The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait. Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds of others, with new casualties reported in Friday’s strikes.

When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Speaking in a primetime address to the American public, Trump insisted the war was going well.

“We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly,” Trump said.

Bridges and a port tower hit in Iran

The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran’s coast on the Strait of Hormuz.

The highway and railway bridge strikes appeared aimed at cutting off Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, from roads leading into the Islamic Republic’s central region onward to Tehran, the capital.

While other routes still are open, the U.S. strikes could expand further, potentially disrupting both the movement of military materiel and goods needed for Iran’s 90 million people.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, the sixth night in a row of American attacks.

The strikes also collapsed a tower at Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, a key trade route for landlocked, neighboring Afghanistan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared the image of the surveillance tower collapsing, part of his effort to assert American control over the strait. That image had circulated social media via activists prior to Hegseth sharing it.

Chabahar port, which Iran had been running with support from India, has been a repeated target of American airstrikes. Iranian state media acknowledged a third round of strikes on the facility without immediately acknowledging the tower’s collapse.

Iran described the tower as overseeing commercial traffic into the port. However, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also operates at ports across the country.

Iran retaliates by targeting Qatar, a mediator in the war

On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.

Qatar, along with Pakistan, is a key mediator in trying to reach an end to the Iran war. But talks have broken down over Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran also targeted Bahrain and Kuwait early Friday. Jordan's military said it intercepted three incoming missiles Friday morning launched by Iran.

Explosions also could be heard Friday morning in Irbil and Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region as air defenses targeted incoming fire. There was no immediate word on any damage.

Also on Friday, a tanker came under attack traveling through the Strait of Hormuz taking the route closest to Oman, the British military said.

The report from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said the ship sustained minor damage without any of its crew being injured.

Iran has been attacking tankers traveling on the route near Oman but did not immediately acknowledge any attack.

Strikes come as Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz

Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

Week-to-week cargo shipments through the strait dropped by almost a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. And that was before the recent surge in tit-for-tat attacks.

Given the risks, some oil shippers are transiting the strait with their location devices turned off, but many are just staying put, Lloyd’s said Thursday. A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.

U.S. forces have redirected three commercial vessels trying to run the blockade, disabled one that did not comply and boarded another “to ensure full compliance,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a post on X.

___

Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Annika Wolters in Rayong, Thailand, and Stella Martany in Irbil, Iraq, contributed to this report.

The Knesset, which was scheduled to break for its summer recess on Friday, will not reconvene before the elections scheduled on Oct. 27.

The expected dissolution comes as Netanyahu is struggling to hold onto power ahead of the next elections as Israel grinds toward the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack that sparked nearly three years of war. Israeli polls are showing a groundswell of support for opposition parties, led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and a popular centrist former military chief.

Over the past week, the Knesset passed several controversial laws in marathon sessions as Netanyahu attempted to ram through several of his pet projects.

Earlier this week, the Knesset passed two bills that effectively halt the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the military in an attempt to ensure ultra-Orthodox parties join Netanyahu’s coalition in the next government.

The Knesset also recently passed several bills connected with Netanyahu’s attempts to overhaul the judiciary, including increasing government control over broadcast media and weakening the role of the attorney general. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has opposed the overhaul, and been a frequent target of Netanyahu and the Israeli right.

“We are completing a four-year term, we passed nine budgets and hundreds of bills, I thank you for the trust you placed in me, through which together we succeeded in maintaining a four-year term,” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said as he announced the dissolution.

Completing a full, four-year term is a rare occurrence throughout Israeli history.

The last time Israel’s government fulfilled a full term without breaking for early elections was in 1988. Israel has no term limits, and Netanyahu has served more terms than any other prime minister in Israel’s history, but it is rare even for him to finish a full, four-year term.

Between 2019 and 2022, Israelis went to the polls five times. Israel holds elections on average every 2.4 years, making it second-lowest ranked country in the OECD for periods between elections, a marker of political instability, according to the Israel Democracy Institute.

State broadcaster CCTV said at least eight people were rescued from the debris, and that search and rescue operations were ongoing.

CCTV said the landslide occurred at around 9:08 a.m. in Chongqing’s Pengshui county.

Images by the broadcaster showed part of a mountainside collapsing onto a residential area. Several buildings were located next to the collapse site, while rescue crews were seen searching through the debris.

Pengshui County is located in the southeast part of Chongqing, bordering the provinces of Hubei and Guizhou.

South Korean markets were closed Friday, but shares in Taiwan fell 5.9% a day after TSMC, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of computer chips, announced it plans to spend an extra $100 billion on building fabrication plants in the U.S.

TSMC dropped 6.1% on Friday.

Stocks related to artificial intelligence have been under pressure for weeks because of worries that their prices have shot too high and that voracious demand for computer memory and processors may not be sustainable if AI ends up not producing as much profit and productivity as promised.

Oil prices surged as fighting in the Middle East intensified, while U.S. futures slipped.

The United States expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting more bridges and apparently collapsing a tower at a key Iranian port, part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to start striking infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

The Nikkei lost 5.3% to 63,357.19, trading near its lowest levels in over a month, as shares in computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron sank 9.3%. Chip testing equipment maker Advantest tumbled 10.5%.

SoftBank Group shed 11.4%.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong gave up 2.2% to 24,450.88, while the Shanghai Composite index was 1.6% lower at 3,818.59.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.7% to 8,775.70.

“Now investors are taking profits from the first-half winners and moving toward areas that were left behind,” Stephen Innes, of SPI Asset Management, said in a commentary.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.5% even though nearly three out of every four stocks in the index rose after more of the country’s biggest companies reported better earnings for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.5%.

Nvidia fell 2.4%, making it the heaviest weight on the index. Other stocks that have benefited from strong demand for AI also sank, giving back some of their stellar gains.

Micron Technology fell 5.6% to shave its gain for the year so far below 199%. SanDisk fell 12.6% but is nevertheless up 494% for the year. Western Digital sank 9.2% but is still up 171% for the year.

Oil prices are near their highest level in a month because of worries that the war with Iran will keep oil tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz and block shipments of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.1% to $85.13 per barrel.

U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 1.3% at $79.95 per barrel.

Reports on the U.S. economy Thursday came in mixed. One said shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month than economists expected.

A separate report said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication of a solid job market, while a third report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is better than economists expected.

In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar rose to 162.43 Japanese yen from 162.38 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1438 from $1.1443.

Speaking at a conference in Shanghai, Xi said AI should not be dominated by any single nation. American-led restrictions have blocked China from accessing some of the world's most advanced technologies, spurring China's efforts to build its own know-how and intensifying the tech race between the world’s two biggest economies.

“The development of artificial intelligence should not be a solo performance by any single country but rather a symphony of global cooperation,” Xi said at China's annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. Others attending included the leaders of Kazakhstan, Cambodia and Thailand and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

“We should together oppose the practice of overstretching the concept of national security in the field of artificial intelligence, and of placing one’s own security above that of other countries,” he said, repeating a longstanding Chinese complaint.

Over the next five years, he said China will provide 5,000 training opportunities on artificial intelligence to developing countries.

China will expand AI cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS countries, Xi said. He promised to provide access for 30 countries to a Chinese-developed AI meteorological system that provides early warning systems.

A day earlier, 29 countries including Pakistan, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement with China to establish a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization. State media described it as an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Shanghai promoting global AI governance.

More than 1,100 companies and 1,400 guests are participating in the annual AI conference this year, state media said.

During the conference, tech giant Huawei will be showcasing its powerful AI computing system, the Atlas 950 SuperPoD,.

Some technology analysts now believe China has become an innovator in AI and is no longer just catching up with the U.S. China’s five-year plan until 2030 has prioritized progress in frontiers of science and technology including AI.

China’s open-source AI models, like DeepSeek, have been seen as appealing and often times more affordable alternatives globally to U.S. AI models, which are largely closed-source, and especially across the developing world.

____

Chan reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu contributed from Beijing.

That was May 24, 2000, the day Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

By then, many Israelis had grown to view the invasion — initially aimed at ousting Palestinian militants — as a strategic failure, akin to the U.S. military quagmire in Vietnam.

Now, 26 years later, Israel is again occupying much of southern Lebanon, and while polling shows that a majority of Israelis currently support an extended military presence in Lebanon, some, including Barak, who remember the pitfalls of the last occupation, are afraid that Israel is falling into the same trap.

“Our very presence will become the only goal,” Barak said in a recent interview, recounting what he said he thought of the occupation in 1985, when he was a general in the Israeli military, and Israel was shifting from active fighting to long-term deployment in Lebanon.

“We will protect our fortresses, we will protect our convoys of supply, the logistics, the patrols, everything," he said he warned. “But we were not serving Israeli security, we were not serving the state. There was no logic to this in 1985, and there was no logic in 2000, when we pulled out.”

An open-ended occupation

Israel again invaded Lebanon in March and now controls more than 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) of territory. It began the operation after Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, launched a wave of drone and missile attacks in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

Last month, Israel signed a framework agreement with the Lebanese government to use at least two areas in southern Lebanon as “pilot zones” for removing Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure and handing over security to Lebanon’s army. Israel would then redeploy or withdraw its forces from those areas. Hezbollah was not part of the agreement and has vowed to oppose it.

In the meantime, Israeli officials have vowed to keep troops inside a broader “security zone” in Lebanon as long as Hezbollah retains its weapons. After the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza, Israel has maintained smaller “security zones” in Gaza and Syria, which it says are needed to prevent future attacks by militants.

“We didn’t ask anyone’s permission to enter Lebanon, and we don’t need anyone’s permission to stay in Lebanon,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said recently, calling it Israel's “right and our duty” to protect residents in northern border towns.

A former prime minister warns of similar pitfalls

Barak, who served as Israel’s military chief before coming prime minister, still considers the pullout one of his proudest achievements.

As a general, he recalls visiting soldiers stationed in Lebanon in the early 1980s. He said they told him, “We are fighting to remove the threat from Hezbollah so that our children will be safe and won’t have to serve here.”

But when Barak ordered the withdrawal nearly two decades later, he said some of the children of those same soldiers were serving in Lebanon.

Israel’s self-declared security zone inside Lebanon did not deliver for Israelis during the previous occupation, and it is unlikely the new zone will either, Barak said. Even in the 1990s, rudimentary Katyusha rockets launched by Hezbollah could easily bypass it and hit northern Israel.

“In order to destroy, totally destroy Hezbollah, you’d have to conquer the whole of Lebanon,” Barak said, something most Israelis consider to be impractical.

But even Israel's presence in the south, and the widespread destruction of villages there, runs the risk of rallying Lebanese support for Hezbollah, he said. Israel says the group embeds fighters and weapons in these border towns, but Israeli operations since March had displaced around 1 million Lebanese.

About 40% of them have since returned home, according to the Lebanese government. More than 4,300 people have been killed since hostilities began on March 2. Nearly 40 Israeli soldiers have also died, as well as a defense contractor and two civilians in northern Israel.

Same place, different war

Hezbollah was founded in 1982, as a response to the Israeli occupation, and fought a deadly guerrilla war that included high-profile suicide bombings and assassinations, roadside bombs and ambushes.

Israel carried out bombing campaigns and airstrikes against the militant groups. It also helped establish a local proxy force, a mostly-Christian militia known as the South Lebanon Army that carried out patrols and provided a buffer between Israeli troops and Hezbollah. Thousands of SLA fighters and their families fled to Israel following the withdrawal.

But the type of warfare between the two sides has also changed.

Israel is now operating without a local proxy, instead relying on monitoring and strikes either by air or from vantage points on ridges and hilltops. And Hezbollah, which once relied on insurgent tactics, now uses high-precision missiles and drones, including fiber-optic drones that are hard to defend against and have caused Israeli casualties.

Unique diplomatic opportunity could shift balance

One key difference from 2000 is the possibility of a diplomatic solution with Lebanon, said Orna Mizrahi, former deputy director of Israel’s National Security Council.

Israel has an opportunity in Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Mizrahi said. Since he was elected last year, he has publicly condemned Hezbollah and expressed readiness to negotiate a permanent ceasefire with Israel.

“The military operation needs to complement a diplomatic process,” said Mizrahi, now a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank.

Although Hezbollah is unlikely to agree to disarm, it has been severely weakened by wars with Israel, she said, adding that its main sponsor, Iran, is also busy weathering U.S. strikes and battling for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Mizrahi said this has created an opportunity for a new balance of power inside Lebanon, by strengthening the Lebanese government and military. Israel will never destroy Hezbollah completely, she said. But while the group is scrambling to reorganize, Israel can work with international powers to empower Lebanon to confront it, she added.

4 mothers against the war

By the time Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, the occupation had become deeply unpopular, in large part because of the more than 1,200 Israeli soldiers killed in operations.

In 1997, four mothers of soldiers serving in Lebanon founded a grassroots movement advocating for withdrawal.

Brurya Sharon, now 84, one of the founding members, recalls sending both of her sons off to fight in Lebanon. At the time, she said she felt like Israel’s government and military were maintaining the occupation out of inertia, without stopping to consider if it was effective.

The “Four Mothers” movement has been widely cited as a major factor in Israel’s withdrawal in 2000. They tried to steer clear of politics, instead focusing on the soldiers’ lives, a bipartisan issue, Sharon said.

But now, the country is so divided, especially after the Oct. 7 attack, that Sharon says she sees no option for a broad-based public movement to pressure Israel to withdraw.

Israelis, still traumatized from the Hamas attack, are also concerned about leaving the country's borders vulnerable. Currently, more than seven in 10 Israelis support a permanent security presence in southern Lebanon, according to a recent poll by the think tank Israel Democracy Institute.

“I don’t see a sunbeam of hope, I don’t even see a speck of light,” Sharon said.

Aktar's work is demanding, with each worker expected to produce thousands of garments a day. Precision is essential, and even small mistakes can slow production or result in rejected items. Aktar said her new glasses have helped her thread needles faster — and they've also relieved her headaches and eye strain.

“Before I got the glasses, it took me a long time to thread the needle. Now I can thread it in just a short time. I make far fewer alterations than before,” she said.

In Bangladesh, home to the world’s second-largest garment industry after China, some factory owners are working on supplying more glasses to workers to boost productivity. The country's garment sector contributes about 11% of gross domestic product and employs around 4 million workers.

VisionSpring, a global nonprofit social enterprise supplying affordable glasses to people in poorer countries, estimates that roughly one in three Bangladeshi garment workers need glasses but do not have them.

The group has supplied glasses that cost less than ten dollars per pair to some workers through a partnership with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, which represents factory owners.

Ella Gudwin, chief executive of VisionSpring, said the benefits were immediate, as workers were better able to meet quality and production targets. Better vision also reduces mistakes such as skipped stitches, uneven hems and misplaced buttons, cutting the need for rework, she said.

Fahima Akhter, a director of Bangladeshi garment company Masco Group, said managers initially did not realize how many workers had vision problems because they rarely complained. She said Masco Group has screened about 5,000 workers, with around 30% receiving glasses.

Akhter said her company plans to extend the program to its remaining workforce of more than 20,000 employees.

“We don’t consider it a cost. It is an investment. If the workers are working with better vision, their productivity and workplace safety will improve, and eventually this will translate into better productivity and profit for the company," she said.

A randomized controlled research trial in India that was co-authored by Gudwin suggested that sewing machine operators who received reading glasses increased productivity by 6% while making fewer errors. The study, published in April in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, found that every $1 spent on vision screening and glasses generated $3.37 in productivity gains over 12 weeks.

It estimated that expanding similar programs across the global textile and garment industry could generate the equivalent of $27 billion in additional annual output.

Gudwin said vision correction has long been overlooked because eyeglasses were often seen as a luxury rather than an essential workplace tool. She said many factory workers develop age-related short-sightedness in their late 30s and early 40s, but delay treatment because they assume glasses are expensive.

Gudwin said bringing eye screenings directly into factories removes those barriers.

Masco Group’s Akhter said Bangladesh’s garment sector should make vision screening a standard workplace benefit.

“Having a clear vision is not a luxury, it is a necessity now,” she said.

The Associated Press reported that David Brouillette, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine, is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to several of his close relatives.

The AP reached out to congressional leaders and several key lawmakers of both parties for response.

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said Brouillette’s history of violence and mental health issues, as well as the death in Maine, “directly call into question the supposed vetting and training ICE does of its recruits.”

“This senseless tragedy must be investigated and the officer responsible should be taken off our streets and face justice for his actions,” Thompson said in a statement to the AP.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who led a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year as Democrats tried to impose restraints on immigration enforcement operations, said the consequences of failing to put guardrails on ICE are now being measured in lives.

“The Trump administration rushed 12,000 agents onto our streets without ensuring they were fit to carry a badge and a gun — and Republicans gave this rogue agency vast power and no accountability,” Schumer said in a statement. “They empowered ICE. Now they must work with us to prevent more killings.”

The report on Brouillette’s troubling past comes as the Department of Homeland Security has been on a hiring spree, fueled by vast sums from Republicans in Congress to help carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It raises fresh questions about the department's efforts to quickly hire, vet, train and dispatch recruits who are being sent to patrol communities across America.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Republican chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee, referred back to her prior statement that “an impartial investigation into the shooting in Biddeford needs to proceed, as the details surrounding this tragedy are important.”

Collins had said earlier that it is “extremely unfortunate” that the agent did not have a body-worn camera.

The senator ensured $20 million for expanded use of body-worn cameras and $2 million for deescalation training as part of the Homeland Security funding bill that Republicans approved to end the department shutdown.

“The Democratic government shutdown delayed enactment and implementation of these important safety measures,” she said.

At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.

“This bombshell is absolutely appalling — exactly the intolerable danger that we feared as a result of arrest quotas and inadequate training,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in a statement to the AP.

“This agent clearly should never have had a gun — let alone one provided to him by the United States government. And now a man is dead. I’m going to continue demanding answers and accountability,” he said.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said Trump and his administration “have encouraged ICE and CBP to enter and terrorize our communities, even if those agents are untrained, improperly vetted, or lack experience,” referring to Customs and Border Protection.

“The killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was horrifying,” he said in a statement to the AP, “and there must be a credible, independent, and transparent investigation so that those responsible are held accountable.”

The revisions include adoption of distant male relatives to father future heirs and allowing princesses to keep their royal status after marrying commoners.

Royal watchers and experts fear the new measures could doom the 1,500-year-old hereditary institution by insisting that only men can be emperor, sparking worry about the shrinking, fast-aging imperial family.

Emperor Naruhito ’s 24-year-old daughter is hugely popular, and many Japanese want her to be his successor, but Princess Aiko is ineligible because she is a woman. Japan’s male-only succession rule means the line must move to the emperor's younger brother, then to his 19-year-old nephew Prince Hisahito. Next in line after him is the emperor's 90-year-old uncle.

In an imperial family that places a premium on male royal babies, Hisahito is the first such boy to be born in four decades. Only five of the 16 adults in the imperial family — there are no children — are men.

This matters, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other conservatives insist the male bloodline is “the only source of the emperor’s authority and legitimacy,” which will be the basis for the upcoming measures.

While an emperor's mother can be a commoner, as is the case with the current one, only boys born to men with royal blood can be heirs to the throne, according to the Imperial House Law.

The revision passed Friday to the antiquated law is meant to solidify the principle of that crucial bloodline by allowing the adoption of distant royal male relatives to father future heirs.

The new measures will also allow princesses to keep their royal status if they marry a commoner.

“It’s a declaration to prevent female monarchs ... and to defend the male-lineage at all costs,” said Hideya Kawanishi, a Nagoya University expert on monarchy. “They cannot say it’s male chauvinism, so they call it tradition.”

Takaichi supports male-only succession

There have been eight female monarchs. The last was Empress Gosakuramachi, who ruled from 1762 to 1770.

The paternal-line male succession was stipulated for the first time in the 1890 Imperial House Law, when Japan promoted patriarchal systems. That law was largely carried over to the current 1947 version.

Friday’s revisions have led to protests from Japanese who see the government efforts as meant to eliminate Aiko from ruling and to justify discrimination against women and a patriarchal system.

“It’s very ironic that the first female prime minister herself is the leading proponent of the obsession with male-succession,” Chizuko Ueno, a prominent feminist scholar, wrote recently referring to Takaichi.

Ueno said the new measures “treat male royals as stallions and put female royals under pressure as ‘childbearing machines’ to produce male offspring.”

After Aiko’s birth, her mother Empress Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat and a commoner, developed a stress-induced mental condition, apparently over criticism for not producing a male heir.

Imperial family is shrinking

Because of the male-only succession rules and the dismissal of princesses who marry commoners, the monarchy after Hisahito is “extremely unstable,” former Imperial Household Agency chief Shingo Haketa told Kyodo News recently.

Historians say the male-only system is unworkable today, as Japan more broadly faces a fast-aging, dwindling population.

It only worked in the past because concubines produced half the emperors until about 100 years ago, when the practice ended under Naruhito’s great-grandfather, Emperor Taisho.

There was a government proposal in 2005 to allow female monarchs, but it was scrapped following Hisahito’s birth.

Naruhito's two male heirs are his 60-year-old brother, Crown Prince Akishino, who is only six years younger than the emperor and has reportedly said he would be too old to serve, and Hisahito, Akishino’s 19-year-old son. Third in line is Naruhito's uncle, Prince Hitachi, who is 90.

The law is meant to bring in distant relatives

The more controversial of the two measures allows unmarried male descendants, aged 15 or older, of distant imperial relatives — but only of paternal lineage — to be adopted into the royal family.

Fifty-one members from 11 branch families renounced their royal status in 1947, mainly to ease the postwar financial burden on the monarchy, Imperial Household Agency official Yoshimi Ogata told a recent parliamentary session.

These people are at least 36 generations removed from Naruhito because they split from a common male-line ancestor 600 years ago, Ogata said.

There is criticism of what some see as the government's extraordinary efforts to make sure that male royals are producing male emperors.

“Who wants the son of an adoptee who nobody knows to be emperor instead of Aiko?” asked Yoshinori Kobayashi, a cartoonist campaigning for Aiko’s succession.

It may also be unrealistic to ask former royals to reenter a very strict family known as “an enclave without human rights.” Royals cannot choose their jobs or homes, and must follow other serious constraints.

“I wonder if anyone would raise a hand,” 81-year-old Asahiro Kuni, whose family renounced its royal status when he was 3, told TBS television. “I imagine many people, by age 15, have some idea about their future. It’s cruel to tell them ... to change the course of their life.”

Kuni, who worked as an engineer at a major Japanese company, said he would tell his family to decline if asked by the palace. “You are asked to sacrifice your life for the happiness of the people. I can’t tell my family to choose such a difficult life.”

He also expressed support for female monarchs in interviews with other Japanese media.

Princesses who marry commoners can keep royal status

Aiko, known for her engaging smile, enthusiasm and witty conversation, is a public favorite.

Five single princesses, including Aiko and her popular cousin Kako, 31, may be affected by the other main revision to the Imperial House Law, which would allow them to keep their royal status and continue serving official duties if they marry commoners, although their spouse and children wouldn't be accepted as royals.

Aiko’s elder cousin Mako renounced her royal status and moved to New York after marrying her college boyfriend, a commoner who now is a lawyer. The move was largely seen as her attempt to flee from the restrained imperial life.

Ueno calls the system inhumane and urges the princesses to follow Mako's example and leave when they can.

Hisahito, possible adoptees and their future wives will face enormous pressure to produce male offspring, Kawanishi said.

Many Japanese still want Aiko to be emperor

“The emperor is a symbolic figure, and I don’t see why women cannot serve in the role,” said 78-year-old Junichiro Tsujimaru, a sushi chain founder.

Yoshio Iwase, also 78, says Aiko, as the daughter of the emperor, is the legitimate successor. “I think it’s fine because there used to be female emperors in the past.”

There is worry that the government's push will upset former Emperor Akihito's legacy, which included making amends for the victims of World War II, fought in his father’s name.

Akihito, who abdicated in 2019, also tried to bring what was seen as an aloof monarchy closer to the people, an example followed by his son, Naruhito, and his family.

Akihito reportedly supports Aiko's succession. He avoided directly answering a question about the 2005 government proposal but said female royals served a major role in the monarchy and that its role was to work for the happiness of the people — a remark interpreted as his support for female monarchs.

Naruhito also said in June that he hoped discussions about the measures would reach a conclusion that “will gain understanding of the people,” a comment palace watchers said was his nuanced displeasure.

Japan on Friday also enacted a controversial new law prohibiting desecration of its national flag, a key right-wing agenda pushed by Takaichi. Opponents see it as an attempt to intimidate the public and silence criticism against her government.

Trump's amplification of debunked theories about the election six years ago and his inability to accept his loss led to one of the darker moments in American history when a mob of his supporters led a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in the final days of his first term.

Now back in power, Trump opted to revisit the subject, despite persistent voter concerns about the cost of living, American forces escalating strikes on Iran in a conflict for which there is no end in sight, and an immigration crackdown facing bipartisan scrutiny for its sometimes deadly tactics.

His address Thursday hinged on contradictions.

A twice-elected president complained about his one personal defeat, alleged a cover-up by officials in his own first administration and surfaced claims about countries attempting to harm his own prospects while staying silent on steps taken by other nations to boost him.

Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress that has not advanced because it lacks enough support from Republicans.

“America is back and doing really well, but we still have a major challenge that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be great without fair and honest elections,” he said.

Trump doesn't raise doubts about his election wins

Trump began Thursday night with a stark warning about what he described as flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections, when he lost the presidential election and his party suffered losses.

Trump’s speech presented allegations of interference and influence in ways that lacked key context, and did not produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.

Notably, Trump focused on China but glossed over Russia, a country that intelligence officials have said favored Trump in 2016 and 2020 and engaged in wide-ranging influence campaigns aimed at boosting him over Democrat Joe Biden in the latter campaign.

Despite focusing on China in his speech, Trump did not criticize or issue a warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he has long praised.

Election security experts say America’s decentralized voting system, with the power over elections residing with the states instead of the federal government, is a strength. Americans vote in more than 10,000 different jurisdictions with different rules, making the nations’ elections extraordinarily complicated but safe from widespread fraud.

No credible intelligence has emerged showing that the vote count in 2020 was manipulated by foreign actors. Repeated audits and reviews -- manyrun by Republicans, including Trump’s own then-attorney general -- have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020.

Even if substantiated, Trump’s claims did not amount to conduct that would have altered the outcome of any race, let alone the 2020 race for the White House.

He also did not raise doubts about his election wins in 2016 or 2024.

As Trump spoke, the White House unveiled a website containing documents that were presented without context and included selectively released pieces of investigation files, intelligence analysis and correspondence.

Former intelligence official calls address ‘dangerous’

Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence in Trump’s first term, called the president’s address “a dangerous speech about an incredibly important topic.” She said the intelligence community throughout Trump’s first term was alarmed about foreign interference in elections, but Trump scoffed at them, angered at the investigation of his campaign’s relationship with Russia.

“He had an entire term to deal with it and I don’t know how you can believe how the same community that told him about it, that was excoriated about it” wouldn’t warn him in 2020, Gordon said on CNN.

Conservative commentator John Solomon, who joined the White House staff last month and was seated in the East Room for Trump’s speech, later told MS NOW that “the intelligence community has zero evidence that someone has flipped – that a foreign power flipped -- a vote in 2020, ‘22 or ’24.”

But, he added, “We’re not through all the documents.”

Trump urged the Justice Department to conduct investigations and prosecutions, though it was unclear from his speech what sort of criminal conduct — if any — could be identified, proven and charged.

In a contrast with his concerns about foreign interference in elections, Trump in his new budget proposes a $707 million cut in the U.S. Cybsersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, the group charged with protecting American election systems from overseas cyberattacks. Trump and other conservatives have been frustrated that the organization pushed back on election claims in 2020 and beyond.

Some networks did not air it live

In past presidencies, primetime addresses have typically been reserved for major milestones or nationally significant events.

Trump last spoke to the nation in April, giving an address on the Iran war a month after it started. He said then that the U.S. would accomplish its objectives “very shortly” and that “the hard part is done, so it should be easy.” The war, however, has dragged on and strikes between the U.S. and Iran have intensified this week.

Trump also delivered a politically charged primetime speech in December in which he sought to blame the challenging economic climate on Democrats.

ABC, NBC and CNN did not air Thursday's remarks live but carried them in full on their streaming services.

CBS and MS NOW both cut away from Trump’s speech before he finished, while Fox News continued to carry his address.

Trump called out the media outlets for not carrying it live, accused them of being “part of a plot" and suggested their broadcast licenses be revoked.

Networks typically — but not always — carry presidential addresses to the nation live. In 2022, when Biden delivered a primetime address full of warnings about Trump and his adherents’ “extreme ideology,” the networks did not carry it live.

In 2014, the major networks chose to stick with their primetime programming instead of airing an address by President Barack Obama on his plans for immigration reform.

Democrats accuse Trump of seeking to discredit next election

Democrats warned that Trump was trying to revive false claims of past stolen elections in order to delegitimize the 2026 midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican Party is facing headwinds.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia called Trump’s claims “totally bogus.”

“The fact is our intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that China did not even try to change a single vote in the 2020 election,” Warner said in a statement on X. “A single concurring opinion suggested China may have tried to sway voters’ opinions … but that’s been public knowledge since 2021."

Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the administration committee that handles federal voting issues and elections, said Trump is trying to sow confusion before the midterm elections.

“This is a pretext for the president, I think, calling into dispute the 2026 elections,” Morelle said on C-SPAN, adding that “we have secure elections.”

“I heard no concrete allegations that foreign actors actually changed the results of an American election,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said on CNN.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro and Will Weissert in Washington, Ali Swenson and Jocelyn Noveck in New York and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

A decade ago, Burnham abandoned a 20-year climb up the Labour Party ladder in London to head north and run for mayor of Greater Manchester. A month ago, he returned to Parliament by winning a risky special election. On Monday, he will become Britain’s 59th prime minister.

The sudden downfall of Prime Minister Keir Starmer after just two years in office has swept the 56-year-old Burnham into office — unelected and largely untested. He will enter No. 10 Downing St. carrying the heavy weight of expectation, and big questions about how he will shoulder it.

“A whole range of people across the Labour movement and in the country have projected onto Andy Burnham their hopes and their fantasies about how the country should be run and what Labour should stand for and what Andy Burnham stands for,” said Joshi Herrmann, founder of Manchester news site The Mill, who has covered Burnham for years.

“He has got lots of people’s hopes up.”

He was born in Liverpool and attended Cambridge

Burnham has made his name in Manchester, but he was born in Liverpool, and grew up in a commuter village between the rival northwest English cities.

His father worked as a British Telecom engineer and his mother as a receptionist, and he was raised in a close-knit Catholic family. Burnham has said he’s “not particularly religious,” but Catholic teaching, along with the center-left Labour Party, helped forge his values and sense of social justice.

Burnham and his brothers were the first generation of their family to go to university. And not just any university — Burnham attended Cambridge, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious institutions.

“He needed a lot of persuading to apply because he felt that as a working-class boy, going off to Cambridge wasn’t for him,” Stephen Harrington, Burnham’s former English teacher at St. Aelred’s Catholic High School, told the BBC. “He didn’t believe in himself. But he did it, and the rest is history.”

Burnham has said he felt out of place at Cambridge, where many of his classmates had gone to posh private schools in the more affluent south of England. But he got a degree in English and met his future wife, Dutch fellow student Marie-France Van Heel, now a marketing executive. The couple married in 2000 and have a son and two daughters.

After graduating, Burnham worked as a journalist at trade magazines before becoming a researcher and adviser to Labour politicians.

Elected to Parliament for the Manchester-area district of Leigh in 2001, he rose through the government ranks under Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He served in Brown’s Cabinet between 2007 and 2010 as chief secretary to the Treasury, culture secretary and health secretary.

A formative experience came in 2009, when he was heckled at a commemoration of the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster, when 97 Liverpool soccer fans were crushed to death. Bereaved families had fought for years to overturn a false narrative offered by police that unruly fans had been to blame.

Burnham became a champion for the families and helped push for a new inquest, an apology and a law that imposes a duty of candor on public officials to tell the truth about tragedies whatever the impact on their reputation.

As mayor, he became known as King of the North

After Labour lost power in 2010, Burnham ran for leadership of the party that year and in 2015, losing both times. He quit Parliament in 2017, a low ebb for Labour nationally, to run for mayor of Greater Manchester.

Being mayor played to his strengths: an ability to bring people together, a sharp eye for opportunities and a wide streak of pragmatism. His approach became known as “Manchesterism,” a brand of business-friendly socialism that aims to harness private and public money to invest in areas like transport, housing and infrastructure.

Manchester was a former manufacturing powerhouse — known as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution — that had been hollowed out as British industry crumbled. During his tenure the city boomed, with skyscrapers blooming on vacant post-industrial sites. Burnham won praise for taking a piecemeal public transport system under public control and improving it.

He shed suit and tie for jeans and dark T-shirts, spoke about his love for Oasis, The Smiths and New Order and spent spare time playing soccer or spinning 1990s tunes during DJ battles.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he harangued Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson over what he called a “London-centric” approach to the crisis that was punishing northern cities. That’s when he gained the nickname King of the North, a “Game of Thrones”-inspired nod both to his championing of his home region and his political ambition.

He has said he saw his work in central government as “unfinished business,” and got his chance when Starmer was pushed to resign by Labour colleagues alarmed at the party’s unpopularity.

But Burnham still needed a seat in Parliament. A Labour lawmaker agreed to resign, triggering a special election for the Manchester-area district of Makerfield. Burnham trounced the candidate from anti-immigration party Reform UK, cementing his credentials as a winner.

In the subsequent contest to replace Starmer as Labour leader, he was the only candidate.

He’s promising to restore hope

Now he says he will deliver “a new politics based on unity and hope” and “an economy that works for everybody,” no matter where they live. A key plank is giving regional leaders more powers, and he plans to move part of the prime minister’s office to a “No. 10 North” in Manchester.

Herrmann said Burnham has clear strengths, especially an ability to tell a persuasive story and a sense of empathy that many politicians lack.

He added that the incoming prime minister has “a set of principles about trying to make the country fairer, trying to bring people out of poverty, that he really does believe in.”

Critics claim Burnham’s politics are vague on key points, such as where the money will come from to pay for his pledges. He will face many of the same political and economic challenges that stymied Starmer, including a sluggish economy, overstretched public services and a cost-of-living squeeze. He has little experience of foreign policy issues, from the Ukraine war to dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump.

And running a country of 70 million is a lot different from overseeing a region of 3 million.

But Sacha Lord, a Manchester music entrepreneur who served as Burnham’s nighttime economy adviser, said the politician has a steely side that will help him rise to the occasion.

“He’s not scared of locking horns with people,” Lord said. “Everybody thinks Andy’s this nice, cheeky-chappy guy. But trust me, when he wants something ... he tends to get it.”

Networks and their news operations, broadcast and cable alike, spent the hours leading up to Trump’s address debating how to cover it — and struggling to balance delivering the news with handing over their airwaves to potential falsehoods about the 2020 elections.

In the end, a patchwork quilt of coverage was largely united by one common strategy: real-time fact-checking as much as was possible even while the president was still speaking.

The dilemma took place against a backdrop of deep tension between the media and a president working to exert control over it by whatever means he can. Even in his speech itself, Trump excoriated networks that chose not to carry it live, saying that “NBC and ABC fake news” avoided it because they “don't like the topic.” He also threatened them with consequences, using the presidential pulpit to suggest they should be sanctioned for their editorial decisions.

"They and others in the media are part of a plot," Trump said, offering no evidence for his assertion. There is also no evidence of fraud in the 2020 elections.

“They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going," he said. "Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. They use our public multibillion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting.”

The tension between Trump and the news media during his second term has taken many forms, from sanctions against members of the White House press corps to regulatory actions through the Federal Communications Commission to outright lawsuits.

There were a variety of approaches to coverage

The media outlets' decision-making — seemingly last-minute, for many, with networks divulging their plans minutes beforehand — produced a variety of coverage scenarios for the 24 minutes of Trump’s address.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins anchored her nightly program. “We aren’t taking it live,” she said of the speech, given the president’s “well-documented history” of falsehoods. Panelists were on hand for analysis and fact-checking. “Sadly, we have no choice to be skeptical when this president talks elections,” said the network’s veteran correspondent John King.

Fox News and Fox Broadcasting aired the president’s speech live. But ABC and NBC did not, sticking with regular programming — “Press Your Luck,” in ABC's case, and an animal show featuring alligators in NBC's. But they were ready to cut in as they deemed newsworthy, as well as offering special reports afterwards.

Both ABC and NBC, however, provided live coverage on their streaming channels — NBC News NOW and ABC News Live — as well as ABC News Radio. In the still-young era of streaming, that is increasingly a decision that allows network news to play it both ways.

As for CBS, the network did preempt regular programming — a summer rerun of “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” — to air a special report anchored by Tony Dokoupil. The report joined the live speech a few minutes in, at 9:06, and left it before the end, at 9:23.

MS NOW started airing the speech, then cut away for analysis and commentary after 17 minutes on host Jen Psaki’s show. Psaki used the split screen for a bit, with her speaking on the right and a muted Trump appearing on the left.

By the end, of the top networks, the speech was continuing live only on Fox News.

Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, said coverage of the 24- minute address made for “a weird evening, where the reporters quote and describe the speech but show little of what they’re quoting." Thompson said full coverage was the way to go even — and perhaps especially — if the speech was believed to contain falsehoods.

“When the president of the United States makes an announcement that there is going to be a major speech with major information, however cynical we are … I think that is, by definition, important civic news significant to the citizenry,” he said. “It’s the president making the speech, and if the president does what everybody’s worried about him doing, that is a real reason to be covering it, to bear witness on exactly what gets said."

Networks had been urged beforehand to carry it live

Earlier Thursday, at the White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt had urged TV networks to carry the speech live. And Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity said on his show that major networks not going live was “pretty unheard of for a primetime address for a president.”

Broadcast networks, though, have previously declined primetime coverage to President Barack Obama for a 2014 speech on immigration, and President Joe Biden for his speech on democracy, “Battle for the Soul of the Nation,” in 2022.

The backdrop of Thursday’s speech was an ever-increasing tension between the media and the administration. Broadcast networks have been under close scrutiny by the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, who has launched early reviews of licenses of some ABC-owned stations and threatened to revoke the long-held exemption from equal time rules for the popular talk show “The View.”

Trump’s animosity toward news outlets whose agenda runs counter to his own isn’t new. But in his second presidential term, he has launched an escalation, often harnessing the levers of the federal government or attempting to do so. The efforts have taken place both in actual courtrooms and in the court of public opinion.

Palm Bay city leaders approved to tentatively lower proposed property tax rate for next year’s budget while also raising concerns about the potential impact of a proposed constitutional amendment that could significantly reduce local government funding.

The Palm Bay City Council voted 4-1 to set the proposed millage rate at 6.6 mills, down from the current 6.7 mills. City officials said the lower rate is expected to generate about the same amount of property tax revenue as last year because of rising property values.

Mayor Rob Medina cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing the city should adopt a higher rate to prepare for unexpected emergencies, including the possibility of severe storms.

“If we set it at the 6.6, we can never, on this, if we have a catastrophe,” Medina said.

Although the council approved the proposed rate, commissioners also discussed the potential effects of a property tax amendment expected to appear on the November ballot. If approved by at least 60% of voters, city officials said the measure could reduce Palm Bay’s property tax revenue by approximately $46 million.

Commissioner Kenny Johnson criticized the proposal, calling it an overreach by the state.

“I truly feel this is an overreach of the state,” Johnson said. “I feel they are doing this in this case, and this is an attempt to make municipalities subservient to the state and dependent on the state.”

Johnson warned that a significant loss in revenue could eventually affect public safety and other city services.

“Reducing police officers and firefighters and other services that are expected at this time, but there could be loss with the approval of the referendum,” he said.

Rather than making contingency plans immediately, the council agreed to wait until after the November election before discussing how it would address a potential budget gap if the amendment passes.

“We will be one of the municipalities that would be heavily affected, and people will still expect the same level of service,” Johnson said.

Palm Bay’s first public hearing on the proposed millage rate is scheduled for Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

The police operation on Wednesday was the third round of arrests targeting independent bookstores within four months. Critics have raised concerns over the city's freedom of expression under what they called an unclear red line. Two of the booksellers were seen released on bail on Friday morning.

On Thursday, Secretary for Security Chris Tang told reporters at the legislative building that the law is clear.

“If you are a bookseller, you have the responsibility to make sure the books you sell won't endanger national security,” he said. “It's equal to, for example, when you are selling food, you need to ensure the food won't cause a stomach ache and is not either poison or illegal.”

Asked if authorities would make a list of banned books, Tang said that would not be conducive to effective law enforcement targeting titles that “intend to harm the country.”

“We will not let criminals off the hook like this,” he said.

On Wednesday, police raided Have A Nice Stay, a bookshop founded by a group of former journalists, and the longstanding Greenfield Book Store. Police said the five people who were arrested were suspected of displaying seditious materials and selling seditious publications.

A police statement alleged that the content stirred up hatred against the city’s government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies.

Have A Nice Stay had already announced it would close Aug. 30. In a social media post, it said financial difficulties and an elusive red line were among the factors.

It said it cannot read through every single book and lacks the ability to judge what books are “problematic.”

In March, police also arrested the owner and staff of the independent Book Punch store, reportedly on suspicion of selling seditious publications. They included the biography of former pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in his national security case.

In June, Hong Kong police arrested two booksellers on suspicion of selling seditious publications and receiving funds from foreign political organizations.

In Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that China claims as its own, President Lai Ching-te noted Hong Kong's freedom of expression and publication are under pressure in a Facebook post.

“Every independent bookstore is vital in guarding free thought,” he said.

Liang Wen-chieh, deputy minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, told reporters that some Taiwanese publishers have self-censored their list of books when participating in a Hong Kong book fair.

In fact, one of the strongest security features of U.S. elections is the fact that they aren’t conducted at the federal level. America votes in more than 10,000 different election jurisdictions, each with different rules set by state and sometimes local governments.

That structure makes the nation's elections extraordinarily complicated — and also safe from widespread fraud. And when misconduct does happen — rarely — security protocols frequently catch it.

Decentralized elections date back to the nation's founding

America's highly decentralized system of voting exists because the nation’s Founding Fathers gave authority over elections to the states, rather than the federal government. While Congress has the power to regulate elections — and has used that authority to pass such laws as the Voting Rights Act — the Constitution makes clear that states have primary authority to set the “times, places and manner” for elections.

There also is no national election agency that administers the presidential contest, something that's different from many other countries. And when it comes to doing the day-to-day work of running an election, the responsibility falls to officials at the local level — usually a clerk or election supervisor — with help from staff and volunteers.

While differences in election laws can get confusing, election security experts say this structure is a strength. That's because to pull off stealing a presidential election — as Trump falsely claims was done to him in 2020 — it would require large numbers of election workers in the most competitive counties across the country who are willing to risk prosecution, prison time and fines while working with officials from both parties willing to look the other way. And everyone somehow would have to keep quiet — a highly unlikely scenario.

There are also shared practices and security measures in place across the country that together work to ensure that only eligible voters can cast a ballot and only one ballot is counted for each.

Voter fraud can happen, but it's rare and there are safeguards to catch it

Most Americans by now have probably heard stories about someone casting multiple ballots, or voting in the name of dead relatives, or stealing mail ballots from mailboxes.

When these incidents happen, they are often caught and prosecuted.

Voting more than once, tampering with ballots, lying about your residence to vote somewhere else or casting someone else’s ballot are crimes that can be punished with hefty fines and prison time. Non-U.S. citizens who break election laws can be deported.

For anyone still motivated to cheat, election systems in the United States are designed with multiple layers of protection and transparency intended to stand in the way.

For example, for in-person voting, most states either require or request voters provide some sort of identification at the polls. Others require voters to verify who they are in another way, such as stating their name and address, signing a poll book or signing an affidavit.

For absentee voting, all states require a voter's signature, and many states have further precautions, such as having bipartisan teams compare the signature with other signatures on file, requiring the signature to be notarized or requiring a witness to sign.

That means even if a ballot is erroneously sent to someone’s past address and the current resident mails it in, there are checks to alert election workers to the foul play.

AP review found there was too little voter fraud to tip the 2020 election

Trump has spent six years insisting he won the 2020 election, a campaign he lost to former President Joe Biden.

An Associated Press review in 2021 dug into every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states that Trump disputed. It found fewer than 475 cases — a number that would have made no difference in that race.

Allegations from Trump of massive voting fraud have been refuted by a variety of judges, state election officials and an arm of his own administration’s Homeland Security Department. In 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr, a Trump appointee, told the AP that no proof of widespread voter fraud had been uncovered. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,” he said at the time.

Executive Director Zeyne Portwiy said the organization is housing more people than ever, but the need keeps growing. “The demand that’s coming in is much higher than what we can do,” Portwiy said.

The comments came Thursday in Orlando as the center held another public town hall, part of an effort leaders said has continued for close to two years to keep the community informed about the growing need to serve people without housing and others struggling to get by.

Several speakers shared personal stories during the meeting, including one person who said, “I am still homeless.” She says this has been since 2005. Another attendee who works for a non-profit described living on the edge financially, saying they are “living check to check” and feel “just a check away” from being in the same situation as people they work with every day.

Rev. Dr. Joy Davis, who runs Spirit of Joy Ministries and partners with the Samaritan Resource Center to provide services like a food pantry, described the strain on nonprofit groups trying to keep services going in extreme heat. “Staying afloat means I have to beg for volunteers,” Davis said, describing trips to pick up food and bring it back in a heat index around 105 degrees.

The center also shared a snapshot of its recent workload. Leaders said that in June alone, they served close to 800 people experiencing homelessness, including more than 100 children. They said they also helped six people find jobs.

Portwiy urged the community to look for practical ways to help, including housing options. “If you have a spare bedroom you wanna rent it out, we have people we can put into them without charging 900 dollars for a bed,” Portwiy said.

Members of the faith-based community who attended the town hall said another way to help is to contact elected officials and push for more solutions. Local pastor Jose Rodriguez said homelessness should be seen as something that can affect anyone.

“It’s an everyday person problem and we don’t recognize homelessness as an everyday person problem,” Rodriguez said.

At Trump’s last primetime presidential address in April, he said the U.S. would accomplish its Iran war objectives “very shortly.” But days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East and in the Strait of Hormuz have shredded the interim deal to pause the fighting. U.S. strikes intensified early Thursday against a widening set of targets, including a ship it accused of breaking its blockade on Iranian ports. Iran retaliated by firing on U.S. allies in the region.

Here's the latest:

Solomon says he’s seen no intelligence that votes were flipped

Conservative commentator John Solomon, who joined the White House staff last month, was seated in the East Room for Trump’s speech.

He later told MS NOW outside the building that “the intelligence community has zero evidence that someone has flipped — that a foreign power flipped — a vote in 2020, 22 or 24.”

Solomon added, “We’re not through all the documents.”

He also defended Trump’s decision to discuss intelligence that Venezuela interfered with voting results on their own election machines, not ones in the U.S. Solomon argued that Venezuela’s “machine protocols are the same as America.”

Trump uses primetime address to the nation to once again raise doubts about past elections

The president used Thursday’s address revive a subject he’s long used to make unproven claims and deny his loss in the 2020 election.

Trump’s speech presented allegations of interference and influence in ways that lacked key context, and did not produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or that the election outcome had been altered.

Trump began with a stark warning about what he described as flaws in the voting system and said he was releasing previously classified documents related to the 2020 and 2018 elections, when he lost the presidential election and his party suffered losses.

No credible intelligence has emerged showing that the vote count in 2020 was manipulated by foreign actors.

Repeated audits and reviews — manyrun by Republicans, including Trump’s own then-attorney general — have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020.

He did not raise doubts about his election wins in 2016 or 2024.

▶ Read more

Top Trump officials were in the room for the speech

Nearly the entire Cabinet, including Vice President JD Vance, was in attendance for the president’s primetime speech, underscoring the centrality of elections — and continued preoccupation with his 2020 loss — for Trump and his administration.

A photo of the audience shared by Communications Director Steven Cheung showed Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick among those in the first row.

The speech came a day after a contentious confirmation hearing in which Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, clashed repeatedly with Democrats as he refused to acknowledge that former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

That stance has become a litmus test of loyalty for the president.

DHS secretary to speak Friday on voting system security

Trump said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin will hold a briefing to talk about his department’s cybersecurity findings related to electronic voting systems.

The president said the systems are in “bad shape in so many states” and his administration is informing political leaders of potential issues in their states.

Election experts have long acknowledged that the technology used to facilitate elections carries risks that officials work to identify and address. Nationwide, the vast majority of ballots cast included a paper record, helping to prevent cyberattacks or errors from affecting the accuracy of the vote count.

Trump obsesses over election security after cutting election security agency

The president’s concern about foreign interference in the 2020 election is a striking contrast with how his administration has treated the federal agency charged with protecting election infrastructure from overseas tampering.

The Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency was founded in Trump’s first term in the wake of Russia’s attempt to influence the 2016 presidential vote. When its director, Chris Krebs, said the 2020 vote was secure, Trump fired him.

After returning to office, Trump cut the agency’s staff and programs. His budget this year cuts $707 million from CISA as it says it will restore the agency “to its original mission of securing cyberspace and protecting critical infrastructure.”

CISA’s attempts to combat election misinformation in 2020 and beyond angered Trump and some of his allies.

Trump calls for prosecutions

The president urged Justice Department investigations and prosecutions, though it was unclear from his speech what sort of criminal conduct — if any — could be identified, proved and charged.

At one point he suggested prosecutions for government officials who had left documents he said were related to election investigations in “burn bags” to be incinerated. The FBI under Director Kash Patel investigated that, but no charges have been filed.

Despite the vague claims, Trump’s push could matter because the FBI and the Justice Department in this administration have proved willing to act at his behest.

House Democrat says Trump is trying to weaken democracy

Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Administration committee, which provides oversight of federal voting issues and elections, said what’s troubling about the president’s address is the way he is trying to sow confusion and spread misinformation ahead of the midterm elections.

“This is a pretext for the president, I think, calling into dispute the 2026 elections,” Morelle said on C-SPAN.

“We have secure elections,” Morelle said, inviting Trump to spend some time understanding the state systems.

“This is a fundamental effort to weaken the foundation of our democracy.”

Former Trump intelligence official pans speech

Sue Gordon, who was principal deputy director of national intelligence for Trump, noted that the intelligence community was alarmed about foreign interference in his first term but the president was dismissive, apparently angered by the probe into his campaign’s possible ties with Russia.

“This was a dangerous speech about an incredibly important topic,” Gordon said on CNN. “He had an entire term to deal with it, and I don’t know how you can believe how the same community that told him about it, that was excoriated about it” would ignore a danger in 2020, she added.

Gordon also said none of the president’s speech surprised her and noted that new intelligence documents may simply recount theories without showing anything actually happened: “Even if there’s new data that’s released, that doesn’t prove anything.”

Voting by noncitizens is uncommon

“According to the DHS review, state voter rolls and public records, they identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections.”

Multiple studies and investigations in individual states have shown that noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections is exceedingly rare.

For example a Georgia audit of its voter rolls conducted in 2022 found fewer than 2,000 instances of noncitizens attempting to register to vote over the last 25 years, none of which succeeded. Millions of new Georgia voters registered during that time period.

A 1996 U.S. law makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections for president or members of Congress. Violators can be fined and imprisoned for up to a year. They can also be deported.

Trump looks toward the midterms

During his speech the president referenced November's midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

“We have very important elections coming up,” he said. “We want those elections to be honest.”

Trump has been eager to overhaul the country’s voting systems and has said changes are necessary to ensure that Republicans can still be successful.

Election officials and voting system experts maintain that the decentralized nature of U.S. elections and the many safeguards in place to catch meddling ensure that the vote can be trusted.

The SAVE America Act is stalled in the Senate

Trump has made legislation to require proof of citizenship for voters a priority for his presidency.

However, it doesn’t have enough votes to pass.

Trump has unsuccessfully pressured Senate Republicans to scrap the filibuster to eliminate the need for Democratic support, but there aren’t enough votes to do that either.

Trump has concluded his elections address

After 24 minutes, the president closed out his speech by urging the passage of the SAVE Act.

The bill, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for anyone registering to vote — something voting rights group have warned could disenfranchise millions of Americans.

Noncitizen voting is illegal under federal law and already rare.

Trump says California vote count 'worse than any Third World country'

Trump zeroed in on California’s routinely prolonged vote count but he vastly misstated the scope of the issue. He complained the state only finished the count for the June 2 primary on July 10. It takes most states a month or more to formally certify the vote, which is what California did on July 10.

The winners of the state’s big races were known sooner — but not exactly soon. It took a week before the Los Angeles mayoral primary was called, for example. That’s partly because California tallies mail-in ballots that arrive up to a week after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by the end of voting.

There are issues with California’s drawn-out vote count, but there’s no indication of any sort of fraud. Indeed, when Republicans have done well in the state’s elections, such as in 2022 congressional races, Trump hasn’t cast aspersions on the results.

Fox goes live, CNN, ABC and NBC do not, CBS airs special report

As Trump arrived at the lectern and began speaking, networks launched into a variety of coverage, after days of intense deliberation.

Fox News and Fox were airing the speech live. ABC and NBC were not, staying with regular programming but ready to cut in as deemed newsworthy.

CBS did preempt regular programming — a summer rerun of “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” — and was airing a special report anchored by Tony Dokoupil.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was anchoring her nightly program. “We aren’t taking it live,” she said of the speech, given the president’s well-documented history of falsehoods.

MS NOW started airing the speech, but cut it off for analysis after 17 minutes on host Jen Psaki’s show.

By 9:25 p.m. the speech was only continuing live on Fox News.

Trump claims his own appointees were wrong in 2020

Trump’s vague allegations included a rant against one of his favorite targets: “members of the deep state.”

He claimed that intelligence agencies covered up China’s attempt to disrupt U.S. elections. But Trump appointed the very people who led those intelligence agencies in 2020. Indeed, Trump was given the assessment from those agencies on Jan. 7, 2021, that no foreign country tried to change vote totals or fake ballots in the election. There’s no record of him objecting to the findings at the time.

Now, of course, Trump has restocked the leadership of intelligence agencies with people who echo his often-debunked allegations about elections.

Trump says the benefits of his war with Iran will soon be realized

In his speech on election security, the president said the U.S. is “winning big in Iran and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly.”

The comments come as the U.S. expanded its airstrike campaign against Iran early Friday by hitting bridges as part of a broader attack on the nation’s infrastructure to pressure Tehran to ease its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

The White House has created a new website posting documents that Trump claims reveal major ‘areas of concern’

The White House has created a new website with documents that Trump says reveal major ‘areas of concerns’ in election security.

The site went live Thursday as Trump was delivering a primetime address on foreign interference and foreign influence in U.S. elections.

Trump devotes the opening minutes of his speech to repeating campaign-style boasts

The president ran through a long list of what he said were his administration’s accomplishments – including cutting drug prices.

He avoided speaking about elections or the conflict with Iran, including new strikes.

Trump beings his speech saying America is safer, stronger and wealthier

Trump has started his primetime address saying “We are doing great.”

He’s promised he will focus on elections and may revisit some of the unproven claims he has previously made about Republican losses.

The White House has offered few concrete details on what Trump will say, insisting he could still alter his remarks up until the last minute.

But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt promised it “will shock you.”

ABC, NBC and CNN decided not to air the remarks live. CBS said it was “airing a special report” during the address.

CBS plans special report while CNN will not air speech live

More networks revealed their plans for coverage of Trump’s speech, with CBS saying it was planning to air “a special report” at 9 p.m., anchored by Tony Dokoupil. A person familiar with the plan, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it included various scenarios, including taking the speech live, or cutting away for analysis. There would be experts on set to provide analysis and fact-checking, the person said. As for CNN, the cable network said it would not air the speech live, but would cover it “as a news event,” monitoring it for developments and providing analysis and commentary from CNN experts on elections, intelligence and the FBI. A live feed of the speech, alongside analysis and expert commentary, was being made available on CNN.com and on CNN’s All Access streaming platform.

— Jocelyn Noveck

Top Democrat on House Homeland Security panel questions vetting, training of ICE officers

The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, is calling into question the vetting and training of ICE officers after details have emerged about the officer involved in a fatal shooting in Maine this week.

Thompson’s remarks come after The Associated Press reported that the ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood, according to the officer’s relatives.

David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years.

“This senseless tragedy must be investigated and the officer responsible should be taken off our streets and face justice for his actions,” Thompson said in a statement to AP.

▶ Read more

AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say

The ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told The Associated Press.

David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.

Brouillette didn’t respond to text messages or an email seeking comment. Three relatives who said they spoke to him since the shooting, including an ex-wife and daughter, said he told them he acted in self-defense.

▶ Read more

Democrats warn Trump’s intelligence officials against misleading Americans on election security

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut and Democratic lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel and others ahead of the president’s primetime address.

“The President is within his authority to declassify intelligence,” the lawmakers wrote, “but if he does so in a way that is intended to mislead Americans about the most basic foundation of our democracy and that may compromise sources and methods, it is incumbent on you to stand up for the agencies you lead.”

Before any intelligence is publicly disclosed, they said, “it should be coordinated with all relevant Intelligence Community elements.”

The lawmakers said, “We remind you that you are statutorily obligated to keep the Committee fully and currently informed, a requirement that should include notification of new intelligence related to election influence or interference as well as any significant declassification.”

Hegseth backs low-altitude military flyovers as a series of maneuvers draws scrutiny

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is sticking to encouraging low-altitude military flyovers after a fighter jet buzzed a Florida beach during a show this week.

Video spreading widely on social media shows a jet from the Navy’s demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, flying so low over a crowded beach in Pensacola that chairs and tents went flying, sand kicked up and children held their hands over their ears.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement shortly afterward that it was “conducting a thorough safety review.” Then on Thursday morning, a host of Trump administration officials heaped praise on the maneuver.

“The flyovers will continue until morale improves,” Hegseth wrote on his personal X account, without elaborating.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote “Carry on Patriots” on social media alongside a photo showing a Blue Angels jet with a wingtip just feet above the heads of beachgoers.

▶ Read more

Flyovers might not violate rules but that doesn’t make them safe

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said military planes flying low over people probably don’t violate military rules because the Pentagon doesn’t have the same restrictions that the FAA imposes on civilian flights.

“They are air demonstration teams, and what they do is exceedingly dangerous — amazing and wonderful — but dangerous,” said Schiavo, who is also a pilot and used to work in air shows years ago. “And so it is really not something to be performed over people.”

Florida beachgoer Alexandra Belcher, 34, called the Blue Angels flyover this week a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I didn’t realize how close it was, until everyone around me was like, ‘That was so cool,’” she said. “It was not normal, but it was such a blessing to be able to witness that with everybody that I was with.”

▶ Read more

Trump administration to drastically shorten visas for foreign journalists in US

The Trump administration will drastically shorten visas for foreign journalists in the U.S. to 240 days, down from years, and cut those for Chinese journalists to only 90 days, raising concerns over press freedom in the United States and retaliation against American journalists overseas.

The final rule announced by the Department of Homeland Security will do away with the “duration of status” system, which allows foreign journalists to stay and work in the United States as long as they meet eligibility requirements. That will be replaced with a fixed period of time, though the visas may be extended.

The agency says it’s necessary to better vet the visa holders. But advocates for foreign journalists oppose the change, saying the drastically shorter stay would severely restrict their ability to live and work in the States.

▶ Read more

Trump media firm plans to sell high speed access to Truth Social posts

Trump’s media company is planning to charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own affecting national security and financial markets.

The move announced Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and other institutions to get news from Truth Social contributors in milliseconds so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates. The most popular Truth Social poster is the president himself and, as the biggest shareholder of the public traded parent company, he would directly benefit.

“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflicts of interest rules. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.”

The Trump family company declined to comment about whether the new feature is profiting off the presidency.

▶ Read more

GOP senator says Blanche must meet Epstein accusers to earn his vote for attorney general

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was expected to meet Thursday with accusers of Jeffrey Epstein after a key Republican senator said it was necessary to earn his support for Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department.

Sen. Thom Tillis had indicated during Blanche’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he was leaning toward backing Blanche, who has been leading the department in an acting capacity since April.

But after an Epstein accuser testified a day later, Tillis said he expects a meeting to occur before he’s “willing to vote out of this committee.”

Without Tillis’ support, Blanche’s nomination won’t make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

▶ Read more

Trump stops offshore wind development while citing national security

President Donald Trump’s administration has worked to stop offshore wind development on the grounds it’s a national security risk since late last year, halting work on major projects and buying back leases.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says a classified report from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proves offshore wind is a national security threat.

This comes against the backdrop of the Republican president’s hatred of wind turbines and desire to boost fossil fuels for “energy dominance” in the global market. Wind turbines interfere with radar, but that isn’t a new problem.

The Pentagon reviews wind farm construction plans and can deem areas off limits. And there are upgrades to radar to mitigate turbine impacts.

▶ Read more

The supersizing of ICE -- fueled by an infusion of billions of dollars granted by Congress — has raised concerns about the agency's hiring practices and whether officers being brought on are receiving proper vetting. Those concerns have been rejected by the Department of Homeland Security.

Relatives of the ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week told The Associated Press he struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets.

The precise circumstances surrounding the officer's hiring were not immediately clear. But the revelations about the man, David Brouillette, shine a new spotlight on ICE's hiring spree and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Here is a look at the agency's hiring and training practices:

A surge in new hires at ICE

In January, Homeland Security said it had hired 12,000 new officers and agents since the hiring surge began and said thousands of those new officers were already out on the streets assisting with investigations. The number includes both deportation officers and agents for Homeland Security Investigations, a separate agency that falls under ICE.

ICE has said the majority of new hires are police and military veterans. But evidence has been mounting that applicants with questionable histories were either not fully vetted before they were brought on or were hired in spite of their past, an investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year found.

At the time, Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, would not answer questions about specific hiring decisions. It did say some applicants received “tentative selection letters” and offers to begin working on a temporary status before they had been subjected to full background checks.

It defended its hiring practices, saying it does rigorous vetting.

ICE’s former acting director, Todd Lyons, said during a congressional hearing in February that he was proud of the hiring campaign, which drew more than 220,000 applications.

“This expansion of a well-trained and well-vetted workforce will help further ICE’s ability to execute the president’s and secretary’s bold agenda,” he said.

The vetting process includes reviewing applicants' criminal histories and credit scores and conducting background investigations that include interviewing prior employers and other associates, which can take weeks. ICE also promised signing bonuses of up to $50,000, advertised that college degrees were not required and lowered the age of new recruits to 18.

An internal memo, first reported by Reuters in February, told ICE supervisors that if they receive “derogatory information about a newly hired employee’s conduct” they should refer the allegations to an internal affairs unit for investigation. Such information could include the employees’ termination or forced resignations, the memo said.

The DHS inspector general last August announced plans to audit ICE’s hiring and training processes, but no findings have been released.

Applicants have to get a security clearance

Recent job advertisements for deportation officers spell out the current qualifications, including that the person must be a U.S. citizen to apply and will have to pass a background investigation and a drug test.

New deportation officers also have to take a physical fitness test and be able to obtain and maintain a security clearance. Once hired, new deportation officers may have to serve a one-year probationary period.

According to the job advertisement, deportation officers are required to carry a firearm, which means anyone convicted of domestic violence is ruled out.

Applicants undergo a medical exam and should be prepared to possibly be polygraphed. The application cautions that any false statements on the application can translate into the job offer being pulled or, if the person has already started work, they can lose their job or go to prison.

The background investigation can include a credit check, reviews of any financial problems like failure to pay child support or taxes and a look at the person’s criminal and drug history.

Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former ICE official under the Obama, first Trump and Biden administrations, said hiring a new deportation officer is similar to any other federal hiring.

Generally, applications are reviewed by a hiring manager who decides which candidates to advance. Once someone gets a tentative offer, the agency conducts a background check.

When people are applying for jobs that involve getting a security clearance, Trickler-McNulty said, they have to disclose on their application any drug use, interactions with police, groups they’re affiliated with, mental health concerns, prior addresses and job history.

Depending on the clearance level, they’ll also ask for references that a background investigator will contact. If there’s red flag such as a DUI or a history of debt, that can trigger a deeper investigation.

“You want to make sure the person is appropriate for a public trust position,” she said.

Concerns over changes to ICE training schedule

Generally, new candidates for deportation officer positions have to go through a 50-day immigration law enforcement training program, according to the job advertisement.

Ryan Schwank, a former lawyer at ICE who was responsible for training new deportation officers, told The Associated Press that the agency reduced the overall amount of training new recruits received and reduced the testing needed to pass before graduating. Homeland Security has denied that it has removed any training requirements or lessened requirements for officers.

Trickler-McNulty said she has concerns over reports the agency shortened training as it was aiming to hire thousands of new officers. ICE officials revamped the training as part of efforts to swiftly hire and train an additional 10,000 deportation officers with an infusion of billions of dollars last summer from Congress.

At the time, the agency had about 6,500 deportation officers. That led to allegations that the department was cutting corners in an effort to get more officers in the field, which Homeland Security and ICE repeatedly denied.

In June, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the agency would be increasing the amount of training for new officers starting this month. In a statement Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security said all new academy training classes beginning July 1 will last for 71 days and officers who graduated under the previous curriculum would get more training under a separate field officer program.

The department also said it was adding new training in crowd control measures, high-risk vehicle stops, live-fire exercises and medical training, in response to what they called coordinated attacks against their officers and ICE facilities.

__

Associated Press reporter Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report from Phoenix.

The interim ceasefire agreed to last month has collapsed, and the region has endured days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran as they battle for control of the strait. Iranian officials say U.S. strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300 others, with new casualties reported in Friday's strikes.

When the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic, a move that sent the price of oil soaring and gave Iran major leverage in negotiations.

Speaking in a primetime address to the American public, Trump insisted the war was going well.

"We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will see the fruits of that labor very, very shortly," Trump said.

US airstrikes hit bridges in Iran

The U.S. airstrikes hit bridges overnight into Friday in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state television reported. The attacks hit Bandar Khamir, a city on Iran's coast on the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military's Central Command said it hit dozens of targets in its latest airstrikes, which concluded at dawn Friday, the sixth night in a row of American attacks.

Iranian state media said the U.S. strikes Thursday hit around Tehran and Semnan province, home to Iran’s ballistic missile production and space program.

On Friday, Qatar twice warned the public to take shelter as a barrage of Iranian missiles targeted the nation. People heard explosions overhead as air defenses fired to intercept the missiles. Qatar’s Interior Ministry said falling debris wounded a child.

Qatar is a key mediator with Pakistan in trying to reach an end to the Iran war. But talks have broken down over Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran earlier targeted Bahrain and Kuwait over U.S. airstrikes hitting bridges in the Islamic Republic overnight.

Strikes come Iran and US vie for Strait of Hormuz

Trump has returned in recent days to his threats to target Iranian power stations and bridges to try to compel Iran to loosen its hold on the strait, through which about a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. The U.S. also reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to halt its shipments of crude oil.

Week-to-week cargo shipments through the strait dropped by almost a quarter at the beginning of the month, according to Maritime data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. And that was before the recent surge in tit-for-tat attacks.

Given the risks, some oil shippers are transiting the strait with their location devices turned off, but many are just staying put, Lloyd’s said Thursday. A growing amount of the region’s energy is being shipped through pipelines, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in shipping through the strait.

U.S. forces have redirected three commercial vessels trying to run the blockade, disabled one that did not comply and boarded another “to ensure full compliance,” the U.S. military's Central Command said in a post on X.

___

Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Mae Anderson in New York and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Heavy, pungent wildfire smoke darkened skies in the U.S. from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility and prompting warnings that breathing the air outside could be dangerous.

Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. The National Weather Service said a lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground.

The Philadelphia region is experiencing smoky and hazy skies. The game's start was moved to 6:10 p.m. EDT from 7:10 p.m. It is the only game on the big league schedule coming out of this week's All-Star break.

“It’s definitely different,” Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper said on ESPN during the broadcasting of the game. “Not the greatest idea, I guess, to come out here and play in this type of weather, but we’re doing it.”

After his team’s 4-1 victory, Mets interim manager Andy Green was asked how the conditions affected the game.

“I don’t think they really did,” Green said. “I think it felt like they could have at any moment, especially as visibility got tougher. But, guys managed to see baseballs that I couldn’t when they went up in the air as popups. So, good thing we’ve got good athletes on the field that can see things.”

Phillies manager Don Mattingly said tracking fly balls later in the game seemed to become an issue.

“It didn’t seem to be a huge problem,” Mattingly said. "The vision, later on, was a little bit like foggy conditions more than the air quality. As far as the guys were concerned (visibility) seemed to be the problem.”

This is the second time wildfire smoke has affected a game in Philadelphia. In June 2023, a game between Detroit and Philadelphia was postponed due to poor air quality related to smoke from Canadian wildfires.

Poor air quality due to wildfire smoke also forced the Major League Soccer game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Fire at Chicago's Soldier Field, along with a scheduled postgame concert, to be postponed. The game, which was expected to draw 40,000, will be made up on Oct. 6.

Also, the Canadian Premier League postponed Thursday's scheduled game between Forge FC and Pacific FC that was to be played in Hamilton, Ontario, due to “worsening air quality issues.” The league said on its website that conditions “deteriorated in the final hours leading up to kickoff.”

Trinity Rodman, a member of the U.S. women's national team, said the smokey sky was difficult to deal with during Wednesday night's NWSL game between the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC at New York's Citi Field.

Rodman said she wasn't a fan of the hydration breaks every 15 minutes in the game as the temperature reached into the 90s.

“Air quality was rough,” Rodman was quoted as saying by The Athletic. “Not to make excuses at all, but I think on both sides we were all like, ‘another break, another break, another break.’”

A crowd of more than 42,000 attended the rematch of teams in last season's NWSL title game. The crowd was a record for a women’s sporting event in New York City.

“If we have to have a hydration break every 15 minutes, then we shouldn’t be playing the game, and that’s my opinion,” Rodman said. “But at the end of the day, there’s 40,000 people. It’s a whole event, so it’s really tough. It’s just a really hard situation for everyone to work around.”

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

One video posted on social media showed a man yelling and crying on the ground in Terminal 3 at Harry Reid International Airport on Monday when a man and a masked woman, both in plainclothes, tried to control, handcuff and detain him. When the pair realized they were being filmed, they walked away, leaving the man with a handcuff attached to one arm.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police found no outstanding warrants for the man, removed his handcuffs and notified ICE.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, ICE officers on Monday did not proceed with the arrest at the Las Vegas airport of Phu Nguyen, a 57-year-old citizen of Australia who overstayed his visa. ICE arrested him at his flight departing the Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security said.

“ICE is continuing to act with impunity — instilling fear in our communities and scaring tourists, which hurts our tourism economy,” Democratic U.S. Senator for Nevada Jacky Rosen said in a statement. “Enough is enough. ICE must follow the same commonsense guardrails as other law enforcement agencies."

The Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus and the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Caucus are calling for a full investigation into the aborted arrest by ICE at Harry Reid International Airport, urging Gov. Joe Lombardo to explain the transparency and accountability for federal law enforcement agencies operating in Nevada.

“I forget I am because I train around other fast people,” Bednarek said.

The 27-year-old won the silver medal in the men’s 200m at the last two summer Olympics. He also specializes in the 100m.

“It’s amazing to be fast.”

Bednarek is committed to his goals every single day. Even in the hot Florida sun, he is out on the track training for two hours, five days a week. Then, it’s a gym workout followed with recovery. And by then, it’s evening, and Bednarek has to start prepping for the next day.

“Most of the days when I have long days, it’s 9-6:30 for me,” Bednarek said. “Then, I can finally chill, and I am already thinking about the next day. Pretty much throughout the year, it’s 24/7; it’s a full-time job.”

Other athletes train and are experts in their craft but aren’t Olympians. So, what separates Bednarek from other athletes?

“Just finding that discipline in order to excel at what I do best,” Bednarek reflected. “That’s one of the main reasons why I have two Olympics now and a few World Championships and been at the top. Just taking care of my body.”

Next week, Bednarek will compete at the USA Track & Field National Championships in New York. But there’s a bigger goal on the horizon for Bednarek: the 2028 summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

“To be able to be in front of the home crowd and bring my family...I just can’t wait.”

Dozens of family members of the victims packed the courtroom as Chief Judge Paolo Lepri read the verdicts against 57 defendants, including former executives and officials. Many relatives broke down in tears as the sentences were read.

A representative for the families of the victims, Egle Possetti, expressed satisfaction with the verdicts, saying they showed “there were serious failures in management, and 43 people paid with their lives.”

The former chief executive of highway operator Autostrade per l'Italia, Giovanni Castellucci, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down after four hours of deliberation in the trial that spanned four years.

Castellucci’s lawyers said they would appeal, noting in a statement that as CEO, their client had relied on Italy’s leading engineers and suggesting that he had been scapegoated.

“The suffering caused by the Genoa tragedy is immense and deserves respect. But the gravity of the event requires justice to remain based on individual responsibility, not the search for a scapegoat,” they said in a statement.

Also convicted were Autostrade’s former head of maintenance, Michele Donferri Mitelli, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The former CEO of the SPEA engineering company, Antonino Galatà, received five years and six months.

The court says the bridge collapse was foreseeable

The most serious charges included negligence resulting in the collapse, aggravated manslaughter and vehicular homicide stemming from failures to properly monitor and maintain the bridge, which was part of a main route linking northern Italy with the French Riviera.

The court will issue its full reasoning within six months. But in a summary accompanying the verdict, it said the convictions were based on findings that identified a system of defects affecting one of the bridge’s stay cables and concluded that the collapse was “foreseeable and preventable.”

The court said that some defendants from the highway concession and its engineering subsidiary failed to carry out the requiring monitoring of the bridge, relying in part on a 1967 Ministry of Public Works circular, while some transport ministry had officials had failed to exercise proper oversight of Autostrade's safety monitoring.

In all, 32 people were convicted and handed sentences ranging from 1 year and 11 months to 12 years. The rest were either found not guilty, or lesser charges had expired under the statute of limitations.

Lawyer Raffaele Caruso expressed satisfaction that court had held people resonsible at the three main players: the highway concession, its engineering subsidiary and the transport ministry.

“What emerges is that this bridge did not collapse by chance — this bridge collapsed due to specific, precise, individualized, personalized, and specifically identified responsibilities," Caruso told a press conference. “There has been much talk about the construction defect ... But this does not rule out the existence of liability.”

Warning signs of defect were ignored

Shortly before noon on Aug. 14, 2018, a 200-meter (650-foot) section of Genoa’s Morandi highway bridge gave way during a rainstorm, sending dozens of vehicles plunging to the ground.

Images of the collapsed bridge were seen around the world and shocked Italians on one of Italy’s busiest travel days, as millions headed out for the traditional Aug. 15 Ferragosto holiday that marks the peak summer vacation season.

Prosecutors argued that years of maintenance neglect led to the collapse, and demanded combined sentences totaling nearly 400 years for all of the defendants. The defendants denied wrongdoing and say the fault was caused by a construction defect.

Considered an engineering marvel when it opened in 1967, the Morandi featured three A-shaped concrete pylons and concrete-encased stay cables.

Caruso said that the trial showed that warning signs about defects in the pylon that collapsed had existed for decades. He cited maintenance on the other two starting in 1993 that was never extended to the third.

“From 1993 onward, the problem was known. We had three identical pylons. Two had already shown the same defect, and no one seriously asked whether the third one had it as well,” Caruso said.

Autostrade had reached a deal to avoid trial

The current Autostrade chief executive, Arrigo Giana, issued a public apology Thursday in an open letter published in major Italian dailies.

“The actions and decisions of some people left indelible scars,’’ said Giana, who joined Autostrade as CEO last year. “Offering today the apology that was not made then is, for us, a moral imperative that goes beyond establishing legal responsibility and the course of justice toward the truth.”

Autostrade and its subsidiary reached a deal on corporate liability earlier in the proceedings, paying roughly 30 million euros ($34 million) in financial penalties. The agreement spared the companies from a trial as corporate defendants and potentially much harsher sanctions, including exclusion from public contracts.

The settlements were reached after the companies adopted new compliance procedures aimed at preventing similar accidents, and after victims were compensated.

A new bridge designed by Genoa-born Italian architect Renzo Piano opened in 2020, spanning a memorial to the victims of the Morandi Bridge collapse.

___

Barry reported from Milan.

___

This story corrects the number of convictions to 32.

Rescuers aboard boats and helicopters have saved more than 200 people, including stranded drivers and people trapped in homes, Abbott said.

The governor said the hardest-hit areas are expecting more rain into Friday and are not out of danger yet, with some rivers expected to reach historic levels.

After days of pounding rain, the National Weather Service said a large wave on Thursday barreled down the same river wrecked by flash floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors died at Camp Mystic.

Much like last year, the floods came in the middle of the night. But this time some residents in the Texas Hill Country said they received more warnings.

Forecasters urgently warned, “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour. Some spots of the Guadalupe River rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters).

The governor said more than 2,000 first responders had been deployed and some evacuations began before the worst of the flooding.

“What happened last year was a warning to people on or near rivers," Abbott said. “No one can be complacent.”

As much as 28 inches (74 centimeters) of rain fell over the past three days in Uvalde County, which was spared from the worst flooding a year ago, the weather service said Thursday. Other areas saw roughly a foot of rain.

Victims in Texas floods were swept away

The governor said one of the victims was driving on a flooded road and was swept away near Uvalde while the other died in Kerr County.

Jennie Steward said the body of her husband, 65-year-old John Mark Steward, of Kerrville, was found Thursday.

She was visiting her parents when a neighbor called overnight, saying her husband was missing after water had risen to the door of their mobile home, which stood off the ground.

The entire home was swept off the platform and floated down Goat Creek on the Guadalupe, she said.

“It’s really hard that I wasn’t there with him,” she said. The two last spoke by phone Wednesday to celebrate their third anniversary.

Hill Country residents say they were better prepared

The unfolding crisis brought back haunting memories of last summer's unimaginable Hill Country floods that killed more than 100 people over the July Fourth holiday.

“It’s crazy happening two times in one year,” said Josiah Rodriguez, who awoke to the sound of heavy rain around 2 a.m. Thursday in Kerrville. He navigated flooded roads to help evacuate relatives.

“Last year there was no warning of it,” he said. “It just kind of happened overnight and it took everyone by surprise. This year, a lot more alerts have gone into place, a lot more safety measures.”

Residents said they were caught off guard a year ago and didn’t receive any warning when floods overtopped the Guadalupe. Some local leaders were criticized for not acting quickly.

The storms and flooding this time threatened multiple counties close to the Mexico border and in the Hill Country near San Antonio. Roughly 6 million residents across Texas were under a flood watch this week, and many were expected to remain in effect into Friday.

Several agencies sent rescue helicopters to the flood zone, including Travis County in the state capital of Austin.

Residents rush animals and campers to higher ground

At a wild animal rescue, Katie Buck evacuated several dozen animals to higher ground in the dark Thursday as the normally dry Lazy Creek overflowed. She got all of the animals to safety, but flooding destroyed several enclosures at the Buck Wild Animal Rescue and Wildlife Rehab near Ingram in Kerr County.

“We were just starting to get back on our feet again,” Buck said. “To have to go through this again is just devastating.”

Residents at an RV park in Comfort moved their trailers as sirens sounded, manager Duke Earwood said.

Water rose over the hoods of vehicles parked near the river at the Comfort RV Resort. Markers showed the flooding already matched last July's big flood.

“Too familiar for sure, and too soon,” Earwood said.

Uvalde residents isolated by floodwaters

Floodwaters also overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off most outside routes. The Leona River, normally dry most of the year, filled streets with water.

“People really can’t get anywhere,” said Carmen Rodriguez, who nervously watched water engulf her neighborhood as a helicopter roared overhead. “We have a place to go, but all the streets are closed.”

Rodriguez said authorities seemed to be prepared, ordering mandatory evacuations and notifying people directly.

After staying up most of the night, Casy Sanford and her husband felt like things were OK at their home in Uvalde as the downpour and heavy winds let up. Texas Game Wardens were outside their door just a few hours later, evacuating the couple, Sanford’s son and three daughters, her mother-in-law and two dogs by boat Thursday morning.

Sanford said she felt “mere shock” as they left most everything and closed the door behind them, water seeping into the ground floor of the only home her little girls have known.

“My little one was scared. She kept grabbing my hand real tight,” Sanford said of her 8-year-old. “I’m not sure what we’ll see when we get back.”

Sanford later said a neighbor had visited her family’s home and found water had climbed as high as their kitchen counters.

Texas Game Wardens rescued close to 150 people by the afternoon, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson. Video released by the agency showed crews hoisting children from a house surrounded with water into a helicopter.

Uvalde resident Jose Maldonado said water reached the first step to the entrance of his RV on Wednesday and rose above the door on Thursday. Floodwaters took down nearby walls, moved cars, flipped a trailer and left behind debris, he said.

He and his wife planned to stay with his parents until they could return to clean up.

Flooding hasn't reached last year's deadly high

So far, the Guadalupe has remained below the record levels reached in 2025. Close to Camp Mystic, which hasn't reopened since last year's tragedy, the Guadalupe near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), which is enough to cause flooding, according to U.S. Geological Survey and National Water Prediction Service data.

In Kerr County, where summer camps dot the river's shores, the sheriff’s office said all campers were safe. Several camps said the children were staying inside, with one camp reporting normal flooding.

While the water didn’t rise as high as a year ago in Ingram, Mayor Claud Jordan believes this round of flooding was more widespread in his city.

“There are a bunch of businesses that haven’t reopened from last year,” Jordan said. “This doesn’t help.”

The Hill Country is especially prone to flash floods because the area’s signature limestone is covered by just a thin layer of soil. During heavy rains, water can quickly shoot downhill before filling the narrow river basins.

___

Stengle reported from Dallas and Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Michael Phillis in Washington; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas; Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Elon Musk, the company's founder and CEO, said two engines will be replaced “to be confident of a good flight” before sending Starship from Texas on a space-skimming journey halfway around the world. It will be the 13th flight for Starship, which at 407 feet (124 meters) tall with 33 main engines is the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.

SpaceX's launch webcast showed the start of engine ignition three seconds before the planned liftoff, viewed from a drone high above the pad. Although the company did not elaborate, onscreen data showed four engines not firing, with the remaining 29 engines immediately shutting down and keeping the rocket anchored to the pad. It was the first time a full-scale Starship experienced a last-second abort like this.

The launch team immediately began draining the fuel from the rocket.

"Most probable launch timing is early next week," Musk said via X.

Everything was going SpaceX's way, even the weather, until the partial engine ignition. In the end, the rocket’s automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have doomed the launch. Some earlier Starship flights ended in explosive fireballs.

Elon Musk's company had newest, most advanced Starlinks aboard

Twenty of SpaceX's newest and most advanced Starlinks were on board Starship for release during the planned hourlong flight from Starbase, the company's hub near the Texas-Mexico border. The internet satellites were going to try communicating with Starlinks already in orbit while taking photos of Starship's heat shield.

Neither the first-stage booster nor spacecraft were meant to be recovered, with both ending up in the sea.

The rocket's automatic launch system worked as planned by halting everything. Too few operating engines could have resulted in a failed launch. Some earlier Starship flights, for example, ended in explosive fireballs.

World's biggest rocket is key to putting astronauts back on the moon

NASA is counting on Starship to land its astronauts on the moon in the next few years. The space agency has hired SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to build and fly the lunar landers that will return humanity to the surface of the moon after an absence of more than half a century.

Both companies need to have their landers — Starship and Blue Moon — ready to fly by next year so that the newly named Artemis III crew can practice docking their capsule with them in orbit around Earth. The mission after that — Artemis IV planned for no earlier than 2028 — would use one of those landers to take two astronauts to the moon's south polar region.

___

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.

David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.

Brouillette’s troubling past further challenges how thoroughly the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

At least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched the crackdown after retaking office, including 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national who was shot and killed by Brouillette on Monday while in his car near his home in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford.

DHS, which hasn't released the name of the officer who killed Durán Guerrero, has said the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.”

Brouillette didn’t respond to text messages or an email seeking comment. Three relatives who said they had spoken to him since the shooting, including an ex-wife and daughter, said he told them he acted in self-defense.

When reached for comment about Brouillette's record and his role in Monday's shooting, ICE spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement that, “We will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers," and that “The ICE officer in question has nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training including use of force training.”

The White House referred all questions about the shooting and Brouillette to ICE.

A new career in ICE

Brouillette, 37, told his ex-wife Ashley Brouillette late last year that he had been hired by ICE. She said that because of his long history of psychiatric issues, she thought he was having a mental health episode and she didn't believe him. She didn’t realize he’d been telling the truth until this week, when videos began circulating online of the moments surrounding the shooting.

Ashley Brouillette told the AP that she spoke to her ex-husband in a Facebook audio call, and he acknowledged that he had killed Durán Guerrero. Their 18-year-old daughter, Madison Brouillette, also told the AP that her father called her Wednesday and said that he shot and killed Durán Guerrero.

David and Ashley Brouillette were high school sweethearts who got married in 2007. She said she divorced him in 2009 because he had become physically violent with her, which began after she got pregnant with their daughter.

According to Ashley Brouillette, he once threw boiling water at her while she was holding their child — an incident her mother Avis Collins also recounted.

The abuse continued after she left him, she said.

David Brouillette doesn't appear to have a criminal record in Maine, as a check with the Maine Department of Public Safety returned no records for him.

But hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk’s office detail years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters.

The ex-wife — whom the AP is not identifying because she fears retaliation — alleged that he had stalked and harassed her and physically and verbally abused his daughter, according to multiple requests for temporary protection orders. Brouillette tackled his teenage daughter and smashed spaghetti in her hair, and during another outburst, he dragged his daughter around the house as she cried, she said.

“Dave needs counseling or something for his PTSD & depression,” she wrote in an application for a temporary protective order on behalf of his teenage daughter which a judge granted in 2021.

In court filings, David Brouillette said that his second ex-wife had slandered him.

His oldest daughter, Madison Brouillette, said she also witnessed her dad’s volatility.

“I watched my dad struggle a lot with a lot of things,” she told the AP. She said she came home from school once and he told her he had been sitting on a tree stump with a gun to his head.

“If you don’t really, truly take care of yourself, there’s no way you can protect other people. And with my dad, he never wanted to get help,” she said.

An immediate relative of David Brouillette who spoke on the condition that their name not be used said he was diagnosed with severe bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder as a child — a diagnosis that Ashley Brouillette confirmed. The immediate relative described him as “extremely mentally ill" and said he attempted suicide twice at age 12 and was hospitalized multiple times.

The relative said they've been estranged for years, after they broke off contact because they feared he would harm them. He did not respond to their outreach this week, the relative added.

A military deployment and law enforcement aspirations

Growing up in Gardiner, a city of about 6,000 people roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) northeast of Biddeford, where Monday's shooting occurred, David Brouillette was enchanted by law enforcement and the military, his relatives said.

High school yearbook photos show he was a member of the school’s Naval Junior ROTC, and he wrote that he planned to go to college and become a police officer.

Brouillette was initially rejected by military recruiters because of his mental health diagnoses, but recruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did, his immediate relative said.

He was eventually able to enlist.

According to U.S. military records, Brouillette enlisted as a chemical equipment repairer in the Maine Army National Guard but then changed jobs to be a medical logistics specialist. He was in the Guard from November 2007 until January 2010, according to records provided by the Pentagon.

A 2009 article in the Kennebec Journal listed Brouillette as a private in the Maine Army National Guard’s 152nd Maintenance Company in Augusta.

In January 2010 he joined the regular Army as a human intelligence collector. Brouillette deployed to Afghanistan from May 2012 to February 2013 and eventually left the Army as a sergeant in December 2015.

His immediate relative believes Brouillette's time abroad worsened his emotional struggles: “Afghanistan destroyed him -- trained him to be a killing monster, a machine. They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine.”

Life after the Army

After his discharge, Brouillette held a hodgepodge of jobs — some in or adjacent to law enforcement — and was injured in an accident while training to become a firefighter, public records and court documents show.

Brouillette worked for the Maine Correctional Center — a medium-security prison — and for the state’s Health and Human Services Department, spending less than a year at each.

In 2019, court documents show, he was a police officer at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center near the state capital, Augusta. A Veterans Affairs department spokesperson on Thursday referred questions about Brouillette’s employment to DHS.

But by the end of 2021, he wrote in a text message included in court filings, he was broke, going to school full-time and making money delivering food for DoorDash.

Brouillette was enrolled in a firefighting program at Southern Maine Community College and was struck in the head by a steel beam while unloading a trailer at a training facility, according to a lawsuit he filed over his injury.

He sustained a concussion and post-concussive syndrome, with symptoms including impaired memory, cognitive deficits, headaches, vertigo and light sensitivity, and was unable to complete the program, according to the lawsuit, which was settled out of court.

In recent years, court filings show, he was collecting disability pay through the VA. He also drove a truck, but quit in January 2025, citing health issues.

In March 2025, Brouillette passed an exam to become a real estate sales agent. His license was active until December. In a Facebook post, Realty of Maine announced Brouillette would be working in the firm’s Bangor office.

“David lives in Maine after retiring from the United States Army,” said the post, which has since been deleted. Brouillette is no longer listed as an agent on the firm’s website. Messages seeking comment were left for Realty of Maine.

In March, the Maine agency that handles child support matters filed a lien against him, public records show. The filing suggests that Brouillette may have been in line for a permanent impairment or disability settlement.

‘I don’t think he sees himself as a killer’

In late 2025, around the time he joined ICE, his ex-wife Ashley said he left a three-minute voicemail mocking her for taking out a restraining order against him. According to the message she shared with AP, he repeatedly called her “disgusting” and suggested that she and the other women and girls in her “bloodline” should die.

“And all of you should have your f——--g throats cut,” the voicemail said. “Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I’m gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f——-g throats cuts? Or should have had them cut? Yep.”

She said she cut off contact with him until Wednesday, when his picture began circulating online.

Ashley Brouillette reached out to his current wife on Facebook and they spoke on the phone for several minutes. Her ex-husband spoke with her, according to cellphone screenshots of the phone exchange she shared with the AP. He acknowledged he had fatally shot Durán Guerrero.

“He was asking if I could tell them that he was a good person and not to talk about the abuse and stuff that I had endured while with him and he said that the most important thing is his character right now,” she said.

She said he told her he is now hiding in protective custody.

“I asked him why he did it,” she said. “He said it was a justified shooting. The guy was trying to run him over with a car.”

His daughter also said he told her it was justified.

“I don’t think he sees himself as a killer,” Madison Brouillette said.

“I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing,” she added. “All he said was that he did what he had to do. He said that he had to protect himself.”

___

This story was updated to correct that that Gardiner is northeast of Biddeford.

___

Brook reported from New Orleans, Sisak reported from New York and Galofaro reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press reporter Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Brook 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.

According to the arrest affidavit, deputies responded on Wednesday afternoon to the crash near Golden Dewdrop Trail and Black Rail Street.

Investigators said the child told a deputy that a Ford Explorer ran a stop sign, turned, and traveled into the opposite lane before striking the child’s e-bike. The child said he was able to jump into the grass, but the vehicle hit his leg and the bike.

“[NAME REDACTED] advised the vehicle hit his leg, and the e-bike,” according to a criminal complaint for Hoole. “[NAME REDACTED] began recording while notifying Gregory he was calling the police.”

The affidavit states the child also reported the driver “smack[ed]” his arm, grabbed his cellphone and smashed it on the ground. The child’s parents told deputies they wanted to press charges and estimated the damaged phone — described as an iPhone 15 Pro Mini — and equipment totaled about $700.

[RELATED: McDonald’s employee pulls knife on customer during French fry fracas, police say]

Per the child’s parents, there had been an ongoing issue with the neighbor ever since an “incident with fireworks” on the Fourth of July.

Deputies also reviewed video surveillance from another neighbor, which they said showed a dark-colored Ford Explorer run a stop sign at Black Rail Road and Golden Dewdrop Trail, turn quickly, travel briefly in the opposite lane, and stop abruptly.

The suspect — identified as Gregory Richard Hoole, 44 — accused the child of harassing his household before the incident, the arrest affidavit shows.

Deputies said Hoole called 911 to report a “strong-arm robbery” and told them someone had rang his doorbell three times, though no one was there when the door was opened.

“Gregory advised they scared everyone in the residence,” the complaint says.

Hoole claimed a home camera later captured someone wearing a helmet and reflective vest, though that person ran back to an e-bike. When Hoole later returned to the neighborhood, he saw someone who appeared to be the same child.

[RELATED: Lakeland middle school administrator arrested during traffic stop on I-4]

That’s when Hoole reportedly pulled over to confront the juveniles about “harassing” his family, though they denied it, instead cussing and alleging that he’d tried to run them over, the affidavit says.

“Same juveniles got aggressive in his face with above camera,” the affidavit reads. “Gregory snatched his cellphone without touching them and smashed the cellphone in the street and went home.”

As a result, Hoole was taken to the Orange County Jail, the affidavit states. Hoole now faces charges of aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, child abuse, and criminal mischief.

Speaking in front of the judge for Hoole’s first appearance Thursday, Hoole’s attorney argued that his client’s truck never made contact with the child or the e-bike.

“There’s just some inconsistencies here, Your Honor,” the attorney said. “There is no damage to Mr. Hoole’s vehicle or the e-bike that’s even listed here in the police report.”

The complaint does state that Hoole acknowledged smashing the cellphone, but his attorney quibbled over the true cost of the phone.

On Thursday, a judge granted total bond of $7,650 for all three charges.

According to an investigation conducted by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, former police chief Michael Giddens was being investigated for having sex, while on duty, with a woman who was the estranged wife of the suspect in a criminal investigation.

The report also reveals a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation that started in November of 2025, a month after Giddens was sworn in as Howey-in-the-Hills police chief.

The report says Giddens, while he was a lieutenant, was investigating a man for contractor fraud when the suspect stopped communicating with him. In March of 2025, Giddens began reaching out to the suspect’s estranged wife to try to locate the suspect.

According to the report, Giddens and the woman had sex twice while he was on duty at a hotel in Lady Lake. The report also says Giddens continued to talk to the woman via WhatsApp, even after she began to divorce her husband and date someone else.

The woman said the sex was consensual, and she never felt that Giddens was harassing her or cyberstalking her, according to the FDLE report. She didn’t want him to get in trouble.

However, on May 4, 2026, Giddens was put on administrative leave because the town had received an anonymous complaint regarding his conduct.

After receiving the FDLE report on May 29, the town manager asked the Lake County Sheriff’s Office to conduct an internal affairs investigation, based on allegations of improper conduct.

Giddens resigned on June 3. Because of that, he will not be penalized by Howey-in-the-Hills.

Now that the internal investigation is finished, the findings will be submitted to FDLE’s professional-compliance staff for review and to determine if any action is taken.

The ceremony for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national who was fatally shot last Tuesday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while driving his construction crew to a job site in Houston, comes amid mounting scrutiny of President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown. Encounters with ICE have resulted in at least 10 deaths since the start of Trump's second term last year — two of which happened in the days after a federal agent killed Salgado Araujo.

“My family would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the unbelievable and incredible support we have received,” Salgado Araujo's son, Ronaldo Salgado, said in a Facebook post Thursday.

Salgado Araujo, 52, who had no criminal record, had lived in the U.S. for 35 years.

In the fallout of the shooting, three men whom Salgado Araujo was driving when he was killed have adamantly disputed the government's official account.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said Salgado Araujo had rammed an ICE vehicle, and that a federal agent fired a weapon in self-defense. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration crackdown, said Wednesday that the state’s top law enforcement unit would investigate the fatal shooting.

More than a week after the shooting, new court records show the FBI is investigating whether drugs were found in the van, according to a search warrant application signed by a federal judge on Tuesday.

FBI Special Agent David McNeilly stated in an affidavit that he observed four plastic bags of a white substance appearing to be meth inside the van. DHS has not stated that suspected drugs were the reason why ICE officers engaged in the traffic stop. The FBI referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz emphasized in a recorded video statement on Thursday that all information was preliminary and not conclusive.

“We are doing everything we can to seek the truth and do the right thing,” Reitz said. “In the meantime, I encourage the public to give the FBI and DHS the opportunity to investigate.”

An attorney for Salgado Araujo's brother, who was in the van when the agent killed Salgado Araujo and who was subsequently detained by ICE, said that the powder is a homemade electrolyte mix that the construction crew used to stay hydrated while working outside in the grueling Texas heat.

Ruby L. Powers, the attorney for Salgado Araujo’s brother, in a statement called for officials to test the substance to establish that it isn't an illicit substance.

“But no test result, whatever it ultimately shows, will change the fact that deadly force was used against Lorenzo,” Powers said. “You cannot shoot first and ask questions later.”

—

Riddle reported from Los Angeles.

Blanche spent about an hour at Justice Department headquarters in Washington with the group of Epstein accusers, who have criticized the Trump administration's handling of the disgraced financier's investigation and a trove of files related to his sex trafficking case.

After the meeting, Blanche told reporters that he encouraged the accusers to come to the FBI with any information that could help investigators build cases against additional figures tied to Epstein.

But Blanche acknowledged he couldn't assure them additional prosecutions could be brought. The Justice Department has repeatedly said it will investigate further if new information surfaces, but the government doesn’t currently have evidence to support prosecutions against others in Epstein's orbit.

“It wasn’t all cordial,” Blanche said of Thursday’s meeting. “Because there’s something that they want that I don’t think I can give them, which is some form of justice. And I want to be able to give justice in the form of prosecutions, and maybe we can do a prosecution at some point,” Blanche said.

But Blanche added, “I don’t know.”

The political firestorm over Epstein has been a persistent headache for the Trump administration, which released millions of investigative documents over the last year in response to right-wing clamoring for answers about the disgraced financier's crimes and connections to high-profile people.

One accuser is disappointed in Blanche meeting

One accuser, Dani Bensky, expressed frustration after the meeting, saying Blanche appeared to treat it as “a mere ‘check-the-box’ exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation.”

"He danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust," she said in an emailed statement. She said Blanche offered “no credible plan to investigate and pursue accountability" beyond Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

Earlier Thursday, Bensky told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee that women harmed by Epstein repeatedly asked to meet with Blanche “through multiple channels and he never responded.”

“We deserve to be heard directly, not dismissed and ignored,” Bensky said.

Blanche has pushed back on suggestions that the Justice Department has been dismissive of the Epstein's accusers, saying officials have spoken with more than 30 representatives of the women over the course of their sweeping review of the files.

“The Department of Justice will always meet with victims or their representatives, and if those victims or their representatives have evidence that anybody committed a crime — whether it has to do with Jeffrey Epstein or anybody else — we will of course move forward and investigate and prosecute,” Blanche told reporters.

Blanche needs key Republican support to get confirmed

The meeting came hours after Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said it needed to happen before Blanche could earn his vote.

Without Tillis’ support, Blanche’s nomination won’t make it through the Senate Judiciary Committee, which questioned Blanche for hours Wednesday about the Epstein files as well as the creation of a fund to compensate President Donald Trump’s allies, a tax immunity deal for the president and a slew of other issues.

Another Republican, Sen. John Cornyn, has also expressed concern over the fund and has said he remains undecided about his vote.

Tillis indicated during Blanche’s confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was leaning toward backing Blanche, who has been leading the department in an acting capacity since April. But after lawmakers heard Bensky's testimony, Tillis said he expected a meeting between victims and Blanche to occur before he’s “willing to vote out of this committee.”

Tillis later Thursday commended Blanche for holding the meeting, writing in a social media post, “I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them.”

After missteps by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi that enraged Trump's base, Blanche as deputy attorney general oversaw a massive review and the release of millions of files related to the investigation into Epstein. The case has captivated internet sleuths and conspiracy theorists for years, in part because of Epstein's connections to other powerful individuals.

Blanche has also defended the department's staggered release of the Epstein files, a process beset by problems, including redaction errors that left exposed nude photos showing the faces of potential victims.

Blanche said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday that he takes responsibility for mistakes that were made, but noted that department lawyers were given a "herculean task” to quickly review millions of files for release. Blanche said department lawyers took pains to protect the women involved, and quickly fixed any errors that were found.

“I am sorry that in about 1% of the documents mistakes were made,” Blanche said Wednesday. “But what I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately, including pulling down documents within minutes of being informed that there were mistakes.”

The dangerous flooding for a second consecutive year set off hundreds of high-water rescues, washed out roads and killed at least two people, authorities said. Relentless downpours served as another frightening reminder of the flood-prone Texas Hill Country, following what experts say was fueled this time by the right mix of air and lots of available moisture.

“Last year, it was one big wave that came through. And it wiped everything out, and then it receded, and then we could deal with the damage. This time, we’re on day three of heavy rain and everything keeps continuing to rise, and it’s expected to rain today and tonight,” said Suzanne Sutphin Gschwind of Kerrville, where some of the worst flooding took place.

Hot weather over the middle of the continental United States ensured storms that formed would move slowly, and rounds of rain over roughly the last three days at times reached several inches an hour. The flooding is “about as bad as it gets” — conditions that are typically rare, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“Obviously, something like this doesn’t occur every year, but it has occurred over two years in a row and it has occurred over a region that is prone to flash flooding by its topography,” Oravec said.

Nearly 1 trillion gallons of water fell on the three hardest-hit counties in Texas over three days — Uvalde County alone got more rain in that period than California has seen over the last month, according to Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

Flooding over the Fourth of July weekend last year killed more than 100 people, including roughly two dozen children and camp counselors at Camp Mystic, a now-shuttered Christian camp for girls. These storms dumped rain on a wider area, overlapping with some of the places where floodwaters overturned cars, ripped down trees and sent rescuers hustling to save lives last July.

A local official in Travis County, which includes Austin, said people were trapped on barn roofs and in trees. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said drones and helicopters were airborne for rescues.

"We are looking at every square inch of the entire area for anybody who may be stranded anywhere. And there will be help coming very rapidly to whoever may be displaced, wherever they are,” Abbott said.

The flood in Texas Hill Country

The rain hit Texas Hill Country, a part of central and south Texas with steep terrain. Shallow soil covers limestone hills that have been soaked for days. Instead of the land absorbing the water, it shoots into rivers with steep banks.

That causes water to rise fast, a dangerous scenario that catches people by surprise.

When rivers rise so fast “it’s almost like a river tsunami,” said Tyler Roys, a senior meteorologist with the forecasting company AccuWeather. These conditions are so deadly because water is heavy and moves quickly. Just one cubic foot of water — imagine a box a bit larger than the size of a basketball — weighs about 62 pounds (28 kilograms).

Compared to last year's flood, the rain fell hard, but in some places it wasn't quite as intense and rivers in many places didn't rise quite as quickly, Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said. Plus, the previous days of rain previewed the flood threat.

“This one is producing greater overall precipitation totals, but it is mostly doing it with lower rain rates. They are still fairly high, but they aren't as high as they were last year," he said.

While swollen from rainfall, so far Guadalupe River levels have largely remained below record levels, some of which were reached during last year’s deadly floods. The river did surpass last year's mark at the small community of Comfort, rising to 37 feet (11.3 meters) early Thursday, a mark 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) higher than it reached last year. At its height then, water weighing as much as the Empire State Building flowed downstream roughly every minute.

The river's record at this spot is 42.3 feet (12.9 meters) set in 1869.

Climate change and forecasting

It is difficult, especially as storms are happening, to know whether climate change has made the event more likely or worse.

Oravec said that the conditions that created this storm — hot air that steers and slows storms — have long occurred, but that climate change could make these conditions more common. A warmer atmosphere also has the potential to hold more moisture and heavier rains.

Last year's flooding did raise awareness of the dangers floods create, especially when they occur at night, Oravec said.

“I think overall it has been a good forecast. The effects are catastrophic, but the signal was there for potential heavy rainfall,” he said.

___

Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.

___

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

The proposal could cost homeowners up to $579 per year for a standard single-family home. If Florida’s proposed property tax amendment passes, Deltona projects it could face a nearly $18 million shortfall in its first year after the amendment is fully implemented — a number that would grow annually.

The steep price tag is already drawing reaction from residents. “I think it’s wrong,” said George. “Like people say, don’t count your chickens before they hatch because you don’t know the end result.”

The fee would not fall solely on homeowners. Commercial properties, churches, other tax-exempt sites and vacant land would also be assessed, with amounts determined by property size and improvements.

For some residents, the added cost feels ill-timed. “Everyone is struggling right now,” one resident said. “It’s hard to do anything — just buying food and gas. So that would be a lot.”

Even if the property tax reform does not pass in November, the fire assessment fee would remain in place, as it would already be built into the city’s approved budget. City officials say they could lower the millage rate to help offset some of the additional cost to residents — a discussion also expected Monday night.

The Sept. 15 deadline for cities to submit their budgets is driving the urgency behind this week’s vote.

It halted work on major projects, and it's buying back leases, citing national security concerns. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says a classified report from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth proves offshore wind is a national security threat.

This comes against the backdrop of the Republican president's hatred of wind turbines and desire to boost fossil fuels for “energy dominance” in the global market. National lab estimates show that turbines installed along the U.S. coasts could provide more than enough power to cover the nation's annual electricity consumption.

Wind turbines interfere with radar, but that isn't a new problem. The Pentagon reviews wind farm construction plans and can deem areas off limits. There are upgrades to radar to mitigate turbine impacts.

Here’s what to know about the national security implications of offshore wind development:

Turbines’ spinning blades can create false targets on radar screens

Burgum says he’s worried about autonomous drones going through a wind tower field undetected because of radar interference. And, he said, the vibration of wind towers could affect undersea sonar.

Radar systems can be adjusted to raise the threshold for what's considered a detection but may miss actual targets consequently, according to the Department of Energy.

Kirk Lippold, a national security expert and former commander of the USS Cole, said radar operators are trained to differentiate a live track — anything from a boat or a submarine periscope to an inbound drone or missile — from clutter. If drones aren't detected before they reach a wind farm, “we have bigger national security issues,” he said.

Trump administration says there are new risks

According to the Department of Justice, defense officials gave the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management classified information in November 2025 detailing new national security risks from offshore wind projects.

BOEM halted construction on five big East Coast projects days before Christmas. Burgum said they had to address the rapid evolution of relevant adversary technologies and vulnerabilities created by these projects near East Coast cities. This came after courts blocked Trump's efforts to halt development through executive action.

Like the United States, Sweden is raising security concerns with offshore wind energy. Officials said Thursday they're approving two offshore wind farms while rejecting 11 others.

Green Power Sweden CEO Nils Grunditz said he questions why Sweden is scaling back its offshore wind plans when technological solutions for radar interference are used elsewhere in the region. Denmark has been a pioneer in wind energy since building the first offshore wind farm in 1991.

The UK government said in March it bought new air defense radars to mitigate against anomalies created by offshore wind farms, touting it as new technology that secures coexistence of air defense and offshore wind. The independent climate change think tank E3G said North Sea turbines can be a defense asset, for example by including surveillance and monitoring equipment.

Judges were not convinced by the Trump administration

Developers impacted by the construction freeze and states sued. The DOJ argued national security concerns are paramount and federal courts do not second-guess military officials’ assessment of these risks.

Federal judges reviewed the classified information and allowed all five wind farms to resume construction.

At the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Senior Judge Royce Lamberth expressed concern that the stated national security reasoning may have been “pretextual,” to mask the true motives for stopping offshore wind.

In putting a major wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut back on track in January, Lamberth said the government did not apply the newly discovered concerns specifically to that project, Revolution Wind, Burgum publicly criticized offshore wind around the time of the stop work order for reasons unrelated to national security, and BOEM waited to act until December on information it received in November.

The Pentagon is also holding up the development of onshore wind farms, and the administration has used emergency orders to keep fossil fuel plants online. On Thursday, attorneys general from 18 states and Washington moved to intervene in a lawsuit to try to advance the onshore wind farms.

Meghan Greenfield, a partner at Jenner & Block LLP in Washington, said the administration is making a national security argument in so many different contexts, “it has caused increased skepticism by the courts.”

A retired Navy officer is suspicious of the administration's motives

In buying back offshore wind leases, the Interior Department cited national security concerns with the projects, including those off California. The Interior Department said Thursday there were serious national security risks that demanded immediate attention, and it won't let “reckless projects create higher utility costs, a weakened energy system and unnecessary harm to the environment.” Several states are suing.

Retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn knows the waters off California's shore well. He commanded the fleet responsible for naval operations across the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean. He said there's no “showstopping national security issue” that would invalidate years of analysis of the lease areas.

McGinn said he thinks the administration is maximizing the risks and costs of offshore wind while minimizing the benefits to justify pursuing more fossil fuels and “it doesn't pass commonsense tests.” Offshore wind produces electricity cleanly. Oil, coal and natural gas emit carbon pollution when burned.

McGinn, who served as an assistant secretary of the Navy, said that radar interference is a problem recognized early on and adequately addressed and that thousands of turbines are operating across Europe and Asia.

“National security and offshore wind are compatible, if it is done right, in the right locations,” he said.

Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth disagrees. A distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation, Furchtgott-Roth said the defense issues have been known for decades, the military's views should be taken very seriously, the nation shouldn't be dependent on Chinese-made turbines, and gas, coal and nuclear provide affordable, reliable power. The administration is acting prudently, she said.

Members of Congress were briefed

Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said he participated in a classified briefing months ago and didn't find the reasoning compelling. Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is trying to include a measure in the defense bill that sets military policy to force a 180-day deadline for a military office known as the siting clearinghouse to evaluate wind projects and explain its conclusion.

“They have to be able to produce a thoughtful and thorough analysis which justifies their decision,” Reed said Wednesday. "That’s the way to go.”

Even with that step, Reed said, this administration finds many ways to stop things it doesn't like and he expects the campaign against wind energy to continue.

___

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

Another defeat in the semifinals. Another defeat from a winning position.

The English media was predictably critical of coach Thomas Tuchel after Wednesday's 2-1 loss to Argentina.

“Same old story” read one headline. Another declared that “Tuchel just shrank."

Tuchel, a serial trophy-winning coach with Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich, was hired to put a second star on England's jersey and end the decades-long wait for a first trophy since the World Cup in 1966.

The wait goes on.

Former England captain Gary Lineker raised the question about Tuchel's future, saying he was "brought in specifically to take us over the line.”

“Is he the right man to take us forward?" Lineker said on his Netflix show ‘The Rest is Football.’ "He just got it so wrong in the big moment."

Tuchel's predecessor, Gareth Southgate, was credited with making England fans fall back in love with the men's national team after years of underachievement. He reached back-to-back European Championship finals but ultimately fell short, with his supposed cautious approach said to have cost England in clutch matches.

Southgate's substitutions were criticized as well as his tactics when England relinquished leads against Croatia in the World Cup semifinals in 2018 and Italy in the final of the Euros three years later.

There was criticism of the English soccer federation's decision to turn to a German, but Tuchel, a Champions League winner, was supposed to be difference maker in those key moments.

Leading 1-0 going into the 85th minute and in a defensive shell, England saw its hopes shattered on Argentina goals from Enzo Fernandez and substitute Lautaro Martinez.

“It’s a real panic. You can’t go a goal up and then surrender the ball and surrender any opportunity of trying to get the second goal," former England captain Wayne Rooney told the BBC. ”I just think the decisions Thomas Tuchel made, and I think we have to be honest on this, have cost us tonight."

Lineker said Tuchel's tactics and substitutions after going 1-0 up “made zero sense to me.”

Tuchel, who signed a two-year contract extension ahead of the World Cup, stood by his decisions.

“As soon as you lose, you get criticized. It’s just what it is,” Tuchel said. "No one knows what would have happened if I had made different decisions so it makes no sense to engage in that and lose my head.

“I’m responsible for them. I took them, so I take the criticism. That’s just the way it is.”

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said shortly after the loss that it is “heartbreaking to be so close.”

“The players and Thomas gave it everything today and the squad, coaches and staff could not have worked harder during the tournament,” he said in a statement. “I would like to thank them all — and also give my heartfelt thanks to our wonderful fans here in the USA and at home. We felt your support every step of the way and we are all so disappointed not to go further.”

England will face France in the third-place game on Saturday in Miami.

Defeat to defending champion Argentina continued a pattern for the England men at the World Cup.

It has not beaten one of the traditional major nations at soccer's biggest tournament since the 1-0 win over Argentina in the group stage in 2002. Before that, England beat France in the group stage in 1982.

Knockout eliminations have come at the hands of Argentina and Germany on three occasions each, Brazil, Portugal and France. There was also the 2018 semifinals defeat to Croatia, a team that has never won a major trophy.

Tuchel, however, does not buy into the narrative that repeated failure is a specifically English problem.

“I love to see these things in a football matter and through football glasses. So first of all I always think it’s solvable on the football field,” he said. “I don’t believe so much in an English thing or in a curse or whatever or history repeating itself.”

Britain and Ireland are co-hosting Euro 2028.

"I have a contract until the home Euros, and I’m looking forward to that, even if right now it is difficult to look that far ahead,” Tuchel said.

___

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

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The move announced Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and other institutions to get news from top Truth Social contributors in milliseconds so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates.

Called Truth PSI, the new service comes amid a flurry of other deals by Trump and his family company that critics say are exploiting the presidency for profit. It follows similar offers of paid access on rival platforms, though with one key difference: The most popular Truth Social poster is the president himself and, as the biggest shareholder of the public traded parent company, would directly benefit.

“He’s selling expedited, privileged access to information about what he is doing as president,” said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government conflicts of interest rules. “It’s yet more brazen corruption, an improper exploitation of government power to enrich himself.”

The Trump family company declined to comment about whether the new feature is profiting off the presidency. Truth Social's public parent, Trump Media & Technology, did not respond to emailed questions, including whether the president's posts will be excluded from the offering.

A press release states it would allow traders to see “the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts” ahead of others. The president has the most followers — 12.9 million — followed by his oldest son, Don Jr. and, close behind, his son Eric.

The release did not say how much customers would be charged.

In the past few months, Trump has announced major decisions and musings on his platform including posts about the Iran war, tariffs and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in U.S. cities. The Iran posts in particular are impactful because investors are worried that higher oil prices will continue to stoke inflation and possibly force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Stock in Trump Media & Technology has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year, erasing $6 billion in shareholder wealth. Those losses, along with billions more of investor losses tied to new Trump family crypto businesses, have drawn scrutiny after Trump's annual disclosure of his financial holdings shows he took in more than $1 billion in revenue last year in the same companies and offerings.

Conflict of interest laws would bar U.S. government officials from owning a company that profits off their office by selling access to their decisions through public posts, says Washington University's Clark. But the president and vice-president, she notes, are excluded from the provision.

Despite that, all presidents since the law was passed decades ago have acted as if it applied — selling individual stocks, dumping business holdings or putting their financial assets in a blind trust so they wouldn’t know what was being bought and sold on their behalf while they wielded power — but Trump has refused.

Trump Media has been trying to lift its stock price recently by branching into various businesses, including crypto, financial services and even nuclear fusion. It recently replaced its longtime CEO, former Congressman Devin Nunes, with a seasoned media executive, Kevin McGurn.

In the release, McGurn described the Truth PSI move as part of a “strategy to monetize proprietary assets." He added that he expected it to become a "meaningful, ongoing source of revenue.”

Trump Media said that it plans to start the service next month and that it has already signed up customers.

The stock rose 0.6% to $9.63 on Thursday. Before Trump took office last year, it closed at $40.

But just months into Mullin's time in office, the department is squarely in the center of controversy again after three people were killed in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the span of less than a week.

The events are the first major test for Mullin, who promised a steady hand for a department roiled by his predecessor's conduct and the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. New revelations about one of the officers involved could add further scrutiny.

As he navigates the uptick in violence, Mullin is being forced into a balancing act that has him juggling pressures from a White House eager to carry out mass deportations and his former colleagues in Congress seeking answers — all while attempting to ease tensions in American cities over the deaths.

“When he took his position, Secretary Mullin said that his goal was to get the department off the front page of the news,” Democratic Rep. Seth Magaziner said on the House floor Tuesday. Then, waving a newspaper, he said: “Well, you’re back on the goddamn front page now."

Mullin's approach is a marked change from his predecessor, Kristi Noem

Mullin, a former senator from Oklahoma, was a surprise pick to run the sprawling department after Noem was fired in the wake of two deadly shootings of American protesters at the hands of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis earlier this year.

As the secretary in charge of carrying out the administration's mass deportations vision, Noem pushed an aggressive style of immigration enforcement where she was front and center, including most famously, a visit to a Salvadoran detention center. She was quick to speak publicly on controversial events, weighing in on both Minneapolis shootings with statements accusing the killed protesters of being agitators.

President Donald Trump, who made mass deportations a central promise of his second administration, ultimately soured on Noem over a $200 million ad campaign and her handling of the Minneapolis operation.

Mullin promised a different approach, while still pledging to deliver on the president's priorities. His first trip as secretary was not to promote immigration enforcement but to observe hurricane recovery efforts in North Carolina. Noem frequently went out on immigration raids with her officers — Mullin has not.

Since he became secretary and in the aftermath of the Minneapolis violence, the administration has also moved away from high-profile and unpopular immigration operations in American cities to a quieter approach to enforcement that has largely shifted media attention away from the crackdown. Under Mullin, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also retreating from a plan to use warehouses to detain migrants.

But immigration arrests continue under Mullin and often with little fanfare: ICE arrested 10,000 people over a five-day period in late June, averaging out to about to 2,000 arrests per day. And legal pathways to immigration have also faced new restrictions.

Trump, during Mullin's tenure, has hailed the secretary as “so incredible,” and “amazing,” lauding him for giving up his Senate seat to run DHS.

For months, it appeared as though Mullin's change in approach was taking hold. While advocates and civil rights activists accused the department of mistreating immigrants under his leadership, Mullin's less confrontational approach seemed to keep the department out of the spotlight.

ICE-related deaths bring renewed spotlight to Mullin and DHS

But the events of the past week have posed a new challenge for Mullin as he walks a tightrope between his softer approach and the president's demands.

“Trying to deal with competing policy objectives is a challenge for any Cabinet secretary, but Mullin has this worse than most,” said Tom Warrick, a former counterterrorism official at Homeland Security who’s now at the Atlantic Council.

“In the case of Homeland Security, the White House wants both to meet their immigration quotas at the same time that they keep public trust, and how you do that — even with the funding that Mullin has — is a really difficult challenge."

ICE officers in Houston and Maine shot and killed individuals in their cars during immigration operations. In Florida, a man fleeing ICE officers was killed in a car crash.

Mullin has not spoken publicly about the deaths while the department’s public affairs office has released only brief statements following each.

Behind the scenes, Mullin, who frequently talks about how he shares his cellphone number with members of Congress and encourages them to call him directly, has talked with lawmakers and shared information, including talking with both senators from Maine.

And after the second shooting death in Maine, as criticism surged from both protesters and Mullin's former colleagues in Congress, ICE was ordered to suspend most vehicle stops.

Trump heaps pressure on Mullin over vehicle stop order

That decision infuriated Trump's supporters.

Conservative influencer Nick Sorter called it a “TOTAL CAPITULATION to the left," in a post on X. Conservative activist Mike Davis accused Mullin of heeding the advice of Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who said she'd suggested the vehicle stop pause to the secretary.

A day later, Trump appeared to contradict the guidance to ICE, saying in a social media post “we must be strong, tough and smart and we CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”

Mullin then reposted Trump's words, adding that people in the country would be “arrested and deported wherever they are." He later said on X that he and the president are “on the same page.”

During a briefing Thursday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said vehicle stops are continuing after field offices around the country were given “verbal guidance."

"The president and the secretary of Homeland Security are on the same page that vehicle stops are a necessary tool that ICE agents need," she said.

But it showed the friction between Mullin's attempts to maintain calm and the president's demands that illegal immigrants, which the administration has in many instances portrayed as criminals, be arrested in large numbers.

Democrats have slammed the new secretary, saying that they see little change at the department.

“Secretary Mullin, if he wants to, and if he has the backing of the White House, he has the ability to get ICE under control and make them follow the law,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas. “So either he has no interest in doing that, or the White House is not backing him up, or the agents are simply out of control.”

Republican lawmakers have come to Mullin's defense.

“I think the Secretary has lived up to what he’s wanted to do to try to change the atmosphere over there,” said Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, who as chair of the congressional Homeland Security Committee has requested a bipartisan briefing on ICE's use of force policies from DHS.

“I don’t think anybody is celebrating that ICE is back in the headlines," Garbarino said.

___

Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

The verdict — believed to be the largest ever against a gun dealer — was awarded by a jury Wednesday following a trial focused on whether the vendor, Husky Armory LLC, skirted federal regulations barring the sale of the gun-assembly kits to those under 21.

___

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. Helplines outside the U.S. can be found at www.iasp.info/suicidalthoughts.

___

In a wrongful-death lawsuit, the family of Henry Willis said he was just 18 when he purchased the Glock G19 pistol “build kit” from Husky Armory's website in 2023. He assembled the handgun in his garage — telling his father it was a transistor radio — and used it to end his life six days later.

Everytown Law, which represented the family, said the $104.2 million payout was the largest ever reached against a gun seller, surpassing the $73 million settlement awarded to the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by the rifle maker Remington.

It comes a little over a year after the Supreme Court upheld regulations enacted by the Biden administration that mandated serial numbers on the homemade weapons and required buyers to complete background checks and age verification.

Attorneys for Willis said Husky Armory had flouted each of those requirements.

Its website advertised the product as having “everything you need to build your own Glock style pistol from the comfort of your home,” noting the weapon could be assembled by “nearly anyone with a brain,” according to the lawsuit.

Inquiries to Husky Armory LLC and its owner, Cody Yurk, were not immediately returned. The company, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, was not present for the trial, according to the family and their attorneys.

At a news conference Thursday, Willis’ mother, Laura Herp, described her son as a “kind, gentle child” who had struggled with mental health issues in the months leading up to his death.

“A child in crisis should never be able to access a deadly weapon,” Herp said. “Companies like Husky Armory thrive off selling to folks who shouldn’t have access to firearms, and they didn’t care who Henry was. They didn’t even bother showing up to the trial.”

A state court in Louisville had previously issued a default judgment against the vendor for failing to respond to the lawsuit. Following a two-day trial this week, a jury awarded $4.2 million in economic damages and $100 million in punitive damages to the family.

“This historic verdict sends a powerful message to ghost-gun sellers who set up businesses to profit by circumventing critical safeguards like background checks and age verification,” said Dana Mulhauser, an attorney for Everytown Law. “Henry should be home with his family today, and Laura deserved more time and opportunity to help her son heal.”

The National Transportation Safety Board said that after taking a closer look at the plane's flight path, investigators determined the incident occurred in Greek airspace, and not over the Republic of North Macedonia as they initially believed.

International aviation rules allow Greece’s Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority to hand the investigation over to the NTSB. The U.S. federal agency said it accepted and is now leading the probe, with Greece participating.

The incident happened on July 10 on a morning flight from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki to Memmingen, near Munich. The flight was operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, Europe’s largest budget carrier.

The 61-year-old passenger, who was not identified by name, suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns, according to a Greek hospital official. It was not immediately clear Thursday if the injured passenger remained hospitalized.

The NTSB previously said it was notified that the flight turned back because of “a right engine issue and cabin decompression.”

Ryanair has not publicly addressed the engine issue disclosed by the NTSB. In response to an emailed request for comment about the engine issue on July 10, the airline reiterated its previous statement about the flight returning to Thessaloniki after a window became dislodged.

Passengers told Greek media that they heard a loud bang, oxygen masks dropped and the plane began to lose altitude.

A series of short videos recorded from inside the plane and shared by Radio Thessaloniki showed passengers wearing oxygen masks after the cabin lost pressure. Another appeared to show the blown-out window, with a man seated nearby wearing an oxygen mask. A third video, apparently filmed after the aircraft landed, showed first responders working in the aisle.

Shye Gilad, a former airline captain who teaches at Georgetown University’s business school in the U.S., said the window blowing out would have caused rapid decompression — a sudden loss of cabin pressure that can create a brief but powerful suction effect near the opening before the pressure stabilizes.

“The seat belt can help in those first few seconds. It’s a difference maker and people should keep their seat belts fastened at all times,” Gilad said, adding that events such as this one are “very rare” because “it takes a lot to breach a cabin.”

Flight records show the aircraft — a Boeing 737-800 delivered new to Ryanair in 2008 — had been climbing past 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) about six minutes after departure before immediately descending to about 6,000 feet (1,830 meters). Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said the aircraft remained at the lower altitude for roughly 30 minutes to burn fuel before returning to Thessaloniki about an hour after takeoff.

Ryanair said in its statement that one passenger requested and received medical care after landing, and that a replacement aircraft later flew passengers to Germany.

An NBA spokesman said that “the NBA is continuing to look into it.” ESPN first reported that the NBA was investigating the signing for possible circumvention of the salary cap.

Although the Bucks didn’t disclose terms when they announced the signing, ESPN has reported Trent received a four-year, $64 million deal. He’s getting that lucrative deal after a season in which his statistics dipped.

Trent is coming off a 2025-26 season in which he scored 8.1 points per game and played 21.2 minutes per game for Milwaukee. Those represented his lowest averages in both categories since his rookie season of 2018-19.

The 6-foot-4 guard had joined the Bucks in 2024 by signing for the veteran minimum after a season in which he had scored 13.7 points per game and had shot 39.3% from 3-point range for the Toronto Raptors.

He returned to the Bucks last year after scoring 11.1 points per game and shooting 41.6% from 3-point range with Milwaukee in 2024-25. He had capped that 2024-25 season by scoring over 30 points in two of the Bucks' five playoff games during their first-round loss to the Indiana Pacers.

The contract Trent signed last year included a $3.9 million player option for 2026-27 that he declined before agreeing to this new deal.

The concerns over salary cap circumvention involve whether there was a prior agreement that Trent would be rewarded now if he signed below-market deals each of the last two years.

While the situations aren't similar, this probe comes as the NBA also investigates whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented salary cap rules involving a $28 million endorsement contract between seven-time all-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard and the now-bankrupt California-based sustainability services company called Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC. That investigation has put the Clippers' trade of Leonard to the Toronto Raptors on hold.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it's unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. The smoke is coming from fires that are burning primarily in Canada but also in northern Minnesota. A lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground, said Steven Freitag, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Detroit, where air quality was among the worst in the world for major cities.

“Sure enough, it arrived in force here and it’s really pretty extreme levels,” said Freitag, who noted that visibility in some areas was reduced to a half mile.

“It’s scary,” Omar Mitchell, 50, said as he looked to the sky. He wore a mask while walking to his restaurant in Detroit. “You don’t know necessarily what the side effects may be. That’s days or months later.”

Microscopic particles can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream, leading to heart and lung problems and contributing to other long-term health issues.

The air stinks and the sky glows yellow in some places

All of Michigan and much of Minnesota were under a hazardous air quality alert. In the Chicago area, air quality ranged from very unhealthy to hazardous.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jake Petr said even if winds from the northwest clear skies as expected later this week, the smoky air could keep returning until the fires are out. That could take months, until it snows in Canada and northern Minnesota, officials have said.

Bill Ostrowski, 76, wore a mask as he walked through downtown Chicago, where wildfire smoke shrouded skyscrapers. “It stinks. It’s not a good sign when you wake up in the morning and you can smell the air,” said Ostrowski.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the sky was “glowing yellow,” said Brent Williams, head of the soil, water and climate department at the University of Minnesota. The area “could be looking at weeks to months of continued smoke and flare-ups off and on as the winds blow in different directions,” he said.

A study published this year found that long-term exposure to tiny particles from wildfire smoke contributed to an average of 24,100 deaths a year in the lower 48 states. Long-term exposure can make existing health problems worse and lead to a range of chronic and deadly issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and premature death.

New York City cancels activities and hands out masks

In the New York City area, a thick haze tinged the morning sky orange and yellow and partly obscured Manhattan’s skyline.

City officials opened cooling centers as health officials urged New Yorkers to limit strenuous and prolonged outdoor activities. The city’s schools, parks and other agencies moved activities indoors, rescheduled events and adjusted operations. State officials distributed tens of thousands of face masks at transit hubs and other major locations.

Gwen Moseley, 65, was among the first patrons at Rosedale Library in Queens to take advantage of the free masks, saying she’s on the road much of the day working as a therapist for children with autism.

“Who wants to be breathing this? It’s not healthy,” Moseley said as she waited to meet a young client. “When I’m out walking, I can feel the scratchiness in my throat.”

Smoke eased a bit but was expected to thicken again by late afternoon or evening, possibly lasting overnight, weather service meteorologist Maureen Hastings said. She said it might move south for a while on Friday but return at night.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation warned that there was a potential for temporary spikes of “very unhealthy” air quality from Buffalo in the state's western corner to Rochester by Lake Ontario, Syracuse in the central region and down to the greater New York City area.

Philadelphia officials urged people to avoid strenuous activity and stay inside or wear N95 or KN95 masks outside.

“Today is not the day to start your marathon training plan,” said Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, the city's public health commissioner.

Minnesota fires are spreading

In Minnesota, forest rangers on Thursday combed a remote wilderness area for anyone who might still be there days after wildfires led to its closure.

Officials closed the Boundary Waters along the U.S.-Canada border on Tuesday. At the time, 6,000 to 10,000 people were inside, but Superior National Forest staff estimated Wednesday that they’d reached 90% of them, said Karen Harrison, a spokesperson for state and federal agencies involved in the response.

She said Thursday that smoke is making it difficult for helicopters to fly and that fires are spreading despite firefighting efforts.

“There will be fire on the landscape until fall, and some fire will be burning until snow cover,” Harrison said.

The Royal Canadian Air Force successfully evacuated 11 Minnesota teenagers and four staff members Wednesday from wildfires in an Ontario provincial park about 175 miles (282 kilometers) north of the Minnesota border.

___

Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan. Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit, Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Michigan, and Cybele Mayes-Osterman in Chicago contributed to this report.

___

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

The United States said Wednesday it would impose a new 25% tariff on certain imports from Brazil, citing unfair trade practices by the world’s 10th-largest economy.

The tariffs, first proposed last month, will take effect next Wednesday. The order exempts some goods that are not produced in the U.S. or that officials worry would disrupt supply chains — including coffee, beef, oranges and orange juice and aircraft components.

Brazil's government said the decision hits about 3,000 items, but is yet to decide whether and how it could retaliate with a law its Congress passed in 2025 in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Brazil’s industry minister, Márcio Elias Rosa, said Thursday the U.S. move hits about 18% of the country’s exports — or an estimated $7.4 billion worth of products, based on 2024 data.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's office on Wednesday denied U.S. allegations of unfair trade practices. It said 76% of imports from the U.S. entered Brazil duty-free in 2025, and that the average tariff effectively applied to U.S. products was only 3.1%.

The statement also said it has taken steps to impose reciprocal tariffs, along with other trade-related countermeasures, through its own law and through the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira accused the Trump administration of pressuring the South American nation to give American companies exclusive access to some sectors of its economy. He said Brazil has never left the negotiating table.

Vieira said Rubio made statements that are “unacceptable, offensive to the Brazilian people and the Brazilian government” after the new tariffs were announced. Rubio said in a post on X that the tariffs were the result of Lula putting “his own ego ahead of making a deal” and not negotiating with the U.S. in good faith.

“Rubio launches a crude and arrogant attack on the Head of State of a friendly nation, who has personally sought to open channels for dialogue on several occasions," Vieira told a news conference in the capital, Brasilia.

"What Secretary Rubio dismisses as ‘ego’ is, in fact, President Lula’s steadfast resolve to defend Brazil’s sovereignty and the interests of our businesses and workers,” Vieira said.

US has a robust trade surplus with Brazil

The U.S. has for years run a massive trade deficit with the rest of the world, and Trump has cited the lopsided trade numbers to justify his aggressive use of tariffs.

But Brazilian imports make an unusual target: The U.S. has persistently piled up trade surpluses with Brazil. Last year, in fact, U.S. exports to Brazil exceeded imports by nearly $42 billion; only U.S. trade surpluses with the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were higher.

The new tariff puts pressure on national exports and increases insecurity for companies in both countries, Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry said in a statement Thursday.

The Trump administration first imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports last July. Trump cited what he called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump's ally on trial at the time for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula. Bolsonaro was later convicted and some of those U.S. tariffs were later rescinded.

Trump at the time also accused Brazil of unfair trade practices and said he had directed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to initiate an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

That led the office to charge Brazil with lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs, among other things, in June. One of the targets of the investigation is Brazil's popular PIX payment system, which is run by the country's central bank and is overwhelmingly free of charge.

Scott Lincicome, a trade analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the U.S. administration might have had a legitimate Section 301 case if it narrowly targeted Brazil’s restrictions on trade in digital services. Instead, it threw in a bunch of other allegations.

“It’s a pretty clear case of the administration simply finding an excuse and finding a law that allows them to impose the tariffs they want to impose,’’ Lincicome said.

Welber Barral, a trade lawyer and former Brazilian foreign trade secretary, said the move comes as his country's exports to the U.S. are now less than 10% of its total for the first time in two centuries.

“Brazil is diversifying to other destinations,” Barral said. “Brazil is negotiating with Canada through the Mercosur. Other deals will also come out as the American market closes.”

Brazil elections may be impacted

Brazilian officials have blamed the Bolsonaro family — Lula's main political opponents — for the latest round of tariffs. Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential hopeful in October's elections and son of the former president, visited Trump, Rubio and other U.S. officials in Washington in May.

The senator reposted Rubio’s statement, adding that “Lula is no longer fit to be the president of Brazil. We are on a plane without a pilot.” He also described Lula as “the Brazilian Biden” and said he “is grumpy, reckless, and has become a danger to our nation.”

Flávio Bolsonaro is expected to be confirmed as Lula's main election rival on July 25 at his Liberal Party's convention in Sao Paulo, though his bid has struggled to overcome the findings of a police investigation, which showed he received millions of dollars from a disgraced banker to finance a movie about his father. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Thomas Traumann, an independent political consultant and former Brazilian minister, said he thinks the tariffs could ultimately hurt Lula's opponent, describing two issues he sees as working against Flávio Bolsonaro.

"The first was the revelation of his involvement with the disgraced banker,” Traumann said. “And now he has U.S. tariffs with Bolsonaro fingerprints. Now Brazil's business understands he will be submissive to Trump.”

___

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Paul Wiseman contributed to this report from Washington D.C.

___

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

In the latest maneuver, video spreading widely on social media shows a jet from the Navy's demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, flying so low over a crowded beach in Pensacola on Wednesday that chairs and tents went flying, sand kicked up and children held their hands over their ears.

The U.S. Navy said in a statement shortly afterward that it was “conducting a thorough safety review." Then on Thursday morning, a host of Trump administration officials heaped praise on the maneuver.

“The flyovers will continue until morale improves,” Hegseth wrote on his personal X account, without elaborating.

The Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote “Carry on Patriots” on social media alongside a photo showing a Blue Angels jet with a wingtip just feet above the heads of beachgoers.

The White House tweeted a cartoon showing people on a beach taking photos of a Blue Angels jet, with the words “Freedom” and “It's okay to love America.”

It is at least the third time that Hegseth and others have voiced support for military aviators performing maneuvers that, while often popular with the crowds experiencing them, have drawn public scrutiny and military investigations.

In two prior cases, Hegseth's remarks led to the end of the safety investigations. In the Florida flight, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, a Trump administration political appointee, said the Navy had “no problem” with the flight and there would be no reprimands or firings. His social media post was retweeted by Hegseth.

Cao's post said Thursday that the Blue Angels conducted a “flight debrief.” Navy officials would not say if that debrief — typically a routine occurrence after every flight — was the “thorough safety review” the Navy said it would conduct the day prior.

Military leaders are excusing reckless behavior, one safety expert says

Flyovers at low altitudes like these have been linked to a number of past crashes, said Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant who used to investigate crashes for both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.

“It’s shocking to me as an aviation safety professional that the top leaders of the military would excuse this type of reckless behavior,” he said. “A cavalier attitude like that can only lead to accidents in my view.”

The Florida flyover comes after video emerged in March of two Army helicopters hovering near Kid Rock’s Tennessee home during a training run while he clapped and saluted. The Army initially said that the helicopter crews were suspended pending a safety investigation.

Days later, Hegseth lifted their suspension and ended the investigation saying, “No punishment. No Investigation. Carry on, patriots.” The singer is an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump.

Months later, eight South Carolina National Guard helicopter pilots were suspended following a low-flying sweep by Army Apache helicopters over beachgoers as part of a July 4 event honoring service members.

Less than a week after the event, Hegseth again said he was intervening, writing on social media: “We’ll fix this." The next day, Parnell posted that "effective immediately, the suspension of all involved South Carolina pilots has been lifted.” He added to his social media post, “Carry on Patriots.”

When asked if Thursday's posts, which use the same phrasing as the prior two cases, meant that Hegseth's office was halting another safety investigation, Jacob Bliss, a Pentagon spokesman, said he had “nothing further to provide at this time.”

Guzzetti said the military's top leaders are excusing unprofessional and dangerous behavior from military aviators.

“That sends out a powerful signal that this type of deviant behavior is acceptable and, in fact, desired," he said. “And that’s dangerous. That’s the antithesis of a good safety culture.”

Flyovers might not violate rules but that doesn't make them safe

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said these flyovers probably don’t violate military rules because the Pentagon doesn’t have the same restrictions on flying low over people that the FAA imposes on civilian flights. But that doesn’t mean they are a good idea — particularly the risky maneuvers that Blue Angels pilots perform.

“They are air demonstration teams, and what they do is exceedingly dangerous — amazing and wonderful — but dangerous," said Schiavo, who is also a pilot and used to work in air shows years ago. “And so it is really not something to be performed over people.”

Florida beachgoer Alexandra Belcher, 34, called the Blue Angels flyover this week a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I didn’t realize how close it was, until everyone around me was like, ‘That was so cool,’” she said. “It was not normal, but it was such a blessing to be able to witness that with everybody that I was with.”

A Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal planning, said the Blue Angels’ next show on Saturday will go on as scheduled.

The military has been involved in previous deadly aircraft accidents

The Army was sharply criticized by the NTSB during the investigation of last year’s midair collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Washington for failing to identify and address the hazards that contributed to the crash that killed 67 people.

The NTSB said it found that “the Army’s aviation safety system failed to consistently detect, interpret, and act on signals of latent hazards, resulting in degraded safety assurance, organizational learning, and safety culture.”

Even basic flyovers, like the kind Hegseth is defending, have been known to turn deadly.

In April 2025, a Japanese woman was killed after the propeller wash from an Air Force HH-60W helicopter knocked her down on a concrete walkway, causing severe head injuries.

A subsequent Air Force investigation noted that key factors leading to the mishap included “allowing deviation from safe spectator distances” as defined by the Air Force and “an operational mindset fostering a false confidence of safety.”

In 2011, Cmdr. Dave Koss, then-head of the Blue Angels, voluntarily stepped down days after a performance at a regional air show where he carried out a low-altitude maneuver that was called “unacceptable” in a Navy statement at the time. The Blue Angels had to cancel several of their air shows that year as a result.

___

Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. AP writer Beatrice Dupuy contributed from New York.

The final rule announced by the Department of Homeland Security will do away with the “duration of status” system, which allows foreign journalists to stay and work in the United States as long as they meet eligibility requirements. That will be replaced with a fixed period of time, though the visas may be extended.

The agency says it's necessary to better vet the visa holders. But advocates for foreign journalists oppose the change, saying the drastically shorter stay would severely restrict their ability to live and work in the States.

The even shorter visa rule for Chinese journalists, which does not include those from the “special administrative regions” of Hong Kong or Macau, is particularly harsh and could add tensions to the already fraught relations between Washington and Beijing, despite stated intents by both leaders to stabilize ties.

The decision comes at a time when President Donald Trump is targeting news organizations with multiple threats and legal actions at home and his administration is tightening immigration policies, though foreign journalists are not considered immigrants.

Journalism organizations denounce the decision

The rule will take effect 60 days after it’s published in the Federal Register. Congress can reject a rule, but it's extremely rare.

“We are outraged that the Trump administration has cruelly limited the duration of visas for foreign journalists from a period of up to five years to a fixed eight months,” the advocacy group Reporters with Borders said in a statement. “This change destroys international journalists’ ability to report from the U.S. and makes it extremely difficult for international outlets to operate here at all.”

“The relentless cycle of visa renewals restricts press freedom, as journalists will feel compelled to avoid drawing the administration’s ire, lest their applications be rejected,” it said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a watchdog group, released a statement calling the new visa policy "the behavior of a backsliding democracy, not the international vanguard of free speech.”

In proposing the change in August 2025, the federal agency said the rising number of foreign journalists in the U.S. “poses a challenge” to its ability “to monitor and oversee these nonimmigrants while they are in the United States." Mentioned as well: students and foreign visitors, who also will see their previous rule of “duration of status” replaced with fixed periods by the same decision.

By admitting them into the country for a fixed period, the Department of Homeland Security said it could better vet the visa holders to ensure their activities are permissible. The visas can be extended.

This isn't the first time shortening visas has been proposed

The first Trump administration sought to change the visa rules in 2020, but the proposal was withdrawn in 2021 when President Joe Biden took office.

But the White House then tightened visas for Chinese journalists to only 90 days, in response to the treatment of U.S. journalists in China, including the expulsion of three Wall Street Journal reporters, as tensions flared up during the COVID-19 pandemic between the two countries. The Biden administration later relaxed the rule, allowing stays to increase to up to a year.

When the Trump administration proposed to revive the 90-day rule last year, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it opposed “the U.S.’s discriminatory move targeting a specific country.”

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the latest decision.

___

AP journalist Fu Ting in Washington contributed to the report.

“If you ask any of my 29 counterparts across the league if they would be interested in having Christian Pulisic on their team, I’m pretty sure you’d get 29 yesses,” NYCFC president Brad Sims said Thursday at a Major League Soccer event to promote the resumption of the league's season.

“Would MLS from a league standpoint love to have Christian Pulisic here? I think the answer to that would be yes," Sims added. "If AC Milan doesn’t want to give him up, then it's dead in the water. And so I think ultimately we’re believers that Christian wants to play in MLS, wants to be back home and at whatever the point in time that is, we would think and hope that New York City FC would be very high on his list of teams that he would want to play for..”

An attacking midfielder from Hershey, Pennsylvania, Pulisic turns 28 in September. He is entering the fourth season of a five-year deal with AC Milan after playing for Borussia Dortmund from 2016-19 and Chelsea from 2019-23.

Pulisic has 33 goals in 90 international appearances but is coming off a disappointing World Cup in which he failed to score and had one assist. Because of injuries, he missed one of the five U.S. games and came out of two others early. Pulisic left last week's round of 16 loss to Belgium after fracturing his right leg.

“I felt really good this summer with the guys and I thought my level was high,” he said after the game. “It’s disappointing I didn’t quite have the moments I was hoping to and to try to help us to get over this next step of beating a really good team.”

Pulisic scored 10 goals in his first 15 appearances for AC Milan last season, but ended his club season in career-worst scoreless streak, failing to get a goal in 19 games after Dec. 28.

___

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

The drug from Merck was OK'd on Thursday for patients with artery-clogging cholesterol that persists even after taking statins, the standard medications for cutting heart attack risk. Merck will market its pill under the brand name Lipfendra.

It's the first noninjectable medication that works by blocking a liver protein called PCSK9. That protein limits the body's ability to clear cholesterol from the blood, and biotech injectables targeting it have been available from Amgen and other drugmakers for more than a decade. But patient access has been stymied for years by high prices, insurance restrictions and limited prescribing by doctors.

Statins block some of the liver’s production of cholesterol and are the cornerstone of treatment. But even at the highest doses, many people need additional help lowering their LDL, or bad, cholesterol enough to meet medical guidelines.

Merck, which has headquarters in Rahway, New Jersey, won approval based on two studies in high-risk patients who added the company's pill to their standard treatment, including statins. In one study of 3,000 patients, those taking Lipfendra saw their levels of LDL cholesterol drop more than 55% after six months. In a second study, patients averaged a reduction of 59% compared with patients who received a dummy pill.

That benefit dropped only slightly over a year, and side effects — including dizziness and diarrhea — were similar between those taking the pill or a placebo, researchers found. One caveat: The pill must be taken on an empty stomach.

The FDA reviewed the drug under its program that promises ultra-fast reviews for promising medications that serve the public interest. The pathway was created by then-FDA chief Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned from the agency in May after months of pressure from drugmakers, patients and other outside groups.

Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death, and high LDL cholesterol, which causes plaque to build up in arteries, is a top risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. While an LDL level of 100 is considered fine for healthy people, doctors recommend lowering it to at least 70 once people develop high cholesterol or heart disease — and even lower for those at very high risk.

___

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.

Conditions at the Pontiac home were so offensive that police evidence specialists wore hazmat suits when the children were discovered in February 2025.

The kids, ages 15, 13 and 12, had lived on their own since 2020 or 2021, with occasional food drops on the porch and amid trash and feces, police said. Sheriff's deputies entered when a landlord said he hadn't been paid in months.

Kelli Bryant, 35, who was living elsewhere in Pontiac, pleaded no contest to abuse and will return to court in September for her sentencing. A message seeking comment from her attorney was not immediately returned.

“This plea will spare the children from testifying at trial and ensures Bryant remains incarcerated until they are all adults,” Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said. “I’m hopeful the children she victimized will continue to have the space and resources to heal from this abhorrent trauma.”

The father lost contact with the kids while in prison in an unrelated matter and was barred by their mother from seeing them when he was released, Sheriff Mike Bouchard said when Bryant was arrested.

Reports from the National Transportation Safety Board were not final and do not identify a definitive cause of the crash. But they describe evidence that supports bird strikes before the helicopter plummeted into the river on April 10, 2025.

The Federal Aviation Administration has said that helicopters are especially vulnerable to bird strikes because they fly at low altitudes. Strikes can turn out to be devastating.

“It seems pretty clear to me that the breakup of that helicopter was precipitated by several bird strikes,” said aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, who read the key findings. “Not just one but several — and birds of a different feather.”

He noted damage to the aircraft's horizontal stabilizer, a key part of the helicopter.

“Without it, the helicopter could become very unstable and difficult to fly,” Guzzetti said.

The victims of last year’s accident included a Siemens business executive from Spain, his family and the pilot, Seankese Johnson, 36, a U.S. Navy veteran who received his commercial license in 2023.

Passengers Agustin Escobar, 49; his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, 39; and their three children, Victor, 4; Mercedes, 8; and Agustin, 10, all died.

The crash renewed safety concerns about the popular sightseeing flights and prompted New Jersey’s governor to ask for additional restrictions on nonessential helicopter flights.

Remains of several geese were found on the helicopter’s rotors and left horizontal stabilizer. One witness told the NTSB that just minutes before the crash a large flock of geese took flight in the area.

“The geese were big and there were many of them. When the helicopter went bang, I immediately thought it was a bird strike,” the witness told NTSB investigators.

The Smithsonian Institution’s Feather Identification Lab identified remains from different breeds of geese on the wreckage, including a female Canada goose, which can average nearly 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms).

Guzzetti said it's reasonable to conclude “the pilot is not culpable here.”

“Birds are everywhere, and pilots have limitations with their eyesight,” he said.

The report, however, noted that a control panel switch to turn on pulsing lights to help deter birds was missing. The tour company's former chief pilot said the light system was not mandatory during daylight rides, according to investigators.

The NTSB has investigated 24 helicopter bird-strike crashes in the past 25 years, including three fatal ones. Helicopter pilots are encouraged to try to avoid areas where birds are known to be present and fly slower to minimize the potential damage from an impact.

The “ miracle on the Hudson” highlighted the danger of bird strikes when a US Airways jet hit a flock of birds and lost power in both engines shortly after takeoff in 2009. Pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was hailed as a hero after he landed the powerless plane in the Hudson River and all 155 people on board were rescued.

In last year’s crash, the helicopter took off from a downtown heliport that afternoon and flew north along the Manhattan skyline before heading south toward the Statue of Liberty. Less than 18 minutes into the flight, parts of the aircraft were seen tumbling into the water.

Rescue boats circled the submerged aircraft within minutes of impact and recovered the bodies from the water. Later recovery crews hoisted the mangled Bell 206L-4 helicopter out of the river for investigators to examine.

New York Helicopter Tours shut down after the crash, and the FAA issued an emergency order to ground all the company’s flights after learning it had fired its operations director minutes after he had agreed to suspend flights during the investigation.

The FAA said at the time that it suspected the firing was retaliation for a safety decision.

___

Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this story.

The signs at Tucker Ranch Recreation and Nature Complex became the center of a larger conversation among families, neighbors, and community leaders about what safety should look like in a public space.

For years, Sandree Wetteland brought her children to Tucker Ranch, where signs warned visitors that weapons were not allowed. Now, she finds herself caught between two sides of the debate.

“We don’t have any guns in our household due to us having kids,” Wetteland said. “However, with that being said, I am all for protecting yourself.”

In a release, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he sent the letter because the city had put up signs banning weapons at Tucker Ranch Recreation and Nature Complex violates state law, giving leaders until Aug. 15 to remove the signs.

We sent a letter to the City of Winter Garden because their signs banning firearms at Tucker Ranch Recreation and Nature Complex violate Florida law.

Failure to correct these signs will result in appropriate legal action by my office. pic.twitter.com/rHA8XCM9gG

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) July 15, 2026

In a statement, the city’s attorney says the sign was old and predated current state law. Officials said the signs would be removed, and by the time News 6 visited the park, they no longer appeared to be posted.

But for people who live nearby, the discussion is far from over.

“They should have left it up there because the kids play out there and there wouldn’t be guns,” one neighbor said.

Others said they believe people should have the right to carry firearms.

“I think people should have the right to bear arms,” another resident said. “That’s one of the things we love about Florida.”

The issue has also drawn support from a nearby church, which said it believes keeping firearms out of the park helps create a safer environment.

“I understand the right to bear arms, but there are some places where there seems like it should be some common sense to say we don’t need guns here,” the pastor said.

For Wetteland, the debate comes down to balancing personal protection with peace of mind for families.

“Being a mom of two kids, it’s a little risky being out here alone,” she said. “But at the same time, you just have to be aware of your surroundings.”

The city’s decision removes the sign, but the conversation over guns, rights, and safety at public parks continues.

The Pentagon confirmed the extension in an email Thursday, saying the mission will continue until Jan. 20, 2029, “or until terminated by the President.” The deployment was set to expire at the end of this year after previously being extended.

The deployment in Washington, D.C., has been contentious since Trump issued an executive order in August 2025 to deal with what he called a crime emergency, calling up the Guard and additional federal law enforcement officers. The administration has said crime has rapidly fallen since then, although local officials have argued that crime was already going down before Trump ordered 2,500 troops into the city.

During their deployment, Guard members have responded to medical emergencies, assisted with arrests, helped with snow removal and carried out beautification projects.

“Taxpayers are paying more than a million dollars a day to have them walk around,” Phil Mendelson, chairman of the District of Columbia Council, said in April, adding that “the presence of armed soldiers on American streets is not a good look.”

Deployments to other cities have ended or been paused by courts in California and Illinois, while more limited operations are ongoing in cities including New Orleans. But in Washington, Guard members still walk city streets and patrol metro stations, tourist attractions, neighborhoods and parks.

A Guard member was fatally shot and another was wounded in November after authorities said a man drove from Washington state to D.C. and opened fire outside a subway station three blocks from the White House. Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, who was killed, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe were deployed from West Virginia.

Because the city of Washington is a congressionally established federal district, Trump has much greater influence over the police and D.C. National Guard, which he can control directly. This has enabled him to sidestep the legal challenges he has faced in some states.

While the Guard members do not make arrests, the Trump administration has argued their support to the broader mission has helped reduce crime. The White House said in April that 12,000 arrests have been made by a joint task force since operations began, including 62 known gang members, and thousands of illegal firearms were seized.

But officials disagree over how much credit the deployment can be given in Washington, a heavily Democratic city. Figures have shown that crime was already on the decline before, although those figures sparked an investigation after claims arose against local police that they may have been manipulated.

The NBA's career scoring king and current free agent spoke publicly for the first time in weeks Thursday afternoon, indicating that a decision is close — though stopping short of revealing which team he'll choose to play for this fall, despite at least one cry from someone in a jampacked room shouting for him to “pick a team.”

“I won’t hold you guys up too much longer," James said.

The four-time NBA champion had a pair of appearances Thursday: He recorded an episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast alongside guest co-host Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers in New York on the opening day of Fanatics Fest, then spoke at the Game Plan Summit presented by CNBC and Boardroom later in the afternoon.

At the summit, he told Boardroom co-founder Rich Kleiman in an on-stage conversation that making this decision has a slew of layers — many of which, it seems, are off the court.

“It’s not just about the team,” James said. “There’s so many other factors that I’m factoring in right now on what best fits me as a player, what best fits me as a person and what best fits my happiness, and also my family as well.”

At Fanatics Fest, an 11-year-old in the crowd asked James about free agency and his next team — “first of all, that was a hell of a question and some of the media people here probably should learn from the young fella," James said — and the youngster got perhaps the best answer of the session, with James indicating that the 2026-27 season may not necessarily be his last as a player.

“It's a big decision for not only myself, but for my family as well,” James said. “Just for the last part of my career and where I want to spend the last few years or the last year or the last two years of my NBA career ... I'm going to try to fit into whatever team I'm going into — but also give them all the tools and give them all the knowledge that I've been able to grasp over the last 23 years. I know the game. I know the ins and outs of the game of basketball.”

James playfully chided Haliburton for asking him about his future — “didn’t we talk about this in the back?” James asked, and Haliburton said he would ”leave it alone.”

Of course, they didn't leave it alone. James made reference to a slew of teams such as Cleveland, Miami, Philadelphia and Golden State, though didn't appear to give much in the way of hints. He did sip from a bottle of red wine that he opened and shared with Haliburton, calling it one of his podcast traditions.

And when fans shouted out suggestions for James' next team — one even asked him to play for the New York Yankees — no clues were forthcoming.

“We'll see,” he said.

In Miami, where the Heat introduced Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis Jr. as their newest forwards on Thursday, team president Pat Riley acknowledged there have been talks about a reunion with James.

But the Heat don't seem to have any hints either.

“Right now, I think we’re like everybody else,” Riley said. “We’re just waiting to see what he does and then we’ll see what happens.”

Same goes for the NBA: Commissioner Adam Silver spoke at the Game Plan Summit not long after James on Thursday. Silver said he has a bit of an “inkling” on which way James is leaning, but no concrete word.

The league office, Silver said, would like to know for one specific reason.

“We have to finish up the schedule and where LeBron plays will affect the schedule,” Silver said. “So, I would like him to make his announcement already so we can finish the schedule. As you can imagine, the teams are calling us, the networks are calling us, and everybody wants to lock in the schedule. It will influence how we set the schedule, how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc. I need him to make a decision. But the direct answer is I have no inside information.”

James is the NBA’s oldest active player at 41 and the only player in league history to have a career spanning 23 seasons; this coming season will be his 24th. Speculation has been rampant for more than two months about his future, officially starting in May when the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs.

At that time, James said he didn’t know what he would be doing.

And the only developments that he’s revealed since came on June 30, when he said he would play this coming season and that he was leaving the Lakers after an eight-season run highlighted by the 2020 NBA title.

For more than two weeks, the NBA has been waiting to hear what comes next. James, as he did in a social media post at the time, lauded his time with the Lakers, who also offered him well wishes as he moves forward.

“I spent eight great years with the Los Angeles Lakers,” James said.

James’ resume is beyond compare in NBA history. He’s a 22-time All-Star, a 21-time All-NBA selection, a four-time Most Valuable Player, a four-time NBA Finals MVP, a three-time All-Star Game MVP, and was a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.

He’s also coming off a season where he averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists per game. For his career, he’s 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 titles. He then returned to Cleveland for four more seasons, leaving in 2018 to start an eight-season run with the Lakers.

Cleveland and Miami are believed to be on James' radar again as he weighs this decision, as are several other teams including Philadelphia, Minnesota and Golden State.

“I’m looking forward to what comes next as I wind down my journey,” James said.

___

Reynolds reported from Miami.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

The complaint filed Wednesday with the Tennessee Department of Health by Tonya Hervey says Tony Carruthers suffered excruciating pain during the May 21 attempt to administer a lethal injection and the family believes he now has partial paralysis that they attribute to a stroke.

It does not specifically say how or when they believe the stroke occurred, and Hervey declined an interview request.

During the attempted execution, the IV team established a primary line right away but then worked for more than an hour trying to insert a backup line.

Maria DeLiberato, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Carruthers, witnessed the attempts and said the team tried to insert an IV in Carruthers' arm, hand and foot before Dr. Mark Fowler attempted to insert a central line.

In the end Gov. Bill Lee called off the execution and gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve.

The complaint accuses Fowler of violating medical ethics by participating in an execution; by injecting Carruthers with the anesthetic lidocaine without first establishing that he was not allergic to it; and by continuing the search for a vein despite his “visible agony and distress.”

The complaint also says he was unqualified to place a central line because he had not done so in over a decade.

Fowler declined to comment on the complaint when reached by telephone.

Dr. Ervin Yen, a retired cardiac anesthesiologist who has witnessed many executions in Oklahoma and was not involved in the Carruthers case, said the fact that Fowler had not placed a central line in years is not necessarily disqualifying. He also said it is very unlikely that the attempts to place an IV could have resulted in a stroke.

The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to comment on the allegations. The Health Department said information on all complaints and investigations is confidential until formal charges are filed, including whether an investigation exists.

Carruthers, 58, was found guilty of the 1994 kidnapping and murder of Marcellos Anderson; Anderson's mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker. Authorities said Marcellos Anderson was a drug dealer and Carruthers was trying to take over the illegal trade in their Memphis neighborhood.

Carruthers has maintained his innocence. He was forced to represent himself at trial after repeatedly complaining about court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them.

The review done by vehicle history report provider Zilocar.com compiled 2024 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Of the state’s 2,931 total fatal crashes recorded in 2024, 1,734 — or 59.2% — occurred at night.

News 6’s own review of the national numbers reveals more than 60% of fatal crashes in Florida between 2020 and 2024 occurred in low-light conditions. That translates to an average of 784 nighttime traffic deaths every year over that five-year span.

Behind the wheel after dark

News 6 rode along with our traffic safety expert Trooper Steve Montiero to break down what makes nighttime driving so much more dangerous than hitting the road in daylight.

“You know, at nighttime, the crashes are usually more violent,” Trooper Steve said.

He says one of the biggest culprits is driver overconfidence.

“People come out assuming it’s the exact same driving as what we’re doing right now,” Trooper Steve said. “But the difference is obvious. We can see everything that’s taking place.”

Visibility, he says, is only part of the equation. Depth perception is another critical factor that drivers often underestimate once the sun goes down.

“Depth perception is massive when you’re driving,” Trooper Steve said.

A deadly crash close to home

The danger isn’t theoretical. In the early morning hours of July 10, 2026, a 25-year-old man from Kissimmee was killed on State Road 417 northbound near mile marker 39, just north of Aloma Avenue in Seminole County.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the driver — operating a 2022 Acura ILX — was traveling northbound in the outside lane when, for unknown reasons, he drifted into an active construction zone lane closure and struck the rear of a parked 2024 Ford F-650 construction drill truck. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

The case remains under investigation.

The incident drew attention at a recent Seminole County Commission meeting, where commissioners called on local staff to work with the Florida Department of Transportation on potential safety improvements along the corridor, if needed.

“I’d like to ask our commission to actually have our staff talk to DOT about reducing the speed,” Commissioner Bob Dallari said.

Commissioner Andria Herr encouraged county staff to understand the circumstances further.

“We need to find out what it is,” Herr said. “We need to have our engineering team understand why it’s posted the way it’s posted. And if there are concerns on behalf of the engineers that do this all, then we need to be lobbying for safety.”

Florida among deadliest states after dark

Only Texas and California recorded more nighttime fatal crashes than Florida in 2024. Texas led the nation with 2,247 nighttime crashes, representing 59.5% of its total. California followed closely with 2,221 nighttime crashes — 62% of its total, the highest nighttime share of any state in the top 10.

Florida’s worst month for nighttime crashes was March, with 181 incidents. September was the safest, with 115 — a difference of 57%.

Nationally, more than half of all fatal crashes — 53.6%, totaling 19,441 — occurred at night in 2024.

Size, traffic volume not the only factors

Experts note that the states with the most nighttime crashes tend to be among the largest and most heavily traveled — but population and traffic volume alone don’t tell the full story.

At the end of the day, Trooper Steve says it comes down to the person behind the wheel.

“At the end of the day, a driver is ultimately in control of their car,” Trooper Steve said.

Drop your answers in the form below.

1) What would you like to see in a morning newscast?

2) Do you trust trained journalists over influencers, or vice versa?

3) Do you know about our exclusive team of Community Correspondents, what are they doing well, and what feedback would you share?

4) Do you know we have the largest investigative team in the market? What are they doing well, and what feedback would you share?

5) What kind of traffic news is most helpful to you, and where do you want to get it?

6) Do you have any feedback on our new formats during the 3:00pm News or the nightly News 6 Tonight livestream?

Share your feedback! Drop your answers in the form below. If you’re comfortable, include your general area and your typical commute time so we can better understand your morning routine.

“We have 22 bowling lanes, two arcades, four pool tables, bocce ball, shuffleboard, two full bars and a kitchen,” said Michael Osteen, a dining and entertainment manager at Kings Orlando. The idea, he said, is to give guests multiple ways to spend the night without having to leave the building.

The experience starts at the door. Osteen said guests are greeted by a host who helps tailor the visit by setting up a bowling lane, finding a table for food, pointing visitors toward the bar, or directing competitive groups to the arcade.

Bowling remains the centerpiece, with traditional 10-frame play as well as interactive options designed for groups who want something different. Kings also offers private rooms for parties and gatherings. Bowling is typically booked per person with a minimum time commitment, and guests can extend play if they want to keep the competition going, Osteen said.

Away from the lanes, the venue’s lineup includes both paid and free add-ons. The arcade and billiards are separate experiences, Osteen said, while bocce ball and shuffleboard are free. Guests simply check in with the host to get set up.

Kings also leans into promotions to make the outing more more affordable. Osteen said the venue offers weekday happy hour deals from 4 to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, with discounts that can include bowling, billiards, pizza and arcade play. Another promotion, an “eight to late” special running Sunday through Wednesday, is aimed at late-night bowlers who want more time on the lanes.

Then there’s the food, a surprise for first-timers expecting standard bowling-alley fare. Osteen said Kings’ kitchen makes much of its menu from scratch, helping set it apart.

“A lot of people are always surprised because they’re like, ‘Oh, the food is so much better than regular bowling alley food,’” Osteen said.

Among his top picks are buffalo wontons, a barbecue bourbon burger and handmade pizzas, including a veggie option. The bar program matches the playful atmosphere, with handcrafted cocktails and mocktails. One popular choice is a fiery mango margarita for guests who like heat, Osteen said.

View this profile on Instagram

Kings Dining & Entertainment (@playatkings) • Instagram photos and videos

For Osteen, the biggest differentiator is the service and the way the staff leans into celebrations.

“We like to elevate the experience,” he said. “We love when people come in to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries, and we just like to take their experience up a notch and celebrate with them.”

For visitors looking for a one-stop entertainment option in the International Drive area, Kings Orlando offers a simple promise. Bowl a few games, challenge friends in the arcade, grab a drink and stay for dinner.

For more details, you can check out their website here.

News 6’s Matt Austin drove four hours to Everglades City to find the people who do this on purpose. Turns out, they’re not who you’d expect.

“OK — I just got a text from the python hunter. She says the bugs are raging.”

That text came from Kaylen Glenn, a tenth-generation Floridian and semi-pro python hunter we met at a restaurant with a name that says it all: Wild Man’s Pizza, Pasta and Pythons.

“It’s nighttime. It’s time to party,” Glenn said, as the sun started to drop.

She’s not who you picture when you hear “snake hunter.” Neither are her friends. Jerry Miller, a park ranger, showed up to hunt an invasive apex predator wearing shorts, “I brought my grandma down here and we caught like an 8-footer.”

Here’s how the job actually works. At sunset, you climb into the back of a pickup truck wrapped in lights. Once the sun is down, the truck creeps along while everyone scans the edge of the road for a shimmer that doesn’t belong.

“We’re gonna get our spotlights, and we’re gonna be looking for the pythons,” Glenn explained. “Shine back with a very small hint of blue.”

We got a hit almost immediately. Snake spotted. Tourists driving by pulled over to see what all the fuss was about — including a couple visiting from Poland.

The road was packed with hunters that night, and the mosquitoes were just as committed to the hunt as we were. The noise out there — frogs, insects, night birds — sounds like a natural casino running nonstop across 1.5 million acres of wilderness.

That wilderness has quietly been emptied out. Pythons have eaten their way through most of the small mammals that used to call the Everglades home. “You used to see deer foraging. I haven’t seen probably three deer in the last few years,” Glenn told us. “Their population has been decimated.”

The stakes are real: $10,000 goes to whoever brings in the most snakes by the end of the competition. But on this particular night, luck wasn’t on anyone’s side. We searched from the truck. We searched on foot — wool socks turned out to be a terrible decision. We heard a splash in the water that turned out to be a gator, not a python. We spotted massive, stoic owls perched in the trees, plenty of other snakes, bullfrogs, and gators lurking in the dark.

Then, around 1 a.m., the rain turned relentless. Even with hundreds of thousands of pythons estimated to be living in the Everglades, by 2 a.m. we had to call it a night — without catching a single one.

The Florida Python Challenge runs through July 19. We’ll let you know who wins.

Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington framed the proposal as one last push to deliver for voters ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. It advanced on a vote of 20-14.

"We are rallying to finish what we started when the American people sent us here,” said Arrington, R-Texas.

With Iran war funding making up the bulk of the package, some $60 billion, Arrington acknowledged that people can debate “why we're there” in the overseas conflict. But he said the money is needed for basic supplies — "just the bombs, bullets and battlefield readiness for our men and women in uniform to finish the fight successfully and return home safely — that’s it."

The resolution, which sets out instructions for the various congressional committees to draw up proposals, also calls for $13 billion for Intelligence, $12 billion for Agriculture, and $10 billion for Administration, which handles voting and elections.

Speaker Johnson goes it alone, trying to push past Democrats

The proposal is the third budget reconciliation package Republicans in control of Congress have put forward this session to steamroll Trump's priorities past Democratic objections using a legislative procedure that allows for simple majority votes for passage.

It's the same process House Speaker Mike Johnson used to pass Trump's big tax cuts bill last year and to advance Homeland Security money after Democrats refused to fund the department following the deaths of Americans protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions earlier this year.

Johnson is pushing the effort almost single-handedly, without full backing from his slim House Republican majority or the Senate. He held lengthy meetings with Trump this week at the White House and hosted a private session for Republicans at the president's Camp David retreat to hash out details.

But the 47-page package remains a long-shot effort — too meager for some, too costly for others — ahead of voting in the full House expected next week.

Key Republican Rep. Chip Roy, an influential member of the Freedom Caucus who has expressed reservations about the package, did not vote at the Budget Committee session, as his home state of Texas deals with flooding.

Democrats argue Americans are paying for Trump's plans

Democrats are ready to vote against the proposal, as they did Thursday during committee action.

Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, said the document, some 6,500 words, never once mentions the issue that's top of mind for many Americans: affordability.

“People know this is a failed presidency, and a failed Republican majority,” Boyle said.

Democrats offered more than a dozen amendments to the package during the hourslong Budget Committee session and raised questions about how the new spending will ultimately be paid for — either via budget cuts to other programs or by piling onto the nation's debt.

Boyle offered an amendment to reverse healthcare cuts from the Republicans' big tax breaks bill. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., sought to reinstate funding for food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., suggested funding for immigration enforcement at Department of Homeland Security could be used to offset costs elsewhere.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, blamed the high costs of living on the Iran war and said every time Americans open their refrigerators or go to the gas pump they are “paying for a war that should never have been started.”

Senate pans House plan, leaving next steps uncertain

Next steps are highly volatile, as the House holds a rare Saturday pro forma session, which is a largely administrative meeting that will allow the resolution to be filed in time for consideration next week.

Johnson can only lose a few detractors on his side of the aisle as he relies on Republicans only, without Democrats, for passage.

But the resolution would also have to be agreed on by the Senate, and Republican senators have largely panned the House effort, waiting to see if Johnson can heave it to passage.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said senators have “a lot of questions” about it – from defense hawks concerned about the military to deficit hawks who want to offset costs.

“It’s a very uneven path,” he said. “We’ll see what the House can execute on,” he said, but “I can’t make any guarantees over here.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is expected to take over the Senate Budget Committee after the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, has been a leading budget hawk concerned about the nation's rising deficits.

The House plans to have its committees work on bill text over the August recess and bring the whole package back to the floor for a final vote in the fall.

___

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

This focus comes even as studies show that there are very few reported cases of such incidents in the U.S., especially compared to historically higher levels of far-right violence.

With sweeping statements about the “alarming rise” of political violence by the left, Rubio and other U.S. officials painted a dark image of the future if the “communists and Marxists” perpetrating these supposed acts are not defeated. He urged officials in attendance — mostly from European and Latin American countries — to unite to address the issue, which he says has been a “blind spot” in counterterrorism doctrine.

“So many people in positions of power have repeatedly dismissed acts of violence and even terrorism as legitimate forms of political expression, so long as they served a left-wing cause," Rubio said in opening remarks. “A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was ‘a nefarious and murderous act of evil.’ It is, but a bomb planted by a Marxist revolutionary; well, that’s just merely a tragic excess of idealism.”

A report published last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that left-wing terrorism attacks as of July 4, 2025, had surpassed those from the far right for the first time in more than 30 years. However, a closer look at the data reveals that the uptick reflects a very low starting level and a concurrent drop on the far right.

There was an average of 0.6 left-wing incidents annually from 1994 through 2000, compared with an average of 20.6 on the right, the report shows. From 2016 to 2024, there were an average of four per year on the left and 22.7 per year on the right. Those numbers had dropped dramatically on the right as of early July 2025, with only one incident. Meanwhile, there had been five from the left.

But the report’s authors note that right-wing terrorism could easily return to elevated levels and that it is important to fight terrorism on both sides of the political spectrum.

A Republican push before midterm elections

President Donald Trump and his allies have prioritized talking points against the far left ahead of the congressional elections this November. Trump has repeatedly stated that the Democratic Party’s ascendant left are communists who want to “completely destroy the traditional American way of life” and even engage in assassinations.

Vice President JD Vance has similarly called out communism as a political shift that is “something we haven’t seen in the U.S.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has decried “radical candidates” who are “self-described, self-identifying Marxists.”

For Rubio, his worldview on this issue has been largely shaped by his own history: He is the son of Cuban immigrants who arrived in Miami in May 1956, a few years before communist leader Fidel Castro rose to power in Havana. The former Florida senator said Thursday that it was that same government’s sprawling intelligence and ideological network that “helped to build the far left in our country and in our hemisphere.”

Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and main architect of the administration's immigration policy, followed Rubio's remarks, aiming to drive home the immediacy of the perceived threats he saw to American institutions coming from the left, and what response is needed in return.

“If your civilization is your home, you must defend it with the same passion and force as if an enemy intruder is inside your own house where your family lives,” Miller said. “That is the level of dedication and urgency that is required.”

This ideological focus has repeatedly conflated democratic socialism — which often centers on securing universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and stricter corporate regulation — with communism, under which private ownership is largely eliminated.

It has only intensified in the last year, following the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani to become New York City mayor and several of his proteges winning their New York City congressional primaries last month, beating out incumbents.

One of the ways the administration has started to target left-wing efforts is through sanctions. In November, the State Department designated four antifa or anti-fascist groups in Europe as foreign terrorist organizations. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in his remarks Thursday that targeting these groups and entities' financial networks is the best way to circumvent their efforts.

Later Thursday, Rubio announced a new policy that would give the department a wide latitude to restrict visas to members of these supposed groups who have supported or incited acts of terrorism, including those who have supported those efforts financially, aided recruitment or provided logistical assistance.

“We have spent decades developing the world’s most sophisticated financial counterterrorism capabilities, and now we are mobilizing some of the same tools that we have deployed against terrorists abroad to confront this emerging threat here at home,” Bessent told the conference.

___

Amiri reported from New York and Kinnard from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed to this report.

It was not clear how fast-paced a practice Spain held. Media members are only able to observe the first 15 minutes of what was scheduled to be a hourlong session in East Hanover beginning at 11 a.m. EDT.

Argentina remained in the Atlanta area to work out less than 24 hours after rallying to beat England and reach the final for a second consecutive tournament. Marietta, Georgia, is far enough south to avoid the effects of the fire, which are being windblown to the southeast from northern Ontario, triggering warnings from the U.S. Midwest through the Northeast.

Officials urged people to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. Experts expressed concern over holding practice outdoors.

“These are high-level athletes who are moving a lot of air through their lungs during every practice in every game, and really they shouldn’t be practicing outside if the air quality levels are at hazardous sort of ranges for wildfire-related air pollution,” said Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency room physician and Global Climate and Health Alliance official. “That’s the time to schedule a practice inside. You could put an N95 mask on them, but trying to make sure that everybody’s mask is well-fitted, I suspect that’s not the best choice. I would go find an air-conditioned indoor facility that’s a clean-air shelter.”

Messages sent to FIFA and the Spanish Football Association asking whether that was considered or possible were not immediately returned. The smoke is expected to clear the area well before the championship game Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with kickoff scheduled for 3 p.m.

The air quality in East Hanover on Thursday started early in the morning as “unhealthy” but got cleaner, so by mid-afternoon it was merely “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Now monitoring system. Particle pollution in New Jersey on Thursday was more than seven times higher than the World Health Organization standard. The forecast calls for an improvement to “moderate” for Sunday.

Smoke from wildfires — which are burning more of North America as Earth warms — attacks nearly every system in the body, killing tens of thousands of people a year, numerous medical studies show.

It attacks the body immediately, spiking asthma cases with increased ambulance runs within hours. Smoke can trigger inflammation in different parts of the body, often attacking a person’s weakest points, which can then cascade into different effects of an immune system trying to fight a nasty irritant, doctors and scientists said.

“It’s not healthy for anyone to be in the smoke, especially if you’re exercising,” Harvard School of Public Health environmental health research scientist Mary Johnson said. “You're exchanging more air, so you’re being exposed to even more pollutants, and even healthy individuals at some point will have some type of health effect from the exposure to the smoke. So, even though these are healthy, young individuals, it’s not a good idea to be exercising in this type of environment.”

Scientists have counted at least 1,000 toxins in wildfire smoke, according to Colorado State University environmental toxicologist Luke Montrose.

“If I gave you a list you would recognize some of these as being very bad often times associated with the burning of diesel fuel or cigarette smoke things like formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds,” Montrose said. “Just the smoke itself can be bad.”

___

Climate video producer Teresa de Miguel in Washington and SNTV videographers Lissette Romero in East Hanover, New Jersey, and Max Feliu in Marietta, Georgia, contributed to this report.

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

In a release, Uthmeier said he sent the letter because the city had put up signs banning firearms at Tucker Ranch Recreation and Nature Complex, which Uthmeier argued violates state law.

“Florida law declares that the regulation of firearms, including possession, is entirely preempted by the State,” he wrote. “Any municipal ordinance, rule, or regulation that regulates firearms is void.”

To demonstrate his point, Uthmeier brought up Broward County, which tried to ban “weapons” in taxis, though the ordinance was deemed invalid due to the state’s preemption.

As a result, Uthmeier declared that Winter Garden’s prohibition on guns in parks is “null and void.”

“Winter Garden is not permitted to enforce any rule purporting to prohibit firearms in this way,” he continued.

Now, Uthmeier is urging the city to remove references to “firearms” and “weapons” from the sign at Tucker Ranch Recreation and Nature Complex.

He provided a deadline of Aug. 15 for Winter Garden to confirm the change, as well as to verify that the city will not enforce any unlawful regulations of firearms.

“Failure to correct these signs will result in appropriate legal action by my office,” he concluded.

We sent a letter to the City of Winter Garden because their signs banning firearms at Tucker Ranch Recreation and Nature Complex violate Florida law.

Failure to correct these signs will result in appropriate legal action by my office. pic.twitter.com/rHA8XCM9gG

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) July 15, 2026

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

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

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

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

After the attack, a trapper was called in to catch the offending alligator, the release states. The FWC noted that two alligators were removed, and samples were collected.

On Thursday, officials revealed that Clark’s DNA was matched to a 13-foot alligator that was found at the location of the incident.

“The FWC’s investigation into this incident remains active,” the agency wrote. “Additional documents and information regarding this incident will be available after the investigation concludes.”

[RELATED: FWC investigates viral video appearing to show woman petting alligator at Silver Springs]

The agency also explained that serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in Florida, though the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program allows residents to voice concerns about specific alligators that may pose a threat to people, pets or property.

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

A strong “experimental explosion” was reported in the waters off Central Florida on Thursday afternoon, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The USGS website indicates that the explosion happened around 3:04 p.m., roughly 91 miles east-northeast of Ponce Inlet.

Per the agency, the event registered a preliminary magnitude of 3.9. However, few other details about what may have caused the explosion have been provided at this time.

“The recorded ground motions from this event are more typical of an explosion than a naturally occurring earthquake,” the USGS website reads. “The Navy has conducted Full Ship Shock Trials in this region in the past.”

[A LOOK BACK: U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford performs shock trials on an aircraft carrier in 2021]

News 6 has reached out to Navy officials for more information and is awaiting additional details.

Anyone who felt the impact of the explosion is urged to report their experience here.

They are the Juárez Cartel, on the border with Texas, and Los Viagras, a criminal group from the western state of Michoacán. The Federal Register, the U.S. government's gazette, published the designation on Thursday.

They joined six other Mexican criminal organizations that the U.S. considers terrorist groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Gangs in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador, also have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump began to extend the terrorist label to Latin American cartels in February 2025 to allow U.S. authorities to take more aggressive action against them or against anyone who the U.S. sees as aiding the groups.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that both criminal groups either have committed terrorist acts or pose a serious risk of committing acts that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.

The measure represents a further increase in pressure on Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration following the indictment of 10 current and former officials from the state of Sinaloa for alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the controversies about U.S. operations in Mexico.

Higher pressure on the Texas border

Juarez Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest drug trafficking organizations, which for decades has controlled a key crossing point in the central part of the Mexico-U.S. border: Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas. One of its factions is considered responsible for the 2019 deaths of nine U.S. citizens, six of whom were children.

Both its founder, Amado Carrillo Fuentes — known as “El Señor de los Cielos” for smuggling massive drug shipments by light aircraft in the 1990s — and the brothers and sons who succeeded him, turned the trafficking of tons of drugs into a multimillion-dollar business. Despite the arrests of many of its leaders, the cartel and its allied gangs maintained control of a vast infrastructure for smuggling illegal shipments into the U.S..

According to Mexican analyst David Saucedo, the designation is key to enabling the United States to take more decisive action along the border, where two other groups both located at the eastern end of the border with Texas — the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel — were declared terrorist organizations in February 2025.

The US again targets Michoacan

Los Viagras is a local cartel in the western state of Michoacan, which is already home to two other criminal groups designated as terrorist organizations: Cárteles Unidos and La Nueva Familia Michoacana. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel and partners of Sinaloa Cartel also operate in this state.

Los Viagras emerged following the 2013–2014 armed uprising led by farmers who succeeded in driving out many of the old cartels, only to see them replaced by new ones.

The cartel is led by Nicolás Sierra Santana, who faces a formal indictment in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to traffic drugs, filed in June 2025. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

The group has shifted its loyalties and alliances to consolidate its regional control of the territory through extortion affecting key exports to the United States, such as avocados. It also produces synthetic drugs, which sells to other cartels that traffic them into the United States.

But the company's shares declined sharply in after-hours trading as the video streaming company's forecast for the current quarter fell below Wall Street's expectations.

Netflix earned $3.4 billion, or 80 cents per share, in the March-June period. That's up 9% from $3.13 billion, or 72 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue grew 13% to $12.56 billion from $11.08 billion.

Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 79 cents per share on revenue of $12.58 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

For the current quarter, Netflix is forecasting revenue growth of about 12%. Analysts are expecting revenue to grow by about 13%, to $13 billion.

The Los Gatos, California-based company said its advertising business remains a top priority and it expects to bring in about $3 billion in ad revenue this year. Netflix added that it's seeing strong interest in its live events offerings, including the Women's World Cup.

Netflix said animated film “Swapped” is on its way to becoming its second-most viewed original animated movie, behind last year's wildly popular “ KPop Demon Hunters. ”

The quarter's most popular streams included Harlan Coben’s "I Will Find You," “Legends” from the U.K., "The Polygamist" from South Africa and the K-drama “Teach You a Lesson."

Netflix said it is using large language models to improve how its subscribers find things to watch and it's adding voice search functionality and artificial-intelligence powered natural language search.

In February, Netflix walked away from its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business.

Shares of Netflix fell $5.33, or 7.2%, to $69.02 in after-hours trading.

Messi, to him, is greatness. And Antetokounmpo wants to follow Messi's path.

Antetokounmpo got his welcome-to-Miami ceremony Thursday at the team's arena, with a few fans chanting his name as he walked along his new home court for the first time after he got a tour of his new city.

“I need pressure at this time of my career," Antetokounmpo said. "I think in order for me to go to the next level, I've got to get out of my comfort zone — and I feel like Miami was the place for me to be.”

Messi came to Inter Miami three years ago, adding to his already copious resume by winning a couple of Major League Soccer MVP awards and another championship. Antetokounmpo has now joined him in Miami, hoping his relocation comes with the same level of success.

“That's the blueprint," Antetokounmpo said. “LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, they set the blueprint and you just got to follow, right? It’s hard. You have to be disciplined. You have to be dedicated to your craft, but it’s there. And if you want to follow, you follow. If you don’t want to follow, then you go home.”

He didn't go home. He's in a new home.

Antetokounmpo got his formal Heat introduction a couple of weeks after Miami swung the trade that landed the two-time MVP along with Bobby Portis Jr. from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakučionis and draft capital.

For the Heat, it's another on a long list of superstar acquisitions made since Pat Riley arrived to take over as team president in 1995.

“I think this is just part of who the Heat are in the pursuit of excellence," Riley said. "But you don’t win championships unless you have greatness on the court and on the bench. ... I'm just so excited for this challenge.”

Antetokounmpo entered the NBA in 2013. His career totals to date: 21,531 points, 8,882 rebounds and 4,484 assists. The point and rebound totals are both fifth best in the NBA over that span, while the assist total is 13th best — and those numbers are just part of the reason why the Heat consider him to still be one of the five best players in the league.

If all that wasn't enough, has simply been a nightmare for defenses. Nobody has drawn more fouls over those 13 seasons than Antetokounmpo, which is absolute music to the ears of Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

“A little while ago Pat called me into his office and he looked at me," Spoelstra said. “He said, ‘Do you want to coach Giannis?'”

Spoelstra's no-brainer answer: “Yes.”

And then he walked out, waiting for Riley, Heat general manager Andy Elisburg and the rest of the front office to get a deal done. When Antetokounmpo arrived early Thursday morning for his first workout as a member of the Heat, Spoelstra was waiting for him.

“I just want to be coached hard,” Antetokounmpo said. “I'd rather you tell me the ugly truth than a beautiful lie. ... I'm excited to be coached by him."

Antetokounmpo's run in Milwaukee ended with him having, by far, the most points in franchise history, more than 7,000 ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s total during his tenure with the Bucks. Antetokounmpo is also Milwaukee’s all-time leader in rebounds and assists, plus he ranks second on the team’s career list in steals.

He had a ton of success there. He's looking for more success in Miami, which is one of the reasons why Portis felt like the Heat were the best place for him as well.

“The conversations I have with Giannis have always been about winning. ‘Where can we go to win? How can we impact winning? How can you get another ’chip? That’s always been the talk,'” Portis said during his introductory news conference earlier Thursday. “It hasn’t been about anything else but winning. ... All he cares about is winning.”

By all accounts, the Giannis-in-Miami era is off to the right start.

Antetokounmpo was thrilled by the welcome he and his wife got when their plane landed in Miami after watching Messi and Argentina beat England in Atlanta on Wednesday. He says he already loves the Miami weather ("warmer than Milwaukee," he said) and isn't a fan of iguanas, which are everywhere in South Florida ("those guys, stay away from me," he said).

Riley told him the Heat are looking to win and win big. That was all Antetokounmpo needed to really hear. He has one ring. He wants more.

“You’ve got to work," Antetokounmpo said. "They show you, they show you the way. It’s not hard. Just listen and open your eyes. It's something that I wanted. I was able to accomplish it once in my career. Hopefully, it will happen a second time.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

The Argentina superstar responded to critics who have been bashing the reigning World Cup champions over perceptions of beneficial officiating and favoritism by the soccer establishment. He said the team’s ability to overturn late-game deficits, most recently the semifinal victory over England, is the result of championship pedigree and nothing more.

After trailing 1-0 going into the 85th minute, Argentina rallied for a 2-1 win over England on Wednesday to reach the World Cup final.

The victory led tens of thousands to flood the streets of Buenos Aires in ecstatic celebrations, and marked another remarkable comeback that showed the perseverance of a team that is now one win from a back-to-back titles. Argentina faces Spain in Sunday's final.

Argentina earlier survived by beating Cape Verde and Switzerland in extra time, and rallied for an improbable 3-2 victory over Egypt after coming back from being down 2-0 with 11 minutes of regulation time to play. But both the Swiss and Egyptian coaches criticized the refereeing. Egypt's Hossam Hassan went as far as to say that his team was the victim of a soccer establishment that favored Messi and Argentina.

The comments fueled criticism sparked by fans who argue that the FIFA bracket favored La Albiceleste, and unfounded allegations on social media claiming that the soccer governing body wants Argentina to once again become World Cup champion.

“We’ve been the best over these past four years, either you like it or not, and no matter what anyone says,” Messi said after the win over England.

“Once again, we’ve established ourselves among the top two teams in the world. That proves that everything we’ve done is no fluke and that nothing was handed to us."

The game against Switzerland swung on a call that riled up those who believe Argentina has been favored by World Cup officials.

The Swiss had just tied the game at 1-1 on Dan Ndoye’s goal in the 67th minute when Leandro Paredes was shown a yellow card for a tackle on Breel Embolo. But video showed the Swiss player falling before the Argentina midfielder made contact with him, and since Embolo received a yellow card earlier in the match, he was sent off and Switzerland was left to defend with 10 players.

“We were punished because of a rule that in my opinion is completely unacceptable,” Swiss coach Murat Yakin said after the game. “It’s very painful that we were eliminated that way. I don’t think we deserve that today, and in my opinion, my boys are the real heroes."

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Football Association had said it “cannot remain silent” after what it believed was unfair and biased officiating in Egypt’s loss against Argentina.

Argentina's team had not acknowledged the complaints on officiating and FIFA. In previous press conferences, Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni had even advised journalists asking about the matter “not to consume so much social media.”

But after the victory over England, the reigning champions fought back.

“Reaching two consecutive World Cup finals is something very few achieve, and this group did it," Messi said. "If we had lost to England, there would have been people coming out to spout some nonsense, but we didn’t give them the chance.”

Wednesday’s semifinal was the latest chapter in a long-running feud that has transcended the field to encompass British control over the disputed Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas and claims as its sovereign territory.

The British government on Thursday urged FIFA to investigate Argentina’s team after players celebrating their victory over England posed with a banner handed over by fans, reading “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” — “The Malvinas are Argentine.”

Enzo Fernandez acknowledged that his goal celebration, which leveled the score at 1-1, was aimed at Argentina's critics. The Chelsea midfielder first cupped his hands to his ears, a gesture interpreted in soccer as a challenge to critics. Then, he opened and closed his fingers, as if inviting them to keep talking.

“There was a lot of talk; it was a mix of euphoria and frustration,” Fernandez said.

Scaloni, for his part, stated in the post-semifinal press conference that “this talk of ‘help’ will always exist; it doesn’t bother me.”

“With VAR today, it’s very difficult to get help; it would have to be glaringly obvious. We knew there was no help.”

___

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, even though more stocks rose within the index than fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 105 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 1.5%.

Nearly three out of every four stocks rose within the S&P 500 after more of the country’s biggest companies reported better earnings for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Abbott jumped 10.7% after the healthcare company delivered a fatter profit than expected and raised its forecast for earnings over the full year. J.B. Hunt Transport Services climbed 8% after the freight company likewise topped analysts’ expectations for the latest quarter.

But a 1% move for Nvidia’s stock packs more punch on the S&P 500 than a 1% move for any other company because it’s the largest on Wall Street by value.

And Nvidia fell 2.4%, making it the heaviest weight on the index. Other AI winners also sank, giving back some of their stellar gains.

Micron Technology fell 5.6% to shave its gain for the year so far below 199%. Sandisk fell 12.6% but is nevertheless up 494% for the year so far. Western Digital sank 9.2% but is still up 171% for the year so far.

Such stocks have been under pressure for weeks because of worries that their prices shot too high and that voracious demand for computer memory and processors may not be sustainable if AI ends up not producing as much profit and productivity as promised.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 38.63 points to 7,533.77. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 105.67 to 52,552.97, and the Nasdaq composite sank 387.28 to 25,881.95.

The losses came even though Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a bellwether of the chip industry, reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock in Taiwan rose 1.2%, but its stock that trades in the United States fell 2.3%.

In South Korea, drops for AI winners like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dragged the Kospi index down 6.4%. It’s been among the world’s shakiest markets in recent weeks because of how dominant the two AI winners are in it.

The day before, the Kospi jumped 6.2%, but it’s had drops of 8.9%, 7.8% and 5.3% in the last couple weeks.

A hike to interest rates by the Bank of Korea also weighed on stocks in Seoul, the first by the bank since 2023.

Higher interest rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments. And worries are rising that the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world may have to raise rates to rein in the effects of expensive oil.

Oil prices are near their highest in a month because of worries that the war with Iran will keep oil tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz and prevent shipments of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude briefly climbed above $86 per barrel in the morning before erasing the gain and falling back to settle at $84.23, down 0.8% from the day before.

In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield edged up to 4.56% from 4.55% late Wednesday and just 3.97% before the war with Iran began. Higher yields have already sent the average 30-year mortgage rate to its highest level in nearly a year.

Reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed, which added to the eddies swirling through the bond market. One report said shoppers spent less at U.S. retailers last month than economists expected. But after ignoring sales at gasoline stations, spending by U.S. consumers remained resilient.

A separate report said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication of a solid job market, while a third report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is better than economists expected.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia, including drops of 1.8% in Shanghai and 2.8% in Tokyo.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier and rose 1.3%. Alibaba rose after China’s cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence.

___

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

Friday

Friday will feature a typical sea breeze pattern for our storms. However, with increasing moisture to work with, our sea breeze will be supercharged to develop more widespread showers and thunderstorms. Our Friday will start off with a mix of sun and clouds which will allow temperatures to hit the low-mid 90s before our sea breeze begins developing storms. Our east and west coast sea breezes will begin sparking showers and storms along I-75 and I-95 around 12pm-1pm Friday afternoon. These two will meet near I-4 by 2-3pm. Storms will continue to dance around Central Florida through the evening drive and fizzle around sunset.

This Weekend

Our weather pattern becomes more influenced by this blossoming low over the weekend as our winds out of the southwest drag deeper tropical moisture over Central Florida. Expect off and on downpours Saturday afternoon. We will still see sunshine in between these storms. Sunday storm coverage will increase even more with more consistent downpours, starting late-morning, with mostly cloudy skies. Highs will hit the low 90s with wind gusts 20-25mph.

Next Week

Breezy and stormy conditions continue into next week as tropical moisture lingers over the area. Rounds of rain will persist throughout Monday with breezier conditions. Gusts may get up to 30mph in some of our neighborhoods. As this low gradually pushes north and away from the state by mid-week, our rain chances gradually return to a more typical pattern by next Thursday.

After all is said and done, we expect area-wide rainfall totals to primarily be in the 1-2″ range. Some localized areas may receive even more if caught under a stronger tropical downpour or if storms begin to “train.”

The election on Aug. 18 is a mix of party primaries and nonpartisan local elections.

While the party primaries are limited to people who identify with a political party only, the nonpartisan elections are open to all voters.

They include judicial races, county and city government races, and school board races.

For this upcoming election, several Florida House races are universal primaries, which means they are open to all voters, and the winners will be decided in August.

These races have a more direct impact on the day-to-day lives of Floridians. Taxes, school curriculum, and whether the roads you drive on should be expanded or fixed are often decided at the local level.

So it’s important to make sure you are able to vote in Florida, and to make sure your registration is up to date.

[ELECTION 2026:Make sure you’re eligible to vote|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

What you need to be eligible to vote

You are eligible to vote in Florida if:

1. You’re a citizen of the United States of America by birth or naturalization
2. You’re a legal resident of Florida
3. You’re a legal resident of the county in which you seek to be registered
4. You’re at least 16 years old to preregister, or at least 18 years old to register and vote
5. You’re not deemed mentally incapacitated with respect to voting in Florida or any other state without having the right to vote restored
6. If you were convicted of a felony, when your right to vote has been restored in Florida

There are no set rules for what makes a legal resident in Florida. The biggest thing is you must have a residential address in the state. Also, your home address cannot be a post office box.

How to register

There are a few ways to register to vote in Florida.

Online:

Florida has an online voter registration system. Go to RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov. There, you can register to vote, update your voter registration, and check to see if you are registered. The site is available in English and in Spanish.

Note: If you do this, you must have a Florida driver’s license or Florida identification card that is issued by the state. You also need the last four digits of your Social Security number.

In person:

You can also register to vote in person at the following offices:

• The driver’s-license office
• A public library
• The Center for Independent Living
• WIC and DCF offices
• Armed forces recruitment officers
• Any supervisor of elections office
• A full list is available on the Division of Elections website

You can also print out a copy of the voter registration application and mail it to your county supervisor of elections office.

In order to register on a paper application, you must have:

• A Florida driver’s license or Florida identification card
• OR the last four digits of your Social Security number

What’s the deadline to register to vote?

In order to vote in an election, you must get your voter registration application in 29 days before that election, a deadline known as “book closing.” Here are the book closing dates for this year:

· August primary election: July 20

· November general election: Oct. 5

What if I’m from another state?

If you are from another state, you need to fill out a new voter registration form for Florida. Your registration does not transfer from one state to the next. You need to make sure you are registered by the dates above in order to vote in a Florida election.

What if I’m registered and I want to update my registration (in-state change of address, change party affiliation, etc.)?

Say you need to change your address, or you want to change your party affiliation so you can vote in a party primary. You need to do this 29 days before the election. If you have a driver’s license, you can do this online at Register to Vote Florida.gov.

You will need a Florida driver’s license or a Florida identification card in order to make those changes AND the last four digits of your Social Security Number; otherwise, you will have to download a voter registration application and mail in your changes to your county supervisor of elections office. You can also go to the office.

Note: If you are making changes to your party affiliation before a primary election, you must make those changes by the deadline to register for that election. Florida is a closed primary state, which means only people who are members of a political party can vote in party primary elections.

If you move to a new address within your county and you aren’t able to change your address before election day, you can go to your new polling precinct and update the address with the polling clerk, or call your county elections office.

What if I’m registered to vote, but I haven’t voted in a while?

You may be considered an inactive voter. That’s when a voter’s information cannot be verified, and then an address verification letter is sent to you but returned as “undeliverable.”

To go from being an inactive voter to an active voter, all you have to do is vote or contact your county supervisor of elections office.

Being an inactive voter does not stop you from voting.

If you’re curious if your voter registration is active, you can go to RegisterToVoteFlorida.gov, and look up your registration under “Am I Already Registered?”

What if I’ve been removed from voter rolls by accident?

The Florida Division of Elections says voters are removed from the rolls if they are dead, not a U.S. citizen, not listing a valid Florida address, have had their voting rights taken away because of a felony conviction, or are judged to be mentally incapable, or if a voter has left the state and Florida election officials have been notified. A voter may also be asked to be removed from the rolls.

If you think you have been removed from the voter rolls by accident, you should contact your county supervisor of elections office immediately and submit a new voter registration application.

I am a convicted felon who has completed my sentence. How do I get my voting rights restored?

In Florida, certain felons who have completed their sentences are permitted to register to vote. Florida law requires that felons complete any prison and parole sentence and probation, plus pay all applicable court fees.

Once this is done, you fill out a new voter registration application.

The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition can help you figure out if you have paid all your fees and fines. Go to the FRRC website to learn more.

Bryson DeChambeau might be getting the hang of this, too, no matter what three-time British Open champion Nick Faldo thinks about his strategy.

An opening round lasting some 15 hours included just about everything during a warm and breezy start. Five of the leading 12 players were playing the British Open for the first time. Rory McIlroy missed three 4-foot putts in a four-hole span and had six bogeys in his round of 72. Scottie Scheffler opened with four birdies in six holes and didn't make another the rest of the way for a 68.

Most startling was Suber, a 26-year-old American who has yet to win anywhere since leaving Ole Miss and is playing in only his third major. He made a tough par save on the new par-3 15th with slopes off severely on both sides. He followed with a 6-foot birdie on the 16th and then choked up on a 4-iron from 233 yards and hit it to 6 feet for eagle.

Not bad for his seventh round in any major, and first on a links course as tough as Birkdale.

“Just kind of kept the ball in good spots and didn’t put much pressure on my game to make pars,” Suber said.

He led by one shot over Sungjae Im and Dan Brown of England. The nine players at 67 include four Open debutants — Alex Smalley, Ryan Gerard, M.J. Daffue, Pierceson Coody.

And then there was DeChambeau, who has missed the cut in all three majors this year and has chosen not to speak to the media since Friday at the Masters, except for on LIV Golf.

Turns out he had enough strategy to get in the mix, often ripping driver to take the fearsome bunkers out of play and doing enough right for a 67 that left him two shots behind.

Strategy became a talking point when Faldo told the Sky Sports Golf Podcast this week, “DeChambeau has zero clue of strategy. He said last year, ‘I’m going to go out and attack the links’. Well, I’ve never attacked a links. You thread it, don’t you? You feed it down the fairway. ... You don’t think, ‘Oh, I’ll just blast it down there.’”

DeChambeau hit only four fairways but missed only three greens, though he was rarely in big trouble when he wasn't in the short grass.

He twice blasted tee shots over the trouble and close to the green at the par-4 second and the par-4 10th, the latter a blind shot. He made birdie on both. And while Jon Rahm was among those who said going long can lead to trouble at some point, the only two shots DeChambeau dropped came from his putting (the par-5 14th) and chipping (the par-4 18th).

He was tied for the early lead until going from wispy rough over the back of the 18th, chipped weakly to 8 feet and missed the putt. He missed three birdie chances from around 10 feet or under, one of them on redesigned, 321-yard fifth hole, when he drove it just over the green.

DeChambeau agreed to take a few questions from the R&A and said, “I feel like I did a really good job today of being incredibly strategic and focused super hard on placing it in the right places. Besides 18, I placed the ball in some good areas. I just need to hit more fairways. Other than that, I feel like my strategy was nice today.”

Cameron Young, one of the hottest players in the spring but quiet the past two months, also was at 67 along with Robert MacIntyre, Thomas Detry and Francesco Molinari, the 2018 Open champion at Carnoustie, which also featured a baked links course.

Scheffler had few complaints after a 68, even not making a birdie over his last 12 holes, playing the two par 5s in 1 over and making a pair of soft bogeys. He also missed a 5-foot birdie putt. Whether he could have gotten more out of his round was of little concern.

“If I continue to strike the ball the way I did today and just keep giving myself looks, that’s part of it,” Scheffler said. “Golf is played over 72 holes, and I definitely liked what I saw today.”

Smalley, who took a two-shot lead into the final round at the PGA Championship, was leading until his drive on the 18th was fading with the wind and then the luck of links golf took over. One wild bounce sent it further right and out of bounds. He finished with a double bogey for a 67.

“Got up to where the ball was supposed to be and was told it hit a spectator fence and kicked another 15 yards right out of bounds. All three of us in our group actually hit it over there, and mine just got an unlucky break,” Smalley said. "Poor tee shot, poor break. Sometimes that's how it goes."

Scheffler played in the group with DeChambeau and they traded birdies early. For six holes, the world's No. 1 player had total control of his shots and looked as though he couldn't miss. He got to 4 under when he gave a leg kick as his 40-foot birdie putt dropped on No. 6.

But then he missed the seventh green — 139 yards, downhill — to the left between a pair of bunkers, and his pitch was so strong it flirted with going in a bunker on the other side. He missed a 5-foot birdie chance on the 11th, and then made a mess of the par-5 17th when his ball was buried so deep in the grass he thought someone might have stepped on it during the search.

“Sometimes you hit it over there and you get a clean lie and you’re able to give yourself a look, and then other times like today, you pay a pretty severe price,” he said. “But I guess don’t hit it offline.”

___

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

The puzzled looks, shakes of the head and sagging shoulders said it all.

McIlroy was just 10 holes into his bid to win the British Open for the first time since 2014 and he was veering dangerously close to playing himself out of title contention.

Missing one putt from four feet wasn’t necessarily unusual. But doing it three times? In the space of four holes?

That trio of bewildering close-range mishaps — on Nos. 7, 8 and 10 — came either side of McIlroy driving the green to make birdie on the 415-yard No. 9. Go figure.

And it pretty much summed up the world No. 2’s wild late-afternoon ride in a 2-over 72 that included six bogeys and left him seven shots off the first-round lead, held surprisingly by 115th-ranked Jackson Suber on Thursday.

“Just too many stupid mistakes,” McIlroy said — and he was specifically referring to his putting on greens he described as “very inconsistent”

“I missed a couple early on that looked like they were going to break one way and they actually went another way, and then when you get the next one, you’re over it and it’s just very hard to trust that the ball is going to do what you think it’s going to do. Then you maybe don’t make quite as committed of a stroke.”

McIlroy arrived at the Open after a seventh-place finish at the Scottish Open, where he went viral by shouting “I’m so bad at golf” following a poor approach shot late in his final round.

The sixth player — and only European — to complete the career Grand Slam rarely hides his emotions and he cut a frustrated figure for most of his round Thursday, not least when he chipped through the green and into a bunker at the par-5 No. 17.

McIlroy managed to splash out to 8 feet while having one knee on the ground but a weakly struck par putt led to another dropped shot.

“It’s just hard to judge the speed sometimes,” he said.

Making birdie at the tough last hole after a brilliant approach to 5 feet sparked shouts of “Rory, Rory” from spectators in the grandstands and at least gave him something to cling to.

He barely raised a smile, though, after plucking the ball out of the cup. One stat spoke volumes: he ranked 148th in putting in the 156-man field.

McIlroy is playing a reduced schedule in 2026 and this is just his sixth event since winning the Masters for the second straight year, which moved his total of major titles to six.

A win this week would tie him with Harry Vardon as the European player with most majors in men’s golf.

He already has plenty of work to do, even if he tried to remain positive.

“Hopefully we’ll get the better conditions tomorrow and maybe the greens are a little bit smoother in the morning,” McIlroy said. “Go out there and shoot a good one and get myself right back in it for the weekend.”

___

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

The firm’s enforcement chief said Kalshi contacted federal regulators about bets allegedly made about what the president would say in public addresses.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is aware of the situation, which she described as “unfortunate” and “a disgrace.”

“The White House has extremely strict ethical guidelines with respect to issues like this,” Leavitt told reporters, saying the aide is on unpaid leave.

ABC News reported Thursday that Gabriel Perez, who has been operating Trump’s teleprompter since 2016, used his inside knowledge to win more than $100,000 betting on what the president would say in big speeches, including the State of the Union address earlier this year.

Robert Denault, Kalshi’s lawyer and head of enforcement, said on X that the “Kalshi surveillance team promptly flagged, investigated and referred these trades” to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that has regulatory authority over such matters.

His statement did not name Perez.

“We have been assisting regulators on this matter and provided all evidence that we collected, as we do with any referral,” Denault added.

ABC based its report on multiple sources who have knowledge of the matter but spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details.

The ABC report described suspicious activity on Kalshi's “Mentions” market, in which users can place bets on what phrases and specific words might be used in public speeches. Kalshi recently began requiring users to disclose their place of employment, and the platform's policy prohibits betting based on information that users gain because of their job.

Attention on members of the administration profiting from the presidency has reached all the way to Trump himself.

On Thursday, his media company announced it would charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own affecting national security and financial markets.

In his most recent financial disclosures, Trump reported making $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses in 2025, raking in profits while his investors suffered losses in marketplaces that Trump has sought to shield from tighter federal regulation.

Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products, including “governance tokens,” according to the required annual disclosure report with the Office of Government Ethics. It also showed another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face. Both the tokens and the coins have plunged in value since the sales.

The president has also profited from merchandising deals and high-dollar political and official events at his properties, significantly increasing his net worth since returning to power.

Trump's aides have stood by his personal and family business practices.

“The president is abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws that are applicable to the president,” Leavitt said earlier this year. It's "absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency.”

Clothed in jail garb and shackled, Tycen Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, and Chandler Scaggs, 21, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, entered the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. in Ohio, where the case has been consolidated. They and the other six defendants are each charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official.

Sargus scheduled their trial to begin Sept. 14.

It remains unclear from the court record how close the would-be attackers were to being able to carry out the plan they are alleged to have hatched.

Scaggs' attorney, Eric Brehm, said in a statement that his office is only in the early stages of reviewing the case, “but one issue is already clear: there appears to be a significant disconnect between the severity of the alleged offenses and Mr. Scaggs' naivety, lack of sophistication, and judgment.” The first charge is punishable by up to 15 years in prison; the second could mean prison for life.

In detailing the group’s July 9 indictments last week, U.S. Attorney Dominick Gerace II was asked how close the alleged plot came to fruition.

“What would have happened or could have happened, that's never going to be clear, because, thank God, there was an intervention here and this thing was disrupted,” he said. “But, in my view, when I look at what's been alleged there, it seems pretty likely that someone or multiple people were driving to Washington, D.C., to do something.”

Proper's lawyer, Joseph Patituce, said his legal team is waiting for the government to produce its evidence for review.

“Mr. Proper is a young 19-year-old man who, despite that youth, recognizes how serious these allegations are,” he said in a statement. “It is important for the public to remember that an indictment is simply the vehicle by which the government puts a citizen on notice of criminal charges and that Mr. Proper is protected by the presumption of innocence that is enshrined in our Constitution.”

According to the indictment, the plot began in May. Members of the group — citing grievances about government corruption, water-guzzling data centers and the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files — began amassing money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical equipment, communications equipment and other items.

The attack was planned to take place at the cage-fighting show dubbed UFC Freedom 250, which was held on the South Lawn of the White House to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary. Law enforcement officials said they learned of the possible threat four days before the event was scheduled to take place.

One of the defendants told investigators that they planned to fly explosive-laden drones into the event and then shoot panicked crowd members as they fled, according to a federal affidavit.

The Justice Department announced charges against seven people from across the country last month, including from Ohio, Missouri, Washington, Nebraska and California. Officials said the suspects harbored fringe conspiracy theories and hoped the attack would destabilize the government.

Four alleged conspirators charged in Missouri, Nebraska and California the weekend of the event and two more charged about a week later in Washington and Missouri are still in the process of being moved to Ohio to face charges. They are likely to be tried as a group.

Scaggs was arrested separately later, but was brought to Ohio ahead of the other out-of-state defendants.

One of the few smokers in golf, Brown went through “seven or eight" cigarettes during his 4-under 66 that left him tied for second place, one shot off the lead, after the first round at Royal Birkdale on Thursday.

After weeks of sunshine in this northwest corner of England, the fairways here are baked and parched — making them a potential fire hazard from discarded cigarettes.

“I’ve been making sure that they’re out,” the 31-year-old Englishman said reassuringly.

Not that he sounds too proud of a habit that makes him stand out on the circuit, but which he feels is needed to relieve some stress.

“Sorry, Mum,” he said with a cheeky smile.

The burly and bearded Brown is an interesting character, not least because of the 10 tattoos on his body — three of which are of little birds — and his YouTube channel called “BeersForeBogeys” which has around 4,000 subscribers.

Brown first came into widespread consciousness in golf in 2024 when, as the world No. 272, he shot a 6-under 65 for the outright first-round lead in his British Open debut at Royal Troon.

His name — one he shares with the author of “The Da Vinci Code” — was a headline writer’s dream and his dry humor proved popular, too. Brown was tied for second place heading into the final round at Troon and wound up in a tie for 10th.

That experience taught him he could compete with the best players in the world.

“I feel like I’m a better player now to what I was back then, two years ago,” he said. “So we’ll see.”

Brown arrived at the Open with no form from his first year on the PGA Tour — he missed the cut in his last four events — but has immediately taken to the Birkdale links.

He made seven birdies, including three straight around the turn, after being 1 over after seven holes.

“Today a few putts dropped, which was nice to see,” Brown said, “because I’ve not seen that for a while.

"(Hopefully), I’m in a sort of similar area on the leaderboard come Sunday."

That might mean continuing to have a smoke during his rounds.

“There might be a big drop off by Sunday if I’m not allowed," he said.

___

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

Michael Benson, 23, was taken into custody on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, police records show.

Sanford Police were called to a disturbance at the McDonald’s on French Avenue just after midnight Sunday.

The customer told officers he had initially gone through the drive-thru and ordered a meal but soon realized the fries and drink were missing.

After going inside to complain about the incomplete order, the customer said he and a restaurant manager got into a “heated argument,” police records state.

The manager eventually walked away to correct the order, the customer said.

Benson told police he became involved in the argument after the customer struck the counter with his hand and yelled obscenities.

“(Benson) stated that due to previous experiences and because (the customer) was larger than him, he felt threatened,” the police report states. “(Benson) stated at that point he lifted his shirt, and when (the customer) asked what he had, he removed a knife and told him, ‘You can die today’.”

The customer told police he and Benson continued to argue until he eventually received his food and left the restaurant.

Police recovered the knife from the manager and collected it as evidence, records show.

Benson, who was days away from completing a yearlong probation stemming from an unrelated battery conviction, is being held without bond at Seminole County Jail.

The policy, known as “public charge,” appeared on Thursday in the Federal Register. It will be formally published on July 20 and take effect Sept. 18. Under the policy, applicants for green cards have to show they wouldn’t be burdens to the country or “public charges.”

The policy was first implemented in February 2020 as one of President Donald Trump’s moves to limit legal immigration during his first administration, but it was reversed after Democratic President Joe Biden came to power.

Its return comes when the Republican administration is implementing a hard-line policy to curb both illegal and legal immigration, and when the cost of healthcare and food is rising.

The federal government “is reaffirming the requirement of self-reliance, protecting public resources and ending policies that encouraged dependency on the backs of hard-working American taxpayers,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post published on its X account.

“Under President Trump, USCIS is restoring the basic principle that immigrants must be able to support themselves," the post said.

While the administration’s crackdown on immigration has an increased focus on deportations and immigration enforcement in cities across the country and at borders and entry points, it has also taken actions that target legal immigrants and mixed-status families, in which the parents are foreign nationals with U.S.-born children.

The rule expands disqualification options

Federal law already requires those seeking permanent residency or legal status to demonstrate that they will not become a public charge. The Trump administration’s rule, however, broadens the grounds for disqualification.

The new rule does not describe or specify by name the benefits and programs that could be considered a public charge. Instead, it says that officers who would implement the policy will make “individualized, fact-specific public charge inadmissible determinations, based on a totality of the alien’s circumstances.”

It says that, “using good judgment and discretion, officers will more accurately assess an alien's likelihood at any time of becoming a public charge.”

The Trump administration first promoted the rule in 2018 as a way to ensure that only those who were self-sufficient came to the U.S. Immigrant rights advocates criticized it, saying it amounted to a “wealth test.” Public health experts said it would lead to worse health outcomes.

Manatt Health, a group that provides advice to state and federal governments, estimated the policy would have deterred as many as 26 million people from seeking healthcare, food, housing or other aid through programs for which they qualified under federal law. About half were U.S. citizens, mostly children or adults living in a mixed-status family, according to the group.

Experts also noted that most people who receive benefits from the government are already legal residents.

A 2020 study from the Migration Policy Institute said that while the “chilling effects” may be vast, the number of immigrants who could be deemed ineligible for legal permanent residence based on use of one of the public benefits under the rule was small.

The institute estimated that no more than 167,000 people — less than 1% of the 22.1 million noncitizens residing in the United States at that time — could be determined ineligible for a green card based on their current use of a listed benefit.

There were 22.8 million noncitizens living in the U.S. in 2023, according to the Census Bureau.

Critics say the rule creates fear in the community

Nongovernmental organizations said the policy generated confusion and fear and caused many immigrants and their U.S.-born relatives to decide not to apply for benefits and services to which they were entitled.

Immigrant advocates condemned the government’s decision to revive the “public charge” rule and expressed concern.

“This regulation is a direct assault on immigrant families, and a threat to our country’s health and economic security,” said Adriana Cadena, executive director at the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition. “The Trump administration is basing immigration decisions on bias and politics, regardless of the resulting harm.”

Sarah Krieger, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, said the rule would make immigrants afraid to go to the doctor, buy food at the grocery store and file taxes.

“With this new rule, they are sowing fear and chaos to ultimately reshape America into a country where only the few who are white and ultra-wealthy are welcome,” Krieger said. “The rule is not just deeply harmful, it also violates the law.”

From Southwest Florida to Arkansas to Austin, Texas, Evans has had the privilege of telling the stories of incredible people from coast to coast. A graduate of the University of Missouri’s renowned Journalism School, he is known for thoughtful storytelling, strong reporting, and a deep commitment to the communities he serves.

While Evans is grateful for multiple Emmy nominations and Associated Press awards, he’ll be the first to say his greatest accomplishment is making a positive difference in people’s lives. Whether he’s anchoring the morning news, reporting on the issues that matter most to Central Florida, building homes with Habitat for Humanity, or mentoring youth through Big Brothers, Evans is passionate about serving the community both on and off the air.

Rob Evans will join Chief Meteorologist Candace Campos and Anchor Lauren Melendez starting August 10. And viewers can watch this team, along with our local reporting from our embedded team of Community Correspondents, and in-depth investigations from our News 6 Investigative team weekday mornings starting at 5:00am on WKMG News 6, the CBS affiliate in Central Florida.

ABOUT WKMG NEWS 6

WKMG News 6 serves Central Florida as the CBS affiliate, delivering local news coverage across broadcast, streaming, and digital platforms.

MLB said Thursday its 2027 season will start with a single game to be televised that night by Netflix. The teams have not been chosen.

Opening matchups include Cleveland at the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis at Cincinnati, the Chicago White Sox at Detroit, Texas at Houston, Minnesota at Kansas City, Atlanta at the Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Mets at Miami, the Los Angeles Angels at Milwaukee, Toronto at the New York Yankees, the Athletics at Pittsburgh, Arizona at San Diego, Colorado at San Francisco, Boston at Seattle, Baltimore at Tampa Bay and Philadelphia at Washington.

Baseball’s labor contract expires Dec. 1 and a management lockout is expected. In 2022, an agreement wasn’t reached until March 10, causing opening day to be pushed back from March 31 to April 7.

Chicago’s Wrigley Field will host the All-Star Game on July 13 and a rivalry weekend will follow.

The regular season is scheduled to end Sept. 26.

The Athletics are scheduled to play most of their home games in West Sacramento, California, for the third straight season before moving to a new ballpark in Las Vegas. They will have a homestand at the Triple-A ballpark in Las Vegas starting May 31 against San Diego and Cincinnati.

With no labor contract in place for 2027, no international games are scheduled.

___

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

David Cummins, a former senior vice president at government contractor Serco, would take over an agency with roughly 60,000 employees responsible for security operations at more than 440 airports nationwide. He would inherit a TSA that has faced persistent staffing and morale challenges, particularly after this year’s record-long partial government shutdown left TSA employees working for weeks without pay. The funding lapse prompted thousands of officers to call out of work and about 1,100 to quit altogether, leading to long lines at some U.S. airports.

In his opening statement, Cummins pledged to prioritize front line TSA officers, saying his first task, if confirmed, would be to visit airports and reassure employees that he would “do everything in my power to protect and support them in the future.”

“The challenges ahead are significant,” Cummins told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. “But the opportunities to transform the TSA on the eve of its 25th anniversary are even greater.”

The agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, was created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to bring passenger screening under a single federal agency. But a program established a few years later also allows airports to use private contractors for screening operations under TSA oversight.

Democratic lawmakers and the union representing TSA officers have raised concerns that expanding the program, called the Screening Partnership Program, amounts to privatizing a core government security function and could undermine TSA employees.

Cummins rejected that characterization and defended the Trump administration’s plans to expand the program, saying it is not anti-worker and arguing that airports under the screening program were able to continue paying their employees during past government shutdowns.

“Some will suggest that the SPP is all about privatization and that it is anti-worker,” Cummins said. “I hold that it is in fact pro-worker to pay your employees, as the SPP airports did during the last shutdowns.”

Cummins said existing TSA employees would have the “right of first refusal” to take screening jobs at airports that join the program and said, “in our experience, all of them take the jobs and they stay there.”

He also said he supports legislation, including the bipartisan Keep America Flying Act, that would guarantee TSA employees receive pay during future funding lapses. He said there is “too much at stake” to leave the agency vulnerable to political brinkmanship.

Pressed by Democratic lawmakers about Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s threats to pull Customs and Border Protection officers from some airports in so-called sanctuary cities, Cummins said he had not been briefed on any “near-term plans” to do so but acknowledged the impact politics can have on aviation security.

“What I would say is that we are in a very sort of politicized environment. We all need to recognize that aviation security is impaired oftentimes by politics,” Cummins said, adding that he would be candid with Congress if any such directive threatened TSA operations.

Cummins previously worked at Serco, which partners with federal, state and local agencies. A LinkedIn profile that has since been removed said he helped develop transportation technologies and was co-awarded a “dozen patents in transportation systems.” The profile also said he led operations planning for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The rule, which goes into effect in September, also puts in place restrictions on when and how students may change their major or academic program.

Current rules give students significantly more flexibility. They are generally admitted to the U.S. for as long as it takes to complete the academic program, many of which are longer than four years by design.

Higher education leaders have opposed the rule, arguing the change creates an administrative burden for schools, universities and the federal government.

“This action is unnecessary and duplicative,” said Zuzana Wootson, deputy director of federal policy at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a nonprofit organization. “International students are already among the most closely monitored nonimmigrant populations in the U.S. and are subject to rigorous oversight by DHS and academic institutions.”

In a statement, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin described the rule as cracking down on a loophole that international students were exploiting by extending their studies.

“By implementing clear, finite limits on these visas, the United States is reclaiming its ability to properly screen, vet, and monitor individuals within our borders,” Mullin said. “This final rule ensures that foreign students remain focused on their primary purpose: completing their studies and returning home.”

The rule is the latest in a series of Trump administration crackdowns on international students. Last spring, widespread terminations of students' legal status sent students scrambling to hide or leave the country out of fear they would be detained for being in the U.S. illegally.

The federal government also imposed a requirement for visa applicants to share their social media handles, subjecting them to increased scrutiny. And travel bans affecting more than a dozen countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia further limited international students' ability to obtain a visa and enter the U.S. for school.

The rule comes as international student enrollment is declining. The effects are most acutely felt at schools with small endowments and student bodies that enroll a large percentage of international students, who have been recruited from abroad. International students are not eligible for federal financial aid and, as a result, often pay full-price tuition.

Higher education leaders have warned the growing uncertainty could further drive international students elsewhere, with ripple effects throughout the workforce and the economy.

“At a time when global competition for talent is intensifying, this policy sends exactly the wrong message,” Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, an association that represents international education, said in a statement. “It tells the world’s brightest students and scholars that the United States is becoming less welcoming, less predictable, and less committed.”

___

The Associated Press’ education 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.

Walker’s parents -- “Jordan’s Dad” and “Jordan’s Mom,” as known by their customized jerseys this week at the Home Run Derby — often obliged. Derek Walker and his 7 year old son were out in left field seats for an April series in 2010 when Braves slugger and future Gold Glove winner Jason Heyward made his debut.

Oh, for sure the younger Walker still cheered for Jones.

But to see a young Black star such as Heyward command the outfield the way Walker wanted to play, a new favorite player was born.

“As soon as Jason Heyward debuted,” Walker said. “I was like, oh yeah, that’s the guy. That’s who I want to be like.”

The significance of representation in the Black community was never lost on Walker.

So when Walker, a former St. Louis Cardinals' first-round pick once on the cusp of bust territory after several demotions over the last few seasons, had his breathtaking, breakthrough moment with a six-swing, six-homer rally past Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber to win the Derby, he hoped his star-making turn would inspire more young Black athletes to follow in his footsteps and choose baseball.

Just as he was inspired by Heyward.

“For Black kids, I want to kind of be a role model for them,” Walker said, “like he was for me.”

With each prodigious blast off his customized Iron Man bat, the 24-year-old Walker silenced the Philly boo birds clamoring for a home team Schwarber victory and shined in his coming-out party beyond the St. Louis bubble and to the entire baseball world.

He flashed the kind of swag that appealed to a younger generation much in the way Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. did in his heyday. Walker wore his Cardinals hat backward, chewed a big wad of bubble gum and reveled afterward in flashing his imitation Liberty Bell bling, the champions' chain presented by Ryan Howard.

None other than career home run leader Barry Bonds gave Walker his stamp of approval — “you got my trophy, too” — for winning the greatest Derby he's ever seen.

“That means the world to me,” Walker said.

Walker is among the scores of All-Star talents leading a modest uptick of Black baseball players in the major leagues. When Houston and Philadelphia played the 2022 World Series that featured no U.S-born Black players, Astros manager Dusty Baker noted, “It looks bad. But there is help on the way.”

They're here — with Walker as the All-Star weekend centerpiece.

“I think once kids see more people to look up to,” All-Star Nationals outfielder James Wood said, “the more kids will get back into baseball.”

Baseball has seen modest gains with Black baseball players

Take a look around the All-Star clubhouses and it was clear — while not at the pace perhaps MLB would like — Walker helped represent a new wave of emerging Black talent.

Three-time AL MVP and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge sat out with an injury, but Washington Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams and outfielder James Wood, Cincinnati Reds ace Chase Burns and Braves catcher Drake Baldwin ushered in the next, young group of future Black stars. The game also featured Minnesota Twins veteran Byron Buxton.

“I feel like there's been like a little surge in getting more Black players in the game,” Wood said. “We've got four on our team right now. Last year at one point, we had five. I think you're seeing it come back.”

MLB said that 6.8% of players on opening day rosters, injured lists and the restricted list were Black, up from 6.2% at the start of the 2025 season and 6.0% at the beginning of 2024. This year’s 0.6% increase was the most in a season since a 0.7% rise from 2017 to 2018.

Twenty of the 64 Black players had been in MLB-sponsored programs such as the MLB Youth Academy, Breakthrough Series, DREAM Series, Nike RBI and the Hank Aaron Invitational.

MLB said the total included 22 players 25 or younger and eight older than 32. The average age of Black players was 27.8 and the overall average 29.25.

The 23-year-old Burns, 11-1 with a 2.54 ERA with the Reds, was proud to hear Walker champion a Black youth movement at the Derby.

“You don't see a lot of Black athletes in baseball,” Burns said. “I don't know why that it is. I think it's great for guys like me and him to strive to get Black athletes into the game of baseball, whether it's talking about it or doing stuff in the community. I think it's great he pointed it out.”

Walker hopes he can keep leading the way

The best chance, naturally, for Walker to serve as a role model for the next generation is to make sure he's not just a one-Derby wonder.

Walker has 22 home runs, leads baseball with 74 RBIs and is a solid 13th with an .886 OPS — Wood is second at .985 — for a Cardinals team in the NL wild-card hunt. The Cardinals are finally getting the production expected out of the right fielder they drafted with their first-round pick in 2020.

Walker, who signed out of high school after he had committed to Duke, skipped Triple-A and made the opening day roster as the youngest player in baseball in 2023 and tied Eddie Murray's under 21-rookie record with a 13-game hitting streak.

He was sent down later that season; was the 2024 opening day right fielder and demoted again with a .155 batting average. Walker suffered a variety of injuries in 2025 and played in just 111 games that suddenly put his future as a key Cardinals' contributor very much in doubt.

Leaning on the same convictions that made him believe he could overtake the mighty Schwarber in the Derby championship round, Walker said a day after his win he never wavered in his belief that he would blossom into an everyday player and All-Star with the Cardinals.

He tinkered with his swing during an extend rehab assignment last season and the results were on full display in Philadelphia with 12 home runs in the final round.

“When my swing's fluid and easy, that's when it's at it's best,” Walker said. “That's really what it is.”

Walker, who struck out in his lone at bat in the All-Star Game, earned a $1 million prize for winning the Derby, which is more than his 2026 salary of $799,400.

(Here's a fun fact: Walker has 49 career homers off 49 different pitchers.)

As for the backward hat, “I call it the Griffey because no one did it better than him."

No one did it better than Walker at the Derby.

He just hopes his win can be a launching pad for a next generation of Black athletes into the big leagues.

___

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

James Aren Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die at noon on July 28 at Florida State Prison near Starke, according to a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Duckett was convicted of raping and drowning the girl while working as a police officer in a small central Florida city.

The execution for Dominick Anthony Occhicone, 80, was previously scheduled for 6 p.m. that same day. He was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 1986.

First executions on same day in more than 60 years

This is the first time Florida plans to execute two inmates on the same day since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty nationwide in 1976 after temporarily halting executions in 1972. According to Florida Department of Corrections records, Emmett C. Blake and Sie Dawson were executed for murder on May 12, 1964. The state records show multiple executions on a single day were more common in the past.

Duckett and Occhicone would become the 11th and 12th inmates to be executed in Florida this year if their deaths go as scheduled. Appeals in both cases will eventually go to the U.S. Supreme Court before any executions are performed.

According to court documents, Duckett was the only police officer on duty in Mascotte, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Orlando, the night of May 11, 1987. Witnesses reported seeing Teresa McAbee getting into Duckett’s patrol car outside a convenience store that evening, and her mother reported her missing several hours later. Her body was found the next morning in a nearby lake. DNA from fluids and hair collected from the girl’s body were probable matches to Duckett, and fingerprints matching Duckett and the girl were recovered from his patrol car, investigators said.

In Occhicone’s case, authorities said he showed up the morning of June 10, 1986, at a home in Holiday, just north of Clearwater, where his former girlfriend was living with her parents and her two children. After the woman refused to speak with Occhicone, he left for about an hour and returned with a handgun, investigators said. Occhicone cut the exterior phone lines and then fatally shot Raymond and Martha Artzner as Occhicone’s former girlfriend fled with her daughter. Occhicone didn’t deny the shootings, but his attorneys argued during trial that the murders weren’t premeditated.

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

A short reprieve for Duckett ends

DeSantis previously signed a death warrant for Duckett in February, scheduling his execution for March 31. But the Florida Supreme Court issued a stay just days before the execution to allow for DNA testing of old evidence that couldn't be performed because of technological limitations at the time of the original trial. The results came back inconclusive, meaning that they did not exonerate Duckett or definitively connect him to the crime. Judges have allowed the jury verdict to stand, and Duckett's stay was lifted earlier this month.

Duckett's attorney, Mary Elizabeth Wells, released a statement calling the rescheduled execution shameful and claiming the state's handling of the DNA evidence is the reason for the inconclusive results.

“Mr. Duckett has consistently maintained his innocence,” the statement said. “The State’s duty is to ensure that justice is done, and not rush to kill in a case with such serious doubts over guilt. We are committed to seeking every avenue of relief for Mr. Duckett ahead of his scheduled July 28 execution so that the State of Florida does not execute an innocent man.”

The governor's office declined to comment on Duckett's case or these particular executions, but DeSantis has previously said that 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 during 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.”

Occhione would be oldest to be executed in Florida

Occhicone would also become the state's oldest inmate to be executed. Occhicone has several age-related ailments, including kidney and prostate problems, according to his attorneys. He needs help getting in and out of the shower, they noted.

On June 25, Florida executed 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer for the killing of his estranged wife. He was the oldest inmate executed in Florida until Tuesday, when Dennis Sochor — just a week older than Spencer — was put to death for killing a woman in the first hours of 1982 after meeting her at a New Year’s Eve party.

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

Florida executions are conducted via lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday rejected suggestions that Islamabad had abandoned efforts to bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table after brokering an initial ceasefire agreement last month that has now collapsed.

“Let me dispel the impression that Pakistan has done hands up, and this is not the case,” ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said at a news conference, adding that the parties eventually "will have to come to the negotiating table to settle all outstanding issues.”

Even the top negotiators for Iran and the U.S. signaled they have not walked away from talks. In a podcast interview with Joe Rogan that aired Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration is “not going to bomb and bomb and bomb” and noted that “you’ve got to actually be willing to talk and to try to figure out the problem.”

“We’re going try to use our military force as one of the many tools that we have to solve the problem,” Vance said, adding that “diplomacy is another tool.”

Mediators from countries that include Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt have been working to resume talks, according to regional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy. They noted that neither side has notified Pakistan that it was officially withdrawing or terminating the initial ceasefire agreement.

The backchannel efforts have been overshadowed by the escalating attacks, with the U.S. military on Thursday conducting strikes deeper into Iran and firing on a ship that the U.S. accused of trying to break its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iran has retaliated by launching missiles and drones at U.S. allies in the region and warned that its attacks could grow to target “all the infrastructure in the region.”

The U.S. and Iran are in a delicate and potentially pivotal moment that “leaves open the possibility of moving up the escalation ladder,” said Naysan Rafati, senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based International Crisis Group.

The push is on for renewing negotiations

Andrabi, the spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry, acknowledged that mediation between Iran and the U.S. had become increasingly difficult. But he said peace efforts remained alive.

“It can be put on the backburner, but it stays,” Andrabi said, adding that “whenever the parties exhaust the logic of escalation, the formula for peace is there.”

The regional officials involved in mediation attempts said efforts to salvage the deal to end the war were continuing this week. They acknowledged that the 60-day negotiating process spelled out in the interim deal has halted. But they said mediators have been working to persuade both sides to return to the negotiating table.

Officials say the key point of dispute is management of the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial energy shipping route that is Tehran’s greatest source of leverage. The language in the interim deal is vague. Iran claims it has the authority to arrange shipping transit through the strait, while the U.S. says the waterway is meant to be open to free passage and has tried to arrange an alternate shipping route along Oman’s coast.

In his interview with Rogan, Vance acknowledged that diplomacy might ultimately be the only way forward.

“I’m very frustrated by the Americans and frankly by people in other countries who are like, ‘You cannot negotiate with the Iranians,’” the vice president said. “Well, then what is your proposal to get people to stop shooting at ships in the Strait of Hormuz?”

Trump increases the threats and says Iran ‘better behave’

The fighting resumed over Iran’s unwillingness to allow oil tankers and other commercial vessels to navigate freely through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Persian Gulf shipping route through which 20% of the world’s oil normally flows. Iran effectively choked off the usual stream of commerce by attacking commercial vessels that ignored its rules, disrupting world energy markets and driving up prices that could pose problems for Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

Asked by reporters in recent days if he is still open to negotiations, Trump has repeated his previous threats that Iran returning to the table is the only thing that can avoid U.S. attacks on civilian infrastructure like bridges and power plants. But the Republican president said he would not put a timeline on it.

“I don’t like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know, they know the story,” Trump said in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. “They better behave.”

Moments before, Iran’s parliament speaker and lead negotiator said the country is not declaring last month’s interim deal void. But Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran’s commitment depends on continued implementation by the United States. If Washington fails to honor its obligations, Iran would have no reason to remain bound by it, he argued.

The initial June 17 agreement called for a permanent end to hostilities and a reopening of the strait and started a 60-day negotiating clock to reach a final deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program and other issues.

Qalibaf also suggested that Iran is not seeking to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed indefinitely. He said Tehran’s objective is to preserve what he called “Iranian arrangements” governing navigation through the waterway, while allowing the maximum safe passage of commercial shipping under those rules.

US is trying a naval blockade and more strikes to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — again

To stop Iran’s attacks on ships, Trump has stepped up military attacks and reinstituted an earlier Navy blockade of Iranian ports to inflict economic pain.

But it would be unrealistic to expect the U.S. to eliminate Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones into the strait anytime soon, said Bradley Bowman, a former Army helicopter pilot and now a scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.

“Unfortunately, Iran only needs to hit a ship every now and then to create serious problems and dilemmas for insurers and ship captains and reduce the flow of traffic in the strait,” he said. “That reduced flow exerts significant economic and political pressure on Washington, especially as midterm elections approach. Iran understands the leverage it now has — and so does Trump.”

At the same time, Bowman and other experts are not convinced that more strikes and economic pressure will get Iran to negotiate.

“We’re doing things that have not affected Iranian behavior in the past,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior defense adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “So why would it affect Iranian behavior now?”

___

Amiri reported from New York, Magdy from Cairo and Ahmed from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Keith Sonderling has already been on the job as acting secretary since April, when the White House announced that Lori Chavez-DeRemer would be leaving her post to take a job in the private sector. Her exit followed multiple allegations that she had abused her position's power.

The hearing Thursday lacked much of the vitriol and drama that has been part of some confirmation hearings during Trump's second term. Still, there were considerable policy disputes, including on the administration's efforts to administer various Department of Education grant programs within the Department of Labor.

Sonderling was a senior advisor at the department during Trump's first term and went on to serve as a Republican member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also taught about the laws the department enforces as an adjunct professor at George Washington University. He returned to the department in Trump's second term and was confirmed as deputy secretary in March of last year.

“Few people have had the opportunity to experience the department from so many perspectives,” Sonderling told lawmakers.

Sonderling faced Democratic criticism

Sonderling is expected to be confirmed, but Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., made clear she was no fan of his work.

She noted that the department this year rescinded a Biden-era rule that expanded who can get overtime pay, which the department had estimated would provide an additional 4 million lower-paid salary workers with overtime protections. A federal judge had also blocked the rule during the final months of Joe Biden's presidency.

Murray also noted that the department was pursuing a new rule for determining whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor, which she said would let corporations classify workers as contractors so they can pay lesser wages — depriving workers of billions of dollars annually. She said the Labor Department also fired the vast majority of employees in the office that works to protect workers from discrimination by federal contractors.

“I fear any vote to confirm you is for more of the same: to strip overtime protections for our workers, to undercut our unions and to let giant corporations get away with robbery, literally,” Murray said.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla, said Sonderling was without a doubt qualified to serve as the next Labor secretary. He also said Sonderling has provided stability and steady leadership at the department since Chavez-DeRemer's abrupt departure.

“He is committed to making America the best place to get a job,” Scott said.

Lawmakers raised concerns about grants and the use of AI

One issue that came up repeatedly during the confirmation hearing was Democratic lawmakers' concerns that some Department of Education grant programs are being managed at Labor. That's been happening as Trump works to fulfill his campaign pledge to close the Department of Education entirely.

Sonderling said Department of Education staff have been detailed to his department and that they're making policy decisions. He said the Department of Labor is assisting them on the back end in dispersing funding. For example, he said $1.5 billion came to his department at midnight on July 1 and was disbursed within an hour or two.

"And the states love this,” Sonderling said.

Senators also expressed concern about what impact the growing use of artificial intelligence is having on the American worker.

Sonderling said the department is collecting information from companies and unions about AI usage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will review that data and help the department steer job training money to the states more effectively.

Currently, he said there is a “gloom and doom narrative” about AI's impact on workers that he said is driven by consultants and the tech industry.

“What we believe we're going to see is that AI-impacted jobs can potentially make you more productive. It can make your workplaces safer, but we can't get that information yet," Sonderling said.

Sonderling also touted his work with Vice President JD Vance as part of a task force focused on preventing fraud. He said he's telling states to “verify first and pay later” when it comes to unemployment insurance claims. He said the department is working with the state of Alabama on a centralized verification system.

“They have some of the lowest fraud and improper payment rates in the country because they are verifying,” Sonderling said.

The twice-yearly changing of the clocks in the United States could be a thing of the past if legislation currently in Congress that calls for permanent daylight time makes it through. But even as annoying as some find the back-and-forth of the time shift in the spring and the fall, that doesn't necessarily mean sticking to one would go over well. America has tried it before, most recently in the 1970s, and it didn't last.

Now it's a new era, one full of people working at home who didn't before — and advances in sleep science that tell a more nuanced tale.

Could this time (shift) be the charm?

What's going on this time around?

The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that makes the shift to daylight saving time, when clocks are moved forward one hour, become permanent.

Currently, the shift is forward in spring and back to standard time in fall as a way to give people more daylight time in the summer evenings. But the semi-annual change has few fans - an AP-NORC poll last year found that only 12% of American adults were in favor of it, while almost half opposed it. Proponents of a single time include the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine — outfits to whom daily rhythms are deeply important.

President Donald Trump has indicated he's supportive, but it’s unclear whether the legislation will pass any time soon. It faces roadblocks in the Senate, where some Republicans are strongly opposed.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a member of Republican leadership, has been outspoken against the change, saying last year that enacting it would "make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans.”

What's the big deal with changing it?

While people may not like making the change, history shows they also don't like living with even less morning light in the winter months, when daylight hours are shorter than in summer.

In 1973, Congress passed a law instituting permanent daylight saving time for what was supposed to be a trial period from January 1974 to April 1975. It lasted until October, when it was repealed after public outcry. Among the concerns was worry that schoolchildren would have to start the school day without daylight. These days, some school starting times have started to shift later.

Kevin Birth, a professor of anthropology at Queens College whose research focuses on cultural concepts of time, was in elementary school in Syracuse, New York, at the time and remembers it vividly. “I had to get up for school and it was like it was midnight,” he said. “It was just pitch black and it remained pitch black into the school day.”

If the U.S. decides to try it again, he said, more has to change than just the clocks. The time zones across the country would need to be adapted as well. The current four zones wouldn't be adequate - they cover so much ground that sunrise comes at different times in western and eastern parts of each zone.

Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds is concerned about that. He said that it would be dark past 9:30 a.m. in some areas of his state. “You’d be sending kids to school in the dark,” he said.

__

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

The personnel overhaul, which included replacing his prime minister, could become a test of Zelenskyy’s political authority as Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches 4½ years. Zelenskyy has remained in office under martial law because wartime elections are prohibited but has periodically reshuffled his government.

The moves threw Ukraine’s military leadership into an unwelcome crisis at a time when its actions against Russia are starting to bear fruit and as Moscow has unleashed unrelenting aerial attacks. Two people were killed and five others were wounded, including a child, when Russian missiles hit the capital of Kyiv overnight, Ukraine’s Emergency Service said.

In making the changes, Zelenskyy cited friction between outgoing Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces.

“I’m just showing that if the sides can’t resolve an issue, I will have to resolve it,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference.

The outgoing defense chief was seen as a modernizer

Fedorov, 35, is considered to be a vigorous modernizer whose technological expertise is credited in part with significantly improving Ukraine’s military performance in recent months against Russia’s bigger army. He is leaving the government after only six months in the post.

Fedorov appeared at a news conference in a dark T-shirt and jeans, and accused Syrskyi of blocking reforms needed because “the war has changed completely” due to new technology like drones.

During his time in office, he secured restrictions on Russian forces’ access to the Starlink satellite communications system, allowing Ukraine to better leverage its midrange strike capabilities giving Kyiv significant battlefield advantages.

Fedorov said he was willing to work with Syrskyi, “but we encountered a situation in which all the initiatives we proposed began to be blocked.”

“Under this arrangement (with Syrskyi as commander), I personally do not know how the war can be won,” he said.

On social media, Fedorov highlighted what he called his major achievements: redirecting funds earmarked for salaries into midrange strike capabilities, fiber-optic drones, reconnaissance systems and other technologies. He pointed to expanded drone procurement, Patriot missile defense contracts, successful ballistic missile tests and sweeping changes to military procurement.

But he acknowledged he was unable to complete the Defense Ministry’s organizational transformation “according to NATO standards and common sense,” and move all procurement to competitive tenders, and build a culture of accountability.

Syrskyi didn’t appear in public but in a Facebook post thanked Fedorov and said he hoped he would continue to serve Ukraine. "I wish him to continue to remain in the Ukrainian team,” Syrskyi said without elaborating.

Zelenskyy said he had asked Maj. Gen. Yevhen Khmara to perform the defense minister's duties in the meantime, according to a post on the Telegram messaging app. Since January, Khmara has been acting head of the state’s security service, known as the SBU. He had previously led the SBU’s elite Alpha special forces unit.

Zelenskyy described a difficult relationship between the Defense Ministry and the military at multiple levels, not simply a matter of personalities, and he said both sides share responsibility for the consequences.

“Together we win, and together we’re responsible for the things that cause confusion and public reaction,” he said, standing beside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was making his final foreign visit before leaving office next week.

Mostly young protesters support Fedorov

Syrskyi, 60, initially organized the defense of Kyiv in February 2022, and seven months later masterminded a successful counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region. Born in 1965, he attended the Moscow Higher Military Command School before serving in the Soviet Artillery Corps before the USSR's collapse in 1991.

The Ukrainian military has rallied under Fedorov, slowing Moscow’s front-line advance to a virtual standstill and striking refineries and other energy sites inside Russian territory, causing widespread fuel shortages, Western officials and analysts say. Zelenskyy’s decision to fire him despite that record has dismayed many people.

Before becoming defense minister in January, Fedorov headed Ukraine’s digital transformation policies. He won popularity by spearheading the rapid development and deployment of drone technology and introducing several successful e-government platforms.

As minister, he moved to combat corruption, an issue that carries particular weight with Ukrainians who have repeatedly protested graft. Fighting corruption meant working against the interests of groups that had long profited from programs within the ministry, he said in interviews. He also sought to overhaul weapons procurement to make it more transparent.

He had promised sweeping military reforms, saying it had faced about 200,000 desertions and draft-dodging by some 2 million people.

The mostly young protesters who took to the streets of Kyiv and other cities to support Fedorov made crude remarks about the current military commander, chanting, “Syrskyi, go away!” and “A European army for a European country!”

Kyiv resident Bohdan Huryak said he was “deeply outraged” by Fedorov’s exit.

“I’m not deeply invested in the internal political debates, but this is a person who shows results on the battlefield, we see results, we feel the fighting spirit and confidence in victory rising,” Huryak told The Associated Press. “And then, six months later, he is removed from office? Come on.”

Russian military correspondents and pro-Kremlin bloggers relished the controversy. Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov described Fedorov’s comments as a “rebellion” against Zelenskyy.

The deputy commander of Ukraine’s air force, Col. Pavlo Yelizarov, quit over Fedorov’s dismissal, saying on social media it will weaken Ukraine’s air defenses and lead to more deaths from Russian attacks.

“I believe that the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov is a great evil for the country’s defense capability,” he wrote in his resignation letter on Facebook.

State energy company chief is new prime minister

Parliament overwhelmingly approved Serhii Koretskyi, the head of state energy company Naftogaz, as the country’s new prime minister.

In nominating Koretskyi, Zelenskyy cited his record in the energy sector and argued he was best prepared to guide Ukraine through another winter, when Russian attacks on the power grid intensify.

Unlike other senior government officials, the 48-year-old engineer did not rise through political parties, parliament or the civil service. He spent more than two decades managing fuel and food businesses before being picked to run some of Ukraine’s most troubled state-owned energy companies and gained a reputation as an effective crisis manager who could make them profitable.

Zelenskyy has faced protests before over his decisions. Large demonstrations broke out in July 2025 when he fast-tracked a law that would have curbed the independence of the country’s anti-corruption watchdogs.

The outcry threatened his leadership for the first time since Russia's invasion, and he swiftly reversed course and submitted legislation to restore the agencies' independence.

___

Dan Bashakov and Dmytro Zhyhinas contributed.

___

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

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar avoided the crash and kept his significant overall lead over second-place Jonas Vingegaard after 12 stages.

It was Merlier’s third stage win on this year’s Tour and sixth of his career. Dutch rider Olav Kooij finished second and Jasper Philipsen of Belgium was third.

With riders fighting for position on the home straight, Colombian Fernando Gaviria went down after clipping the wheel of another cyclist and fell to his left, bringing Norwegian rider Soeren Waerenskjold — Wednesday's stage winner — down with him. Just behind them, four other riders had no room to swerve around them and flew over their handlebars.

None of the riders appeared seriously injured and Gaviria eventually crossed the line with the help of a teammate.

Later Thursday, the Caja Rural-Seguros RGA team said the 31-year-old Gaviria sustained a fractured left collarbone and had pulled out of the race.

“There was a lot of chaos and a mix of teams at the front of the peloton,” teammate Stefano Oldani said, describing the crash. "I saw him lying on the road next to two Lotto (team) riders and I realized straight away that he’d taken a nasty hit.”

Four-time Tour champion Pogacar remains 3 minutes, 36 seconds ahead of two-time champion Vingegaard and 4:06 ahead of Remco Evenepoel in third place.

Pogacar had extended his overall lead Tuesday after another trademark attack in the 10th stage.

Stage 12 was a mostly flat 179-kilometer (111-mile) route starting from the Magny-Cours track, which once hosted Formula 1 races, and ending in Chalon-sur-Saône in eastern France.

Frenchman Baptiste Veistroffer forged ahead on his own until he was caught by a group of 14 riders heading into the last 30 kilometers. They were caught by the hard-chasing peloton soon after, and just before the third of three minor climbs.

With teams looking to place their sprinters into the best position to attack it was a nervy approach to the finish line.

Philipsen's Alpecin-Premier Tech team put three riders at the front to help him but they attacked too soon, as they did in previous stages, and Philipsen is still looking for his first victory at this year's race.

Merlier said having his wife and young son at the race “gave me a lot of motivation.”

"Winning for them is special,” Merlier said. “I managed to find the opening, I had to stay calm and wait. It was a finale and a finish that suited me very well.”

Friday's 13th stage is the longest of this year's race at 206 kilometers and features a sharp Category 1 climb — the second-hardest category in the Tour — toward the end.

The race concludes with its traditional finish in Paris on July 26. ___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been announced. Burns has a $785,000 salary while in the major leagues this year and $198,173 in the unlikely event he is sent to the minors.

Burns' deal would run through the 2033 season and under the current labor contract covers three seasons of arbitration eligibility and the first two years after he would have been eligible for free agency. It does not include options or deferrals.

The 23-year old right-hander was selected to the All-Star Game this season for the first time, but did not participate after he tweaked his right groin during a July 8 game against Philadelphia when trying to field the throw home on a wild pitch during the second inning.

Burns is 11-1 in 18 starts this season, including 15 starts where he has allowed two runs or fewer. His wins are tied for second most in the majors and his 2.54 ERA is the sixth lowest. His 118 strikeouts are seventh in the National League.

His fastball has an average velocity of 97.8 mph along with an above-average slider, Burns is generating a 31.7% whiff rate on swings, seventh in the majors.

Burns is the third pitcher in club history with at least 11 wins and 118 strikeouts before the All-Star break, joining Edinson Volquez (2008) and Jim Maloney (1963).

The contract extension also continues the trend of teams signing their young stars early. The Reds' longtime NL Central rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, signed rookie second baseman JJ Wetherholt to a $112.5 million, eight-year contract last week.

Burns was the second overall pick out of Wake Forest in the 2024 amateur draft. He went 7-3 with a 1.77 ERA in 13 starts in the Reds' farm system before being called up to the majors last June. He was 0-3 with a 4.57 ERA in 13 games, including eight starts, in his rookie season.

It is the largest guaranteed contract in the majors given to a pitcher with less than four years of service time and exceeds the previous high by 40% for someone with one year or more.

Burns is also the first pitcher to sign a contract worth at least $100 million prior to at least five years of service time to exclude club options.

The deal ties Homer Bailey's for the largest guarantee given to a Reds' pitcher and the third largest for any player in franchise history, only eclipsed by Joey Votto and Ken Griffey Jr.

Burns' first start after the All-Star break is scheduled for Tuesday at Seattle. After making the postseason last year, Cincinnati is in last place in the NL Central with a 43-52 mark and eight games out of a wild-card spot.

___

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

“This case was always about two courageous young girls who simply wanted the same opportunities as their peers to participate in school life,” their lawyer, Chris Erchull of GLAD Law, said in a statement Thursday. “Their willingness to stand up to extraordinary hostility made clear the human cost of laws that target transgender youth.”

The teenagers, Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, took on Trump’s executive order last year, amending their 2024 complaint against New Hampshire's law on banning transgender girls from school sports. A federal judge had granted a court order allowing them to play as the case proceeded.

For Tirrell, it meant being able to keep playing on her high school girls’ soccer team. For Turmelle, it was having a chance to try out for different sports.

Both sides agreed to pause the case and wait for a ruling from the Supreme Court as it considered similar state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school and college athletic teams in Idaho and West Virginia. Last month, the court upheld the laws. It also said that barring transgender girls and women doesn’t run afoul of the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

One teen and her family decided to move from New Hampshire

Turmelle and her family moved out of New Hampshire last summer following proposed legislation against transgender people. One measure signed into law by Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte last year prohibits medical professionals from providing puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy to new transgender patients under age 18.

“Though there may be a carve-out for people already receiving gender-affirming care, that is way too close a call for us to risk staying,” Turmelle's mother, Amy Manzelli, wrote in an op-ed piece at the time. “Other New Hampshire laws also seek to erase her.”

Most Republican-controlled states in the past five years have adopted laws or policies limiting gender-affirming care for transgender minors and limiting which school bathrooms transgender people can use, as well as sports restrictions. The Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that about 3% of youth ages 13 to 17 identify as transgender.

“The challenges with relocation are significant and burdensome — this includes having to find new employment, buying and selling homes, packing and moving possessions, integrating kids with a new school system, losing access to longstanding family and friends, and potential loss of income,” Corinne Goodwin, the executive director of Eastern PA Trans Equality Project in Pennsylvania, said in an email.

"But these families do so because they love their kids and know that supporting them with the care and opportunities they need is critical to their long-term success and happiness.”

The other teen gave up playing soccer at high school

Tirrell, 17, began her junior year last fall on the girls' junior varsity soccer team. Things were fine at first, and each time she scored a goal, she got a round of ice cream from her parents. But a few weeks into the season, she decided to stop playing.

“With all of the political stuff going on, soccer wasn't just about the game anymore,” her mother, Sara Tirrell, told The Associated Press in an interview.

It became more about preparing for the possibility of conflict.

“Were there any local Facebook groups where they were sort of agitating about potential protests and how do we prepare, and what are we walking into, and we never kind of knew,” she said. “We were on a lot of pins and needles, especially after the previous season."

She was referring to a controversy at an away game where two dads from an opposing team were banned from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands marked “XX” to represent female chromosomes. They sued the school district and a judge ruled against them. They have appealed their case.

Last fall, there was an increased presence of school administrators at the games and bus drivers pulled in closer to the field so the students weren’t in the parking lot, she said.

“Parker didn’t talk about it a lot, but I think she could see that stress for everybody — for her, for her teammates, for her coaches,” Sara Tirrell said. "She felt kind of bad about pulling them all into that circus again. And so she ultimately said, ‘This isn’t fun anymore and I don’t want to do it.’”

Parker’s father described the atmosphere as “palpable tension.”

Even playing on her own turf, “there would typically be a couple of police officers at the home games where there weren’t previously,” Zach Tirrell said.

In the past, Parker also played soccer in a recreation league and could still do so.

“But I think it all kind of still sort of weighs on her,” her mother said. "It's the same group of kids that she plays with who, honestly, have been very supportive and love to have her on the team and have expressed that to her many times over. But I think she still has that worry in her brain around, ‘What are other people going to say and do if I show up at a game?’”

Parker's parents hope she'll return to playing soccer some day. In the meantime, “she plans to be around and use her voice to continue standing up to discrimination,” her mother said. “In some ways she’s had to grow up a lot faster than some of her peers.”

___

Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey, contributed to this article.

___

This story has been corrected to show the name of a parent is Amy Manzelli, not Amy Manzetti.

Kevin Brasler, executive editor at Consumers’ Checkbook, says homeowners shouldn’t assume they need an expensive security system to stay safe.

“The fact is, most burglars, they get into homes simply by walking in through an unlocked door or raising an unlocked window,” Brasler said.

What burglars are actually looking for

Brasler says most burglars are looking for an easy target — not a challenge. That means an unlocked door or an open window is often all the invitation they need. While there is some evidence that visible alarm systems and sirens may deter certain burglars, Brasler says the way criminals break into homes remains largely the same regardless.

“There’s some kind of anecdotal evidence that burglars might tend to avoid homes where it’s clear there’s a burglar alarm and a siren may go off,” he said. “But in the end, the way they break into homes is pretty similar.”

How much do home security systems actually cost?

Doorbell cameras and DIY devices are more popular than ever — and according to Consumers’ Checkbook, they’re far cheaper than many traditional alarm systems.

Professionally installed systems can run anywhere from $750 to $3,000, and that’s before factoring in monitoring costs, which can reach $1,500 or more per year. A basic DIY system, however, can be assembled for as little as a few hundred dollars.

Even major brands are adapting. ADT now offers a do-it-yourself kit called ADT Blue, which requires no contract and no professional monitoring costs.

“I think often that may be the better way to go in terms of saving a lot of money,” Brasler said.

The cheapest security habit is also the best one

Brasler’s top advice costs nothing: lock your doors, lock your windows, and make sure your home looks occupied — even when you’re away.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate rose to 6.55% from 6.49% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. One year ago, the average rate was 6.75%.

Higher mortgage rates can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, limiting homebuyers’ purchasing power at a time when affordability challenges continue to sideline many aspiring homeowners.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation. They generally follow the trajectory of the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

Rates have been mostly rising this year as the war with Iran has driven crude oil prices sharply higher, stoking expectations of hotter inflation. That's pushed up long-term bond yields relative to where they were before the conflict began in late February, causing mortgage rates to trend higher.

The 10-year Treasury yield was 4.57% at midday Thursday on the bond market, up from 4.54% a week ago. It was just 3.97% in late February, before the war broke out.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage is now the highest it's been since Aug. 28, when it was at 6.56%. As recently as late February, the average rate dropped slightly below 6% for the first time since late 2022.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, often sought by borrowers refinancing a home loan, also rose this week. That average rate increased to 5.93% from 5.82% last week. A year ago, it was at 5.92%, Freddie Mac said.

A report this week showing prices paid by consumers for gas, clothes and other goods cooled last month could help take pressure off the Federal Reserve, which is considering raising interest rates.

The central bank doesn’t set mortgage rates, but its decisions to raise or lower its short-term rate are watched closely by bond investors and can ultimately affect the yield on 10-year Treasurys.

That cooler inflation reading “is a step in the right direction, but until mortgage rates actually follow suit, buyers will keep feeling the pinch of stubbornly high borrowing costs even as other conditions improve,” said Hannah Jones, senior economist at Realtor.com.

While average long-term mortgage rates remain lower than they were at this time last year, their upward trajectory has weighed on home sales this year.

And the latest monthly tally of home purchase transactions that have yet to be finalized points to potentially more sluggish home sales this summer.

Pending U.S. home sales fell 5.4% in June from the previous months and were down 0.3% from June last year, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. There’s usually a month or two lag between a contract signing and when the sale is finalized, which makes pending home sales a near-term bellwether for the housing market.

Data on mortgage applications also signal that the upward trend in mortgage rates has given some would-be homebuyers reason to pause.

Mortgage applications, which include loans to buy a home or refinance an existing mortgage, fell 2.7% last week from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The pullback was driven mainly by a 7% drop in applications to buy a home.

The driver had told police that he had the self-driving software turned on, but a report from the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday concluded that he had actually overridden that feature when he pushed hard on the pedal. Moments later the Tesla Model 3 raced down a residential street in Katy, Texas, at highway speeds, slammed into a brick home and killed a 76-year-old woman standing in the front room.

The crash last month drew national attention because Tesla CEO Elon Musk is seeking to reassure the public its self-driving feature is safe as he prepares to turn hundreds of thousands of Teslas already on the road into fully automatic vehicles and begin selling two-seated Cybercabs missing steering wheels and pedals.

The crash came two months after officials at a separate federal agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, announced it was elevating a 2024 investigation of the self-driving feature to new “engineering analysis” level, raising the possibility of a recall of 3.2 million Tesla vehicles.

That NHTSA probe was triggered by crashes where the self-driving feature failed to alert drivers to take control in fog and other poor visibility conditions.

The agency opened an investigation last year into 58 incidents in which Teslas reportedly violated traffic safety laws while using self-driving technology, leading to more than a dozen crashes and fires and nearly two dozen injuries.

Separate from the National Transportation Safety Board, NHTSA is also looking into the Tesla house crash in Texas, one of 46 “special crash” investigations of Tesla's self-driving or driver-assistance technology in the past decade, according to the agency’s records. In more than a dozen of those crashes, at least one person — a driver, passenger or pedestrian — was killed.

Tesla had originally called its driver assistance software Full Self-Driving, or FSD, but auto experts and regulators complained it was misleading because drivers must always keep their eyes on the road and be ready to take over at any time.

The company has since changed the name to Full Self-Driving (Supervised).

Video of the Katy, Texas, accident shows the Tesla traveling at more than 70 mph (112.65 kilometers per hour), jumping a curb then tearing across a lawn before crushing through a brick wall of a home. A woman standing feet away, Martha Avila, was found amid piles of crumbling plaster, split beams and bits of furniture and rushed to a hospital but died.

Sales of Tesla cars still haven't recovered fully from boycotts last year over Musk's far-right political stands, but the stock is rising anyway as he has successfully shifted attention away from the sales figures. He says they matter less now that the company is on the cusp of major technological advances, such as turning Teslas into hands-free vehicles and having its Optimus robots take over for humans for tasks at home and work.

Tesla stock has risen 22% in the past year and is currently trading at 170 times expected annual earnings compared to 20 for the S&P 500.

For its second-quarter financial results out next week, financial analysts surveyed by FactSet expect earnings per share will barely budge — 32 cents versus 33 cents a year earlier — continuing a sixth quarter streak of flat or falling profits.

“The most powerful handgun in the world,” Clint Eastwood says with a mix of pleasure and malice as detective “Dirty Harry” takes aim at a bank robber. The 1971 movie made the hefty steel pistol an icon for generations of modern lawmen and outlaws alike.

Dirty Harry is a protector of everyday people, yet he’s shackled by powerful forces out of his control. This urge to stand up to perceived tyranny — by any means necessary — is so ingrained in our national identity that the right to bear arms was given the No. 2 spot in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

Eastwood's co-star was the Smith & Wesson Model 29, the first revolver to use powerful .44 caliber Magnum ammunition, which debuted in the mid-1950s. The American gunmaker has been in the revolver business since 1852.

Yet the long-barreled revolver has come a long way since the Wild West. Owning a gun, and having strong opinions about guns, are now high-voltage political issues.

For some, the obvious reason to keep a handgun is self-defense, home invasion, the fear of becoming a victim. (Rather than under his pillow, my father slept soundly with our guns in a secret compartment in the basement, but to each their own.)

The U.S. is infamous worldwide for our unique scourge of mass shootings with assault-style rifles. Yet when someone pulls the trigger, it's usually a handgun. According to a Pew Research Center analysis for 2024, 53% of gun homicides involved a handgun. Rifles accounted for 3%. The rest were other or unspecified types of guns.

That same year, more Americans killed themselves with guns than ever before. And if a woman's abusive partner has access to a gun, she is five times more likely to be killed, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

America is fascinated with guns. The world is watching.

They're soaking up the stories we tell about ourselves — in crime thrillers, police dramas, cowboy movies and blockbuster action flicks — and buying the guns, too. Nearly a quarter million handguns were “Made in the USA” and exported in 2023, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

More than half a century ago, Dirty Harry used his .44 to blast away the line between protector and vigilante. As a nation, we haven’t looked back.

___

Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.

Both proposals have come at a time when security for the president is a top concern. The administration says the projects would be an improvement over temporary structures that have long been used for security, such as bicycle racks fashioned into barriers.

President Donald Trump has been the target of multiple assassination attempts, including two during the 2024 campaign and a third this past April as he attended a Washington dinner with White House journalists. Those concerns were heightened in May after U.S. Secret Service officers fatally shot a man who opened fire near a White House security checkpoint.

The original design for the White House Visitor Screening Facility had it being built underground near the southern end of Sherman Park, just southeast of the White House. But consultations with other entities led to it being moved to the western edge, away from utility infrastructure.

Commissioners granted initial approval for the revised design for the 33,000-square-foot (3,066-square-meter) facility, which will provide security screening for public tour participants, guests attending large events, staff and contractors going to the White House. The panel also had approved the previous design.

The administration says the permanent facility, which it wants open by July 2028, will replace a series of temporary tents that have been used for years, improve security on the White House complex and enhance the experience for visitors.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts also discussed options for a permanent fence around Lafayette Park to make it faster and easier for law enforcement to limit public access when authorities determine that is necessary. The park last had a permanent fence in the late 1800s.

The administration’s 79-page proposal for the 8-acre (3-hectare) park calls for fencing all the way around with larger gates at the north and south entrances. Options call for either including or excluding monuments located at each of the park’s four corners.

The nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation said the fence plan will be better than the "mishmash of bollards, strings of police tape, and zip-tied bike rack barriers” currently in use.

Some members of the public, whose written comments were read aloud at the meeting by the commission's secretary, raised concerns about fencing a park with a history as a place where throngs gather to protest or celebrate major events. They argued that a fence could hinder the people's constitutional rights to protest and assemble.

“When considering the current proposals for Lafayette Park, let’s first ask if fencing is the right approach?” Charles Birnbaum, president and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation wrote in a letter to the commission. Birnbaum noted that the Washington Monument does not have a fence.

Lafayette Park has been closed and fenced in since January for renovations that included repairing dormant fountains the Republican president has talked about. He recently surveyed the work being done there.

“We’re really doing a job at Lafayette Park, which is really the entrance to the White House, and that’s going to be completed very shortly and it’ll be incredible,” he said in June.

The administration also wants similar fencing along Pennsylvania Avenue on the north side of the White House complex, from the Treasury Department building at 15th Street to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at 17th Street.

The fine arts commission has oversight over the design of construction on federal land in Washington. Trump appointed all seven commissioners.

Garrett's performance helped him earn the honor of being named the top off-ball linebacker in the NFL by The Associated Press.

A panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five players at edge rusher, basing selections on current status entering the 2026 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second- through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

Garrett got all eight first-place votes and won the voting with 80 points. Green Bay's Micah Parsons was the only other player named on all eight ballots and was second with 27 points. Houston's Will Anderson Jr. was third, Pittsburgh's T.J. Watt was fourth and Detroit's Aidan Hutchinson was fifth.

Brian Burns of the New York Giants, Baltimore's Trey Hendrickson, Las Vegas' Maxx Crosby, San Francisco's Nick Bosa and Jacksonville's Josh Hines-Allen also received votes.

1. Myles Garrett, Los Angeles Rams

Garrett won his second AP Defensive Player of the Year award last season and earned All-Pro honors for the fifth time after breaking the single-season sack record held by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt. His 125 1/2 career sacks are the second-most to Reggie White among players in their first nine seasons in the NFL and Garrett is the only player with five straight seasons with at least 14 sacks.

Now after playing in only three playoff games in his career with the Browns, Garrett could have a chance to deliver in the postseason following the trade to the preseason Super Bowl favorite Rams.

2. Micah Parsons, Green Bay Packers

Parsons was dealt from Dallas to Green Bay before last season and delivered 12 1/2 sacks in 14 games while earning his third career All-Pro honor. Parsons' season ended early following a torn ACL in Week 15 that is expected to sideline him for at least the start of this season.

But Parsons has performed at a high level every year in the NFL and is the only player ever to start his career with five straight seasons with at least 12 sacks.

3. Will Anderson Jr., Houston Texans

Anderson is the anchor of one of the NFL's top defenses and earned his first All-Pro honor last season when he had 12 sacks and 20 tackles for loss. He turned that performance into a three-year, $150 million contract extension in the offseason.

In three seasons with the Texans, the 24-year-old Anderson has piled up 30 sacks and 136 tackles, including 46 for loss. He also has 64 quarterback hits in his career and has forced four fumbles and recovered three.

4. T.J. Watt, Pittsburgh Steelers

Watt's production has dipped a bit in recent years but he still remains one of the game's top pass rushers. He had seven sacks in 14 games last season when he earned his eighth straight Pro Bowl bid.

He has led the NFL in sacks three times and has 115 for his career.

5. Aidan Hutchinson, Detroit Lions

The No. 2 pick in the 2022 draft bounced back from an injury-shortened 2024 campaign to record a career high last season with 14 1/2 sacks to make his second Pro Bowl and be named a second-team All-Pro.

Hutchinson has 43 sacks, 100 quarterback hits, 44 tackles for loss and five INTs in 56 career games.

___

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

The league's first 84-game season since 1993-94 opens Sept. 29 as 32 teams will combine to play a total of 1,344 games. The season runs through Saturday, April 10, before the playoffs begin the following week.

The increase from an 82-game slate, which had been the standard since the mid-’90s, was agreed upon by team owners and players in the last round of talks on a collective bargaining agreement. The intent is to provide more space between the end of the Stanley Cup Final and the draft in late June before free agency commences July 1.

When the Panthers and Oilers went the distance in ’24, there were just three days between Game 7 on June 24 in South Florida and the first round of the draft on June 28 in Las Vegas.

After defeating Vegas to win the Stanley Cup, the Carolina Hurricanes will raise their second championship banner on Sept. 29 against Florida.

That opening night, featuring five games, matches the earliest start date in NHL history and is the first time the regular season begins in North America before October. The Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings played games in London on Sept. 29 and 30, 2007.

The most recent — and only other — September hockey outside of exhibitions came during the pandemic playoff bubble in 2020, culminating when Tampa Bay hoisted the Cup in an empty arena in Edmonton on Sept. 28.

Games to watch

Oct. 21: New Florida Panther Brady Tkachuk returns to Ottawa. The former Senators captain plays his first game against his old team since getting traded to Florida to play with his brother, Matthew. It did not end well in Canada's capital, from Brady bristling at his name being in rumors to asking out and then the team offering to take Tkachuk No. 7 jerseys fans wished to exchange.

Oct 25: Heritage Classic. The Montreal Canadiens visit the Winnipeg Jets in the return of outdoor hockey to Canada for the first time since 2023.

Dec. 21: Stanley Cup Final rematch: The Hurricanes return to the scene of their championship triumph to face the Golden Knights in Las Vegas. The two teams meet again in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Jan. 17.

Dec. 31: Winter Classic: Utah takes center stage outside, hosting the Colorado Avalanche in the Winter Classic in Salt Lake City.

Feb. 20: Jerry World hockey: The Dallas Stars host Vegas in at the Dallas Cowboys' stadium in Arlington, Texas.

April 4: Washington hosts Pittsburgh. Alex Ovechkin is back for a 22nd NHL season with the Capitals. If this is it for him at age 41 — and it very well may not be if he wants to shoot for 1,000 career goals — this would be the last regular-season game against Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins.

___

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

But the money dried up after the Supreme Court struck down the biggest and boldest of Trump’s tariffs in February.

The question now is: Can the president’s trade team make good on its promise to replace the lost revenue?

A deadline is approaching rapidly.

After the Supreme Court setback, the president turned first to Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose 10% tariffs globally. But Section 122 only authorizes tariffs for 150 days. Trump’s expire on July 24. Congress would have to extend those tariffs — something lawmakers are unlikely to do as the Nov. 3 midterm elections approach amid voter discontent over the high cost of living.

But the administration has more durable options: Section 301 of the same 1974 trade law permits the president to impose tariffs and other sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices. Trump used Section 301 to impose big tariffs on China in his first term and is rolling them out again — as recently as late Wednesday when he announced 25% tariffs on some Brazilian imports, charging the world’s 11th-biggest economy with a host of unfair trade practices.

Trade attorneys and analysts are confident the tariff-happy Trump administration will manage to beat the clock and swap out Section 122 tariffs with bigger Section 301 tariffs by the July 24 deadline. “They’re going to raise the tariff wall again,’’ said trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a trade official in Trump's first administration and in President Joe Biden's.

Trump last year tested – and exceeded – the limits of his authority to impose import taxes, a power the U.S. Constitution gives Congress. He invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to slap big tariffs on most of the world’s countries.

He justified the levies, which marked a stunning reversal of decades of U.S. policy in favor of lower tariffs and freer trade, by labeling America’s longstanding trade deficits a national emergency.

The Supreme Court didn’t buy it, ruling in February that the president couldn’t use the emergency powers law to impose tariffs at all. The legal defeat meant the administration had to send refunds to importers that had paid the levies.

As a result, tariffs have at least temporarily gone from a windfall to a drain on the Treasury.

Revenue from import taxes peaked at more than $31.4 billion last October. Then, after the Supreme Court ruling, it started dwindling – to $22 billion in both March and April. As refund checks went out faster than revenue from the Section 122 and other tariffs came in, the number turned negative: A small ($42 million) shortfall in May was followed by a whopping $25.6 billion loss in June.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have vowed to use other legal authorities to recoup the lost income.

Enter Section 301, which gives the president power to impose – and adjust – tariffs in response to other countries’ trade practices. But the administration must first check procedural boxes – collecting comments and holding hearings. There are no limits on Section 301 tariffs. They expire after four years but can be renewed.

So the president has flexibility in how he uses the Section 301 tariffs. Trump can still change them — after clearing procedural hurdles — but he can’t impose or move them up or down on a whim as he often did with the IEEPA tariffs. Uncertainty over Trump's tariff policy has vexed businesses, leaving them hesitant to make investments and decisions because they don't know what the trade rules are going to be.

A switch to rule-bound 301 tariffs would mean "there’s less uncertainty but not no uncertainty,’’ said Sarah Bianchi, a former U.S. trade official who is now chief strategist of international political affairs at the investment research firm Evercore ISI.

The Trump administration has turned to two big Section 301 investigations in its campaign to replace lost tariff revenue. One accuses 60 countries, accounting for 99% of U.S. imports, of failing to do enough to crack down on imports created by forced labor. The other is investigating whether 16 U.S. trading partners — including China, the European Union and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down worldwide prices and putting American manufacturers at a disadvantage.

The administration has already decided what it wants to do about the forced labor issue. Invoking Section 301 last month, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer proposed tariffs — 10% on 16 countries and 12.5% on 44 — that are the same or slightly higher than the 10% Section 122 levies they would replace. But Greer's office is still receiving public comments on the proposed tariffs and has not imposed them yet.

Nathaniel Halvorson, a partner at the Baker McKenzie law firm and a former U.S. trade official, expects Greer’s office will manage to get the forced-labor levies in place in time so that there won’t be much, if any, “daylight’’ between them and the expiring Section 122 tariffs. “Really, they’re operating about as fast as legally possible,’’ he said.

The administration has not yet completed the other Section 301 investigation into alleged overproduction by 16 countries. Trade attorney Majerus expects the administration to propose more big tariffs in that case, likely in a month or two. He suspects they will be timed to take effect only after the midterm elections “for obvious reasons.’’

Trump, who has proudly called himself “Tariff Man,’’ has made it clear that he is seeking to bring back the big, worldwide import taxes he’d imposed in 2025. So the new 301 investigations look like a pretext to do that and might be vulnerable in court, Bianchi said.

“Section 301s have been pretty legally durable,” she said. “But no one has tried to use it to basically put in place universal tariffs. I think there will be legal challenges.’’

The latest commitment appears to bring the company’s total pledges for investment in U.S. chipmaking to $265 billion. The company also raised its annual revenue forecast after booking record high profits thanks to runaway demand from the boom in artificial intelligence.

The world's largest contract chip manufacturing and one of the world’s most valuable companies, TSMC is seen as a barometer for the global chip industry and for AI at a time when worries about a potential AI bubble have been buffeting financial markets.

As AI-related demand continues to jump and needs for computing power from data centers surge, TSMC has been expanding chip fabrication plants in the U.S., Japan and Taiwan. It said it is increasing its annual capital expenditure budget for this year to $60 billion-$64 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $52 billion-$56 billion.

TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple. It had previously already committed $165 billion in the U.S. for building plants in Arizona, with six fabrication facilities planned.

The extra $100 billion in investments are to “support the strong multiyear demand from our leading U.S. customers,” C.C. Wei, chairman and CEO of TSMC, said during the company's quarterly earnings conference Thursday. An additional four fabrication plants in Arizona will likely be built with the new investments, TSMC said. They will focus on making some of the most advanced chips that are 2-nanometer and below.

“We believe this investment will help to further foster the development of the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem, strengthen the supply chain and support an increasing number of high-tech, high-paying jobs in the United States,” he said.

Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and Taiwan reached an agreement that cut U.S. tariffs on Taiwanese goods, as Taiwan promised around $250 billion of new investments in the United States' tech sector, including in semiconductors. That included spending by TSMC.

AI-related demand globally continues to be “extremely robust,” Wei said, as the “AI megatrend continues to drive the need for more and more computation.”

“I believe from this day on, all the way to probably 2029, 2030, the demand is very strong,” he said.

TSMC on Thursday reported a record 706.6 billion new Taiwan dollars ($22 billion) in net profit for the April-June quarter, up 77% from a year earlier and better than what analysts had expected. Revenue was up 36% year-on-year during the quarter, to 1.27 trillion new Taiwan dollars ($39 billion).

Wei said TSMC now expects its annual 2026 revenue growth to be slightly above 40% year-on-year, up from its previous forecast of over 30%.

TSMC’s ramped up investment plans are “essential to support (its) long-term growth” and to keep up with demand, said William Li, a senior analyst in semiconductors at Counterpoint Research.

Mateo Pulcini delivered an amusing response a few hours later.

After holing a 40-foot putt for birdie on the 18th green at Royal Birkdale, the 25-year-old amateur cupped both of his ears in a gesture to spectators that mimicked the celebration his countryman, Enzo Fernandez, produced after scoring Argentina's 85th-minute equalizing goal on Wednesday. Argentina went on to win 2-1 in the semifinals.

“I was pretty excited and that came to my mind,” he said, “and I did it.”

Pulcini stressed there were only “a few boos” on the first tee and that it was just a bit of fun.

“People are being great. Fans are being spectacular. They were cheering for me as well,” he said.

Asked what felt better — his putt on the 18th or seeing Fernandez's goal — Pulcini said: “Enzo’s goal, for sure.”

Pulcini is making his debut at the British Open after qualifying by winning the Latin American Amateur Championship in a playoff in Peru.

He shot 5-over 75 on Thursday.

___

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

There's still areas that need to be worked on, but it will take more than 20 games for everything to be cleaned up.

“We’ve seen great improvements on the very things that were broken,” the Minnesota Lynx coach said. “There was a level of impeding players and trying to cut off a screen. We don’t want the unnecessary physicality.”

The league put together a task force, which Reeve is on, in the offseason to help clean up some of the physicality in the game. The main point of emphasis was to help players' freedom of movement. Despite some hiccups early on, it has led to more offense as teams are averaging around 86 points a game — the highest ever. They are shooting nearly 45% from the field — also the best in league history.

So far this season there have been roughly 4 1/2 more fouls called per game with 75% of them being non-shooting fouls.

“I think it’s fair for our coaches and players to be able to say we’re happy and we think positive things are taking place, but still I disagree with the calls that are affecting our team tonight,” Monty McCutchen, who is the head of WNBA officials, told The Associated Press.

“I want coaches to remain advocates for their teams," McCutchen added. "We have gotten positive feedback that we’re on the right track. we’ll continue to work through specifics when we fail that task and we’ll continue to check in with the officiating task force to make sure that we’re aligned with the expectations.”

By no means are things perfect. Coaches and players have complained of inconsistencies between officiating crews. What might be called a foul in one half might not be deemed a foul at another point in the game. Obvious fouls are getting missed too.

“It’s never going to be perfect, but we’re trending in the right direction,” Reeve said. “We’ve put resources into this.”

Reeve recalled a play that she asked to be reviewed during her team's game against Dallas. The officials looked at the play and upgraded it to a flagrant.

The league is constantly reviewing plays. Alyssa Thomas’ punch to the throat of Caitlin Clark that was upgraded to a Flagrant-2 was one of four that the league reviewed that night and was the only one upgraded.

Common fouls aren’t the only thing on the rise. Both technical fouls and flagrant fouls are up too. There have been 124 technicals assessed this season (four more were rescinded). Last year there were 171 total. There have been 44 flagrants called this season as compared to 51 all of last year.

“I think they are doing a better job at reviewing hostile acts,” Reeve said. “We didn't ask for that, but if that's what it takes to clean it up (it's worth it).”

Not everyone is a fan of all the reviews. Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon said after a loss to Indiana last week that there were too many of them.

“It’s exhausting when they go to the review every time. I mean, these games are getting longer and longer. It’s encouraging more drama,” she said. “So, it’s like somebody gets hit, and it’s like take them to the hospital. And they jump up, and they’re fine. So I actually think it’s not just today. It’s across the league. There’s so many reviews.”

___

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

The crash happened around 11:30 p.m. on June 23 along Barna Avenue and River Oaks Drive. According to FHP, John Lau — who was driving a police vehicle — ran off the roadway and overturned several times. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The crash triggered an administrative review that led to Lau’s firing. City Manager Tom Abbate said Lau was terminated “following a preliminary administrative review of violations of City Personnel Policy.”

According to a termination letter obtained by News 6, the city listed the reason for termination as a violation of “City Policy on Drugs and Alcohol refusal to submit to a drug test.”

Deputy Chief Tyler Wright was named interim chief of police, Abbate added.

Lau began his career with the Titusville Police Department in 1992 and was appointed police chief in 2012.