Trump is set to welcome Zelenskyy to the White House as the Ukrainian leader travels to Washington to honor Graham, whose final act as a public official was visiting Kyiv and securing an agreement on a package of sanctions that seek to punish countries that purchase Russian oil, gas and other exports.

Zelenskyy posted on X early Tuesday that he had arrived in the U.S. and listed the goals for his visit.

“Our schedule includes meetings with President Trump, his team, and those who can support our defense," the Ukrainian leader said. "Our number one priority is anti-ballistic defense and strategic cooperation with America. Peace needs to be brought closer.”

Zelenskyy is now being bolstered by an unusual source: Laura Loomer, known primarily for her incendiary social media posts and her influence with the president. Traveling through Ukraine, Loomer has witnessed Moscow’s barrage firsthand and interviewed Zelenskyy while admitting she was “bamboozled by Russian propaganda.”

Loomer said she spoke to Trump after she met with Zelenskyy in Ukraine last week, and she also expects to meet with the U.S. president once she returns from her trip.

“It’s looking good for Ukraine, right?” Loomer said during an interview with The Associated Press. “Going into this meeting next week at the Oval Office is looking pretty good.”

Ahead of the meeting, Zelenskyy has also warned that Russia has been aiding Iran as the war persists by capturing satellite imagery of U.S. bases in the Gulf region that later appear in Iran. The Ukrainian president also asserted that there was a “clear correlation” between Russia’s images and subsequent Iranian strikes.

“The purpose is clear,” Zelenskyy said earlier this month. “None of us in the world should turn a blind eye to one very simple fact: Evil always seeks ways to make things worse and spread further.”

On Monday, Trump downplayed any impact of potential Russian assistance for Iran.

“I don’t think they’ve been doing it, certainly not at a high level,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan. “And if they have, it has been very un-impactful.”

Still, he said he would raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy has a busy itinerary during his latest visit to Washington. In addition to his White House meeting, Zelenskyy will head to the Capitol to meet with senators on Tuesday evening after Graham’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Republican leadership is hoping to advance Graham’s sanctions legislation this week, although the Senate is juggling several other priorities before lawmakers leave Washington for the August recess.

The bill has dozens of backers from both parties and is seen as the main policy tribute to Graham, who died unexpectedly this month from a tear in his aorta. It imposes tariffs on goods from the world’s top five purchasers of Russia oil or natural gas, including China and India.

The legislation also includes sanctions against Putin, senior Russian political and military leaders, and Russian financial institutions and energy projects.

Trump met with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, and announced that the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot air defense systems, a long-running request from Kyiv in order to counter Russian missile attacks.

The air defense systems are expensive to make and are in high demand. Noting that he and Zelenskyy have “actually developed a good relationship,” Trump said the U.S. will help Ukraine produce the Patriots and that the country would be able to produce them “pretty quickly.”

Respect for it, though, has come under strain: Some countries have denied entry to asylum seekers. Under U.S. President Donald Trump, the United States has led a policy of sending asylum seekers to third countries — upending years of U.S. policy.

More than 41 million refugees remain forcibly displaced: Nearly 70% are hosted by low- and middle-income countries. The ranks could grow: The International Committee of the Red Cross counts more than 130 armed conflicts around the globe.

The convention took key steps toward defining what a refugee is, laying out their rights, and establishing standards of treatment. Nearly 150 countries are parties to the convention or its 1967 protocol. However, many nations, including many hosting large refugee populations, still aren't party to the convention, leaving millions out of its protections.

“It codified a simple but powerful principle that people forced to flee persecution, conflict or violence must be able to find safety and protection,” said Elizabeth Tan, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' director of international protection and solutions.

Its core principle is “non-refoulement,” prohibiting the return of people to a place where they would face persecution, torture or other serious harm. It all rests on the idea that no society is immune to war, persecution or sudden upheaval.

Here’s what six refugees say about their experiences and the importance of the convention.

Escaping Nicaragua's deadly crackdown

Human rights lawyer Juan Carlos Arce considers himself among millions of people whose lives have been saved by the convention: He fled Nicaragua by foot in 2018 after a bloody government crackdown against protesters killed hundreds.

The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, for which Arce worked, had documented the violence and was deemed a “terrorist organization” by President Daniel Ortega’s government. He fled to Costa Rica where he was granted asylum.

In Costa Rica, rights defenders and Nicaraguan opposition leaders were attacked and even assassinated, so he moved to Barcelona, Spain, last year under a resettlement program organized by UNHCR and the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.

“Feeling safe and protected, that is priceless,” he said under Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf, as tourists and residents walked by.

From refugee to Olympic basketball player

Wenyen Gabriel said his parents worked hard too. He was born in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in 1997 after his parents fled civil war in southern Sudan. They later moved to Egypt as refugees, before being resettled in New Hampshire.

Little Wenyen was 2 at the time. Big Wenyen — he’s 2.08 meters (nearly 6 feet, 10 inches) tall — earned a basketball scholarship at the University of Kentucky and played in the NBA. In 2024, he played for the young country of South Sudan at the Olympic Games in Paris.

While he at times felt “a little bit different from the people in the community” in New Hampshire, there were other refugee families around.

“We had to struggle and figure out how to become something inside of the United States,” he said at the headquarters of the refugee agency UNHCR, for which he became its newest goodwill ambassador on Monday. “It’s not easy to make something of yourself in a foreign country.”

The US was once welcoming

Hershel Greenblat was born during World War II, in 1941, inside a cave in Ukraine as his Jewish family hid from the Nazis.

After the war, his family sneaked into Austria, where they lived in U.S. Army camps for displaced persons. After initially considering moving to Israel, they opted for the U.S. after receiving approval in 1949 to immigrate there.

He recalled how his father woke him in the middle of the night as the Army transport ship approached the Statue of Liberty. The kids received welcome boxes packed by American middle-schoolers.

In Atlanta, where his family has lived for decades, Greenblat said refugees today often get a different welcome. He said he wasn’t previously familiar with the convention despite it being sparked by the displacement of WWII — but said refugees deserve protections and opportunities for work and education.

“Refugees in the ’50s worked their butts off to get what they wanted, what they needed,” said Greenblat, now 85.

Rohingya fleeing Myanmar

Sayed Alom, a humanitarian aid worker and one of the 700,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh in 2017, has been languishing in refugee camps there ever since. The Rohingya are the largest group of stateless people, according to UNHCR, and Bangladesh is not a party to either the 1951 convention or the following 1967 protocol.

Myanmar’s military forces “raped our mothers and sisters, burned down our homes, threw our children into the river and set them on fire,” he recalled in an interview in refugee camps outside Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. “We were persecuted until we could no longer live there.”

Alom, who expected to return home quickly, says the limbo situation has become “imaginably worse,” with kidnapping for ransom, as well as threats from nature, including extreme heat, flooding and landslides destroying the camps.

A Palestinian living for decades in Lebanon

More than seven decades after fleeing her village, 88-year-old Hussniyah Ahmad Ghozlan still remembers the journey that brought her family to Lebanon.

Ghozlan was a child when they fled during the 1948 war after their village — Yajur, southeast of Haifa, Israel — was depopulated.

“We got by because we worked, raised our children and built our lives,” she said in an alley near her home in Shatila camp for Palestinian refugees in Beirut.

Asked whether she knew of the 1951 Refugee Convention, Ghozlan laughed and said she had not, explaining that she never learned to read or write. But even if she had, Lebanon is not a signatory to the treaties meant to protect her.

Swimming to refuge in Germany

Swimmers Yusra and Sarah Mardini fled war-torn Syria in 2015, joining the wave of refugees from their home country that year, in a saga that has been turned into a highly-regarded movie.

They went first to Lebanon, then Turkey, where they paid smugglers to take them by sea to Greece: They jumped out of an overloaded boat to keep it from sinking. After an arduous trek across southeast Europe, they received refuge in Germany. Yusra was named a UNHCR goodwill ambassador in 2017.

Now that Syria’s war is over, Yusra is hopeful: Some 1.3 million Syrians have returned. But after such an ordeal, change doesn’t just happen overnight. “You can’t just snap your fingers,” she said.

“I do believe that my country and its people are very strong and that I’m going to contribute in the best way possible.”

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Brito reported from Barcelona, Spain. Associated Press journalists Ali Sharafeddine in Beirut; and R.J. Rico and Emilie Megnien in Atlanta contributed to this report. Freelance journalists Habi Zullah and Ro Yassin Abdumonab contributed from Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

Gironde’s regional authority said the evacuations covered Lacanau Ocean and both shores of Lacanau lake. People were told to take personal belongings, follow emergency instructions and stay away until authorities permit a return.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) — Firefighters kept a vast wildfire in southwest France in check overnight into Tuesday, bringing flare-ups near Atlantic coast dunes under control in a crucial reprieve before returning heat and falling humidity threaten to test their hold on the blaze.

The fire remained stabilized at 6 a.m. after a calm night and the burned area was unchanged at 420 square kilometers (162 square miles), the Gironde prefecture said.

The emergency now stretches across southwestern Europe.

Fires in France and Spain have forced roughly 330,000 people to evacuate, while Spain entered its fourth heat wave of the summer Tuesday with several blazes still out of control, including the largest ever recorded in the country.

In France, several flare-ups were detected overnight north of Le Porge and in dunes north of Cap Ferret but were brought under control by firefighters, authorities said.

“We are at a point of fragility,” Eric Brocardi, spokesperson for France’s national firefighters federation, told BFMTV on Tuesday. “We will continue attacking this fire despite the forecast rise in temperatures.”

The areas lie along the Atlantic coast west of Bordeaux, where crews have battled the blaze since it erupted near Saumos last week.

The overnight calm did not mean the danger had passed. The fire remained stabilized rather than fixed, meaning it could still spread again.

The blaze, raging since last week, has been wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding firestorm as it burned through an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to evacuate homes and vacation accommodation.

Even after 24 hours without further advance, officials warned that smoldering vegetation, rising temperatures and falling humidity could produce fresh outbreaks along the vast perimeter.

Firefighters and military engineers resumed work early Tuesday on tactical firebreaks designed to prevent the flames from spreading. Authorities said 103 kilometers (64 miles) of firebreaks had been completed.

Ninety-three firefighters have been injured while battling the blaze, the prefecture said.

The A63 highway remained partly closed, while rail traffic south of Bordeaux was suspended except on the route toward Toulouse.

Thousands return as progress is made on second fire

The overnight holding action in Gironde contrasted with a clearer sign of progress in neighboring Landes, where thousands of evacuees were allowed home after a separate wildfire was fixed. The fire had displaced more than 30,000 residents and vacationers.

“The fire is fixed, which is good news in the Landes,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday evening. Regional authorities said that meant its advance had been stopped and no new fires were breaking out.

About 15,000 people were authorized to return home Monday night in Sanguinet, Parentis-en-Born and some parts of Biscarrosse.

Residents of Biscarrosse’s aviation village and a large campground were among those allowed back, although several other neighborhoods remained inaccessible.

The return marked a significant step for communities that emptied as flames swept through forests and tourist areas during the height of the summer vacation season.

Authorities warned that the Landes fire was not extinguished.

Residual hot spots, wind and drought could cause flare-ups, and surveillance and damping-down operations were expected to continue for days or possibly weeks.

Heat returns

The gains in both fire zones faced an immediate test Tuesday as temperatures began climbing again.

France’s national weather service placed Gironde under a yellow heat warning from midday, forecasting inland temperatures of 33 to 35 C (91 to 95 F). Southeast winds were expected across the department, with westerly sea breezes along the coast.

More than 116,000 hectares have burned across France so far this year, according to the Interior Ministry.

Western Europe recorded its hottest June on record, with extreme heat and widespread dryness helping fires spread and intensify in France and Spain, the European Union’s Copernicus climate service said.

Spain braces for worsening states

Hundreds of firefighters backed by military emergency brigades and water-dropping aircraft continued battling several major wildfires in Spain, including the largest ever recorded in the fire-prone country.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Tuesday that nonstop work through the night left him “reasonably positive,” but warned that conditions could deteriorate as temperatures rose again.

Spain’s national weather service said the country was entering its fourth heat wave of the summer Tuesday, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) in some areas.

Authorities have evacuated some 79,000 people and ordered another 30,000 to remain in their homes during an unprecedented crisis that prompted the government to declare a national emergency for wildfires for the first time.

The greatest concern remained two large fires that had at times come close to merging into a single mega-blaze in wooded hills about an hour’s drive west of Madrid.

Another fire in the eastern province of Castellón also forced mass evacuations.

A fire burning through hilly, rural terrain in Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain’s largest on record, scorching more than 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), the government said. That is five times the size of Barcelona.

“Look at how the valley is burned. Look at the houses, the people,” said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to deliver supplies to firefighters in Ávila.

“We are feeling a lot of anger and helplessness. It’s something inhuman,” he said.

Fires have burned 1,530 square kilometers (590 square miles) this year in Spain — six times the area scorched by blazes in the first half of 2025, said Sara Aagesen, the ecology minister.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to fight wildfires made worse by climate change.

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Adamson reported from Paris. Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, also contributed to this report

Most other markets in Asia declined and U.S. futures were mixed. Oil prices declined more than 2%.

Trading was temporarily halted at times as Kospi dropped to its lowest level since April, closing 10.8% lower at 6,023.66. Shares in chipmaker Samsung Electronics sank 13.4% while those of SK Hynix tumbled 14.7%.

On Monday, SK Hynix's U.S.-traded shares fell to below the $149 initial public offering, or IPO, price for its Wall Street debut earlier this month, closing at $143 a share.

A big factor driving the selling of AI-related shares, analysts said, is the expectation that rising competition from Chinese AI startups and chipmakers might undermine gains for leading global companies whose shares have skyrocketed in the past months due to the AI frenzy.

Traders also are selling to lock in recent profits from the prolonged rally in such shares.

A 466% jump in the price of Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT in its trading debut Monday has underscored such concerns. CXMT raised at least $8.6 billion in its IPO in Shanghai. But its shares dropped 4% Tuesday.

Tuesday’s chip stock sell-off followed a report in the technology news publication The Information that China has begun mass production of homegrown deep ultraviolet, or DUV, chipmaking tools. Such equipment is used to print minute circuit patterns onto silicon wafers.

“We believe the market was likely spooked by the progress of China’s chipmaking equipment capabilities, and was worried that this progress would threaten the competitive position of global chipmaking and chip equipment leaders,” said equity analyst Jing Jie Yu of Morningstar.

“That said, we believe the sell-off today is largely a knee-jerk reaction and overdone,” he said. The dominant position of global chipmaking leaders is unlikely to be threatened meaningfully, he said.

Most other Asian markets also fell, with Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropping 4% to 62,364.92. The Taiex in Taiwan skidded 4.7%, with shares of leading chipmaker TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, falling 3%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.3% to 25,289.04, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 1.2% to 3,813.31.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6% to 8,947.80.

India's Sensex edged 0.1% higher.

Oil prices extended their declines as the U.S. and Iran refrained from strikes in their on-again, off-again war. Regional officials said Monday that mediators had made progress in getting the U.S. and Iran back to negotiations after they paused attacks.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2.1% to $84.07 a barrel. It was trading around $72 per barrel before the Iran war began in late February.

U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 2% to $80.99 a barrel.

On Monday, the benchmark S&P 500 gained less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.5% higher, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite edged 0.2% lower.

Shares of several major chipmaking stocks declined, pulling benchmarks lower. Shares of AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, sank 5.2%, Nvidia dropped 5%, and Micron Technology fell 2.3%.

In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar fell to 163.74 Japanese yen from 163.75 yen. The euro rose to $1.1372 from $1.1369.

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Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok.

In a report on the human rights situation, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said it had documented 499 civilians killed and 1,216 wounded by the fighting between the neighbors that has defied international peace efforts.

In one case, the report said, civilians trying to rescue others from the rubble of an airstrike were hit by a second one.

The report also explores other human rights issues, including a deadly crackdown on protests in western Afghanistan over restrictions on women’s clothing, and decrees that essentially legalize child marriage.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring militants

Pakistan and Afghanistan have been fighting on and off for months. Tension escalated significantly in February, when Afghan forces launched a raid into Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan, and Islamabad declared it was in “ open war.”

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring militants who carry out deadly attacks that have killed thousands over the years in Pakistan, especially the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The group is allied with the Afghan Taliban, which has ruled Afghanistan since it seized power in 2021 amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the allegation.

In the deadliest attack of the fighting, a Pakistani airstrike hit a drug treatment center in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in March, killing hundreds of civilians. Rights group Amnesty International said last week the bombing should be investigated as a possible war crime.

Pakistan has not given an overall figure for civilian casualties caused by the cross-border fighting in its territory. The U.N. mission, known by its acronym UNAMA, noted it is only mandated to monitor incidents in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies targeting civilians

In a written response to UNAMA’s report, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Afghanistan’s Taliban government “continues to maintain a permissive environment for a range of (militant) organizations.”

The response did not mention Afghan civilian casualties but said Pakistan’s military strikes "were directed exclusively at identified terrorist hideouts, sanctuaries, and support infrastructure linked to groups responsible for attacks inside Pakistan.”

The hundreds of civilian casualties listed by UNAMA include 22 — five of them children — who were killed in two successive airstrikes on a residential building in the eastern province of Paktia on June 28. At least 185 others were wounded.

Most of the deaths and injuries were caused by the second strike, when locals were trying to rescue the victims of the first one.

“International humanitarian law provides special protections for medical personnel and humanitarian workers, including first responders. Attacks against them while performing their duties are strictly prohibited," said Fiona Frazer, director of human rights at UNAMA.

Afghan women still face harsh restrictions

UNAMA’s report also highlighted problems faced by women, who are subject to draconian restrictions by Afghanistan’s Taliban government. They include a ban on education beyond primary school, a strict dress code, bans on working in nearly all professions and a requirement to be accompanied by a male relative when outside the home.

The report detailed a crackdown in the western city of Herat in June, where at least 30 women were arrested on allegations of dress code violations. At least one person was killed and several others were injured when authorities opened fire during a rare protest against the detentions.

Rules governing women’s clothing stipulate they can only go out in public when wearing full hijab — which includes a headscarf and robe covering the entire body — as well as a face covering that leaves only the eyes visible. The regulations are policed by the feared Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

However, interpretations of the rules and what constitutes wearing the hijab correctly vary and can be arbitrarily enforced.

The UNAMA report said Vice and Virtue officials visited health clinics and shops in various parts of the country to advise them to refuse entry to women not accompanied by a male relative.

The report also said new rules on separation in marriage “ implicitly sanction child marriage " by allowing for marriage contracts to be arranged for minors.

The 30-year-old entertainer, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, had pleaded not guilty in the District Court of Western Australia state to six charges of rape, three charges of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of choking in a Perth hotel room in September 2024.

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

Prosecutor Danielle Clarke told the court Barrientos was an “entitled man” with a “moderate degree of fame" who had been sexually violent toward an “impressionable" young woman.

“She meant nothing to him,” Clarke told the court in her closing arguments.

“What could have been and should have been consensual sex quickly escalated into sexual violence and a non-consensual nightmare,” she added.

The jury is expected to begin considering their verdicts Wednesday after defense lawyers finish their closing statements.

Barrientos testified Monday that he did not slap or choke the woman, but he agreed to the allegation that he bit her multiple times.

“In England we would call it a love bite,” Barrientos told the court.

The performer denied the woman repeatedly told him to stop and told him he was hurting her.

“There was kissing in between; I would give her a love bite and then kiss her,” Barrientos said from the witness box. “I don’t recall any blood.”

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

Barrientos met the woman at a Perth nightclub after his performance.

“The vibes were good and she had a really good energy about her,” he said.

Prosecutors previously said the woman initially agreed to have sex with Barrientos, but withdrew her consent when she started to fear for her safety.

Barrientos agreed that his bodyguard took the woman’s phone before she entered the hotel room.

But he denied the prosecutor’s accusation that the phone was removed to trap the woman.

“It is standard practice for someone in the limelight to protect privacy,” Barrientos said.

The Colombian-born entertainer had been touring Australia and had performed in Sydney and Melbourne before he encountered the woman. He was in the east coast city of Brisbane where the tour was to end when he was arrested several days later.

Luis Arraez got the scoring started with an RBI single in the third that drove in rookie catcher Jesús Rodríguez, who opened the inning with a double.

With two outs in the fourth, Willy Adames singled and McCray sent a 406-foot shot the other way to left-center for his sixth career home run and first since a two-homer game at San Diego on Sept. 7, 2024.

The 25-year-old outfielder went 2 for 22 in 22 big league games last season and had been hitless in six at-bats this year since getting recalled July 10 from Triple-A Sacramento.

McCray started in right field for injured Jung Hoo Lee.

Mahle (3-9) allowed three hits and two walks while striking out three. He threw 54 of his 88 pitches for strikes and was lifted after giving up a leadoff single in the seventh.

Sam Hentges, Dylan Smith and Erik Miller combined to retire Milwaukee's last nine batters. Miller got three outs for his third save, finishing the three-hitter.

Brewers starter Brandon Sproat (3-6) permitted three runs and six hits in six innings. He picked off a pair of runners at first base.

San Francisco lost Casey Schmitt to an apparent leg injury, as the third baseman exited in the second after pulling up awkwardly while rounding first base. Christian Koss replaced Schmitt.

Schmitt adds to San Francisco’s growing injury list as the team was already without third baseman Matt Chapman (abdominal strain) and Lee (right elbow soreness).

Up next

Brewers RHP Logan Henderson (4-1, 3.05 ERA) opposes Giants RHP Landen Roupp (7-8, 3.93) on Tuesday night.

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

In a document filed in juvenile court in Seattle, where a 15-year-old arrested in the case waived his initial appearance Monday, police said they believe there were at least three shooters: the 15-year-old, an acquaintance who died at the scene and “at least one other unknown suspect.” Authorities had earlier said they believed there were two.

Nicole Powell, the Seattle Police Department's assistant chief of investigations, said at a news conference Monday afternoon that investigators believe the shooting may have been gang-related, with two groups firing at each other. The deceased shooter was 19.

A judge ordered the 15-year-old held in juvenile detention for investigation of firearms violations and first-degree assault. The King County prosecutor's office said it expected to receive the case from Seattle police on Wednesday for a charging decision.

The gunfire erupted around 6 p.m. Sunday in the waning hours of the Bite of Seattle, leaving the 19-year-old shooter and two others dead. At least four others, including a toddler, were injured. The annual three-day festival draws hundreds of food and retail vendors and performers to Seattle Center, a sprawling park in the shadow of the Space Needle. Many attendees rushed into campus buildings or ran from the park at the sound of the shots.

Officials provided confusing statements about the shooting

News that there were at least three suspects followed a series of confusing statements from city officials concerning the shooting.

On Sunday, the police department waited five hours to share with the public that one shooter had been arrested and that they believed another to be on the loose. Earlier, Mayor Katie Wilson had announced two people were in custody, a statement she retracted.

At a news conference before the court hearing Monday, Police Chief Shon Barnes said investigators weren’t sure if the second shooter was among the dead. Neither he nor the mayor made any reference to additional shooters. Barnes had been out of town Sunday, attending a conference of Black law enforcement executives in Dallas.

The officials defended their handling of the case, saying they were trying to ensure they provided accurate information about chaotic events.

The victims included a father of three

The King County Medical Examiner's Office on Monday identified the dead as Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba, 44; Ashley Whitehead, 56; and Junior Cee Niko Semo, 19.

Villalba was a husband and father of three known for his kindness and willingness to help others, according to a GoFundMe campaign launched Monday to help his family with funeral expenses. He died from a gunshot wound to his torso, while Whitehead died from a gunshot to her pelvis and Semo died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner’s office.

Whitehead had just moved to Washington from Alabama a year ago and was enjoying the festival with one of her adult daughters when she was shot, her cousin Michelle Whitehead told The Associated Press. She was taken to the hospital and died in surgery, she said.

Ashley Whitehead adored her two adult daughters, and also loved nature and arts and crafts, her cousin said.

“I would consider her just a free spirit. She had the best sense of humor, the best gorgeous smile," she said.

During a vigil Monday night at the center, Michelle Whitehead stood among dozens of others with a sign that said “Whitehead Strong" as the group held a moment of silence and raised up flashlights on their phones to honor those that had been killed. Candles and flowers were arranged around them.

The four wounded included a 2-year-old boy, two men, ages 23 and 27, and a woman, 39, all of whom were discharged, a hospital spokesperson said.

One of the victims was walking a bicycle when struck, the court document said. The toddler was with his mother.

Vendors returned to venue to clean up

Vendors were allowed to return to the campus Monday morning to collect their equipment. Skewered squid on grills, roasted ducks in ovens and plates full of food were among the items left behind as people fled.

Near the spot of the shooting, a stain of what appeared to be blood was still visible.

Dozens of officers were providing security at the event and responded in seconds, with at least one observing a suspect firing, authorities said. Police searched an IMAX theater on the grounds where they initially believed a second shooter had fled.

Adam Lombardo, who had a Burmese food stand at the festival, described the panic of fleeing people as a “stampede.” As he gathered his equipment Monday, he described how police escorted food vendors back to the crime scene to turn off their ovens and stoves.

“They just came to enjoy a food festival with people, with friends, with new friends, and they lost their lives in just what sounds like meaningless bloodshed," he said.

A nearby resident offered shelter to people fleeing

Moises Perez, 30, was cooking in his apartment next to the Seattle Center when he spotted people running and yelling outside his window. When he opened his door, he heard gunshots and started ushering more than a dozen people, mostly women and children, inside.

“I was like, ‘OK, we need to help these people,’” said Perez, a construction worker who had attended the food festival that morning. He said losing his brother to gun violence in Mexico years ago made him determined to help the people trying to get to safety.

He and his roommate, William Large, 25, made sure the door was locked and started directing people to the bathroom and hallway, and told them they could stay as long as they needed.

“They were definitely in shock. I know that a lot of people were crying, people were screaming, people were just in complete fear," said Large, who works in social services.

About 30 minutes later, Perez walked out to see what had happened. He found a woman shot in the leg being helped by emergency officials.

The festival started in 1982 and draws 350,000 attendees, according to its website.

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Associated Press journalists Manuel Valdes and Lindsey Wasson in Seattle; Annika Wolters in Bangkok; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Saar's death was confirmed Monday by relatives. She would have turned 100 this week.

A central figure of the 1960s Black Art Movement, Saar pioneered assemblage boxes, or sculptures made of found objects, and reclaimed Jim Crow-era memorabilia as powerful totems of Black liberation.

“Her symbolically rich body of work has evolved over time to demonstrate the environmental, cultural, political, racial, technological, economic, and historical context in which it exists,” according to Roberts Projects, the Los Angeles gallery that represents her.

Saar began her career in design and shifted to art at age 35. She continued to make art into her 90s. She grew up in Pasadena and was part of a community of Black artists in nearby Altadena; she often cited Simon Rodia's Watts Towers as an early source of inspiration.

Saar’s practice incorporated painting, printmaking, sculpture and found objects including dolls, washboards and other antiques. Boats, clocks, cages and altars recur in her practice, as well as symbols of the occult and cosmology. She often referenced her astrological sign of Leo in the form of lions, punctuating many works.

“Her appropriation of Black collectibles, heirlooms, and utilitarian objects are transformed through subversion,” the gallery said. “Among the older generation of Black American artists, Saar is without reproach.”

Made in 1969, “Black Girl’s Window,” was groundbreaking. Still, it wasn't widely celebrated until decades later, and it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2019. “There weren’t that many galleries in Los Angeles at the time and there certainly weren’t any for Black artists,” she once said in an interview.

“The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,” created in 1972, is one of her most important works. It features memorabilia she collected that denigrated Black people, included a “mammy,” or 19th century minstrel character who smiled while serving white slave owners.

In Saar's hands though, the figure is reclaimed: She smiles, but holds a rifle and has a hand grenade.

It came in response to the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Saar said King's death “triggered a rage within me, and the mystic transformed into the warrior.”

“I had a lot of hesitation about using powerful, negative images such as these — thinking about how white people saw Black people, and how that influenced the ways in which Black people saw each other,” Saar said. “What saved it was that I made Aunt Jemima into a revolutionary figure.”

After more than 130 years, Quaker Oat announced it would retire its Aunt Jemima brand in 2020, acknowledging the logo and its origins were “based on a racial stereotype.”

Saar taught and mentored generations of Black artists, including painter Kerry James Marshall.

Though Saar’s work was exhibited in a 1975 solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in the decades that followed large institutions have exhibited her work only sporadically. In 2019 though, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and MoMA mounted concurrent solo shows.

In spring 2026, Saar was inducted to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

“She had boundless energy for making art. I think she had a lot to say and was tired of the art world being dominated by white males,” said Angela Robinson Witherspoon, who produced and directed a documentary in 2023 on Saar's life. “Betye Saar: Ready to Be A Warrior” features interviews with John Legend, Tina Knowles and other prominent voices.

“She was raising her three young daughters and she wanted to be part of the Civil Rights Movement,” Robinson Witherspoon said.

“Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar,” which focuses on costume design, is currently on view at Robert Projects in Los Angeles, and a collection of more than 100 of her dolls are on view at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan.

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Associated Press writer Anna Furman contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

Genevieve was briefly a Category 5 hurricane early Monday, the first in the East Pacific region in two years, the National Hurricane Center said. It was expected to stay far out to sea on a course roughly parallel with the Mexico coast.

Genevieve had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph), according to the Miami-based hurricane center. Genevieve’s center was located about 505 miles (810 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula and was headed northwest at 12 mph (19 kph).

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect, but the hurricane center said that swells from the storm — likely causing “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions” — were affecting parts of Mexico’s southwestern coast and the Baja California peninsula.

Genevieve was expected to fluctuate in intensity before weakening later in the week.

Farther northwest in the Pacific, Hurricane Fausto weakened to a tropical storm Monday evening as it continued on a path in the general direction of the Hawaiian Islands. Forecasters said Fausto is expected to pass north of Hawaii, but residents should still monitor the progress of the storm for impacts

Large surf and strong currents were increasing on east-facing shores along Hawaii's islands, the hurricane center said. Fausto had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph). It was centered about 415 miles (670 kilometers) east-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and traveling west-northwest at 16 mph (26 kph).

Schmitt appeared to hurt his left leg after rounding first base following a single to right field. He showed discomfort and was grasping at his lower left leg after the play.

Schmitt was able to walk off the field on his own power, limping with a trainer at his side as he left the game. Schmitt was replaced by backup Christian Koss and the Giants went on to beat the Brewers 3-0.

“Scary moment there for him,” manager Tony Vitello said after the game. “He’s a unique personality, but he’s definitely got a level of toughness to him. And you go out there and he was really struggling just to kind of even move around there with (head trainer Dave Groeschner) checking on him.”

Schmitt will undergo an MRI and it is not yet known whether he'll be added to the injury list. Regardless, Vitello doesn’t expect Schmitt to be back right away.

“At this point, (he is) probably going to miss some significant time,” Vitello said. “But based off what we see tomorrow, be interesting what (Groeschner) has, hoping it’s as limited an amount of time as possible.”

Schmitt adds to San Francisco’s growing injury list as the team was already without third baseman Matt Chapman (abdominal strain) and outfielders Jung Hoo Lee (right elbow soreness), and Victor Bericoto (left oblique strain).

Vitello commented that with Schmitt’s injury, rather than rush starter Chapman back, they’ll look to another player to fill in at third base.

Schmitt is hitting .271 with 21 home runs and 55 RBIs, all career bests. Schmitt signed a one-year, $810,000 contract this past year.

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

The meeting comes as both face growing pressures at home. Netanyahu is up for reelection and is embattled in part because of his deteriorating relationship with Trump. Trump is under pressure to end an unpopular war that has wreaked economic havoc and driven prices higher ahead of midterm elections this November.

The two leaders also plan to discuss the framework agreement the U.S. and Israel signed with Lebanon over the Israel-Hezbollah war and the expansion of the Abraham Accords, according to a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the meeting.

“We have a little difference,” Trump said Monday when asked by reporters if he and the Israeli prime minister were on the same page with Iran. “But pretty close, yeah.”

Trump and Netanyahu's relationship has ebbed before

Trump has had a hot-and-cold history with Netanyahu over the years, but upon his return to the White House last year, their alliance seemed stronger than ever. When they started the war together in February, it was with a united front, touting their respective militaries as acting in lockstep to take out Iran’s leadership and pave the way for a government more friendly to the West.

But as Iran fought back — sending drones and missiles slamming into U.S. bases and high-rises in cities in the Gulf, and choking off the Strait of Hormuz — Trump came under immense pressure both at home and by allies in the region to end the conflict.

Since then, Netanyahu, who wanted to continue the fighting in Iran and against its ally, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, has been sidelined as Trump sought a deal with Tehran. His visit to the White House this week comes as the disagreements with Trump and Vice President JD Vance have burst into the open over the war in Iran and more.

“The Americans are making it clear to the Israelis they are the ones who are running the war,” Israeli journalist and political analyst Amit Segal wrote Monday in the daily newspaper, Israel Hayom. “It is clear to everyone that Israel has been put in the back seat.”

Netanyahu keeping focus on Iran's nuclear program

With U.S.-Iran tensions flaring again in recent weeks, Netanyahu plans to share with Trump Israeli intelligence on Tehran’s nuclear program, according to a person familiar with Netanyahu’s visit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

On Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo, Netanyahu said he hoped to sit down with Trump “to hear what he has in mind” for Iran.

“Because I think, in many ways, it’s his decision” on how to move forward, Netanyahu said. “If he can do so without returning to intense military fighting, that’s fine. Why not?

"But one way or the other, they have to end their nuclear program,” he said of Iran.

Netanyahu also used the interview to warn Iran against attacking his country, saying Israel’s response would be “very forceful.”

Steps to allow other forces in Gaza and in Lebanon

But even as Netanyahu sees an opportunity, he also needs to persuade Trump that he won’t play spoiler to U.S. diplomatic and reconstruction efforts in Gaza and in Lebanon, where the president has previously complained that “too many people are being killed” by Israeli strikes.

Israel has taken recent steps in both places.

In Lebanon, where the Israeli military occupies much of the south, Israel agreed to allow the Lebanese army to deploy to some villages as part of a “pilot program” testing their ability to secure areas where Hezbollah once operated. The U.S. State Department said Monday the next round of talks between Israel and Lebanon will take place next week in Rome with a focus on expanding the program.

On Gaza, Israel’s security cabinet green-lit on Sunday a measure that would, in theory, grant entry to the first members of an international stabilization force outlined last year in a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Few countries have pledged troops for the force, however, and Israel would approve their entry into Gaza on a case-by-case basis.

The troops — including from Morocco and Uganda — would only be allowed to operate in a small, desolate area in Rafah in the south, where the plan is to vet and house some displaced Palestinians.

The Israeli military continues to carry out strikes it says target militants but that have also killed civilians.

Support for Israel has eroded

Israel has lost a significant amount of bipartisan support in the United States, particularly over its conduct in Gaza.

In June, Vance warned Israeli officials that Trump was their only friend among world leaders. Vance is expected to attend the meeting with Netanyahu, according to a person familiar with the plan who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

An AP-NORC poll published earlier this month found a dramatic erosion of support among American adults for Israel.

“We’ve lost America. Thank you, Bibi,” wrote Ben Caspit, a political commentator for Israel's Maariv newspaper.

___ Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Darlene Superville and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed reporting.

Democrats are hoping to retain control of the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to earn full control of Wisconsin state government for the first time since 2010. But they have failed to coalesce around one candidate for the top job, spurring fears that they could miss an opportunity to win in November.

Early in-person voting begins as Democrats meet for only debate

The five Democratic candidates are scheduled to meet for their only debate Tuesday night ahead of the Aug. 11 primary.

Insurgent democratic socialist Francesca Hong has garnered strong support among the most liberal wing of the party. Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who narrowly lost a 2022 U.S. Senate race, is hoping that voters in his hometown of Milwaukee help him overcome Hong, whose base is in Madison. Those two cities hold the largest number of Democratic voters in Wisconsin.

Also in the race is Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who is running with the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers. Crowley had dropped out of the race on July 8, but got back in on July 17, the day after Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez dropped out amid a campaign finance scandal.

Both Crowley and Barnes are trying to become Wisconsin's first Black governor.

The winner of the Democratic primary will advance to take on Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in November. Tiffany, who is running with the backing of President Donald Trump in a state Trump won in 2016 and 2024, faces only nominal opposition in the primary.

Judge hearing arguments over canceling already-filed absentee ballots

And hours after polls open for early voting, a judge was scheduled to hear arguments in a Democratic lawsuit seeking to allow voters who already returned their ballots to cancel those and cast a new one. As of Monday, more than 100,000 ballots had already been returned by mail.

The lawsuit was filed last week with support from the Wisconsin Democratic Party. They are seeking an order from a judge to immediately allow for already-cast ballots to be canceled, a rarely used practice known as ballot spoiling.

Democrats argue it's necessary given that Rodriguez and former state economic director Missy Hughes ended their campaigns, and Crowley got back in the race, after tens of thousands of ballots had already been returned.

Hughes and Rodriguez’s names remain on the ballot.

In-person absentee voting, which began Tuesday, runs through Aug. 9. All absentee ballots must be received by the time polls close on election day Aug. 11 in order to be counted.

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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. She reported for this story from Milwaukee.

Clayton is expected to be confirmed along party lines after a contentious hearing two weeks ago in which he repeatedly refused to say that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Still, Democrats have said they have more confidence in Clayton than they do in Trump’s temporary pick for the job, Bill Pulte, who has no known intelligence experience and investigated the president’s perceived enemies in his previous post as a federal housing regulator.

Senators from both parties have expressed concerns about Pulte, who took over on an interim basis last month after Tulsi Gabbard resigned. Pulte was in charge when Trump delivered a speech from the White House earlier this month doubling down on his false claims about the 2020 election, which he lost, and released classified documents that he said were relevant to his arguments.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said he had worked in the past with Clayton, who is the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman. After the hearing, Warner said he would oppose Clayton’s nomination but acknowledged that Democrats are “between a rock and a hard place” with Pulte in the job.

The Senate voted 51-43 along party lines on Monday to advance Clayton’s nomination.

Clayton won’t say Biden won the election

The Democratic pushback on Clayton comes as Trump has made revisiting 2020 a primary focus, repeatedly trying to cast doubt on that election and amplifying debunked theories about Biden’s win.

Clayton told senators that he had no involvement with Trump’s primetime speech, but he said repeatedly that the election was “certified” for Biden, declining to say outright that the Democrat won.

Warner said at the end of the hearing that he was “bitterly disappointed.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he thought Clayton’s performance was “abysmal,” and that “makes it much less likely that he will get Democratic votes.”

Republicans tried to quickly confirm Clayton

Republicans were hoping to confirm Clayton in June so he could replace Gabbard without Pulte serving as interim. But Trump delayed Clayton’s nomination before the Senate left for a two-week recess, allowing Pulte to take the job temporarily.

Clayton did not mention Pulte in the confirmation hearing. But he emphasized his own government and national security experience, attempting to assuage senators in both parties.

“I saw firsthand how a strong national security apparatus depends on decisive judgment, discipline, integrity, and effective communication and cooperation across different branches of the government,” Clayton said. “If confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, I will commit to upholding these principles every day.”

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who expressed frustration last month when the hearing was delayed, said that Clayton has a reputation for operating with “morality, decency and integrity” in his previous positions.

“Jay Clayton is a highly qualified nominee with a deep experience combating a wide range of national security threats,” Cotton said.

It's been a jumbled and frenetic period during what would have otherwise been Graham's expected glide path toward a fifth term. He won his June primary outright, and no Democrat has won a statewide-elected office in South Carolina for two decades.

Graham's sudden death earlier this month at age 71 has sparked a rushed and compressed process leading to a special primary election in just two weeks.

The close of a one-week filing period for the South Carolina contest comes Tuesday, the same day as the first of two funerals across Washington and Graham’s home state. The rare open Senate seat has drawn some of the state's top Republicans, longshots, familiar faces — and Graham's sister. If no candidate receives a majority vote, a runoff election will be held Aug. 25.

Darline Graham, the interim appointee, is a political unknown

For years, Darline Graham had been her older brother's political confidant, appearing in his ads, by his side at rallies and an indelible part of his biography, from their shared roughshod beginnings to his adoption of her following their parents' deaths.

In the hours after her brother died, Darline Graham stepped into Lindsey Graham's shoes in the Senate as the appointee to fulfill the remaining months of his current term, selected by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to serve until January. Now she's running for the nomination to replace him more permanently.

Darline Graham is a political unknown to the South Carolina voters who for decades returned her brother to Washington. Although she had been part of his campaigns, she's never been a political commodity in her own right, and there have been questions in South Carolina's GOP circles over whether goodwill toward her brother's memory is enough to send her to the Senate.

For now, Darline Graham is surrounded by her late brother's official and political staff. She had the support of President Donald Trump — to whom her brother was a top congressional ally — to seek the seat, as well as his endorsement before she had said publicly that she would do so.

McMaster made no reference to Darline Graham as a placeholder or symbolic appointment, although a person familiar with McMaster’s thinking but unauthorized to speak publicly said the governor, in selecting her, had never contemplated that she would run for the seat herself.

Two congressmen are vying for the nomination

Fresh off an unsuccessful primary run for governor, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman entered the Senate race and has snapped up endorsements from other House members, including Rep. Nancy Mace, as well as law enforcement officials across the state. One of the most conservative members in the House, Norman is well-known across South Carolina.

Before the emergence of Darline Graham — and their Oval Office meeting after she was sworn in — Trump had previously suggested he could back a potential candidacy from Rep. Russell Fry, who officially entered the special primary shortly after.

Fry, well-known in his strongly pro-Trump, Myrtle Beach-area district, is working to elevate his name ID across other parts of the state since getting into the race and is promoting himself as a stalwart backer of Trump's policies.

Mark Sanford returns for another campaign

The former South Carolina congressman and governor whose political ascendency was stalled by a 2009 affair is making yet another attempt to return to public office.

Sanford's Senate bid comes just three months after he shuttered a bid to retake his former U.S. House seat, saying then he was quitting the race to set up a nonprofit to address the national debt, his signature issue.

Sanford had entered that contest on the last day of filing, when the race already was full of other Republican candidates, many of whom had spent months laying the groundwork for their campaigns.

Other GOP hopefuls include a former Graham challenger

Mark Lynch, a Greenville businessman who tried to oust Graham in the regular Republican primary last month, swiftly relaunched his campaign following Graham's death. He's expected to put much of his own money into his Senate run.

Other candidates include:

— Duke Buckner, a Walterboro attorney who is a perennial candidate. He has challenged U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina's lone congressional Democrat. Buckner also is a former public school English teacher.

— Mark McBride, the former mayor of Myrtle Beach. He unsuccessfully sought federal office before, including a 2004 Senate primary loss to former Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. McBride also lost to Fry in the 2022 GOP primary for the 7th Congressional District.

— Darius Mitchell, a resident of Columbia, who calls himself a “Hip Hop Republican.” In social media posts, he has voiced support for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

— Clark Neilson, a businessman in Charlotte, North Carolina, who has said he plans to build a home on land he owns in Charleston County. He said he's in the process of becoming a South Carolina resident.

— Sam Shepherd, a biomedical engineer and entrepreneur. He lives in Lexington County and has said he is focusing his campaign on cutting taxes and federal spending.

Who is the Democratic nominee in the Senate race?

Dr. Annie Andrews, a Charleston physician, won her party’s primary in June. Having set up her entire campaign based around challenging Graham, Andrews will soon find out her new general election opponent.

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

Graham's remains will arrive at the U.S. Capitol, where the Republican served for more than 30 years as an indefatigable dealmaker who talked and laughed and badgered his colleagues into action. Later, a funeral service will be held at Washington National Cathedral with lawmakers and foreign leaders, a testament to his stature on the global stage.

President Donald Trump is expected to deliver remarks at the cathedral, alongside Fox News' Sean Hannity and other conservative leaders. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy are planning to be in attendance, a nod to Graham's role as a foremost believer in the power of the U.S. and its military to intervene in the world's problems.

It's the start of two days of services, with burial Wednesday in his home state of South Carolina. Graham died suddenly on July 11 at his home in Washington of a likely aortic tear, according to preliminary findings. He had just returned from a whirlwind trip to a NATO summit in Turkey, where he celebrated his birthday, and a visit to Ukraine. He was 71.

A place of honor to ‘say our final goodbyes’

The morning service in the Capitol Rotunda provides a place of tribute where former presidents and military leaders and other prominent Americans have been memorialized. In recognition of his service in the Air Force, an Armed Forces Body Bearer Team will carry Graham's remains into the Capitol. Vice President JD Vance is expected to speak.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said earlier it was only fitting to give Graham a special Capitol honor “as we say our final goodbyes."

“For so many of us in the Senate and the House, myself included, Lindsey was more than a colleague, he was a friend,” Thune said.

First elected to Congress in the 1994 Republican revolt that swept the GOP to power, Graham was part of a new era of conservatives to take their seats in the House — and among the first Republicans from his Southern state since Reconstruction.

He quickly rose to prominence as a manager in Bill Clinton's presidential impeachment, and was elected to the Senate in the 2002 election. There, he formed alliance with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., in what would become the “three amigos” globetrotting the world focused on national security issues.

For decades, Graham had been at the center of the action — a member of virtually every bipartisan gang in Congress — with a relentless ability to shapeshift and adapt to political realities, particularly when it came to Trump.

The ‘Trump whisperer’ had one last mission: Russia sanctions

Perhaps nowhere was Graham's political dexterity on display as when he navigated his on-again, off-again relationship with Trump.

Graham had denounced Trump as a “kook” who was “unfit for office” when the two were early rivals during the 2016 presidential primary campaign.

Once Trump was elected, Graham gradually situated himself alongside the new president — until Trump sparked the mob who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to overturn Joe Biden's election.

“Count me out. Enough is enough,” Graham said that night in a fiery floor speech.

Weeks later, Trump invited Graham to the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, rekindling their alliance. The senator had said he wanted the president to be successful, and as Trump won a second term in 2024, Graham also wanted to remain relevant.

Graham had become what Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called the “Trump whisperer,” someone other senators — and even world leaders — relied on to understand the president's thinking.

Days before his death, Graham had won Trump's support for a long-fought bipartisan proposal to impose sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, one of the strongest U.S. efforts yet to hamper Russian President Vladimir Putin's ability to prolong the conflict.

Senators said as a tribute to Graham they should quickly approve the Russian sanctions package, and they were scheduled later Tuesday to take a first procedural vote. Zelenskyy is expected to be on hand and meeting with senators in the evening.

Graham's champions and potential successors

At the Washington cathedral, a roster of socially conservative and anti-abortion leaders are expected to participate in the services, including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Marjorie Jones Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and the Reverend William Franklin Graham III.

Graham never married, but he helped support his younger sister, Darline Graham, who is now a potential successor in the Senate.

She has been appointed by the state's governor to fill the remainder of his term in the Senate, and is running in a potentially crowded primary field for the fall election. The filing period for the special primary election closes Tuesday, with voting set for Aug. 11.

While Graham was at college, his mother died of Hodgkin lymphoma. Months later, his father died and Graham started his first semester of law school. He became the guardian for his sister, who was then 13, and later in life often extolled the benefits of Social Security that helped keep them financially afloat.

Graham went on to serve as a judge advocate general in the Air Force, and remained a reserve or National Guard member for decades. In the Senate, Graham briefly switched back to active status to help advise the Air Force during the Iraq War. He was awarded the Bronze Star medal for service in 2014 before formally retiring as a colonel in 2015.

Bellinger was placed on the 10-day injured list on Sunday, a day after he got hurt running the bases during a 3-1 win at Philadelphia. He had more tests on Monday in New York that revealed the extent of the injury.

“So the good thing is he’s obviously able to move around right now,” manager Aaron Boone said before Monday night's 9-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox. “So we’ll continue to do that and just allow this thing to heal and get him right.”

The loss of Bellinger is another major injury for a New York team already playing without reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge, who has been out since May 31 because of a fractured rib. Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton has been sidelined since April 24 because of a strained right calf.

The Yankees trail AL East-leading Tampa Bay by 2 1/2 games after topping the White Sox in the opener of a four-game series.

“We’ve had some tough injuries to some really important people,” Boone said. “But again, that is part of it. As I say, the season waits for no one.”

Max Schuemann started in left field on Monday night. Spencer Jones, who was brought up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when Bellinger was placed on the IL, was in center, and Jasson Domínguez was in right.

Schuemann was checked on by Boone and a trainer after he slipped on the warning track while going after Braden Montgomery's RBI triple in the first inning. But he stayed in the game.

The MLB trade deadline is next week, but Boone downplayed the effect of Bellinger's injury on the strategy for general manager Brian Cashman and the team's front office.

“I get the sense that they have been working on this in different ways, shape and form for the last several weeks, getting ready for trade deadline stuff,” Boone said. “I expect them to try and do all they can to improve our team, but again, you never know how that’s going to shake out.”

Bellinger, 31, felt tightness in his hamstring while rounding first on a double in the eighth inning on Saturday night. He is batting .259 with 11 homers and 53 RBIs in 102 games this season.

Bellinger re-signed with the Yankees last winter for $162.5 million over five years. He was the MVP of the All-Star Game on July 14 in Philadelphia.

Judge and Stanton are with the team in Chicago, and Boone said Stanton is continuing with his running progression.

“The strength stuff, explosive stuff he’s doing in the weight room has been very good,” Boone said. “So we just got to get him up to a level obviously on the running side of things to be able to go out there.”

Left-hander Carlos Rodón and right-hander Clarke Schmidt are both expected to throw again this week, Boone said. Rodón is coming back from elbow inflammation, and Schmidt had Tommy John surgery a year ago.

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

The planned injections come 18 months after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis began stepping up executions at a rate unseen in modern times in Florida. DeSantis hasn't said why he scheduled two executions six hours apart, and Florida prison officials haven't said whether the timing creates any logistical challenges for staff.

James Aren Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at noon at Florida State Prison near Starke, followed later that day by 80-year-old Dominick Anthony Occhicone, who also would become the oldest prisoner executed in Florida's modern history.

Duckett was convicted of raping and drowning an 11-year-old girl while working as a police officer in a small central Florida city in 1987, and Occhicone was convicted of the 1986 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents.

Duckett and Occhicone would become Florida’s 11th and 12th inmates to be executed this year if their sentences are carried out.

The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals for both men last week. Duckett’s attorneys had asked for another stay, claiming that Duckett is innocent and that the state’s handling of the DNA evidence is the reason for the inconclusive results. Occhicone’s attorneys argued that several age-related ailments, including kidney and prostate problems, could make his execution especially painful, constituting cruel and unusual punishment.

Both men still had appeals pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Record numbers for governor's final two years

DeSantis, who leaves office in January, oversaw a record 19 executions in 2025, more in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The previous high was eight executions set in 2014.

If Tuesday’s executions proceed, that would bring the total for DeSantis’ final two years in office up to 31 overall, compared to just nine executions during the first six years of his administration. With another execution already set for August, 2026 could also be a record-breaking year.

DeSantis initially signed a death warrant for Duckett in February, setting a March 31 execution date. But the Florida Supreme Court issued a stay just days ahead of that date to allow for DNA testing of old evidence that couldn’t be performed at the time of the original trial because of technological limitations. The results came back inconclusive, meaning they did not exonerate Duckett or definitively connect him to the crime. Judges have allowed the jury verdict to stand.

When Occhicone's death warrant was signed late last month, his was the only execution scheduled for Tuesday. But after the Florida Supreme Court removed Duckett's stay on July 8, DeSantis signed a new death warrant soon after and added Duckett to Occhicone’s execution date, which hadn't been done in Florida in more than 60 years. Florida Department of Corrections records show multiple executions on a single day were more common in the past, with the last being on May 12, 1964.

Nationwide, it's not uncommon for two different states to hold executions on the same date, but its less common for a single state to perform two. Before Florida, the most recent U.S. state to execute two inmates on the same day was Arkansas in April 2017. And Texas executed two convicted killers on the same day in 2000, the year it put to death 40 prisoners.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty has urged DeSantis to halt both executions.

“July 28 represents an unprecedented escalation of Florida’s use of the death penalty,” the group’s executive director, Grace Hanna, said in a statement. “These are two profoundly different cases, but they point to the same troubling reality: Florida continues to expand the use of capital punishment, despite mounting evidence that it is not what Floridians want.”

Decades on Death Row

The governor's office has rarely commented on executions over the past 18 months. DeSantis has previously said his goal is to bring justice to victims’ families who have waited decades for death sentences to be carried out.

“Some of these crimes were committed in the ’80s,” the governor said at a November 2025 news conference. “Justice delayed is justice denied. I felt I owed it to them to make sure this ran very smoothly. If I honestly thought someone was innocent, I would not pull the trigger.”

Occhicone would become Florida's oldest inmate to be executed, just weeks after two 74-year-old men briefly held that spot, the second man just a week older than the first at his time of death. Recent executions have highlighted the nation's aging death-row population and renewed questions about the humanity of administering capital punishment to inmates who might die soon from natural causes.

Occhicone also would become the second-oldest prisoner known to be executed in modern U.S. history after 83-year-old Walter Moody Jr. in Alabama in 2018. Moody was condemned for a wave of mail bombs in 1989 that killed a federal judge and wounded a Black civil rights attorney.

Florida executions are all by injection of a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

Police said the initial incident happened around 6 p.m. and involved a homicide suspect from Volusia County.

How officers located the suspect

According to Titusville police, the city’s Flock Safety camera system alerted officers when the suspect vehicle entered Titusville. Officers were then able to quickly locate the vehicle, officials said.

But when police tried to pull the vehicle over, it fled, the department revealed.

What happened at Sand Point Park

Police said the suspect vehicle later crashed near Sand Point Park.

However, the police department also confirmed that no law enforcement officers fired weapons during the incident.

TPD reported:

• No law enforcement officers were injured
• The driver is deceased
• The cause of death is unknown pending further investigation, though drowning is a possibility

What’s next

Because the case remains an active investigation, the public is being asked to rely on official updates from the Titusville Police Department.

In a release, an OCSO spokesperson said that deputies responded to the Airbnb off Takeaway Way in Davenport shortly after 1 p.m. for the child, who was located at the bottom of the pool.

“Deputies began life-saving measures on the unconscious child by performing CPR until fire rescue arrived on scene,” the release reads. “The 5-year-old male child was transported to Celebration Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.”

Afterward, homicide detectives responded to the scene to investigate, the OCSO noted.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson also told News 6 that the child was with extended family and was in the pool with other children.

No additional information has been provided at this time.

FDLE and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office had said Juliet Arioso, 13, was abducted from her home in the Shady Road Villas community of Ocala on Monday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

At the time, detectives said she may have been in the company of Jason Castillo, 45. They were believed to be traveling in a red 2021 Hyundai.

Around 5:20 p.m., deputies found the vehicle and tried to pull it over, though the suspect driver — identified as Castillo — refused to stop and fled, according to the MCSO.

In a release, investigators reported that a PIT maneuver was used, which caused the vehicle to become disabled along U.S. Highway 441, near the intersection with County Road 25A.

“As deputies attempted to apprehend Castillo, shots were fired,” the release reads. “Castillo was transported to the hospital for treatment.”

Deputies later announced that Castillo died at the hospital. The MCSO confirmed that he was the ex-boyfriend of Arioso’s mother.

Meanwhile, an MCSO spokesperson told News 6 that Arioso was in the car during the shooting but was not injured.

As a result of the incident, all southbound lanes along U.S. Highway 441 near the incident remain closed at the time of this writing, deputies announced.

“The public is asked to avoid the area and seek alternate routes,” the release continues.

No additional information has been provided at this time, including what the connection — if any — Arioso and Castillo may have had.

In a court filing Monday, David Hearn's attorneys requested an order for the government to turn over a complete transcript of all grand jury proceedings. They also want prosecutors to disclose the legal instructions they gave to grand jurors about the elements of Hearn's alleged crime.

Hearn pleaded not guilty earlier this month to one felony count of property destruction and has a trial scheduled to start Sept. 28 in D.C. Superior Court. The charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years upon conviction, accuses Hearn of causing at least $1,000 in damage to the pool.

But his lawyers question whether prosecutors properly presented the grand jury with adequate evidence to support the amount of damage alleged in Hearn's indictment. A National Park Service official testified that the pool already was damaged before Hearn allegedly touched it, couldn't quantify any damage attributable to Hearn and said the same repairs would have been required regardless of his conduct, defense attorneys said.

“The witness’s testimony established that the pool had substantial preexisting damage requiring repair before any alleged conduct by Mr. Hearn," his lawyers wrote. “According to the witness, the pool was leaking more than one million gallons of water per week; its expansion joints had exceeded their service life; and the liner already contained a rip."

Hearn's attorneys are basing those arguments on their limited review of grand jury testimony. They want court-ordered access to all the proceedings.

A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office in Washington didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Hearn's arguments.

Hearn previously asked the court to dismiss the case, which stems from the troubled multimillion-dollar renovation project championed by President Donald Trump. His attorneys argued the government has failed to properly preserve important physical evidence from the Reflecting Pool.

Trump, a Republican, has claimed that vandals have damaged the pool, but administration critics attribute the problems to shoddy repair work. During a speech Monday at General Motors in Michigan, Trump claimed a “sick” person cut the liner in the pool but said the attraction is receiving treatment.

“It’s in the hospital now, but it’s going to get better very soon,” Trump said. “It’s almost ready to open.”

Hearn and his supporters claim his prosecution is a politically motivated attempt by the Trump administration to deflect blame and scapegoat others.

Hearn told The Associated Press he was detained by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police for five hours after stopping by the pool during a bike ride on June 19. He said he reached in to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool, but said he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.

Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, competed in three Summer Olympics, earning his best finish, ninth, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says on its website.

At least three other people have been charged in the same court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the pool.

___ Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Phillies closer Jhoan Duran (1-4) entered with a 7-5 lead before loading the bases with no outs and allowing a tying two-run single by Heriberto Hernández, who scored the winning run.

Hernández and Conine homered against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. Jakob Marsee had a run-scoring double and Otto Lopez added an RBI triple for the Marlins, who hadn't won a game since July 9. The Phillies have struggled since the All-Star break, losing seven of 10.

The Marlins built a 5-2 cushion in the first two innings against Wheeler before blowing it in the sixth and rallying in the ninth on Conine's first career walk-off hit and Miami's fifth walk-off win of the season.

Bryce Harper drew a leadoff walk against reliever Cade Gibson and scored on Alec Bohm’s single to make it 5-3 in the sixth. J.T. Realmuto then hit a fly ball against Tyler Zuber that bounced over the right field wall for a double that pulled the Phillies within one. Justin Crawford singled in Bryson Stott before Realmuto was awarded the go-ahead run on a throwing error by Hernández.

Harper gave Philadelphia an early lead with his 22nd homer of the season — a 419-foot, two-run drive off starter Tyler Phillips in the first.

Wheeler was lifted after giving up six hits with six strikeouts in three innings. Manager Don Mattingly said Wheeler might have been feeling nauseous, but there appeared to be no injury concern with the veteran.

Phillips allowed three hits and two runs while walking two and striking out five. He was lifted after five innings and 76 pitches. Calvin Faucher (5-5) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win.

Up next

Philadelphia RHP Aaron Nola (3-8, 5.82) will start the second game of the series against Miami RHP Sandy Alcantara (10-6, 4.01).

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

Miami overcame two-run, ninth-inning deficit in the ninth on Monday to beat division-rival Philadelphia 8-7 and snap a 12-game losing streak — the longest such stretch in franchise history.

It was the Marlins' first win since beating Seattle at home on July 9 and ensured they would not suffer their fifth straight sweep.

“Everybody feels good," McCullough said. “It’s no lie everyone in the building has been grinding hard now for a couple of weeks and frustrated with things, but certainly it feels great to get a win and I think in the fashion that we did it'd be hard to ever question this group’s toughness and willingness to compete.”

Griffin Conine singled in the winning run against Philadelphia closer Jhoan Duran, who entered in the ninth with a 7-5 lead before loading the bases with no outs.

Heriberto Hernández hit the tying single against Duran before racing home on Conine's single and jumping into his teammates' arms in celebration on the field.

“I’ve never been a part of anything like the last two weeks,” said Conine, who also homered in the first inning. “I think we handled it fine. It’s just like at a certain point, it’s the same way you feel when you’re 0-for-15 at the plate. You feel like you’re never going to get a hit again. And that’s not true. You know that deep down you will, but the way it feels is like — it felt like we were never going to win again.”

The Marlins had lost 11 straight games three times in their history. They lost 11 consecutive games twice during separate stretches in 1998 when the club lost 108 games, and again in June 2011.

Before Monday’s game, McCullough said he saw Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” on a recent day off and couldn’t help but think of his team’s misfortunes.

“I feel a bit like Odysseus,” he said. "Like I’m away from home for 10 years. At some point, I’m going to return home. I don’t know what baseball god I infuriated but it’s where we’re at, so today is an opportunity.”

The Marlins used that opportunity early.

After Bryce Harper put Philadelphia ahead with a two-run shot in the first, Miami responded by scoring five straight runs against ace Zack Wheeler.

After blowing the lead in the sixth, the Marlins scored three in the ninth, including Conine's first career walk-off hit.

“As far as what this does, pressure’s off,” Conine said. "Now we’re on a winning streak. Now we want more of it. So it’s like forget the last two weeks and move on. I think we can learn from it, and I think that we will.”

The Marlins had done plenty of winning before the All-Star break and were at 52-42 and three games behind NL East-leading Atlanta. They also had the third NL wild-card spot.

But the unraveling began in the weekend home series against Cleveland prior to the break. Outside of a 7-2 to loss against San Diego on July 25, Miami had lost the other 11 games by three runs or less, including a 5-3 collapse against San Diego on Sunday.

Miami could barely generate offense during its losing streak, going .208 with a .607 OPS during that stretch. Seven players recorded a hit on Monday — six of them had multiple hits.

“Everybody is going to leave here tonight feeling much different than we have over the last 12-odd games,” McCullough said. “We’ll come in tomorrow and look — we got Game 1 of the series. As rough as it’s been, we still need to try to get back to winning series. Winning the first game of a big divisional series like this is important.”

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

Stafford is the reigning NFL MVP and a Super Bowl champion himself, but he also spent enough seasons of his career on mediocre teams to recognize just how good he has it here in his 18th year.

“It was a blast to be out here today,” Stafford said. “I’m surrounded by so many great players, and I don’t take that for granted, both on our side of the football and on the defensive side. It’s a blessing to come out here every single day and compete against these guys and play with the guys on the offensive side. Just an exciting time.”

After sitting out of Sunday's opening practice as part of the Rams' plan to keep their franchise quarterback in top shape for the season ahead, Stafford looked remarkably sharp in his first workout of training camp. He repeatedly found All-Pro Puka Nacua and Davante Adams in solid coverage with long, precise throws that had the crowd at Loyola Marymount cheering.

The Rams made a handful of bold personnel moves in the past four months to maximize the size of their remaining championship window with their 38-year-old quarterback, but coach Sean McVay said on the opening day of camp that he won’t measure his team’s success or failure “by whether or not we win a Super Bowl."

“That’s not what I believe,” McVay added. "I’m not living that way. I’ve gotten caught up in things like that before and those are things that are way beyond our control.”

Stafford agrees with his coach's mindset, realizing the journey is more important than the destination.

Having said all that, he's still thrilled by the chance to start this trip by going against pass-rushing monster Myles Garrett and elite cornerback Trent McDuffie in practice each day.

“We can't help but make each other better, (but) pieces of paper and names on a roster, those don’t win football games,” Stafford said. “Teams and players and groups do. ... Sean said it the other night, we’ve got potentially a high ceiling, right? We’ve got great players that have done a lot in this league. What can we do to continue to raise our floor, so if I’m off a little bit, we can still go find a way to win a football game? If our defense is off a little bit, we can still find a way to go win a football game. Continuing to raise that floor is something that’s going to be a huge part of our journey this season.”

Stafford is coming off arguably the best season of his long career after throwing for 4,707 yards with 46 touchdowns and just eight interceptions for the league's most productive offense. He led the Rams to 12 wins and the NFC championship game, where he passed for 374 yards and three touchdowns without a pick — and it still wasn't enough to hold off the eventual champion Seattle Seahawks, largely because LA's defense couldn't get off the field when it mattered most.

The Rams addressed that defensive failure head-on this year, acquiring Chiefs cornerback duo McDuffie and Jaylen Watson before swinging the blockbuster trade last month for Garrett.

Los Angeles is loaded on paper — but it's also theoretically just one Stafford injury away from lining up with rookie Ty Simpson or backup Stetson Bennett running the offense.

That's why McVay and Stafford are doing everything possible to keep his sometimes-balky back in top shape along with the rest of him. The Rams’ plan for their quarterback is just the latest instance of the preseason-hating McVay’s overall determination to expose his veteran players to the least amount of wear and tear possible before Week 1.

“That's part of the plan, to be able to keep him on a pitch count,” McVay said, noting that the Rams' plan to cut Stafford's camp practices in half is the product of six years of preparation and experience. “Hey, whether it was a weird way or not, we learned a lot about how to try to be able to maximize him.”

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

“Usually when you look at a situation you cut from the top,” one resident said during public comment.

Some residents acknowledged long-standing infrastructure problems are impacting daily life, including neighborhood flooding, damaged roads and missing sidewalks. “Our community continues to face significant infrastructure challenges including flooding… roads, sidewalks — we have children walking to school in the ditches because the sidewalks aren’t there,” one speaker said.

The city says the proposed increase is aimed at shoring up struggling infrastructure and preparing for what could come if voters approve a property tax cut in November. But some residents questioned the city’s financial priorities, arguing other budget areas should be reduced before raising taxes.

“$300,000 salary for a Chief of Staff — let that sink in,” one resident told commissioners.

Commissioner Nadia Anderson — the lone “no” vote days earlier on a proposed 0.75% millage increase — also raised concerns about several salaries during the meeting, citing positions she said total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Anderson said she’s hearing from residents who say they can’t afford a major increase.

“Dozens of residents call me and say, ‘Listen we can’t afford to put food on our tables. We cannot afford this massive tax increase,’” she said.

Another resident, speaking emotionally, said the decision could determine whether some people can stay in their homes. “I got out of my sick bed because I wanted my voice to be heard… the choice you make today might mean me keeping my house or not,” the resident said.

City leaders said one area they are actively working to cut back is overtime. They say if plans move forward, the city could save about $3 million to bank.

Lake Mary recently knocked off a team from North Carolina to capture the Southeast regional championship in Georgia.

I caught up with this determined group of young ladies as they look to replicate what the Lake Mary Little League All-Star baseball team did two years ago...win the World Series.

The surprise move during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine followed U.S. opposition to giving U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk another four-year term. The reappointment on Friday got overwhelming support, including from France.

The U.S. walkout reflects not only the more strained relations between President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, but also wider tensions between the U.S. and Europe. These include questions over Trump's commitment to NATO, possible changes to U.S. troop deployments in Europe, and Trump’s desire to control Greenland, which belongs to NATO member Denmark.

Trump has complained that Europeans, who weren't consulted, did not help the U.S. during the Iran war. Amid the tensions, Macron has taken a lead in trying to build up Europe's military and ensure a nuclear umbrella as one of the continent's two nuclear powers, along with Britain.

After Monday’s brief walkout, deputy U.S. ambassador Dan Negrea accused France of feigning “moral outrage” and pretending to lecture the world about every topic, including human rights.

The United States has stood by France in every conflict where its "freedom has been imperiled” and tolerated its grandstanding “out of a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect,” he said, but no more.

What sparked the walkout was a social media post Friday from France’s U.N. Mission in Geneva criticizing U.S. opposition to a second term for the U.N. rights chief. The General Assembly voted 144-10 with 13 abstentions in support of Türk, with the U.S. among the “no” votes.

“The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it,” the French Mission tweeted.

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., in responding on X, accused France of coddling ”some of the worst human rights abusers” and voting “for someone who has been lecturing, free, sovereign democracies like the United States, the UK, and Israel, while cozying up to the world’s worst oppressors.”

Türk’s job as the U.N. rights chief, by its nature, is tricky: It requires speaking out against rights violations by the governments of the countries that make up the membership of the world body.

For instance, Türk has sharply criticized Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza as well as having urged a “massive rethink” of U.S. immigration policy before the World Cup, citing issues around “racial profiling, surveillance and immigration enforcement.”

At Monday’s meeting, Negrea drilled in on France.

“Today, I remind them that it is the United States that remains the beacon of liberty for the world,” he said. “As such, we will not be affording them the benefit of listening to their politicized drivel until they renounce their condescending and disrespectful rhetoric and behave in a manner commensurate with their seat on this council.”

France’s U.N. Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont never mentioned the walkout when asked to take the floor at the end of the council meeting to respond.

Instead, he noted that France — which helped the United States gain its independence — took part in the July 4 celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.

“The United Nations was created with the goal of working towards international peace and security, human rights and development,” he said. “All of that forms the spirit in which France works within the United Nations … to preserve this institution, its independence, its ability to act in service of the charter and act to serve human rights and peace.”

Paul Harris, who represents Wu, told The Associated Press early Tuesday that immigration authorities had sent a letter to his attorneys saying Wu, the former chairman of Hong Kong's once-biggest pro-democracy party, was being granted permission to remain as a visitor for six months. Wu’s family resides in the U.K.

The British authorities' decision came after Wu's entry on a seven-day immigration bail last week raised widespread concerns from rights groups and Hong Kongers living in the U.K. and the Chinese territory.

Wu was one of 47 activists charged in 2021 in Hong Kong’s biggest case under a Beijing-imposed security law that crushed a previously thriving democracy movement. He was sentenced in 2024 to four years and five months in prison for conspiracy to commit subversion over his role in an unofficial primary election.

Wu said in an AP interview Sunday that he was only allowed to stay in Britain until Wednesday as U.K. border authorities believed he might have other goals beyond just visiting, including seeking long-term residency. He worried that would cut short his plans to spend time with his family after years of separation. He also feared the immigration record could affect his future visits to his family in the U.K. again.

Wu said in a video published by online media outlet Green Bean that his heart was heavy over the past few days and he was happy that he eventually was allowed to spend more time with his family.

“I hope all Hong Kongers can live well and cherish their loved ones,” he said.

The Home Office confirmed Monday local time that Wu will not be removed on Wednesday and that he has permission to enter the U.K.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.

The award, given annually to the top female college athlete, was celebrating its 50th annivesary Monday. The best player in every sport is invited to the ceremony each year.

“When you're a young college athlete, you don’t understand the importance of it,” said Meyers Drysdale, who starred in basketball at UCLA and won the award in its second year in 1978. “There’s so many basketball players, which is, you know, pretty exciting. But just the great athletes from all the different sports, I think that’s what I’m appreciative of the Honda Awards, that they recognize so many athletes from so many different sports.”

Out of all the individual sport winners, an overall Athlete of the Year is chosen to receive the Honda Cup. In addition to athletic performance, the award honors college athletes for their leadership, academics and community service.

“It’s great that it honors more than just what is done on the court or field,” said Jen Rizzotti, who won the award in 1996 after a successful basketball career at UConn. “They make sure that they’re well-rounded and have a balanced portfolio. They give back in the community, they’re great in the classroom.”

Delta State basketball great Lusia Harris won the first Honda Cup in 1977. UCLA's Lauren Betts became the 20th basketball player crowned as the top athlete Monday night. That's more than any other sport.

“To receive an honor like this — the highest award you could possibly receive — is pretty unbelievable," Betts said. "All the women that have come through and won this award is incredible.”

The Bruins have the most Honda Cup champions with seven.

“That's crazy when you say that,” Betts said of UCLA's success winning the award. “I think I'm representing something bigger than myself.”

Bruins’ softball star Rachel Garcia won it twice. That's only been three other times with Maya Moore, Caitlin Clark and Florida swimmer Tracy Caulkins.

“I think it’s pretty unbelievable. To receive an honor is, like, the highest award you could possibly receive. I mean, the legacy that it’s left throughout the years. I mean, it goes back 50 years now, which is pretty unbelievable,” Betts said. “And, you know, all the alumni have come through and won these awards. I mean, I just I can’t even describe how amazing it is. I’m just super grateful.”

Tennessee star Chamique Holdsclaw won the award in 1998. She loved the chance to get to know so many athletes from other sports.

“It exposed me to different things and to people playing different sports,” Holdsclaw said. “I was learning about things like women's lacrosse and growing up in New York City and playing at Tennessee we didn't have that. I think it was great that the award recognized greatness in every sport.”

The award ceremony has come a long way from the first in 1977. Missy Marlowe won the Honda Cup in 1992 after a successful gymnastics career at Utah. That came after competing in the Olympics in 1988. Marlowe remembered receiving the Honda Cup at an NCAA convention back in the day.

After a 12-year run in Los Angeles, the award ceremony moved to New York in 2024 and has been there ever since.

“It’s inspiring. It’s a really neat break from reality to remember what we used to do a long time ago,” Marlowe said. “To see this this tradition continue for 50 years is incredible because it’s easy to start something and have it go for a while and then kind of die off. So the determination and the work that’s gone into keeping this so prevalent for 50 years, and in fact, gain in importance, is amazing.”

Julie Shea was the first non-basketball winner of the Honda Cup after a stellar track career at N.C. State. She was honored to be back and see all the positive changes for women’s athletics with many players making money for their name, image and likeness.

“I sold programs and popcorn and peanuts at the football games,” Shea recalled. “I’m happy for them. But I’m like, hey, you know, I just was born in the wrong era.”

Shea was one of 20 former winners who took part in the ceremony in New York on Monday.

“That’s what’s great about the Honda Cup and what college women’s sports is all about is bringing people together,” Joyner said. “Being able to see some of the people winning and them seeing us, not even born when we were doing what we were doing.”

Joyner-Kersee won the award in 1985. She was an inspiration to Stanford volleyball player Ogonna Nnamani (2005). Nnamani, who suffered from asthma when she was an athlete, saw Joyner-Kersee succeed in the Olympics while also being afflicted with the same thing. Nnamani said that if Joyner-Kersee could do it she could too.

“I got to tell her that she inspired me because of what she was able to do,” said Nnamani, who is a doctor now.

On a visit to a coordination center for the massive firefighting effort in southwest France, Macron heard how the blaze raging since last week has been wildly unpredictable, transforming at times into a self-feeding fire storm as it burned through an area four times the size of Paris and forced 220,000 people to flee their homes.

“We're facing a completely unprecedented fire,” Macron said, describing the situation as France's worst fire-related crisis since World War II.

He praised firefighting teams who stopped the inferno's progression Monday after days of spreading flames that edged toward the wine region city of Bordeaux. But with woodlands still smoldering, he and other government officials cautioned that the battle isn’t yet won, with forests turned tinder-dry by successive heat waves this year and another forecast for this week.

“The weeks ahead will be hard. We must hold firm,” Macron said.

Fire crews racing against feared next heat wave

With thousands of firefighters on the ground and rotations of water- and retardant-dropping aircraft, it became a race against time Monday to contain the blaze before temperatures soar, with national weather service forecasts of 35 C (95 F) and above in southwest France from Tuesday.

Authorities also are working to feed, shelter and care for evacuees who fled in staggering numbers: 250,000 in the southwest, driven away by two fires.

Macron spoke of displaced people “traumatized” by the upheaval and “who sometimes have lost everything.”

No new evacuations were announced Monday. But with France about to enter its peak August tourist season, authorities for the Gironde region around Bordeaux worked to keep vacationers away, banning holiday camps for children and for people with disabilities. Government ministers also urged people not to travel to the region that is popular for its Atlantic beaches, famous wines and some of France's largest expanses of forests.

Crews using earth movers tore up strips of forest and scrubland to create barren spaces, intended to block the flames that officials said had come within 15 kilometers (10 miles) of Bordeaux's outskirts. Farmers kept fire crews supplied with water, transporting it to them in tanks.

Briefing Macron, the Gironde region's fire chief explained how crews had wrestled with the blaze unlike any they'd previously tackled, extraordinarily virulent and capricious, “a fire that's going everywhere” and which generated electrical storms that sparked more flare-ups.

“The last 24 hours went well, thanks to your work” Macron told firefighters. “Doubtless, tomorrow will be more complicated than today.”

Spain is also battling fires

Around a dozen countries have provided planes, helicopters, firefighters and other assistance to both France and Spain, which is also fighting unprecedented blazes. All told, fires in the two countries have forced more than 330,000 people to flee.

In Spain, wildfires have burned out of control around Madrid and in the Valencia region. Authorities evacuated 79,000 people and confined 30,000 others to their homes.

In both Spain and France, the exceptional scale of the fires — fueled by heat waves that hit especially hard and early this year, making forests and scrubland tinder-dry — are driving calls for stronger action against climate change.

“What we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents. It is the consequence of a climate emergency that is making wildfires even more violent, heat waves more frequent,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.

A fire raging in hilly, rural terrain in Ávila, west of Madrid, has become Spain’s largest on record, scorching 500 square kilometers (193 square miles), the government said. That's five times the size of Barcelona.

“Look at how the valley is burned. Look at the houses, the people," said David Gonzalez, a 48-year-old gardener who used his van to run supplies to firefighters in Ávila.

"We are feeling lot of anger and helplessness. It’s something inhuman,” he said.

Fires have burned 1,530 square kilometers (590 square miles) this year in Spain — six times the area scorched by blazes in the first half of 2025, said Sara Aagesen, the ecology minister.

The minister said that another heat wave forecast from Tuesday — which would be Spain’s fourth so far this year — could ratchet up the fire danger. Spain’s weather agency forecast temperatures above 40 C (104 F).

Water-dropping planes combat fire in Italy

A wildfire driven by strong winds broke out on Sunday afternoon near Peschici, in Italy’s southern Puglia region, burning pine forest and scrub and forcing the evacuation of about 300 tourists from beaches and campgrounds, authorities said.

The Coast Guard evacuated tourists by sea to nearby Vieste, where authorities opened temporary shelters.

Three Canadair water-bombing planes and fire crews on the ground continued Monday to battle the blaze, which revived memories of devastating wildfires that hit the same coastal area in 2007.

___

Leicester reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Iain Sullivan in El Tiemblo, Spain, and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.

Saudi Arabia said it had shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq that had targeted its petroleum facilities. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen meanwhile claimed to have attacked Saudi oil facilities as part of a separate but related conflict. It was unclear if they referred to the same attack.

Neither the U.S. nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three days — a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran had asked for more discussions, reaching out directly “because we’ve been hitting them very hard.” Iran has said there are no direct talks underway.

“We’re having good talks, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Monday on Air Force One. “I think there’s a good chance that something could happen. And if it does, good. if it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

The two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, said mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan were working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran to return to an interim ceasefire deal that had collapsed after exchanges of fire.

No strikes over the weekend

In addition to the attack on Saudi Arabia, two drone attacks were reported against a Kurdish Iranian dissident group in Iraq on Monday, and Jordan said it had shot down two drones, without saying where they originated. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

Iran and Ukraine, meanwhile, have been publicly feuding since Ukraine fired on at least one Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea over the weekend. Iran, which said a sailor had been killed in the attack, is an important ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine and helped Moscow build up its drone expertise.

The U.S. paused attacks after targeting Iranian coastal areas and infrastructure in a nearly two-week escalation sparked by Iran’s firing at ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global oil shipments. Iran had responded to the strikes with missile and drone attacks on countries hosting U.S. troops, killing at least three service members at a base in Jordan and one in Iraq.

Iran halted its attacks following the American pause, Tehran’s army spokesperson told Iranian state TV on Sunday.

Questions about US munitions stockpile

The Iran war has drawn down the U.S. stockpile of key weapons systems like missiles and interceptors, analysts say.

Asked if the U.S. munitions stockpile was running low, Trump said both that it was “in very good shape,” and “I’d like to have more, to be honest.” Experts have questioned how long both the U.S. and Iran can afford to keep up attacks.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told Trump that the state of the country’s stockpile could have an impact on military operations in Iran, a U.S. official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations, said this message was delivered as part of Caine’s regular duties of providing military advice and options to Trump.

Caine told lawmakers at a hearing last week that “airpower has its limits” in achieving military objectives. The U.S. military has employed airstrikes almost exclusively against Iran.

Regional officials cite progress in talks

One of the regional officials who spoke to AP on Monday described the progress made in mediation efforts as “significant.” He said mediators were working with Iran and Oman on a mechanism for managing vessels’ transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the flashpoint for the latest strikes and counterstrikes.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said during a news conference in Tehran on Monday that “mediators may convey messages to us from the American side” but that there were no direct negotiations.

He said Iran and Oman, which lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, talked Friday and Saturday on how to manage ship traffic through the waterway.

Their aim is to “develop mechanisms to ensure safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz while respecting the sovereign rights and sovereignty of both coastal states, as well as Iran’s security and national interests” Baghaei said. He stressed that the waterway remains closed.

Tehran has asserted that the interim deal with the U.S. allows it to manage shipping on the waterway and potentially charge fees, and it has objected to U.S. efforts to support an alternative route that passes close to Oman. The strait was open to all without fees before the war.

The U.S. military on Monday said its recently reimposed naval blockade against Iran continued, with 17 commercial ships redirected, two disabled and two boarded.

The 60-day period established by the interim deal in mid-June is now well into its second half, and major issues that were meant to be negotiated — notably Iran’s nuclear program at the heart of tensions — have been set aside as mediators try to keep both sides talking.

Shipping traffic on the strait is at a 3-week low

Concerns have grown about shipping through another crucial waterway in the region, the Bab al-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea. The Houthis last week threatened a blockade of Saudi shipping there, and fired on at least one Saudi tanker.

Global energy supplies and the economy remain in the balance as gasoline prices have risen again.

Commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz was at a three-week low, a maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday, adding that no new attacks had been confirmed in the past 72 hours. It said traffic remained steady through Bab el-Mandeb.

Netanyahu says he ‘fully’ backs Trump’s efforts

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he plans to meet with Trump in Washington on Tuesday. They last met in Washington in February, weeks before they launched the war that killed Iran's senior leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon fired at Israel two days after the war began, and Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion.

The U.S. State Department said Monday that the next round of talks between Israel and Lebanon will take place next week in Rome with a focus on expanding “pilot zones” in which Israeli forces will withdraw and turn over security to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

Talks between the two countries have been going on for months in an effort to eliminate the Hezbollah movement as a force in Lebanon.

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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press reporters Matthew Lee, Konstantin Toropin, Darlene Superville and Ben Finley in Washington; Jill Lawless and Emma Burrows in London; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

The Fox Fire forced the closure of Interstate 84 for some 70 miles (113 kilometers) between Baker City and Ontario near the Idaho state line before reopening later in the day, the Oregon Department of Transportation said. I-84 is a key thoroughfare, running from Portland in the west through the Columbia River Gorge and into eastern Oregon before crossing the Snake River eastward through Boise.

The transportation department said the wildfire remains active in the area and that intermittent closures were still possible.

Challenging wildfires have burned across the Western U.S. this summer, following months of dry weather, a record lack of snow in some areas, hot spells and erratic winds. Federal authorities announced Saturday that a fourth firefighter died of his injuries after he and several colleagues were overcome last month by a fast-moving wildfire near the Colorado-Utah border.

The Fox Fire was burning near the Oregon-Idaho state line about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northeast of the small town of Huntington, which was under a Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation order, meaning its roughly 500 residents have been told to leave immediately.

Fueled by hot, dry and breezy conditions, the fire has scorched nearly 72 square miles (186 square kilometers) and was 0% contained as of Monday.

Huntington Mayor Chuck Guerri said the fire flared up early Monday morning near the east side of town, estimating it got within 250 feet (76 meters) of the nearest home before firefighters got a handle on that portion of the blaze. The smoke was so thick you could taste it, he said.

“We did send the alarm and went around knocking on doors on the east end of town to try to get people out of here, because it was coming in pretty quick,” he said. “But we had some good crews here, and they got it knocked down pretty quickly."

The town's fire chief injured his head and back over the weekend while responding to the blaze after the fire truck he was driving rolled over, Guerri said, adding that he was airlifted to receive medical treatment.

Officials are continuing to keep a close eye on the fire beyond town, which is surrounded by grassy rangeland, he said.

“We want to make sure that they can keep that contained out there and not turn into something else,” Guerri said.

With aircraft potentially grounded due to limited visibility from the smoke, firefighters were building bulldozer lines around Huntington near a railroad that also runs through the area to protect critical infrastructure, authorities said.

Elsewhere in eastern Oregon, the state transportation department's website showed a rural stretch of U.S. Route 20 was also closed Monday due to wildfire for nearly 70 miles, between the small cities of Burns and Vale.

In central Oregon, the Akawa Butte Fire was deemed a top priority for firefighting in recent days due to its proximity — about 5 miles (8 kilometers) — to Sisters, a small city of about 3,000 people. While authorities said Sunday that fire activity had decreased across much of the blaze, part of the town is still under an evacuation notice, with residents told to be prepared to leave if necessary.

There were no reports of fatalities or injuries as of Monday evening, but emergency officials were still searching, said Gordon Hintz, Winnebago County’s top elected official.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado in Winnebago County, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee. Damage was reported in cities including Appleton and Menasha, where Police Chief Matt Albrecht said some homes and businesses were “severely impacted.”

The twister was spun off by a large storm system that moved through the Great Lakes, fueled by a buildup of heat and humidity, National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Berschback said.

Hintz said it could be several days before power in the stricken area is restored.

Heather Schroeder said she heard cracking and popping all around her as the tornado tore apart a laundromat, a bakery and a neighborhood tavern that were clustered around a street corner in Menasha, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Green Bay.

Rescue workers pulled someone out of one of the buildings, said Schroeder, who works nearby. She said it wasn’t clear if the person had survived. Cars were turned upside-down, and there was a gas leak at the laundromat, she said.

“There’s nothing left,” Schroeder said.

The twister ripped roofs off homes and flipped vehicles in one neighborhood in Menasha, just blocks from the shores of Lake Winnebago. Video showed a trail of destruction, with some homes reduced to their outer walls.

Greg Van Driest was working in downtown Appleton when the sky got as dark as night.

“The word we all were using was ‘ominous,’” he said. “It’s like, ‘Whoa, look at that.’ ... You looked outside and you thought it was three in the morning, it was that dark.”

No reports of deaths or injuries, but searches continue

Hintz said he’s received multiple reports of buildings destroyed and vehicles overturned. All storm warnings that could be made ahead of time to get people to safety were activated, he said.

“Obviously when you look at the damage, Mother Nature doesn’t really care,” he said.

Weather service meteorologist Holley Kamba said the agency was receiving reports of damage in southern Outagamie County and eastern Winnebago County,

“We have been receiving calls of damage with a lot of trees down, power lines down,” Kamba said. “We’ve been searching for some pictures of the structural damage.”

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said the state “is ready to assist communities however we can.”

Weather service meteorologists in Green Bay issued a tornado warning at 11:59 a.m. for the Fox Cities region, which includes Appleton, Menasha and Neenah. It warned of flying and dangerous debris, damage to mobile homes, vehicles and trees, while warning people to seek shelter.

The area had already been under a severe thunderstorm warning for about 45 minutes, and meteorologists indicated the storm was capable of producing winds up to 60 mph (97 kph).

Extensive damage and an entire city without power

Images on social media showed extensive damage in Appleton, including homes stripped of roofs, a car tossed onto a lawn, and streets littered with tree limbs.

The Appleton Police Department said on social media that it was aware of “several downed trees and large tree limbs throughout the city." Traffic signals were out and some roads were “heavily backed up,” the department said.

Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said he didn't have any confirmation of fatalities or injuries in the county, which includes Appleton. But he said there was “extensive and severe damage” in Menasha and Fox Crossing.

“All indications are that this was a devastating system that has caused extensive damage,” Nelson said.

In Menasha, the electric utility said the entire city of about 18,000 people was believed without power. Authorities were opening a shelter at a church.

The storm hit Menasha and the east side of neighboring Fox Crossing at around 12:20 p.m., Albrecht said.

“At this point, we are unaware, unsure of how bad the damage is because many roads in those same areas are impassable,” Albrecht said, adding emergency crews were seeking to enter the affected area to “look for injuries, look for victims” and clear the roads.

He urged people to stay away from the hard-hit areas: “Right now, there are many downed power lines, downed trees, multiple hazardous situations. Please stay out.”

Later Monday the storm was clearing out of Wisconsin and moving south of Milwaukee through the Chicago area as it began to dissipate, he said.

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Mayes-Osterman reported from Chicago and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas; Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

The Justice Department asked the justices to halt for now lower court decisions blocking the sweeping changes in nearly half the country.

The request comes shortly after Trump delivered a primetime address elevating his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of elections, and could be one of several voting-related challenges before the court ahead of the high-stakes midterm contest.

Trump ordered the government in March to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters and deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued, saying the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, not the president. Their attorneys have said Trump's proposed changes are ripe for abuse and could cause chaos.

A judge in Massachusetts blocked the executive order for the plaintiff states, and a divided 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel left her ruling in place over the weekend.

The executive order calls for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to send state officials federal citizenship lists to determine eligible voters. It tells the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on the lists.

The order also calls for ballots to have secure envelopes with unique barcodes for tracking. Federal funding could be withheld from states and localities that don’t comply.

The appeal argues that Trump's order lays out “general policy guidance” and doesn’t directly dictate how states run their elections. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the high court to freeze the judge's order as lawsuits play out, calling it indefensible.

“And the injunction is especially indefensible because the agencies are still deliberating over how (if at all) to implement the Order, yet the district court preemptively decided that whatever the agencies may choose to do will necessarily be unlawful,” Sauer wrote.

He urged the high court to move quickly, arguing that any new policies would have to be in place as soon as August to be effective for the November elections. A response to the appeal is due Aug. 3.

Mail balloting has long been a favorite target for Trump, even as he has used the method to cast his own votes. He has blamed it for his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and has claimed without evidence that it opens the door to fraud. He returned to that theme Monday during an appearance at a General Motors facility in Michigan as he was making an appeal for Congress to pass his voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill.

“And hopefully there will be no mail-in ballots,” he said, calling them 'inherently corrupt."

Using mail ballots has become increasingly popular with voters of both parties, with about 30% of all ballots cast that way during the 2024 presidential election, according to federal data. The process also is secure. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found only about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.

The Supreme Court has ruled against the Trump administration before on mail-in ballots, finding in June that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day.

Trump has promoted the proposed changes in his executive order as safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting. He's also repeatedly pressed for the passage of the legislation that requires proof of citizenship to vote.

Noncitizen voting has been shown to be rare, and is a felony that can be punishable by deportation.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, agreed in June to halt implementation for the Nov. 3 elections.

Her ruling differed from that of another federal judge based in Washington. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed by Trump, found in May that it was too early to block the order because it had not yet been implemented.

The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the lawsuit for the states, did not immediately comment on the Trump administration’s appeal. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office declined to comment.

The Postal Service also would not discuss its plans regarding implementing Trump’s order or its rule, citing the ongoing litigation. In Kansas, Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab’s office said it has not heard from the Postal Service about plans going forward.

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Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this story.

“i will end ur career and ur life,” she told him in a text message sent the night before her death.

Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo decided that evidence presented during a preliminary hearing provided probable cause for a trial on charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

The dark and disturbing details presented over five days brought tears, gasps and horror to the courtroom. The evidence included grisly autopsy photos, explicit descriptions and depictions of sexual abuse and a stark picture of the final texts she sent minutes before she died and her phone went permanently silent.

The ruling was a major step in the 10-month investigation and prosecution of D4vd that began when the dismembered and decomposing body of a girl was found in the trunk of his Tesla in the Hollywood Hills in September while he was on tour.

D4vd shows no emotion as decision is read, and now heads to trial

D4vd, the 21-year-old whose legal name is David Burke, showed no emotion when the judge issued her ruling, watching calmly and intently in his orange jail clothes and glasses as he had throughout the proceedings.

He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued that the murder evidence was insufficient, but did not argue against the other two charges. They declined to comment outside court.

Prosecutors argued that the evidence was overwhelming.

“Based on the mountains of evidence presented,” Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said, “all of the allegations have been proved way beyond the standard required.”

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside court that prosecutors presented only a “small fraction” of the evidence they have. They are still weighing whether to seek the death penalty, but Burke is eligible for it after Olmedo also found probable cause for lying in wait, killing for financial gain and killing a potential witness, special circumstances in a crime that allow for a death sentence.

Olmedo ordered that Burke continue to be held without bail. An arraignment is to be held on Aug. 31, and a trial could happen as soon as 60 days later.

The last night of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

Before the decision, prosecutors gave a moment-by-moment account of Rivas Hernandez's last night.

As she neared his Hollywood home shortly after 10 p.m. on April 23, 2025, in an Uber he had sent to pick her up, she sent her final text: “girly pop i’m almost there open ur door if ur home.”

Prosecutors allege Burke stabbed her to death when she came through the door.

The night before, the two argued via text about his relationship with a woman. She sent him an angry and profanity-riddled text saying she will tell her dad so many lies about him and that she would “end ur career and ur life.” She had sent several similar messages around the same time.

Prosecutors said that Burke met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18. A year before her death, the pair also exchanged messages about how she had become pregnant — she assured him the baby was his — and that she had an abortion.

During the preliminary hearing, prosecutors introduced photos of the two of them kissing and lying in bed. The pictures showed that she had “David” tattooed in red ink on a finger — one of two that had been cut off when her body was found.

Prosecutors said they have records showing Burke ordered chain saws and wading pools that he used to dismember her body in his garage, and that her DNA was found there on blood stains.

They said he then drove around for weeks and even months with the body in his trunk before the seemingly abandoned Tesla was towed from the Hollywood Hills.

Defense argues there's insufficient evidence for murder

The defense argued that the evidence didn't show the kind of malice that was required for murder.

“There’s no evidence that Mr. Burke harbored a deliberate intent to kill Miss Hernandez,” said Burke's attorney, Marilyn Bednarski.

She said the communications between Burke and Rivas Hernandez showed “no threat, no evidence of a history of violence” and that he had “the opposite of homicidal malice” toward her.

She argued that a medical examiner ruling that her death was a homicide from two puncture wounds was too vague and inconclusive to be evidence of murder. The defense did not directly give an alternative theory on how she died and isn't required to.

The defense also established that she had asked seven times to come to see him in the days before her death, and he reluctantly agreed only after she demanded it, and that she had threatened to kill Burke and to mutilate him.

Silverman told the judge that “the defense tried numerous times throughout these proceedings to dirty up the victim” despite her being a child.

Farrell, the detective, also said under defense questioning that the parents of both Burke and Rivas Hernandez knew about their relationship, that he had attended church with members of her family and that her parents had given their consent for her to go to London with him for a week.

Patrick Steinfeld, an attorney for Rivas Hernandez’s family said after the hearing that they were “horrified that the defense attorneys brought up evidence to put the blame on a 14-year-old girl.”

Her parents sat in the front row through most of the hearing, but sat out some of the more graphic parts and left in the middle of the sexual testimony after her mother began crying.

D4vd's career was reaching new heights at time of killing

D4vd (pronounced “David”) became an online musical phenomenon as a teen with a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. He had huge followings on TikTok, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays.

In 2024 he played the Coachella music festival and released his first full-length album, “Withered,” two days after authorities say Rivas Hernandez was killed.

The inside of the mound was tightly stacked with beech wood which smolders for weeks until it's been turned into charcoal — a craft that's been practiced in the Harz mountain region in eastern Germany for hundreds of years.

“We are making charcoal in traditional earthen kilns, just as it was done here in the Harz Mountains over 1,000 years ago,” Feldmer told The Associated Press in a recent interview as he stood between the mounds in the middle of the Harz forest near the small town of Hasselfelde.

Feldmer and his brother Sascha took over the Harzköhlerei Stemberghaus business of producing charcoal from their father. They also have a handful of workers as the smoldering wood inside the mounds needs to be attended to and carefully watched day and night so it won't start catching fire and burn down to useless ashes.

Once covered in earth, the beech wood — which is known for its high density and the high temperatures it creates once it's been turned into charcoal — burns from top to bottom with the help of air holes. The charcoal is then swept clean of soil, and when it has cooled down, it's packed into 10-kilogram (22-pound) bags for sale.

Charcoal production was essential for mining ore in the Harz Mountains. To extract valuable metals such as silver, lead, copper, and zinc from the hard rock, the ore was crushed and then smelted in a furnace using intense heat. The extremely high temperatures required could only be achieved using charcoal.

Over the centuries, hundreds of families in the Harz region earned their living as charcoal burners. These days ore is no longer mined there and only a few coal burners are left in Germany. The Feldmers mostly sell their charcoal to people using it for barbecues at home.

“Our charcoal is, first and foremost, made from pure beech wood,” Feldmer said, adding that most of the charcoal sold at hardware stores in the country is imported and made of “mixed woods, scrap wood, and waste wood so it can be produced cheaply.”

As Feldmer and his brother would not be able to live from the coal burning business alone — they produce around 40 tons annually — they've also opened a museum about the history of coal burning, a small store and a restaurant where guests can get local specialties including steaks grilled over homemade birch charcoal.

Though the craft of char burning has essentially died out in Germany, Feldmer hopes that his family will keep the tradition alive.

“Of course, we hope ... that our business here will be taken over by our children, that it will continue to operate, and that the traditional craft of charcoal burning will be preserved here," he said.

Vazquez shared the news in a letter to OCPS families, saying the decision came after months of reflection and conversations with her family.

“Serving this community has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” Vazquez wrote. “I remain fully committed to leading this district with the same energy, passion, and purpose that have guided me throughout my career.”

A career built inside OCPS

Vazquez started her career as an elementary school classroom teacher and reading resource teacher before rising through the ranks at OCPS as an assistant principal, principal, area superintendent, and chief academic officer. She was promoted to deputy superintendent in 2018 and appointed as superintendent in September 2022 — becoming the district’s first Hispanic superintendent.

She leads OCPS, the 8th largest school district in the country, which serves more than 200,000 students.

Under her leadership, the district earned an “A” grade from the Florida Department of Education for the 2023–24 school year.

‘It’s about people’

In her retirement letter, Vazquez reflected on what she is most proud of — pointing not to programs or data, but to the people around her.

“I think about the students whose curiosity, resilience, and optimism reminded me every day why this work matters,” she wrote. “I think about teachers who stayed long after the final bell because they believed one more conversation could change the trajectory of a child’s life.”

She also credited bus drivers, cafeteria teams, custodians, administrative assistants, and maintenance crews — the workers she said make an extraordinary difference in students’ lives, often without recognition.

A district under financial strain

Vazquez’s retirement comes as OCPS grapples with a significant and accelerating enrollment crisis — one that has forced painful staffing and budget decisions throughout her tenure.

In fall 2025, OCPS enrollment fell by more than 6,600 students — more than double the 3,000-student drop the district had projected. Vazquez said at the time that roughly 2,500 of those missing students were immigrants. The shortfall triggered a state funding recalculation, on top of a $27 million reduction in state funding the district was already bracing for — with the final loss expected to be even higher.

“Those schools that came in under enrollment lose dollars and allocations,” Vazquez said in September 2025.

To manage the imbalance, the district reassigned 116 teachers to fill 157 open vacancies across schools that fall.

The financial pressure didn’t start there. Heading into the 2025–26 school year, Vazquez warned the community that budget conditions were unlike anything the district had faced in recent memory.

“To say that this has been an unusual budget cycle doesn’t begin to explain what we have been dealing with over the last several months,” she said. “You are going to see that we have fewer dollars to be able to continue the great work in Orange County Public Schools.”

Private school scholarships adding pressure

A steady increase in students leaving for private schools through state scholarship programs has compounded the funding problem. For fiscal year 2026, OCPS estimated more than 30,000 scholarships directed students to private schools — totaling roughly $211 million that flowed away from the district’s state revenue.

OCPS Chief Financial Officer Doreen Concolino said at the time that the scholarship growth “will reduce the district’s final state revenue appropriation.” Nearly 31% of OCPS’s budget for the 2025–26 school year came from the state of Florida, making enrollment-tied funding losses especially consequential.

State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith called the scholarship program a drain on public schools, saying the legislature “has continued to bleed money out of our public schools through taxpayer-funded school vouchers.” School board member Alicia Farrant, however, cautioned against pinning the budget problems on scholarships alone, urging the district to examine “what is the reason parents are choosing scholarships to pull their child from their own public school.”

Focus on the final year

Despite those challenges, Vazquez said her retirement announcement is not a goodbye. She described the upcoming school year as an opportunity to strengthen student achievement, support employees, and deepen partnerships with families.

“Today is about the future,” she wrote. “It is about continuing the important work before us.”

She said she is committed to working with the Board of Education on the leadership transition, with her final day expected in June 2027.

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which provides law enforcement in Deltona, says it is reviewing the new rules.

Residents have mixed feelings about the ban.

“I think that by putting this ban on — it’s saving their child’s life. Honestly. This children are not mature enough,” said resident Rhonda.

“They don’t have a driver’s license. They shouldn’t be on the roads,” said resident Brenda.

The new rules also raised questions about teenagers who do have driver’s licenses. Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. addressed why they are included in the ban.

“You’re talking about pedestrians. We have to make sure we have sidewalks with ADA compliance. While the 16-year-olds can drive on the roads, you don’t see cars driving on sidewalks where people are actually walking,” Avila said.

The age restriction is just one part of the ordinance. Under the new rules, riders must use a bike lane when one is available and may only ride on a sidewalk when no bike lane exists. The one exception is adults riding alongside children, who are permitted on sidewalks. Riders on sidewalks must stay under 15 mph and are required to yield to pedestrians on shared paths, giving an audible warning before passing.

Avila cited safety incidents as a driving force behind the ordinance.

“We’ve had multiple accidents with kids on e-bikes — we had one that almost lost his life. Thank God he was saved by the helmet he was wearing,” Avila said.

The ordinance is in effect now, though it will go before an ordinance review committee. If that committee recommends any changes, the commission can update it at a later date.

The administration notified Congress late last week that it intends to spend $175.8 million to replace outdated and aging undersea telecommunications cables in the Caribbean and Central America to prevent China from moving in. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the notification on Monday.

The administration has expressed deep concern about China's activities in the Americas, pushing back on Chinese ownership of ports at either end of the Panama Canal, infrastructure projects funded by China's Belt and Road initiative in the region, and Chinese investment in the telecommunications sector.

A State Department official said China’s economic activities in the Western Hemisphere pose risks to U.S. national security and prosperity. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly to the subject and spoke on condition of anonymity, said China's offerings may seem cheaper but in the end wind up being more expensive due to cost overruns, hidden maintenance fees and poor performance.

The underseas cable funding appears to be part of a broader push to restore support for initiatives aimed at blunting Chinese influence globally that would cost many hundreds of millions of dollars more. That is even as President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping put on a show of cooperation and Xi prepares to visit the U.S. this fall.

US weighs wider spending to counter China globally

The State Department is considering spending nearly half a billion dollars more on programs aimed at China throughout the Western Hemisphere, Africa and Asia, according to an internal State Department document obtained by AP.

“The United States must respond to the CCP’s growing economic, technological, and diplomatic leverage around the world which undermines our national interests,” the document says, using the acronym for the Chinese Communist Party.

Many of those proposed programs are designed to “reclaim diplomatic leverage” through investments in areas where the U.S. had previously been spending money but stopped as the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, carried out deep government budget and personnel cuts last year.

Those cuts, which dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and eliminated several hundred diplomatic posts worldwide, also affected previously approved projects, including some aimed at countering China.

A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss future administration plans, confirmed the Trump administration’s intent to boost funding on countering China but could not speak to specifics. The official acknowledged discussions of large-scale projects but said many were still in the discussion phase.

Congress told about undersea cable project to keep China away

The program described to Congress on Friday is called the “Countering CCP Control of Caribbean and Central America Undersea Cables project.”

It will “fund the installation of strategically-selected undersea cable infrastructure” and support foreign governments in partnering with private sector undersea cable installers, according to the notification. The money will “support replacement of outdated undersea telecommunications cables in the Caribbean and Central America region with secure, U.S. and trusted alternatives,” it said.

Even as it pursues the war with Iran and peace efforts in Gaza and Lebanon, the Trump administration has put a focus on the Western Hemisphere, capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, ramping up pressure on Cuba’s socialist government in the months since and imposing severe sanctions on the government in Nicaragua.

Under the new program, funding is anticipated to be given to or in support of undersea cable projects benefiting El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Haiti, the document said. The U.S. has tenuous ties with Nicaragua and would not be working with the government there.

China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Other anti-China efforts could focus on cyber and critical minerals

At the same time, the administration has drawn up plans to spend more than $340 million for over 50 specific anti-China projects around the world, including many in the Western Hemisphere, according to the internal State Department document outlining various proposals.

The administration notified Congress in May that it had spent several hundred million dollars in counter-China funding from the 2024 budget that was approved by the Biden administration. However, many other projects funded for 2024 and 2025 had been put on hold.

Among the plans to be resurrected are the creation of security operations centers in Argentina and Belize to monitor Chinese threats to critical infrastructure and cyber platforms throughout the region. Also coming back would be initiatives to protect Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay from alleged Chinese attempts to infiltrate port operations and illegally exploit offshore fishing and critical minerals extraction.

More broadly, the proposal, which is still under consideration, would work against Chinese influence in the selection of a successor to the Dalai Lama “by developing proprietary technology to ensure secure communications and information collection.” It also would go after international support for China’s space program and push back against Chinese firms seeking to export surveillance and censorship technology.

The document did not describe the initiatives in detail.

Trump is expected to meet with Xi in September around the time of the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders in New York. To prepare for that meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last week at a regional security conference in the Philippines.

Trump has oscillated between anger and elation with Xi, whom the U.S. leader has sought to cultivate as an ally even while China pursues goals antithetical to many of his administration's. The ultimate impact of the proposed new programs won't be known for many months or years.

Chilean police on Saturday arrested a retired military colonel who had been a fugitive for three years after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering Jara during Chile’s military dictatorship and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Despite the arrest, the musician's family says they are not completely satisfied.

“We learned that retired Colonel Nelson Haase Mazzei, who had been a fugitive from justice since 2023, was found and imprisoned. We appreciate this news,” said Jara's daughter, Amanda Jara, in a letter published Sunday night. However, she added, “it is difficult to consider this justice.”

The prominent military figure had been sentenced to 25 years and two days in prison for the kidnapping and murder of Jara and then-Director General of Prisons Littré Quiroga Carvajal.

Haase Mazzei, 80, was convicted in 2018 and his sentence was increased in 2023, along with those of six other military officers. The crimes are considered to be among the most emblematic examples of the brutality that marked the 17-year dictatorship of late Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

The former official fled before beginning his prison term. He was finally located and arrested this weekend — three years later — with Judge Paola Plaza of the Santiago Court of Appeals ordering his “immediate imprisonment,” the Judiciary said in a statement. The institution added that Haase Mazzei was the last of those convicted to begin serving his sentence.

One of the symbols of the so-called New Chilean Song, a musical and social movement born in the 1960s, Jara was murdered on Sept. 16, 1973, just five days after the coup that overthrew former President Salvador Allende.

Jara, then a 40-year-old member of the Communist Party of Chile who also worked as a professor at the State Technical University, was arrested on campus and taken to Chile Stadium, now renamed Víctor Jara Stadium. There, he was separated from the nearly 5,000 other prisoners and taken to a private area. Along with Quiroga, he was tortured, violently assaulted and finally executed. The singer suffered multiple fractures and his body had 44 bullet wounds, according to the findings of an investigation into his death and other crimes of the period.

In 1991, months after Pinochet’s downfall and the restoration of democracy, an official report by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation found that Jara was the victim of a political execution and classified his killing as a grave human rights violation. It also found that, in just three months, 890 people were killed as a direct consequence of the military coup.

In recent decades, Chile has established a series of truth commissions to investigate and determine responsibility for the violations committed between 1973 and 1990, ranging from murders and torture to forced disappearances and the illegal adoption of children.

Official documents estimate that during its 17 years, the military dictatorship left some 40,000 victims, including more than 2,000 people who were executed, 1,469 victims of enforced disappearance and thousands more tortured. The courts have convicted hundreds of state agents and civilians for the crimes committed during the darkest period of Chile's modern history. However, there are no single, consolidated institutional figures that include all those sentenced.

Since 2024, the country has also promoted the so-called National Search Plan aimed at unifying the figures and outlining a road map for the search of disappeared detainees whose whereabouts remain unknown — a task that for years has largely fallen to the families of victims who to this date are still trying to figure out what happened with their loved ones.

“We hope that the police will manage to find all those who fled for crimes against humanity,” Amanda Jara concluded in her letter. She now heads the Víctor Jara Foundation.

Judge John P. Cronan said that although a federal law requires that advisory commissions have a balance of viewpoints, it didn't specify how this should be done. The New York judge said Trump has wide discretion in picking members.

The lawsuit was filed by several plaintiffs, including the progressive Interfaith Alliance as well as Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups. They argued that the commission was imbalanced because it consisted almost entirely of conservative Christians, along with one Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and that several commissioners were on record questioning church-state separation and supporting the idea of America as a Judeo-Christian country.

Critics of the the commission said such fears were borne out when it issued a draft report in June that challenged the understanding of a separation of church and state in recent generations, calling instead for “bridges” between the two.

But Cronan said the lawsuit, which sought a more ideologically and religious diverse commission, failed to meet legal criteria to proceed.

He also wrote that the commission is diverse in other ways, such as including both clergy and lay people. And he said the commission has “adherents of at least five different religions” — by citing the one Jewish member and then members of various Christian denominations and identities.

The Interfaith Alliance argued that the commission lacked balance because members believed “the law should protect the exercise of religious beliefs over the civil rights of minority groups.” But Cronan wrote that because Trump's executive order creating the commission rejected the idea of “religious liberty as inconsistent with civil rights,” he wasn't obligated to appoint someone who disagreed with that founding premise.

The Interfaith Alliance has been vocal in criticizing the commission, saying its recent draft report failed to address crucial issues such as anti-Muslim attacks and saying it supports policies privileging some religious groups over others.

“Today’s dismissal wrongly ignored that the Commission privileges one narrow religious and ideological view,” the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement. "Interfaith Alliance and our multifaith partners will keep standing up to Christian nationalism wherever it threatens our democracy. Our fight for true religious freedom continues.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The seven-year residency requirement to be eligible to run for governor is in the state constitution. Collins alleged Fishback voted in Washington D.C. in 2020 and established a homestead there when he bought an apartment in 2021, making him ineligible.

But Judge David Frank found that the burden of proof was on Collins to show Fishback abandoned his residence in Florida and the presumption in state law is to follow the candidate’s declared statement of residence.

“Florida residency law places great weight on the subjective intent of the person declaring residency,” Frank wrote. “That law may be imprudent, or it may give too much leeway to a person seeking or maintaining residency. But it is the law.”

The ruling means Fishback, who has trailed in polls along with Collins to the frontrunner, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, will remain on the ballot and any votes for him will count. A fourth major GOP candidate, former state House Speaker Paul Renner, is also in the mix for the primary.

Mail ballots have already been returned throughout the state.

“This isn’t just a victory for our campaign. It’s a victory for the constitution and for every Floridians who believes elections should be decided by voters, not politicians trying to rig the system,” Fishback stated after the ruling was released.

Before a hearing in the case last week, Fishback declared he’d throw Collins campaign consultant John Cardillo, who attended the hearing, in jail when he became governor for pursuing the lawsuit.

Ultimately, Frank wrote in his ruling, Collins’ attorneys didn’t present enough concrete evidence to refute Fishback’s claim that he ended up being “stuck” in Washington D.C. during the Covid-19 pandemic and he was really living at his grandmother’s house in Broward County during that period.

The apartment he bought was only for investment purposes, Fishback maintained during the hearing, even though he acknowledged that meant he gave false information on mortgage papers he signed saying it would be his primary residence.

Frank stated the most compelling piece of evidence against Fishback was a letter regarding his purchase of a home in Madison County, Florida in 2022, which declared, “my new purchase will serve as my new primary residence. I plan to keep 2325 42nd St NW Washington DC as a second home or as a future investment property.”

Yet that piece of evidence wasn’t enough to overcome Fishback’s defense, which pointed to his background of being born and raised in Florida, along with his “family, social, and business ties to Florida.”

Collins “has not brought forth enough substantial and competent evidence to rebut these important presumptions,” Frank wrote. “This Court will not be deciding the race between the Lieutenant Governor and Mr. Fishback. That will be in the very sound hands of the voters.”

Nineteen days after she was discharged, she strangled her three children at their Massachusetts home.

A jury heard opening statements Monday in Clancy’s murder trial, featuring dueling views about her mental state. Both sides agree she killed her children. They disagree over whether she should be held criminally responsible for their deaths.

The first witness was her former husband, who found the children's bodies after returning home on the day of the killings in January 2023. He has said in interviews that he forgives his wife, who he viewed as ill, not evil.

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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.

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Patrick Clancy testified that a month before the killings, his wife began to describe intrusive thoughts of harming the children and of suicide. He said the situation was “very confusing” because moments later, she would be making the children lunch or playing with them.

“I never saw Lindsay harm the kids,” he told jurors.

Despite months of psychiatric care, changing medications and new providers, her condition worsened, he said. She became more depressed and lost weight.

The trial will hinge on Clancy’s mental state

Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said she had postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. He said she also had bipolar disorder and that antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child worsened her condition.

“She loved those children right up to the time of their death,” Reddington told jurors.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham argued Clancy “acted intentionally, rationally and swiftly” and bears full responsibility for the deaths.

“This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis,” Buckingham said. “This is not a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women. This case is about this defendant, Lindsay Clancy.”

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

A grieving father testified about their last days as a family

Patrick Clancy breathed heavily as photos of his children were projected for the jury.

Cora, 5, was shown in one image wearing a red bow and skirt. Her dad said she loved princesses. Dawson, 3, loved fire trucks and “Paw Patrol.” Eight-month-old Callan “was just a happy baby,” his father said.

Clancy worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Patrick testified that her anxiety about being separated from her children increased as she got closer to the end of her maternity leave.

Patrick Clancy testified that after his wife was discharged from the psychiatric hospital, the family tried to carry on with everyday life. They celebrated Cora’s birthday and visited the Museum of Science and a water park, where jurors saw video of Lindsay Clancy playing with the children. Patrick said she had returned to the gym and her mood appeared steadier.

“I was hopeful,” Patrick Clancy told the jury. “She seemed much better.”

On the day of the killings, Lindsay Clancy took Cora to a doctor’s appointment while he stayed home with Dawson and Callan. The couple exchanged photos of the children by text — Dawson had just dressed himself for the first time and Cora was behind a mask in the doctors office. Later, Lindsay Clancy built a snowman with her children and worked on art projects.

“She was having one of her best days," Patrick Clancy said.

Then, after he left the house to run errands, Lindsay Clancy strangled her children with exercise bands and tried to end her own life. She remains paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from a second-story window.

That day, Clancy said she heard voices telling her, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself,” according to her lawyer.

Seated in a wheelchair, Clancy wiped her eyes with a tissue at times as lawyers discussed her children.

Postpartum psychosis is a rare diagnosis

Elyse Hershon, a Boston criminal defense attorney and legal analyst, said the verdict will likely depend on how the jury views Clancy’s “intent and mental capacity.”

“Whenever there are deaths of children, it rattles emotions,” Hershon said. “Some people naturally will identify and sympathize with Clancy and her postpartum depression, and others will not be able to understand how one could end their children’s lives, and demand responsibility.”

While postpartum depression is fairly common among women who have given birth, postpartum psychosis affects an estimated 1 to 2 women per 1,000 births and can include hallucinations, delusions and paranoia. Most women with the condition do not harm their children.

Similar cases have led to insanity verdicts

Possibly the best-known is Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in a bathtub in Texas in 2001. Her attorneys said she suffered from postpartum psychosis and believed killing her children would save them from hell.

Her initial murder conviction was overturned, and in a retrial she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state mental hospital.

Dr. Nicole Cirino of Baylor College of Medicine said women in the grip of postpartum psychosis often believe they are helping their children.

In their own minds, “they may be saving their children from damnation,” Cirino said.

Awareness of postpartum psychosis has grown since the Yates case, but Cirino and other maternal mental health advocates said it's rarely considered in criminal prosecutions. Illinois is the only state with a law allowing for undiagnosed or untreated postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis to be a mitigating factor in sentencing.

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Willingham reported from Boston.

The locations are open year round, though when the heat index reaches 103, the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX) provides free rides to and from these centers.

• Orange County Parks and Recreation — Monday - Saturday, 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. (Sunday, 1 - 8 p.m.)
• • Barnett Recreation Center
  • Bithlo Community Park
  • Goldenrod Recreation Center
  • Magnolia Park Eco Education Center
  • Meadow Woods Recreation Center (Magic Gym)
  • Orlo Vista Park
  • Renaissance Senior Center/South Econ Community Park
  • Silver Star Recreation Center (Magic Gym)
  • Tibet-Butler Nature Preserve (8 a.m. - 6 p.m.)
  • West Orange Recreation Center
• Splashpads (Hours vary by location)
• • Barber Park
  • Barnett Park / Barnett Gym
  • Bithlo Community Park
  • Capehart Park
  • Downey Park
  • Dr. P Phillips Community Park
• Libraries (Hours vary by location)
• • Alafaya Branch
  • Chickasaw Branch
  • Eatonville Branch
  • Fairview Shores Branch
  • Hiawassee Branch
  • Maitland Public Library (Not affiliated with the Orange County Library System)
  • Orlando Public Library
  • South Creek Branch
  • South Trail Branch
  • Southeast Branch
  • Southwest Branch
  • Washington Park Branch
  • West Oaks Branch and Genealogy Center
  • Windermere Branch
  • Winter Garden Branch
  • Winter Park Library (Not affiliated with the Orange County Library System)
• Community Centers — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• • East Orange Community Center (Noon - 5 p.m.)
  • Holden Heights Community Center
  • John Bridges Community Center
  • Maxey Community Center
  • Multicultural Center
  • Taft Community Center (Noon - 5 p.m.)
  • Willow Street Community Center
• Homeless Shelters (Hours vary by location)
• • Christian Service Center
  • Matthew’s Hope
  • Samaritan Resource Center
  • United Against Poverty
  • Transformation Village
  • Salt Outreach Youth Center (Ages 16-24)
  • Salt Outreach Senior Center (Ages 65+)
  • Salt Outreach Apopka

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles filed a motion Monday to dismiss its case against David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union California, which has more than 750,000 members including janitors, security officers and other workers. The government will seek to have the case permanently withdrawn within weeks if Huerta continues to comply with the terms of his pretrial release and stays out of trouble, prosecutors said.

Huerta said in a statement that he was tackled, pepper-sprayed and detained for exercising his constitutional rights to protest and cast the case against him as part of a broader “weaponization of the judicial system.”

“There was never a real case, only an attempt to punish and silence me for exercising my constitutional rights,” he said in a statement. “I will keep exercising my constitutional rights and protest every abuse this administration commits, and I will keep working to build a country that treats immigrant families and all workers with the dignity they deserve.”

The case will be dismissed by the end of August if compliance continues

The Justice Department had earlier reduced the felony obstruction charge to a misdemeanor, and in moving to dismiss it entirely, is now backing away entirely from a prosecution that had been announced with fanfare on social media after Huerta's arrest more than a year ago. It's the latest courtroom setback for a department that has struggled, in offices across the country, in its prosecutions of people accused of assaulting or hindering federal officers while protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles signaled in its own statement that law enforcement was justified in arresting Huerta, noting that he was charged with interfering with a judicial search warrant and asserting that the Justice Department does not arrest people for simply peacefully protesting. The office also said that Huerta has complied with the terms of his bond for more than a year and was prepared to dismiss the case if he continues to do so.

“Pursuant to an agreement entered into with our office, if Mr. Huerta continues to comply with his pretrial release terms, we expect the criminal case against him to be fully dismissed by the end of next month,” the statement said.

Huerta was arrested in June 2025 while protesting outside a business in Los Angeles where federal agents were investigating suspected immigration violations. The incident occurred amid widespread protests over the federal immigration crackdown that drove Trump to take the extraordinary move of deploying the National Guard to the nation’s second-largest city.

Authorities said Huerta sat down in front of a vehicular gate and encouraged others to walk in circles to try to prevent law enforcement from going in or out, and he pushed back when an officer told him to leave and put his hands on Huerta to move him out of the way of a vehicle.

According to a copy of a letter laying out the terms of Huerta’s diversion agreement, Huerta and the government agreed to a stipulated set of facts, including that he arrived at the search warrant location, positioned himself in the driveway outside the front gate “to oppose the policies and tactics of the enforcement activity he observed and encouraged others to do the same” and that, as a result, “at least one federal agent” who participated in the search warrant “credibly believed he was unable to enter the front gate.”

Huerta’s arrest brought pushback from advocates and senators

Union leaders and immigrant advocates rallied in cities across the country demanding Huerta's release, and he became the face of the pushback against the Republican president's effort to drive up immigration arrests. Top Democrats also fired back. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and California’s two Democratic senators wrote a letter to federal officials demanding answers regarding Huerta’s arrest. California Sen. Adam Schiff attended Huerta’s bond hearing.

“It is deeply troubling that a U.S. citizen, union leader, and upstanding member of the Los Angeles community continues to be detained by the federal government for exercising his rights to observe immigration enforcement,” the senators wrote.

Federal prosecutors initially charged Huerta with felony obstruction, with Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, saying that it didn't matter who was protesting "if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted.” In October, prosecutors reduced the charge against Huerta to a misdemeanor.

Huerta’s lawyers, Abbe Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, said in a statement that the case against their client had no legal basis.

“This case, like others, sought to silence criticism of the administration’s improper immigration actions. Today’s filing is proof that David and other critics will not be silenced,” the lawyers said.

Trump has repeatedly urged Thune to scrap the legislative filibuster, which effectively sets a 60-vote threshold for most legislation in the 100-member Senate, or find another workaround to pass the voting bill, known as the SAVE America Act. But Republicans hold only a 53-47 majority, and Thune has consistently said they don’t have the votes to pass the bill or change the rules to get around the filibuster.

“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER,” Trump wrote on social media.

He later insisted to reporters Monday that he has a good relationship with the Senate majority leader but said Thune has “got to get his job done.”

It's the latest escalation in a monthslong pressure campaign by Trump and others in the GOP base to pass the SAVE Act ahead of the midterms. A small but vocal group of Republican senators has also increasingly pressed Thune to find a way forward.

Thune responded Monday afternoon, telling reporters he would be supportive of cancelling the break if there was a path forward on the legislation.

“We voted on it one, two, three, four, five times already,” said Thune, who counted each number on his hand for reporters. “Show me how this ends. What’s the picture of victory at the end?”

House Republicans have also attempted to create another path for the legislation through the budget reconciliation process, which would allow grant money associated with voting rules to pass the Senate with a simple majority.

The House last week approved a budget framework that included $10 billion for voting-related changes aligned with the SAVE America Act. But Thune has said Republicans don’t currently have the votes for that approach, either.

Trump's pressure comes during an important period

The fight threatens to complicate the Senate's final legislative sprint before the August break, when Thune had hoped to focus on a long list of priorities that includes government funding, cryptocurrency legislation and sanctions on Russia. The August break, scheduled to start on Aug. 7, is a pivotal stretch for senators to return home and campaign ahead of the midterm elections.

Several Republican senators are facing competitive races, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Ohio Sen. Jon Husted and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 Senate majority. Republicans are confronting broader political headwinds as well, including an unpopular war in Iran, surging gas prices and costs that remain high for voters.

Thune has enjoyed broad support from his GOP conference all year as he’s pushed back on Trump’s demands. He previously kept the SAVE Act on the Senate floor for weeks in an effort to build additional support, but was unable to secure the votes needed to advance it.

“You can stay here until the cows come home and it’s not going to change anything,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican who lost a primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed candidate. “We keep overpromising and underdelivering, which is not a recipe for voter morale or high voter participation in the midterm elections.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he believes Thune’s position on SAVE is reflective of the majority of the GOP conference.

“The president has to look at the reality: The majority of Republican members support John Thune,” Tillis said. “I don’t even think it’s close."

Trump allies challenge Thune’s approach

Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who has led the push for the bill in the Senate, escalated his pressure late last week, warning that how Republicans handle the SAVE America Act “could impact not only the November midterm elections, but also the Senate GOP leadership elections.”

“Leaders must lead. And if they don’t, they’re not leaders,” Lee wrote on social media Friday.

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he believes Thune is “being a bit too cautious right now.”

“At some point, you have to vote,” Kennedy said.

Frustrated by the pressure when he doesn’t have a route to pass the bill, Thune has urged Trump, Lee and others to help him find the votes. Trump on Friday said he'd “certainly be willing” to help call senators.

Asked last week if Trump is frustrated with Thune, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that "his patience is running out.” But Trump told reporters on Air Force Once Monday while traveling to an event in Michigan, that he hasn’t “even thought” about potential replacements for Thune.

The late-summer dispute echoes a similar fight before last year’s August recess, when Trump pressed Thune to keep senators in Washington to clear a backlog of his nominees. The Senate ultimately left town without a deal after negotiations with Democrats collapsed.

The SAVE America Act would create new national rules

The SAVE America Act, which stands for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand.

Voting experts have said the bill could disenfranchise some 20 million American voters who don’t have birth certificates or other documents readily available.

Trump has made it his legislative priority in 2026, saying it would “guarantee the midterms" and falsely claimed that election cheating is “rampant.” He previously declined to sign any other legislation until it was passed.

Jackson secured the Democrats' nomination on Saturday to run against longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Party delegates held a special nominating convention for the post after Graham Platner, who won the June primary, withdrew from the race in the wake of sexual assault accusations that he has denied.

The last-minute scramble for a new candidate in a top-tier race was reminiscent of how Harris ascended to the Democratic presidential nomination two years ago.

She became the party's nominee in August 2024 after President Joe Biden abruptly ended his reelection campaign following a disastrous debate performance against then-former President Donald Trump. Trump would go on to defeat Harris, winning every presidential battleground state.

In a fundraising email to supporters Monday, Harris said she relates to the hurried nature of Jackson's candidacy and called on Democrats to support him.

“I know what it is like to step up to the plate with a short runway to Election Day. Troy will have just 101 days between his nomination for Senate and when voters in Maine will cast their ballots," Harris said in the email.

Democrats are counting on a win in Maine to have a chance to take back control of the Senate. They also need to win three other Republican seats and to hold all the seats they currently have.

Jackson, a fifth-generation logger and former president of the Maine Senate, initially ran for governor during this year's primary. He lost that race but quickly became the party's preferred candidate to replace Platner, with whom he had campaigned before Platner's candidacy fell apart.

Representatives for Jackson's campaign and the Maine Democratic Party did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not clear whether Jackson had approached Harris for an endorsement or her statement of support was unsolicited.

Jackson's campaign said in a statement earlier Monday that it is working on making up a fundraising deficit against Collins, who has raised more than $16 million. Jackson has raised $2 million since securing the nomination, the campaign said.

Jackson “is harnessing historic energy across the state to deliver the change Mainers have been demanding over Collins’ three-decade career in Washington,” the campaign said in a statement.

Republicans in the state were swift to mock Harris' endorsement and drew comparisons to the fact that neither Harris nor Jackson won a party primary before becoming the nominee.

“She knows exactly what he's going through,” said Blake Kernen, a spokesperson for Collins.

Jacorey High, who said he was visiting from Georgia, was released from the hospital Monday afternoon after spending two days being treated for injuries to his foot and ankle.

High said the couple was in about 4 feet of water around 5:30 p.m. Saturday when he felt a sudden bite.

“When that second wave came, I kind of floated on the waves, and that’s when it clamped down on my foot,” High said.

High said the shark was about the size of his leg. He said adrenaline took over and he focused first on getting his fiancée out of the water.

“As soon as I got bit, I kept shoving her toward the beach area, and then that’s when I started thinking about myself when I saw she was on the sand,” High said.

High said after he pushed the shark off his foot, it surfaced again and he believed it tried to bite his arm and then his other leg as he ran out of the water.

“Once I got him off my foot, it come up and tried to get my arm, so I had to push it away from me, and as I was running out it tried to get my other leg,” he said.

Once on shore, High said he realized how serious the injury was.

“A whole lot of blood just pouring out of my foot,” High said. “It ripped all the tendons in my foot and my ankle.”

According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, Florida reported the most unprovoked shark bites in the U.S. in 2025. Volusia County accounted for six of those bites, representing more than half of the state’s total.

High said he expects to undergo physical therapy as he recovers, but said he would make the same choice again.

“That’s the person I love the most, and I would rather see her safe than me,” High said.

Volusia County Beach Safety has been contacted to determine what type of shark may have been involved. A response has not yet been received.

During a meeting Monday, Orange County’s Tourist Development Tax Sports Incentive Committee rejected the Greater Orlando Sports Commission’s funding request to lure USA Men’s Basketball to the city ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Orlando is one of the cities under consideration to host the team for training camp and exhibition games from June to July 2028.

“You’re talking Lebron James, who has been suggested playing in the Olympics,” Jason Siegel, the CEO of Greater Orlando Sports Commission, said in his pitch to the committee. “Along with all of that other marketing and exposure and social media and those guys in our community, eating in our restaurants, posting on social media, going to our theme parks. We know that this is just a unique and exceptional opportunity.”

After the meeting, Siegel told News 6’s Mike Valente that the committee’s rejection marked a “step in the process,” and noted that he can still make the request to the Tourist Development Council later this year.

The committee did, however, approve the Greater Orlando Sports Commission’s funding request to participate in the Naismith Hall of Fame Series, bringing the Florida Gators and George Tech Yellow Jackets to the Kia Center for a men’s basketball game in December.

The committee approved $100,000 for the event in 2026, and voted to renew the event for 2027 and 2028 contingent on certain performance metrics.

The Orange County Commission still needs to approve the funding request for the Naismith game before it can move forward.

Georgieva, the first IMF head to visit Buenos Aires in eight years, expressed confidence that Argentina could meet its debt obligations. As the fund’s largest debtor with about $58 billion in outstanding IMF loans, Argentina faces a key repayment period beginning next year, when Milei is expected to seek reelection.

“Argentina is in a much stronger position, and this is the result of the government’s hard work and the perseverance and sacrifice of the Argentine people,” Georgieva said at a news conference alongside Economy Minister Luis Caputo.

Georgieva recalled that Argentina’s debt was among the first issues discussed when she took over as IMF managing director in 2019.

“We were debating whether the country would be able to keep up with servicing its debt obligations to everyone. That is not the question we should be asking today,” she said.

Georgieva’s visit comes as Argentina’s economic outlook has improved, with bond prices rising, central bank reserves increasing and inflation falling. Annual inflation has slowed to 33%, down sharply from 210% when Milei took office in late 2023. Last week, Moody’s upgraded Argentina’s sovereign credit rating, months after similar upgrades by S&P and Fitch.

“What we have today is a much healthier picture,” Georgieva said. “Market confidence has returned.”

Georgieva is scheduled to visit Vaca Muerta on Tuesday, one of the world’s largest reserves of unconventional oil and natural gas. Its development is expected to become one of Argentina’s main sources of foreign-currency earnings in the coming years.

Georgieva also said she sees no need for additional IMF disbursements before the 2027 presidential election.

“We may be on a good track for Argentina to join the club of emerging markets that have borrowed from the Fund, reformed their economies and borrowed no more,” Georgieva said.

Investors are closely watching Argentina’s ability to meet its upcoming debt payments. The country will begin repaying principal on its IMF loans in September, adding to its interest payments, while its broader foreign-currency debt obligations are set to rise sharply in 2027.

Caputo has said the government expects to cover those payments with funding from multilateral lenders, proceeds from privatizations and domestic borrowing rather than by returning to international capital markets.

Despite the improving economic indicators, Milei has faced declining approval ratings as his austerity policies have coincided with weak consumer spending, stagnant wages, rising household debt and a modest increase in unemployment.

The president’s declining popularity has raised questions about his prospects for reelection in 2027 and increased investor uncertainty over whether his economic reforms would continue under a future administration.

Asked about that possibility, Georgieva acknowledged that these risks are best managed "by building strong policies during the time we have now ... policies that inspire confidence among the people of the country and the international community.”

Georgieva also said Argentina still has work to do in areas including construction, expanding credit for small businesses and mortgages, and reducing informal employment.

The video released Monday is the latest public plea from the journalist about 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie since her disappearance on Feb. 1 from her home just outside Tucson, Arizona. Savannah Guthrie said her family will never stop looking for her.

“The world can be a cruel and unforgiving place, and I know that you have tried to do things the right way,” she said. “So I’m asking you, begging you, to do the right thing now. Make the right choice. Help us find her. Tell us where to look for her. I truly believe it is never too late to do the right thing.”

Authorities believe Nancy Guthrie was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will on Feb. 1. They found blood near the front doorstep of her home just outside Tucson, and the FBI later released surveillance videos showing a masked man on the porch that night.

Volunteers and search teams scoured the nearby desert terrain filled with cactuses, bushes and boulders in the weeks after she vanished. A volunteer group recently searched for her body near the Arizona-Mexico border. Authorities have not said how many purported ransom demands were made after Guthrie’s disappearance, though three news organizations reported receiving such notes and turned them over to investigators.

The FBI has discounted some of the ransom notes as nothing more than extortion attempts, but said it’s still evaluating others that might be legitimate. The federal agency hasn’t specified which ransom notes might be genuine.

Savannah Guthrie has previously made a series of social media postings about her mother after she went missing. In the days after the disappearance, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings acknowledged they were aware of media reports of a supposed ransom letter and were ready to talk and listen, but wanted proof their mother was alive. Weeks later, Savannah Guthrie said her family was offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of her mother. She also acknowledged for the first time that her mother might not be alive, but added that there was still hope.

Trump visited a sprawling General Motors facility in the Detroit suburb of Milford that is a testing ground for its vehicles. He pumped a fist after watching a trio of drag races that involved muscle cars and luxury vehicles like the Corvette Z06, Cadillac Escalade V, and EV Hummer — events the announcer promised were “all America First power.”

It was the kind of thundering speed the president is expecting at an IndyCar race in Washington next month, which is part of America’s 250th birthday celebrations.

In a subsequent speech inside a design facility, the president cheered GM's plans to expand production domestically in coming years and declared himself a president who was standing up for auto workers “at long last.”

“I’ve done more for you than your parents, OK?" he joked.

Michigan was one of the 2024 battlegrounds Trump flipped after it backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. But the state has seen parts of its economy affected by the president’s tariffs, including on imported cars and auto parts. Automakers have long said tariffs increase the cost of doing business, which leads to higher prices for consumers.

Company officials led Trump on a tour where he saw various GM models, including the latest versions of the Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado — the production of which he argued had been boosted by tariffs.

At one point, POTUS grabbed a pen and signed the hood of a white Corvette that was made specifically for America's 250th birthday.

“They’ve come a long way,” he said to reporters about the Detroit-based automaker during the tour. “It’s amazing what tariffs are doing for GM.” Trump said he’s been good to the company but he declined to say more.

“The rest of the world doesn’t love me, but that’s OK,” he said, alluding to tariffs. “It’s called ‘America first.’”

Trump's visit previews Michigan's Aug. 4 primary

The president’s speech lasted more than an hour and was wide ranging — hitting on the economy, the war in Iran and the U.S. military operation that toppled the leader of Venezuela.

He also touched on communism, crime rates, his administration's efforts to transform the nation's capital and even how carefully he treads to keep from tripping while on stage or deplaning from Air Force One.

With early primary voting already underway, Trump called on stage Republican Reps. Lisa McClain, Tom Barrett and Tim Walberg, as well as gubernatorial candidate John James and Senate candidate Mike Rogers.

Rogers is unopposed in the Senate primary, but the GOP gubernatorial contest pits James, who is backed by Trump, against Perry Johnson, a businessman turned politician who has launched unsuccessful campaigns before, including for president in 2024.

Trump's new Canada tariffs could hurt Michigan

A new round of steep import levies is taking effect on dozens of U.S. trading partners. Yet Trump has singled out Canada with tariffs as high as 50% on a wide array of its products, including cars.

The GM facility he toured is in Oakland County, which encompasses much of Detroit's northern suburbs. Once a Republican stronghold, it has increasingly leaned Democratic, backing Biden against Trump in 2020 and Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump four years later.

GM says its facility is the oldest dedicated vehicle testing operation in the United States, where 4,200 employees work to refine nearly every vehicle the company makes before they reach consumers. It has more than 150 miles of test roads and the early innovations perfected on site include the first mass-produced automatic transmission, known as the "Hydra-Matic.”

Michigan's economy relies heavily on Canada, meaning the new tariffs — coupled with inflation still running high and gas prices rising again as the already unpopular war in Iran escalates — have created additional economic concerns statewide. Some advocacy groups citing import and tariff data, says tariffs have cost Michigan businesses billions of dollars just since last spring.

The latest tariffs come at a time when voters across the country were already increasingly dissatisfied with Trump's handling of the economy.

Jason Roe, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party who tried unsuccessfully to distance it from Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement in 2021, said that more than coinciding with his new round of tariffs, Trump's visit is a function of Michigan's relatively late primary and is meant to ensure that James secures the nomination.

But Roe also said it was a risk for the president to tie himself too closely to top Republicans before the general election, calling it “kryptonite to November voters.”

Trump, who won the White House on a promise to lower the cost of living, also has seen his approval ratings sag, meaning kitchen table issues could be a liability for Republicans trying to hold control of Congress in the Nov. 3 elections.

“We’re happy to have the president here, campaigning with Republicans. We think it highlights the fact that the only thing they care about is Donald Trump and refuse to stand up to him," said Curtis Hertel, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party. "It’s good for us every time the president is here because he’s incredibly unpopular.”

The US and Canada have squabbled over a new border bridge

The Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs, but his administration has tried to find ways around that, including by arguing that he can impose them on Canada because that country is discriminating against American exports of products including automobiles.

But Trump’s latest round of tariffs came after he voiced frustration with Canada for having retaliated and imposed its own levies on U.S. imports in response to Trump’s initial tariffs last year. Trump launched the first round after alleging Canada should do more to stop fentanyl smuggling.

In January, he visited a Ford plant in Dearborn and addressed the Detroit Economic Club, offering a defense of tariffs even as auto industry leaders blamed them for increasing the cost of doing business. The president marked his second term's first 100 days with a rally in Warren, where he mostly mentioned grievances left over from the 2024 campaign,

Monday's visit coincided with the opening of a new bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, that was beset by tensions between the U.S. and Canadian governments.

Canada canceled a planned joint celebration for the $4.7 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge and instead held its own event after Trump announced the new Canadian tariffs.

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Superville reported from Washington.

Turns out, he went shoeless for another reason: to prevent his metal spikes from making marks on the greens following a complaint by a rules official.

“Alright, let’s clear this up,” Glover posted on Instagram Monday. “For 23 years on the PGA Tour I’ve worn spikes. 23 years ago, most of us did. It hasn’t been that long since we were NOT allowed to tap them down. Yesterday was the first time I’ve ever had a complaint."

Glover's decision to remove his shoes came after he sank a birdie putt on the 10th Sunday at TPC Twin Cities. Once the ball rolled in, the 2009 U.S. Open champion walked off the green, removed his shoes and carried them to the hole to pull his ball out.

Glover walked back off the green and put his shoes back on.

Fellow golfer Michael Kim posted on social media that several players had complained to rules officials about spike marks on the bent grass greens, thinking it was Glover.

“First of all, it’s not the officials place,” Glover said. “I wasn’t breaking any rules. Secondly, there were people in the groups in front of me and behind me wearing metal spikes as well. The greens at 3M are bent grass, were soft, and appeared to have been watered a fair amount (because of the forecast I’d imagine). I don’t care what you wear on your feet, metal or soft spikes, in those conditions they are going to get beat up. I did my best around the hole to tap down my damage as I was leaving the area.”

Glover repeatedly mentioned that PGA Tour rules now allow players to tamp down spike marks on the greens, including a mention about playing in the Rocket Classic in Detroit this week.

“I’ll be wearing metal spikes, and the people playing behind me are still allowed to tap down the marks,” Glover said. “Did I mention that?”

___

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

Cracker Barrel said Monday that CEO Julie Masino will step down next month but remain with the company until Oct. 9 in an advisory capacity.

David Deno will succeed Masino on Aug. 10 as CEO. Deno served as the CEO of Bloomin' Brands, which owns Outback Steakhouse and other chains, from 2019 until he retired in 2024. He has also held executive roles as Best Buy and Yum Brands, which is the parent company of KFC and Taco Bell.

Lebanon, Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel hired Masino, a longtime Taco Bell and Starbucks executive, in July 2023. She was chosen for her record as an innovator with the hope that she would attract new customers to Cracker Barrel, which operates nearly 660 restaurants in 43 states.

Masino introduced updated menu items, like Hashbrown Casserole Shepherd’s Pie, to increase Cracker Barrel’s dinnertime traffic. She also started remodeling the company’s dark, antique-filled restaurants, lightening the walls and installing more comfortable seating.

Then, last August, Cracker Barrel announced plans to ditch its longtime logo, which features an older, overall-clad man leaning on a barrel as well as the words “Old Country Store.” The company said it would continue to honor Uncle Herschel — the man in its logo, who represents the uncle of Cracker Barrel’s founder — on its menu and on items sold in its stores. But the new logo would be simpler and easier to read on road signs and in phone apps.

The backlash was immediate. Fans didn’t like the new logo and also rebelled against the store redesigns. Even President Donald Trump weighed in, saying in a Truth Social post that Cracker Barrel “should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate Poll), and manage the company better than ever before.”

Masino reversed course within a few days, but the damage was done. Cracker Barrel's same-store restaurant sales plunged 5% last fall and 7% in the quarter ending Jan. 30, 2026. Same-store sales at the retail stores connected to its restaurants dropped even further.

Still, the company's shareholders voted in November to keep Masino in place as CEO, and sales trends had begun to improve in recent months. In the quarter ending May 1, same-store restaurant sales were down 2.6% and the company raised its full-year revenue and profit forecast.

Masino also helped sharpen the company's focus on the Cracker Barrel brand with the sale of the company's Maple Street Biscuit Co. stores. Cracker Barrel acquired Maple Street in 2019 and operated 50 locations around the country.

Citi analyst Jon Tower said in a research note Monday that the news of Masino's departure was surprising given those recent improvements.

Cracker Barrel shares fell 2.7% in early afternoon trading.

Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty Friday to 55 counts, including murder, in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting that also left several others wounded at the school about 45 miles (73 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.

He entered the plea without having reached a plea deal with prosecutors. Murder carries a minimum sentence of life in prison, and it is up to Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Primm to decide whether he will have the possibility of parole after hearing testimony and considering evidence. The sentencing hearing started Friday, continued Monday and was set to resume Tuesday.

Teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, died in the shooting. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire.

Psychologist says Colt Gray had a ‘chaotic’ childhood

A forensic psychologist who evaluated Gray after the shooting at the request of an attorney for the teen testified that during their first meeting in May 2025, Gray asked if he could pull his arms inside his sweatshirt to wrap them around himself.

“I thought he was kind of an odd kid," Kevin Richards said. The psychologist said he did four interviews with Gray for a total of about 15 hours and also spoke to Gray's mother twice for a total of about three hours.

“It was pretty chaotic,” the psychologist said of Gray's upbringing, noting that the family had financial problems and moved around a lot, so he wasn’t enrolled in school for long stretches. His parents used drugs and fought a lot, and Gray had a lonely and neglected childhood, Richards testified.

Colt Gray discussed school shootings online

Gray talked about fearing that teachers were plotting against him, and that people in public were whispering about him. Richards said that while he believes Gray experienced paranoia and anxiety, he doubts that motivated the attack.

“I don’t think he was driven by hallucinations or delusions to do what he did. I think he planned it out,” Richards said.

Most of the teen's social life was online, Richards said. He was a gamer but also became immersed in a community of young true crime enthusiasts who were particularly fascinated by mass shootings. Initially, Gray focused on Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, as well as James Holmes, who killed 12 people in a Colorado movie theater. Richards said Gray was particularly interested in Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“He had just kind of disappeared into Discord and disappeared into the true crime community,” Richards said.

District Attorney Brad Smith showed Richards some of Gray's online conversations on Discord, an online communication platform. They established that Gray would sometimes lie about his own mental health symptoms when talking to people online to establish common ground with them and get attention.

When asked by Smith if Gray studied and emulated school shooters, Richards responded that Gray was “kind of obsessed” with them.

In interviews with investigators, Gray lied about having called a suicide hotline right before the shooting, which Holmes had done, Smith said. He also told investigators he had damaged his computer the morning of the shooting and left it in the middle of his room, as Lanza had done. Smith called these “easter eggs” that Gray was planting to “gain fame and status” within the online community that fetishized those killings.

In an online conversation just days before the shooting, Gray mentioned Sept. 4. When the person he was chatting with asked what was happening that day, he wrote, “something i have for nik!” — an apparent reference to the Parkland shooter's first name. He also noted that day was a Wednesday, just like the Parkland shooting.

Gray had more than 2,000 photos of Cruz saved on his phone and had 16 photos of Cruz printed and posted on his bedroom wall, Ashley Gilleland, an investigator with the district attorney’s office, testified. He shared photos of that “shrine” with another Discord user in the days before the shooting.

Similarly, he saved photos of other mass shooters and searched for details of those shootings, Gilleland said.

In phone calls with his mother while he was in custody just over a month after the shooting, Gray had her search online for mentions of his name within the “true crime community” and got excited when she found “fan art” drawings of him, Gilleland said. It appears his mother printed out some of the images she found to bring to her son, Gilleland said.

The judge also heard from victims and the lead investigator

After Gray entered his plea Friday, the judge heard from family members of those killed and victims of the shooting. Most asked the judge to sentence Gray to life without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors also played recordings of two interviews the lead investigator did with Gray, one that took place less than an hour after the shooting at the school and another that was done several hours later at the sheriff's office. Though the teenager seemed hysterical, repeatedly apologized and described what had happened as “horrible” during the interview at the school, Barrow County Sheriff's Office Investigator Jason Smith said Monday that he believed "a majority of that interview to be performative.”

A jury in March convicted his father, Colin Gray, on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. He is scheduled to be sentenced later this week. Prosecutors said he gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school.

On Monday, there was a preliminary hearing for singer D4vd in Los Angeles; Andrew and Tristan Tate were fighting extradition in Miami; and a woman who killed her three kids was on trial in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

On Tuesday, attorneys for the man accused of murder in the 1996 death of Tupac Shakur are scheduled to appear in court in Las Vegas and a convicted school shooter could be sentenced in Winder, Georgia.

Also this week, a trial over the man accused of stabbing author Salman Rushdie continues in Buffalo, New York.

Here's a look at the cases, what's happening this week and what's at stake:

A judge ruled there was enough evidence to put D4vd on trial

Prosecutors say the singer, whose legal name is David Burke, killed a 14-year-old girl after she threatened to reveal their sexual relationship. Burke has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said they will vigorously defend him.

The indie-pop musician's online presence has brought him a huge following. His breakthrough single in 2022 was called “Romantic Homicide,” one of several of his songs with more than a billion plays on Spotify.

Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo decided Monday the evidence prosecutors presented at a preliminary hearing that spanned five days provided probable cause for a trial on charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

Andrew and Tristan Tate fight extradition

The social media influencers are accused of rape and sex trafficking in the United Kingdom, but are currently in the United States.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for Aug. 13 to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released during what could be a monthslong extradition process.

The Tates promote their wealth, male dominance and misogyny through a social media empire that's made them some of the world’s most polarizing internet personalities. The former professional kickboxers, who have dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, have millions of social media followers and are vocal supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie is on trial

Prosecutors have charged Hadi Matar with terrorism. Matar was previously convicted of a state-level attempted murder charge in the 2022 attack at a cultural institution where Rushdie was poised to speak about threats to writers and artists.

Rushdie testified against him last week in federal court in Buffalo, New York. Matar's attorneys have said their client may testify.

Trial begins for Massachusetts woman who killed her 3 kids

Lindsay Clancy strangled her 8-month-old, 3-year-old and 5-year-old children on Jan. 24, 2023 at her Massachusetts home. Prosecutors have charged her with murder.

The case casts a spotlight on postpartum mental health. Clancy’s attorneys say she sought help for postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. Prosecutors say she carefully planned the killings.

If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.

Jurors on Monday heard opening statements and testimony from Clancy's former husband, Patrick Clancy. The trial is expected to last several weeks.

Georgia school shooter to be sentenced to life in prison

Colt Gray, 16, pleaded guilty Friday to 55 counts, including murder, in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at a high school north of Atlanta that left two students and two teachers dead. A judge must now decide whether he will have the possibility of parole.

A forensic psychologist who evaluated Gray after the shooting at the request of the teen’s attorney said Monday that Gray had a chaotic, lonely upbringing.

A jury in March convicted his father, Colin Gray, on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors said he gave his son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school.

Judge to consider evidence in the killing of Tupac

Duane “Keffe D” Davis is set to go on trial in August over the killing of the rap icon. He's accused of orchestrating the killing.

His attorneys are scheduled to ask a judge on Tuesday to exclude an interview he conducted with police in 2008.

Shakur’s death is considered one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the United States. The case had gone cold until Davis began making public statements about it, including in a book he co-wrote in which he said he provided the weapon used to shoot Shakur.

Carter Camacho, 18, of Smyrna, Georgia, told police officers who apprehended him outside the Capitol on Feb. 17 that he intended to confront members of Congress and “scare them into speaking the truth,” according to federal prosecutors. But he didn't make it into the building, and nobody was injured.

Camacho is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C. He has remained jailed since his arrest.

Camacho pleaded guilty to two counts: illegal possession of a firearm on Capitol grounds and receipt or distribution of child pornography. The latter charge stems from a search of his phone after his arrest.

Surveillance video captured Camacho exiting a parked car and running toward the west side of the Capitol with the shotgun in his hands. He complied with Capitol Police officers' commands to stop and get down on the ground.

Camacho told police that he purchased the shotgun for “home defense” less than a week before he drove from Georgia to the Capitol, prosecutors said. He also said he had left pepper spray and other tactical gear in his car “just in case I don’t want to shoot anyone,” according to prosecutors.

“He further indicated that he considered using the shotgun to breach a door to be able to enter the Capitol,” they wrote.

Descendants of Gordie Howe, the hockey legend whose name is on the bridge, were among the first to cross over the Detroit River, which separates the Motor City from Windsor, Ontario. U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., rode a motorcycle, while Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drove a Ford Mustang with the top down.

The six-lane span, which was built by Canada at a cost of $6.4 billion Canadian, now becomes a less-expensive alternative to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, which had a monopoly on big trucks carrying goods worth billions between the two countries, especially in service to the auto industry.

“There are thousands of trucks that go over” daily, said Kevin Ketels, a business professor who teaches supply chain management at Wayne State University.

Jim Pereira, who was hauling auto parts for Ontario-based Onfreight Logistics, was recognized as the first trucker to arrive in Detroit. He blasted his air horn a few times and stepped down from the wheel to take selfies with customs officers and exchange high-fives.

Pereira, 58, said he anticipates faster travel times on both sides as trucks approach the wide bridge.

“It's just a beautiful piece of architecture,” he said.

Canada’s minister of infrastructure noted that the bridge resembles the curve of a hockey stick blade. Steel cables, stretching from towers to the deck, look like giant music harps.

Freddie Garrett, 81, said he regularly watched construction “ever since they put the foundation in” back in 2018. So naturally he showed up at Delray Park in Detroit to see the first vehicles moving overhead.

“It was amazing to see how they did it,” Garrett said. “They put up one section at a time and then they met together in the middle. I'm sure it will be there longer than I'll be around.”

Last week, Canada celebrated the Gordie Howe International Bridge with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Windsor. U.S. and Michigan representatives were uninvited after President Donald Trump suddenly announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods entering America.

More than 70% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S., making America its largest trade partner, and Detroit is the No. 1 port for truck traffic on the U.S.-Canada border, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Animosity between the governments of the two countries “has been very challenging for us in this region,” Ketels said. “Many feel it's unneeded and unnecessary.”

The span is 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long and rises 151 feet (46 meters) above the river at its highest point. Pedestrians and bicyclists will be able to cross it for free, starting Aug. 5.

Howe is a Canadian icon known as “Mr. Hockey” who wore No. 9 while playing for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. He died in 2016.

A recent agreement between Canada and the Trump administration says Canada will share some toll revenue with the U.S. government for 15 years. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in 2012 separately negotiated a share for the state, but it won't be paid until Canada’s costs are recovered, likely decades from now.

Benson is starring as the Witch in Stephen Sondheim’s beloved musical “Into the Woods,” opening Friday, July 31 at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Steinmetz Hall. Performances run through Sunday, Aug. 2 — and after early shows sold out, the production added a Saturday matinee.

“I’m so excited to be here in Orlando, performing at the Doctor Phillips Performing Arts Center,” Benson said. “We sold out the first three shows and added the matinee, and we still have some great seats left.”

“It’s based on just a mix up of many fairy tales mixed into one,” Benson said. “Act one, of course, has this beautiful, happy ending, and act two kind of kicks in with reality.”

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That blend of fantasy and consequence is what Benson hopes audiences carry with them when they leave the theater.

“I really hope that audiences kind of walk away with this concept of fairy tale and reality mixed together,” she said. “Life can have a little bit of both going on at the same time… the good, the bad and everything in between.”

For Benson, the Witch has been an especially thrilling challenge — because it’s unlike anything audiences might expect from her.

“I’ve never done it before. The role of the witch is way out of my comfort zone,” she said. “It’s been fun, challenging, scary, frightening, exciting all mixed into one.”

She also joked that the biggest surprise might be seeing her unleash the Witch’s sharper edges.

“That Jody can be tough sometimes,” she said. “There’s some anger and some yelling and some screaming and some casting of spells… but it’s been fun and challenging, and I am making it my own.”

The production itself is rooted in Orlando, with a cast made up of local performers — many balancing day jobs at theme parks with nightly rehearsals and performances.

“Everybody is local right here in Orlando,” Benson said. “They are either Disney cast members or they work at Universal… doing double shift working during the day and then coming to do the show and the rehearsals that night.”

Benson, who calls Orlando her “second home,” said returning to perform here has been years in the making. After appearing in “Hello, Dolly!” with director Kristen Sheola Paul two years ago, she was invited back — and soon the team began planning “Into the Woods.”

“This time, this hall is unbelievable,” Benson added of Steinmetz Hall. “It’s by far the best sound system of a space and a venue to sing for me in the world.”

And while the Witch may be driven by wishes, Benson’s real-world wish is simple — and heartfelt.

“My prayer would be for people to have food and shelter and to have their needs met,” she said. “That would be the most amazing wish to have filled.”

Now, she’s hoping Orlando audiences will join her for an unforgettable trip into Sondheim’s woods — where the magic is real, the music is iconic and the lessons linger long after the final bow.

“We can’t wait for you to come and see the show,” Benson said. “We hope you have an incredible journey with us.”

You can purchase available tickets for the show here.

One of the men charged, 29-year-old Marquez Christopher Pinder, works in the Secret Service's Miami field office and is described in an arrest warrant as a “dean of pledges” for a Miami chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

The Secret Service said it’s cooperating with investigators and has placed Pinder on administrative leave. He was released from jail after posting a $75,000 bond Monday and faces arraignment before a judge Sept. 24.

The three men were charged last week after police uncovered evidence of “alleged hazing incidents involving prolonged and repeated beatings with canes and paddles,” the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office said in a news release.

Police said in court documents that a University of Miami graduate student and another young man had injuries that could have been fatal had they not been treated. One required skin grafts to his backside and suffered kidney damage, the documents said, while the other had a tube placed in his windpipe to help him breathe.

Accused agent has worked for Secret Service since 2023

Charges against the three men include felony counts of hazing with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with great bodily harm and attempted manslaughter.

“In Florida, hazing is abuse and it is a crime,” Katherine Fernandez Rundle, state attorney for Miami-Dade County, said in a statement Sunday. “Its victims too often lie in their graves and in hospital beds.”

An attorney for Pinder, Justin Beckham, did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment Monday. Court and jail records did not list attorneys for the other two men.

Pinder has worked as a Secret Service agent since 2023, agency spokesman Matt Fagiana confirmed Monday.

"Any misconduct will be addressed swiftly and appropriately upon completion of the investigative and judicial process,” Michael Townsend, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Miami field office, said in a statement.

A spokesman for Kappa Alpha Psi did not immediately return a phone message left at the fraternity's Philadelphia headquarters.

Arrest warrant describes bloody paddling, emergency medical care

According to Pinder's arrest warrant, the graduate student told police that he and another young man had their backsides beaten by Pinder and the other defendants during four nights in early April at an apartment and a home off-campus. The paddling started when the victims failed to correctly answer questions about the fraternity and its history, a police investigator said in an arrest warrant filed in court.

The warrant did not name either victim.

The beatings stopped on the fourth night when one of the victims had blood seeping through the seat of his pants, according to the warrant. It said fraternity leaders ordered both victims to strip off their clothes and place them in garbage bags before going home.

One of the victims suffered vomiting, fevers and intense pain before being admitted to a hospital, where he required skin grafts on his buttocks and treatment for kidney damage, according to police.

Without emergency medical treatment, the warrant said, “his injuries would have resulted in renal failure leading to death.”

The second victim told police he knew the other victim from the fraternity. He denied being paddled, the warrant said, but acknowledged receiving emergency medical care in April.

That person's medical records showed he had been hospitalized with injuries to his backside and “was intubated during his stay in the hospital to prevent further physical deterioration and death,” the arrest warrant said.

Florida lawmakers in 2005 made hazing a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if it results in serious injury or death. The law was spurred by the 2001 death of Chad Meredith, a University of Miami freshman who drowned after drinking alcohol and then attempting to swim across a lake at the urging of campus fraternity leaders.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.

There was some uncertainty about the future of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health last year, when the entire 17-member team responsible for it was laid off by the Trump administration. But the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released the latest report Monday, with data that lets researchers look at trends from 2021 to 2025.

Fewer adolescents aged 12 to 17 reported using tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and binge drinking in the previous month, the survey found.

And in the past year, fewer in that age group reported:

— illicit drug and marijuana use

— starting drinking alcohol, vaping or marijuana

— substance, alcohol or drug use disorders

Adolescents also saw declining trends for major depressive episodes and fewer reported serious thoughts of suicide, making a suicide plan and attempting suicide.

Young adults aged 18 to 25 saw similarly favorable trends.

Still, many young people face mental health challenges. Nearly 20% of adolescents surveyed had moderate or severe anxiety symptoms in the previous two weeks, compared with about 7% of adults over the age of 18.

Overall, the survey found more than half of people over 12 used an illicit drug, drank alcohol, used tobacco or vaped nicotine in the previous month. That includes 44% who drank alcohol, 16% who used a tobacco product, 10% who vaped nicotine and 16% who used an illicit drug.

The trends among young people are promising, but "there's still a lot of work to be done," said Robyn Oster, policy director for the Partnership to End Addiction.

“Nearly 45 million people still have substance use disorder and still not nearly enough people are getting treatment,” Oster said. “It’s still well over 80% of people who needed it did not get substance use treatment in the past year, let alone quality treatment.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The ruling over the weekend rejected the Trump administration’s effort to move forward with the mail-in voting restrictions in 23 U.S. states that sued ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Also, the Trump administration has acknowledged in court documents that it canceled $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Here's the latest:

Trump talks up tariffs as he claims to have saved the American auto industry

Speaking to workers at a GM facility in Milford, Michigan, Trump touted steep tariffs that he says have protected the U.S. auto industry and revived production in the United States.

He pointed to a 25% tariff his administration placed on foreign cars, “something that no other president had the courage to ever do.”

Speaking on stage alongside a blue muscle car, Trump told workers that the industry was in peril until he took office and removed regulations passed by Democrats.

“I’ve done more for you than your parents. OK?” Trump said. “Your parents are good. I’m not going to knock your parents. But I have been better to you than your parents.”

Trump administration urges Supreme Court to allow order targeting mail-in voting before midterms

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to clear the way for an executive order from President Donald Trump that could dramatically change mail-in voting.

The emergency appeal comes after an appeals court upheld a ruling blocking the president’s order in nearly half the country ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to allow the proposed changes to move ahead while lawsuits play out.

Trump ordered the government in March to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters and deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.

Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued, saying the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, not the president. Attorneys have said Trump’s proposed changes are ripe for abuse and could cause chaos.

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Thune responds to Trump’s escalated calls to pass the SAVE Act: ‘Show me how this ends’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded to Trump’s escalating calls to cancel the August recess until the Senate passes a proof-of-citizenship voting bill by again challenging the president and other supporters to show him a path to passage.

“If I thought there was a path to getting a result, I’m all for it,” Thune said.

“We voted on it one, two, three, four, five times already,” Thune added, counting each number on his hand for reporters. “Show me how this ends. What’s the picture of victory at the end?”

Thune said he plans to “have some conversations” with senators in the coming days about a possible path forward. He said he would be open to keeping the Senate in Washington if there was a path forward, but also noted that some senators need to return home to campaign.

Caine noted impact of munitions availability in advice to Trump

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has told Trump that the state of the country’s munitions stockpile could have an impact on military operations in Iran, a U.S. official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations, said this message was delivered as part of Caine’s regular duties of providing military advice and options to Trump.

The Associated Press has reported that Trump met Friday with top national security aides to discuss the situation with Iran. After nearly two weeks of strikes, the U.S. military has not attacked targets in Iran for three nights.

The Iran war has drawn down the U.S. stockpile of key weapons systems like missiles and interceptors, analysts say.

Caine told lawmakers at a hearing last week that “airpower has its limits” in achieving military objectives.

The U.S. military has employed airstrikes almost exclusively against Iran.

—- Konstantin Toropin

Trump claims his tariffs have helped General Motors

Trump was led on a tour of General Motors vehicles from different era. He was accompanied by CEO Marry Barra and other GM executives and sat behind the wheel of some of the automobiles.

“They’ve come a long way,” he said to reporters about the Detroit-based automaker. “It’s amazing what tariffs are doing for GM.”

Trump said he’s been good to the company but declined to say more.

“The rest of the world doesn’t love me, but that’s OK,” he said, alluding to the tariffs. “It’s called ‘America first.’”

New rule aims to speed up asylum decisions

A new rule going into effect Tuesday gives asylum officers discretion to send cases of immigrants seeking asylum directly to a judge for a final decision without doing an interview.

Historically, immigrants can ask for asylum either through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or from a judge in immigration courts, depending on their immigration status.

USCIS asylum officers would interview everyone who applied with their agency. If they think someone doesn’t qualify for asylum, the case goes to an immigration judge who ultimately decides.

Now, USCIS says asylum officers can look at the person’s file, decide they don’t qualify and send the case directly to a judge, without an interview.

The agency says this shortens the time it takes to decide asylum cases.

Groups that advocate for immigrants say it’s part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle the asylum system.

“The impact of this rule could be disastrous for people in need of safety.” said Beth Oppenheim, President & CEO of HIAS.

Trump says no one tells him what the US should be selling

Trump hasn’t ruled out selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, which is not a friend of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump are meeting at the White House on Tuesday, and the prime minister has made clear he does not want Turkey to get the American-made jets.

Trump was asked about such a sale to Turkey as he flew to Michigan and said, in an apparent rebuff of Netanyahu, that “nobody tells me what we should be selling.”

“Turkey’s been a great ally for me,” he said of the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “I think he’s done a very good job, did a good job with Syria. He’s a friend of mine,”

Asked if he and Netanyahu are on the same page when it comes to the war against Iran, Trump replied, “We have a little difference but pretty close, yeah.”

Trump says US and Iran are having ‘good talks’ but keeps strikes on the table

The president insisted that new meetings were requested directly by Iranian officials, saying they reached out directly “because we’ve been hitting them very hard.”

“We’re having good talks, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Monday on Air Force One. “I think there’s a good chance that something could happen. And if it does, good. if it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Trump rejected a suggestion that his patience with negotiations could be wearing thin.

“I have plenty of time,” he said.

Trump continues to needle Thune

The president insisted that he has a good relationship with the Senate majority leader — but that he’s just “got to get his job done.”

Trump has been escalating pressure on Thune to pass his voting restrictions bill before senators leave Washington for the August recess.

“The SAVE Act has to be done,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “They shouldn’t leave town.”

Trump also insisted that he hasn’t “even thought” about potential replacements for Thune.

US walks out of UN meeting when France is speaking to protest its criticism of US human rights

The United States has stood by France in every conflict where “their freedom has been imperiled,” U.S. deputy ambassador Dan Negrea told the U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine after the brief U.S. walkout Monday, accusing France of “disingenuous grandstanding.”

He was apparently responding to a post from France’s U.N. Mission in Geneva on Friday criticizing U.S. opposition to a second four-year term for U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk. The General Assembly voted 144-10 with 13 abstentions to extend his term with the U.S. voting “no.”

The French Mission said: “The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it.”

Negrea shot back, calling the U.S. “the beacon of liberty for the world” and dismissing France’s ”political drivel.”

Trump says US stockpile is in ‘very good shape’ but he wants more

Asked about suggestions that the U.S. munitions are running low, Trump said stockpiles are in good shape and production needs to ramp up.

“We have a lot. I’d like to have more, to be honest,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

He blamed former President Joe Biden for giving U.S. technology to Ukraine. Trump said some more “sophisticated” weapons have been in shorter supply but he added that production has been accelerating.

“Every one of our contractors is building four to five plans right now, and we’re in very good shape,” he said.

Trump dismisses Russian efforts to help Iran in war

Ahead of his visit to Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asserted that Russia has been offering satellite images of U.S. bases in the Gulf region to Iran.

Asked about that Monday, Trump downplayed the impact of that assistance, saying the Russian help hasn’t had much impact.

“They may be giving, but if they are, it hasn’t worked out,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One, en route to Michigan.

Trump also said he would ask Russian President Vladimir Putin about it. Zelenskyy is set to meet with Trump on Tuesday.

A large crowd of supporters waits for Trump speech

The president was set to address a crowd of more than 1,000 at a General Motors proving ground in suburban Detroit, where the company tests vehicles before they are sold.

Some GM employees joined larger groups of Trump supporters, many wearing red “Make America Great Again” caps or t-shirts celebrating the president.

Behind the stage where Trump will speak later hung blue and white banners reading “American Cars. American Jobs.” Various models of cars and SUVs were parked nearby.

GM says the proving ground in Milford Township has more than 150 miles of test roads and was opened in 1924. That makes it the world’s oldest dedicated vehicle testing facility.

Trump’s new Canada tariffs could hurt Michigan

Michigan was one of the 2024 battlegrounds Trump flipped after it backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. But the state has also seen parts of its economy affected by the president’s tariffs, including on imported cars and auto parts.

A new round of steep import levies is taking effect on dozens of U.S. trading partners. But Trump has singled out Canada with tariffs as high as 50% on a wide array of its products, including cars.

The president is visiting Oakland County, which encompasses much of Detroit’s northern suburbs. Once a Republican stronghold, it has increasingly leaned Democratic, backing Biden against Trump in 2020 and Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump four years later.

Stocks open higher on Wall Street and crude oil prices drop 5% as Mideast tensions cool

The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. The index is coming off two weekly losses in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 518 points, or 1%, as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.7%.

Oil prices reversed course from a week ago, when a sharp escalation in fighting between the U.S. and Iran worsened worries about global oil supplies. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 5.4% to $86.74 a barrel for October delivery. Prices surged to over $100 a barrel last week before easing.

The war between the U.S. and Iran has sharply curtailed, and at a times halted, traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz. That has had a ripple effect throughout the world’s economy.

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Mediators see progress in efforts to halt Iran war as drone attacks rattle region

Mediators have achieved progress in getting the United States and Iran back to negotiations, regional officials said Monday, after both sides paused attacks following a period of rapidly escalating tensions. But scattered attacks by armed groups across the region underscored the lingering tensions.

Saudi Arabia said it had shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq that had targeted its petroleum facilities.

Two drone attacks were reported against a Kurdish Iranian dissident group in Iraq, and Jordan said it had shot down two drones, without saying where they originated. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

Neither the U.S. nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three days — a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that had led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.

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Trump is set to defend his economic policies in Michigan, where new Canadian tariffs may sting

President Trump plans to tout his handling of the economy during a visit to suburban Detroit on Monday, defending sweeping tariffs in a swing state where their effects have hurt many businesses as midterm election season heats up.

Trump is visiting a General Motors facility in Milford, home to tracks and proving grounds for new models and vehicles. Early voting is underway for Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary, which features fierce nomination fights in both major political parties.

Republican Mike Rogers is unopposed in the Senate primary, but the GOP gubernatorial contest pits Trump-backed Rep. John James against Perry Johnson, a businessman turned politician who’s launched unsuccessful campaigns before, including for president in 2024.

Johnson is now trying to style himself in the president’s mold — despite missing out on his endorsement. He’s even holding a “Trump Tailgate” outside the president’s GM event.

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Pentagon’s official Iran war death toll no longer lists 4 troops killed during renewed fighting

The four American troops killed during renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran in recent weeks are no longer listed as part of the Iran war death toll in the Pentagon’s official casualty count but have been placed in a new, separate category.

It's raising questions about properly counting the impact to U.S. service members as the Trump administration has escalated strikes on Iran in a bid to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while providing little indication of how it intends to wind down a conflict that's unpopular with many Americans.

The Defense Casualty Analysis System, which Pentagon officials have repeatedly pointed to as the definitive source on the numbers of dead and wounded from the conflict, removed the four fallen soldiers as well as dozens of wounded troops from its Iran war tally last week.

On Sunday, a new category called “Overseas Operations” emerged on the system’s website, listing the four Army deaths by name as well as 207 wounded. It was unclear if all of the wounded were injured in the Iran conflict.

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Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics

The Trump administration has acknowledged in court documents that it canceled $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

The statement contradicts repeated assertions by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other officials that the projects were canceled because they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or had other problems that made them a poor investment of taxpayer dollars.

Democrats and environmental groups seized on the court filing Friday, saying the administration had “weaponized” the federal government to kill good jobs and punish working families because of their political views.

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US appeals court upholds injunction that blocks Trump’s order to create a federal voter list

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that halted Trump’s executive order to create a federal list of eligible voters and limit delivery of mail ballots only to people on that list.

The ruling Saturday by judges of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump administration’s effort to move forward with the mail-in voting restrictions in 23 U.S. states that sued ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Trump issued an executive order in March for the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the commissioner of the Social Security Administration to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters. It also ordered the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on that list.

While Trump touted the proposed changes as safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting, state election officials argued they were ripe for abuse and could cause chaos.

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“I don’t think it’s keeping up,” Curry said. “It’s really growing very, very quickly.”

Curry pointed to worsening traffic and increasing development as examples of the pressure growth is placing on the community.

Apopka’s own estimates show its population increased from 54,874 people in the 2020 Census to approximately 66,580 in April 2025—an increase of nearly 12,000 residents in about five years.

[PREVIOUS VIDEO: Apopka leaders weigh 32% property tax hike ahead of state deadline]

Now, city commissioners are considering whether homeowners should pay more as Apopka attempts to keep pace.

The commission is scheduled to meet at 5:15 p.m. Monday to set the city’s maximum proposed property-tax rate for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

The proposal would raise Apopka’s millage rate from 4.4376 mills to 5.1876 mills. That is an increase of 0.75 mills, or nearly 17% in the city’s property-tax rate.

One mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of taxable property value. Under the proposal, a homeowner would pay approximately $75 more annually for every $100,000 of City of Apopka taxable value, assuming that value remains unchanged.

That would amount to approximately:

• $150 more annually on $200,000 in taxable value
• $187.50 more annually on $250,000 in taxable value
• $225 more annually on $300,000 in taxable value
• $300 more annually on $400,000 in taxable value

The increase would apply only to the City of Apopka portion of a property owner’s bill. It does not mean a homeowner’s entire property-tax bill would rise by 17%.

While the proposed rate would increase by nearly 17%, the city projects its total property-tax revenue would rise by approximately 31.9%—from about $34.6 million in the current fiscal year to roughly $45.7 million next year. That increase reflects both the higher proposed rate and growth in the city’s taxable property base.

[PREVIOUS VIDEO: Apopka commission deadlocks on proposed property tax increase as budget deadline nears]

For Curry, whether the increase is justified depends on what residents would receive in return.

“I want to see actual improvement,” Curry said. “I want to see a much cleaner Apopka and just really overall progress. Show us what the actual funds would be used for.”

News 6 sent city leaders five questions, including what specific services, positions or projects the additional money would fund; what could be reduced under a lower rate; and why the city continues to face a budget gap as its population and tax base grow.

A city spokesperson responded: “We do not have a comment at this time.”

The spokesperson also directed future questions and requests through the Mayor’s Office.

The lack of detail leaves residents such as Curry weighing an increase without a clear public explanation of what additional services it would purchase or what residents could lose if commissioners select a lower rate.

Curry said he is not automatically opposed to paying more. He said his support would depend on whether the additional money produces visible improvements and makes Apopka better for the entire community.

“If it’s better for everybody, and it’s going to make the city overall a better place to live, then I would be for it,” Curry said.

Commissioners previously failed to agree on the proposed rate during a July 15 meeting. City staff initially presented a 1-mill increase before the proposal was reduced to 0.75 mills.

Monday’s decision will establish the maximum rate the city may consider through the remainder of the budget process. Commissioners may later lower the rate before adopting the final budget, but increasing it beyond the proposed maximum would require additional public notice.

For Curry, the final number matters—but so does whether Apopka can show taxpayers what they are getting for the higher price.

The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1% after spending much of the day bouncing between small gains and losses. The benchmark index was coming off two weekly losses in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%, its fourth straight loss.

The three major stock indexes are on pace to close out this month in the red. It would be the second straight monthly loss for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

Oil prices reversed course from a week ago, when a sharp escalation in fighting between the U.S. and Iran worsened worries about global oil supplies. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 6.3% to settle at $85.87 a barrel for October delivery. Prices surged to over $100 a barrel last week before easing.

U.S. crude oil for September delivery fell 7.5% to settle at $82.61 a barrel.

The war between the U.S. and Iran has sharply curtailed, and at a times halted, traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz. That has had a ripple effect throughout the world’s economy. Gasoline prices have surged and shipping costs for most goods are rising, with businesses typically passing those costs along to households.

Markets closed higher in Europe and Asia.

Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.65% from 4.69% late Friday.

Technology companies were behind much of the shifts in the market, with gains and declines for a mix of big companies resulting in uncertain trading.

Nvidia fell 5% and Micron Technology slumped 2.3%. At the same time, Microsoft rose 1.9% and Apple rose 1.2%. They are all among the most valuable companies in the world, and those huge valuations give them more influence over the direction of the broader market.

The mix of gains and losses from a variety of those companies had more impact in pushing and pulling the market, even as the majority of companies in the S&P 500 gained ground.

Communications company stocks were among the gainers Monday. Google parent Alphabet rose 2.1%, while Charter Communications jumped 6.7% and Comcast rose 2.3%.

Credit card issuers and payment processors also notched gains. American Express climbed 2.8%, Capital One Financial added 2.1%, Visa rose 1.9% and rival Mastercard gained 2.2%.

In Asia, Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT soared in its debut in Shanghai. The company jumped to become China’s most valuable listed company with an estimated market capitalization of 3.3 trillion yuan (nearly $490 billion).

All told, the S&P 500 added 1.20 points to 7,413.18. The Dow gained 262.83 points to 52,210.08, and the Nasdaq dropped 43.74 points to 24,932.08.

Wall Street has a busy week ahead with several potentially mark-moving updates on the economy and company earnings. Reports are due out on consumer confidence Tuesday and inflation on Thursday.

“This is a week with more than its fair share of potential surprises, good and bad," said Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

The big focus will be on the Federal Reserve, which will give an update Wednesday on its interest rate policy. The central bank has been grappling with the impact from rising inflation because of the ongoing U.S. war with Iran. It also has to contend with a fresh round of U.S.-imposed tariffs globally, which could further worsen inflation.

Wall Street anticipates a nearly 36% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates at its meeting this week. Higher rates can help cool inflation by making borrowing more expensive and slowing economic growth.

The central bank has been holding rates steady throughout the year as it monitors inflation’s direction and impact, but Wall Street expects at least one rate hike by the end of the year.

Stubbornly high inflation has been squeezing households and fuel costs have hit budgets and spending particularly hard. Gasoline costs are taking a bigger chunk out of household budgets, and that could mean tighter spending on other things like clothing and travel.

Investors are monitoring the latest round of corporate earnings for signs of consumer stress along with whether the yearlong jump in stock values throughout Wall Street is justified by profits and forecasts for profit growth.

Investors also have a heavy round of corporate earnings to review this week. Many of those reports could provide more clues into the health of different areas of the economy. Paint and coatings maker Sherwin-Williams, aircraft maker Boeing and payments processor Visa will report their latest results on Tuesday.

Starbucks and Chipotle will report results on Wednesday.

Technology companies are being watched especially closely because their sharp gains throughout the year have been behind Wall Street's record run. Microsoft will report results Wednesday. Amazon, with its growing cloud services business and AI focus, will report results on Thursday, along with Apple.

___

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

Superintendent Serita Beamon delivered her annual State of Our Schools address Monday, unveiling a new strategic plan and celebrating record academic achievements — even as the district confronts financial pressures that have already forced hundreds of job eliminations.

“I’m incredibly proud of where we are as a district, but I’m equally excited about where we’re going,” Beamon said.

A district with a strong foundation

Before addressing the challenges ahead, Beamon took time to lay out just how much ground the district has to stand on.

Seminole County Public Schools serves more than 58,000 students with nearly 6,500 employees, making it the largest employer in Seminole County. The district is the 13th largest in Florida.

For more than 20 years, the district has maintained an A rating from the Florida Department of Education — and this year, it holds a dual distinction as both A-rated and academically high performing, a designation that requires no failing schools, compliance with class size requirements and a clean financial audit.

“We are number one in Central Florida, number one of the 14 largest school districts, and number 11 out of all 67 districts in the state of Florida,” Beamon said.

Academic highlights: From third grade reading to college credit

The district posted some of its strongest academic numbers in years heading into the new school year.

This year, 95% of Seminole County schools earned an A or B grade — the highest combined total since 2011. Third grade reading proficiency climbed to 72%, up from 69% the previous year, ranking the district first in Central Florida and in the top five statewide.

Every one of the district’s 12 middle schools earned an A or B — and nearly half of all eighth graders completed Algebra 1 before entering high school, with more than 1 in 5 completing geometry.

Biology scores at the high school level jumped nine percentage points in a single year, vaulting the district from 27th in the state to ninth — and first in Central Florida.

“These efforts demonstrate exactly what happens when talented people align around a common challenge and then push,” Beamon said.

Looking ahead: AI, chronic absenteeism, new strategic plan

Beamon used the address to look forward, not just back — and she was candid about the work still ahead.

Chronic absenteeism remains a concern across the nation, and Seminole County is no exception. Beamon said the district has made progress reducing absenteeism at the elementary and middle school levels but acknowledged the challenge persists.

“Attendance remains one of the strongest predictors of academic success, and students need to be in school to benefit from the high quality instruction, meaningful relationships, and opportunities available in our classrooms each day,” she said.

On artificial intelligence, Beamon said the district has spent two years piloting AI tools, developing staff training and building policy — keeping a clear priority in mind throughout.

“We’ve worked with the knowledge that AI may be able to complement great teaching, but it will never replace it,” she said. “The heart of learning has always been, and will always be, those relationships between students and caring adults.”

Beamon also unveiled a strategic plan built around six priorities: safe and supportive environments, preparing students for a strong future, developing critical thinkers and lifelong learners, empowering staff, engaging families and community, and running an efficient, aligned district.

“This is not about changing who we are,” Beamon said. “It’s about becoming even better at what we do.”

Nearly $30M in cuts — and it’s still not enough

Despite those achievements, Seminole County Public Schools made nearly $30 million in cuts this school year — and the reductions still weren’t enough to fully balance the budget.

About 300 positions were eliminated in the process, a reality Beamon called painful but unavoidable.

“Always, always painful when we’re looking at having to reduce,” Beamon said. “But we hope that most of that cutting came through natural attrition or retirements and that sort of thing.”

School Board Chair Robin Dehlinger said the impact is felt most in the area that makes up the largest share of the district’s spending.

“The biggest proportion of our operating funds is salaries and benefits,” Dehlinger said.

The cuts have rippled beyond spreadsheets and into classrooms. News 6 previously spoke with parents at Millennium Middle School after several longtime teachers’ contracts were not renewed. The district cited budget cuts as a factor.

Beamon pointed to two forces squeezing the budget simultaneously: declining enrollment and an inadequate funding increase from the state.

“It certainly does not keep up with inflation, and it is offset for us in the ways when we’re looking at the declining enrollment and how that is impacting our system,” she said. “It simply doesn’t keep up with what we need to do here in Seminole County.”

Florida increased per-student funding by approximately 1.4% this year. Dehlinger said the broader trend is concerning.

“We are concerned about what we see as a declining support in terms of funding public schools,” she said, calling on the community to press state legislators on the issue.

Keeping schools open as enrollment falls

The district projects a decline of between 1,500 and 2,000 students in the coming school year. Because Florida schools are funded on a per-student basis, every student who leaves takes dollars with them.

Beamon cited a combination of shifting demographics, population changes and the growth of Florida’s school voucher program as factors driving the decline.

As neighboring districts have made difficult decisions — Orange County closed seven schools — Seminole County is committed to a different approach.

“We’re looking carefully at all of the ways that we can keep our schools open,” Beamon said. “One of the ways we looked at this year was doing some shared staffing models at some of our smaller schools.”

Dehlinger offered specifics: a bookkeeper shared between two elementary schools, a secretary split between campuses, or even a co-principal overseeing more than one school.

“We made a commitment that we’re not closing schools, and we’re able to make that commitment,” Dehlinger said.

Beamon said the model consolidates resources without eliminating programs or opportunities in the classroom and hopes it can be expanded if needed in future years.

Dehlinger framed the enrollment challenge in competitive terms.

“There’s a marketplace and we can be competitive in that marketplace,” she said, adding that the district is exploring outreach to help families better understand the opportunities available within Seminole County’s public schools. “We’re held to a very high standard and accountability, which many of those options are not.”

New facilities, new opportunities

Even amid budget constraints, the district is making strategic investments in its buildings and programs.

At Lake Howell High School, a new performing arts auditorium is set to open in December 2026. The second floor will house the Cyber Hawk Academy, a program designed to prepare students for careers in cybersecurity.

Lake Mary Elementary School is undergoing a full renovation, with students set to move into new, modern learning spaces after winter break in January 2027 — a project Beamon called “the perfect example of blending a school with 100 years of history and a new, modern facility.”

Transparency questions linger after Sabal Point incident

As the new school year approaches, parents have also pressed the district for accountability following an incident at Sabal Point Elementary School last fall.

A 23-year-old paraprofessional self-reported “concerning thoughts” to a school resource officer on Sept. 24. According to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, the employee had thoughts about cutting a 6-year-old student’s throat with a knife when he became frustrated, and also said he had thoughts about carrying out a school shooting. He requested to be placed under a Baker Act and subsequently resigned after being placed on administrative leave.

Parents were not notified for several days, sparking outrage at a subsequent school board meeting.

Monday, our News 6 team asked the superintendent about the changes that followed ahead of a new school year. Beamon acknowledged the incident — while noting legal limits on what the district can publicly share.

“What the Sabal Point situation showed us is that when we sat down with parents, with staff, we sat down with our law enforcement partners — for the things that we can share — we looked at where do we put that in the calculus for when something is happening,” Beamon told News 6.

She said the district made procedural changes and the school board updated its policy on law enforcement partnerships following those conversations.

“We’ve listened, we’ve learned, and we are looking forward to moving forward in a real collaborative way with our parent community,” Beamon said.

School safety: SROs, weapon-detecting dogs

School safety remains a top priority. At the board’s upcoming meeting, agreements with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department and seven municipal law enforcement partners will be renewed, ensuring an SRO in every school. Also up for a vote: a new weapon-detecting dog program through the Longwood Police Department.

Beamon thanked Sheriff Lemma and law enforcement partners by name during her address, calling Seminole County’s safety model “innovative and collaborative.”

“We can all sleep better at night because of it,” she said.

E-bikes on radar, no countywide ban yet

Both Beamon and Dehlinger addressed growing concern about e-bikes among younger students when asked, a conversation gaining momentum across Central Florida. Dehlinger said she hopes the region moves toward a unified, countywide policy rather than each district acting independently.

“What other counties do will have an impact on how people think about things,” Dehlinger said.

Despite the challenges ahead, she was resolute about where things stand as the first bell approaches.

“Right now for this school year, all of our schools are open, all of our schools are staffed, and we are ready to go,” Dehlinger said.

Beamon echoed that forward-looking sentiment in her closing remarks.

“Every morning, more than 58,000 students walk through the doors of our schools — carrying hopes, dreams, talents and unlimited potential,” she said. “I truly believe that our best days are still ahead.”

In a release, police said the incident happened shortly before 1 p.m. at the Cedar Point apartments.

“Upon arrival, officers located an adult female, hysterically crying while covered in blood,” the release reads. “Officers immediately began rendering aid until medical personnel arrived on scene.”

The woman was taken to the hospital, where she’s been listed in “fair condition,” police noted.

Detectives said the male victim wasn’t initially found at the scene, though they determined he’d already been taken to the hospital by private vehicle, where he arrived as a trauma alert.

“He is currently listed in critical condition,” the release continues. “Detectives are actively investigating the incident and are working closely with the Daytona Beach Police Department and the Volusia County Crime Scene Investigations Unit to process multiple scenes in both Holly Hill and Daytona Beach.”

According to the department, the incident may have stemmed from an argument over infidelity.

No additional information has been provided at this time.

According to an arrest report, David Allen O’Brien, 67, is accused of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and four counts of aggravated battery stemming from an incident reported around 10:44 p.m. on July 21 near the area of Buena Vista Boulevard and El Camino Real.

What deputies say happened

Investigators said they received multiple 911 calls about a vehicle crash and a report that someone had a gun.

Deputies made contact with five people at the scene and learned O’Brien had a weapon, the report states. Everyone was checked by emergency medical personnel and later interviewed.

One of the victims, identified as a 21-year-old woman, told deputies she met O’Brien on Tinder and the two agreed to meet the night of July 21.

Investigators also said they learned that O’Brien had messaged the woman earlier this month, telling her he was “looking for a sugar baby.”

The report says O’Brien allegedly offered to pay her money “each visit,” and the two went shopping and to dinner before returning to his home in The Villages.

Deputies wrote that the victim later felt uncomfortable and contacted friends to pick her up. The report alleges O’Brien demanded money back and then chased the vehicle after she left with her sister and two friends.

“(O’Brien) told (the victim) that she should give the money back because that was not the agreement,” the arrest report states. “(She) made her way outside of the home, where she was waiting on her friends.”

Crash and alleged gun threat

Afterward, the victim got in the car with her friends and left the area, though O’Brien gave chase in his truck, deputies noted.

According to the report, the victims’ car was struck from behind in a roundabout, hit a pole, and was hit again—leaving it disabled. The victims got out and ran, the report states.

Investigators allege O’Brien pointed a Ruger .22 semi-automatic handgun at one of the victims and threatened to kill him if he didn’t get on the ground.

“(That victim) was on the ground face-down and noticed that (O’Brien) was distracted, so he was able to move to safety,” the report continues. “(O’Brien) then attempted to locate the other victims briefly until he heard law enforcement arriving.”

O’Brien was ultimately arrested and now faces charges of aggravated assault and battery.

Key details from the report

• Charges: Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; aggravated battery (4 counts)
• Suspect: David Allen O’Brien, 67
• Booking: Sumter County Detention Center on July 22
• Bond: Listed as no bond

O’Brien was taken to the Sumter County Jail without incident, according to the report.

The Czech capital has a movie theater that's among the few dozen in the world equipped with the coveted 70 mm IMAX screen to watch the first feature made entirely with IMAX film cameras.

“It completely changed my experience about the movie," said Nicolas Walak from Poland, who also saw the movie before on a normal screen before viewing it in Prague. "Everything was great. It was a great movie.”

Czech cinema adapts to meet demand for rare IMAX format

There are only 41 70 mm IMAX screens worldwide, with most in North America. Montpellier in France and the Belgian capital, Brussels, are the only other two in the European Union countries. Britain has another three.

To meet massive demand, the Czech branch of the Cinema City offers four to five screenings a day, one starting after midnight, and the majority are sold out.

Film fans from about 15 European countries, from Scandinavia to Spain, have been coming to watch “The Odyssey” in Prague, Cinema City said. Their number reached 22,000 by Monday, it said.

The 70 mm IMAX film presentation is Nolan's preferred format. The Oscar-winning filmmaker calls it the “best possible experience.”

Moviegoers travel up to three days to Prague

Daniel Jung drove with his two teenage sons, Felix and Leo, for three days from Norway through Denmark and Germany "just to see this movie. Tomorrow, we’re going back.”

Leo was in touch with Cinema City by email half a year before the July 16 premiere and followed the cinema operator on Instagram. He managed to book the tickets immediately after they became available.

“We were in the 11th row, right in the middle. We had the very best seats,” Leo said, calling the effort “absolutely worth it.”

“It’s just so big. We come from Norway, the screens we have are much smaller,” he said. “Now, we watched it in this huge format. I will always remember this experience.”

Felix said they had a good time on the way, visiting some places in Germany, but it would be worth it even if they just drove straight there.

Few IMAX left because of costs and other challenges

Due to the cost and other challenges, productions made using large format film are rare. The IMAX cameras are heavy and new versions with reduced noise had to be developed to be usable for making “The Odyssey.”

The film print sent to theaters is so big — weighing some 300 kilograms (661 pounds) and 18 kilometers (11 miles) long — that it has to be delivered to theaters in parts. The movie and the projector have to be in a climatized room and the projectionists need to be approved by IMAX for the job.

As movie theaters around the globe were acquiring digital IMAX equipment around 2008, the Cinema City decided not to get rid of the original analog projector in Prague. It was placed in a corner for three years until 2012 to screen Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”

It was used to show several others, including Nolan's “Interstellar” in 2014 and “Oppenheimer” three years ago.

“We’re really grateful to him for that,” projectionist Tomáš Vyšinský said about his predecessor who saved the equipment.

“The same way that you want to season a steak or a pork chop, you want to add multiple layers. And I think spice does that if you do it the right way,” says Turner Greaves, bartender at New York’s Sip and Guzzle.

He makes a tequila highball called Doctor Green, which he describes as “super-herbaceous, vegetal, a little bitter. It’s got tomatillo, green apple, shiso, horseradish, and then you can make it spicier with a little serrano pepper on the side.”

Customers get to add more spice with a little spice dropper delivered with their serving.

Cocktail tastes are changing from sweet to savory

James Stevenson, co-founder of Brutes of Mayfair cocktail bar in London, says drinks were very sweet when he started out 20 years ago, and now consumers’ tastes have shifted.

“I think there’s a real movement toward savory cocktails,” he says. “Every drink we put on the menu that is more savory or has a pickled element or spice element tends to be our bestseller.”

Stevenson makes a mezcal-based Bagheera, which he describes as a turbo-spiced margarita.

“We juice (blend) rather than shaking the drink, with fresh chile and coriander,” he says. They make a fresh syrup, adding tequila and freshly squeezed lime, and finish off the drink with a house-made Tajin salt rim.

Agave spirits are a good match for spicy and savory

It’s no coincidence both bartenders picked agave-based spirits — tequila and mezcal — for their spicy offerings.

Stevenson explains that a lot of the flavor profiles you get from agaves are fresher, more vegetal than other spirits. “They’re just very akin to chiles,” he says. Noting that tequila pairs well with salt, he adds, “Spice and savory flavors are just a natural kinship.”

Alex Lyoness, bar manager at London’s FlipDog, makes his Late Night cocktail with a hint of an after-hours kebab and pickles. He uses a white tequila and a raicilla (an agave similar to mezcal). Soy sauce brings a deep flavor, he says, and a homemade chile tincture spices things up.

He then adds an onion and olive brine “like the ultimate dirty martini,” and garnishes with a bright pink pickled turnip.

Looking for a tingly feeling

But chiles aren’t the only way to add spice. Lyoness says you’re looking to create a “mouthfeel.” He uses Sichuan peppercorns and the Timur berry, which he says has a cool, numbing quality. “What you’re looking for is that tingling across the palate,” he says.

Greaves recommends bringing a little classic cooking into your drinks.

“You can add ginger, you can add garlic cloves, and star anise and fennel into these drinks, and it adds so many different elements of pepper, of spice. Go home and then throw cayenne into a margarita,” he says.

How hot is too hot?

To judge the heat, try to read it on your palate, says Greaves: “If it starts creeping all the way down to your esophagus, I think that’s definitely a spice level that you can loosen up a bit.”

A good spicy drink should “give you the itches on the sides of your mouth” but not overwhelm, he says.

And don’t forget that no two chiles are the same.

“It’s all about tasting, trying and tweaking,” Anderson says.

Adding a spicy rim to your glass is an easy way to get extra kick

For a spicy rim, mix any spices from your cupboard with a good rock salt, says Anderson. (You can freshly grind the spices for a more aromatic and vibrant mix.)

He recommends coriander seed for a more citrusy mix, and black pepper or cardamom powder for a savory feel. You can even try adding fruit powders.

“Something like a freeze-dried strawberry, freeze-dried raspberry, with a little bit of spice. It’s great,” Anderson says.

Then, simply run a lemon or lime wedge along the rim of your glass and gently roll it in a shallow plate of the salt mix.

Recipes

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Late Night, from FlipDog, London

Ingredients

1 oz. Tapatio blanco (tequila)

0.4 oz. La Venenosa Costa Raicilla

0.4 oz. Gonzalez Byass Tio Pepe Fino (dry sherry)

0.7 oz. brine mix (onion, olive, sivri pepper)

2 drops chile tincture

Directions

Stir together all the ingredients with ice. Serve in a chilled martini glass. Add a pickled turnip to garnish.

CHILE TINCTURE

Submerge chiles in a sealed jar with a high-proof neutral alcohol like vodka (approx. 1-2 small chiles per 3.5 oz. of alcohol) and leave to steep for up to two weeks, shaking the jar occasionally. Then strain and transfer the contents into an eyedropper bottle.

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Bagheera, from Brutes of Mayfair, London

Ingredients

1.75 oz. Lost Explorer mezcal

0.75 oz. fresh lime juice

.67 oz. Bagheera syrup

Small pinch of salt

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over cracked ice. Rim the glass with Tajin.

BAGHEERA SYRUP

Ingredients

275 grams simple sugar syrup (roughly 7.5 fl. oz.)

½ supermarket bunch of fresh cilantro, including stalks

1 small Thai green chile

3 jalapeno chiles

¼ teaspoon of ascorbic acid (vitamin C powder), to stop the cilantro from turning brown

½ teaspoon green cardamom powder

1 thumb-size piece of peeled fresh ginger

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a large container or blender. Blend until the coriander and chiles have completely broken down and the mixture is well combined. Strain through a fine mesh strainer bag or muslin cloth. Transfer to a clean container and refrigerate.

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Doctor Green, from Sip & Guzzle, New York

Servings: 20

Ingredients

34 oz. green apple juice

34 oz. tomatillo juice

24 oz. green tequila

6 oz. Sauternes

Directions

Juice tomatillo and green apple and whisk in 2 grams ascorbic powder and 4 grams pectinase powder per liter of juice until dissolved.

Rest at room temperature or in the fridge for at least one to two hours until the juice splits into clear liquid and sediment layers. Combine all ingredients and strain through a fine mesh strainer until clear. Carbonate using a specialist drinks carbonator.

GREEN TEQUILA

3.4 oz. Patron tequila

0.25 oz. shiso

0.25 oz. fennel

0.25 oz. horseradish

2 pieces star anise

Directions: Combine the ingredients and allow to infuse at room temperature for 24 hours.

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5 songs to drink spicy cocktails to:

“Hot Stuff,” Donna Summer

“Hot in Herre,” Nelly

“Spice Up Your Life,” The Spice Girls

“Feeling Hot Hot Hot,” The Merrymen

“Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Snoop Dogg ft. Pharrell Williams

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This story was first published on July 22, 2026. It was updated on July 27, 2026 to correct erroneous measurements in the drinks recipes.

U.S. Magistrate Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for Aug. 13 to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released during what could be a monthslong extradition process.

The brothers weren’t in court Monday or required to be there and have remained in jail since making a brief court appearance two days after their July 18 arrest.

The Tates have become among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities with their promotion of wealth, male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire. The new allegations are the latest in a long-running international legal saga involving the Tates that has spanned the U.S., Britain and Romania. The brothers have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Attorneys for the brothers said Monday that they want the U.S. government to turn over documents that U.K. officials submitted to secure their arrest.

“They don't have anything but the accusations,” attorney Joseph McBride said after the hearing. “It’s just their word against our word right now.”

The U.K. has until mid-September to turn over all of its materials to the State Department, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra López said in court.

The brothers have long claimed that their violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes.

Jackie Perczek, another one of their attorneys, said the Tates have shown they are not a flight risk by returning to Romania every month after they were accused there of luring women for sexual exploitation.

“For three years they have not fled,” she said. “They've traveled the world and every month they return to Romania.”

The former professional kickboxers, who have dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, have millions of social media followers and are vocal supporters of President Donald Trump. The White House has said the brothers shouldn't expect any help from the president.

McBride said shortly after the Tates were arrested that "they’ve never done nothing wrong. They shouldn’t be extradited for crimes they did not commit," he said.

McBride said the extradition attempt was politically motivated, though he provided no details.

Prosecutors in Britain said the new charges relate to four new accusers and were brought after authorities received evidence from police in Bedfordshire, in southeastern England. The allegations, which span from 2010 to 2017, include rape, assault, trafficking and offenses relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.”

The brothers are already charged with rape, bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other accusers in the U.K. between 2012 and 2015.

The brothers moved to Romania in 2016 and were arrested there in 2022, accused of participating in schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations, and the Romanian case hasn't gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.

Andrew Tate, 39, became known a decade ago when he was a contestant on the U.K. reality television show “Big Brother.” He was booted from the show when a video appeared to show him assaulting a woman.

He has amassed over 10 million followers on X but has been banned from other platforms, including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, for violating hate speech guidelines. He has made widely condemned comments, such as saying women who are sexually assaulted should bear some responsibility for the attacks and sharing graphic descriptions of how he might attack women.

Infantino praised FIFA for “delivering the best show in the world” and spoke of the World Cup bringing “joy and togetherness,” in a 900-word statement published across a 15-page post on his Instagram account and on FIFA’s website late Sunday.

“Sorry that you were so consumed by hate and criticism that you missed it all,” the FIFA leader wrote, addressing his comments to “those behind their pens and papers, behind their screens spreading hate and false rumors.”

FIFA and Infantino faced criticism during the World Cup for Iran team officials, a Somali referee and fans being denied entry to the United States; alleged political influence by U.S. President Donald Trump in letting Folarin Balogun avoid a ban for a red card; unprecedented high ticket prices and commercialized breaks in play midway through each half of all 104 games.

“Every city was packed with fans from all around the globe,” Infantino wrote. “While they celebrated, you were busy planting seeds of hate.”

“While you hide, we are exploring the streets of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, talking with fans, engaging with people, and ensuring everyone’s safety.”

Testy media relations

Infantino has an increasingly testy relationship with media during the 11th year of his presidency. His eve-of-tournament news conference in Mexico City was his first with a full gathering of international media since March 2023.

The previous such news conference in Rwanda, after his reelection by acclaim from FIFA member federations, saw Infantino ask his audience: “Why are you so mean?”

In Mexico City last month, Infantino suggested critics should “chill, relax.”

And he's coming under scrutiny from some in the U.S. Congress. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent Infantino a letter on Sunday seeking documents detailing ties between FIFA and the Trump administration. A representative for FIFA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

FIFA uniting the U.S. and Iran

Iran’s ability to play at least three games in the U.S. was a key pretournament issue, and the squad made a late switch to a training camp in Tijuana, Mexico instead of Tucson, Arizona.

“Iran entered the United States without incident or conflict,” Infantino noted in his statement. “While you spread hatred, we worked tirelessly to unite two countries at war.”

Fans denied visas to enter the U.S. included Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, the celebrated statue supporter of Congo which was dealing with an Ebola virus outbreak. He attended one game in Mexico.

“You mentioned the few people denied visas and overlooked the millions who were approved, from all parts of the world,” Infantino wrote. “Countries facing serious health issues or other challenges were granted visas.”

Infantino defends Balogun decision

On fallout from the red card for U.S. forward Balogun, Infantino claimed “subsequent decisions not to ban players in certain situations are routine.”

FIFA did not overturn Balogun’s red card, which does occur in domestic club competitions, but instead took the more unusual step of deferring the one-game ban for a probationary period. FIFA has yet to publish the written verdict of its disciplinary judge.

“To those spending their time and energy hating us, please take a moment to reflect, meditate, pray, or watch a football match and truly observe the faces, the eyes, the emotions,” Infantino wrote.

He signed off his statement: “Much love to all.”

___

Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

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

Lasko had surgery June 30 to address a fractured C6-C7 vertebra. Lasko collided with Double-A Midland teammate Devin Taylor during a game in Frisco, Texas. Both dove for a flyball, and Lasko remained motionless on the field after the play.

“I'm currently feeling much better,” Lasko wrote on X. "I have sensation from my feet up to my knees, along with a lot of involuntary leg movements. I also have been getting some sensation in the side of my thighs, hamstrings and back. I currently have about 75% usage of my left hand and about 50% in my right.

“I'm very happy with my progress and once again, so very thankful for all the love and support. It has continued to help me get up everyday and work my hardest.”

The 24-year-old Lasko was selected by the Athletics in the second round of the 2023 amateur draft from Rutgers. He was batting .209 with six homers, 34 RBIs and a .635 OPS for Midland this season.

Lasko appeared in 13 games at Triple-A Las Vegas last year. He also played 21 games in the Arizona Fall League for promising prospects, batting .357 with nine stolen bases.

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

Comey's lawyers argue the government cannot prove the Instagram photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47" constituted a “true threat" against the Republican president, who fired Comey in 2017 and has publicly called for his prosecution. The slogan — which has long meant to "get rid of" or “eject" — has been featured on thousands of items sold online and regularly displayed at protests, defense lawyers wrote in court papers.

"But the government now singles out Mr. Comey to prosecute one of the President’s most prominent critics for publishing another person’s statement of political opposition," his attorney's wrote. “That attempt to suppress core political speech contravenes both the statutes at issue and the First Amendment.”

The seashells case against Comey was the second in months targeting the ex-FBI director, a long-running Trump foe whom the president over the years has called a “corrupt piece of garbage” and other pejorative names.

An earlier case in Virginia accusing Comey of lying to Congress was dismissed last November after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who charged him and another Trump adversary, New York Attorney General Letitia James, was illegally appointed to the job.

More broadly, the case is part of a retribution campaign by the Trump administration Justice Department, which has initiated investigations across the country into individuals the president does not like. Comey has long drawn Trump's ire for his role overseeing the early months of an investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of that year’s election.

The two-count indictment charges Comey with “knowingly and willfully” making a threat to “take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon” Trump and with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. It does not provide evidence that Comey knowingly threatened Trump, especially since Comey has said the opposite, but suggested a “reasonable recipient who is familiar with the circumstances would interpret” the message as a threat.

Comey was interviewed by the Secret Service last year over the post after Trump administration officials asserted that he was advocating the assassination of Trump, the 47th president. Comey deleted the post shortly after it was made, writing: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and “I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

“Even if ‘86 47’ could implausibly be read to suggest violence, a reasonable observer would still understand Mr. Comey’s post as mere political hyperbole, not a true threat,” Comey's lawyers wrote. “The Supreme Court has rejected threats prosecutions based on speech far more directly threatening than Mr. Comey’s seashells post here.”

The Justice Department has not elaborated on any evidence of intent the government has. But acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier this year that prosecutors in every case prove intent with “witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself to the extent it’s appropriate.”

“And that’s how we’ll prove intent in this case,” Blanche said in April, shortly after he was elevated to lead the department after Pam Bondi's firing.

Trump, in a Fox News Channel interview last year, accused Comey of knowing “exactly what that meant.”

“A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.”

Lopes Cabral’s curling shot into the far top corner of the Argentina net was a standout moment at the World Cup where the unheralded African team made a stellar debut.

His goal tied defending champion Argentina at 2-2 in extra time of their thrilling round of 32 game in Miami Gardens. Cape Verde would eventually lose 3-2.

Lopes Cabral’s goal was voted best of the 308 goals scored at the tournament, ahead of Eldor Shomurodov's delicate lob for Uzbekistan against Congo and Wilson Isidor of Haiti scoring with a powerful rising shot against Morocco.

FIFA drew up a shortlist of 12 goals for public voting that closed Monday.

Lopes Cabral’s celebration also entered World Cup lore as he broke free of teammates reaching to grab him before climbing into the tribune to hug his girlfriend and look for his mother.

“Before the game, I’d told my mom and my girlfriend that if I scored, I’d run over to them,” he said. “When I got there, I saw my mom crying. She hadn’t even realized I was right there. Everyone was busy tending to her because she had fainted when I scored.”

Cape Verde defied both World Cup finalists in its four games, after goalkeeper Vozinha’s standout display saw his team open with a 0-0 draw to stun eventual champion Spain.

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

Although the Democratic Socialists of America’s Workers Deserve More platform doesn’t necessarily line up exactly with the candidates’ own agendas, prominent Republicans over the weekend decried it. The DSA platform proposes drafting "a new constitution” with significant changes to the structure of the U.S. government, including abolishing the Senate, replacing the president and the Supreme Court with leaders picked by Congress and allowing all permanent U.S. residents to vote. Alongside those changes, the platform, published earlier this month, calls for a number of social reforms.

“The barbarians are inside the gate — and Democrats are WELCOMING them in,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote on X. “Communism is no longer a far fetched threat. It is here on our SHORES!”

The Wall Street Journal’s conservative-leaning editorial board also warned about the agenda, calling it radical and writing that the job of Republicans and willing Democrats is to educate the country about it. But it cautioned Republicans to avoid communism attack lines, saying they wouldn't resonate with younger generations.

Progressive and DSA-backed candidates running in Democratic primaries across the country don’t all subscribe to the group’s full agenda. The left is also split between progressive and moderate wings that have different ideas about the best policies to carry the Democratic Party forward. But the DSA platform has created an opening for Republicans to attack Democrats with a broad brush as they look for an edge in races that will determine which party has a majority in Congress next year.

President Donald Trump this year has returned to an old habit of calling Democrats communists, saying they want to “destroy the traditional American way of life.” Other Republicans have followed suit, turning to more comfortable territory after months spent defending their party as disgruntled Americans fume about foreign wars and the high cost of living.

DSA agenda calls for dramatic overhaul of government and society

The DSA’s vision for the country laid out in mid-July proposes major changes that the group says can in part be achieved under the current system but ultimately would require “building a new society from the ground up.”

Among the suggested changes are expanding voting rights, publicly financing all elections, replacing the two-party system with a multi-party democracy, establishing public ownership of large corporations and expanding rights for immigrants while ending Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions and deportations.

In a recent appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” the group’s co-chair Megan Romer confirmed various aspects of the agenda while acknowledging that some of the proposals, like abolishing borders and prisons, would be considered parts of a long-term plan.

The Republican National Committee over the weekend called attention to the platform in a post that several GOP lawmakers seized on to raise alarm.

“These people are insane,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz replied on X.

“Watch this clip closely,” wrote Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican. “These ideas could be coming to your community sooner than you think.”

Progressive candidates have succeeded in recent races

The DSA's agenda comes as aligned candidates have triumphed in several recent Democratic primaries. They’ve capitalized on voter anger at the party establishment and rising skepticism of the U.S. alliance with Israel to edge out moderates in House races in New York and Colorado.

Democratic socialist candidates also have succeeded in mayoral elections in major U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., New York and Seattle. An upcoming Missouri primary pitting a DSA-backed former congresswoman against the moderate Democratic incumbent will further test the movement’s momentum.

In other elections, progressive candidates have outlined where they differ from the DSA's agenda. In an upcoming Michigan Senate primary, for example, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed has distanced himself from socialism, saying that he believes in capitalism but that it needs to be regulated.

Meanwhile, establishment Democrats including former Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison have forcefully pushed back against DSA candidates who run in the party’s primaries while criticizing the way the party is going.

“I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination,” Harrison wrote in a social media post in June. “Don’t use our resources. Don’t rely on our volunteers. Don’t use our infrastructure. Don’t ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign. Focus on building the party you actually support.”

ICE plans to extend the no-bid contract of the firm that runs Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, through Sept. 30, 2027, at a potential additional cost to taxpayers of $776 million, the notice says. This is on top of a $452 million initial contract that the firm, Amentum Services Inc., was awarded in March when it was hastily installed to take over the camp’s operation from a contractor removed for poor performance.

For months, Democratic members of Congress and several advocacy organizations have called for Camp East Montana to be closed, citing reports that detainees have been routinely mistreated since its opening in August 2025.

A report released earlier this month by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union alleged that staff routinely beat detainees, denied them medical care, made them live in filthy conditions and fed them inedible meals. Reports by federal agencies have also found unsafe detention conditions and that the Army and ICE have wasted millions of dollars paying for unnecessary services. At least three Camp East Montana detainees have died.

The facility at Fort Bliss, an Army base near the U.S.-Mexico border, has housed an average of more than 2,000 male and female detainees a day since Oct. 1, though its population has declined significantly in recent months, according to ICE data.

“Extending Amentum’s contract while ignoring well-documented abuses is reckless and demonstrates the Trump administration’s full-scale assault on human rights,” said Angélica César, a fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU who was a lead researcher for the report. “Instead of holding private contractors accountable, DHS is choosing to perpetuate a system of harm and abuse.”

Chanel Mann, a spokesperson for Amentum, referred questions to ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, which didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.

ICE's notice was a justification for extending Amentum Services’ contract for a year without a competitive bidding process.

The agency argued that relocating detainees to other facilities would be “impracticable” due to a lack of available bed space elsewhere. Transitioning to a different contractor would require replacing Amentum’s “proprietary infrastructure” and finding new workers, which would lead to duplicative costs, it said.

“Any lapse in contract coverage would directly threaten the life, safety, and well-being of detainees, severely disrupt law enforcement operations, and expose the government to substantial operational, legal, and humanitarian risks,” the notice says.

ICE's notice said the Army's initial contract, awarded to Acquisition Logistics LLC, “did not accurately reflect ICE's operational needs or the actual usage of the facility.” Acquisition Logistics had no prior experience operating detention facilities.

In all, Virginia-based Amentum stands to be paid more than $1.2 billion if it operates the camp from March 2026 through September 2027, the notice says.

Terms of the settlement were not made public.

“The recent resolution of this matter allows everyone to move forward, and I welcome that opportunity,” Agugua-Hamilton said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Monday. "I am proud of my career, grateful to every player and coach whose path has crossed mine, and excited for what is to come next. My passion for coaching has always been less about wins and losses and more about making a positive difference in the lives of young people. That passion remains as strong as ever.”

Agugua-Hamilton was fired on April 4, a week after she led the Cavaliers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000. She went 70-58, including a 29-42 mark in ACC play. Virginia became the first double-digit seed to reach the regional semifinals since 2022 and pulled off the upset of the tournament, knocking off No. 2 seed Iowa on the road in double overtime in the second round.

They became the first First Four team to advance that far before falling to TCU.

“It was a privilege to coach the remarkable young women who wore the Virginia jersey," Agugua-Hamilton said. "Thank you for your commitment, your resilience, and allowing me to be a part of your journey. The relationships we built and the memories we created will always hold a special place in my heart.”

The school declined to comment on the matter.

Before coaching at Virginia, Agugua-Hamilton led Missouri State to a 74-15 record from 2020-22, which featured two NCAA Tournament appearances.

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Zelenskyy’s visit was the first by a foreign leader since Burnham took office a week ago, and the prime minister said it signaled the U.K.'s “unwavering” support for Kyiv to defend itself against Russia's 4-year-old, full-scale invasion.

His predecessor, Keir Starmer, was in the Ukrainian capital less than two weeks ago in his last overseas trip before leaving office, and Burnham said he planned to visit soon.

Burnham is the fifth British prime minister Zelenskyy has dealt with since Russia launched the war in 2022.

"You are the first leader I have welcomed in person since taking office, and that is no accident,” Burnham told Zelenskyy. “It is intended to send a very clear message: we are with Ukraine 100%, I am personally with you 100%, and I will honor every commitment this country has made to Ukraine in full.”

Zelenskyy said the two countries' relationship was “stronger than ever.”

The meeting, aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth docked at Portsmouth on England’s south coast, came a day before Zelenskyy is expected to visit U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.

Burnham said they had “talked at length” about Kyiv's need for more interceptors to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles, “particularly in terms of Ukraine protecting critical national infrastructure during the winters.”

“We’ve taken away some things that we will now follow up with our partners,” Burnham said after the meeting.

Russia has intensified strikes on gas stations, power facilities and other infrastructure this year in a broad campaign to strain Ukraine’s logistics and energy networks.

Zelenskyy said on X that the leaders also discussed “joint defense production.” Britain and Ukraine already have a deal to work together on new drones, and Zelenskyy told Sky News beforehand that he hoped to build a “big, big factory” in Britain.

They also met more than 200 Ukrainian military personnel who have spent three weeks in Britain for an exercise aimed at strengthening their fighting capabilities and measures to counter mines in the Black Sea, the U.K. government said.

Burnham announced that the U.K. will give Ukraine the intellectual property behind its new “Stone Cloak” electronic warfare system, which is capable of jamming Russian air defenses to stop drones from being detected.

Ukraine has expanded its campaign of frequent drone attacks deep inside Russia that have targeted oil facilities, military factories and, most recently, logistical centers, bringing the war home to millions of Russians and raising pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

The raids have shattered Putin’s narrative of the conflict as something that doesn’t affect the lives of ordinary people in his country. But he has remained undeterred and Russia has ramped up its aerial campaign, regularly bombarding Ukraine with missiles and drones.

Russia and Ukraine trade drone attacks

Russia again attacked Ukraine overnight with 147 long-range drones, according to Ukraine's air force, which said it intercepted or jammed 123 of them.

In Zaporizhzhia, one person was killed and two injured in attacks on the city that damaged a residential high-rise and several private homes overnight, according to regional administration head Ivan Fedorov.

A Russian strike on the town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region killed one person and wounded eight, according to Vitalii Karabanov, head of the city military administration.

In the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian strikes damaged a kindergarten, residential buildings and infrastructure, injuring a woman and a 6-year-old boy, according to administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

In the eastern Kharkiv region, regional council member Oleksandr Skoryk said Russian forces destroyed every gas station along the highway between Kharkiv and Poltava, a distance of about 150 kilometers (93 miles). The highway is a key supply route linking Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city and a regional hub close to the Russian border, with central Ukraine.

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said a drone briefly entered its airspace before crossing the river border into Ukraine, where explosions were subsequently reported. It said two F-16 fighter jets were deployed to monitor airspace.

The drone’s incursion into Romanian airspace marked the fourth such incident in as many days. The three previous drones were all shot down by the NATO member.

In Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 276 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said five people, including a child, were killed when a Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building in Rostov-on-Don. Ukraine’s military General Staff said Ukrainian forces struck an export terminal in Rostov-on-Don, setting it ablaze.

The Ukrainian military said other strikes in the Moscow-held part of the Kherson region targeted a ground relay station used to control drones and a bridge over the Henichesk Strait that Russia uses for military logistics. Russian fuel and supply depots were also hit.

In the city of Belgorod in southwestern Russia near the border with Ukraine, a Ukrainian drone attack injured 12, including two children, according to regional emergency officials.

Iran vows retaliation after Ukrainian attack on a ship

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Ukraine struck an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, killing a sailor.

In a statement on X on Sunday, Araghchi denounced the attack as a “blatant U.N. Charter violation done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.” He said he made it clear in calls with the European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the attack “can't go unanswered.”

Zelenskyy said on X that Ukrainian long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea over the weekend achieved “very good results,” adding the targets included “vessels involved in transporting military cargo linked to Iran, as well as a warship.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected Iran’s threats of retaliation as unjustified and groundless, saying Tehran's weapons supplies to Russia have made it a direct accomplice to Moscow's aggression. “Iran has no standing to pretend to be a victim,” he posted on X, and called its references to the U.N. Charter “absurd.”

Sybiha said Iran’s statements were an attempt to divert attention from Russia’s attacks on civilian shipping in the Black Sea, which would be a focus of an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Monday.

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Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Stephen McGrath in Bucharest, Romania, contributed.

A Heat Advisory is in effect for the majority of Central Florida, as heat index values are expected to reach 105 to 110 degrees. High temperatures will climb into the 90s, and a southwest breeze will limit the cooling effect of the east coast sea breeze.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected this afternoon, with rain chances around 40 to 60 percent. A few showers and storms will develop earlier in the day before another round of storms forms later this afternoon and evening. Stronger storms could produce frequent lightning, wind gusts up to 50 mph, torrential downpours, and isolated flooding.

MIDWEEK

The heat isn’t going anywhere through midweek. Highs will remain in the 90s Tuesday and Wednesday, with heat index values continuing above 100 degrees. Wednesday currently looks to be the hottest day of the week, and additional Heat Advisories may be needed.

LATE WEEK

Rain chances increase later this week as deeper moisture returns to Central Florida. More widespread afternoon showers and storms are expected Thursday through Saturday, with coverage ramping up to 60-80 percent. Highs are expected to cool slightly into the lower 90s.

Volker Türk spoke to The Associated Press as he wrapped up a visit to Lebanon, his second in just over a year. He met with government officials, civil society representatives and Lebanese people displaced by the war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.

The visit came about a week before Lebanese and Israeli officials are to meet in Rome for talks on implementing a framework deal reached June 26. It laid out a plan for the deployment of Lebanese military forces in areas in southern Lebanon and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, alongside the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has rejected the direct talks and says it will not disarm.

Türk said some Israeli actions in Lebanon could amount to war crimes, echoing criticism from other human rights groups over the widespread destruction of towns and villages, and the dozens of medical workers and journalists killed.

“Demolition of this type raises huge flags about compliance with international humanitarian law,” Türk said, describing what has happened as a “wholesale destruction” of civilian homes.

Israel has said that its attacks target Hezbollah personnel and infrastructure. It accuses the group of hiding among civilians, and says its troops in occupied parts of southern Lebanon have revealed weapons warehouses and tunnel networks belonging to the group.

The latest conflict started March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets toward Israel after the U.S.-Israeli February attacks that set off the Iran war. Israel launched an aerial campaign and ground invasion in Lebanon, killing more than 4,000 people and displacing 1.2 million others. The Israeli military still occupies dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

Türk, who is based in Geneva, also met with a visiting team from his office investigating attacks in Lebanon during the war.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who met with Türk on Monday, said Lebanon remains committed to the agreement, but warned that Israel’s continued military presence and demolitions may “undermine its effectiveness.”

Lebanon "will not accept ongoing violations of its provisions,” Aoun was quoted as saying during the meeting from his office.

The agreement controversially includes both sides withholding from pursuing any form of legal accountability, a move widely criticized in Lebanon.

Türk, who has also criticized Hezbollah for its attacks on northern Israeli towns, called for an end to Israel's occupation in southern Lebanon, and for displaced people to return safely to their homes.

“I met yesterday a man who told me that he returned to his village in this zone ... south of this so-called yellow line,” he said. "The Israelis were there, they prevented him from going anywhere close to it, and he saw how the village was demolished.”

Türk said he had contacted Israeli authorities hoping to conduct a similar visit, but had received no reply. Israel was among 10 countries that voted against appointing Türk to a second term, alongside the United States and Russia, at the United Nations General Assembly.

On Monday, commissioners will vote on a grant application for up to $200,000 for the purchase of unmanned aerial systems and drones.

If funding from the U.S. Department of Justice is approved, the police department could purchase four to five drones and additional equipment.

“The drones do have thermal imaging. We can possibly and potentially find missing people before tragedy happens to them, ” Deputy Chief Derrick Becton said.

Currently, aerial public safety support is coordinated through a regional partnership through the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.

“Getting that drone up, we can get out and start searching much larger areas much faster, much quicker than trying to get additional personnel,” Becton said.

Alex Schenker lives in Casselberry and said if the police department was able to acquire its own drone fleet, it could be a benefit for the city.

“If they’re doing it simply for investigations and to rescue people, and doing it for the actual intended purpose, I think it will be an amazing, amazing grant,” Schenker said.

Commissioners will vote to approve the grant funding application during their regular meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m.

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The update comes shortly before his home state's annual Fancy Farm picnic, which features speeches from politicians throughout the state seeking elected office. McConnell said in a written statement that he won't be able to attend the event.

“There’s no place I’d rather be on the first Saturday in August than with the good people of western Kentucky, feasting on pork and mutton," McConnell said.

He said that when he first attended the event 42 years ago, Fancy Farm was a lonely place for Republicans, but times have changed.

“So I hate that I’ll miss the fun this year, but I’m sending my best wishes to the St. Jerome community for a successful picnic,” McConnell said.

McConnell, 84, was admitted to the hospital on June 14 and revealed weeks later that it was due to a fall. He had polio in his early childhood and has long acknowledged some difficulty as an adult in walking and climbing stairs.

The statement from the Office of the Attending Physician said McConnell has maintained 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.

“His bout with childhood polio continues to be a significant factor in his mobility. He is not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to the office,” said the statement from the physician’s office in Congress.

McConnell said he appreciated the well wishes he has received in recent weeks, and "I’m looking forward to getting back to the Senate and to Kentucky soon.” McConnell is not seeking reelection but intends to finish out his term.

Every major index lost ground overall for the week amid increasing pressure from a sharp escalation in the U.S. war with Iran. Investors are also contending with new tariffs from the Trump administration and worries about the economy suffering under the weight of stubborn inflation.

The S&P 500 barely budged in a day of uneventful trading. It rose 3.68 points, or less than 0.1%, to 7,411.98. The index notched its second consecutive losing week, which hasn't happened since March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 235.60 points, or 0.5%, to 51,947.25.

The Nasdaq fell 161.87 points, or 0.6%, to 24,975.82. It was weighed down by sharp losses from several big tech stocks.

Micron Technology fell 7% and Broadcom fell 2.7%. Both companies have large market values that tend to weigh more heavily on the market. They were big reasons for the technology-heavy Nasdaq lagging the market, and also why the market's gains were kept in check despite more stocks rising than falling within the S&P 500.

Heavy fighting in the Middle East throughout the week again threatened to slow the global flow of oil and gas. It has been an ongoing concern for Wall Street, and now many of the buffers in the energy market from earlier in the year, including strategic reserves in the U.S., have been weakened.

“If escalation continues and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the impact will land on an energy market with far less resilience than in the spring,” wrote Theodore Bunzel, head of geopolitical advisory at Lazard, in a report.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.9% to $96.78. It rose the first four days of the week and moved back above $100 on Thursday. Before the Iran war began in late February it was trading around $72 per barrel.

Bond yields also eased and relieved some of the pressure on stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.68% from 4.71% late Thursday.

Markets in Europe gained ground, while Asian markets closed lower.

The U.S. is also ramping up its global trade war with a fresh round of tariffs on dozens of nations. The new round of tariffs impacts nearly all U.S. imports and they are paid by companies importing those goods, who then typically pass the added costs along to consumers. That move came just as the clock was running out Friday on stopgap levies the president imposed after a stinging defeat for other tariffs at the Supreme Court.

Rising energy prices and fresh tariffs could result in hotter inflation, which has been squeezing consumers and looming over the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy.

The Fed meets next week and has been closely monitoring prices and their impact. Rising inflation dashed hopes earlier this year for an interest rate cut. Wall Street has since leaned more toward a potential rate increase, which the central bank can use to help cool inflation.

Wall Street is anticipating at least one rate hike by the end of the year, with a nearly 38% chance that could happen at the upcoming meeting next week, according to CME FedWatch.

Higher energy costs threaten to take a bigger chunk out of household budgets, which means a shift in spending toward more basic needs, like gasoline. Nationally, a gallon of gasoline costs $4.10 per gallon, according to AAA. That’s still lower than this spring as the conflict in Iran expanded, but it’s almost a dollar higher than last year at this time.

Investors are worried about the impact to companies profits. Those profits and expectations for more growth are what typically justifies a stock's value. The latest round of corporate earnings showed that companies are still notching growth, but concerns are growing.

American Express fell 4.3% despite reporting a jump in profit during its most recent quarter. AmEx maintained its profit forecast for the year and has been spending more heavily to keep wealthy individuals amid more competition.

Worries about the sustainability of broader profits are on top of lingering concerns about AI-focused tech companies. Companies like Alphabet and Nvidia have been spending heavily on AI technology. Investors are increasingly questioning whether those investments will produce profits to justify the large stock values that have been steering the broader market higher throughout the year.

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AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

The school announced the move with a statement Monday morning, coming days before the Tar Heels open preseason camp. The school didn't provide details as to the reason, noting that employees and athletes aren't permitted to address the topic “as is standard procedure with personnel matters.”

Lombardi joined Bill Belichick in making the NFL-to-college move when the school hired the former New England Patriots coach in December 2024. Lombardi's career as an NFL executive had included being the GM of the Cleveland Browns in 2013, and he was an immediate hire by the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach in Chapel Hill.

The school had hired Belichick to jolt a football program that had largely been an Atlantic Coast Conference also-ran while making periodic but unsustained climbs into national relevance.

A few months into Belichick's tenure, Lombardi said the goal was running a college program in a way similar to the NFL, saying the Tar Heels “consider ourselves the 33rd (NFL) team” due to the staff connections to the pros.

The Tar Heels went just 4-8 in Belichick's first season. They open his second against TCU in Dublin, Ireland, on Aug. 29.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The Loudon County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded late Sunday to a shooting in Ashburn, Virginia, where the couple still had a home from Bieniemy's time coaching the Washington Commanders. They found the 57-year-old Mia Bieniemy with multiple gunshot wounds, and she was transported to a hospital where she was in stable condition Monday.

Elijah Zion Bieniemy, the 27-year-old son of the couple, was arrested early Monday in connection with the shooting. He has been charged with malicious wounding, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and discharge of a firearm inside a dwelling, and is being held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.

The sheriff's office said the investigation was ongoing.

Eric Bieniemy was with the Chiefs at training camp in St. Joseph, Missouri, earlier Sunday. He was not present for Monday's workout involving rookies, quarterbacks and a few veterans, which was closed to the public.

“Our hearts go out to Eric Bieniemy and his family. Thoughts and prayers with them,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said afterward. “I can't get into details on it, but things happen sometimes, and Eric will work through it. He has a great support group here, as does his family, as needed, and we'll just let time take care of it from there. But Mia is stable, which is a plus.

“She's a saint, we all know that, those of you that know her. One of God's great blessings,” Reid added. “But things happen. And you have to work through it. That's where we're at right now. Time will have to be involved in this to help heal."

Reid did not know how long Bieniemy would be away from the team. Pass game coordinator Joe Bleymaier and offensive line coach Andy Heck will take over his duties as the Chiefs continue with offensive installations during training camp.

“On these things, real life. So you take care of that,” Reid said. “We'll be able to keep it moving here, but the most important thing is EB has an opportunity to spend some time there are take care of that business."

Eric Bieniemy was part of Reid's initial staff in Kansas City in 2013, and spent five seasons as the running backs coach before he was promoted to offensive coordinator. Over the next five seasons, the demanding but popular Bieniemy helped the Chiefs to reach three Super Bowls and win two of them while directing one of the NFL's best offenses.

He interviewed for several head-coaching jobs but was continually skipped over, so Bieniemy went to the Commanders in 2023 in hopes of burnishing his resume. But the team struggled and coach Ron Rivera's staff was let go, and Bieniemy spent one season as the offensive coordinator at UCLA before spending last season as the running backs coach with the Bears.

Bieniemy returned to the Chiefs this season to replace Matt Nagy as the offensive coordinator. He was present for offseason workouts in Kansas City over the summer, and he was with the team when it began to report to training camp last week.

The Chiefs are off Tuesday. The first full-squad workout at Missouri Western State University is Wednesday.

“It's great to have (Bieniemy) back in the building,” Reid said last week. “He always brings great energy. I've told you, he's one of the more phenomenal guys I have been around at being a leader of men. He is doing that. He's in there cranking — works his tail off, and I appreciate that. Doesn't let anything slide by. Does a good job with that.”

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

“So many people have written to me, kindly wondering about my relative silence, asking how I am and what I have been doing. The truth is, I’ve been learning how to live with Parkinson’s disease,” Simon's statement on Monday read.

The singer, 83, had been experiencing arthritis in one of her hips and both her knees, resulting in replacement surgeries for those three joints. But her mobility continued to decline. At times, she said, she could not walk without “considerable help.”

“My family and I knew that something more was going on. After an extensive evaluation at the Mayo Clinic, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s,” she said.

“It has taken me some time to understand the diagnosis, to adjust to it, and to decide how much I wanted to say about it publicly,” she explained. “Parkinson’s is different for everyone, and it can be unpredictable. Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all. On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work, and feel like myself.”

Parkinson’s is a neurologic disease that robs people of control over their movements. It typically starts with tremors and is characterized by slow movement, a shuffling gait, stiff limbs, balance problems and slurred speech.

About 1 million Americans are living with Parkinson’s, and 10 million people worldwide, the Parkinson’s Foundation estimates. It usually appears after age 60, though it sometimes develops before age 50.

The exact cause isn’t known, but Parkinson’s develops when cells that produce one of the brain’s chemical messengers — dopamine — begin to deteriorate and die.

There is no cure, but there are treatments including medications that affect dopamine levels and a surgically implanted tremor-blocking device. Patients also can benefit from physical and occupational therapy.

“I began treatment, including taking medication to help with stiffness and other symptoms,” Simon said. “There is no tidy or predictable schedule to the illness. It does not consult my calendar before deciding what kind of day I am going to have.”

She also shared that she was treated for basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer, on her face at the same time. She had surgery, and the cancer was removed, “but the surgery affected my appearance and made me more self-conscious about being seen in public,” she said.

She said music has been a salve, and on Aug. 14, she will release “Comes in Waves,” her first album of original songs since 2008.

“Working on the music gave shape to days that did not always have much shape. It gave me somewhere to go without having to leave the room,” she continued. “It reminded me that illness can change your life without becoming the whole of your life.”

CFBPA executive director Jason Stahl said the goal is for other Atlantic Coast Conference schools join Stanford in forming chapters. That would create momentum for unionization and the ability for players to bargain with conferences over working conditions.

Stanford players elected offensive lineman Fisher Anderson and linebacker Ernest Cooper as their representatives.

“Stanford has been a pioneer and innovator not just in football but as a school in general,” Cooper said “This first-ever current player-led chapter at Stanford is just another example of this innovation. We want to be leaders in college football and show other schools how they can create a chapter on their campus because we believe this is the future of college football.”

Anderson said the CFBPA will play a role in giving players a voice in all aspects of governing college football.

“Over the past five years, college football has been rocked back and forth by the waves,” he said. “When a CFBPA chapter becomes a reality on every college football team, it would put down an anchor where there isn't one right now for the sport. The chapters can then become the building blocks for conference-wide collective bargaining agreements, which would bring sustainability, transparency and player protections to a sport in need of all three.”

The NCAA and conferences have been working with federal legislators on a Senate bill that would grant the NCAA an antitrust exemption to be able to enforce rules such as a salary cap and transfer restrictions. Some athletic directors have suggested collective bargaining as an alternative if federal legislation is not passed, but a number of obstacles related to giving college athletes employee status would have to be cleared.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

The 23-page internal investigation report accuses Sgt. Alexander Jarrell of activating his emergency lights during early morning commutes between 5 and 6 a.m. in May.

Investigators said GPS data showed Jarrell reached 120 mph on State Road 19 near the boat ramp on May 4. The report says he later drove about 112 mph on Florida’s Turnpike near County Road 33 on May 8, and 124 mph on State Road 19 near the Trinity Lakes subdivision on May 13.

The report also says surveillance video from the RaceTrac off O’Brien Road showed Jarrell twice driving with his emergency lights activated.

According to the report, there were no emergency calls during any of the drives. Investigators said Jarrell acknowledged activating his emergency lights while driving to work.

The department said Jarrell was suspended for three days, lost access to his take-home patrol car for 30 days and was placed on work probation for six months.

Some Groveland residents and drivers said they believe the discipline should have been more severe.

“I definitely think he should be held accountable to the fullest extent,” Groveland resident Ryan Benjamin said. “Just because you’re in law enforcement doesn’t mean you should get away with breaking the law.”

Sean Messex called the allegations an abuse of power.

“You’re supposed to be here to protect and serve, not do what you want to do when you want to do it,” Messex said.

Another driver, Justin Walker, said using emergency lights would be understandable during a pursuit or emergency response, but not for a commute.

“If he’s just late, then maybe wake up a little earlier and get to work on time,” Walker said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now taking over the investigation to determine whether any further disciplinary action should be taken.

The Groveland Police Department said it will provide updates once the outside investigation is complete.

Below is a statement attributable to Groveland Police Chief Shawn Ramsey:

“This officer’s actions, the reporting of such actions, subsequent investigation and later discipline reflect the essence of how this process should play out. While the actions are in no way indicative of the good work happening in the department, we are proud of the way they were handled.

“Disciplinary actions were imposed on Sgt. Jarrell following a sustained Internal Affairs (IA) investigation initiated when other officers witnessed Sgt. Jarrell’s Groveland PD vehicle traveling with lights on and made a note of it to supervisors. Those supervisors alerted myself and our administration, and I immediately ordered Internal Affairs to open an investigation into this officer’s alleged actions. Sgt. Jarrell was notified and cooperated fully with the investigation, including admitting to the actions during an interview under oath.

“The investigation sustained that Sgt. Jarrell had, on three occasions, activated his lights without reason. The investigation also looked at GPS data from the Groveland Police Department vehicle, which recorded the unit driving in excess of 100 mph in violation of Florida’s “Super Speeder” law.

“Traffic stops, tickets or arrests related to speeding require a radar hit so that the speed can be recorded. However, these speeds were only found after the investigation was initiated, and GPS data is not admissible in traffic enforcement cases.

“When those factors are compounded with Sgt. Jarrell’s cooperation with the investigation and his disciplinary record, which is attached, these instances would not rise to the level of termination and could have potentially exposed the City to severe financial and legal liabilities through civil service appeals or wrongful termination litigation had the City moved forward with ending Sgt. Jarrell’s employment and not utilizing progressive discipline. Sgt. Jarrell has never been the subject of a sustained internal investigation until this point. When reviewing the disciplinary record, please note letters of counseling are not considered discipline, rather they are corrective in nature. Also attached, you will find a spreadsheet showing other officers’ previous disciplines for violations of vehicle operations.

“Sgt. Jarrell was handed a three-day suspension without pay, loss of take-home vehicle for 30 days, and employment probation for six months. The internal investigation in its entirety will be forwarded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for further review to determine if any additional disciplinary action pertaining to the Sgt’s certification is warranted.

“I wanted to reiterate that these sorts of actions will not be tolerated in my department and that I will always strive to be fair and firm in handling them if they do occur. I also want to commend the officers who saw something wrong and alerted their superiors, exactly as they are supposed to do.”

Attorney Mark NeJame represented the family of Jayden Baez and three other teens after the April 27, 2022, shooting outside the Target store along U.S. Highway 192. The lawsuit originally named former Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez and the two deputies who fired their weapons.

“We looked at it and said, this just screams of excessive force and there needs to be justice,” NeJame said.

According to investigators, deputies were alerted after two teenagers were seen inside the Target stealing Pokémon cards and a pizza. At the time, dozens of plainclothes deputies were conducting a training exercise in the parking lot.

Investigators said several unmarked patrol vehicles quickly surrounded the car Baez was driving after it left the store. Deputies said Baez drove forward and struck one of the patrol vehicles, prompting two deputies to open fire in what they said was self-defense.

Baez was killed, and two other teenagers inside the vehicle were injured.

NeJame argued the deputies unnecessarily escalated what he described as a misdemeanor theft investigation.

“All they had to do is say, ‘OK, we caught you stealing,’ and then charge them with misdemeanor offenses and petit theft,” he said.

Officials said the $1 million settlement will not be paid with taxpayer money. Instead, it will be covered by the Florida Sheriffs Risk Management Fund, which provides liability coverage for participating sheriff’s offices.

NeJame acknowledged the settlement may not fully compensate the families but said they ultimately decided to resolve the case.

“We would always want more, but I think three of the families were very happy in light of the injuries sustained,” he said. “The fourth one are very appreciative and they decided to settle.”

NeJame also said he believes changes within the sheriff’s office since Sheriff Chris Blackmon took office have improved the agency’s internal culture following Lopez’s removal from office.

He said he hopes the settlement serves as a reminder of the importance of accountability and helps prevent similar incidents in the future.

“I think the Baez family and the rest of the families of these young men have comfort in knowing they may have saved the lives of other people they will never know,” NeJame said.

Orange County Public Schools approved the sale of the property to Dr. Phillips Charities for redevelopment, but a preservation group is challenging the deal in court, alleging it was negotiated illegally behind closed doors.

Before the discussion turned to development and the future of the land, speakers focused on what they believe is at stake.

Eatonville was incorporated in 1887 and is recognized as one of the country’s first self-governing, all-Black towns. Speakers said the town’s history extends beyond its most famous former resident, author Zora Neale Hurston, and includes generations of families whose stories must also be preserved and told.

UCF professor Dr. Scot French gave the crowd a brief history of Eatonville. Broadway performer and Eatonville native Norm Lewis also joined the event by Zoom.

Members of the public later spoke about their connections to the town and shared their visions for Eatonville’s future.

The former Hungerford School property once served generations of Black students who were denied educational opportunities elsewhere. People at Saturday’s meeting say the debate over the land is about more than redevelopment — it is also about who has a voice in shaping Eatonville’s future and who benefits from the town’s history.

The lawsuit challenging the sale remains pending.

The remaining 44 captive swans were moved to other locations, including farms and zoos, as officials attempt to contain the spread of the virus and protect the surviving birds.

The swans have been a signature part of downtown Orlando for nearly a century, attracting tourists and serving as a symbol of the city. Residents who regularly visit the park said the birds are deeply connected to the identity of Lake Eola.

“I will miss the swans. I think this is an iconic part of Orlando,” bird watcher Janice Schilling said.

City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said the outbreak is linked to migratory birds that visit the lake and spread the virus to the city’s captive flock.

“This is all due to avian flu,” Sheehan said. “The migratory birds are coming and spreading it to our flock.”

Officials said inspectors determined the park was no longer a safe environment for the swans, particularly the five cygnets, other known as baby swans, that remain in the flock.

“Unfortunately, after the inspection, we were told that is not a safe environment for the cygnets and we need to get them relocated,” Sheehan said.

Although Orlando plans to continue caring for the park’s natural wildlife, officials said they currently cannot safely maintain the captive swan program.

“We can’t take care of them right now because if someone gets injured, we can’t take them to the vet because the vet is concerned about bringing the virus into the practice,” Sheehan said.

The relocation also comes as the city prepares for a major construction project at Lake Eola Park. Officials said any future return of the swan program would require additional protections, including safer enclosures for young swans and improved medical holding areas.

“If we do decide to bring the program back we will need a place to put cygnets so they are not attacked by predators and better pens to put them in for medical purposes,” Sheehan said.

For many residents, the temporary loss of the swans marks the end of a longtime Orlando tradition.

“I want what’s best for the swans, but this lake or downtown will never be the same,” Schilling said.

City officials are also urging residents not to bring pet birds to the park while concerns over avian flu remain.

James' blue No. 23 jersey hangs in a locker with a crown as a nod to his King nickname on the shelf.

The 76ers and James announced Monday their two-year deal on the veteran's minimum for $8 million total was official and that the four-time NBA MVP was indeed a Sixer.

“There is no doubt LeBron is one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball and there are no words to measure the impact he’ll have on this organization," team president Mike Gansey said.

The NBA’s career scoring leader, James revealed his choice on social media Friday, saying it will be his “last decision” and that it came after he strongly considered retirement.

“I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team and I am so excited to energize a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time,” James said.

James posted videos on his Instagram story Monday morning with the caption: “It's that time again. 4:12 AM. Let's get it.” He posed workout videos from the gym throughout the weekend.

A four-time NBA champion, James wrote he was “done” when his 23rd NBA season ended and that it was his last with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He instead reversed course and signed with a Sixers franchise that's loaded with All-Star starters in Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown yet has failed to win an NBA championship since 1983 or even advance out of the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs since 2001.

James, who turns 42 in December, appears up for the challenge of turning the Sixers into champions much as he did when he ended a 56-year championship drought for Cleveland by leading the Cavaliers to the title in 2016.

“I cannot wait to see LeBron alongside Jaylen Brown, VJ Edgecombe, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and our talented roster as we work to deliver a championship for Philly," team owner Josh Harris said.

The Sixers went 45-37 last season and were swept in the second round by the eventual NBA champion New York Knicks.

James’ resume is beyond compare in NBA history. He is a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP and a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.

He also is coming off a season in which he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he has averaged 26.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists in more than 1,600 games.

James started his career in Cleveland in 2003 and spent seven seasons with the Cavaliers before heading to Miami for four seasons — where he won his first two NBA titles. He then returned to Cleveland for four more seasons, including that title run in 2016, and left in 2018 for the Lakers and won a championship in 2020.

James is the first player in NBA history to be named an NBA Finals MVP with three different franchises.

James is set for a reunion with Gansey, who was hired in late May after the Sixers fired Daryl Morey.

Gansey joined the Cavaliers in 2011 and had worked as their general manager since 2022. His and James' ties were first forged as Ohio basketball stars more than two decades ago. Gansey at Olmsted Falls High School was runner-up in 2001 for Ohio's Mr. Basketball award to James — who won it three times for St. Vincent–St. Mary High School before bypassing college and going straight to the NBA.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing LeBron since high school and have seen the high-level impact he’s produced at every stop of his basketball journey," Gansey said. “He is a consummate professional, the ultimate competitor and a tireless worker. But he is also an incredible person with natural leadership traits, a family man, and someone who possesses unwavering commitment to community and those around him.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

The proposal would increase the millage rate by 0.75 and generate an additional $6.6 million for the city. For homeowners with a $300,000 property, the increase would mean about $187 more per year in taxes.

Commissioner Nadia Anderson was the only member of the Apopka City Commission to oppose the increase earlier this month. Anderson said she planned to raise residents’ concerns at the meeting, even if they called her moments before it started.

The rest of the commission signaled support for the budget tied to the higher rate.

City leaders have until Friday to set the millage rate. The special commission meeting is set for 6 p.m. A final budget vote is scheduled for Sept. 3.

The decision is also unfolding as Florida voters are months away from deciding on a statewide property tax amendment on the November ballot — one that could significantly affect future tax revenue for cities like Apopka.

The foundation’s first new initiative in more than a decade, the Clinton Policy Institute has already begun convening political leaders from both parties, research experts, and Americans affected by the issues being studied to create new approaches to long-existing problems.

“Rising costs, economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, and growing pressures on our public institutions are making it harder for families to get ahead,” former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We created CPI because we believe there are still practical, evidence-based solutions that can improve people’s lives.”

CPI is building on its work with New York state in banning cellphones from schools in the past academic year. Though the institute did not technically exist last year when it teamed with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration on creating distraction-free schools in the state, the Clinton Foundation saw promise in its approach and decided to expand it before publicly announcing CPI’s creation. It’s a strategy that the foundation, also led by former President Bill Clinton and public health expert Chelsea Clinton, used when it launched the Clinton Health Access Initiative in 2004.

Zayn Siddique, former principal deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council, will serve as CPI’s chief executive officer. Jennifer Klein, who was director of the White House Gender Policy Council under former President Joe Biden, will be CPI’s chair.

In New York, CPI helped create the Teen Tech Council so that students could help make the phone-ban program more effective. The result, according to Hochul’s office, was that educators found a marked improvement in classroom behavior and engagement.

“CPI is bringing together policymakers, researchers, business leaders, and community organizations to identify what works, build stronger policy networks, and help turn those ideas into policy,” Hillary Clinton said. “We’re taking a particular focus on states and local communities, where so much innovation is happening.”

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly praises CPI's nonpartisan approach

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said a CPI conference on improving the lives of children earlier this month was “the best roundtable I’ve been involved with since becoming governor.”

Kelly, who will leave office in January due to term limits after serving two consecutive terms, said she was inspired by CPI’s nonpartisan approach to solving problems affecting children.

“I am a Democrat governor in what is considered a very red state,” Kelly told The Associated Press in an interview. “It became very clear to me that if I wanted to accomplish anything in my political life, I was going to need to do it in a bipartisan way.”

Kelly believes that, despite political polarization, CPI can succeed in finding nonpartisan solutions – especially to issues involving children and healthcare – and giving state leaders the research and other support to implement them.

“Every once in a while, you get people from both sides of the aisle who come together and crafted, maybe not sexy legislation, but something that really needed to be done,” Kelly said. “And they get it through.”

Dr. Jerome Adams, former U.S. Surgeon General in President Donald Trump’s first administration, agrees that nonpartisan solutions are possible to find. But he says the nonpartisan nature of the solutions has to be intentional.

“Health is inherently political,” said Adams. “When you talk about access to healthcare coverage, when you talk women’s health issues, particularly around the issue of abortion and contraception, when you talk about drug policy and whether you’re in favor of harm reduction, when you talk of firearm safety -- all of these are inherently political issues.”

Former Surgeon General Adams sees broad support for children's issues

That is complicated further, Adams said, because “we live in a country that is very binary, so every issue, no matter how nuanced, is, for purposes of elections, turned into black/white, yes/no, all or none.”

However, Adams said CPI has already found a way to get bipartisan buy-in for some of its solutions to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). In 2020, the state of California launched the ACEs Aware initiative to begin screening for ACEs – which include abuse, neglect and household challenges – and treating them early to reduce the impact and the cost to the state later.

Through CPI, Adams was asked to become the co-chair of the National Leadership Council for the ACE Resource Network in June in an effort to bring California’s work treating ACEs to other states.

“I’m very interested in work that has proven and practical solutions,” he said. “We bring in states and say, ‘Hey, let’s look at the best evidence in terms of what works around adverse childhood experiences and state level policy and then try to implement it in your state’.”

That strategy has led Republican-led states like Utah and Georgia to consider parts of Democrat-led California’s work on the issue, Adams said.

He said it’s a sign that CPI’s approach works and can be expanded to other areas.

The Clinton Foundation hopes that will be the case.

“Too many people have lost faith that progress is possible,” Hillary Clinton said. “But across the country, leaders are developing innovative policies that are strengthening families and communities. Those ideas deserve to be shared and scaled.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

But they’re not the only candidates on the ballot, and Central Florida’s election supervisors want to make sure every voter, whether you belong to a party or not, knows that.

[WATCH: Election Security, Voter Fraud and Vote by Mail: Central Florida supervisors answer tough questions]

“Yes, the president is an important election. Yes, the governor is at the general, but they’re not the ones worrying about your potholes, your schools, your roadways, your stormwater issues,” said Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock.

[ELECTION 2026: Make sure you’re eligible to vote|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

Pennock was one of six election supervisors who recently joined News 6 and other members of the News Collaborative of Central Florida for a wide-ranging discussion on election issues. Central Florida Public Media hosted the discussion.

Florida is a closed primary state, which means you must be registered with a political party to vote in any of that party’s primaries.

Voters who want to take part in one of the Aug. 18 party primaries have to make sure their party affiliation is updated by July 20. We’ve put all of that information HERE.

“We’re trying to get the message out that people who are not affiliated with the party still have a lot on the ballot,” said Orange County Supervisor Karen Castor Dentel. “We have a county mayor, we have county commission, and these are all nonpartisan races: school board, judicial, school board chair- some very consequential elections, and most of them will be determined in the primary.”

In addition, some Florida House of Representatives races will be decided in August in what are called “universal primaries,” said Osceola County Supervisor Mary Jane Arrington.

“These are races where there’s only one party running, and that selection will be made,” Arrington said. “And in the primary, House District 47, in Osceola County, will be a universal primary for every voter.”

Below is a list of every race that will be on a ballot in the Aug. 18 primary that will be open to all registered voters who are eligible to vote in that election, broken down by county.

Looking for more information on the candidates? That is on the way.

News 6 and its partners at the News Collaborative of Central Florida are working on a comprehensive voting guide with candidate information. Look for that guide in the coming weeks.

Orange County

Orange County is one of the counties that has a non-partisan county commission. All Orange County voters will see the county mayor’s race on their ballot, and if you live in one of five county commission districts, you will see that race on your ballot.

Voters will also see the Orange County School Chair race on their ballot, and if you live in school board districts 1, 2 or 3, that race will also be on your ballot.

Finally, circuit court and county judge races will also be on the ballot for all voters.

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Orange County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your address.

Ninth Circuit Judge - Group 1

• Temika Hampton-Johnson
• Charles Hart
• Mikaela Nix

Ninth Circuit Judge - Group 2

• Christina Arguelles
• Christie Lou Mitchell

Ninth Circuit Judge - Group 31

• Steve Kerestes
• Kamilah Perry

Orange County Mayor

• Chris Messina
• Tiffany Moore Russell
• Stephanie Murphy
• Mayra Uribe

Orange County Commission - District 2

• Kamia Brown
• Mike Crabb
• Wes Hodge
• George Oliver III
• Marsha Summersill

Orange County Commission - District 4

• Isabella Arthur - Write-in
• Brian Jones
• Johanna López

Orange County Commission - District 6

• Loody Delice
• Lawanna Gelzer
• Cynthia Harris
• Hedder Pierre Joseph
• Michael “Mike” Scott

Orange County Commission - District 7

• Selina Carter
• Shannon Currie
• Nate Douglas
• Shakaya “Kay” Filmore
• Angie Gardner
• Deidre Graybill
• Rasheeda Doris Jones
• Gloria C. Joyner
• Aaron Emmanuel Lewis
• Zach Moldof
• Patricia Rumph
• Beryl Thompson-McClary
• Vicki Vargo

Orange County Commission - District 8

• Isaiah Louis Anderson
• Tatiana Fernández
• George Haas
• Jeanette Quinones Hernandez
• Julio Rocha
• Victor M. Torres Jr.

Orange County School Board Chair

• Alicia Farrant
• Angie Gallo

Orange County School Board District 1

• Melissa Lopez Marantes
• David Shepard

Orange County School Board District 2

• Marisol Lugo
• Gloria Reina O’Neal

Orange County School Board District 3

• Ilia Adorno
• Diana Moore
• Susanne Peña

Orange County Judge - Group 5

• Asima Azam
• Kafi Kennedy

Orange County Judge - Group 17

• Cherish Adams
• Joy K. Goodyear

Osceola County

Osceola County’s commission elections are partisan, so they are closed primaries. But the county still has school board races and judges races on the ballot for all voters, as well as a Universal Primary.

The Florida House District 47 election will be open to all voters on Aug. 18. The incumbent Republican, Rep. Paula Stark, will not be on the ballot because of a paperwork issue, and the only other candidates are Democrats.

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Osceola County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your name and birthdate.

Florida House District 47 - Universal Primary

• Jorge Figueroa
• Anthony Nieves

Ninth Circuit Judge - Group 1

• Temika Hampton-Johnson
• Charles Hart
• Mikaela Nix

Ninth Circuit Judge - Group 2

• Christina Arguelles
• Christie Lou Mitchell

Ninth Circuit Judge - Group 31

• Steve Kerestes
• Kamilah Perry

Osceola County School Board District 1

• Greg Filak
• Jay Wheeler

Osceola County School Board District 3

• Natalie Guzman
• Alyssa Noel

Kissimmee City Commission Seat 2

• Angela Eady
• Wanda Román

Kissimmee City Commission Seat 4

• Rubin Anderson
• Maria Virginia Garcia
• Tiffany Jeffers
• Janette Martinez

Kissimmee Charter Amendment - Referendum Question 1

Shall the City Charter, Chapter 2, Section 2, be amended to revise the term limits for the Mayor-Commissioner and City Commissioners from two (2) consecutive four-year terms to three (3) consecutive four-year terms?

• Yes
• No

Kissimmee Charter Amendment - Referendum Question 2

Shall the City Charter, Chapter 2, City Commission, Section 7, be amended to require all candidates for elected office to consent to a background check to verify eligibility for office?

• Yes
• No

St. Cloud City Council Member Seat 5

• Jim Moore
• Alex Rodriguez
• Kirk Zilke

Seminole County

Seminole County also doesn’t have nonpartisan county commission elections, but it does have school board races and judges elections. The City of Sanford is also having its mayoral race on Aug. 18.

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Seminole County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your name and birthdate.

18th Circuit Judge - Group 4

• Larry Freeman
• Robert Alan Segal

18th Circuit Judge - Group 13

• Andrea Fant
• George Cole Gaspard

Seminole County Court Judge Group 3

• Sylvia Grunor
• Nathan Skop

Seminole County Court Judge Group 6

• Alena Chaban
• Wayne Culver
• Erik Swenk

Seminole County School Board District 1

• Antonio Pizza
• Kristine Kraus

Seminole County School Board District 2

• Holton Mills
• Joshua Memminger

Seminole County School Board District 5

• Autumn Garick
• Brian Newsome

City of Sanford Mayor

• Charles Davis
• Christina Hollerbach

Brevard County

Brevard County has nonpartisan school board races, judicial elections and a universal primary for the Canaveral Port Authority, District 5. There are also elections in the cities of Palm Bay and Titusville.

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your name and birthdate.

18th Circuit Judge - Group 4

• Larry Freeman
• Robert Alan Segal

18th Circuit Judge - Group 13

• Andrea Fant
• George Cole Gaspard

Brevard County School Board - District 1

• Tara “Coach T” Gibson
• Megan Wright

Brevard County School Board - District 2

• Kyle Savage
• Gene Trent
• Kelly Wentworth

Brevard County School Board - District 5

• Tammy Dennis
• Michele McCormack
• Cecilia Trotter

Brevard County Judge - Group 3

• Rodney Antonio Edwards
• Timi DeAnn Tucker

Canaveral Port Authority - District 5 Universal Primary

• Carol Craig
• Randall May

Palm Bay City Council - Seat 4

• Alfy Agarie
• Michael J. Bruyette
• Kenny Johnson

Palm Bay City Council - Seat 5

• Mike Jaffe
• Eduardo Macaya
• Santa Isabel Wright

Titusville City Council -Seat 1

• Darcia Bair
• Elizabeth Baker
• Herman A. Cole
• John Dacko

Titusville City Council -Seat 5

• Christopher Childs
• David Hobart
• Kayla Manning

Volusia County

Volusia County has nonpartisan county council, school board and judicial races. It also has a bevy of city races that could be decided, including mayoral races in Deltona, Edgewater and Ormond Beach.

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Volusia County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your name and birthdate.

Seventh Circuit Judge - Group 26

• Carleen Leffler
• Jeanne Stratis

Volusia County Council At Large

• Nancy Miller
• Mike Poniatowski
• Barry Powell

Volusia County Council District 1

• Wendy Anderson
• Don Dempsey
• Melissa D. Thorne

Volusia County Council District 3

• Anthony Gorham
• Danny Robins
• Bryon White

Volusia County School Board District 1

• Brenda Beery
• Jaclyn Carrell
• Jamie Michele Haynes

Volusia County School Board District 3

• Grace Kellermeier
• Jessie Thompson

Volusia County School Board District 5

• Ruben Colón
• Dean Condon

Daytona Beach City Commission Zone 3

• Christos Mavronas
• Quanita May
• Steve Miller

Daytona Beach City Commission Zone 5

• John Counts
• Aaron Harrison
• Willie F. Williams

Deltona Mayor

• Santiago Avila, Jr.
• Maritza A. Vazquez
• Jason Voelz

Deltona City Commission District 6

• Chris Nabicht
• Christian O’Brien
• Jody Lee Storozuk

Edgewater Mayor

• Diezel D. DePew
• Wayne McCloskey
• Steven Oleksy

Holly Hill City Commissioner District 2

• Mike Cerbo
• Carmen Ruiz

New Smyrna Beach City Commissioner Zone 2

• Jennifer Devine
• Lou Pate
• Cynthia Sniezak

Ormond Beach Mayor

• Damien Curry
• George Doran
• Jason Leslie
• Lori Tolland

Ormond Beach City Commissioner Zone 1

• Alan Burton
• Melissa DeVriese
• Coleen McMahon

Ormond Beach City Commissioner Zone 4

• Amber Bobak
• Harold Briley
• Barry du Moulin

South Daytona City Council Seat 2

• Victoria Maxwell
• Doug Quartier

Flagler County

Flagler County has school board and judicial races that are nonpartisan, as are the Palm Coast City Council races.

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your name and birthdate.

Seventh Circuit Judge - Group 26

• Carleen Leffler
• Jeanne Stratis

Flagler County School Board District 1

• Cathy Moon
• Jill Woolbright

Flagler County School Board District 2

• Will Furry
• Rob Wood

Flagler County School Board District 4

• Christy Chong
• Ron Long
• Trevor Tucker

Palm Coast City Council - District 2

• Antonio “Tony” Amaral Jr.
• Jeani Duarte
• Jimmy Hengy

Palm Coast City Council - District 4

• Dylana “Dee” Galery
• John Kvederis
• Ramon Marrero
• Darlene Shelley

Lake County

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Lake County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your name and birthdate.

Fifth Circuit Judge - Group 27

• Nicole M. Morris
• Lisa Yeager

Lake County School Board - District 1

• Pat Kelley
• Eric Schwalbach

Fruitland Park Commissioner - District 3

• Paige Booth
• Mitchell Langley
• Shayna Stanfield Grunewald

Groveland District 1, Mayor

• Judith Fike
• Keith “Chef” Keogh
• Dina Sweatt

Marion County

In addition to school board and judicial races, voters in Marion County may be eligible to vote in two Florida House races. The races for Districts 21 and 24 are universal primaries. Only Democrats qualified to run in District 21, while only Republicans qualified to run in District 24.

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Marion County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your name and birthdate.

Florida House District 21 -- Universal Primary

• Sylvain Doré
• Antione Fields
• Xavier J. Monroe
• Malik J. Moore
• Jacquelyn “Jackie” Randall

Florida House District 24 -- Universal Primary

• Ryan Chamberlin
• Scott Wilkins

Fifth Circuit Judge - Group 27

• Nicole M. Morris
• Lisa Yeager

Marion County School Board - District 3

• Eric R. Cummings
• Steve Swett

Marion County School Board - District 4

• Jeff Brewer
• Mike Mills
• Brigitte Smith
• Buddy Wyckoff

Marion County School Board - District 5

• Donald “Donny” Barber
• Ualthan Bigby
• Sarah James

Sumter County

To see what will be on your ballot, go to the Sumter County Supervisor of Elections website HERE and look up your ballot using your name and birthdate.

Fifth Circuit Judge - Group 27

• Nicole M. Morris
• Lisa Yeager

Sumter County School Board District 1

• Sally Moss
• Leslie Russell

Sumter County School Board District 3

• Gerald “Jerry” Loomer
• David A. Williams

Sumter County School Board District 5

• Michael Johnson
• Troye Joiner

Officers responded at about 11:15 p.m. Friday to a report of a shooting at the Reserve at Orange City apartment complex.

According to a preliminary investigation, the victim, who police said was unarmed, became involved in a confrontation with the father of his girlfriend’s children. During the dispute, investigators said Malik Brown fired multiple rounds from inside his vehicle, hitting the victim several times. Brown’s two children were also inside the vehicle during the shooting.

Officers secured the scene, provided emergency medical aid to the victim and arrested the suspect without incident, according to police.

There are no outstanding suspects and no ongoing threat to the public.

The victim went to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, where he underwent surgery. He is listed in stable condition and recovering in the intensive care unit, according to police.

Brown, 27 of Longwood, is facing three charges that include attempted second-degree murder and child neglect.

The Orange City Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division is continuing to investigate the shooting.

Police are asking anyone with information about the case to contact Detective Sgt. T. Theriault at the Orange City Police Department at 386-775-9999 or by email at ttheriault@orangecityfl.gov. Anonymous tips can also be submitted through Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477).

Put another way, that means the inferno was no longer simply being propelled by the weather. It was making its own. The thundercloud also produced violent, erratic winds capable of driving the flames in new directions.

The phenomenon, called a pyrocumulonimbus, or pyroCb, is rare in Europe and more commonly documented in North America and Australia, where it occurs only over some of the most extreme fires. France’s national firefighters federation said it had never before recorded one in the country.

The blaze erupted near Saumos on July 22 and has since burned more than 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) of forests and scrubland, damaged or destroyed more than 240 homes and forced 220,000 people to evacuate in Gironde.

At about 6:20 p.m. Friday, two days after the fire began, the departmental fire and rescue service said it had generated a pyrocumulonimbus. The cloud weakened overnight as humidity rose, then formed again several times.

An electrified black thundercloud

Repeatedly, heat and smoke have surged upward into a vast black thundercloud, electrified and lit from within.

“Imagine a campfire so large and hot that the smoke rising off it turns into a storm-like cloud,” said Theodore M. Giannaros, a fire meteorologist at the National Observatory of Athens.

“That is a pyroCb — a storm cloud born from the intense heat that a wildfire produces.”

It takes more than a big fire.

There is no set temperature at which one forms, Giannaros said; what is needed is the kind of atmosphere that breeds dry thunderstorms — very hot, very dry air near the ground, with cooler and moister air above it.

Hot air loaded with smoke and moisture then rises rapidly from the flames. As it climbs and cools, water vapor condenses around particles of ash.

Above the freezing level, droplets become ice crystals whose collisions separate electrical charges, as in an ordinary thunderstorm.

Lightning and more destruction follow

Beneath this storm lies a landscape already primed to burn. The cloud then amplifies the disaster that created it.

Rising air pulls powerful winds toward the fire, while downdrafts punch gusts back to the surface.

Those shifts can turn the flames, divide them into several fronts or send them racing in a new direction.

“It’s a feedback loop, not a one-way effect,” Giannaros said. “Once it forms, the cloud becomes its own weather system, sitting on top of the fire and making it harder to predict.”

The systems can also spin up whirling columns of flame — usually a fire whirl, which Giannaros describes as a dust devil made of fire and heat instead of dust.

True tornadoes are rarer, though one struck Redding, California, during the 2018 Carr Fire with winds equivalent to an EF-3, killing a fire inspector.

For firefighters, escape routes can close without warning as fresh outbreaks appear beyond their crews and equipment.

Direct attack may become impossible, forcing crews to retreat and defend communities.

The danger, Giannaros said, is fire moving faster than evacuations can be organized.

Until now, pyroCbs have been essentially an Australian and North American phenomenon. Canada alone produced a record 142 of them in 2023.

In Europe, pyroCbs have been rare

Portugal recorded one during its deadly 2017 fire season. France has now joined the list.

The continent is heating faster than any other on Earth — at roughly twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization — with heat waves growing more frequent and severe and drought spreading across the south, curing forests into fuel.

Hotter and drier conditions give extreme fires more opportunity to form them, Giannaros said, but scientists still lack enough long-term data to establish a trend.

The European research project ROSETTA aims to close that gap.

The most common misunderstanding, he said, is that the cloud is merely a side effect. As long as it hangs above the flames, it is helping decide where the fire goes next.

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

The school announced July 20 that it would buy out the remaining three years on Manuel's contract and he will step down at the end of 2026. Manuel agreed to step down following investigations into former football coach Sherrone Moore’s relationship with his executive assistant and a probe into the athletic department.

In addition to the payout, Manuel will receive former athletic director perks such as being eligible for tickets to Michigan games and having golf privileges. The university also agreed to make a $108,000 contribution to his retirement account and pay his attorney fees of $82,000.

Manuel agreed to remain employed by the university until he voluntary resigns Dec. 31, and his personnel record will reflect a resignation. He also agreed to not be an athletic director or senior athletic adviser for any Big Ten school for two years from the date of his resignation. Manuel is allowed to accept employment outside the Big Ten with no penalty.

The agreement was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football