 200 in a 25 mph zone with manhole cover-displacing torque

The president is hosting an IndyCar street race in Washington, D.C., as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

The Freedom 250 Grand Prix, set for Aug. 22 and 23, will see cars speeding down Pennsylvania Avenue at up to eight times the usual 25 mph speed limit.

It is the latest — and the fastest — of the major events Trump has hosted against the backdrop of America’s birthday.

The IndyCar event will be 250 miles over 147 laps on a 1.66-mile track featuring seven turns. Race chair Bud Denker says Penske Corporation is paying for the “vast majority” of the race, while the city handles “very limited” repaving.

▶ Read more

Democrat says Paul would upend long-standing congressional respect for Fifth Amendment protections

Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee’s top Democrat, also questioned whether the referral would be valid if Paul bypassed the entire Senate, where the 60 votes needed to pass the resolution are seen as unlikely.

“If this committee now seeks to punish a witness for asserting their constitutionally protected Fifth Amendment rights, future witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment regardless of whether they comply with a subpoena and invoke a constitutional protection,” he said.

Fauci’s lawyer accuses Paul of abusing his power by trying to ‘weaponize the Justice Department’

“Today’s partisan committee vote is a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights,” Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement. “The Senate should reject Senator Paul’s meritless and politically-motivated contempt resolution. For years, Senator Paul has proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted and put in prison. Dr. Fauci has committed no crime — and Senator Paul knows it.”

Iran war renews concerns about the lasting toll of traumatic brain injuries to US troops

The lasting effects of traumatic brain injuries are raising fresh concerns about the toll of the Iran war on American troops who are suffering those wounds during a conflict without a clear end. Nearly 700 U.S. service members have been wounded by drone and missile attacks on bases in the Middle East and other fighting. Most have experienced traumatic brain injuries and returned to duty, according to public statements from military officials.

The Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, last month called the vast majority of injuries over a two-week period “minor concussions.”

Concussions often are termed “mild” TBIs, and many people recover within weeks. But sometimes those with seemingly mild initial symptoms go on to have problems persisting for months or years, such as headaches, dizziness or difficulties with memory or attention that’s sometimes called “brain fog.”

Doctors have no way to predict who will suffer lasting problems, a vexing enough question that there’s medical debate over whether to retire the term “mild TBI.”

▶ Read more

Kennedy Center board to vote on closure next week

The board for the performing arts venue will meet Aug. 13 to consider whether to move forward with a two-year closure to allow for renovations, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting hasn’t been made public.

A federal judge blocked a closure that was slated to take effect July 5, saying the board vote authorizing it was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained.” The judge also ruled that President Trump’s name was illegally added to the building, ordering its removal.

As the board, which is largely composed of Trump allies, moves toward another vote, management is expected to provide several options for consideration. They include a complete closure, a partial closure with the resumption of some programming or “phased closures” that would allow the full return of programming.

— Steven Sloan

Trump to welcome Winter Olympians to the White House

The president is hosting dozens of Winter Olympians and Paralympians for a Rose Garden reception later Thursday to honor their accomplishments in the 2026 Milano Cortina games.

Nearly half of the Team USA athletes who competed in Italy earlier this year will be at the reception, according to the White House, along with coaches, staff and other representatives.

Three hundred U.S. athletes participated in the Winter Olympics and Paralympics this year, winning 57 medals in all.

“President Trump will proudly celebrate Team USA’s historic achievements at the Winter Olympics with a special reception at the People’s House,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said. “Our patriotic athletes showed the world American excellence, and their extraordinary performances united us all in our love of country.”

Trump administration moves forward with Head Start overhaul, proposing to eliminate regulations

President Donald Trump’s administration said it plans to overhaul Head Start, tossing out many of the regulations that are the hallmark of the early education program for the nation’s poorest children.

Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federally funded preschool program, said the proposed changes would encourage more local decision-making. Early childhood policy experts argue the deregulation could undermine Head Start’s position as the gold standard in early education.

Head Start centers serve around 700,000 of the nation’s most vulnerable children, including those who are homeless, in foster care or disabled. That wouldn’t change under the overhaul.

But Alex J. Adams, an assistant secretary at Health and Human Service, said the department is hoping to give Head Start centers the flexibility to change the way they operate. That means eliminating most of Head Start’s regulations, such as standards for low staff-to-student ratios or requirements to provide services to preschoolers’ families.

▶ Read more

Pirro’s office is the next stop for Fauci’s contempt charge

The Senate has typically considered contempt charges even when they originate with a committee. But Paul is sending the matter directly to the Justice Department, bypassing the full Senate in a move Democrats decried as illegitimate.

That means the referral will land in the office of Washington’s U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

That’s notable given how Pirro has drawn fire recently from President Donald Trump over her effectively disputing the president’s false claims that vandals damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Pirro dropped charges against a man accused of damaging the pool’s new lining, saying it was instead the result of shoddy contractor work.

So, now, Pirro could end up deciding whether to prosecute Fauci.

Senate committee votes to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress

The Senate committee on Thursday voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Justice Department for potential prosecution over his refusal to answer questions at a hearing last week focused on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held the vote one week after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he appeared before the panel.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman, has said that constitutional protection did not apply since Fauci last year received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution. Fauci and Democrats who opposed the contempt resolution say he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination given a public desire by Republicans to seek his prosecution.

▶ Read more

The theme park announced Thursday that Brad Gilmour will be president of SeaWorld, Aquatica and Discovery Cove in Orlando, effective immediately.

Gilmour succeeds Jon “JP” Peterson, who was SeaWorld’s president. SeaWorld’s parent company, United Parks and Resorts, did not say why Peterson was leaving.

“We are grateful for JP’s contributions,” said Kyle Miller, Co-Chief Operating Officer for United Parks & Resorts.

Gilmour has been with the company since 2003. A news release from SeaWorld said Gilmour has served in leadership roles across the parks. Since 2023, he has been park president for Discovery Cove and Aquatica.

[WATCH: SeaWorld Orlando returns 9 rehabilitated green sea turtles to Atlantic Ocean]

“His deep operational knowledge, combined with his proven track record across our Orlando parks, makes him exactly the right leader to guide our parks into their next chapter. I’m confident our teams will benefit greatly from his leadership,” Miller said in a news release.

Earlier this week, United Parks and Resorts announced that second quarter attendance was at 6.1 million guests across the company’s parks, down 2.9% from last year.

The company said the attendance drop was due to the unfavorable timing of Easter this year, along with a decrease in international visitors.

In addition to Orlando’s three parks, United Parks and Resorts runs Busch Gardens in Tampa, and has parks in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, California and Abu Dhabi.

UEFA on Thursday reiterated that it had lost confidence in FIFA president Gianni Infantino and said conditions to withdraw its boycott threat had not been met.

“UEFA’s associations were very clear about the conditions attached to the non participation in FIFA competitions," it said in a statement. "First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly, assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.

“These conditions have not been met. In addition, UEFA made it abundantly clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency. That position holds.”

It was another bruising day for Infantino, with global soccer players union FIFPRO accusing him of "a profound abuse of presidential power.”

The English Football Association has also withdrawn its support for Infantino's re-election.

Even Amnesty International said the “current crisis spotlights the need for governance reforms."

FIFA and Infantino tried to present a united front following a high-level summit in Morocco on Wednesday when it announced the president had the full support of top staff in attendance.

The world governing body also apologized for errors made over its controversial plan to sell profits in the World Cup through a commercial subsidiary and committed to “ensure they do not happen again.”

FIFA said it hoped its meeting would “help restore confidence” in the organization after the turbulence created by Infantino’s now abandoned project, which provoked widespread condemnation.

UEFA voted to abandon FIFA competitions if it went ahead. And even after Infantino’s hasty change of course, Europe’s governing body said it had lost confidence in FIFA’s leadership — paving the way for a challenge to his presidency.

In its defiant statement, UEFA made it clear its position still held.

"Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the FIFA president (and whose careers depend on his favor) agree with him changes nothing,” it said.

___

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

___

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

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

Iran says a deal with Oman is close

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, has said an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz with Oman, which lies on the other side of the waterway, is in the “final stage” of drafting. Speaking Wednesday, he said a joint statement will be issued “if certain parties do not obstruct this process,” apparently referring to the U.S.

The agreement is likely to be contingent on the U.S. lifting its blockade on Iran’s ports.

A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said Thursday that any temporary routes through the Strait of Hormuz will not have impediments such as approvals, permissions, tolls or charges.

Asked Thursday if a deal has been reached with Iran to reopen the vital waterway, U.S. President Donald Trump said he didn’t want to say.

“It has been sort of open right now,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

The strait is crucial to global shipping and energy supplies. Before the war, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in February, about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through the waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

— Michelle Price in Washington

Ships struck over the past week in the Strait of Hormuz

At least two ships were hit in the Strait of Hormuz in the past week, while several others reported near misses or warnings from entities claiming to represent Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

The company added that Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels continued to claim attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The claims could not be independently verified.

Vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz increased to 84 transits during the week of July 27 to Aug. 2, up from 45 the previous week. But traffic is still far below the more than 700 transits seen in a typical week before the crisis, Lloyd's List said.

Yemen’s Houthis kill 30 government forces in major attack

More than 10 civilians, including a 4-year-old child, were injured in Saudi Arabia on Thursday after a series of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, according to the Saudi military.

The attacks, which took place in the southern region of Najran, near the Yemeni border, came hours after the Iran-backed rebels claimed responsibility for another series of strikes in central and eastern Yemen that killed at least 30 government troops and wounded at least 50 others.

The back-to-back attacks mark a major escalation since a truce in 2022 largely halted fighting. The civil war pits the Iran-backed Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

A Houthi leader said Saudi-backed troops were targeted in the attacks and that “hundreds” were either killed or injured. The assaults hit camps for forces of the internationally recognized government in the provinces of Marib and Hadramout, the Yemeni officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi military, said the later attack wounded seven Saudi nationals, one Yemeni, two Egyptians and one Pakistani expatriate. The Houthis did not release any statement.

Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year.

— Samy Magdy in Cairo and Baraa Anwer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon as negotiators meet in Rome

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and another four were seriously wounded in an explosion in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said Thursday. The deaths are Israel's first since a shaky truce was implemented in June between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The Israeli army launched strikes Wednesday in southern Lebanon in response to what it described as Hezbollah’s violation of the ceasefire and issued a call for residents of another village to flee — the first such warning Israel has issued in weeks.

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

Uganda approves sending troops for international force in Gaza

Ugandan authorities won parliamentary approval Thursday to deploy troops as part of the International Stabilization Force for Gaza.

The 20,000-strong force, proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in February to ensure “future prosperity and enduring peace,” has not yet materialized.

Several other countries pledged troops to the mission, including Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Albania and Indonesia, which has since put its commitment of troops on indefinite hold.

The Gaza ceasefire has stalled, as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that Israel will not withdraw from its current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed.

Israeli settler charged in West Bank killing of Palestinian activist

Israeli prosecutors have charged a settler with the killing of a Palestinian community leader last year in the occupied West Bank.

Prosecutors accuse Yinon Levi of reckless manslaughter in the death of prominent Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in July 2025. The charge holds a lesser punishment than murder under Israeli law. The indictment also charges Levi with armed trespassing and malicious property damage.

It is extremely rare for Israel to charge settlers with violence against Palestinians. Israeli rights group B’Tselem said the charges against Levi mark the first time since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that an Israeli has been indicted for the death of a Palestinian in the West Bank.

In that time, the group said, Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinians in the territory.

Iraq moves to crack down on armed militia groups

Iraq said Thursday that any armed activity outside of state authority after Sept. 30 will be prosecuted under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law, the latest move in a push to bring all weapons under government control.

Several powerful, Iran-backed armed factions have rejected calls to surrender weapons or dissolve their organizations, saying they remain committed to the “option of resistance.”

Saudi Arabia and the U.S. launched strikes on Iraq last week after Riyadh accused Iraqi militias of using drones to attack its oil facilities.

The retaliatory strikes in Iraq hit bases of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a collection of armed groups close to Iran that are officially part of Iraq’s security forces but often operate outside of state control.

In a release, deputies said that the man — identified as Jorge Vazquez-Escutia, 71 — was last seen shortly after midnight on Tuesday near the 8600 block of Hal Court.

The sheriff’s office explained that there were concerns for his well-being due to the fact that he suffers from memory loss.

But on Wednesday, detectives announced that Vazquez-Escutia had been murdered, with his stepson — identified as 44-year-old Jose L. Proano — now facing a charge of first-degree murder.

Proano appeared before a judge Thursday wearing an Orange County Corrections jail uniform following his arrest, a judge previously determined there was probable cause for the arrest, and Proano was ordered held without bond.

[RELATED: Watch footage of Proano’s arrest below]

“In the course of their investigation, deputies uncovered evidence that Proano, 44, killed and dismembered Mr. Vazquez-Escutia and attempted to conceal that murder by disposing of his body,” the release reads. “There are no outstanding suspects, and there is no threat to the community.”

In an affidavit, investigators said that Proano had detailed a “negative relationship” with Vazquez-Escutia, even discussing thoughts that he’d restricted Proana’s ability to see his own mother.

“He has had ongoing problems with Jorge Vazquez-Escutia and thoughts that Jorge Vazquez-Escutia abandoning his mother, leaving her alone in the residence even though she had dementia, and preventing him from accessing his mother,” the affidavit states. “He placed numerous calls for service to check on his family members, nearing the level of obsession.”

Detectives said Proano had traveled from his home in Northport up to Orlando on July 31 out of apparent concern for his mother and daughter.

The affidavit also shows that Proano had stalked Vazquez-Escutia, dismembered his body, stuffed the remains in three separate suitcases, and left the suitcases along the nearby White Road.

“Friends of Jose Proano reached out to family and detailed that Jose Proano admitted to killing his father/taking care of his father, beating up his father, with the reasoning behind [REDACTED],” the affidavit continues. “A second witness detailed he was called by Jose Proano requesting help in regard to this incident.”

Court records show Proano was already on probation through 2027 following a plea agreement in 2022 for two felony charges. As part of that agreement, he was also supposed to receive treatment for a mental health disorder after serving a reduced jail sentence, according to court records.

We are waiting for the State Attorney’s Office to respond to questions about whether Proano completed the entirety of his jail sentence under that agreement or whether he was in compliance with the conditions of his probation at the time of his arrest.

WHAT NEIGHBORS SAID

A neighbor who lives down the street said the situation has left the neighborhood stunned.

“It’s very shocking. Especially that that happened right across the street,” the neighbor said. “Such an extreme case — I’m still at a loss for words.”

The neighbor said he became suspicious of Proano’s behavior when his family asked Proano what was happening at the home during the missing persons investigation.

“Maybe it was him,” the neighbor said when referring to Proano, who he said appeared uncomfortable when responding. The neighbor also says Proano tried to suggest someone else was responsible.

Detectives said as part of their missing persons investigation, surveillance video later showed a man entering the property and then leaving with large suitcases. Investigators also said cell phone records placed Proano’s phone in the same area at the same time.

Neighbors described Vazquez-Escutia as helpful and kind.

“It’s very disturbing,” said Merle Billings, who lives across the street. “He was a good man… Anything I need to be done in the yard or anything with my equipment… he helped me.”

The other nearby resident said the neighborhood is typically quiet, despite Pine Hills’ reputation.

“Around here, it’s usually pretty quiet,” the neighbor said. “But, this neighborhood hasn’t had much activity like this.”

Fishback made the announcement on Thursday via social media, touching on a similar alleged investigation involving U.S. Rep. Cory Mills.

According to Fishback — who referenced an anonymous “government whistleblower” — the investigation surrounding Mills expanded to include Donalds.

On July 21st, 2026, NBC News reported that Republican Florida Congressman Cory Mills was under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.

Like virtually every federal investigation, this one began with a single suspect before expanding to include others.

A government… pic.twitter.com/JQNVFtOkmT

— James Fishback (@j_fishback) August 6, 2026

“Federal prosecutors are looking at two dates in question: May 17th, 2024, and November 19th, 2024,” his post reads. “Dates when Congressmen Mills and Donalds are said to have traveled to the MGM National Harbor — a luxury hotel resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where they solicited, procured, and paid women for explicit sexual acts.”

[RELATED: US Rep. Cory Mills faces DOJ criminal investigation, sources say]

Fishback said his legal team managed to “independently verify this investigation,” claiming that a third party revealed messages from Rep. Mills confirming that he and Donalds were at the MGM Harbor on both of those dates.

Per Fishback’s post, a federal prosecutor asked the DOJ whether Donalds was under investigation, though the agency reportedly refused to comment.

“They refused to do so despite clearing Florida Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of any criminal conduct in a letter just two weeks ago,” the post continues.

Fishback has had a contentious relationship with Donalds as the primary season has progressed, with both vying for the Republican candidacy.

News 6 has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Donalds campaign for more details about these accusations, and is awaiting a response.

The president said he was signing two executive actions on immigration, including one limiting the number of people eligible for U.S. citizenship after being born in the United States, while another focused on stopping people from coming to the U.S. to give birth.

The written executive order released later Thursday was narrower in scope than the previous one shot down by the Supreme Court and appeared to focus on restricting automatic citizenship to specific categories of people, including children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or organizations as well as anyone considered an “alien enemy” of the United States.

It also aimed to restrict birthright citizenship to anyone whose parents “engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship."

A second order seeks to curb what Trump called “birth tourism” by increasing restrictions on visitors to the U.S. who want to obtain visas to give birth while in the country.

It was not immediately clear how successful the president's most recent attempt to restrict birthright citizenship would be. Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional and his drive to reopen the question reflected the administration's zeal to restrict who gets to become an American.

“I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, we had a bad decision, very unfair decision. Our country suffers because of it and we’re ending it a different way,” Trump said.

The Migration Policy Institute noted in a 2026 article that it’s already considered fraud and grounds to restrict a visa if someone seeks a visa specifically to come to the U.S. and obtain citizenship for a child. Previous administrations have also sought to prosecute so-called “birth tourism" schemes that helped women hide their pregnancies while traveling to the United States to give birth.

Birthright citizenship has become a key rallying point in the president’s second term anti-immigration agenda, with the president and supporters arguing it makes the country a magnet for immigration and that American citizenship should be reserved for those who truly value it, as opposed to just being given to anyone born here.

But immigration advocates and many legal experts say that the Constitution is clear in outlining who is considered a citizen. They've also argued that birthright citizenship is a benefit to the U.S. by giving everyone an equal stake in the country's future and that restricting who can become a citizen would create a second-class of people in America.

The Trump administration has painted birth tourism as a widespread problem. There's no official estimate of how many births can be considered “birth tourism” births, but an estimated 26,000 might fall into that category out of the roughly 3.5 million births in the U.S. every year, MPI wrote in its 2026 article.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s previous efforts to declare that children born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily aren’t American citizens, and upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship.

The American Civil Liberties Union predicted that Trump's second attempt would also be rejected.

“The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution. Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement Thursday.

On Trump’s first day in office of his second term, he signed an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, which allows anyone born in the United States to automatically become an American citizen.

Trump’s administration was immediately sued by opponents who said the executive order went against the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which makes anyone born in the country a citizen, with very limited exceptions.

The executive order was blocked by several lower courts and never took effect.

In June, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s order by a 6-3 vote. But the vote was too close for many immigration advocates and legal observers who felt the legal question of birthright citizenship was a long-settled issue.

When it came to the legal question of whether birthright citizenship was protected by the Constitution, the vote was even narrower. Only five justices said it was enshrined in the Constitution, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected the executive order, but did so specifically on the grounds that federal law conveys birthright citizenship.

__

Santana reported from Sacramento.

The final tournament of the regular season determines the top 70 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the postseason.

James, the No. 1 player in the PGA Tour University ranking that came with a tour card, has to win to reach the top 70. He was tied for the lead until a bogey-birdie-bogey finish for a 62, both bogeys coming after he missed 6-foot par putts.

Koivun earned his card from the accelerated PGA Tour University program for underclassmen — he clinched his card as a sophomore and deferred it one year — and is in much better shape at No. 70. Koivun missed some birdie chances coming in and shot 67.

Hossler is at No. 122 in the FedEx Cup and also has to win to reached the first playoff event next week. He ran off four straight birdies early in his front nine at Sedgefield Country Club, and played the the final holes in 4 under with a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th.

“Try and win a golf tournament,” Hossler said. “That's all there is to it.”

James, the 36-hole leader at the Canadian Open in his professional debut before crashing on the weekend, made a 15-foot eagle putt on the 15th that allowed him to catch Hossler.

With the chance at another 59 at Sedgefield, he three-putted from just inside 25 feet on the par-3 16th, birdied the 17th and then came up short of the green from the first cut on the 18th, chipped to 6 feet and missed the par putt.

Still, it was an impressive start at a tournament where so many players know they have to go low and finish high if they want to advance.

“Every week someone always shoots anywhere from 63 to 60 or 59 the first day, so it’s always there. You just try to put yourself in position, play the best you can,” James said.

No one had a more bizarre round than Sahith Theegala, whose postseason is safe at No. 43. He didn't make a par on the front nine — eight birdies and one bogey. And then all he could manage were pars on the back nine until stuffing his approach tight on the 18th for a birdie and a 62.

“Pretty wild,” Theegala said. "I've never had a round like that. I think historically I’ve always struggled to start rounds really well, so that was the first time I ever started a round with six (birdies) in a row. That was an incredible start. It didn’t feel like a fluke or anything, either.

“Got to the back nine and just stopped hitting fairways,” he said. “And really that cost me a lot of opportunities. Yeah, it was an interesting round.”

Eric Cole shot 63 and was in fourth, and the six players at 64 included five of them who are outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup. The exception is Matti Schmid at No. 67, far from safe.

“I feel like I’m in a decent position if I play the golf that I know that I can play,” Schmid said. “I don’t really think about it. I just want to put three more good rounds on the board.”

Brooks Koepka, who returned to the PGA Tour this year after four years at LIV Golf, needs a high finish to reach the postseason and had to settle for a 67, which was closer to the cut line than the lead on a course that yielded 36 rounds of 66 or lower.

The focus is on those who risk finishing out of the top 70. That wouldn't be the end of their seasons, but most would need to play in the FedEx Cup Fall to make sure they finish in the top 100 to simply keep a full card for 2027.

James doesn't face those prospects because his No. 1 ranking in PGA Tour University makes him exempt through 2027. Even so, it would be a big feat to go from the library to the postseason in just over two months. Koivun put himself in that position by winning the 3M Open two weeks ago.

Hossler knew he had to win if he wanted to play next week in the playoff opener, but he is trying to keep it all in perspective.

“There's lots of players that this week’s performance does impact moving on or not or whatever,” Hossler said. “Obviously, every week that we play out here has implications for future years. I think if you let that consume you, it’s a dangerous thing.

“I'm going to go try and play great golf and kind of see where the cards fall.”

___

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

In a findings letter to the school, the department said that while administrators paid lip service to being race-neutral in admissions, they used other factors as stand-ins for race, including personal essays and whether someone was a first-generation college student.

The Durham, North Carolina, school said in an emailed statement it was reviewing the letter and is committed to following the law “in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission.”

“Duke Law School doesn’t get a free pass to discriminate against white and Asian students simply because it thinks it has good intentions,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said in a news release. “Using ‘diversity’ essay questions to identify preferred races for admission is still illegal discrimination based on race.”

Affirmative action in college admissions has been illegal since a 2023 Supreme Court ruling. The same ruling said colleges could continue to assess how applicants’ backgrounds might speak to broader characteristics, but President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused colleges of using other proxies to maintain racial diversity, which conservatives view as illegal discrimination.

The department recently found that the medical schools at Yale University and the University of California, Los Angeles, illegally considered race in admissions. It announced in June that it was launching similar investigations into 15 other medical schools.

The Trump administration previously targeted undergraduate admissions at selective colleges, demanding they collect data to show they are complying with the Supreme Court ruling.

In its findings against Duke Law, the DOJ said Black or Hispanic applicants were much more likely to be admitted than white or Asian applicants with the same academic credentials. Further, it said, in 2024 and 2025, the median Law School Admissions Test scores of rejected white and Asian applicants exceeded the median scores of admitted Black applicants.

The department said it was seeking to reach a settlement with Duke Law.

But the state attorney who runs the Ninth Judicial Circuit, Monique Worrell, says the real problem is the juvenile justice system in Florida.

“We have a juvenile justice system that is wholly inadequate to deal with violent offense committed by children, and unless we stop throwing political daggers back and forth with each other and come together to talk about a real solution that could help to make our community safer, then we are going to be on the other end of these cameras on a continuing basis, talking about the next event that took place,” Worrell told News 6 at a news conference Thursday.

Keyan Rundell, 17, was arrested Wednesday on homicide charges in the deaths of Dustin Rose and Samson Campbell last week.

On Thursday, Chitwood said Rundell was “the recipient of years of second chances, dropped charges, and lack of prosecution in the 9th Judicial Circuit of Orange & Osceola counties.”

“We’re talking about aggravated battery and assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, multiple counts of battery, criminal mischief, vehicle theft, trespassing, drug possession, another aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer, all dating back to 2021,” Chitwood wrote. “Charges that were either dropped, non-filed, dismissed, or at best, resolved with probation.”

You might be interested to know that the 17-year-old arrested in the DeLand double homicide of 2 teenagers has been the recipient of years of second chances, dropped charges, and lack of prosecution in the 9th Judicial Circuit of Orange & Osceola counties.

We're talking about… pic.twitter.com/G8aRiomAcS

— Mike Chitwood (@SheriffChitwood) August 6, 2026

Because Rundell is a juvenile, information on his previous cases is limited. News 6 found records of several cases between 2022 and 2025 in Orange and Volusia counties.

Chitwood mentions the 2025 case we found in his post. It took place in Volusia County.

“Before his latest and worst criminal act, Keyan Rundell was in a diversion program for drug possession and disturbing a school function,” Chitwood wrote.

Worrell issued a statement responding to Chitwood, in part:

“The most recent case referenced by Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood that involves this juvenile did not occur within the Ninth Judicial Circuit, but rather his own Seventh Circuit and is therefore outside the jurisdiction of this office to speak to,” Worrell wrote.

Chitwood’s post also put him in the middle of the ongoing feud between Worrell and Florida State Attorney James Uthmeier, who used the case to once again attack her and her office.

Responding to Chitwood on X.com, Uthmeier posted, “State Attorney Worrell’s neglect of duty and incompetence are a danger to the 9th Judicial Circuit, and her failures cause bloodshed in surrounding counties. Soft on crime policies do not work!”

State Attorney Worrell's neglect of duty and incompetence are a danger to the 9th Judicial Circuit, and her failures cause bloodshed in surrounding counties.

Soft on crime policies do not work! https://t.co/mTgz1mZSO0

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) August 6, 2026

Worrell, in her statement, also responded to Uthmeier, accusing him of being more interested in scoring political points. The rest of her statement is below.

“Because juvenile proceedings are confidential under Florida law, the State Attorney’s Office is limited in what it can publicly discuss regarding individual juvenile cases. However, since our circuit’s name has been invoked in an effort to inject election year politics into a tragedy, it is important to clarify several points.

• Prosecutors do not determine sentencing outcomes in juvenile cases. Dispositions are ultimately determined by the Court, with recommendations and involvement from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.
• As State Attorney, I have consistently advocated for a more effective, data-driven juvenile justice system that identifies high-risk youth early and provides meaningful interventions to reduce violence. As part of that effort, I have repeatedly sought collaboration with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice to discuss opportunities to strengthen coordination, identify gaps in intervention, and improve outcomes for young people before they commit more serious offenses. Despite those repeated outreach efforts, the Department has not responded. In fact, most recently, they’ve outright declined to participate in these conversations.
• Prosecutors make charging decisions based on the evidence legally available to them. When a case cannot be prosecuted, that may be the result of evidentiary limitations, including circumstances in which necessary victims or witnesses are unable or unwilling to participate. The State Attorney’s Office cannot ethically or lawfully pursue charges when the available evidence is insufficient to support prosecution. We cannot manufacture outcomes to fit a political agenda.

“Accountability matters, but so does intervention before a child’s behavior escalates to the point that lives are lost. This tragedy involves an individual whose interactions with the criminal justice system began at just 12-years-old. That fact underscores why early intervention matters and why the entire system must be reformed.

“Protecting our communities requires every part of the juvenile justice system to work together. My office remains committed to that work and putting partisan politics aside to protect residents.”

The truck dumped the ducks from one side of a half-raised bridge. After forming a yellow pool in the river, the ducks floated for around 15 minutes before a winner and runner-up were plucked from the water.

The annual event, a fundraiser for Special Olympics Illinois, draws thousands of participants. At an accompanying festival, participants snapped pictures with inflatable ducks and doodled on a chalkboard under the prompt, “I adopt a duck because …” Some sported rubber duck-printed shirts.

Becky Cavanagh, the Ducky Derby ambassador and a 13-year Special Olympics athlete, held up the winning duck to the cheers of crowds packed on both sides of the river.

Cavanagh said her favorite part about the Special Olympics was “making new friends.” Asked before the race how she felt about picking the winning duck, she cheered. “Woo!”

Special Olympics Illinois organizes competitions across the state for people with disabilities and special needs. It costs $10 to sponsor a “lone duck,” which will feed an athlete lunch at a competition, and $30 for a “quack pack” of six ducks, which supplies gold medals for a team. The competition has raised more than $480,000.

The sponsor of the fastest duck wins an SUV, and the runner-up will win $2,500 in cash, said Pete Beale-DelVecchio, president of Special Olympics Illinois.

“It really is a fantastic day for our athletes,” he said ahead of the race at an area next to the river, where derby attendees posed with inflatable rubber ducks and bopped along to a live DJ.

___

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

That's why Miller said she is voting in Tuesday's gubernatorial primary for David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive endorsed by two-term Gov. Tony Evers. He faces democratic socialist Francesca Hong in a contest that will be the latest test nationally of how far Democrats are willing to swing to the political left.

Wisconsin's primary comes a week after progressive Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s U.S. Senate primary, setting up a crucial test for progressives in November in a key battleground state. Also on Tuesday, voters in Minnesota will decide another U.S. Senate contest featuring a centrist and a progressive.

In a year where voters upset with the Democratic Party mainstream have propelled outsider candidates to victory across the country, Crowley is hoping to buck the trend in Wisconsin. He's banking on the support of Evers, one of the state's most popular elected officials, to make up ground in the waning days of the chaotic primary.

Crowley said that El-Sayed’s slim margin of victory “does give me a little bit of hope.”

“We’re going to focus on those undecided voters,” Crowley said.

Wisconsin Democratic voters grapple with electability, chaotic primary

“The divide is real,” Miller, 49, said of the struggle between progressives and more mainstream Democrats. But her focus remains on November, when the winner of the primary will face Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and one of the most conservative members of Congress.

Miller, who described herself as a progressive, called Hong a “very, very weak candidate" and described her popularity as “a little bit of a mirage.”

“I don't think she can win,” Miller said at a Crowley campaign stop a week before election day at a winery in the rolling hills of New Glarus.

Crowley is banking on more voters feeling that way. A Marquette University Law School poll of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters conducted in late July, before former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped out, showed Hong with a significant lead over the other candidates. More than 112,000 absentee ballots had already been returned by the day the poll was released.

Complicating the path for Crowley is the fact that he withdrew from the race on July 8 and only got back in 10 days later, with the backing of Evers, after Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez ended her candidacy. Then, 12 days later, Barnes also ended his campaign amid allegations of inappropriate behavior.

Barnes and Rodriguez, who were both seen as potential front-runners, remain on the ballot and votes already cast for them can't be undone.

“We've created a mess,” said Michael Gebben, a 64-year-old Democrat who voted absentee for Rodriguez before she dropped out. “Hopefully we can get out of it.”

Hong bats down controversies as Crowley makes a final sprint

As Crowley sprinted across the state to capture undecided voters, Hong was batting down controversies.

Hong, a single mom and former restaurant cook, faced questions about past social media posts where she called for canceling Thanksgiving because “we should stop celebrating colonialism,” disparaged Valentine’s Day as “another day capitalism tells you how to show love” and repeatedly called for defunding the police.

She has backtracked or clarified many of those past statements in recent days, now saying that she does not support abolishing the police.

Tiffany pointed to Hong’s comments on Thanksgiving and said she wants “to destroy the traditions and culture that unite us.” Tiffany, who had 10-times more cash on hand than either Hong or Crowley did entering August, has portrayed the race as a contest between chaos and common sense.

“Wisconsinites can’t afford for November to come down to the most extreme things Tom Tiffany and Francesca Hong have said online,” Evers’ spokesperson Britt Cudaback said this week in a social media post explaining why the governor endorsed Crowley.

Crowley's mention of the Evers endorsement drew a round of applause at both of his campaign stops in New Glarus and Madison this week, but similar votes of confidence haven't always been decisive in other primaries. In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed the moderate Stevens who came up short.

Even with Evers' backing, Crowley insists he is not an establishment Democrat despite having served more than three years in the Legislature and as the top elected official in Milwaukee County, the state's largest, since 2020.

“When people try to call me the establishment, I look at that as a slur, particularly as an African American candidate,” said Crowley, who is looking to become Wisconsin's first Black governor. “I have never run for office to protect the establishment. I’ve always been here to protect people.”

Voters say message from progressive candidates resonates

Hong supporter Chris Vestin has heard the concerns about electability before.

To him, the fears about Hong's chances against Tiffany in November sound like a repeat of those who pushed Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. Sanders defeated Clinton in the Wisconsin primary by 13 points that year, before Clinton went on to lose the presidential race to Trump. Trump carried Wisconsin in 2016, lost it in 2020 and then won it again in 2024.

“It frustrates me when they say that person is unelectable,” Vestin said of Hong, who is vying to become Wisconsin’s first woman governor and first Asian American governor. “A lot of times it’s racist, it’s sexist.”

Vestin, 54, called Evers' endorsement of Crowley “counterproductive.”

“Establishment Democrats want to take the choice away,” Vestin said.

On Tuesday in Minnesota, voters will choose between moderate U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate that's playing out in the aftermath of Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement surge in the state.

But the stakes are even higher in Wisconsin.

Democrats are trying to hold onto the governor's office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to have full control for the first time since 2010.

Republicans transformed Wisconsin by enacting a wide array of conservative priorities, including effectively doing away with public worker collective bargaining, when they had full control from 2011 to 2018.

“We need a trifecta,” Crowley told his supporters at the New Glarus rally. “And who is at the top of the ticket matters."

Crowley supporter Lindsey Lee, 61, of Madison said before the rally there that he believed previously undecided Democrats were coalescing around Crowley.

“It’s like the last 50 yards of a horse race," Lee said. "Hong is obviously in the lead but Crowley is coming up on a side lane. I think it will be a photo finish.”

In the second week of her Massachusetts murder trial, prosecutors brought more friends, a former work colleague and her former father-in-law to testify about Clancy's mental and emotional state. They said she was mostly open about her postpregnancy mental health struggles but seemed like a loving mother who cared for her kids.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan.

Defense attorneys don't dispute that she killed her children on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending her husband out on errands, but they argue that she was too mentally ill to bear criminal responsibility for her actions.

Prosecutors, however, said that sending her husband out of the house was a ruse and that the 35-year-old former labor and delivery nurse acted intentionally. She remains paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from the home’s second-story window that night.

___

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

___

A friend recalls a difficult reunion after the killings

Much of the week has been dominated by witnesses detailing their memories of Clancy in the days, weeks and months before the killings.

Outwardly, Clancy appeared normal, most said, attending family functions, lunches with friends and activities with her children. None of the witnesses Thursday testified they heard Clancy express suicidal or homicidal thoughts, talking of hearing voices or wanting to harm her children.

But after the birth of her third child, she told a friend she was having trouble sleeping and noted harmful side effects from medications she was taking. Another former colleague at Massachusetts General Hospital, Andrea Hennigan, recalled a lunch where Clancy said she wouldn't return to work because she “was not in a mental state to take care of patients.”

“She talked about insomnia and not feeling herself,” she said. “I believe she might have used the words brain fog or something like that.”

The month of the killings, Clancy texted Hennigan that she was experiencing “bad or negative side effects” from her medications. She told another witness, Amy Bevins, around then that the medications had “caused her to have some dark thoughts.”

Another witness, Bethany Decollibus, attended a birthday party for Clancy's daughter, Cora, in January 2023. Asked about her sleep troubles, Clancy said “things haven’t gotten better and that she feels like a zombie.”

Lindsay Clancy's former father-in-law testifies

Christopher Clancy praised his former daughter-in-law's mothering skills. But he admitted knowing she was having issues. At one point, he suggested the grandchildren stay with him and his wife, but his son declined.

“I knew she was having a hard time sleeping,” Christopher Clancy said. “I knew she just didn’t feel well. I knew she went to the emergency room where my wife was working. Those types of struggles.”

Lindsay Clancy's attorneys in criminal and civil cases have said that she had postpartum psychosis, a condition that a small fraction of women exhibit after childbirth, and that she had bipolar disorder that wasn’t fully diagnosed until after the killings. Her attorneys say her condition seemed to worsen on the psychiatric medications, some of them problematic for bipolar patients.

If convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

Another case that echoes Clancy’s is going back to court

Meanwhile, the judge and the district attorney learned Thursday that they face a retrial in another case involving a mother’s mental state when she killed her two school-age children in 2018.

Massachusetts’ top court threw out Latarsha Sanders’ murder convictions in the stabbings of sons Edson “Marlon” Brito, 8, and La’son Brito, 5.

Sanders told police in a recorded interview that she stabbed the boys because “bad people” text-messaged her commands to carry out a “ritual” connected to “Voodoo stuff” and the Illuminati. The latter is a purported powerful secret society at the center of various conspiracy theories, and Sanders’ family said she had become obsessively fearful of it.

Like Clancy’s lawyers, Sanders’ defense argued she was mentally ill and shouldn’t be held criminally responsible, while prosecutors said she acted deliberately.

A defense neuropsychologist diagnosed Sanders with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, among other conditions, and testified that she was “grossly psychotic” when she killed the children.

The appeal turns on psychiatric evidence

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court faulted the judge for not letting jurors hear many specifics from Sanders' medical records. They showed, among other things, that clinicians at a prison and a psychiatric hospital suggested similar diagnoses after Sanders’ arrest.

Withholding the records from jurors “impermissibly stripped” the defense of its medical foundation, Justice Frank M. Gaziano wrote in a unanimous decision.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz's office said in a statement that it was thinking through next steps. Messages seeking comment were sent to a clerk for Superior Court Justice William Sullivan and to a court system spokesperson.

Sanders’ lawyer, Robert F. Shaw Jr., said he looked forward to retrying the case.

“The hope is that those records and that evidence will be able to be viewed by a jury with fresh eyes,” he said by phone.

___

Peltz reported from New York.

DOGE began posting its estimated savings on a web page known as the Wall of Receipts. Lawmakers asked the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the accuracy of the estimates, and the watchdog found them lacking in some cases.

Auditors found that 108 of 264 leases identified for termination on the Wall of Receipts were already in the process of termination when DOGE was established. In another case, DOGE reported $1.7 billion in savings on a Department of Defense contract for IT services, but in the end, no action was taken to terminate the contract, so no savings were achieved.

More broadly, DOGE was not transparent regarding the methodologies used to calculate savings. The GAO said DOGE officials did not respond to requests for information. The report concluded by saying the data quality issues found limit the value of the Wall of Receipts for policymakers.

“In addition, when government data are not reliable, it can hinder the public’s trust in government,” the report stated.

DOGE began posting its estimated savings on Feb. 17, 2025, and had reported savings of $110 billion as of July 7 across a wide range of contracts, grants and leases. President Donald Trump's executive order establishing DOGE sunset its operations on July 4. Billionaire Musk initially led its operations, but stepped back from that role after just a few months.

Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut requested the GAO report. Peters said everyone supports rooting out waste and fraud, but DOGE was a slapdash and deceptive effort that did real damage to the government's ability to serve Americans.

“Elon Musk and the Trump Administration claimed billions of dollars in savings it could not substantiate, took credit for work already underway, and refused to show its work, all while putting Americans’ sensitive data at risk and hollowing out critical agencies,” Peters said in response to the report.

At least 345 people in 27 states have been reported getting sick from the salmonella strain linked to the jalapeños. Most have been in Minnesota and Colorado. No deaths have been reported, but officials say 36 people have been hospitalized.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the chili peppers were moved into the U.S. by Coast Citrus Distributors. The company has recalled the peppers and is notifying its customers, which include some prominent Mexican food restaurant chains, officials said.

Coast Citrus Distributors didn't immediately respond to a Thursday voicemail seeking comment.

The Food and Drug Administration said that of the 191 people interviewed in the outbreak investigation, 177 — or 93% — reported eating at a Mexican-style restaurant, including Chipotle Mexican Grill and Qdoba, from June 14 to July 14.

Chipotle Mexican Grill said Tuesday that it had removed jalapeños from some of its restaurants. Qdoba on Wednesday said the company had proactively removed jalapenos from all of its restaurants.

“Given their actions to remove product from their stores, neither of these establishments are considered a current ongoing risk to consumers in this outbreak,” CDC officials said in a statement.

Salad chain Sweetgreen said Thursday it also removed jalapeños from its menu, where they are an ingredient in two of its 15 dressings. It was more bad news for Sweetgreen, which also saw sales plummet in July because of customer concerns over the cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce. Sweetgreen doesn't serve iceberg lettuce but said Thursday that customers are generally concerned about fresh produce.

The FDA is investigating whether any of the jalapeños went to grocery stores. The agency may announce additional actions on its recalls webpage, health officials said.

Health officials in Mexico said they opened an investigation and made a field visit Thursday to a packing plant in the northern state of Nuevo Leon.

Salmonella bacteria cause about 1.35 million infections in the United States every year, and outbreaks have been tied to sources such as cucumbers, eggs, unpasteurized milk, fresh basil, geckos and pet bearded dragons.

Within hours or days of being exposed to the bacteria, infected people can suffer from diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. The illness usually lasts four to seven days, and most people recover without treatment.

Young children, retirement-age adults and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk for more severe illness, according to the CDC.

Shares of Chipotle, based in Newport Beach, California, tumbled nearly 10% on Tuesday and have not recovered. Sweetgreen shares dropped 14% in after-hours trading Thursday.

___

Associated Press reporter Fabiola Sanchez in Mexico City contributed to this story.

___

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.

Athletes First announced the deal Thursday, hours after Gibbs took the field for the first time since the Lions' training camp started. His agents also noted the new contract includes $51.5 million guaranteed for the Pro Bowler.

Two days earlier, Atlanta briefly made Bijan Robinson the NFL's highest-paid running back.

Gibbs had been participating in meetings at camp, but Thursday was his first appearance on the field, an indication the Lions and his agents were close to a deal. Gibbs held his right arm high and gave a thumbs-up when asked if an agreement was close as he walked off the practice field.

He rushed for 1,223 yards and 13 touchdowns and had 77 receptions for 616 yards and five scores in 2025.

Colts running back Jonathan Taylor got a two-year, $44 million deal earlier Thursday.

___

AP Pro Football Writer Teresa M. Walker contributed to this report.

___

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elijah Rakha-Sheketoff contributed reporting.

The order comes as crews across the southern border race to complete one of President Donald Trump's highest domestic priorities — barriers that span four states and received over $46 billion in federal funding. Controversies have sprouted up in Texas and California, with border-town residents and environmentalists reporting a wide variety of issues with construction.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees border wall construction, has said water is needed to make concrete for roads, wall construction and dust suppression. Cattle ranchers in the area say the drought has already forced them to reduce their herd size.

“It would put us in an immediate catastrophe and having to do something with our livestock. I mean, it could potentially put some people out of business, us included,” said Russell Johnson, a cattle rancher whose property runs along the border.

Johnson raised the issue at a public meeting in July after noticing an industrial well, which drilling crews told him would pump 300 gallons a minute, on land he leases for grazing. Johnson has roughly 12 wells across his ranch, which pump between three and seven gallons a minute.

A spokesperson for CBP said on Monday that border wall contractors in New Mexico have been instructed to stop drilling new wells, but did not comment on whether the wells already drilled could be pumped. The agency said they would collaborate with New Mexico and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a groundwater strategy.

“CBP is committed to working collaboratively with local landowners to ensure that construction activities do not adversely impact their water needs,” read the statement.

The federal contractors building the wall in New Mexico — Caddell Construction Co. and Fisher Industries — did not respond to emails or phone calls seeking comment. Messages left with receptionists for Barnard Construction and Spencer Construction Co., the contractors building near Johnson's ranch, were not immediately returned.

State agency that monitors wells said contractors drilled illegally

The New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, which monitors and approves wells across the state, said staff have counted eight wells drilled without the office’s permission along the southern border, but cautioned there could be more. Staff visited two wells in July and reported they were pumping 200 gallons per minute.

“All non-tribal wells in New Mexico, whether they are drilled on state or federal land, must have permits from the state engineer before they can be drilled or water can be pumped from them,” the Office of the State Engineer said in a statement.

The wells for border construction were all drilled on federally owned land near the border, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection letter to New Mexico state authorities. CBP did not respond to follow up questions about whether the federal government has a right to pump groundwater on federal land without state oversight.

Cattle ranchers report culling herds due to water scarcity

Tom Patterson, president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association, says water is the No. 1 concern for ranchers and that if wells start to go dry, it’s already too late. During wall construction in Trump's first term, Patterson said, contractors bought water from farms, ranches, or municipalities in the area, which meant the amount of water being pumped from nearby basins didn’t increase during construction.

“Why do they need all this water?” said Patterson. “And why can’t they buy it as they have in the past from farmers, ranchers, or even from Luna County?”

Johnson said the moratorium on future well drilling is a step in the right direction, but he’s still worried after a contractor told him the well near his ranch could eventually be pumped if crews ended up needing the water. Though beef prices are up, Johnson has been forced to reduce his herd to one third its original capacity. He cites the drought, which has left less grass for cattle to graze on, as the main reason for the drop.

Before the first border wall went up, Johnson remembers seeing at least one truck of people crossing his ranch every week. Now, he says illegal crossing hardly ever happens on his ranch. As a former Border Patrol agent, he supports the border wall but doesn’t believe it should cost him his livelihood.

So far, half a mile of secondary wall has gone up near Johnson’s property.

“They need to stop pumping all of these wells because they were all drilled illegally,” Johnson said.

New Mexico politicians scramble to claim credit for deal

Both candidates in the race for a congressional seat that represents this area in New Mexico claimed credit for the moratorium.

Congressional candidate Greg Cunningham, a Republican, said he advocated for the agreement between CBP and border wall contractors and was the first to announce the news over social media on Friday.

“Ranchers, families and local officials brought us their concerns. I raised it with the Trump Administration. They listened. They acted fast,” Cunningham said in a post on X.

Congressman Gabe Vasquez, who faces Cunningham in November's midterm elections, spoke about the issue on the House floor earlier this month.

“This illegal drilling by this administration should never have happened, but when it did, I heard our ranchers’ concerns loud and clear and immediately raised hell in Washington to get the job done and protect New Mexicans’ water rights.”

—-

This story has been updated to correct that while the wells are on federal property along the border specific locations weren't given in a letter to state authorities.

___

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

A department spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening that the department had received the contempt referral, is "reviewing it and will work with the Senate accordingly.”

The vote approving the contempt resolution came a week after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, an episode that raised fresh legal questions about the ability of Congress to compel testimony from a previously pardoned witness.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman who pressed for the contempt finding, said that constitutional protection did not apply because Fauci last year received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution.

“Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution," Paul said at the outset of Thursday's vote. "All he had to do was tell the truth.”

He told colleagues that the issue before them was not Fauci's opinions, policies or “anything he said from a podium six years ago.”

Instead, he added, “We were voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence.”

Fauci, in a statement last week explaining his decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, said he had good reason to fear the possibility of criminal charges given what he said was Paul's determination “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote."

Fauci's lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement that the contempt resolution was "a continuation of Senator Paul’s personal vendetta against Dr. Fauci, who spent 50 years in public health and has saved countless lives.” Schertler accused Paul of abusing his power by trying to “weaponize the Justice Department.”

“Today’s partisan committee vote is a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights," Schertler said. “The Senate should reject Senator Paul’s meritless and politically-motivated contempt resolution. For years, Senator Paul has proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted and put in prison. Dr. Fauci has committed no crime – and Senator Paul knows it.”

The pardon from Biden covered acts from 2014 through the January 2025 day it was issued, but does not shield him from state-level prosecutions or protect him from federal investigations into any testimony he did give that lawmakers deemed false. The current Justice Department has repeatedly initiated false statement investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump as part of what critics have called a retribution campaign.

Democrats who unanimously opposed the contempt resolution agreed with Fauci that he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination given the publicly stated desires of Republican lawmakers, including Paul, to see him prosecuted in connection with COVID. The Trump administration has also raised questions about whether the Biden pardons were valid given Biden’s frequent use of an autopen to conduct official business.

“The goal was to wait for Dr. Fauci to make any kind of misstatement and then have a weaponized Department of Justice file criminal charges for that new statement that would not have been covered by the pardon, leaving Dr. Fauci little choice but to invoke his constitutional right to not walk directly into a trap,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., before the vote.

Trump himself weighed in Thursday at the White House, noting in response to a reporter's question that two advisers from his first term, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, were jailed on contempt charges during the Biden administration after they defied congressional subpoenas and refused to even show up for their scheduled hearings.

“When you see that happen, you sort of say maybe he should,” Trump said of Fauci being prosecuted. “What he did is far more serious than a lot of crimes, frankly.”

Paul's decision to send the referral directly to the Justice Department would leave it to prosecutors in Washington to decide whether to investigate or potentially attempt to prosecute Fauci for contempt. A referral from Congress does not compel the Justice Department to act.

The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, questioned whether the referral would be legally valid if Paul did not seek a vote before the full Senate, where the 60 votes needed to pass the resolution are seen as unlikely. He said punishing a witness for exercising a constitutional right against self-incrimination would complicate future efforts by Congress to conduct oversight and compel appearances and testimony.

“If this committee now seeks to punish a witness for asserting their (constitutionally) protected Fifth Amendment rights, future witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment regardless of whether they comply with a subpoena and invoke a constitutional protection,” he said. “They will point directly to this vote — this vote — as a justification for refusing to appear at all.”

The group joined a lawsuit filed in May that sought to block the proposed $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund," which the Trump administration later scrapped after bipartisan pushback. The updated lawsuit, filed by legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, now also targets the audit immunity deal conferred on the president, his sons and the Trump Organization, which remains in place.

The updated lawsuit says Trump and his family are “obligated to pay taxes owed, just like every other taxpayer." But under the immunity order, IRS employees will be forced to drop ongoing audits of the president and his businesses, giving Trump "a lucrative and unconstitutional emolument," the lawsuit says.

“The integrity of our tax system depends on one fundamental principle: every taxpayer is subject to the same laws and the same standards,” Doreen Greenwald, the national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement. “When political actors direct employees to treat certain taxpayers differently, it undermines public confidence in our tax system and places dedicated civil servants in an impossible position.”

The lawsuit asks the court to bar the Trump administration from implementing or enforcing the immunity deal, which officials have said applies only to claims open at the time of the settlement and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings. The case alleges the agreement violates a law that bars the president from interfering with tax audits.

According to the initial outline of the audit deal, spelled out in a one-page document signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the U.S. was “forever barred and precluded” from examining current tax filings or prosecuting any of the plaintiffs — Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization — as well as other “related or affiliated” individuals.

It’s unclear how much Trump owes the federal government in back taxes, but the latest details of the deal could wipe away what could be more than $100 million in back taxes, according to previous New York Times and ProPublica reporting.

The Justice Department and an attorney for Trump didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.

The original lawsuit filed in May was focused on the “Anti-Weaponization Fund" announced as part of the settlement of Trump's lawsuit over his leaked tax returns. The fund was proposed as a way to compensate people who say they were politically targeted by the Justice Department, but it quickly drew outrage over the potential that those considered for payments could include people convicted of assaulting police at the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, blocked the administration in May from proceeding with the fund.

Days later, Blanche told Congress that the administration was no longer moving forward with the fund. Blanche on Sunday formally rescinded plans for the fund in writing amid pressure from two Republican senators who were threatening to block his confirmation as attorney general.

The updated lawsuit filed Thursday says Blanche's order on the fund doesn't go far enough to prevent the administration from moving forward with the payouts in the future and is asking the judge to permanently block officials from taking further action to create the fund.

The lawsuit notes that Trump has "made clear that he intends to keep the Fund alive, affirming his belief that the January 6 rioters and other Fund beneficiaries 'should be paid back for what they were forced to endure.'"

“The abruptness and sustained magnitude of the increase” is largely due to the condition getting its own diagnosis code last fall, which is providing a more accurate picture of what was an underrecognized problem, the authors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report wrote.

Hospital emergency room diagnoses of the condition, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, rose 16% from last October to May of this year, federal researchers found.

The syndrome — seen in people who frequently use marijuana, especially smokers — is characterized by recurring nausea, uncontrollable vomiting and excruciating abdominal pain.

Past research has suggested that an estimated 2.75 million Americans suffer from it each year, and that hospital emergency room visits have been rising as daily recreational marijuana use has increased.

But experts also have said that the syndrome probably has been underdiagnosed, possibly because doctors may not have understood patients’ marijuana use or because they attributed the suffering to a different illness.

Tracking the syndrome depended on combining diagnostic codes for nausea and vomiting, and for cannabis use. But last October, a new code was introduced to streamline the diagnosis.

In the new paper, researchers at the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control looked at emergency room data from about 7,500 healthcare facilities across the country through May. From January 2023 through the summer of 2025, almost 200,000 syndrome-related visits were made to the emergency departments.

The burden on ERs was relatively flat over most of the study period. But then it jumped in October, when the new code went into effect.

The largest increases were seen in people aged 15 to 24, in teenage girls and women, and in Black Americans and in American Indian and Alaska Natives.

The increase in younger people diagnosed with the syndrome “was actually one of the surprising findings for us,” said CDC’s Alana Vivolo-Kantor, the study’s first author.

“Because the assumption going in was, ‘well, how can they have chronic use?’” she said. “How early were they using cannabis?”

The findings suggest a need to raise awareness about the syndrome, particularly in teens and young adults. The report also suggests a need for more research, including into how newer high-potency THC and hemp-derived products — some of which come in the form of vapes, drinks and gummies — are being used by, and affecting, younger Americans, she said.

___

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.

Both of the new orders deal with birthright citizenship to some extent, with one pushing to end “birth tourism,” and the other targeting those whose parents aren’t legal citizens and meet other criteria.

You can find a summary of both orders below:

Executive Order — Ending Birth Tourism

The executive order directs the State Department and DHS to crack down on “birth tourism,” defined as entering the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa primarily to give birth.

The order argues this kind of travel is unfair and can strain the system, so it tells federal officials to look more closely for it and block or punish people and businesses that help arrange it.

“Participants in birth tourism schemes abuse (visa) categories to establish a permanent foothold in the United States by securing the advantage of citizenship for their children and then potentially for themselves,” the order reads.

As such, the order includes the following changes:

• Updating Rules: Directs State Department and DHS to update rules to carry out the policy of preventing misuse of nonimmigrant visa categories for birth tourism.
• Authorizes actions that may include:
• • Preventing entry or denying visas/travel authorization to people seeking to engage in birth tourism.
  • Revoking visas/travel authorization and permanently barring entry for people who enter or attempt to enter for birth tourism.
  • Denying entry, removing individuals who previously engaged in or plan to engage in birth tourism.
  • Taking action against entities/organizations/individuals (inside or outside the U.S.) that facilitate or enable birth tourism.
• Record Provisions: Requires other agencies to provide records/information needed for State and DHS to implement the order (subject to law).
• Creates exemptions: Federal officials may exempt individuals on humanitarian grounds or when entry is deemed in the national interest.

Executive Order — American Citizenship

This order establishes a national policy that no executive agencies should issue or accept documents that recognize U.S. citizenship for those without citizen parents who also meet one of the following criteria:

• Either parent is an “alien enemy,” which includes members of designated foreign terrorist organizations
• Either parent is a foreign government employee, which includes:
• • ambassadors
  • those employed by foreign embassies or consulates who are nationals of that foreign country
  • those employed by a foreign government in an official capacity
  • those employed by an international organization that possess international-organization immunity
• Either parent engaged in a commercial transaction or fraudulent activity to purchase or access birthright citizenship for the person in question, including:
• • Birthright Tourism: When the parent(s) engage in a commercial transaction to ensure the person’s mother is present in the U.S. to give birth
  • Surrogacy: When the parent(s) engage in a commercial transaction with a surrogate present in the U.S. to give birth

The agreement was announced Thursday on the first day of classes for Bossier Parish Schools near Shreveport.

“Dismissal of the case allows us the freedom to make our own decisions that are in the best interest of all students, staff and our community, while keeping in mind the history of the past 61 years,” Bossier Schools Superintendent Jason Rowland said in a statement.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the settlement. Last month she announced she had helped lift a desegregation mandate for the rural Concordia Parish School Board along the Mississippi River.

“It’s long past time for these old consent decrees to come to an end. These decades-old cases are expensive, ineffective, and they take power away from local communities,” Murrill said on social media.

The U.S. Justice Department spent decades fighting for such cases but reversed course under Trump. Officials in his administration have framed the remaining segregation orders as federal intrusion into local school systems. Louisiana officials agree they’re no longer needed and describe them as relics of a time when Black students were forbidden from attending some schools.

The Bossier Parish Schools order said the parents who filed the original suit in 1964 that led to the oversight agreement are dead and that their children, who were part of the original court proceedings, couldn't be contacted.

The school system said it worked for decades with the Department of Justice, collaborating with its lawyers over “every new school, classroom wing addition and attendance zone change.”

Rowland thanked past board members and employees for doing everything the system needed to do to get out from the intense federal monitoring.

The superintendent said he trusts district leadership to make sure everyone in the system is treated fairly.

Cassandra Barksdale and her attorneys filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Kaiser Permanente alleging the mix-up led to the surgery and months of physical and emotional pain.

According to the lawsuit, another patient's tissue sample was mistakenly labeled as belonging to Barksdale, who at age 43 then underwent a full hysterectomy on May 15, 2025, and was told she would get instructions about chemotherapy.

It's unclear how the mix-up occurred. In September, Barksdale was informed that a DNA analysis found the tissue sample showing an aggressive form of endometrial uterine cancer belonged to a different patient and not to her, the lawsuit says.

“She came into Kaiser Permanente looking for answers, and she left with a diagnosis that did not belong to her. And every step that was taken after that was based off of misinformation,” her attorney Shannan Young said.

Barksdale went to Kaiser Permanente Southwood Medical Center in Jonesboro, Georgia, in early 2025 to seek treatment for heavy bleeding and fibroids, which are noncancerous growths in and around the uterus. She underwent a biopsy on March 10, 2025.

Barksdale said that after she got the biopsy results on March 17, 2025, she lived for months believing she had an aggressive type of cancer, sending her and her sons into a deep depression.

“I even started making funeral plans with them to let them know, you know, if I don’t make it out, this is what I want done,” Barksdale said.

Representatives for Kaiser Permanente wrote in a statement that, “Ms. Barksdale should not have experienced this.”

“We have highly trained staff and very thorough processes in place to prevent errors like this from taking place. After this occurred last year, we took immediate steps to ensure it could not happen again. We realize the impact of this incident and are committed to working with Ms. Barksdale and her counsel to resolve this in the most fair and accountable way we can.”

Because of privacy laws, information about the other patient — including what happened to her and whether cancer treatment was delayed — isn’t publicly available.

It is not clear just how often pathology samples are mislabeled or mixed-up during medical testing. An Ohio woman filed a similar lawsuit saying a 2019 error on a biopsy led to a misdiagnosis of lung cancer and unneeded surgery. Researchers studying prostate cancer discovered three cases of biopsy sample misidentification over two years, according to a 2011 research paper.

Labs have turned to a number of best practices to try and prevent errors, including barcode systems for specimen labeling and point-of-care testing.

The Georgia lawsuit asks for unspecified damages.

“There’s no amount of money that’s going to return back to her, her healthy organs, or erase the experiences and the pain that she’s had. But our justice system recognizes that when somebody’s negligence harms another person, accountability requires more than ‘I’m sorry,'” Young said.

___

Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.

Friday

A slot of dry air out ahead of this wave early Friday will help keep shower and thunderstorm coverage more on the scattered side at least through noon. Expect a spotty showers along the coastline for the morning commute as our onshore flow continues. The sea breeze will continue to push inland throughout the morning, helping to develop showers near the I-4 corridor around lunchtime, 11am-12pm. Showers and storms continue to fill in throughout the afternoon moving from east to west. Highs will touch 90ºF briefly before cooling showers develop.

This Weekend

With more tropical moisture moving into Central Florida on the backside of this tropical wave Saturday, rain chances remain elevated for the first half of the weekend. Rain chances will hover in the 60-70% range for our neighborhoods as our sea breeze is super charged with this added moisture. If you’re looking for better beach weather, rain chances begin to decline Sunday as drier air begins to push in from the Atlantic. Rain chances will return to “normal” 40-50% for Sunday afternoon with these storms pushing from east to west. Highs will remain in the low 90s.

No, it wasn't a prank call.

Brown was indeed headed to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he was set to form an All-Star trio with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

Little did he know LeBron James was on his way to Philly, too.

Brown has slowly settled into his new team, all while admitting he's still processing the details of his messy breakup with the Celtics.

If the 29-year-old Brown lived in a perfect world, he'd still wear Celtics green this season, and for the rest of his career, if he could, rather than get traded.

He's ready to move on and try with perhaps the best starting five in the NBA to win a championship with the Sixers.

“I'm still processing to some degree," Brown said Thursday. “Just, the excitement of coming to a new city, a new place, new expectations, new energy. Then also leaving somewhere that you've been for a very, very long time.”

Brown, the No. 3 pick in the 2016 draft, formed a potent 1-2 partnership on the court with Jayson Tatum that resulted in the 2024 NBA championship. Their off-court relationship was dissected throughout NBA media circles and the topic of are they-or-aren't they friends could have strained their effectiveness in Boston.

Brown, who still has three seasons and about $182 million left on what was then a record, five-year, $304 million supermax deal he signed in 2023, was respectful of Tatum, but noted they had “not really” talked since the trade.

“We won a championship together," Brown said. “Anybody that you win a championship with, you think that’s what a brotherhood or a lifelong legacy would entail. Obviously, there’s ups and downs in any type of relationship, for sure.”

Brown has spoken in previous years about how he has felt disrespected by both media and people around the league for what he has achieved during his career.

Though he took Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals honors during the Celtics' most recent championship run, he was left off the U.S. 2024 Paris Olympics roster.

Then, last season, with Tatum playing in just 16 games during the regular season while he rehabbed from a ruptured Achilles tendon, Brown averaged career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1) while finishing sixth in MVP voting.

The Celtics promptly dangled him as trade bait to Milwaukee in a failed bid to land Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Brown said the “whole process” of how his career in Boston ended bothered him.

“Maybe one day, we’ll share the details of how everything transpired and all the moving parts that took place in this,” Brown said. "Obviously, it’s a lot of speculation; I feel no need to chime in on it because I’m focused on what’s in front of me.”

The 76ers and new team president Mike Gansey swooped in and landed Brown in exchange for Paul George and a slew of draft picks.

Brown alone was a significant upgrade and made the 76ers, who haven't won an NBA title since 1983, a serious contender to win the East.

Little did Brown know his presence was enough to help sway four-time NBA MVP and four-time NBA champion James, leading to the free agent signing last month with the Sixers.

“I thought maybe after Jaylen, we had a better chance,” Gansey said. “I guess that was all we needed.”

How's this for a starting five: two league MVPs in Embiid and James, a five-time All-Star in Brown, a 2026 All-Star starter in Maxey and third in last season's NBA rookie of the year voting in VJ Edgecombe.

Expectations this season are sky high.

Brown faced much of the same pressures to win in Boston, dealing with a hefty media corps and trying to please an overzealous fanbase. He thrived.

“I think at different points in my career, how I handled pressure would probably look different at this point,” Brown said. “I probably ignore a lot of it, you know, just water under the bridge. My relationship with the media hasn't always been the best. That's part of the reason why I started streaming (on Twitch) and stuff like that.”

Brown — deeply involved in Boston community initiatives — skipped holding the traditional introductory press conference at the Sixers' New Jersey complex or South Philadelphia home arena. Instead, he chose a recreation center where he was greeted by screeching, joyous children in Brown T-shirts, high-fived the mascot and a DJ pumped tunes until he and other team personnel arrived.

“As I’m still getting to learn this community, I just wanted to make it clear that this was an important pillar in my life, community and the foundation," Brown said. "As I’m getting started on the journey here in Philadelphia, the introduction, the first impression is everything. I just wanted to let people know in Philadelphia that this is something that’s important to me.”

___

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

Herbert Wayne Smith, 65, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the blaze that has destroyed seven structures and scorched more than 15 square miles (39 square km) of forest in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras County.

Smith is suspected of “recklessly causing" the blaze on Monday while “operating equipment capable of producing sparks” without clearing flammable vegetation as required, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Prosecutors will determine whether to file criminal charges.

An apologetic Smith told KCRA-TV that he was using a chain saw to cut some scrap wood when it ignited.

“I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened,” Smith told the news station. “This is going to destroy my life, one way or another."

Investigators will determine whether the fire contributed to the death of the person found in a burned home near the town of Angels Camp, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office said.

In eastern Washington state, three major fires continued to burn around the city of Spokane. Officials said Thursday that cooler temperatures and calmer winds have allowed firefighters to make progress against the blazes. No deaths have been reported, though at least 800 buildings have been destroyed.

Miller is facing a congressional ethics investigation related to domestic abuse allegations leveled against him by his ex-wife, and anxiety over his electability this fall is growing within his party. But the second-term, Cleveland-area congressman has continued to insist that he will hold the course.

In a post on X, Husted said he knows Miller, his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno, and their daughter, and “I do not see how a campaign for Congress benefits any of them.”

“I believe Max would be making the right decision to step aside as a candidate and resign from Congress to focus on what is in the best interest of his daughter,” he wrote. “Years from now, I believe he will look back and know it was the right choice for her.”

Another Republican senator, Tim Sheehy of Montana, also urged Miller on Thursday to “step aside and seek help.”

“Staying in this race makes it far more likely we lose this seat and hand Democrats a majority to impeach President Trump,” he said on X.

Miller faces Democrat Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker and local councilman, for Ohio’s 7th Congressional District.

A message seeking comment was left with Miller's spokesperson. The congressman has vehemently denied all allegations of domestic abuse leveled against him by his former spouse.

Husted’s and Sheehy's comments added to the increasing pressure on Miller from both Democrats and fellow Republicans. Sen. Bernie Moreno, the state's senior senator, reacted to Miller's livestream on X Sunday by saying that Miller is unfit to serve — though he never specifically urged Miller to resign or end his November campaign.

Under Ohio law, Miller would need to withdraw by Saturday to allow enough time for the replacement process to play out before the 4 p.m. Monday deadline.

Donovan O'Neil, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Ohio, an influential conservative organization, also labeled Miller “unfit to serve” in an X post Thursday.

O'Neil said Republicans just a month ago called out Graham Platner, a now-former Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, over a sexual assault claim he denied and they “should be just as willing to call out Max Miller and exorcise our own demons from the GOP.”

President Donald Trump, for whom Miller was a senior aide during the first term, has cautioned Miller that he may face an uphill battle this fall — but he continued to stop short on Thursday of weighing in on whether Miller should resign or withdraw.

The president was asked about the embattled congressman while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office at a Thursday signing event.

“Well, I’m not going to get involved in that,” Trump said. He echoed his earlier comments that it was a “very sad situation.”

The storms — called haboobs — occur throughout the U.S. Southwest when strong downdrafts from thunderstorms stir up loose dust and dirt that get blown along in front of the approaching storm cell.

They can produce massive walls of dust and debris that blind drivers and make people sick.

The latest storm rolled in during the early morning hours Thursday, three days after the other one struck. There were no reports of any significant impacts, though both storms reduced visibility to half a mile (0.8 kilometers).

“Luckily, they both happened when it was later at night, so there was less traffic on the roads,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Salerno in Phoenix.

Both storms were extreme, Category 5 events on a scale of dust storm severity, with huge concentrations of dust and wind speeds of about 50 mph (80 kph), according to researchers at Arizona State University, which helped develop the scale.

The scale — unveiled this year — was developed using data going back to 2010.

“To have Class 5 dust storms occur one right after another a few days apart is unprecedented in our records,” said Randall Cerveny, a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State. “We don't see that.”

They were only the fifth and sixth dust storms in the last 16 years to reach Category 5, Cerveny told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

He noted the Phoenix region has been drier than normal, which can increase the amount of dust that is kicked up. Scientists have said human-caused climate change increases the odds of both severe drought and heavier storms that could set the stage for more intense dust storms in the future.

Investors in SpaceX have pushed the shares down sharply in recent days in anticipation of insiders possibly selling in the first of several so-called lockup expirations that free them up to trade. More than 900 million shares became newly available to buy or sell with Thursday's release, doubling what was available previously.

SpaceX shares rose 6.1% to close at $114.92. A day earlier they had one of their biggest routs in SpaceX's short history as a public company, dropping nearly 14%.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said the expiration of lockup provisions that bar employees and others from selling was an opportunity for others to get into the stock cheaply. He believes the stock could rise to $300 by the middle of next year, nearly triple its current level.

Morgan Stanley was one of the investment banks that earned big fees helping take SpaceX public last month.

Earlier this week, SpaceX reported it had lost $541 million, or 9 cents per share, in the three months through June, less than half what financial analysts had forecast. Revenue jumped to $7.8 billion, up more than 90% from the year-earlier period.

The company also posted a massive increase in spending on R&D and infrastructure, particularly involving artificial intelligence, and other major projects. Investors are growing increasingly nervous with big capital spending figures in technology companies, triggering sell-offs.

In June, Musk sold SpaceX shares to the public for the first time in the biggest initial public offering ever. Shares jumped as high as $225 a share, briefly making Musk a trillionaire.

The plunge in the stock since has wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value, leaving the shares trading at even less than its initial $135 offering price.

In recent weeks OpenAI and Anthropic also have described instances of AI models going beyond humans' instructions to access the web and find ways around other companies' digital security.

Meta said in a statement that a “misconfiguration" during cybersecurity testing by Irregular, an independent company hired by Meta, inadvertently allowed one of its models to access the internet.

“The model subsequently exploited a security vulnerability in a third-party service, in a manner similar to previously-reported instances with other companies,” the company said. Meta said it is investigating the incident and will issue a report when that's complete.

The disclosure has added to worries about AI models acting autonomously.

Separately this week, the United Kingdom's AI Security Institute announced it had found “unsanctioned agent behavior” during cyber testing. In one case, an agent created fake online identities to pressure a person to approve use of malicious code.

“On investigation, we found that some of the agents being tested had engaged in sustained, potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organizations,” AISI said Tuesday. “We declared a security incident and, within roughly one hour of discovery, had contained it and begun a full investigation.”

During the agency's testing, Anthropic and OpenAI models took “autonomous, unsanctioned action” on the internet. Some guardrails to prevent misuse had been disabled, the agency said.

“As was standard in our cyber testing, we had intentionally permitted internet access, and model-provider cyber classifiers were deliberately disabled — conditions that do not reflect how frontier models are made available to the public,” AISI said. “We do this to best assess the maximum capability of models.”

Anthropic said it is “grateful” for AISI's work and added that it underscores the need for a broader conversation about how to safely evaluate AI agents as their capabilities grow.

OpenAI said the AISI incidents took place “in testing environments with reduced safeguards, under conditions that do not reflect ordinary use." It added it will continue working with others across the industry to "strengthen shared practices for conducting evaluations safely as models become more capable.”

The first company to disclose a hack late last month, OpenAI said it had tasked the AI models involved with pursuing “advanced exploitation using complex attack paths” to test cyber capabilities, but the technology went to unexpected lengths. It apparently decided on its own to target Hugging Face, a well-known AI development hub and marketplace, to obtain information it needed to carry out a task.

A spokesperson for Irregular, the San Francisco-based AI security company, said the Meta episode involves a test-environment issue that was disclosed last week by Anthropic.

Irregular said it's writing a paper to share “best practices for containment” to prevent such incidents in the future and securely run cyber tests.

The former Senate leader was first admitted to the hospital on June 14. He disclosed weeks later that his hospitalization was the result of a fall and said he was undergoing physical therapy.

McConnell, 84, gave no specific date for his return to the Capitol, but senators are expected to soon leave Washington for the traditional August recess. Votes are unlikely for the next five weeks once they adjourn.

“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business," McConnell said in a statement released by his office.

McConnell had polio in his early childhood and has long acknowledged some difficulty walking and climbing stairs as an adult. The Office of the Attending Physician has said McConnell was undergoing a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation since he left the hospital, which includes multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls.

The senator is determined to finish out his seventh term, which concludes in January.

McConnell’s absence is being felt in the Senate as Republicans were unable to advance a farm bill out of committee Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, said he spoke with McConnell this week about the bill.

“I know how much he would have wanted to be here to advocate for Kentucky’s farmers and rural communities,” Boozman said in kicking off the committee's meeting Thursday.

But there has also been criticism that McConnell has not been transparent enough about his health. The state's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, recently called on the senator to either prove that he is fit to continue serving after his lengthy hospital stay or resign from office.

Wall Street opened the week soaring higher and notching records, but has calmed over the last two days. Markets are dealing with uncertainties over the ongoing U.S. war with Iran and its impact on inflation. Companies from a variety of sectors reported their latest financial results, adding to an already busy round of corporate earnings.

The S&P 500 fell 13.59 points, or 0.2%, to 7,709.96. It pulled further away from its record set on Tuesday, though the index is still solidly on track to notch weekly gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 464.02 points, or 0.9%, to 53,885.10. The Nasdaq composite fell 15.09 points, or 0.1%, to 26,348.35.

Both the Dow and Nasdaq are also heading into Friday on track for solid weekly gains.

“August is off to an extremely strong start, but there is still plenty of August left to go, and August is typically a volatile month for stocks,” said Clark Bellin, president and chief investment officer at Bellwether Wealth, in a research note.

Warner Bros. Discovery rose 1.7% after reporting earnings that came in ahead of what investors were expecting. Molson Coors rose 1.3% after also reporting encouraging financial results.

On the losing end, Honeywell Aerospace fell 23.2% after turning in results that fell well short of forecasts. AppLovin slumped 19.7% after the digital ad company reported mixed financial results for its most recent quarter.

Strong overall profits from companies has helped allay concerns on Wall Street about the market being overpriced. Roughly 85% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results and overall earnings growth for the period is shaping up to be the strongest since 2021.

Outside of earnings, SpaceX rose 6.1%. More than 911 million SpaceX shares held by early investors and employees became eligible for sale on Thursday as a lockup period for the stock expired. That is more than double the shares that were initially offered to the public for sale during the initial public offering for Elon Musk’s company. SpaceX jumped as high as $225 a share following its market debut in June, but has since slumped below its initial $135 offering price. The stock is currently trading around $115.

Oil prices gained ground as uncertainty remains over the U.S. war with Iran that has stifled the global flow of oil. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3.8% to $82.49.

Iran has said that it is close to a deal with Oman for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump has also previously said a deal is close, but the conflict has had many starts and stops over the last five months.

A fifth of the world's traded oil and natural gas once passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices surged as high as $113 during the conflict and higher prices have added more heat to inflation by raising the price of gasoline and raising costs for shipping.

The rate of inflation is stuck above 3% and higher costs have been squeezing businesses and households, while threatening to crimp broader economic growth. The U.S. economy expanded at a sluggish 1.5% pace during the second quarter. Households are still spending and the jobs market remains resilient, but worries linger for both areas of the economy.

Higher gas prices and added costs for shipping goods could prompt households to shift more spending toward necessities. That could hurt businesses focusing on nonessential items and services for many people, such as travel and entertainment.

Employment remains strong, but growth has been easing. A weekly report on Thursday showed that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week, though layoffs remain in the historically healthy range of the past few years. Employers pulled back on hiring in June, adding only 57,000 jobs. The latest monthly jobs report, for July, will be released on Friday.

Worries about inflation and the jobs market have prompted the Federal Reserve to hold its benchmark interest rate steady. Stubborn inflation, though, is nudging the central bank toward raising interest rates before the end of the year in order to help tame inflation. Raising rates could also slow economic growth while weighing down prices for stocks and other investments.

Treasury yields rose in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.67% from 4.63% late Wednesday.

European markets mostly rose.

___

Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.

Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak since May that has been deemed the fastest in history in terms of transmission, with confirmed cases reaching 4,000, including over 1,800 deaths, according to Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director-General of Africa CDC.

The passenger had become sick and disembarked nearly three weeks ago in Pimu, in the province of Mongala, more than 1,000 kilometers (more than 600 miles) from Kinshasa along the Congo River, Kaseya said Thursday, adding that the capital has no confirmed Ebola case. The passenger later died.

Authorities did not give the current location of the boat other than to say that it was near the capital. They did not say if the nearly 200 remaining passengers were being held aboard the ship or in some location on land, nor how long they would be held. But they said they were awaiting test results.

“We decided to do that even if some of them didn’t have symptoms because we want to make sure that we don’t miss anything,” Kaseya added.

Ebola is highly contagious and spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.

News of the passenger’s death caused panic in Kinshasa, which is far from the eastern region hit by the outbreak, the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths.

Authorities say 60-70% of new cases in the current outbreak are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate faster than efforts to track it.

Health workers strike disrupts response

Dozens of Congolese health workers at the epicenter in Ituri province, meanwhile, staged protests Thursday to demand payment for their wages, abandoning several health facilities and further disrupting critical care.

The health workers were protesting at the governor’s office in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, which accounts for nearly 90% of the Ebola cases in the country. They are the latest group to walk off their jobs since protests over pay issues began weeks ago.

The health workers, including nurses providing critical care to Ebola patients, said they haven't received wages and bonuses for their work fighting Ebola since the outbreak was declared in mid-May in one of Congo’s most remote and vulnerable areas ravaged by rebel conflict.

“With this way of managing things, Ebola will not end in this province. We ask the authorities to get involved at all levels so that a solution is found quickly,” said Edouige Makosi, one of the protesters.

Officials have in the past blamed logistical issues for the payment delays. Congolese authorities did not immediately respond to an inquiry for comments on Thursday.

Poor welfare for front-line workers has been a key source of concern in the outbreak. Apart from the payment issues, many health workers and facilities have been attacked by rebels and angry mobs.

During his visit to Congo on Wednesday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged authorities to prioritize care and support for the responders.

Ebola is spreading at an ‘alarming’ rate in Congo

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this week that the outbreak is still “spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate” and that the response, which has been expanding, “is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains.”

Government data shows 674 patients are currently in isolation, most of them in Ituri.

At least 75% of contacts are being traced after their exposure to patients, the data showed. A bigger concern, though, according to officials, is that contact tracing has not been effective as most new cases are coming from sources not being monitored and from remote localities where rebel conflict and mining-related movements are limiting access.

—

McMakin reported from Dakar, Senegal.

No, it's not quite rose-colored glasses. But the veteran quarterback is wearing red contact lenses during training camp this summer in his return to the team that drafted him in 2013.

Fashionable? Maybe. Functional? Definitely.

“It’s something that we’ve been doing,” said the 35-year-old Smith, acquired in the offseason from Las Vegas. “It blocks out the sunlight and all that, so it’s actually pretty cool. It keeps the glare from the sun out of your eyes.”

Smith was still wearing the UV protection lenses while speaking to reporters after practice Thursday, giving the quarterback's eyes an almost sinister look. One reporter joked that he was scared, causing Smith to break into a not-so-evil grin.

“As I got back here, I spoke to some eye specialists," Smith said, “and they suggested it and then we started doing it.”

The quarterback was asked if he was having eye issues or simply opted for the contacts over wearing a tinted visor on his helmet so there was less squinting and more seeing.

“It’s just something we’re trying out, just to see what it was like,” he said. “I like it, so we’ve been sticking with it.”

Several players around the league have tried wearing the glare-reducing contacts, including Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert last summer. Smith said he first saw them when then-Jets teammate Santonio Holmes wore them during the 2013 season.

Oh, and by the way, Smith isn't seeing red these days.

“The entire room is yellow, so it’s a yellow tint to everything,” he said. “But yeah, it’s pretty cool. You guys should try it.”

They seem to be working for Smith, who is off to a solid start to camp. He played his first four NFL seasons for the franchise before stints with the Giants, Chargers, Seahawks and Raiders. New York, looking for a veteran signal caller in the offseason, acquired Smith and a seventh-round draft pick in March from Las Vegas for a sixth-rounder.

He'll enter the season as the unquestioned starter and is feeling comfortable in new offensive coordinator Frank Reich's system.

“I’m excited about the schematic advantages that he’s able to create, but also the ways that he allows players to go out there and make plays and to have freedom to take ownership of the offense,” Smith said. “I think there’s a fine balance with X’s and O’s and also having great players and allowing those guys to be themselves. Coach Reich, he’s played in the league, so he understands that dynamic and that balance.”

The Jets play their first preseason game next Friday night at home against Tampa Bay and former coach Todd Bowles. It wasn't yet known if New York coach Aaron Glenn will play his starters, including Smith, at all in that game. Smith, who has played in the preseason the last several years, sounded open to the possibility.

“I love playing football.” Smith said. “Whenever coach tells me to go out there, I go play.”

—

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

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site soon after the Falcon 9 upper stage inadvertently plowed into the moon on Wednesday. Danuri made multiple passes, snapping photos from lunar orbit that were released by the space agency Thursday.

The terrain is noticeably darker where the rocket hit and carved out a crater, sending dust and rock everywhere. Korean space officials said Danuri gathered before and after shots.

NASA expects its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to fly over the crash site next week to view the aftermath.

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched Danuri from Cape Canaveral in 2022.

The company also sent a pair of private lunar landers to the moon last year. The upper stage from that launch is what crashed into the moon this week at 5,400 mph (8,700 kph), placed on an accidental collision course by solar activity and gravity, according to SpaceX.

___

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.

Publix said sales for the quarter ended June 27 were $15.7 billion, up 1% from $15.6 billion a year earlier. Sales for the six months ended June 27 were $31.9 billion, a 1.5% increase from $31.4 billion. Comparable-store sales fell 0.5% for the quarter and 0.3% for the six-month period.

The company said the comparisons were also affected by a Medicare maximum fair price change that took effect Jan. 1 and reduced drug prices for 10 medicines, which reduced sales. Publix added that broader economic conditions have hurt consumer spending — pressure that often shows up in grocery aisles as shoppers trade down, buy fewer items or shift to lower-priced brands when food prices climb.

Net earnings for the quarter were $1.7 billion, up 20.5% from $1.4 billion a year earlier, and earnings per share rose to $0.52 from $0.42. Excluding net unrealized gains on equity securities, adjusted quarterly net earnings were $1.06 billion, or $0.33 per share, compared with $1.04 billion, or $0.32, a year earlier.

For the six months, net earnings were $2.45 billion, a 2.7% increase from $2.39 billion, with earnings per share of $0.76 versus $0.73. On an adjusted basis excluding fair-value changes, six-month net earnings were $2.20 billion, or $0.69 a share, compared with $2.22 billion, or $0.68, in 2025.

Publix also said its internal stock price for associates fell to $19.60 a share effective Aug. 1 from $20.45. The company’s stock is not publicly traded and is sold only to current associates and board members.

“I’m grateful for our associates’ commitment to our customers, our communities and each other, especially during this difficult economic time,” Publix CEO Kevin Murphy said.

The results are based on unaudited financial statements that will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and posted on the company’s website.

RWE U.S. Offshore said its leases represented years of planning, investment and partnership with federal agencies, but it determined there was no path forward to permit the projects for the foreseeable future. In exchange for $1.22 billion, RWE is relinquishing the wind power leases that could have provided about seven gigawatts of power, enough for more than 5 million homes. It does not have any remaining U.S. offshore wind leases.

President Donald Trump, who often talks about his hatred of wind power, has said his goal is to not let any “windmills” be built. The Republican administration has been buying back offshore wind leases from energy companies as it seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels. Offshore wind produces electricity cleanly. Oil, coal and natural gas emit carbon pollution when burned.

RWE announced it is investing $900 million in a liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana and spending $300 million on natural gas turbines. The company is developing 15 natural gas projects across the United States. RWE is headquartered in Germany.

The administration adopted this strategy after federal courts thwarted Trump’s efforts to stop offshore wind development through executive action. Roughly $3.9 billion has been spent. States that are losing offshore wind energy are suing. California intends to sue.

Separately, a coalition of renewable energy groups sued Pentagon officials over their failure to complete national security reviews for new onshore wind farms on private lands. A federal judge in Oregon ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on Thursday, ordering the Defense Department to resume its review process and provide status reports on the progress.

Commenting on the RWE agreement, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday that Americans “deserve an energy system built on common sense, not one dependent on costly subsidies or technologies that can’t meet our country’s current demand.” He said he welcomes RWE’s agreement and voluntary investment in projects that strengthen the nation’s energy security, provide dependable baseload power and help keep electricity affordable.

But Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the lease buybacks are effectively bribing companies to step away from clean energy that can displace more expensive fossil fuel plants, which in turn will raise costs for consumers.

“They are creating this enormous money pump, pulling billions of dollars out of consumers’ pockets,” he said. “That’s the real story of what is going on here. And that is both a cost story because of the billions in extra costs consumers pay, and it’s a corruption story because it’s Trump’s sneaky way of getting regular families to pay off his big fossil fuel donors. There’s method here, and it’s a real scam.”

Under the first agreement announced in March, French company TotalEnergies is getting nearly $1 billion — essentially a refund of its two offshore wind leases — if it invests the money in fossil fuels instead. Golden State Wind and Bluepoint Wind agreed in April to end their leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million, provided it invests equally in fossil fuels. Chicago-based Invenergy agreed in June to end its four offshore wind leases that were very early in development in exchange for reimbursements of lease fees totaling $765 million.

___

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.

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

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

WHAT THE LAW SAYS

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a release, deputies said they were called to the scene in the 800 block of Campello Street in unincorporated Altamonte Springs shortly after 8 a.m. on Tuesday.

At the time, the body was found on the ground outside the home, deputies added.

“We continue to believe that this is an isolated incident,” the release reads. “Our Major Case detectives are following active leads.”

No additional information has been provided at this time.

Professor Jason Arday, who was 37 when he became a Cambridge professor in 2023, announced his decision late Wednesday following weeks of allegations about plagiarism in his academic work and questions surrounding claims about his athletic and fundraising accomplishments.

“While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement,” Arday said in a statement. “The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.”

The statement was distributed by the Good Law Project, a campaign group that has supported Arday since the criticism spilled into the media last month. An earlier letter circulated by the group and signed by more than two dozen academics and politicians described the plagiarism allegations as a “smear campaign” designed to undermine Arday and other Black people who hold “positions of influence.”

Arday’s appointment at Cambridge highlighted his personal story of overcoming dyslexia, developmental delays and autism that he said left him non-verbal until the age of 11 and illiterate until his late teens. Arday tells his story in the memoir “Great and Unfortunate Things,” which comes out next week. Publisher Simon & Schuster issued a statement Thursday saying that it would release the book “as planned.”

Questions about his qualifications were raised publicly last month by Nathan Cofnas, a one-time Cambridge philosophy researcher who left the university after his critique of diversity, equity and inclusion programs sparked widespread protests.

On July 24, the Times of London published an analysis of Arday’s 2015 Ph.D. thesis highlighting what it said were multiple examples of passages that were “identical or near-identical” to an earlier paper written by another researcher.

The British media also raised questions about Arday’s claims that he had raised 5.5 million pounds ($7.4 million) for charity through feats such as running 30 marathons in 35 days and 600 miles in six days.

Arday told the Guardian news website that the money was raised with the help of others over a 20-year period. He said non-disclosure agreements prevented him from naming the others.

Cambridge initially stood by Arday, saying that the plagiarism allegations had been investigated by Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded Arday’s doctorate.

That changed Wednesday when Cambridge opened its inquiry.

“The University of Cambridge has begun an investigation following new information about Professor Arday’s qualifications and honorary appointments,” the university said in a statement. “In order to ensure a fair process, we will not comment further until this has concluded.”

The Times of London said Cambridge decided to investigate after it presented new evidence that some of Arday’s research was “fabricated” and contained “impossible” evidence.

In an interview with the newspaper published last week, Arday denied plagiarism but admitted to some mistakes that he said were partly due to a lack of supervision when he was working on his doctorate.

Arday continued to defend himself in his resignation statement, saying his decision “should not be interpreted as a loss of faith in scholarship.”

“Nor should it be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me’” he said. “It is simply the decision of someone who has reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure.”

You might think it's 2020 again.

Six years after COVID-19 thrust the world into the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic, Republicans in power aren’t leaving it in the past. Instead, they’ve returned its familiar political arguments to center stage for new scrutiny, demanding accountability for the scientists and media figures whom they feel deceived and mistreated Americans years ago.

The efforts ramped up last week, when a Republican-led Senate committee chaired by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul subpoenaed the now-retired, 85-year-old Fauci to testify about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The former National Institutes of Health immunologist repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, after accusing the lawmakers of trying to coerce him to perjure himself to justify criminal charges. In response to his choice, on Thursday, the committee passed a vote to hold Fauci in contempt, a stunning move that could motivate the Justice Department to initiate an investigation.

Separately, Kennedy, a politically independent former anti-vaccine activist who now serves as the Republican President Donald Trump’s health secretary, spent part of his weekend in a combative live debate with CNN host Dana Bash about the pandemic's management and the media’s role.

Political scientists and historians say the focus on COVID grievances half a decade after the virus’ peak demonstrates how some wounds it opened have never been closed. Democrats, meanwhile, have slammed the federal government’s blaming of Fauci as a performative distraction that’s not based in facts.

While both Paul and Kennedy have spent years airing their frustrations about COVID, the Republican takeover of Congress and the White House last year created a new platform for them to steer how America remembers the pandemic, and who is held responsible for it, according to Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University.

It’s also allowed them to use the administration’s resources to surface new information.

“The response to COVID has become a touchstone for Trump’s Republican Party,” Dallek said. “They’re using their power now to argue they were right all along.”

Pandemic grievances have simmered for years

When the coronavirus began spreading widely in 2020, under Trump's first administration, groups of Americans revolted against requirements imposed by local authorities and businesses telling people to wear masks and stay at home to control the spread of the virus.

Vaccines supercharged those sentiments. Figures like Kennedy, then a leader of the anti-vaccine movement, accused the federal government of trampling on personal liberties by supporting vaccine mandates and social media takedowns of dissenting ideas.

While Trump has long expressed pride in his first-term Operation Warp Speed effort to disseminate COVID-19 vaccines quickly, saving millions of lives, his second administration has taken a different tone.

Under Kennedy's leadership, U.S. regulators have limited the availability of COVID-19 vaccines for Americans. Kennedy on CNN on Sunday questioned whether the COVID-19 vaccines protected children, even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website that they “help keep children from getting really sick from COVID-19.”

Frances Lee, a Princeton University political scientist, said debates over COVID-19 have erupted on the fringes for years. Now that some of the leaders of those debates are in power, they're hashing it out on the national stage — something she said needed to happen eventually.

“There are aggrieved parties, people who have a sense that they were done wrong during the pandemic and that there’s never been an accounting for that,” Lee said. “Most people don’t want to think about this topic, but nevertheless there are constituencies – so Congress is speaking to those constituencies.”

Lee said Kennedy’s decision to surface numerous diary entries that Fauci had made on a government computer – and Paul’s decision to publicize them last week – created an opening for “the first real showdown” in years around the pandemic’s handling.

While some of the entries – including Fauci’s uncertainty in the pandemic’s earliest days about how best to curb the virus – already were reflected in a 2024 memoir and in interviews at the time, they have nonetheless drawn attention from people who blame Fauci for policies they believe infringed on their rights as hundreds of thousands of people were dying.

Also discussed at Fauci's hearing last week was whether NIH-funded research in China played a role in how the pandemic started. The day of the hearing, Trump's White House also directed social media followers to a federal website that used to feature information on COVID vaccines, testing and treatment that now promotes the theory that the pandemic originated with a lab leak.

Many scientists believe the virus most likely emerged in nature and jumped from animals to people, coming to light when it spread at a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. There’s no new scientific evidence supporting the theory that the virus might instead have leaked from a laboratory, a theory Paul champions. A GOP-led subcommittee that studied the question in 2024 found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing.

Fauci has long said publicly that he was open to both theories but that there’s more evidence supporting COVID-19’s natural origins.

Republican lawmakers aren't stopping at the contempt vote. Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday that Kennedy's department had given a subcommittee he chairs a copy of Fauci's cellphone from his time in government. Johnson indicated he intended to investigate it.

“Hopefully, this device will address many of the questions he refused to answer at last week’s hearing,” he wrote on social media.

Many dismiss the idea that Republicans’ COVID fact-finding is genuine

As Republicans hold up scrutiny of Fauci as important accountability, Democrats have called it disingenuous. Paul said Thursday he'd invited Fauci to appear for a private, transcribed interview, but Democrats accused him of not allowing the full, bipartisan committee to be present for it.

Paul also referred the committee's contempt vote directly to the Justice Department, instead of to the full Senate. He said he did not “want to waste time” with that route, while Democrats insisted all senators should get a chance to vote.

Last week’s hearing, at which Fauci pleaded the Fifth, came after the immunologist had repeatedly appeared before Congress over the years and talked about his thinking in the beginning of the pandemic and how it changed over time. Critics have raised concerns that the ordeal surrounding him will deter scientists from taking government jobs for fear of being similarly targeted.

Paul has long argued that Fauci should be criminally investigated, based on his belief that the scientist has been dishonest to Congress about National Institutes of Health-funded research and COVID's origins. Fauci's attorney last week called Paul's accusations about the scientist “false and disgraceful.” More than 150 infectious-disease experts also came to Fauci's defense, writing that “no credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges."

Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said the hearing didn't represent legitimate truth seeking.

“They were looking for a platform in which they could attack him, and he would not respond, and he would say ‘plead the Fifth’ over and over again,” Ornstein said.

He said while some Republicans are likely true believers that Fauci committed crimes, bringing him to the forefront serves a dual purpose in a midterm election year — distracting voters from less favorable headlines, including on the economy and foreign conflicts.

Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, said there are real lessons to learn from the pandemic, including more deeply examining which efforts to contain the virus worked and didn’t work. But he said Republicans in Congress aren’t chasing those.

“A review of revisionist history will accomplish nothing,” he said. “We won’t be any better prepared for the next pandemic.”

Speier is appealing the ban, according to the MLB Players Association.

Additionally, Mariners manager Dan Wilson was also suspended one-game and will serve his suspension in the series finale Thursday against the Tigers. Managers cannot appeal a suspension. Manny Acta will serve as the manager for the Mariners.

Speier had relieved Bryan Woo in the eighth inning of Seattle’s 4-2 win. After getting the first two outs, Speier threw two inside fastballs to Torres, with the latter pegging him on the upper left leg on a 96.3 mph pitch.

Torres and Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh proceeded to have words with each other before the benches and bullpens cleared. There were no punches thrown, and Wilson was ejected in the aftermath after Speier was tossed from the game. It was the second time this season Wilson was removed from a game.

“It’s always frustrating when your guy’s the guy that gets thrown out,” Wilson said Wednesday. “I think, you know, their guy hits somebody and there’s no consequences.”

Torres was the fourth Tigers batter plunked after Woo hit three batters for only the second time in his career. Tigers rookie Max Clark took a pitch off his elbow guard leading off the third, Riley Green was hit by a pitch in the fourth, and Zach McKinstry in the fifth — both breaking balls on the back foot. McKinstry got first base only after a replay review showed that the ball grazed the front of his foot.

Raleigh had been plunked as well in the bottom half of the seventh by Detroit left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus with a 95-mph fastball in the bottom of the seventh.

___

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

This holiday season, some Universal Epic Universe worlds will be decked out for the holidays as part of Universal Orlando Resort’s destination-wide holiday celebration, which is kicking off earlier, running Nov. 14 through Jan. 3.

Here’s a park-by-park breakdown of everything guests can expect:

Epic Universe

For the first time, the resort’s newest theme park will feature special holiday décor in both Super Nintendo World and How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, bringing seasonal magic to two of the park’s most beloved lands.

Meanwhile, Celestial Park will transform into a cosmic winter wonderland, with twinkling trees and holiday-themed fountain displays throughout the day at the Cosmos Fountain. It’s the kind of spectacle that sets the tone for the entire park.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic will join its sister locations across the resort in celebrating Christmas with festive lights, décor and seasonal entertainment.

Universal Studios Florida

Universal’s Holiday Parade featuring Macy’s will take over the streets nightly, showcasing larger-than-life balloons and elaborately themed floats inspired by characters from Illumination’s “Despicable Me” and DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek” and “Madagascar.”

The festive procession wraps up with a Christmas tree lighting led by Santa Claus himself.

By day, guests can also explore The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley, decked out in full Christmas regalia with holiday-themed entertainment at select locations throughout the season.

Islands of Adventure

At Seuss Landing, Grinchmas returns in full force, anchored by the live “Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular” — a stage show based on Dr. Seuss’ classic “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

Guests can also meet The Grinch himself, stroll the dazzling Who-Ville Tree Lot and soak in all the whimsical charm Seuss Landing has to offer.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Hogsmeade rounds out the Islands of Adventure holiday experience with festive décor and the crown jewel of the season: “The Magic of Christmas at Hogwarts Castle.” The breathtaking nighttime spectacle uses projection and special effects to illuminate the iconic castle with beloved holiday moments and characters from the Harry Potter films.

Universal CityWalk

The holiday spirit doesn’t stop at the park gates.

At Universal CityWalk, the Red Coconut Club transforms into the Green and Red Coconut Club for the season, offering live entertainment, seasonal cocktails and vibrant décor for guests looking to extend the festivities beyond the parks.

Universal Orlando’s 11 hotels also get in on the action, each featuring unique seasonal décor tailored to their individual themes, special holiday menus and festive activities — including menorah lightings, Christmas tree lightings and strolling carolers. Hotel guests also enjoy Early Park Admission and complimentary transportation to the theme parks.

Holiday upgrades

Guests looking to go deeper can book the Universal Holiday Tour, a roughly 2.5-hour guided experience available to those with two-park, park-to-park access to Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure.

The tour includes:

• An exclusive meet-and-greet with The Grinch
• An exclusive meet-and-greet with The Grinch’s dog, Max
• Reserved seating for the “Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular”
• A meet-and-greet with Santa Claus
• Optional reserved viewing for Universal’s Holiday Parade featuring Macy’s

Tickets start at $69.99 per person, plus tax. Annual and Seasonal Passholders receive a $10 discount per ticket. The tour runs on select dates Nov. 14 through Jan. 2.

Holiday savings

U.S. residents can save up to 30% on hotel stays of five nights or more at participating Universal Orlando hotels. Bundle a stay with theme park tickets, and guests can save up to $300 more on their total vacation package. A “Get 2-Days Free with a 3-Day Ticket” offer is also currently available.

Florida residents can purchase the 2-Park Unlimited Days Ticket for $199 plus tax, offering unlimited access to Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure through Dec. 16. Florida residents can also save up to 25% on rooms at participating Universal Orlando hotels.

All in-park holiday experiences are included with regular theme park admission.

For ticket information, click here.

The repeated strikes have caused fuel shortages and rattled Russians. Ukrainians, meanwhile, are enduring regular barrages that Kyiv's depleted air defenses are struggling to counter amid Moscow's 4-year-old full-scale invasion.

The Kyiv region observed an official day of mourning Thursday after a Russian missile and drone blitz killed 17 people the previous day, prompting an increasingly urgent scramble by Ukraine and its allies to find new air defense supplies.

In the first six months of this year, 1,396 civilians were killed and 7,978 injured in Ukraine, the United Nations office in Kyiv said Wednesday. That was a 37% increase from the same period last year and a 114% jump over 2024, it said, attributing the rise to more long-range aerial attacks by Russia.

Zelenskyy said he met with senior officials on how to accelerate the development of Ukraine’s own ballistic weaponry, similar to its swift wartime innovation in drone technology.

"Developing one’s own ballistic capabilities and creating a new anti-ballistic system is a task that only a tiny minority of countries worldwide have managed to accomplish,” he said in a social media post. “Ukraine has this capability.”

Zelenskyy said he expects the program to produce results this year and next after it overcomes “key challenges,” including procuring critical components, technological cooperation with partner countries, and choosing where to build the armaments.

Ukraine says it hit Russian refineries and vessels at sea

Ukrainian forces hit a refinery in Russia's Bashkortostan region, more than 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the front line, as well as a refinery in the Yaroslavl region, almost 700 kilometers (400 miles) from the border, Zelenskyy said on social media.

Yaroslavl Gov. Mikhail Yevrayev confirmed an attack on a refinery, saying in a Telegram post that drone debris hit the facility’s oil reservoirs, sparking a fire. Three private houses also caught fire, and several residential buildings were damaged, he added.

Ukrainian forces hit two Russian military patrol boats in the Black Sea, Zelenskyy said, along with vessels belonging to Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet, which Russia uses to evade Western restrictions on its oil exports. He did not give any details.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight shot down 605 Ukrainian drones over its territory.

Ukraine seeks more interceptor missiles to bolster air defenses

Drone and glide bomb attacks across Ukraine overnight killed at least three civilians and wounded 22 others, authorities said Thursday, as countries helping Kyiv resist the invasion scrambled to find more vital air defenses for its fight.

Moscow’s forces have in recent weeks pummeled Ukraine with ballistic missiles that Kyiv officials say only the U.S.-made Patriot air defense system can stop. But the Iran war has drained stocks of Patriot interceptor missiles, leaving Ukraine at the mercy of Russian bombardments that seek to exploit the weakened air defenses.

“We are working as hard as possible with all partners who can assist with the supply of interceptor missiles to protect against such insane Russian strikes targeting life, people, and civilian facilities,” Zelenskyy said on social media late Wednesday.

He said he had spoken to NATO chief Mark Rutte and Finnish President Alexander Stubb about urgently procuring interceptors from stockpiles. Zelenskyy said he and Rutte “coordinated our efforts regarding countries that have the necessary missiles and the capacity to help.”

Rutte said on X that he was discussing with allies "how we can continue to get Ukraine the air defenses they urgently need.”

Russian glide bombs wound 12 in Sumy region

Russia appears determined to exhaust Ukraine through sheer weight of numbers in terms of soldiers, armor and weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes time is on his side, that Western support will fade and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually collapse under pressure, Western analysts and officials say.

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired four missiles and 101 long-range strike drones overnight, with air defenses shooting down or jamming 66 drones.

Three people were killed in Balakliia in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, said Vitalii Karabanov, head of the city’s military administration.

In the neighboring Sumy region, Russian glide bombs wounded 12 people, the National Police said. Apartment buildings and infrastructure were damaged, with hundreds of windows shattered, said regional military administration chief Oleh Hryhorov.

In the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, a Russian drone struck a bus carrying farmworkers, injuring six people, regional authorities said.

A Russian drone also struck a residential area in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, injuring four, said regional administration head Ivan Fedorov.

UN chief condemns escalating attacks

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned both sides for their attacks, his spokesman said.

“These latest series of attacks follow an alarming pattern of escalating strikes against populated areas, reportedly resulting in a record-level increase in numbers of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of residential and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, as well as increasingly in the Russian Federation,” said Farhan Haq, Guterres’ deputy spokesman.

The U.N. chief also called for freedom of navigation in the Black and Azov seas, expressing concern at the risks to shipping, the spokesman said.

——

Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

___

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

"The first thing that went through my mind was that I probably looked like I was trying way too hard and maybe seemed too uptight," McEwen, a student at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio, said.

With virtual interviews and casual work environments proliferating, job candidates are having a hard time figuring out what to wear when they meet potential employers online or in person. Polished suits and other types of professional business attire — the typical recommendation of career advisers in years past — no longer are the default option when interviewers may show up in hoodies and shorts.

The disconnect between long-established conventions and the less-rigid workplace settings of a post-pandemic world is confusing many job applicants who want to dress to impress.

“If the last six years has proven anything, it’s that everyone and everything has become slightly more relaxed,” said Christina Adamo, a personal stylist at the Neiman Marcus store in Paramus, New Jersey. “That especially goes for dress codes, in great part because of the transition a lot of companies have had to hybrid and remote work.”

Wearing a well-tailored suit is still frequently prescribed when interviewing for executive positions and jobs in fields such as law and finance, stylists and staffing recruiters said. But it's worth exploring an organization in advance to get a sense of the culture, or asking the hiring manager or recruiter directly about the dress code. Getting it right, or wrong, may impact your performance, especially during a face-to-face meeting.

“If you walk in and you’re already feeling out of place in the atmosphere, your answers just aren’t as good,” said McEwen, 20, who manages a student career closet of donated suits and work attire at her university. “Most of what matters about your interview outfit is that you feel confident about it. It puts you in the mindset that you’re going to succeed.”

Research the way people dress at the company and then take it up a notch

One way to scope out an organization's style vibe is to check its social media accounts or website to see what employees wear. For example, the career section of The Walt Disney Co.’s website features photos of an attorney, a writer and a maintenance technician employed by the company. After learning how employees in your line of work typically dress, prepare to look a little more polished than that for your interview, experts advised.

“If you were to look at a company’s LinkedIn page and they’re using words like ‘We’re fresh, we’re innovative, we’re the new kids on the block, we’re here to shock the industry,’ then you know that the dress code is going to be more casual than if they’re saying ‘We are a traditional historic brand with traditional values,’” said Samantha Harman, a London-based personal stylist and author of “Just Get Dressed,” a personal style guide for women.

If you're going for a more senior role, think about refreshing your style so you don't look dated, Harman, 37, said. “You don’t want anyone to think that you have a dated skill set because you want to be seen as someone who’s innovative, who’s going to have lots of new ideas.”

Sometimes, even after doing the research, candidates find they're dressing up more than their interviewers. Molly Tyndale, 22, wore a blouse and suit jacket to an online interview for a business development position after she was told by the company that the dress code was “business professional.” She was surprised when one of her interviewers showed up wearing an athletic T-shirt.

“If I, as the candidate, had joined in a T-shirt, that would almost certainly be an automatic no,” she said. “It’s frustrating.”

Create a first impression that conveys accomplishment

A wardrobe can be a personal branding tool for your career, Harman said. Hiring managers for senior positions are increasingly asking, “Does this person look like somebody we can send out if there’s a crisis and we need somebody to talk to the media? Or does this person look like they could host our next internal conference? Do they look like we could put them on a stage?” she said.

To convey quiet confidence as a publicist in Los Angeles, Dylan Thomas Cotter wears a dark blue tailored suit to job interviews or meetings where he's trying to land a new client. In public relations, “if something goes south, we need to immediately look like we’re capable to handle that,” Cotter, 43, said. "But also, when we make our first impression on behalf of our clients, we can make or break their business if we’re not good at what we do.”

If you want to be perceived as a leader, think about watching fall fashion shows to see what colors will likely be trendy in the spring, and wear those colors before that season, Harman suggested. Browsing through Vogue magazine can show you what colors or silhouettes are popping. “Always look at shoes and bags, because they have interesting updates that could look quite cool,” she said.

People on a budget can explore thrift stores or community organizations that offer donated career clothing.

Wear clean clothes that fit well for any job interview

While formality levels vary from one workplace to the next, some interview-dressing guidelines almost always are worth following.

“Make sure everything is nice and clean and presentable," to convey that you're taking the opportunity seriously, said Jamie Close, a Charleston, South Carolina-based corporate recruiter at HireQuest, a national staffing and recruiting firm. "Then you’ll feel more confident about yourself as well because you’re not worried about ill-fitting clothes.”

Don't buy something new and wear it for the first time to an interview, Close advised. “Make sure you’ve worn it somewhere before so you know how it feels when you’re sitting down or standing up and you’re not constantly fidgeting with your clothes,” she said.

If you're interviewing for a job in the skilled trades, “wear what you wear to work, but wear that nice, clean version,” Close suggested. “Clean boots, a nice collared shirt, ready to work. But not like you just walked off of a work site.”

Make as much effort for online interviews as in-person meetings

Dress for a virtual interview the same way you would for an in-person meeting, experts said. Even if the camera will only show your head and torso, Harman suggests wearing shoes because they can signal to your brain to behave in a different way.

For virtual interviews, wearing solid colors is a good choice, because those tend to look better on camera than busy patterns, Adamo said.

"You want to show up as the best version of yourself and that includes dressing the part," Adamo said. “While many would suggest ‘waist up’ dressing since your top half is doing most of the work, I recommend treating it as if you were going in person. It helps put you in the right headspace, and feeling confident in what you’re wearing is the most important part.”

___

Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

UEFA blasted Infantino and his organization again over his failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup, declaring it wants assurances that “attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.”

The reaction revealed the depths of animosity toward Infantino as he attempts to run for re-election next year while trying to quell outrage over the equity plan. FIFA issued an apology on Wednesday over the plan, and senior staff members at a crisis meeting in Rabat “reaffirmed their full support” for his presidency.

The UEFA response shows how the apology will not be enough to satisfy his fiercest detractors, who want a change at the top of FIFA.

That process will play out in the coming months with a vote in March among the 211 national member federations. Each nation gets a vote, and he needs a simple majority to retain his presidency.

Infantino left New York with around 200 letters of support from those federations. That number is likely to be depleted now, but it is not clear how many of those individual federations would turn against him when it comes to the vote.

Continental soccer bodies in Europe, Asia and North and South America have voiced varying degrees of opposition to Infantino's plans. Crucially, however, confederations are not obliged to vote collectively and there are no guarantees of reaching the 106 votes needed to ensure a majority in a contested election.

The English FA has withdrawn its support, as have Serbia, Sweden and Wales. Many, many others have been noncommittal.

Infantino, whose expansion of the World Cup has opened it up to more countries, has a traditional support base in Africa, which has 54 voting members. Even among the tumultuous fallout from the plan, he has received pockets of support from individual federations including 2022 World Cup host Qatar.

UEFA maintained its threat to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions and reiterated that it had lost confidence in Infantino.

"Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the FIFA President (and whose careers depend on his favor) agree with him changes nothing,” it said.

Infantino is fighting on

Wednesday's summit in Rabat was dubbed a crisis meeting after an internal backlash against Infantino's controversial plan.

His secretary general Mattias Grafström said it created “turmoil which is difficult to comprehend and accept.” Chief of global football development Arsène Wenger distanced himself from the plans, while Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned last week and chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said staff were “deceived” by the president’s lack of openness.

Infantino emerged from the meeting with a unified response from those in attendance — notably Grafström — confirming support for his presidency.

That was evidence of the Swiss-Italian's determination to resist the pressure on his position and win a fourth and final term in office through 2031.

The wording of FIFA's statement, however, was open to interpretation, saying “members of the FIFA Management Board in attendance” reaffirmed their support for him.

FIFA has not published a list of attendees, but it is reported Wenger, Lamour and chief football officer Jill Ellis were among those absent.

It would take at least 19 of FIFA's 37 council members to trigger an extraordinary general meeting where Infantino could be called on to explain his actions.

Finding a challenger

It's one thing wanting Infantino out, it's another finding someone who can drum up the support to take him on.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Qatari president Nasser al-Khelaïfi is widely seen as a good fit. He is the chairman of association of European Football Clubs, which represents the top teams on the continent including Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and Manchester United.

He was unifying force in the wake of the failed European Super League project and may be seen as the type of candidate capable bringing national federations back together following Infantino's similarly divisive plan.

There's one catch — he doesn't want the job.

A spokesperson told The Associated Press Al-Khelaifi had “absolutely no ambition, no intention and no interest in the FIFA role."

Canadian FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani is another name to throw into the mix. The president of Norwegian soccer Lise Klaveness has been outspoken in her criticism of Infantino, and the president of the Asian soccer confederation, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, also came out strongly in opposition of FFE.

Nov. 18 is the deadline for candidates to enter the next presidential contest, exactly four months ahead of the vote.

Pressure is growing

FIFA said it hoped Wednesday's meeting would “help restore confidence” in the organization after the turbulence created by Infantino’s project.

Infantino's detractors had other ideas.

UEFA's response was scathing, saying it had made it “abundantly clear” that it had lost confidence in Infantino’s presidency.

"That position holds,” it said.

Key dates

As well as the Nov. 18 deadline for candidates, the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5. would be the first potential target for UEFA's threatened boycott.

A potential boycott also raises uncertainty over the staging for the 2035 Women’s World Cup. The four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the tournament and the decision is due Nov. 23.

___

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

___

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

Under the new rules, when a natural caution occurs with 10 or fewer laps remaining in Stage 1 or Stage 2, it will be deemed complete at the time of caution — with that same caution period serving as the scheduled stage break.

NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell said Thursday on social media the change stems from the July 26 race at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis, where he said fans were unhappy about too many back-to-back laps run under caution near stage breaks.

“Long periods of caution laps and not enough green-flag racing,” O'Donnell said. “We heard you, and we want to make a change. ... No more back-to-back cautions. No more elongated cautions laps. More green flag racing. More action for you the fans.”

When the field returns to the start/finish line under yellow, the leader will receive the green-and-white checkered flag along with the yellow, according to NASCAR. At the time of the caution, the top-10 stage finishing order will be determined using all available resources, including scoring loops and video replay — similar to how stage points are awarded.

___

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

The popular separately ticketed event at Magic Kingdom runs Aug. 7 through Oct. 31, spanning select weekend and weekday evenings throughout the fall season, according to the Disney Parks Blog.

Party-goers can expect exclusive entertainment, Halloween-themed food and beverages, character greetings, trick-or-treating, and more.

New this year, Stitch is taking over the Rockettower Plaza Stage in Tomorrowland with a costume-themed dance party alongside Lilo and Angel.

The Cadaver Dans will also return, performing soulful harmony sets for guests making their way through the park.

Returning fan favorites include Mickey’s Boo-to-You Halloween Parade, set for 8:15 p.m., and the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular, featuring the Sanderson Sisters and Disney Villains including Hades, Cruella De Vil, Jafar, Dr. Facilier, and the Evil Queen.

Disney’s Not-So-Spooky Spectacular fireworks show will once again transform Cinderella Castle with dazzling projections and appearances by Ursula, the Queen of Hearts, and Oogie Boogie.

Trick-or-treating remains a cornerstone of the event, with more than a dozen candy stops throughout the park. Cast members will hand out Mars Wrigley favorites, including M&Ms, Snickers, and Starburst. Complimentary treat bags will be provided to all guests — costumes not required to participate. Disney also teased familiar and fiendish faces will be surprising guests along the trails.

Character meet-and-greet highlights include Jack Skellington and Sally, Mickey and Minnie in Halloween costumes at Town Square Theater, Pooh in his bumblebee costume, and festive royal couples such as Ariel and Eric and Aladdin and Jasmine.

Tickets go on sale May 5 for guests staying at select Walt Disney World Resort hotels, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels, and Shades of Green. All other guests can purchase tickets beginning May 12.

The cauldrons have begun to bubble 🖤 A shriek peek at merchandise arriving for Halloween time 🎃 https://t.co/vCZ4wFM20P pic.twitter.com/M9hokFnYj0

— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks) April 28, 2026

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party tickets start at $119 to $229 per ticket (plus tax), depending on the date.

Discounts are available for Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club members. Tickets and more information are available by clicking here or by calling the Disney Reservation Center at 407-934-7639.

Guests with party tickets may enter Magic Kingdom as early as 4 p.m., and this year, Halloween lands on a Saturday.

Exclusive treats

Magic Kingdom Park is serving up some of its most ghoulish eats yet for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.

The culinary team has conjured a sinister spread of sweets and savory bites exclusive to the after-hours event, along with options available during regular park hours. New offerings this year include the Doom Buggy Dumplings — chicken dumplings with red miso gochujang sauce, furikake and chili threads — and the Skull-icious Cake, featuring chocolate mousse, peanut butter buttercream, chocolate popping candies and a chocolate cookie crust.

Returning fan favorites include the Buffalo Chicken Hand Pie, with buffalo chicken and mozzarella wrapped in flaky dough and topped with blue cheese crumbles and buffalo ranch, and the Ursula Cone, wild berry soft-serve with candy coral and citrus cotton candy in a black vanilla cone.

When a roadside bomb struck his Humvee convoy months later, the explosion’s shock wave swept through his body before headaches and sleeplessness set in for days.

“As long as you got back up and could go back on patrol, that’s kind of what you did,” he said.

Shearer, 40, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, links both events in 2005 to traumatic brain injuries, which were only recently diagnosed. He's still plagued with symptoms ranging from dizziness and migraines to forgetting daily tasks and responsibilities to his wife and children.

___

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.

___

The lasting effects of traumatic brain injuries are raising fresh concerns about the toll of the Iran war on American troops who are suffering those wounds during a conflict without a clear end. Nearly 700 U.S. service members have been wounded by drone and missile attacks on bases in the Middle East and other fighting. Most have experienced traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, and returned to duty, according to public statements from military officials.

The Pentagon's chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, last month called the vast majority of injuries over a two-week period "minor concussions.”

Doctors can't predict who may have lasting effects from a TBI

Concussions often are termed “mild” TBIs, and many people recover within weeks. But sometimes those with seemingly mild initial symptoms go on to have problems persisting for months or years, such as headaches, dizziness or difficulties with memory or attention that's sometimes called “brain fog.”

Doctors have no way to predict who will suffer lasting problems, a vexing enough question that there’s medical debate over whether to retire the term “mild TBI.” Repeated blows are known to increase the chances of lasting problems, including a degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. It has gained attention for links to deaths in the National Football League and other sports.

It’s imperative that people recover from a concussion before doing activities that put them at increased risk of another, said Dr. David Okonkwo, a University of Pittsburgh brain trauma specialist.

Doctors also are still learning how explosive blasts injure the brain versus a physical blow.

“The blast wave itself can be injurious,” said Dr. James Kelly, an emeritus professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and chief medical scientist at the Invisible Wounds Foundation, which is focused on military brain injuries. “It’s a different cellular injury. Blast is a different thing than a blunt injury to the head.”

Troops have been facing a new type of warfare with Iran in which drones may explode closer to their heads, as opposed to the ground-level roadside bombs and improvised explosives that were more common in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation into the care that wounded troops received following an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait that killed six U.S. soldiers early in the war. Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin pressed the military in a letter on Wednesday to release the findings of its investigation into the March 1 attack.

“I spoke directly with Wisconsinites who sustained traumatic brain injuries from (President Donald) Trump’s war in Iran and went weeks without so much as a screening, let alone specialized care, for their injuries,” Baldwin said in a statement.

Defense Health Agency spokesman Peter Graves said in an email that “it is policy that service members are screened for TBI.”

Experts say the military has made strides in screening and treating TBIs, a signature injury in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 500,000 service members were diagnosed between 2000 and 2025, with 82% of cases considered mild and not all of them related to combat. But advocates say the injuries could still be undercounted because symptoms often overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions.

A TBI diagnosis can emerge years later

Neither of the two blasts Shearer experienced in Iraq produced obvious injuries, and medics prioritized Marines who were more badly hurt.

“You don’t want to be the guy who goes to sick call or says, ‘Oh, I’m hurt,’ because you’re away from your team,” Shearer said. “There’s this culture of you don’t want to be seen as lesser or weak, so you hide injuries inherently.”

When he came home at age 19, he denied he had PTSD and didn't know what a TBI was. Plagued by nightmares, sleeplessness and headaches, he initially turned to drugs to self-medicate and considered suicide.

Shearer eventually got help for PTSD, but it took years for him to consider that he suffered traumatic brain injuries. He was working for the Wounded Warrior Project and screening fellow vets for TBIs when he realized he checked many of the same boxes.

He's since been diagnosed and received treatment. But challenges remain, including vertigo and light sensitivity. He also forgets important conversations with his family.

“I know that some of that stuff is stereotypical, but for me, it's got a different ring to it,” Shearer said. “There will be no memory of the conversation happening.”

The brain can adapt with treatments and therapies

Memory loss is something Army veteran Frank Sonntag also experienced following a TBI from a mortar blast in Iraq in 2004.

He was in his 50s and training reservists when he felt a blast of wind against his ear from an explosion 70 feet (21 meters) away. He didn’t know he was hurt and didn't seek treatment for two years, ignoring intensifying headaches and brain fog.

It got to the point where it took 30 minutes to write an email, while colleagues told him he spoke one word every 10 seconds. He considered suicide and was diagnosed only after he got lost driving home. Neurologists prescribed medication for his migraines, among other treatments.

“Speech therapy was one of the greatest things I had,” added Sonntag, 75, of Queen Creek, Arizona. “They taught me how to practice the words I was speaking and how to put sentences together again.”

Kelly Parker, director of independent services at the Wounded Warrior Project, said it's hard to predict an injury's trajectory.

“If you've seen one TBI, you've seen one TBI," she said.

Screening, early treatment and support can be crucial to returning to a more normal life. Physical, speech and art therapies can lead to improvements, she said.

“There’s still so much we don’t know about the brain, but one thing that we do know is it can heal itself,” Parker said. “We know that new neural pathways can be created, and we absolutely believe that the brain can adapt. We've seen it happen.”

Army veteran Spencer Milo said some people struggle to understand why he's still dealing with migraines, seizures and forgetfulness after so many years out of uniform.

His first TBI occurred in Iraq in 2008, when his Humvee smashed into a wall to evade fire. His second came from the blast of a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2011.

“I’ve had fellow service members that were even with me on those days, and they’re like, ‘Dude, why can’t you just kick it?’” said Milo, 41, of Parker, Colorado. “I really wish it was that simple. It’s tough because when you can’t see something, it’s hard to believe that it’s really there.”

___

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.

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: Aug. 10
• Vehicle: Falcon 9
• Mission: Starlink
• Launch Time: 10:49 a.m. - 2:49 p.m.
• Location: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

• Date: TBD
• 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: TBD
• Vehicle: ULA Atlas V
• Mission: TBD
• Launch Time: TBD
• 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

That's part of what makes it all so sweet.

The 26-year-old knows she could have walked away following her final season at Oregon State in the spring of 2025, with a resume stuffed with Olympic and world championship medals and her place in the history of the storied U.S. women's program secure.

She tried, kind of. The athlete who had been going nonstop for the better part of 20 years gave her body a bit of a break after her NCAA career ended. It lasted a handful of weeks.

Then one day, she popped into the gym and, in the words of her father and longtime coach Brian, “started playing again.”

Emphasis on “playing.”

If there's anything the two-time Olympic gold medalist has learned, it's that taking this too seriously can quickly rob you of the joy that brought you to it in the first place.

Asked if she feels the weight of living up to the standard she's set for herself as the Phoenix native prepares to salute the judges at the national championships for a seventh time when the women's competition begins at Mortgage Matchup Center, Carey shrugs.

“I just feel like right now I have one more opportunity to just have fun with it,” she said. “No expectations, no pressure."

Maturing means understanding who she was in 2021 is not who she is in 2026. There have been times she'll randomly come across a video of her gold medal-winning floor exercise routine at the Tokyo Olympics five years ago and think “that was pretty hard.”

Whether she can get back to that level as she makes a bid for a third trip to the Olympics is anyone's guess, Carey's included. Her body has held up remarkably well through the years, thanks in large part to the pragmatic approach she and Brian Carey have taken toward her training.

“I don’t know if that’s coming back,” she said. “But you never know. And I feel like training, getting back into it this year, was really hard. But I’ve kind of hit my stride, and it’s getting a little easier and feeling a little more familiar.”

Sticking with the plan

Carey finished second in the all-around to 17-year-old Reese Esponda at the U.S. Classic a few weeks ago in her first elite competition since leaving the 2024 Paris Games with a pair of Olympic medals. She did it with routines that are designed to serve as a foundation as she methodically builds toward the summer of 2028.

The plan is to add difficulty as she goes along, but only when she's ready. In her mid-20s, Carey is not the same gymnast who took a circuitous path to the Tokyo Olympics that ended with the floor routine of a lifetime and the most precious of medals around her neck.

The amount of time she spends in the gym on a given day depends on how she's feeling. She and her father have an understanding that as long as she hits her numbers — meaning, how many times she works on an assignment — it doesn't matter how long she's there.

Some days she can knock it out in three hours. Some days, it's more like eight. On the days she's not feeling it at all, they'll work on a plan that spreads the workload out over a longer period of time, though that remains a rarity.

“Normally, it’s like she’s so fine-tuned with her skill, she just gets up and knocks it out,” Brian Carey said.

That's kind of what she does. What's perhaps the most remarkable thing about Carey's career is the way she simply keeps going. While some of her Olympic teammates have opted to take time off and recover after a triumphant performance — Tokyo Olympic champion Suni Lee announced last month she is preparing for a return after a two-year hiatus — Carey largely has not.

The internal desire to excel still burns bright

Her father credits an internal “fire” that doesn't need much to be stoked. He ordered her to take a vacation after her senior year at Oregon State. It lasted a month. There was never any formal discussion about pushing toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. It just sort of happened.

That doesn't mean slipping back into her routine was easy.

“I could tell my body was like, ‘What are you doing? You haven’t gone upside down in a while, like we don’t do this anymore,’” she said with a laugh. “But I’m like, ‘No, we’re going to, trust me.’”

She's well aware some of the skills she once mastered may never come back, so she'll need to evolve. That could mean opting for slightly easier (at least by gymnastics standards) elements and combinations, hoping to make up for in execution what she might lack in difficulty.

Brian Carey's job is to make sure she isn't in a rush to find out. Sometimes he still has to tell his daughter to “pump the brakes a little bit." There are days when Carey feels she's ahead of schedule. That doesn't mean the schedule is going to be adjusted. The short-term goal is to build toward earning a spot on the world championship team in October.

Yes, she understands the prospect of competing in a home Olympics is out there in the ether. And sure, it played a factor in her decision to give it a shot. The reality is, she probably would be here anyway, no matter if the Olympics were in Los Angeles or London or somebody's backyard.

The fire inside continues to burn brightly. She learned to respect it long ago. She has the rest of her life to not do gymnastics. Why douse the flames before she's ready?

“I’ve done so much that I just, I don’t know,” she said. "I just want to do this round again for fun and see how far I can push myself.”

___

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

Tom Rahill took home the $10,000 prize after removing 96 pythons from Everglades National Park as part of the Florida Python Challenge — the most of any competitor.

Overall, this year’s challenge wrapped with 280 invasive Burmese pythons removed from one of America’s most iconic ecosystems.

The 10-day event drew 907 participants from 30 states and overseas, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The longest snake pulled during the challenge measured nearly 17 feet.

Other top finishers by category, according to FWC:

• Most pythons, Professional: Christina Kraus — 36 pythons (runner-up: Taylor Stanberry — 34)
• Most pythons, Novice: Bart Shreve — 9 pythons (runner-up: Michael Marousky — 4)
• Most pythons, Military: Stephen Payton — 3 pythons (runner-up: Jonathan Miller — 2)
• Longest python, Professional: Rahm Levinson — 16 feet, 5 inches
• Longest python, Novice: Vincent Poole — 8 feet, 2 inches
• Longest python, Military: Jeffery “Heath” Roser — 8 feet, 7 inches

Burmese pythons are an invasive species in South Florida, threatening native wildlife throughout the Everglades ecosystem. FWC uses the annual challenge to raise public awareness and encourage hands-on removal efforts.

The Seminole County Chamber hosted a forum with seven of the eight candidates who hope to represent the district for the next two years.

District 7 encompasses all of Seminole County and the southern portion of Volusia County.

The forum focused on topics facing the business community, such as taxes, government contracting, and technology.

Four republicans are running for the seat, including incumbent Cory Mills, Ryan Elijah, Sarah Ulrich, and Michael Don Johnson.

The three democrats on the ballot are Bane Dalton, Alan Grayson, and Marialana Kinter.

Christopher Dennison, who is running under the Libertarian Party of Florida, did not attend Thursday’s discussion.

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

During the forum, candidates discussed business deregulation, permit reforms, and taxes.

The rising cost of energy was another topic, along with allowing small businesses to have greater access to capital.

Early voting in Seminole County begins on Saturday, and Primary Election Day is on Aug. 18.

He won the starting job protecting the blind side of Patrick Mahomes in the offseason, and the former Ohio State standout held fast to it throughout training camp. He was a stalwart through the first five weeks of the season, not only living up to the expectations placed upon him but, at least to those watching from afar, exceeding every one of them.

Then things went haywire, much as they did for the team as a whole.

Simmons was gone for about a month for what the team would only call “personal reasons.” When he returned, he managed to play just a few more weeks before a fractured wrist in Week 13 landed him on season-ending injured reserve.

Well, the wrist is healed now. The ACL injury that ended his final season with the Buckeyes has long since healed. Simmons has put on weight, gone through an entire offseason at full speed, and he seems ready to finally step into a starring role on the offensive line.

“Yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to add off of last year,” Simmons said following a recent training camp practice on the steamy fields at Missouri Western State University. “Obviously I went against a lot of good defensive ends, and I have one year of familiarity with the playbook. So it was really just kind of stacking up on that, that way I can come into training camp ready.”

For the Chiefs to bounce back this season, there are few players more critical to their success.

The first reason is this: Simmons has the most important job in protecting Mahomes, who is coming off season-ending surgery of his own, albeit to torn ligaments in his left knee. Mahomes sped through his rehab, and has participated fully in camp, where his mobility seems to be unaffected — though he's also wearing the comfort of a yellow no-contact jersey.

If Mahomes is to feel safe back on the field, Simmons will be providing his security blanket.

“He's trying to work on all the small things right now. He's got all the tools and he knows that,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said. “He got his weight up a little bit, and he's got strength, and now it's just a matter of being consistent with assignments and footwork and all that, which is so important on the offensive line. But he's working like crazy to make sure he homes in on all that stuff.”

Simmons is listed at 6-foot-5, 310 pounds, but that's on the lower side of the NFL average, and may even be a bit generous. But the Chiefs would rather have an athletic Simmons than the alternative — “You don't want cheeseburger weight,” Reid said.

That ability to move in space funnels into the second reason the Chiefs have such high expectations for Simmons: They signed Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III to a big free-agent contract in the hopes of revamping their running attack.

The Chiefs averaged just over 106 yards rushing last season, putting them squarely in the bottom third of the league. It also put more pressure on Mahomes and a young group of wide receivers that struggled to break through. The result was an offense that barely resembled the high-flying, high-scoring groups that propelled Kansas City to five of the past seven Super Bowls.

But judging by training camp, the Chiefs fully intend to run the ball more. And when they do pass, Walker's ability to catch the ball out of the backfield — coupled with Rashee Rice's explosiveness in the screen game — is tantamount to a running play as well.

Making it all work? That falls on the shoulders of Simmons and the rest of the offensive line.

Notes: The Chiefs held a shortened practice without full pads on Thursday. They'll be back in pads for two more days before getting Sunday off. ... WRs Cyrus Allen (bone bruise) and Xavier Worthy (shoulder), LBs Drue Tranquill (back) and Jeff Bassa (groin), CBs Kristian Fulton (hip flexor) and L'Jarius Sneed (knee) and DL Ashton Gillotte (hamstring) were held out of practice. CB Mansoor Delane (shoulder) continued to wear a yellow jersey.

___

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

The shot, named mFlusiva, is intended for adults age 50 or older. Other brands of flu shots already have begun arriving in pharmacies ahead of fall vaccination season, and Moderna said late Wednesday that it expects some of its new version to be available soon at select retailers.

While there already are multiple flu vaccine options in the U.S., including three specifically recommended for people age 65 or older, tens of thousands of Americans die from influenza every year and older adults are among the most vulnerable.

Flu vaccines must be updated annually to best match circulating strains of the virus. Vaccines made with the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology are faster to manufacturer than other types, and experts say this additional option might help if the shape-shifting flu virus mutates in a way that requires suddenly brewing new doses.

Moderna said the FDA granted full approval for mFlusiva’s use in people ages 50 to 64, based on a study of 40,000 people that found 27% fewer flu cases among people who got the new shot compared with those who got a different common flu vaccine brand. For people 65 or older, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based manufacturer said the FDA granted what’s called accelerated approval for the shot -- based on a smaller study showing it generated a strong immune response compared with an existing high-dose vaccine for seniors – while it conducts an additional study.

Moderna’s data showed no major safety issues although the shot did cause some temporary reactions including injection site pain, fever, headache, tiredness and aches that occurred somewhat more than with today’s flu shots.

The FDA action comes after a highly unusual public dispute over mFlusiva earlier this year. A then-top FDA official blocked the company’s application, a sign of the agency’s heightened vaccine scrutiny under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Days later, the agency changed course after Moderna publicly challenged the ruling — and in June a panel of independent advisers to the FDA unanimously recommended the vaccine's approval.

___

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at https://apnews.com/hub/us-food-and-drug-administration.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The change comes a year ahead of schedule. Kellogg said last August that it would remove synthetic dyes from its cereals by the end of 2027.

But the company said Thursday it has identified fruit- and vegetable-based juices that will give cereals like Froot Loops and Apple Jacks their distinctive colors. The Battle Creek, Michigan-based company said it has also invested in equipment that will allow it to transition to natural colors.

The company said it is also removing BHT, an artificial preservative, from the small number of cereals that still contain it.

“More and more consumers are looking for foods made with simple, recognizable ingredients and we are proud to meet those expectations even sooner than planned,” Kellogg’s Chief Growth Officer Doug VanDeVelde said in a statement.

Kellogg has faced pressure for years to remove artificial ingredients from its cereals, which it has already done in other countries like Canada. In 2024, dozens of people rallied outside Kellogg's headquarters and delivered petitions with 400,000 signatures asking the company to remove artificial dyes and BHT.

That pressure has grown under President Donald Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has urged food companies to phase out petroleum-based artificial dyes. Last August, Kellogg also signed an agreement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton saying it would “permanently remove toxic dyes” from its cereals by the end of 2027.

Retailers are also forcing companies to act. Earlier this year, Target said it would stop selling cereals that contain artificial colors by the end of May. Walmart has also said it will remove artificial colors from its store brands by January 2027.

A little more than a week after reiterating he wanted to stay with Indy for the rest of his career, Taylor took a big step toward fulfilling that pledge by signing a two-year, $44 million contract extension, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Thursday. The person requested anonymity because the team had not yet made an official announcement and does not release contract terms.

The move keeps the 2021 NFL rushing champ off the free agent market next spring and comes two days after the Atlanta Falcons re-signed Bijan Robinson to a record-breaking three-year deal worth up to $75 million.

Taylor never doubted the deal would get done before Indy's season opener Sept. 13 against Baltimore.

“I have faith. I mean, there’ve been some good conversations, and I have faith between my agent and the front office,” Taylor said last week when he arrived at training camp. "Like I said, I’ve already said I would love to be a Colt for life. So, I have faith that things are moving in the right direction.”

This deal follows two other big payouts this spring, to quarterback Daniel Jones and top receiver Alec Pierce, and keeps Indy's primary offensive players together long term.

Taylor is now under contract through 2028 and won't celebrate his 30th birthday until January 2029. Teams tend to devalue running backs after they turn 30.

By then, though, perhaps the conventional wisdom among teams will change. Taylor already has seen a notable difference in how teams value running backs since signing his last extension in 2023 when he didn't participate in camp as his agent and late team owner Jim Irsay engaged in a nasty public back-and-forth that resulted in Taylor requesting a trade.

Taylor struggled with injuries in 2022 and missed the first four games in 2023 with a lingering ankle injury. Since signing a three-year deal worth $42 million in early October 2023, he has missed just six of 41 games and has shown no signs of decline.

Reliability pays off

Taylor led the league in rushing most of last season while quarterback Daniel Jones played through a broken bone in his left leg before suffering a season-ending torn right Achilles tendon in early December. Taylor still finished third in the league with 1,585 yards and led the NFL with 18 touchdown runs.

Now he's seeing the payoff — and not just for himself.

“I think it’s a testament to how hard not only myself, but guys like Bijan, like a lot of the other top backs, they work really hard to put a great product on the field in order to reflect that value," Taylor said Wednesday before signing his new deal. "So obviously, still more work to be done. But man, that’s awesome for Bijan man. Shout out to Bijan, man. You earned it. You deserve it.”

The Colts also have made it clear how much they value Taylor.

From Jones and receiver Alec Pierce to coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard, the consensus is that the threat of Taylor — as a both a runner and pass catcher — changes the way defenses must contend with the Colts.

Contract status

The only real question was how quickly a deal could get done. Ballard is entering the final year of his contract as are left guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. Taylor, Nelson and Buckner have all been selected to multiple Pro Bowls.

On July 28, report day at camp, Ballard said his contract status would have no impact on players' contract extensions.

“We always are working toward trying to keep our own players here, and I think you know my thoughts on both of them,” Ballard said when asked about Nelson and Taylor. "Quenton Nelson is a pillar, stands for all the right stuff, and Jonathan Taylor has been an excellent, excellent player for the Colts. I would love to have them long term. We’ll see.”

Now Taylor is in the fold for three more seasons.

The New Jersey prep star burst onto the scene with two 1,000-yard seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers. Leading up to the 2020 draft, critics contended Taylor was a risky early-round pick because of his college workload and questioned his pass-catching ability.

But the Colts selected Taylor in the second round, No. 41 overall, and an early-season injury to Marlon Mack forced Taylor into the starting lineup. He impressed right from the start, rushing for 1,169 yards and 11 TDs while catching 36 of 39 passes for 299 yards and another TD.

Taylor enters this season with 1,551 career carries, 7,598 yards, 69 TDs, 187 receptions, 1,469 yards and seven scores. He already owns the franchise record for touchdown runs and needs 1,629 yards rushing to surpass two-time NFL rushing champ Edgerrin James as the Colts career leader in that category, too.

Taylor also has the top two single-game rushing totals in franchise history, 253 against Jacksonville in January 2021 and 244 last season against Atlanta in Berlin.

___

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

The trio will try to help the U.S. win its fifth consecutive FIBA World Cup title. The young stars will be joined by Olympic medalists A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Kahleah Copper and Kelsey Plum.

“It’s always good when you compete for a gold medal, it's a big honor,” said Wilson, a four-time WNBA MVP. “It's something I don’t take lightly. Time to go there and have some fun and also win.”

Rhyne Howard and Aliyah Boston will also be making their World Cup debuts to round out the team.

“I’m so excited to announce the 2026 USA Basketball Women’s National Team,” USA Basketball national team managing director Sue Bird said. “This is an incredibly talented group that has earned the opportunity to compete in Berlin. Wearing a USA jersey is a privilege, and I know these 12 players will embrace that responsibility as we go after another gold medal. I can’t wait to see what this team accomplishes together.”

This is the first time that USA Basketball had a managing director choose the team. In the past it was a committee. Kara Lawson will coach the squad.

Stewart is the third player in USA Basketball history to appear in four World Cup tournaments, joining Bird, who played in five, and Diana Taurasi, who also played in four.

The Americans will face China, Italy and the Czech Republic in pool play at the World Cup, which will be held from Sept. 4-13 in Berlin. The WNBA will take a nearly three-week break in its season to accommodate the event.

Clark, Bueckers and Reese helped the Americans win a World Cup qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico in March.

Sabrina Ionescu has been a big part of the U.S. roster the last few years, but was left off this season's team.

Bird said she called many of the players who didn't make the team this time, including Ionescu.

“I think we can all agree the hardest part, which is a problem I would never trade, is that we have so much talent,” Bird said. “The beauty of that is it means almost all players are wanting to be on this team, willing to be on this team. It is a sacrifice. It is a time commitment.”

Alyssa Thomas helped the U.S. win gold at the Paris Olympics, but didn't take part in any USA Basketball camps since. Minnesota rookie Olivia Miles also hadn't taken part in any USA camps yet either.

“Tremendous player. So much fun to watch,” Bird said of Miles, who is the front-runner for the WNBA Rookie of the Year. “It’s been amazing watching her grow in this league. ... She’s played with USA basketball before. She will undoubtedly be in the mix for teams in the future.”

__

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

Journey’s End Animal Sanctuary, located in DeLand, said it previously operated on land owned by its founder, Florence Thout, allowing donations to go directly toward caring for the animals.

Sanctuary manager Mara Pacheco said staff believed the sanctuary would remain on the property indefinitely.

“We didn’t think this was going to come. We always thought Journey’s End would be here forever,” Pacheco said.

According to Pacheco, Thout founded the sanctuary to provide lifelong care for elderly and disabled dogs, cats, pigs and sheep that might otherwise struggle to find homes.

“This was Florence’s passion,” Pacheco said. “She had a passion to help those that need the help — to help the ones that need it the most.”

Unlike a traditional animal shelter, Journey’s End describes itself as a sanctuary where animals remain for the rest of their lives while receiving specialized care.

Before her death two years ago, Thout signed what is commonly known as a “Lady Bird deed,” transferring ownership of the property to her friend, Eileen Kiser, upon her death.

Court records claim Kiser had promised Thout the sanctuary would continue operating after her passing. However, sanctuary leaders said they were later informed they would need to begin paying $4,000 in monthly rent.

“We did not see it coming,” Pacheco said. “Financially we were not prepared for this undertaking. But, for the animals, we will continue the mission.”

The sanctuary said recent donations allowed it to pay rent through Dec. 31. Leaders are now trying to raise an estimated $300,000 to relocate the sanctuary and its animals before the end of the year.

When contacted by News 6, Kiser referred questions to her attorney but said her concerns are with the sanctuary’s current leadership. Kiser said a different arrangement could potentially be discussed if the sanctuary’s president were no longer involved.

Journey’s End Animal Sanctuary said it plans to continue caring for its animals while searching for a new location before its current agreement expires at the end of December.

Here is a link to the non profit’s Gofundme.

Running Sept. 3-5 from 7-10 p.m., Fins & Flights is a three-night, adults-only event pairing local craft beer tastings with an immersive evening among thousands of sea animals.

Guests 21 and older can explore the aquarium while sampling craft beers from Central Florida breweries and beyond. Guests can encounter sharks, turtles, rays, axolotls, seahorses and more throughout the evening.

Admission includes five 4-ounce beer samples — one from each participating brewery — along with a commemorative souvenir tasting glass. Participating breweries include Tampa Bay Brewing, Orange Blossom, Crooked Can, Ivanhoe Park and LANDSHARK® Vodka Seltzer, courtesy of City Beverages Orlando.

“Fins & Flights offers guests a unique way to experience SEA LIFE Orlando by pairing the wonder of the aquarium with the creativity of Central Florida’s craft brewery scene,” said Paul Gould, general manager of SEA LIFE Orlando Aquarium. “Whether guests are discovering sea animals from a new perspective or enjoying a night out with friends, it’s an unforgettable evening unlike any other in Orlando.”

Tickets are $54.99 per person when purchased online in advance or $59.99 at the door. A designated-driver ticket is available for $20 and includes aquarium admission only — no beer samples or alcohol purchases permitted. All attendees must be 21 or older and present valid ID upon arrival.

Guests select from five entry times each evening: 7, 7:30, 8, 8:30 or 9 p.m., with each time slot limited to 100 guests. Additional beer-sample tickets are available for purchase — three tickets for $10 or one full-size can for $10.

For ticket information, click here.

She wanted to savor every moment.

“Back in high school I was on my speech team and my informative speech was on women in baseball,” said Hodel, a 43-year-old athletic trainer from Duluth, Minnesota. “So as soon as I saw this happening a couple years ago it was my goal to come.”

That moment finally arrived on Saturday night, when Mo’ne Davis and the Los Angeles Queens rallied for a 10-8 victory over Denae Benites and the New York Heights in a rainy debut for the first women's professional baseball league in the United States in almost 30 years.

“Growing up I played softball,” said Koehler, 33, of St. Paul, Minnesota. “I wanted to play baseball because going professional was always like the dream, but there (were) no opportunities. ... So now that that’s actually an opportunity and something that girls can look up to I think is amazing.”

Maggie Foxx picked up the league's first hit on a two-run single for Los Angeles in the first inning. Benites connected for the WPBL's first homer, a solo drive to center in the bottom of the fourth.

The Queens trailed 8-4 before scoring two runs in the sixth and four more in wet and windy conditions for the final frame of the seven-inning contest.

“When I walked on the field I started crying because of how much this moment meant, and how much it meant to everybody,” Foxx said. “It means everything to us.”

A steady rain fell for much of the day, soaking the 101-year-old home of the WPBL's inaugural season. But much of the crowd of more than 4,000 started lining up hours before the game, hoping to grab a Davis bobblehead on the way to the metal bleachers.

The line for the main merchandise booth stretched all the way to the outfield along one side of the ballpark.

“Having a daughter, it’s really exciting to give her exposure to female professional athletes,” said Antonietta Mabry, 47, an accountant from Columbus, Ohio. “It’s such a rare thing, so it’s really cool to give her some really positive female role models and examples.”

Mabry was accompanied by her husband, Jason, a 48-year-old auditor, and their daughter, Rosalee. The 9-year-old Mabry got her glove autographed by San Francisco second baseman Amanda Gianelloni.

The Firebells and Boston Hunters — the league's other two teams — play on Sunday. A couple players from each team helped the grounds crew pull the tarp off the field after the rain subsided.

“I’m excited to be here because I play softball and I really like it and it’s really cool that I get to see professional women play,” Rosalee Mabry said.

The WPBL paid tribute to the past, present and future of women's baseball during a rain-delayed pregame ceremony. The crowd cheered as the lineups for the Queens and Heights were announced.

But the biggest ovation of the night was for 99-year-old Maybelle Blair, who threw a ceremonial first pitch to San Francisco's Kelsie Whitmore, one of the biggest stars of the WPBL. Blair, who serves on a WPBL advisory board, played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which ran from 1943-54 and inspired the 1992 movie, “A League of Their Own.”

“I think that's pretty incredible,” Benites said. “Maybelle's been sticking with us since the beginning of this journey. She's paved a path for us, really. ... She's a special person and I'm so happy that she got to make it out here and do that today."

Lindsey Keirsey, 42, a high school history teacher in Fenton, Missouri, said she is obsessed with the AAGPBL and “A League of Their Own.” She attended the game with her husband, Drew, 43, and their four children, Hadley, 17, Nolan, 15, Elam, 11, and Abbott, 10.

“We go to St. Louis Cardinals games all the time,” Hadley Keirsey said. “As much as I love baseball, I think it’s an amazing opportunity to see so many women be able to play and just break ground like that. Even though it’s just a sport, I think that if we can do things like this and let women play in sports like this, women can do so many more things.”

___

This story was first published on Aug. 1, 2026. It was updated on Aug. 6, 2026 to correct that Denae Benites’ home run was a solo shot.

___

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

The successful motion, brought by the defense minister, is Uganda’s first public indication of its willingness to join the International Stabilization Force for Gaza. Morocco also has pledged troops for the mission.

It was not immediately clear why Uganda agreed to deploy in Gaza, or if there was a quid pro quo involved, and some opposition lawmakers immediately questioned Uganda’s motive in the decision. Lawmaker Hassan Kirumira said the deployment would raise “diplomatic concerns” for a country that is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The “big question” for supporters of the deployment to clarify is: "On which side is our army going to fight?” he said in parliament.

Defense Minister Kiryowa Kiwanuka, seeking the support of lawmakers, cited Uganda’s military capabilities stemming from its peacekeeping deployments in countries such as Somalia.

The force, proposed by Trump’s Board of Peace in February, would be led by American Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, who said in May that the 20,000-strong force would ensure “future prosperity and enduring peace."

Last week Trump announced a deal for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza. According to that deal, the International Stabilization Force would be deployed to Gaza after the completion of a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops.

The agreement, part of a broader ceasefire deal reached last year, calls for Israel to cease its military operations and for Hamas and its allies in Gaza to halt all militant activity. The agreement also laid out in general terms what the decommissioning process would look like.

After the text of the agreement was released, Israel said it had “serious security concerns” and that it shared those with the U.S.

Israeli attacks have killed 1,250 people since the ceasefire deal was reached in October, an agreement that ended major fighting in the Israel-Hamas war that had raged for two years.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.66% this week, the highest since July of last year, according to Freddie Mac. That’s up from 6.58% last week, marking the biggest one-week jump in mortgage rates in 10 weeks.

Just a few months ago, mortgage rates dipped below 6% for the first time in years, fueling hopes that lower borrowing costs would revive the sluggish housing market.

But since the US and Israel began joint strikes on Iran in February, investors have grown increasingly concerned that higher energy prices will keep inflation elevated.

On Thursday, though, new inflation data showed that price increases slowed during a brief June truce in the Middle East. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index dropped 0.1% from May, bringing the annual rate to 3.7%, according to the Commerce Department. The drop was largely driven by a temporary fall in energy prices that month.

Even with the reprieve, inflation is still significantly above the Federal Reserve’s target 2% inflation level.

Mortgage rates loosely track the 10-year Treasury yield, a key measure of investors’ inflation expectations. The yield recently climbed to its highest level since January 2025, reflecting expectations that interest rates will remain higher for longer.

But this week, the Fed voted to keep its benchmark interest rate steady. Still, some analysts interpreted Chairman Kevin Warsh’s comments about inflation to signal there could be rate hikes in the near future.

Warsh also said that market moves, like the recent rise in Treasury yields, may be partially doing the Fed’s job of taming inflation by causing higher borrowing rates to ripple through the economy – including in the form of elevated mortgage rates. The Fed doesn’t directly influence Treasury yields or mortgage rates.

“Oil and inflation remain the biggest drivers, and mortgage rates will likely need energy prices to settle and inflation to remain under control before they can move meaningfully lower,” said loanDepot head economist Jeff DerGurahian.

There are already signs that higher mortgage rates are slowing the engine of the housing market. Mortgage applications fell 6.4% last week from the week earlier, according to data released Wednesday from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinance applications plunged by 10% in a week, according to the report.

Still, today’s 30-year fixed rate is lower than this time last year – 6.72% in July, according to Freddie Mac. And in most of the country, wage growth has outpaced home-value growth this year. That has helped affordability, said Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow.

“Still, rising prices of everyday goods and services have eaten into those gains, limiting how much buyers can comfortably spend on a home,” Ng said.

At the same time Kissimmee voters will choose two of their five city commissioners during the Aug. 18 primary, they will also determine whether those elected officials will be able to serve an extra term before they have to step down from the dais, at least temporarily.

Voters will also decide if their successors must be subject to a criminal background check to even get on future ballots.

If passed by voters—another reason it is important to cast a ballot either on the 18th or when early voting begins on Friday—Chapter 2, Section 7 of the City Charter would be amended to require candidates to consent to a background check, “For the purpose of verifying the candidate’s qualifications to hold office.”

A candidate could not be disqualified from running for office without prior notice. City Manager Mike Steigerwald noted the city has limited ability to disqualify a candidate. Rather, the amendment would create the opportunity for a hearing, where “clear and convincing evidence that the candidate does not meet the qualifications to hold office” would have to be brought forth.

But Vice Mayor Angela Eady questions what the city would, and could, do with that information.

“If we can’t act on that information, then why are we making it a requirement?” she asked.

At the February meeting, commissioners approved the ballot initiatives; Eady reminded fellow commissioners and the public that criminal histories are matters of public record.

She said she is voting ‘no’ on that measure, as well as the change to term limits.

“The two-term limit we’ve had serves works us well in terms of the needs of the city of Kissimmee,” she said. “If it isn’t broke, why try to fix it or change it. If you want to run again after your eight years, you just sit out a cycle and decide if you want to do it again.”

Currently, commissioners must give up their seat after two full terms. But they can run for another seat in a future election cycle, which could come just two years later.

Opponents of similar term-limit amendments say governments have inherent term limits built in— they’re called elections. But Mayor Jackie Espinosa said candidates deemed worthy by voters should be able to use those elections to gauge the will of the people.

“I’m of the opinion that, if the Commissioners are doing a great job, the people will see it, the people will vote,” Espinosa said when the motion to put it to voters was approved. “And if they’re doing a poor job, the people will see it. The people will vote.”

If the measure passes, Commissioner Carlos Alvarez, in office since 2020, could conceivably run for a third term in 2028. He noted in February that that an additional term may be what it takes to accomplish his goals and said he was happy to extend the final voice on the proposal to voters.

It's the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, that an Israeli has been indicted for killing a Palestinian in the West Bank, said Israeli rights group B'Tselem.

In the document, state attorneys accuse Yinon Levi, a settler who lives in an outpost in the southern West Bank, of reckless manslaughter in the death of prominent Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen in July 2025. Under Israeli law, reckless manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison.

Levi is also accused of armed trespassing and malicious property damage.

Hathaleen was a prominent community leader who advocated against settler violence in the southern West Bank. He was involved in the 2025 Oscar-winning film “No Other Land,” which chronicled the fight by Palestinian residents to protect their homes and villages.

Activist's family, lawyer hope for change as settler vows to fight back

“I hope that it will be a turning point for more severe enforcement of the law in the West Bank against Jewish terrorists,” said Eitan Peleg, the lawyer for Hathaleen’s family.

Tariq Hathaleen, Awdah’s cousin and lifelong friend, said that while the indictment won’t bring his relative back, the family “still believes this is something really, really big. It’s good for the settlers to learn that they shouldn’t shoot at us.”

Levi on Thursday wrote back to prosecutors saying he would fight for his innocence in court, according to a letter he shared with The Associated Press. He wrote that prosecutors should not penalize acts of self-defense, accusing them of providing “de facto support for terrorism.”

When reached by phone, Avichay Hajbi, Levi's lawyer, said the prosecution had made a “mistaken decision.” He said the defense would respond to the accusations in court.

A spokesperson for the prosecutors’ office confirmed that the indictment had been filed in the city of Beersheba and that Levi is not currently under arrest. She said a meeting will be scheduled in the coming weeks where prosecutors will read Levi the charges against him.

Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, says B’Tselem.

“The decision to indict Yinon Levi is the exception that proves the rule. The impunity Israel grants to soldiers and settlers who harm Palestinians is not a failure of the system — it is a central component of a policy designed to allow the violence to continue and escalate,” wrote Yair Dvir, spokesperson for B’Tselem.

Footage of the attack shows settler firing shots

The indictment comes just over a year after Hathaleen’s death.

Video from the day showed Levi shooting in the direction of buildings and a group of Palestinians in Hathaleen’s village, Umm al-Khair, on the day the activist was killed.

One video showed Levi firing two shots, while another, which family members say was taken by Hathaleen himself, showed Levi firing toward the person holding the camera. The footage cuts, but the person can still be heard moaning in pain.

The indictment, issued by Israel's Southern District Prosecutor’s Office, says that the first shot Levi fired struck Hathaleen, who was standing in a courtyard 20 meters (about 65 feet) away, documenting the scene. The bullet punctured Hathaleen’s lung and chest, and he collapsed to the floor and started bleeding.

He was already dead when he arrived at the hospital, the indictment says, after going into hypovolemic shock and respiratory failure.

Hathaleen was a teacher and father who often hosted international activists and visitors in his home.

Levi was among the Israeli settlers sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries over allegations of violence toward Palestinians in 2024. U.S. President Donald Trump lifted the U.S. sanctions after taking office the following year.

Levi has been seen roaming lands near the village of Umm Al-Khair multiple times since the shooting, residents told the AP. They said they continue to experience near-daily intrusions by settlers living in outposts and settlements nearby.

Peleg, lawyer for the Hathaleen family, credited the indictment to the strength of the video evidence against Levi and perseverance.

“We were in my office, applying constant pressure on the police and the district attorney,” he said. “We didn’t leave them to do what they wanted.”

___

Associated Press writer Koral Saeed contributed to this report from Herzliya, Israel.

The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority cleared the pending acquisition, ruling that a Paramount-Warner tie up does not pose a “substantial lessening of competition” in the country. Meanwhile, Britain's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it also wouldn't intervene — on the basis of several “legally-binding commitments” from Paramount related to its footprint in U.K. broadcasting and on-demand entertainment.

Paramount welcomed Thursday's decisions. The company, which was bought by Skydance just one year ago, called the U.K.'s clearance “an important milestone” towards completing its Warner purchase.

A Paramount-Warner combo would mean putting HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like “Harry Potter” and even CNN under the same roof with CBS, “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service. Both companies carry notable reach in production and television specific to the U.K., too — with assets also including Paramount-owned Channel 5 in London, localized Nickelodeon programming and Warner’s British arm of TNT Sports.

Citing competition concerns specifically for news, TV and streaming platforms available to U.K. consumers, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy previously said she was “minded to intervene” in the merger. But on Thursday, her office said Paramount later agreed to “provide a set of protections” to safeguard the “continued availability of a diverse range of broadcasting and on-demand services in the UK,” as well their editorial independence.

DCMS said that includes maintaining independence at Channel 5, with an “entirely separate” editorial direction from CBS and CNN. Paramount also agreed to not combine its linear channels with on-demand services in the U.K., DCMS said, and that children's channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network will remain distinct from each other.

Under their agreement, DCMS said it will monitor Paramount's implementation of these commitments and that the company will provide annual statements of compliance.

Critics of the Paramount-Warner merger have repeatedly asked regulators to challenge the deal. And just last month, Hollywood stars Alan Cumming, Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong published a joint op-ed in The Guardian calling on Nandy to intervene.

The merger “threatens to inflict immense harm on the British public,” the actors wrote on July 27. “As actors and public figures who have spent our careers in the arts in Britain — working with British crews, on British stages and sets — we have a responsibility to the public who support, enjoy and consume the art we make.”

While Paramount and Warner no longer face an imminent roadblock to their deal in the U.K., the companies have already agreed to delay closing their transaction well into next year as a challenge from 12 U.S. states makes its way through court.

Led by California, the coalition of states sued to block the deal last month — alleging that a Paramount-Warner combo would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly U.S. moviegoers and cable customers. Groups like the Writers Guild of America have also filed suit.

The court has scheduled a 12-day antitrust trial to start in early March. Paramount has vowed to “vigorously defend” its transaction.

The companies argue that merging will be good for growth in the industry and give consumers access to more content. But critics have decried what further consolidation could mean in an industry already controlled by just a few major players — and in the U.S., questions of political influence have piled up around President Donald Trump’s close relationship with the billionaire family of Paramount CEO David Ellison.

In contrast to the states' case, the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Justice announced in June that it also wouldn’t block the deal and instead released a lengthy statement in support of a Paramount-Warner combo. Meanwhile, Paramount has touted other regulatory clearances from the European Union, as well as countries like China, Canada and Australia.

Including billions in debt, Paramount’s proposed purchase of Warner is valued at nearly $111 billion (or over 82 billion English pounds) based on outstanding shares.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said it has received the U.S. government request for Apollo Carreon Quiboloy's extradition and endorsed it to the Department of Justice. That confirmed earlier separate statements to The Associated Press by two high-ranking Philippine officials, who said the U.S. request was transmitted in July.

The request needs the approval of two Philippine courts, which have been trying the detained former televangelist for human trafficking and child abuse charges, according to the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to publicly discuss the issues.

The U.S. Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment.

Criminal suspects in the Philippines must finish their trials and serve their sentences if convicted prior to extradition. Philippine justice officials, however, can ask a domestic court to allow the temporary surrender of a suspect to a foreign court to face trial prior to the resolution of their Philippine cases under the 1994 extradition treaty of Washington and Manila.

Quiboloy, 76, leads the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church, which was founded in 1985 in southern Davao city and claims to have a wide following in the Philippines and abroad, including in the U.S.

In his heyday, Quiboloy was one of the most influential religious leaders in the Philippines and regarded as a political kingmaker. He served as spiritual adviser to the equally controversial Duterte, who took office in June 2016.

Duterte was arrested in Manila last year under a warrant from the International Criminal Court and has since been detained in the Netherlands, where he will face trial for alleged crimes against humanity. The charges stem from the killings of large numbers of mostly poor drug suspects under his anti-drugs crackdowns, which alarmed Western governments and rights groups.

Quiboloy claims to be “the appointed son of God” and has made outrageous claims that sparked questions about his character but endeared him to his followers. He once claimed to have stopped a major earthquake from hitting the southern Philippines.

In 2024, Quiboloy went into hiding after a Philippine court ordered his arrest along with several others for alleged child and sexual abuse and human trafficking, police said. The Philippine Senate separately ordered Quiboloy’s arrest at the time for refusing to appear in public hearings about his alleged crimes.

The preacher denied the allegations, saying they were fabricated by critics and former members who were removed from his religious group.

Quiboloy and four others facing accusations surrendered in September 2024 after about 2,000 police raided a 30-hectare (75-acre) compound of his religious group, which included a cathedral, stadium, hangar and taxiway leading to Davao's international airport. He has been jailed since then.

U.S. federal prosecutors in 2021 separately announced an indictment of Quiboloy for allegedly having sex with women and underage girls who faced threats of abuse and “eternal damnation” unless they catered to the self-proclaimed “son of God.”

Quiboloy was among nine people named in a superseding indictment returned by a U.S. federal grand jury and unsealed in November 2021. It contained a raft of charges including conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, marriage fraud, money laundering, cash smuggling and visa fraud.

After that indictment he was placed on the list of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives.