Now, 11 years after the first Ni Una Menos protest created a collective consciousness about what would come to be known as femicide — the killing of women and girls because of their gender — the nation is convulsing with anger once again.

This time, it's over the killing of 14-year-old Agostina Vega, in the central city of Cordoba. She arrived at a family friend's home the night of May 23, expecting to pick up a gift for her mother. Instead, she was sexually assaulted and hanged, initial autopsy results indicate, her body dismembered with a kitchen knife.

Her remains were found in a drainage ditch Saturday, a week after her disappearance, as vigils in her home province erupted into clashes with police.

The outrage has reverberated across the country, and on Wednesday, thousands of protesters gathered for the annual Ni Una Menos demonstration in downtown Buenos Aires. Many held posters printed with the faces and names of women who've been killed or who disappeared in recent years, including Agostina. Her case brought renewed energy and purpose to the protest, amplifying demands for government action and intensifying criticism of President Javier Milei.

The libertarian ally of U.S. President Donald Trump has called the feminist movement “a ridiculous and unnatural fight," promoted scrapping femicide from the penal code, and defunded programs supporting victims of gender violence as part of his cultural war and cost-cutting campaign.

This year, lawyers at the Center for Legal and Social Studies, a leading Argentine human rights group, have counted 63 legally registered femicides. But they and other advocates say it can be an uphill battle against the government to get that classification. Some have compiled a list of more than 100 names of women killed this year, arguing that many aren’t properly labeled.

Reports of femicide in Argentina fell 12%, to 200 cases last year compared with 2024, according to statistics published by the Supreme Court. Victims' lawyers say the change doesn’t reflect a drop in gender-based violence, but instead a failure to properly classify crimes.

“To stop calling femicides by their name, to deny the existence of gender violence — it's an attempt to rewind the past 20 years,” said Natalia Gherardi, director of the Latin American Team for Justice and Gender, a Buenos Aires-based rights group. "I hope this reaction generated by Agostina’s case, what we show in the streets, will be enough to counter the desire to move backward.”

Questions plague the handling of 14-year-old Agostina's case

After Agostina's death, protesters directed anger at local law enforcement, setting tires alight in the streets of Cordoba. Her family filed a missing person’s report the morning after her disappearance, but over 80 hours passed before phones across the province buzzed with a child abduction alert, according to family lawyer Gustavo Vaca.

The day after her death, a taxi driver reported that he'd driven Agostina to the house of the family friend, 33-year-old Claudio Barrelier, which security camera footage confirmed.

Agostina’s family has complained that security forces were consumed by concerns of fan violence during a major soccer game in the city of Cordoba that day. Three days later, police raided the house of Barrelier, an ex-boyfriend of Agostina's mother.

Barrelier is in custody as the main suspect in the case and denies killing Agostina. Investigators say his criminal history shows he had been arrested for abducting a young woman a year ago but was released on bail of $3,500 after 20 days.

When peppered with accusations of foot-dragging, lead prosecutor Raúl Garzón said last week that authorities “are not engaging in any self-criticism.”

Calls grew to characterize Agostina’s killing as a femicide. Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva has refused to do so.

“A homicide, whatever its nature, is not solely defined by what happens during one hour, two hours, or three hours, where the act itself occurs,” Monteoliva told reporters Monday in her only public comments on the case.

Advocates insist using the term femicide — which carries harsher penalties than other forms of homicide, with a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment in Argentina — is crucial for effective prosecution and victim protection.

“If we don't name the specific form of violence, if we don't recognize it, then we can't understand the problem in all its dimensions, and we can't create policies to prevent and combat it," said Lucila Galkin, director of the gender and diversity program for the Argentina chapter of Amnesty International.

Milei has waged his culture war against policies on gender

Milei has waged a cultural war against gender-based policies — what he sees as a dangerous consequence of socialism.

After Milei railed against the crime of femicide as “legally making a woman’s life worth more than a man’s” at the Davos summit last year, his justice minister announced plans to strip the category from the legal code.

Nothing came of that, but his government now is working to stiffen penalties for women who falsely report cases of gender-based violence. It is awaiting congressional debate.

In the last two and a half years, Milei has dissolved Argentina’s women’s ministry, shut down its anti-discrimination institute, gutted support programs for victims of gender violence, banned the use of gender-inclusive language in official documents, and defunded training in gender issues for public school students and state employees.

Among the affected programs is Acompañar, which assisted 350,000 women with aid equivalent to six months’ minimum wage before it was defunded. A 24-hour hotline to help victims lost two-thirds of its budget and half its staff last year. A government-sponsored program providing free legal assistance to people experiencing domestic violence or sexual abuse has also been dismantled.

With the latest case, an annual protest has gained urgency

On Wednesday, protesters gathered at Plaza Congreso, opposite the seat of the National Congress, as they have every year since Chiara Páez's death in 2015.

Laura Lenaza, 41, said she hadn’t attended a street protest in almost a decade. But the shock of recent cases moved her to bring her 17-year-old daughter, Milena.

“I’m fighting for myself, for my 11-year-old sister, and for all the women I know," the young woman said, squeezing her mother’s hand.

María Cacharo, 54, said she came with her 18-year-old daughter in honor of her sister, killed by her husband several years ago.

“Whenever resources are reduced, somehow we’re the ones who have to bear the cost,” she said of the impact of Milei’s cost-cutting on women, adding that the way police handled Agostina's case makes her sick.

Carrying “Justice for Agostina” signs, her family led a march in Cordoba on Wednesday to push for accountability in her killing under the banner of the movement that once made Argentina a regional beacon for social and legal action on gender equality.

“I think this femicide, which caused so much pain, so much shock, also mobilized us, reminded us that this is a problem concerning all of society,” Galkin said of Agostina's case.

“We are being forced to have conversations about issues we thought we had agreed on, a topic that we thought had been settled."

Meliá will cease operations at 15 of the 34 hotels it manages on the island, according to state website Cubadebate, dealing a blow to Cuba’s vital tourism sector, which has plummeted since its 2018 peak.

The report on Wednesday stated that Meliá’s decision was based on “a sense of corporate responsibility and external factors that have significantly affected the operation, legality and security of these establishments.”

The decision was announced May 26, just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against the island. Most of the sanctions targeted Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A., a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, with the U.S. asserting it was a threat to its national security.

Meliá did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The executive order freezes the assets of foreign companies, seizes their accounts in the United States and prohibits travel by their shareholders, investors and employees— virtually eliminating their activity in the U.S. financial system.

GAESA, a Cuban conglomerate created in the 1990s, owns a wide range of businesses, from car rentals and retail stores to transportation companies. It is Meliá’s partner in hotel management through one of its subsidiaries, Gaviota.

Meliá deals new blow to Cuba's crumbling tourism sector

Meliá is one of Cuba’s most important partners in its vital tourism sector. Until its partial withdrawal, it operated some 14,000 rooms.

Spanish and Canadian firms are the biggest investors in Cuba’s hotel sector, noted Lee Schlenker, a research associate at the Quincy Institute’s Global South program, a Washington think tank.

“With the lack of international tourism, the fuel shortages, and just the broader decline since COVID…I’m sure that these companies will be rethinking their operations in Cuba with major implications for the people of Cuba, not just GAESA,” he said. “There are thousands of Cubans who work in these hotels.”

Several of the hotels that Meliá abandoned in idyllic destinations like the resorts of Varadero, Cayo Santa María and Jardines del Rey “were already closed and inactive due to energy problems and the drop in demand in Cuba,” according to Cubadebate.

Cuba’s government has blamed the U.S. energy blockade for prolonged blackouts, water shortages, supply problems, deficiencies in the healthcare system and disruptions in all aspects of daily life.

Those who work in Cuba’s crumbling tourism sector lamented Meliá’s announcement.

“It’s going to affect us, our families, and everyone involved in tourism. Our pay and income depend on this,” said Erich López, a driver of a green 1950s Dodge who has been driving for two decades to support his family.

For Carlos Luis Carbonel, a 62-year-old parking attendant who works in front of the giant Meliá Cohiba hotel in Havana, the situation “is going to be a blow.”

“This is terrible for everyone: for tour guides, for parking attendants, for hotel workers, for everyone," he said.

Other major hotel chains including Canadian-owned Royalton and Spain’s Iberostar have limited or suspended operations in Cuba in the past week.

Tourism in Cuba, which reached a peak of 4.3 million visitors in 2019, saw a significant drop in the number of tourists arriving in the first quarter of this year, 48% lower than in the same period in 2025.

Only 298,000 tourists arrived in Cuba in January, February and March, compared to 573,300 international visitors during the same period last year, according to government data.

Cuba struggles to breathe

On Wednesday, the enormous and iconic sign of the Royalton Paseo del Prado hotel at the entrance of Old Havana was removed, as confirmed by The Associated Press during a visit. Meanwhile, the 500-room Iberostar Selection — also known as Tower K — the most modern and luxurious of the hotels slated to open in 2025, standing over 150 meters (490 feet) tall, has remained closed for days.

Airlines including World2Fly, Air France and Iberia have canceled flights to and from Cuba.

Also on Wednesday, Cuba’s Central Bank announced that Visa and MasterCard operations on the island would be suspended following the termination of relationships between foreign entities and FINCIMEX S.A., a Cuba-based agency affiliated with GAESA.

Last month, Canadian miner Sherritt International Corp. signed a non-binding agreement with Gillon Capital LLC, a family office linked to a former Trump adviser, to sell its stake in a mining business in Cuba.

In late January, Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba, as his administration pressures for a change in its political system and government. The move has deepened a crisis caused by seven decades of U.S. sanctions.

While U.S. and Cuban officials held talks earlier this year, tensions have risen. In late May, former President Raúl Castro was charged in a U.S. indictment for his alleged role in the downing of two civilian aircraft operated by Miami-based exiles in 1996 in Cuban waters.

___

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

“Just want to quit tennis right now,” Sabalenka said after wasting a lead of a set and two breaks in a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 loss to Diana Shnaider in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. “We’ll see in few days. Hopefully I’ll get back on track mentally.”

Sabalenka's wait for a first French Open title continues despite the four-time major winner leading 4-1 in the second set and being two points from victory while serving for the match at 5-4. What followed was a complete collapse as she lost 12 of the last 13 games against a player appearing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, looking increasingly frustrated and forlorn in the windy conditions.

Just like her loss to Coco Gauff in last year's final, when she also won the first set before becoming undone with a slew of unforced errors, this one will take some time to get over.

“You know those rooms where you just go in and you smash everything,” Sabalenka said. “Probably I will spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff. Maybe it will help, maybe not.”

Shnaider next faces Maja Chwalinska, who extended her remarkable Roland Garros run by beating No. 22-seeded Anna Kalinskaya 7-6 (3), 6-3.

Italian men's finalist

In the men’s quarterfinals, 10th-seeded Flavio Cobolli beat No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 and will face fellow Italian Matteo Arnaldi for a spot in the final.

Arnaldi advanced when Matteo Berrettini, yet another Italian, retired due to a left hip injury with Arnaldi leading 7-5, 5-2.

Berrettini had his hip treated during a medical timeout earlier in the second set.

The strong Italian showing comes despite top-ranked Jannik Sinner getting stunned in the second round.

Second-seeded Alexander Zverev and No. 26 Jakub Mensik will meet in the other semifinal.

Sabalenka's missed opportunities

Sabalenka stood still and screamed loudly after losing a point to fall 0-30 down in the sixth game of the decider and, although she saved two match points at 0-40 down, she lost when she sent a shot into the net.

“I just think it’s combination of everything,” Sabalenka lamented. “You overthink, then you make easy mistakes, then you miss opportunities.”

Her struggles were reminiscent of the match against Gauff, when she remonstrated loudly, shouting to herself and glaring at her team box.

“I just have to sit back and openly think about what’s going on in my head in those tough moments,” Sabalenka said, recalling that match. “Because I’m quite an experienced player. I have been through so many things, and I overcome so many things.”

Sabalenka had already looked agitated when serving for the first set but still looked in control as she served for the match in the second, holding a 30-15 lead.

“Of course I saw some moments of her frustration,” Shnaider said. “I know Aryna, that she’s a very emotional person."

Shnaider, who was already on her best run at a major, broke Sabelenka before taking complete control.

“Well, honestly I am speechless. Super happy,” Shnaider said. “I feel like I was trying to focus point by point. Not thinking about the score. She is the world No. 1, so I just trying to do my best. I just had to fight for every point.”

Sabalenka looked increasingly frustrated as the third set wore on, and when she missed a volley at the net in the fourth game of the decider she crouched and rested her head on her racket.

Another upset

It was another big upset in a tournament where defending champion Gauff (third round) and four-time winner Iga Swiatek (fourth round) already tumbled out.

Sinner, last year's runner-up, served for the match in a second-round defeat, and 24-time major winner Novak Djokovic wasted a two-set lead in a third-round loss.

That opened things up for lesser-known players. According to Opta, this is the first major without a former champion in either the men’s and women’s semifinals since the French Open in 1977.

From qualifier to contender

The unseeded Chwalinska came through three qualifying rounds to become only the second Polish woman to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros, along with Swiatek.

Chwalinska said British player Emma Raducanu’s run to the 2021 U.S. Open title as an 18-year-old qualifier had inspired her.

“It was such an impressive run, you know,” Chwalinska recalled. “Also, she was so young.”

When Kalinskaya’s big forehand from the back of the court went out, the 24-year-old Chwalinska had her biggest win, having never been beyond the second round at any major before this tournament.

Chwalinska’s total prize money heading into Roland Garros was $864,030 and reaching the last four here earns her 750,000 euros (about $872,000).

Windy conditions

The roof was open on Court Philippe-Chatrier and there was a lot of wind.

“I don’t know why would they keep the roof open when it was crazy windy,” Sabalenka said. “It was very dirty tennis. I don’t know how people could actually just sit there and watch me play.”

Kalinskaya also struggled.

“I feel like I was fighting against the wind,” she said. “It was cold today, so the ball was going slower. I couldn’t use my speed, my power.” ___

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

The resolution from the House does not immediately stop the war. It now goes to the Senate, where four Republican senators last month joined Democrats in advancing a similar measure to curtail the U.S. campaign against Iran. The Senate has yet to take a final vote.

Trump, in an interview released Wednesday, confirmed an earlier report that he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “crazy," and said he's “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon is holding back peace talks with Iran.

The Trump administration is sticking with a deal to permanently drop tax claims against Trump, an extraordinary flex of executive power that could help shield the president from further examination of his finances and legal conduct, even as it scraps a $1.8 billion fund to compensate the Republican president's allies amid a fierce political backlash.

Trump's endorsements helped end the political careers of two senators and a congressman deemed insufficiently loyal, but he couldn't lift Rep. Randy Feenstra to victory in Iowa’s Republican primary, setting up a Democratic opportunity to pick up a governorship. See other AP coverage of Tuesday's primary results here.

The Latest:

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visits Venezuela

The president’s top military adviser, Gen. Dan Caine, visited the capital of Venezuela on Wednesday, his office said in a press release.

“Gen. Caine participated in bilateral discussions with senior interim government leaders and U.S. Embassy leadership and staff, and visited the Embassy’s Marine Security Augmentation Unit,” the statement said. It also noted that this was Caine’s first official visit to the country.

The visit comes less than two weeks after the head of U.S. military operations in Latin America, Marine Gen. Francis Donovan, also visited Caracas as part of a rapid response exercise involving Marines and military aircraft.

Venezuela’s acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, is currently on an official state trip in India.

House approves war powers resolution to halt military action against Iran

The House approved a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, defying the president as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long war that has reordered politics at home and abroad.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the war powers resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a quick resolution.

The roll call Wednesday was 215-208, and cheers erupted in the House chamber.

“This reckless and costly war of choice needs to end today,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said earlier in the week.

Rubio wraps up marathon two-day Capitol Hill hearings

The secretary of state faced a litany of questions over nearly a dozen hours of hearings combined about the Trump administration’s tentacles around the war and bipartisan concern over the status of the Iran war and negotiations.

It was the first time Rubio had to face lawmakers since the U.S. first issued strikes on Iran and he spent large portions of his testimony defending the rationale and execution of the military operation.

Rubio faces bipartisan criticism for waivers on Russian oil sanctions

Democrats and Republicans, on both sides of Capitol Hill, peppered Rubio about the Trump administration’s decision to extend its pause on sanctions on Russian oil shipments to ease shortages from the Iran war.

“President Trump was right to impose those sanctions last fall, but the waivers provide Moscow with badly needed revenue, and, I think, make little difference to American consumers in the price of gas,” GOP Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said during a hearing.

Rubio defended the decision, saying these are short-term waivers and “will not be permanent.”

In April, the Treasury Department extended the so-called general license for Russian oil that had been loaded by March 11. The extensions have underscored how the fallout from the Iran war has boosted Moscow’s ability to profit from its energy exports, which had been restrained since the invasion of Ukraine.

Trump suggests he could ‘be the greatest’ communist – if he were actually a communist

The president directed a reporter to read Trump’s own past words on communism back to him, then scoffed at efforts in New York and other large, blue cities to expand social services.

“I’d be the greatest in the world. Nobody would be as good as me. I’d give away everything. I could be the greatest,” Trump said, commenting on what he’d be like if he were to undertake similar social giveaways.

“I would sell them: You’re going to get free rent. You’re going to get free houses. You’re going to get free food. You’re going to get free everything,” he said. “But, eventually, that ends and it leads to death, destruction and squalor 100% of the time.”

Trump also said of New York’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, “I would be better than him” at expanding free services, but “I had to sell free enterprise.”

“Free enterprise is tougher to sell,” Trump said.

Trump on fate of anti-weaponization fund: ‘I don’t know’

In his first public comments since his Justice Department said a controversial $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund would not go forward, the president equivocated.

“I’d have to ask the lawyers,” Trump said when asked directly whether the settlement fund was dead or merely on hold. “I don’t know.”

He spent much of his response to reporters defending the fund, which he called a “beautiful thing.”

His comments came just after Senate Republicans voted to advance an immigration funding bill, which they did only after testimony from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the fund was dead.

Trump downplays that the US and Iranian strikes are testing fragile ceasefire

“We’ve been hitting them pretty hard,” Trump said when asked by reporters on Wednesday if the ceasefire remains in place amid back-and-forth attacks by the two sides. He added, “It’s a different part of the world. You know, I’d say in that part of the world, a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.”

Trump also insisted that ongoing negotiations to extend the temporary ceasefire and open new nuclear talks with Tehran continue to progress.

He suggested that it’s possible an agreement could be reached “over the weekend.” Trump, however, has been predicting for weeks that the two sides are on the cusp of reaching a deal.

Trump signs executive order on federal workforce reform

The president on Wednesday signed an order that was described as an attempt to make it easier to fire or discipline federal workers.

Introducing the order at an Oval Office event, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said existing personnel rules make it difficult to discipline or promote workers in policymaking roles. He said the goal is to make the federal workforce more accountable.

James Sherk of the Domestic Policy Council added that it has been “almost impossible” to fire federal employees even in cases of serious misconduct.

“What this does is basically treat those employees like private sector workers that are being hired on the basis of merit and competence,” Sherk said. “But if they’re messing up, then they can be removed quickly.”

Trump signs executive order related to the U.S.-Mexico border

After hastily bringing reporters to the Oval Office, the president signed an executive action that will empower customs officials to more carefully track what importers bring across the U.S.-Mexico border.

His order is meant to improve the tracking of goods imported into the U.S. for tariff purposes. Federal authorities said it would also allow them to improve holding importing firms accountable, who have long used shell companies to avoid taxes.

Rubio: Adding countries to Abraham Accords would be “difficult to do at this moment” in Iran war

Asked why it’s important to increase normalization between Israel and Arab countries, Rubio laid out the benefits that it would provide both sides, but provided a sober outlook on the unlikelihood, given the ongoing hostilities in the region.

“We do want to expand the Abraham Accords obviously, but it’s difficult to do at this moment,” Rubio told senators Wednesday afternoon. “But we’re laying the groundwork for it. It’ll be a top priority of this administration.”

His testimony strayed from Trump’s recent comments, including last week, when the president said that signing on to the Abraham Accords “should be mandatory” as part of a U.S.-Iran deal being negotiated right now.

The accords were a series of diplomatic and commercial agreements forged with U.S. influence between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in 2020, during Trump’s first term.

Trump talks to press about reflecting pool

Shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday, reporters were suddenly summoned to the Oval Office.

The reason was ostensibly to watch the president sign executive orders. But Trump kicked off the event by talking up the reflecting pool outside the Lincoln Memorial, which he announced earlier would get its final coat of protection today.

“It’ll last for 50 to 100 years before you have to do anything, very strong, powerful substance that we used,” Trump told reporters. At one point, he held up a poster that said: “Our Pool is Bigger than Skyscrapers.”

After that opener, Trump moved to the topic at hand: a customs-related executive order.

Republicans have won the partisan redistricting battle

Since Trump urged Republicans to redraw U.S. House districts last year, officials in eight states have enacted new districts that could help Republicans win up to 16 additional seats in the November elections.

Democrats suffered setbacks in their counterattacks. But they could gain up to six additional seats from new districts in two states.

The aggressive mid-decade redistricting carries high stakes, because Democrats need to gain just a few seats in the midterms to win control of the House. It remains to be seen whether the redistricting will help Republicans hold on to their slim majority.

US reduces the forces it would provide to NATO in a crisis

The U.S. military is reducing the number of forces it would contribute to NATO during an emergency, a change that’s been expected from the Trump administration as it pushes European allies to shoulder more of the continent’s defense burden.

U.S. European Command on Wednesday publicly announced changes to the NATO Force Model, a contingency plan for European defense in the event of serious security concerns, such as increased Russian aggression. The announcement lacks specifics, but said allies could step up with planes and ships as the U.S. reserves more of its own forces to thwart potential threats in other parts of the world.

U.S. and British officials said the change was already announced in classified meetings to NATO allies in recent weeks.

Demonstrator kicked out as Rubio kicks off 4th and final Capitol Hill hearing

As the secretary of state entered his fourth and last congressional hearing, a young demonstrator who said she was 18 years old yelled that the foreign policy actions of the Trump administration were being taken “against the will of the American people” before being removed from the Senate hearing room.

She yelled, “Free Palestine,” as the door was closing.

It was the first interruption of the day but part of a series of protests against Rubio and the administration in the past two days, specifically against U.S. support for Israel and the impacts of that on war-torn Gaza.

3 UN experts accuse US of `unlawful coercion’ against Cuba’s sovereignty

The independent U.N. human rights investigators urged the Trump administration in a statement Wednesday to immediately halt all threats against Cuba’s sovereignty and revoke sanctions “adopted contrary to international law.”

The experts said efforts to change Cuba’s “constitutional order” through threats and coercion “echo colonial-era practices.”

They said Trump’s declaration of a “Donroe Doctrine” in March, asserting U.S. predominance in the Western hemisphere, has raised “significant alarm.” And they said his statements about the “honor of taking Cuba” reflect “a deeply concerning strategy of coercion” against the country.

The experts on democracy, the negative impact of sanctions and counterterrorism, also pointed to the longstanding U.S. embargo and recent fuel blockade of Cuba.

They called the recent U.S. indictment of former Cuban president Raúl Castro “a misuse of domestic judicial proceedings” and “an instrument of coercive foreign policy,” and the announced deployment of the USS Nimitz to the southern Caribbean another element of “unlawful coercion.”

Rubio wraps up nearly 4-hour congressional hearing

The secretary of state has finished nearly four hours of testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he received praise from Republicans and sparred with Democrats over the Iran war, President Donald Trump’s relationship with NATO and U.S. aid to Africa.

The hearing before lawmakers on Capitol Hill was the third of four in two days for the former Republican senator from Florida. The purpose of each hearing has been to discuss the State Department’s budget. But they’ve often veered into discussions about the Trump administration’s dealings with countries around the world.

Rubio insists to lawmakers that any US-Iran deal will be ‘better’ than Obama agreement

Republicans and Democrats have raised concerns about the reported details of a deal between Tehran and Washington. And on Wednesday, Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, questioned whether the deal was similar to the one former President Barack Obama made in 2015.

Rubio went on to outline the various issues being discussed and how they differ from the previous nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew from in 2018.

“Ultimately, any deal we do will be a good deal, or there won’t be a deal, and it’ll be better than JCPOA,” Rubio said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

That agreement, which included Germany, France and Britain, had lifted most U.S. and international economic sanctions against Iran for restrictions on its nuclear program, making it impossible to produce a bomb and establishing rigorous inspections.

Rubio says Trump still wants to be part of NATO, but alliance needs significant reform

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration has no intention of abandoning NATO but won’t back down on demanding significant reforms.

Rubio told lawmakers Wednesday that the president plans to attend the annual NATO leaders’ summit in Turkey next month, at which he will make the U.S. case for changes and again call for allies to increase their defense spending. The summit is to be held in Ankara on July 7-8.

“The president himself will be attending the next NATO, a meeting of heads of state where all of these points will be made clear. We’re still in NATO, but NATO needs significant changes, and the president has made that clear,” Rubio said.

Trump has been particularly irked by some NATO countries, mainly Spain, denying the use of airbases for the war against Iran.

Senate GOP officially strips $1 billion in White House security funding from immigration spending bill

After weeks of discussions, the Senate has officially dropped a $1 billion proposal for White House security and Trump’s ballroom project.

The Senate is set to begin voting on legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies on Wednesday afternoon, and the bill’s final text, released just hours before the vote, does not include the security funding.

Republicans had already indicated they would drop the security proposal after backlash from within their own caucus and criticism from Democrats.

Rubio says Greenland is part of Denmark ‘for now’

Rubio made the “for now” statement when Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware asked Rubio about Trump’s calls for the U.S. to own the semiautonomous territory of Denmark to better defend the U.S.

Rubio said talks about the use of Greenland for collective defense are “in a good place,” though he declined to publicly discuss the details.

McBride had asked Rubio if he shares Trump’s belief that the U.S. needs to own land within NATO to defend it.

“The president’s view is that it’s a lot easier to defend it when you have control and complete control of it,” Rubio said. “We are obviously having conversations with both Denmark and Greenland. They are ongoing on a monthly basis now. I think we’ll have pretty good news.”

Abelardo de la Espriella thanks Trump for endorsement, predicts stronger US-Colombia ties

Colombian lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, who pulled ahead in the first round of Colombia’s presidential race, on Wednesday thanked Trump for endorsing his campaign, saying he predicts stronger bilateral ties if the conservative defeats progressive Iván Cepeda in the presidential runoff.

Writing on the Truth Social platform the previous day, Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement” for de la Espriella, calling him an “intelligent, strong, and tough leader” who will take on a “radical leftist Marxist” in the June 21 runoff election.

“With my head held high and my heart throbbing with patriotic gratitude, I receive your words and your steadfast support,” de la Espriella, known as “El Tigre” or “The Tiger,” wrote on the social platform X. “Thank you, Mr. President!”

On the standard cover, Williams is depicted in a position similar to his pivotal, scrambling, fourth-and-8 jump pass to Rome Odunze in a stirring comeback victory over Green Bay in a wild-card playoff game on Jan. 10.

With his arm cocked to throw and his feet spread, Williams appears to soar above a silhouette of the Chicago skyline that is set against a blue backdrop.

The deluxe edition features a tight shot of Williams with arms crossed over his white game jersey, a dark, night-like background and snow falling around him.

Being featured on the game's cover is “like my childhood dream was coming true,” Williams said in a statement. “I grew up playing Madden and imagining what it would be like to be part of the game."

Williams and the 2025 Bears became synonymous with late-game theatrics last season, staging more than a handful of comeback victories to go with some dramatic rallies that came up just short — including their season-ending playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

“He had a spectacular season and the cover was dope, his kind of little (Michael Jordan) tribute,” Odunze said after the Bears practiced on Wednesday. “I know the Chicagoans are happy to see that one. It was kind of a throwback. It was pretty cool.”

Bears defensive back Tyrique Stevenson also liked the cover.

“It’s tough. I told him he has to sign mine,” Stevenson said. "Definitely proud of him for that. I’m honored to be on a team with someone who is on the Madden cover.”

In 17 regular-season games, Williams passed for a franchise-record 3,942 yards with 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions in his second season since being drafted first overall out of Southern California.

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

On Tuesday, general public registration for the 2027 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend hit an unexpected snag. Throughout the day, runDisney shared a series of updates on social media acknowledging the technical delay issues. Around 11 a.m., the organization made it official — registration would not take place that day.

RunDisney later announced that general public registration will open on Monday at 10 a.m.

Club runDisney Gold and Platinum members got early access to registration beginning May 26.

Below is an updated list of runDisney’s 2026–27 calendar and registration dates:

• 2026 Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend: Oct. 22-25 (all events sold out)
• 2027 Walt Disney Marathon Weekend: Jan. 6-10 (all events sold out)
• 2027 Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend: Feb. 25-March 1
• • General public registration opens June 2
• 2027 Springtime Surprise Weekend: April 15-18
• • Club runDisney Registration opens June 30
  • General public registration opens July 7

Not able to make it to the parks? runDisney is expanding its reach with three virtual events.

• 2026 Virtual Series: June 1-Aug. 31 (all events sold out)
• 2026 Virtual Spooktacular: Oct. 1-31
• • General public registration opens Aug. 11
• 2026 Virtual 12Ks of Christmas: Dec. 1-31
• • General public registration opens Oct. 6

For more information on runDisney events, click here.

It’s not yet clear what could have prevented last week's crash because the National Transportation Safety Board investigation is just beginning. Still, it highlights the inherent dangers whenever a bus or semitruck crashes into other vehicles — even if riding a bus is much safer statistically than driving a car.

While collision-avoidance technology and emergency braking systems are standard on many new cars, commercial buses still lack them — even in the face of longtime NTSB recommendations and proposed regulations to require them.

Observers say the circumstances of the crash that happened early Friday also raise questions about driver fatigue. Court records, meanwhile, show that the E&P Travel Inc. bus driver, who now faces manslaughter charges, was previously ticketed for excessive speeding, along with other drivers for the same company.

While those tickets might not have been enough to automatically revoke the man's commercial driver's license, industry experts say even one similar violation would normally get a driver fired.

“The fact that there was one conviction and another citation and this driver is still on the road goes against industry norms and best practices in a pretty significant way,” said Fred Ferguson, who leads the American Bus Association trade group.

That NTSB crash investigators also have no power to enforce their recommendations factors into why so many have gone unfulfilled for years, as the industry and regulators often focus on the potential costs involved.

“Everybody walks a walk in talking safety at the industry level, at the congressional level. And then at the end of the day, it’s the same old excuses,” said Jim Hall, who was chairman of the NTSB during the 1990s. “And if it costs money, there’s going to be a strong resistance.”

A history of speeding

Federal rules say that a driver who is convicted twice within three years for driving more than 15 mph over the limit should be disqualified for 60 days.

The bus driver in last week's crash, Jing Sheng Dong, of New York City, was previously convicted of driving 73 mph (117 kph) in a 55 mph (89 kph) zone in Virginia in 2024, and received a second ticket in March in Annapolis, Maryland, that accused him of driving a motorcoach 72 mph (116 kph) in a 50 mph (80 kph) zone. The 48-year-old is now facing five charges of involuntary manslaughter and one count of reckless driving.

But Ned Einstein, an expert witness in some 700 transportation lawsuits, said he doubts the criminal charges filed after the crash will be effective at making roads safer because Dong didn’t create the conditions that likely contributed to it.

“They never hit the heart of the problem and never go after the person who’s responsible, and the person that’s responsible for these things is the person that runs the company,” Einstein said, explaining that drivers have to take the shifts they are given while company owners set the schedules and run the businesses.

Friday’s crash also happened around 2:30 a.m. ET — roughly five hours into a trip from New York to North Carolina. That makes former state trooper Jeremy Disbrow, who helps train law enforcement with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, wonder whether fatigue may have been a factor.

Bus drivers are prohibited under federal law from driving more than 10 hours or working more than 15 hours without taking at least eight hours off to rest. Electronic logs have helped better enforce those rules than paper logbooks, although there have been instances where the former have been tampered with.

Records show that another E&P Travel driver was involved in a similar crash in North Carolina in 2024 that injured nine people after the bus failed to slow down for a traffic control vehicle that was performing a moving lane closure. The bus hit that vehicle, and a third vehicle rear-ended the bus. The bus driver, Pei Jie Lu, later pleaded guilty to failure to reduce speed. That crash occurred three months after Lu was ticketed in Maryland for negligent driving and changing lanes unsafely, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in that case in September 2024.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said federal investigators are looking into Dong’s background as well as the company that hired him and the school that trained him. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is also trying to confirm that New York followed the rules when it awarded Dong a commercial driver’s license. Duffy has worked to strengthen and enforce standards for CDL holders, but that effort has focused on truck drivers.

A long list of unfulfilled recommendations

Even when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration agrees that something is a good idea, like automatic braking, it often takes years to finalize a rule requiring it. Commercial buses, for example, have only been required to have seat belts since 2016.

Numerous NTSB recommendations for buses and other commercial vehicles have never been adopted, including stricter standards to reduce driver fatigue and ensure drivers get enough rest between trips. A rule to require collision-avoidance technology in commercial buses and trucks was proposed in 2023, but it remains pending.

Ultimately, it falls to regulators, Congress and the industry to adopt them. Unlike regulators who must conduct a cost-benefit analysis, the NTSB isn't required to consider how practical its recommendations are. It simply urges safety improvements to prevent future tragedies.

The Transportation Department didn’t immediately respond this week to questions about why so many recommendations go unfulfilled.

Many bus companies do invest in safety

The American Bus Association trade group works to promote safety measures and Ferguson said driver-monitoring technology, such as inward-facing video cameras and advanced telematics systems similar to those used by major auto insurers, has become common. Some of those systems can even send alerts about driver behavior to a bus company.

Ferguson also said some companies have installed collision-avoidance technology on their buses because “the difference between catastrophic accidents and not having catastrophic accidents is you keeping your company.”

But cost is a factor — a new motorcoach previously cost roughly $650,000, and the industry is now dealing with the impact of 10% tariffs. Ferguson said newer buses have the most safety features, but increasing costs will slow upgrades.

“Operating safely not only is morally and ethically what they believe in, but it’s good business,” said Ferguson, whose group represents about 40% of the 1,800 companies that operate about 50,000 motorcoaches across the United States and Canada.

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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Allen G. Breed contributed from Wake Forest, North Carolina.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a plan for peace.

The roll call Wednesday was 215-208, but next steps are uncertain. Trump would likely reject any measure from Congress to limit his commander-in-chief authority. Still, the tally, with four Republicans joining Democrats, was a rebuke of the president's war strategy, and cheers erupted in the House chamber.

“This reckless and costly war of choice needs to end today,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said earlier in the week.

“All we need are a handful of Republicans to join us and we can end this reckless and costly war of choice — a war that has cost the American taxpayer over $100 billion — that’s extraordinary — and left our country in a weaker position relative to Iran.”

Opposition to war grows

It’s the fourth time the House has tried to curb the U.S. war against Iran. The Senate advanced its own war powers resolution last month when a handful of GOP senators broke ranks with the Republican president in a rare show of political pushback from his party.

Each time Democrats have pushed forward the war powers resolution, the vote tallies have inched higher as political unease with the U.S. war swells. Trump had campaigned for the White House on a promise to end U.S. entanglements abroad and focus more on domestic issues, but the war has shifted attention back to the Middle East.

Johnson insisted Trump is “laser focused” on the domestic front, particularly ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

The speaker said he spent three hours at the White House with the president this week as Trump is calling on allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz for commerce, especially the flow of oil.

Since the U.S. joined Israel in launching the Feb. 28 strikes on Iran, Americans have seen gas prices spike at the pumps, adding to inflationary pressure on consumer spending.

Iran has been able to interrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital channel for a large segment of the world’s oil, natural gas and related products such as fertilizer.

“We’re working on that final piece,” said Johnson, R-La. “The entire world has an interest in the Strait of Hormuz being reopen for commerce. That what he’s working on.”

While a ceasefire in the conflict was declared in April, it remains uneasy and uncertain. Talks for a more durable end to the fighting have dragged, increasingly complicated by Israel’s broadening war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Meanwhile, military strikes between the U.S and Iran continue to flare.

Congress exerts its war powers authority

The war powers resolution from the House would not immediately stop the war, but it would provide a symbolic if not legal step against further military action.

The resolution next goes to the Senate, where four Republican senators last month joined Democrats in advancing a similar measure to curtail the U.S. campaign against Iran. The Senate has yet to take a final vote to approve or reject its own war powers resolution.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Wednesday testifying at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that the Iranians would think that the administration's “hands are going to be tied” if Congress approved a war powers resolution. He said they would think ”we won’t be able to do anything to them, so why make a deal?”

It's not the only action Congress is taking in the national security arena as Democrats, in the minority, work to peel off Republican support for measures beyond the war against Iran.

The House is also voting Wednesday on another Democratic-led effort that would authorize U.S. support for Ukraine's military operations as it battles Russia and to help reconstruct the war-torn country. The House this week is also expected to consider a war powers resolution to block U.S. action in Lebanon.

While Congress has the authority under the Constitution to declare war, the president also has power as the commander in chief to engage in military action, creating a legal dispute over which branch of government has ultimate say in matters of war and peace.

Under the war powers act, the White House has a 60-day window to seek approval from Congress for military action. The administration, however, has indicated that because a ceasefire has been declared in the current conflict in Iran, the hostilities have ceased.

___

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

Since taking office on March 11, ultraconservative Kast has pledged to cut roughly $6 billion in public spending over 18 months in an effort to improve the country’s fiscal accounts. As part of this ambitious austerity plan, his government is forcing a nearly 3% budget cut across all ministries.

The measures have drawn criticism not only from opposition parties but also from some sectors within the governing coalition.

The march was organized by the Confederation of Chilean Students and supported by other organizations, including the Teachers’ Union, secondary school student associations, and feminist groups.

Although the march began peacefully, tensions escalated as clashes broke out between protesters and police. Officers used water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds, while some demonstrators threw rocks and other objects. Several streets were blocked and multiple subway stations were closed.

“The government sought to provoke this, to create this situation to justify repression,” Mario Aguilar, president of the Chilean Teachers’ Union, said.

Demonstrators also rallied against the government’s National Reconstruction bill, a sweeping package of measures aimed at reducing state spending, encouraging investment and boosting Chile's economy.

The project, known as the “mega-reform” bill, was approved by the Chamber of Deputies late May and is now set to be debated in the Senate.

“They want to silence us, but we are not going to stop,” said Magdalena Correa, a 21-year-old student. “They’re taking away our resources and rights, and we have to fight back.”

Police and government officials have not yet commented on the clashes. However, Associated Press journalists observed at least a dozen arrests and several injuries during the unrest.

___

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

This person is also a natural leader who can sharpen the writing, decision-making, creativity, competitiveness, and editorial judgment of the team around them and make sure that strong content carries through to our digital and streaming platforms, too.

The best candidates are also motivated to improve lives in the communities we cover for the better through local reporting that informs, protects, and holds people accountable. And they bring energy and drive to a committed team whose goals include growing the share of audience, growing the station’s brand, and growing the overall impact News 6 has on Central Florida.

POSITION OVERVIEW

Success in this role is measured by three things: how strong and trustworthy your editorial product is, how well that content travels across our platforms to grow audience and reach, and how well you lead and develop the multi-platform producers around you.

About 50% of this role is content and editorial: leading the day-to-day production and quality of a market-leading newscast, sharpening writing and storytelling, making smart editorial calls, and coaching teammates. 20% is making sure that strong journalism extends across platforms to keep our content consistent and competitive on ClickOrlando.com (one of the largest news website audiences in the market) and the 24-hour News 6+ Stream.

The remaining 30% involves partnering with the News Director, Managers of Content and Coverage, and other Multi-Platform EPs to coach and develop the nightside team around you, from reporters to producers to anchors to other journalist teammates on the shift.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Lead the day-to-day production and editorial quality of a newscast — story selection, structure, pacing, and presentation that’s high-energy, clean, and competitive.
• Copy-edit a half hour of news to ensure it’s conversational, clear, and accurate.
• Coach producers, reporters, and other teammates on writing, storytelling, and editorial judgment, raising the standard of execution and ensuring consistent performance across the daypart.
• Monitor breaking news around the market and make sure the newsroom responds competitively — from field crews and logistics to how the coverage carries across TV, streaming, and digital/social– and be aggressive on cutting in on multiple platforms.
• Make sure strong journalism extends across our digital and streaming platforms: that ClickOrlando.com content and stream segments are executed consistently and drive engagement, writing and publishing as needed.
• Help develop workflows and stay current on streaming and digital tools so our content keeps pace with how audiences watch and read.
• Other related duties as assigned.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Strong newsroom producing experience — a track record of building smart, accurate, and competitive newscasts with high-quality local journalism.
• Exceptional writing, copy-editing, and video editing skills, with a special focus on storytelling that captivates and retains viewers.
• Strong leadership and team-building skills: ability to onboard, train, coach and collaborate.
• Strong editorial judgment and critical thinking skills — the ability to make fast, sound calls under deadline pressure.
• An intuitive understanding of the metrics behind both broadcast and digital/streaming success, and how to use them to inform content decisions.
• Strong tech IQ to learn new tools quickly and adapt them to changing audience behaviors, with proficiency in content management systems.
• Willingness to work a flexible schedule, including nights, weekends, mornings, or holidays, and to lead coverage during breaking news and severe weather events.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• A self-starter with excellent time management skills.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism, Mass Communications, Convergence Media, or another related field preferred.
• Prior management experience.

Interested candidates, please submit your resume with relevant news coverage and specific leadership examples to WKMGCareers@wkmg.com.

WKMG-TV - Graham Media Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, WKMG-TV/ GMG will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination.

Note: Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks.

The S&P 500 fell 0.7% from its all-time high for its first drop in 10 days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 620 points, or 1.2%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 0.9%.

Weighing on the market was a climb of 1.9% for the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, which brought it back to $97.81. It rose after both the United States and Iran said they launched retaliations for earlier attacks or attempted ones.

Palo Alto Networks helped drag the market lower, and it fell 5.6% even though it reported profit for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. Investors may have been looking for even more after its stock came into the day with a surge of 61.3% for the year so far, more than quintuple the S&P 500’s already big 11.2% rise.

Stocks also felt pressure from higher yields in the bond market, which climbed with the price of oil. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.49% from 4.46% late Tuesday and from just 3.97% before the war began.

High yields worldwide are threatening to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments. They have already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level in nine months, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.

More expensive loans can hurt smaller companies in particular because many need to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks fell 1.3%, more than the rest of the market.

Reports released Wednesday on the U.S. economy came in mixed. One from the Institute for Supply Management said growth accelerated more last month for U.S. construction, agricultural and other services businesses than economists expected.

That’s an encouraging signal, but the survey also showed businesses are feeling the pinch of higher prices caused by tariffs and more expensive oil. “This is the definition of inflationary pressure starting to affect us,” one company in the accommodation and food services industry said in the survey.

Still, stocks remain near their records, even with all the pressure on the global economy created by higher inflation.

Oil prices remain below their peaks from earlier in the war with Iran, and hope seems to be remaining on Wall Street that the United States and Iran will ultimately agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tankers. That would improve the global flow of crude and hopefully lower its price.

Such hopes, along with strong profit reports from U.S. companies, helped launch the S&P 500 on its nine-day winning streak that ended Wednesday, one day shy of its longest in three decades.

Medtronic climbed 5.7% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also increased its dividend payout going to investors.

GameStop rose 6% after the video-game retailer said its revenue in the latest quarter grew 14% from a year earlier. It also announced a program to send up to $2 billion to its investors by buying back its own stock.

Macy’s added 0.6% after swinging between gains and losses through the day. The retailer reported profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts’ forecasts, while saying an overhaul of its merchandise and better customer service is resonating with customers.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 56.10 points to 7,553.68. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 620.72 to 50,687.07, and the Nasdaq composite sank 239.93 to 26,853.98.

In stock markets abroad, European indexes fell following a mixed finish in Asia.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.6%, but Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.5% to another record.

Excitement around the boom created by AI technology has been a huge engine for stock markets worldwide. On Wall Street, Marvell Technology rose another 3.7% following its best day on record, a surge of 32.5%, after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang suggested at a conference in Taiwan that Marvell could be “the next trillion-dollar company.”

The last company to enter the expanding club of behemoths was Micron Technology, which is likewise riding the AI wave.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

In a release, deputies said that the officer — identified as Jeffrey Ziegler, 24 — began committing the crimes the day after the victim died on Feb. 28, 2024.

From then until March 12, several unauthorized charges were made on the dead man’s credit cards, amounting to over $10,300, deputies added.

“The charges went unnoticed until Dec. 31, 2025, when family members going through the deceased man’s mail discovered past-due notices for all of the charges,” the release reads.

The fraud was eventually reported to the PCSO earlier this year, and an investigation kicked off.

Per investigators, deputies learned that the dead man lived with his daughter and her boyfriend at that time. However, the boyfriend was eventually pegged as Ziegler.

“The daughter provided detectives text messages that had been sent to her from Ziegler in which he mentioned being at specific locations, and those texts matched up with the fraudulent charges,” the release continues.

The sheriff’s office revealed that during the timeframe of his crimes, Ziegler worked as a detention deputy at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. At the time of his arrest, Ziegler was employed as an officer with the Haines City Police Department.

“Knowingly stealing from someone who has died is just terrible,” Sheriff Grady Judd said. “I’m not sure what he was thinking, but we are holding him accountable for his criminal behavior. This permanently ends his career in public safety, that’s for sure.”

Ziegler now faces charges of grand theft, fraudulent use of a credit card, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, unlawful possession of personal identification information, and criminal use of personal identification of a deceased person.

The HCPD announced that Ziegler submitted a letter of resignation effective immediately upon his arrest. That said, Haines City Public Safety Director Joe Halman said Ziegler would have been fired otherwise.

“We are deeply saddened and disappointed by the alleged off-duty behavior of former officer Jeff Ziegler. We expect our officers to uphold the law and maintain integrity on and off duty,” Halman said. “Based upon the information we have reviewed, he exercised exceedingly poor judgment. His actions do not reflect the values of this department.”

The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., said Wednesday it will sell 555.6 million shares at $135 a piece. The offering would give SpaceX a market value of $1.77 trillion. Only six companies in the S&P 500 are currently worth more, with Nvidia tops at $5.2 trillion.

Besides the size of the offering and the expected proceeds, SpaceX’s amended prospectus updates details about how much control of the company Musk will have. As SpaceX’s CEO, chief technical officer and chairman, Musk’s voting power will come primarily through his ownership of 5.22 billion Class B shares, which give the holder 10 votes for every share held. According to the filing, Musk would have 82.4% of the voting power in the company.

Forbes currently values Musk's net worth at $826 billion and his stake in SpaceX at $542 billion.

The estimated proceeds from the SpaceX IPO would easily top the $26 billion raised by oil giant Saudi Aramco in 2019.

Time will tell how SpaceX fares on the market. Musk’s plans for the company are as fantastical as the money he hopes raise in the sale.

Colorful, even frightening in parts, the IPO document strikes a contrast with the typically dry, technical prose in IPO documents, detailing plans to use proceeds from the sale to help put men on the moon again and perhaps even Mars. In one section, it talks of a need to build “a permanent human colony” on the red planet with “at least one million inhabitants” as existential threats loom that could consign man to “the same fate as the dinosaurs.”

And SpaceX isn’t the only colossal market debut investors are now bracing for. Earlier this week, Anthropic submitted a confidential filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to officially start its own IPO clock.

OpenAI has not yet reported filing the initial SEC paperwork, but an IPO from the ChatGPT maker is widely expected.

__

Report Matt O'Brien contributed.

But even as the U.S. president conceded the tensions in an interview released Wednesday, he insisted that his relationship with Netanyahu was solid and that they connected, in part, because they are both “wartime” leaders.

“We’ve worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him,” Trump told The New York Post’s “Pod Force One.”

In an interview on the American business-news channel CNBC, Netanyahu responded that he and Trump sometimes have “tactical disagreements” but have “common goals” and “agree on the main things.”

“He respects me. I respect him. We always find a way to work out our differences,” the prime minister said.

The president's comments about the Monday call offered a sign of the growing pressure he faces to resolve the Iran war as higher energy prices and economic uncertainty threaten Republican prospects in the midterm elections and hamper global commerce.

Talks have dragged on for weeks as mediators seek to extend a fragile ceasefire into a more enduring truce. The negotiations are further strained by Israel’s broadening war with the Iranian-backed militia group in Lebanon. The conflicts have become increasingly intertwined as Iran insists that any potential truce in the war there must also quell the fighting in Lebanon.

Trump does not commit to timeline for ending Iran war

Trump remained noncommittal about a timeline for settling the Iran conflict, saying the Strait of Hormuz might stay blocked through the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 7. He has insisted that Iran stop any efforts that could lead to a nuclear weapon and that the strait be reopened for shipments of oil and natural gas.

“I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be (closed through Labor Day), but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” Trump said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his late father, is “involved” in peace talks, Trump added.

“They have a lot of respect for him,” the president said in the interview.

Trump said that Khamenei is not doing well due to wounds sustained in an airstrike, but “they say he’s giving approval because that’s the way it has been for a long, long time." Khamenei's father was killed in an airstrike when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.

Meanwhile in the Persian Gulf region, Kuwait briefly shut its main airport Wednesday after Iranian drones hit a passenger terminal building, killing one person and wounding dozens. It was the latest in the back-and-forth attacks by Tehran and Washington that have tested the ceasefire.

The strike again brought home the risks to residents and travelers in Gulf countries that had considered themselves relative safe havens before the war, now in its fourth month.

Path to a lasting ceasefire in Lebanon is obscured by new strikes

The path toward a lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah remained unclear as hostilities continued in Lebanon.

An Israeli strike Wednesday hit a car on a busy highway just south of Beirut, hours before the second day of talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington were set to take place. The strike in Khaldeh came without warning, and it was not immediately clear if the person targeted was killed.

Israel and Lebanon on Monday reached a U.S.-brokered agreement in which Israel would not strike Beirut's southern suburbs and Hezbollah would end its attacks on northern Israel.

The agreement was made hours after Israel announced that it was going to launch strikes across the sprawling urban neighborhoods near the Lebanese capital in what would have been the most intense strikes since a nominal ceasefire went into effect on April 17.

Lebanon hopes to widen the scope of the ceasefire so it becomes comprehensive across the country. Israel wants to disarm Hezbollah immediately before the Israeli military ends its operations in Lebanon and withdraws its troops from dozens of villages and towns.

Not long after the strike on Khaldeh, the Israeli military said it intercepted what it called a hostile aircraft coming from southern Lebanon, but it did not immediately blame Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not claimed a cross-border attack since the agreement.

Israeli military warning rattles coastal city

Israeli strikes over southern Lebanon continued, especially in and around the battered cities of Tyre and Nabatiyeh. Two overnight strikes near Tyre, a coastal city, killed four Syrians and two Palestinians.

Israel warned the Christian neighborhoods in Tyre that Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled to those areas in recent days because they were spared from the aerial bombardment along the Mediterranean coast.

After the warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the Christian district of Tyre in an effort to prevent Israeli attacks there and to show that Hezbollah has no armed presence in the area.

Israel launched an invasion of southern Lebanon days after the latest war was sparked on March 2, when Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran. Israeli troops have pushed deeper into Lebanon over the past week, as Hezbollah continues to claim rocket and drone attacks.

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon and displaced 1.2 million people. According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.

Strike on village kills most of a family

Many residents of southern Lebanon remained in villages near the hostilities or returned to areas where strikes occurred after evacuation warnings.

The Al-Abdallah family returned to their home in Marwanieyh, which they left because they thought the village was unsafe following earlier strikes. A day later, two rockets hit the home, bringing down the three-story building and killing six family members, said the brother of Hassan Al-Abdallah, who was killed.

Ahmed Al-Abdallah, 13, was thrown away from the building by the force of the blasts and was the only member of his family to survive. His uncle, Eissa Al-Abdallah, said the boy has two broken legs and shrapnel wounds all over his body.

“What good is talking now? They are gone, and nothing will bring them back,” the uncle told The Associated Press in a phone call Tuesday. “This land costs blood.”

___

Boak reported from Washington.

___

This version has been updated to correct that the Iran war began at the end of February, not March.

Amanda was located about 1,505 miles (2,420 kilometers) west-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, according to the Miami-based weather center. With the center of the storm at sea, the cyclone posed no immediate threat to land.

Amanda had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), meteorologists said. The storm was forecast to strengthen over the next couple of days and then weaken over the weekend.

The Pacific hurricane season started May 15. The Atlantic hurricane season began Monday, and no cyclones have formed in that basin yet this year.

Around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Matthew Seaberg, 44, approached the woman from behind in the parking lot of the Wawa at 901 N. Orlando Ave., lifted her by the waist onto his shoulder, and put her inside his black Ford Super Duty pickup truck, the affidavit states.

According to police, an off-duty Orange County Sheriff’s deputy was fueling his vehicle nearby when he heard the woman screaming, “Stop, please. You are hurting me.” The deputy displayed his badge, identified himself as a deputy, and tried to help the woman get out of the truck.

Before she could escape, Seaberg grabbed her, pulled her back inside, and accelerated out of the parking lot — with the rear passenger door still open and the deputy still in the door threshold. The door closed as the truck sped away southbound on North Orlando Avenue, the affidavit states.

Police tracked down Seaberg shortly after and got the woman to safety. The incident was also captured on Wawa surveillance cameras, police said.

Seaberg faces charges of kidnapping and tampering with a victim, both first-degree felonies, and misdemeanor battery.

LaBeouf must attend an alcohol treatment program under the sentence handed down by an Orleans Parish judge, according to Sarah Chervinsky, an attorney for the actor.

LeBeouf, most widely known for his starring roles in 2007’s “Transformers” and in 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull,” had been released on bail following his arrest near the city's historic French Quarter. Video of the Feb. 17 encounter shows a shirtless LaBeouf outside a bar shoving one person to the ground and hitting another person in the face, “causing his nose to possibly dislocate,” according to a New Orleans police report. Police said LaBeouf repeatedly used homophobic slurs, including while he was arrested.

LeBeouf pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery. Orleans Parish Judge Juana Marine-Lombard handed the actor a six month suspended sentence and two years of probation. LaBeouf also must stay away from the victims and the bar.

Chervinsky said LaBeouf wanted “to take accountability for his part in what happened" and called it a “minor Mardi Gras bar tussle.” Chervinsky said there was “no evidence it was about bias or prejudice.”

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement that his office consulted with the victims to ensure their support before offering LaBeouf the plea deal.

Jeffrey Damnit, a local entertainer whom police identified as Jeffrey Klein, said he was one of the people attacked by LaBeouf. He has said LaBeouf had pushed him from behind at the bar earlier in the night, shouting homophobic slurs and threatening his life.

Damnit's attorney said his client hopes LaBeouf's behavior improves after the actor undergoes substance abuse treatment.

"In New Orleans we are all equal, we should all feel safe, and we don’t treat people different based upon relative fame,” attorney Michael Kennedy said.

After LaBeouf was charged in February, a judge ordered him to return to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Days later, LaBeouf denied having a “drinking problem” in an interview with journalist and YouTuber Andrew Callaghan. LaBeouf said he doubted rehab would help him. He told Callaghan that the issues leading led to his aggressive behavior during Mardi Gras were more rooted in “anger and ego” than alcohol.

LaBeouf also said that “big gay people are scary to me.”

“When I’m standing by myself and three gay dudes are next to me touching my leg, I get scared,” he told Callaghan. “I’m sorry. If that’s homophobic, then I’m that.”

LaBeouf, who converted to Catholicism a few years ago, has had several run-ins with the law during his career, including a 2017 New York City arrest on suspicion of assault that happened during a livestream.

While on location in Georgia filming “The Peanut Butter Falcon” later that year, he was arrested for public drunkenness and accused of disorderly conduct and obstruction and sentenced to probation.

In 2020, he was charged with misdemeanor battery and petty theft in Los Angeles.

That year, the English singer and actor FKA Twigs, whose legal name is Tahliah Barnett, also filed a lawsuit alleging LaBeouf was physically and emotionally abusive to her during their relationship, which they settled in July.

The actor first gained acclaim as a child for his role on the Disney Channel series “Even Stevens.”

___

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.

During a briefing after the shooting, Mina said that deputies had received a call around 1 p.m. from the 8200 block of Tivoli Drive about a woman screaming in the street.

When deputies arrived, the woman was in her house, prompting deputies to knock on her door, Mina added. However, he said that when she opened the door, she was holding a large knife.

“As our deputies retreated toward the street, they gave her several commands to drop the knife,” Mina explained. “The woman refused to drop the knife and shouted, ‘I’ll kill you.’”

As she advanced toward the deputies, three of them fired on the woman, striking her, the sheriff said. She was later taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

“I have seen the body-camera footage, so we will release that within 30 days,” Mina continued.

Mina confirmed that his agency had not had prior encounters with the woman. That said, he revealed that she had been held under the Baker Act in other jurisdictions of the state.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is set to investigate the case, per standard policy. Afterward, the sheriff’s office will conduct its own internal investigation.

Meanwhile, Mina said that the three deputes involved are on temporary paid administrative leave as the review continues.

The ex-seminary student and father of two took out a loan against his home to pay for the $17,000 cost of filing the various forms to run for the seat. He received no other donations. He had no visible campaign and no staff.

Yet on Wednesday, the day after California's primary, Stansfield had done well enough with voters to be holding on to second place, potentially locking Democrats out of the November general election in a U.S. House race that the party had put at the center of its national redistricting strategy.

“I wanted to show Christianity and Judaism a God from the Bible who loves Muslims,” Stansfield said in a telephone interview before rushing to his son's sixth-grade graduation. “I wasn't necessarily going after it to win a race.”

It is too soon to know which two candidates will advance in the 6th Congressional District, but the early results are already serving as a cautionary tale about the assumptions both major parties make when they gerrymander political boundaries to expand their power. California Democrats won voter approval last year to redraw the state's congressional map as a way to counter Republican moves elsewhere before this year's midterm elections. Democrats had planned on gaining five seats in the state, and one was the 6th District, which stretches from Sacramento into Republican-leaning suburbs to the east.

Redistricting goal meets reality of campaign politics

Democrats assumed that one of the top two finishers would be a member of their party. But Stansfield's showing is evidence that the best-laid partisan mapmaking plans can go awry when they run into the unpredictable reality of campaign politics.

Kevin Kiley is the congressman whose conservative district was split in two and fused with a more Democratic area. Kiley, who left the Republican Party and filed to run as an independent and has nabbed the largest share of votes so far. That left Stansfield the only candidate on the ballot with an “R” next to his name, helping him land, for now, above the nine Democrats who split the majority of the votes recorded at this point.

Both Democratic and Republican strategists expect heavily Democratic-leaning mail ballots that comprise the tens of thousands and have yet to be counted to break for the party's candidates, making it likely one of them supplants Stansfield in the final tally.

“I would think there'd be an advantage to Democrats,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP consultant in Sacramento.

The state allows mail ballots to count if they are postmarked by Election Day and received up to seven days afterward. Officials also must contact each mail voter whose signature does not match the one on file and offer that voter a chance of proving identity in other ways. Close races in the state often take weeks to resolve.

Stansfield intended to send a message to Republicans

Stansfield, who said he is married to a Muslim woman from the Middle East and was kicked out of seminary for arguing that Palestinians have a biblical right to the Holy Land, has made a quixotic run for Congress before. In 2018, he sought an Oregon congressional seat as a Democrat, a party he joined after the Iraq War.

He ended up losing badly in that primary, receiving about 4% of the vote in a district that included part of Portland, but a candidate survey he completed at the time offered more insight into his views. In a response to a question about his top priorities if elected, Stansfield said, among other things, that he was “against ignorance in all its forms.”

“If we are ever going to call ourselves a tolerant society we need to learn to embrace the diversity of our world with love,” he wrote.

In the questionnaire, he described himself as Jewish and said one of the public policies he was most passionate about was supplying water and medical equipment in Gaza.

Stansfield said he left the Democratic Party after the Israel-Hamas war broke out, during Democrat Joe Biden's presidency, and over what he described as the “genocide” in Gaza. After moving to California, he decided to run in the congressional district before last year's redrawing and when it was reliably conservative because he wanted his message to reach as many Republican voters as possible.

“I wanted to go to the Republican Party and say ‘Guys, I love you, but you’ve messed up,'” Stansfield said.

He had no idea he would end up in such a potentially pivotal role.

Democrats' concerns under new map had focused elsewhere

Democrats had fretted about being locked out of one of the five seats they expected to gain in their redistricting bid, but their concern was centered on a San Diego-area district where they had a similarly broad field of candidates. One of them, San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert, surged ahead to secure a spot in the general election and will face Republican Jim Desmond, a San Diego County Supervisor, in November.

In another redrawn congressional district, Republican Rep. Ken Calvert secured a slot on the November ballot after a bruising campaign against fellow Republican Rep. Young Kim. The second slot in that race was still up for grabs on Wednesday.

Three veteran Democratic members of Congress who were challenged by younger upstarts from within their party seemed to have avoided upsets.

Reps. Brad Sherman and Mike Thompson emerged as the top voter-getters in their respective races and will move on to the general election. Rep. Doris Matsui was leading the tally Wednesday in her Sacramento district, although it remained uncertain which two candidates would move on to the general election.

____

Associated Press writer Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.

The strike reinforced the risks to residents and travelers in Gulf countries that had considered themselves relative havens before the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Iran denied causing the damage.

Talks have dragged on for weeks as mediators seek a more enduring truce in the war, now in its fourth month. They are increasingly strained by Israel’s broadening war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

A regional official said Iran wanted a separate ceasefire in Lebanon enforced before returning to talks. President Donald Trump said negotiations continue to extend the Iran ceasefire, even as the U.S. launched strikes against military sites on an Iranian island.

“We’ve been hitting them pretty hard,” Trump said when asked by reporters on Wednesday if the ceasefire remains in place. “I’d say in that part of the world a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.”

The fighting in Lebanon has exposed a rift between Israel and the U.S., which is pushing its ally for restraint. In a measure of the friction, Trump acknowledged that he'd called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “crazy” during a phone call earlier this week. Nonetheless, both men say their rapport is solid.

Iran maintains its hold on the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial waterway for the world’s oil and natural gas and related products like fertilizer — and the U.S. continues its blockade of Iranian ports. Global fuel prices remain high, and the effects of the conflict are felt well beyond the region.

In Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio huddled for three hours at the White House Monday as Trump worked on “that final piece” of getting commerce flowing. Rubio, meanwhile, faced grilling in Congress over the war and its economic fallout.

An Indian national is killed at Kuwait's main airport

A spokesperson for Kuwait's Defense Ministry, Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, said “a number of hostile drones” targeted a passenger building at Kuwait International Airport. It had opened only Monday after a months-long closure because of the war, which began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it didn't fire at the airport, instead claiming via state broadcaster IRIB that the terminal was damaged by a U.S.-made interceptor that failed to hit Iranian missiles. U.S. Central Command called the claim false and said on X that Iranian drones made a “deliberate, calculated and unjustified attack” on the airport. Neither side provided further information.

India’s embassy said the person killed was an Indian national. Authorities said 63 were wounded, including passengers and workers, and some suffered serious injuries.

Kuwait's Defense Ministry said it destroyed over a dozen missiles and a similar number of drones from Iran.

The airport partially reopened later, with Kuwait Airways flights resuming at a different terminal, according to civil aviation authorities. No other flights were operating.

The Foreign Ministry said Kuwait will “neither accept nor tolerate” the attacks and was kicking out two Iranian diplomats. Such expulsions are an established means of communicating international ire.

US and Iran say they are retaliating for earlier attacks

The U.S. military said two Iranian missiles fell apart en route to Kuwait and that it “downed multiple drones” targeting American forces in the country.

The military also said U.S. and Bahraini forces intercepted missiles aimed at the Gulf kingdom, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet. Bahrain’s Defense Ministry said its military intercepted and destroyed three missiles and a number of drones fired by Iran.

The Revolutionary Guard acknowledged that it targeted the headquarters of the 5th Fleet and U.S. military facilities in another country.

Both the U.S. and Iran said they were retaliating for earlier attacks or attempted ones.

Netanyahu told the American business-news channel CNBC that Iran was “playing with fire,” but he said any decision about whether to scale up a military response would rest with Trump. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared on X that “any hostile act will be met with an immediate, decisive response.”

The U.S. military said it launched strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said a telecommunications tower was struck. It called this attack, and others, "acts of aggression” that it said violated the ceasefire.

The war is increasingly tied to Israel’s fight in Lebanon

Israeli forces have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter-century, while Hezbollah has launched rocket and drone attacks. The declared ceasefire in Lebanon is officially in place, and no side has formally withdrawn or declared it over even as attacks continue.

Iran insists that any larger potential truce must quell the fighting in Lebanon. Netanyahu wants to keep the issues separate and is under domestic pressure to strike Hezbollah as he prepares for elections this fall.

In a podcast interview released Wednesday, Trump confirmed a report that he had called Netanyahu “crazy” Monday in a phone conversation peppered with an expletive. Trump told The New York Post’s “Pod Force One” that he was “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s fight with Hezbollah was holding back talks with Iran.

Still, Trump said his relationship with Netanyahu was good, and “we’ve worked very well together.”

Netanyahu responded on CNBC that he and Trump sometimes have “tactical disagreements” but have “common goals” and “agree on the main things.”

“We always find a way to work out our differences,” the prime minister said.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi, Sam Mednick in Jerusalem, Jennifer Peltz in New York, and Lisa Mascaro, Aamer Madhani and Konstantin Toropin in Washington. contributed to this report.

“There’s continuing litigation, and I’m unable to comment on ongoing litigation,” Bessent told lawmakers at the Senate Finance Committee hearing.

It was a frustrating answer for Democratic lawmakers looking to get answers from Bessent at a hearing ostensibly focused on the Treasury Department’s budget and came a day after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche seemed to indicate that the portion of the settlement dealing with the IRS audit immunity would still be in effect for the Republican president.

After several failed attempts to get Bessent to answer, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said, “It’s been very clear you’re dodging this and you’re trying to use it as an excuse. It’s just outrageous on behalf of the American republic.”

A White House representative did not respond to an Associated Press inquiry about the status of the settlement. In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump did not confirm whether the compensation fund had been scrapped or was simply on hold. “I’d have to ask the lawyers, I don’t know," he told reporters. “As far as I’m concerned, it was a beautiful thing,” he said.

The administration decided to scrap plans for the compensation fund, which could have included payouts to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, after bipartisan outrage and a fierce political backlash that threatened to stall key elements of the White House agenda. Still, the status of the IRS immunity deal as part of the controversial settlement crafted to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS remained unclear, though Blanche said Tuesday that “nothing has changed” in that regard.

Last week, a federal judge in Florida overseeing Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, who had initially dismissed the case, reopened the case and ordered the president’s attorneys to respond to allegations that Trump abandoned his claims to avoid the court’s scrutiny of the deal.

When she initially dismissed the case, Kathleen Williams, the judge handling the lawsuit, admonished the Justice Department for a lack of transparency and said no agency “submitted any settlement documents nor filed any documents ensuring that the settlement was appropriate where there was an outstanding question as to whether an actual case or controversy existed.”

Matt Platkin, a former New Jersey attorney general now at the law firm Platkin LLP, which is representing lawmakers and judges challenging the settlement agreement, called it “one of the greatest scams in American history.”

He told The Associated Press that Blanche’s testimony on Tuesday over plans to scrap the weaponization fund and grant Trump audit immunity “underscores the need for the court to continue its inquiry in Florida.”

Lawmakers on Wednesday tried to grill Bessent on the agreement without success.

“Secretary Bessent owes the committee an explanation of what the Treasury knows about the dirty settlement. That’s because his department was involved from beginning to end,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Wyden asked Bessent: “Does the IRS audit immunity given to Trump, his family, and his businesses still stand?”

Bessent declined to answer, citing the unresolved legal dispute.

If audits and examinations into the president's taxes were thrown out under the settlement, an untold figure could be wiped from his bill to the federal tax collector.

Previous reporting from the New York Times and ProPublica shows that a long-standing audit of a technique Trump reportedly used to avoid paying taxes years ago could have resulted in an estimated $100 million bill if the IRS had found wrongdoing.

Even some Republicans expressed concern on Wednesday over the plan to shield Trump from the IRS.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., speaking to reporters outside the chambers, said, “I don’t think any American should have a deal like that.”

Nina Olson, founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, which has sued the Trump administration over IRS disclosures to immigration enforcement, called the settlement “the lowest point for the IRS since the 1970s and President Nixon’s efforts to help his friends by trying to stop IRS audits of them and hurting his enemies by urging IRS audits on them.”

Boosting The Never Forget Fund's latest appeal, announced Wednesday, is Mike Bloomberg. The former New York City mayor, who has rallied hundreds of millions of dollars toward the 9/11 Memorial and Museum as its chair, pledged to match the next $25 million in donations through his Bloomberg Philanthropies. Organizers already secured the first $25 million through unspecified initial gifts.

Officials count about 97 million memorial visitors and nearly 28 million museum attendees since they opened in 2014 at the site where hijacked jetliners destroyed the World Trade Center's twin towers in lower Manhattan. But recent years have seen a budget crisis following pandemic closures and interest from the Trump administration in taking control of the site.

Beth Hillman, the organization's president and CEO, says they need a permanent funding source to reach the roughly 100 million Americans born after the attacks. The goal is to frame the aftermath as one that inspired selfless acts of service and provide basic facts through new on-site exhibits and classroom materials.

“The ongoing importance of remembering 9/11 is to remind people that they can come together even in the face of incredible loss,” Hillman told the Associated Press.

The legacy of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people remains hotly contested. Younger generations have only ever known the existence of airport screenings, immigration enforcement officers and other security measures pursued afterwards by the U.S. government. Many engage with the events through popular memes of the photograph showing then-President George W. Bush learning about the developments. Conspiracy theories abound about what government officials knew in their leadup.

Also debated is the notion of unity advanced by the memorial and museum. The Sept. 11 attacks fueled 20 years of war abroad that grew increasingly unpopular as the death toll rose. Young American Muslims growing up under their shadow have faced hostility, mistrust and suspicion.

As the 25th anniversary approaches this September, Hillman sees a “compelling story of service, of hope, of resilience, of coming together” for the people who didn't live through that period. Those stories will be told in an exhibit called “In Their Honor." Celebrity chef Bobby Flay, she noted, was among the many chefs who prepared meals for first responders in the months following the attacks. Theater workers brought their lights to power the blacked-out area around ground zero. Victims' family members started social services organizations such as 9/11 Day to inspire volunteering in memory of their lost relatives. Hillman also wants to inform more people of the first responders who developed chronic illnesses and still face hurdles to care.

The funds raised by the 9/11 Memorial and Museum will ensure free museum access continues for students, first responders and veterans, according to Hillman, who said “we don't want the price to be a barrier to them.” Standard adult admission currently costs $36. The nonprofit's website notes that it “relies primarily on ticket sales to help fund its operational costs.”

The organization plans to reach more educators with the funds. As teachers enter the workforce without lived experiences of Sept. 11, Hillman said they want to help prepare lesson plans. The nonprofit runs summer teachers' institutes, offers professional development programs and remakes a 30-minute film each year with firsthand stories.

Hillman acknowledged a greater “degree of distraction and confusion” today than in the past when it comes to efforts to memorialize recent historical events. She sees a need to give “simple representations of what happened." The March/April issue of the National Council for the Social Studies' magazine, which was guest edited by 9/11 Memorial and Museum staff, features a timeline of the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

"9/11 is heavy and compelling and full of inspiring stories,” Hillman said. "But also, just a trusted set of what happened on that day, of materials that can convey the basics of it — that’s the beginning of people learning and starting to understand, too.”

Alex Edgar, a Gen Z civic leader who is working with a group called Made By Us to amplify youth voices ahead of the United States' 250th birthday, sees value in emphasizing the power of service. His peers, he said, have “never really seen a country that has worked” or one that “really lived up to the promise of America.” He finds that narratives about overcoming division to accomplish shared goals serve as an antidote to the political polarization frequently experienced by young people.

But he emphasized that those narratives must permeate classroom walls and museum doors.

“They invite young people to consider what’s preventing us from using any of the issues of our time as a rallying cry for folks to come together across backgrounds to build the type of country, the communities, that we want to live in,” he said.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

Deanna Harrell, 36, was arrested on warrants for vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter in the death of toll booth attendant Tammie Jo Baker, 63.

The crash occurred Monday afternoon at the Dunlawton Avenue beach access ramp in Daytona Beach Shores. According to deputies, Baker was killed on impact when the truck struck her booth at an estimated 40 mph before continuing into the ocean.

“I think she was probably close to being killed on impact,” Chitwood said. “That booth isn’t made of anything, if you look at it. And you hit that thing at 40 miles an hour; there’s really nowhere to go. And it flipped the booth around, the force of that.”

News 6 was there when Harrell was taken into custody under the Baker Act for threats of self-harm right after the crash.

The Sheriff says his team then had to collect more evidence, like video of her drinking at a bar before this crash, to get a warrant from the State Attorney’s Office.

Harrell was taken to Halifax Hospital for the Baker Act hold. Then Halifax released her, but Harrell checked herself into another psychiatric facility, where deputies finally arrested her.

“You can’t take sanctuary in a Stewart Marchman and say ‘you can’t arrest me right now because I’m having mental problems.’ No, that’s what they have in the jail. That’s why you go to jail. The arrest warrant, and especially for vehicular homicide warrant, it takes precedent,” said Chitwood.

[BELOW: 911 calls released after fatal crash]

Body-camera footage released Tuesday shows witnesses telling deputies that Harrell smelled of alcohol following the crash.

Sheriff Chitwood said more charges are likely coming after her blood results come back and a forensic analysis of her truck.

“It’s got to be examined to make sure the brakes were properly functioning, that the accelerator was properly functioning, the steering wheel, and everything was in there so she can’t claim that the brakes failed. You have to try to shut all that down as well. So that’s what takes traffic homicides a long time,” he said.

On Tuesday, a vigil was held at the beach access ramp where Baker was working, where family members and Daytona Beach Shores Mayor Nancy Miller gathered to honor her life.

For her family, it was a moment that was both heartbreaking and healing.

“It’s like a bittersweet day,” said Cherlette McCullough, Spc. Collington’s cousin. “We’re glad her body is here so that we can celebrate her life. But today is heavy.”

Collington, 19, of Tavares, was one of two U.S. soldiers who went missing May 2 near the Cap Draa Training Area in Morocco during the annual African Lion 26 military exercises. Her remains were recovered May 12 from a coastal cave roughly 500 meters from where both soldiers were last seen entering the ocean.

“We got a call, and the call was that Mariyah was missing in the military — and that they believe she drowned,” McCullough said.

More than 1,000 U.S. and Moroccan military and civil personnel participated in the search for Collington and the second soldier, 1st Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., covering more than 21,300 square kilometers across sea and coastal zones. The operation utilized unmanned aerial systems, rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft, surface vessels, dive teams, mountaineering teams and ground search elements.

When Collington’s remains were finally found, McCullough said, the family felt a wave of complicated emotions.

“When her body was found, it was a sigh of relief,” she said. “And then, you know, there’s protocols and processes in place with the Army. Things don’t happen overnight.”

Collington served as an air and missile defense crewmember assigned to Charlie Battery, 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, based in Ansbach, Germany. She had been promoted to specialist just one day before she went missing — May 1, 2026.

Collington grew up in the Apopka and the Orlando-area before her family later moved to Tavares. She was a graduate of Evans High School, where she was a cheerleader and was known as a popular, fashion-forward young woman with a big personality.

“Military and fashion, right,” McCullough said with a laugh. “But she made them work well together.”

Serving in the Army was never a reluctant decision for Collington — it was a calling she had felt for years, McCullough said.

“It was always her choice, what she wanted to do. It wasn’t something forced. This is what she decided to do early on after graduation — to go in and serve in the military,” McCullough said.

Perhaps the most personal part of Collington’s military journey was the plan she had made with her older brother.

“Her and her brother, they had planned this together. They were joined at the hip, very close,” McCullough said. “This is how they were going to spend their lives — fighting for their country, retire and live their lives.”

McCullough said Collington’s older brother graduated from the University of Florida and entered the military just two weeks before his sister’s remains were returned home. McCullough said his continued service brings the family some comfort.

“That was their plan to be together,” McCullough said. “He’s still carrying out the plan that they had together.”

Collington’s military commanders remembered her as an exceptional soldier who brightened every room she entered.

“Spc. Collington was an outstanding Soldier whose unwavering enthusiasm and positive spirit uplifted every environment she entered,” said Capt. Spencer Grider, commander of Charlie Battery. “Her infectious energy, whether in the office, in the field or among her peers, fostered connection and camaraderie, bringing people together through her genuine warmth and heartfelt sense of humor. Her presence will be greatly missed across our formation.”

Lt. Col. Chris Couch, the battalion commander, echoed those sentiments.

“Spc. Collington was a bright light in this battalion. To the Soldiers who knew her best and served alongside her each day, she was a treasured friend whose loss leaves a deep and profound void on our team,” Couch said.

Brig. Gen. Curtis King, commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, also spoke to the weight of the loss.

“The loss of Spc. Collington is a profound loss for the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command,” King said. “Her recovery closes the search for our two missing Soldiers, but our commitment to caring for their Families, friends, and teammates continues.”

McCullough said the outpouring of support from strangers has moved the entire family.

“Her mom and dad have had an overwhelming response from people they don’t know reaching out and just giving their condolences,” she said. “I think people really feel bad for our family because of her age and the way that she lost her life.”

For McCullough, some peace comes from watching videos Collington left behind.

“What brings me some peace is looking at her TikToks, looking at her videos of her being the life of the party — laughing, talking — and remembering how close she was to her older brother,” she said.

She said the family is committed to keeping Collington’s memory alive.

“We will always remember her. The way that she lost her life was tragic, hurtful. But we’ll always remember her. We’ll always be saying her name. She will never be forgotten,” McCullough said.

The family is planning a public celebration of life at First Baptist Church of Apopka on Saturday, June 13th at 11:00a.m.

Collington’s awards and decorations include the Army Service Ribbon.

The narrow upset Tuesday revealed cracks in Trump's coalition in the red state that helped the president mount his comeback, encouraging Democrats who are hopeful they can flip control of the governor's office this year. It also marked a potential breakthrough moment for the Make America Healthy Again movement, which has clashed with the Trump administration over its embrace of pesticides and backed Lahn's message in favor of regenerative farming and against large agricultural corporations.

“I will take on the big ag cartels. I will break up their monopolies, and I will get Iowa farmers a fair deal," Lahn said in his victory speech late Tuesday.

Members of the MAHA movement, a diverse coalition of supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with priorities ranging from ending vaccine mandates to promoting healthy soil and organic food, cheered the win as a sign their political message was resonating with voters.

“This election is a signal that pro-pesticide does not mean pro-farmer,” said Tony Lyons, president of Kennedy-aligned MAHA PAC, which endorsed Lahn. “Zach Lahn made transitioning away from toxic chemicals the cornerstone of his campaign and won this election decisively with strong farmer support.”

Lahn carved out a MAHA fandom

Lahn, a farmer and former conservative political director, was relatively unknown in Iowa before launching his campaign in November. He championed traditional policies that appealed to Iowa's conservative voters, such as further restricting abortion and keeping liberal ideology out of schools.

But Lahn, who owns an investment company and lives on an eastern Iowa farm that had been in his family for a century, also carved out a niche with the MAHA movement, vocally rebuking agricultural monopolies and acknowledging health questions involving farming products.

MAHA activists loudly backed Lahn as they grew increasingly impatient with the Trump administration and its Environmental Protection Agency for actions they view as antithetical to making America healthier.

Earlier this year, they revolted after Trump issued an executive order aimed at boosting production of a controversial herbicide ingredient known as glyphosate. They also protested at the Supreme Court in April against glyphosate producer Monsanto's Trump-backed effort to protect itself from lawsuits.

Lahn has opposed liability shields for pesticide companies.

“Iowa has the fastest growing cancer rate in the world,” Lahn said in Tuesday's speech. “We all know something is terribly wrong. But too many politicians from Washington, D.C., to Des Moines have had their heads stuck in the sand while big ag and big pharma printed money. This will not go on when I’m governor.”

Those positions helped Lahn gain endorsements from MAHA PAC and the late Charlie Kirk's conservative political organization, Turning Point Action. Figures from both celebrated Lahn's victory as their own.

“MAHA has done its job proving it’s politically radioactive to stand with chemicals over children,” Turning Point USA podcaster Alex Clark said on social media. “Iowa knows pesticides are causing cancer which is exploding in their state. Tonight they opted for change.”

Kelly Ryerson, a Florida-based activist whose social media account Glyphosate Girl focuses on nontoxic food systems, said she wants candidates in other states to take note. Ryerson had previously criticized Trump's endorsement of Feenstra, describing the congressman as “straight from the poison swamp.”

“Decreasing pesticides and improving food quality are common ground issues that drive votes,” she said.

A setback for Trump after repeated victories

Trump had stayed quiet on Iowa's gubernatorial race until last week, when he praised Feenstra as “MAGA all the way” and said he would “fight tirelessly” for Iowa on the economy and border security.

The power of the president's endorsement was proven earlier in the primary season, taking down two senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

The Republican National Committee denied the Iowa results signaled a weakening of Trump’s influence with voters.

“President Trump’s endorsement is the most valuable force in politics and worth its weight in gold,” spokesman Zach Kraft said in a statement. “The record speaks for itself.”

Some political observers viewed Massie's loss as a stumble for the MAHA movement. The Republican congressman had helped lead a bipartisan effort to remove liability protections for chemical companies from the recent farm bill, in line with activists' concerns.

Trump campaign veteran and Iowa political operative Alex Latcham said Tuesday's result does not detract from the grassroots goodwill Trump has built in Iowa. After all, Latcham said, it was Trump who recognized and embraced the MAHA issues that middle America cares about, which led him to appoint Kennedy as health secretary.

Latcham emphasized that all five Iowa primary candidates ran pro-Trump campaigns. Ultimately, Latcham said, Iowans want to see candidates up close to make their own assessments. Lahn and others criticized Feenstra for avoiding debates and spending limited time on the campaign trail.

“At the end of the day the president still remains the undisputed leader of the party,” said Latcham, who currently serves as executive director of Senate Republicans' main super PAC. “I wouldn’t necessarily read into this as being a diminishment of the president’s political standing.”

But Feenstra's loss, marking a win for MAHA and a miss for the president, creates an opening Democrats may try to seize.

State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone Democrat currently holding statewide office, is the party’s nominee for governor. Unopposed in the primary, Sand has been able to hone his moderate message, remind voters of his rural upbringing and amass an $18 million campaign fund.

Lahn, looking ahead to November in his victory speech, pivoted from talking about cancer rates and family farms to the cultural issues that have riled up the GOP base in recent cycles, saying Sand would “veto any culture war bill.”

“Rob Sand is not a moderate," Lahn said. "He’s a liberal career politician pretending to be someone he’s not.”

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Swenson reported from New York.

Authorities stormed the building in downtown Bakersfield overnight, ending a nearly 16-hour standoff during which the suspect tied up half the hostages, police said.

The hostages — employees of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools — were found unharmed inside the building that also houses a bank, said Bakersfield Assistant Police Chief Jeremy Blakemore.

“Throughout the night, their families questioned whether or not they would be seen again but we are very grateful for the outcome,” Blakemore said during a news conference Wednesday.

Anthony Scott Searles-Harris, 41, was shot and killed around 4:20 a.m., according to Sid Patel, special agent in charge in the FBI’s Sacramento office. Authorities said he was an Army veteran who was dishonorably discharged, had a history of trouble with law enforcement and was a registered sex offender.

Searles-Harris told police he had a bomb after barricading himself within the second floor of the building, Blakemore said. Authorities were testing the devices Wednesday that Searles-Harris said were explosives, but Patel said they do not appear to be a concern.

One of the hostages was able to communicate with law enforcement using her phone until her battery died, Patel said. She was diabetic and didn’t have her medicine so officials knew she was at risk, he said.

“I’m sure there’ll be mental scars that they’re living with, and we’ll have our victim specialist to help them,” Patel said.

While authorities declined to discuss details about how they ended the standoff or the motive behind it, Blakemore said some of the demands Searles-Harris made involved asking for materials from an earlier case.

"He had concerns related to how his previous case had been handled and what the aftermath of that was, the sentencing and those kinds of things,” Blakemore said, without specifying details.

California Department of Justice and court records show Searles-Harris was on the state’s sex offender registry due to convictions in 2014 for sexual crimes related to a child under 14 years of age. Those records show he was released from prison in 2018.

FBI officials said Searles-Harris served about a year in the Army before being dishonorably discharged in 2007 for going AWOL.

Court records in Kern County, California, show Searles-Harris filed a petition to prevent domestic violence, and was involved in divorce proceedings that began in 2009 and note a young child, as well as a fight for guardianship years later in which he was listed as an objector.

During the news conference, Blakemore said he was aware of videos Searles-Harris had apparently posted criticizing the sheriff’s office and claiming he was innocent of his previous sex crimes convictions. He said the videos were being reviewed but the department had no plans to investigate the claims of innocence.

It wasn't clear why Searles-Harris targeted the school district office.

"What unfolded was undoubtedly a terribly frightening and unsettling experience, and the composure our employees demonstrated throughout the 16-hour ordeal was extraordinary, John Mendiburu, the county schools superintendent, said in a statement.

The standoff began early Tuesday afternoon, when officers responded to a call of a bomb threat at the Chase Bank building, a four-story office building with dark-tinted glass windows in Bakersfield, a city of about 380,000 residents about 100 miles (160 kms) northeast of Los Angeles.

The police department’s crisis negotiation team talked with Searles-Harris by phone and he released two hostages Tuesday.

Authorities evacuated buildings nearby, including City Hall and the police headquarters that are just a block away.

More than 100 FBI personnel assisted, including two SWAT teams, bomb technicians and crisis negotiation teams, Patel said. A hostage rescue team was deployed from its headquarters on the East Coast, he said.

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Associated Press reporters Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; Hallie Golden in Seattle; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed.

Workers carefully hoisted the big guns one-by-one from the back of a truck and wheeled them inside their new home at the Savannah History Museum, which will put them on display just in time for the Fourth of July celebration of America's 250th birthday.

“They look brand new,” said Andrea Farmer, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist who was part of the team that researched and preserved the cannons. "They could pretty much be fired if someone wanted to.”

The artifacts were discovered in 2021 when a dredge scooping sediment from the riverbed as part of an Army Corps project to deepen Savannah's shipping channel pulled up a cannon in its metal jaws. The crew soon dug up two more.

In the course of just over a year, a total of 19 cannons were hoisted from the location just downstream from Savannah, which is where Georgia was founded in 1733 as the last of Britain's 13 American colonies.

After being pulled from the river, most of the cannons left Georgia for several years to undergo cleaning and preservation work at a Texas lab.

One of the Revolution's bloodiest battles was fought in Savannah

Archaeologists initially assumed the cannons likely dated to the Civil War. But further research indicated they’re likely almost a century older and sank during the buildup to the American Revolution’s bloody siege of Savannah.

Savannah was under British occupation in the fall of 1779, when colonists planned an attack to retake the city with help from French allies.

When French ships carrying troops were spotted off the Georgia coast, British forces scuttled at least six ships in the Savannah River downstream from the city to block the French vessels.

The land battle that followed was one of the bloodiest of the war. British forces killed nearly 300 colonial fighters and their allies, and wounded hundreds more.

The Savannah History Museum sits right next to the battlefield. Its staff on Wednesday hoisted the cannons, weighing up to 1500 pounds (680 kilograms) apiece, onto custom display mounts that staffers likened to giant wine racks.

The cannons will be part of a new exhibit on Savannah's role in the American Revolution, which is scheduled to open Fourth of July weekend, said Samantha Moss, the museum's curator.

"Our great team has been prepping for months -- building mounts and planning how we can safely display these very large, very special artifacts,” she said.

Cleaning the crusty cannons took years

Each of the iron cannons emerged from the river covered by a thick crust of mud and minerals.

Two were left in that raw state and put on display at the museum. The other 17 were sent to Texas A&M University, which has a lab that specializes in preserving underwater artifacts. Its staff spent years painstakingly cleaning the big guns and coating them in paint and wax to prevent rusting and corrosion.

“A lot of them have scour marks on the side from anchors or dredging, so there’s some scarring on the cannons," said Chris Dostal, a professor of nautical archaeology who leads Texas A&M's Conservation Research Lab. "But most of them look pretty exceptional.”

Most of the cannons arrived with wooden plugs still sealing their bores, which remained packed with cannonballs and gunpowder charges.

Dostal said radiocarbon dating of the wooden stoppers placed them roughly in the late 1700s. His team shared the cannons' measurements and other details with experts in London, who concluded three of them were very likely forged by the British military.

The rest appeared to be of French design but bore no telltale markings. Dostal said he suspects those guns may have been cast in America around the time of the war.

Other artifacts found with the cannons included pieces of anchors and a portion of a ship's bronze bell. Like the cannons, none of them bore engravings indicating which ship they came from.

That means many details of the cannons' origins remain a mystery.

“You don't have all of the information,” Farmer said. “You're trying to piece it together as best as you can.”

Democrats chose a nominee for a House race in New Jersey that could decide control of the chamber. But much of the focus was on California, home to Hollywood but not a governor's race packing much star power.

Here are takeaways from primary elections Tuesday in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

Iowa Democrats rally behind former Paralympian in marquee Senate race

Democrats stunned by how Trump has remade American politics have spent the past decade debating which type of candidate is best positioned to energize voters and win elections, not moral victories.

Iowa marked the latest stop in this sometimes agonizing conversation.

The party’s establishment supported Josh Turek, a state representative who presented a compelling personal biography that included competing for the United States in four Paralympics. State Sen. Zach Wahls offered himself as a more disruptive figure, refusing to back Chuck Schumer of New York as the Senate Democratic leader if he were elected.

Democratic voters united behind Turek, who will face Republican Ashley Hinson in November.

At this point, many of the party’s most fractious races are behind them. But Turek's win could be closely watched in Michigan, where one of the last major Democratic primaries will unfold on Aug. 4. Rep. Haley Stevens is emerging as the establishment candidate there vying against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and progressive Abdul El-Sayed.

Both races are important for Democrats increasingly bullish about regaining the Senate majority. To get there, they must retain the open seat in Michigan while looking for pickup opportunities in places such as Iowa.

The results in the fall could have longer-term implications as Democrats look to rebuild their standing in the Midwest, which swung to the Republican president in 2024.

Trump's endorsement streak faces setback in Iowa

In just the past month, the power of Trump’s endorsement helped end the political careers of two senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

But Trump was unable to lift Rep. Randy Feenstra to victory in Iowa’s Republican primary for governor. Even though Trump jumped in with his backing last week, Feenstra narrowly lost to Zach Lahn.

The outcome was a rare setback for Trump, who basks in his ability to sway the vote among Republicans with his endorsement. It now sets up what Democrats see as one of their best opportunities to pick up a governorship this year.

Democrats nominated Rob Sand, who ran unopposed in the primary. He has the rural roots that have become rare among Democrats and is a proven winner in a Republican-leaning state, having been elected twice as auditor.

Lahn was not well known in Iowa politics when he launched his campaign in November, but he built support among conservatives. He championed policies including a total ban on abortion and keeping liberal ideology out of public school classrooms.

Lahn also developed a following with the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which has clashed with the Trump administration over its embrace of pesticides.

The California drama drags on

The Los Angeles mayor's race was jolted by the candidacy of Spencer Pratt, who starred on the reality television show “The Hills.” The Republican has been trying to capitalize on dissatisfaction with Democrat Karen Bass, who is seeking a second term.

Bass secured enough votes to make the November runoff, but it was unclear who her opponent will be. Also running is Nithya Raman, a progressive members of the City Council.

The race for California governor has been especially chaotic.

With Democrat Gavin Newsom barred from seeking a third term, about 60 names were on the ballot to succeed him. Some of the state’s most prominent politicians, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla, did not run. One who did, former Rep. Eric Swalwell, withdrew after being accused of sexual assault, which he denied.

Under the state’s primary system, all candidates appear on a single ballot and the top two finishers advance to the November general election, regardless of party.

In the final days of the campaign, much of the attention focused on Democrats Xavier Becerra, a former congressman and state attorney general who was health secretary under Democratic President Joe Biden, and Tom Steyer, a billionaire known for his climate activism. Republican Steve Hilton campaigned with Trump’s endorsement.

The three were leading in early returns after polls closed.

If Becerra were to advance to one of the two slots on the fall ballot, he presents a natural choice for voters more comfortable with a traditional candidate. Steyer and Hilton have both presented themselves as advocating significant changes.

California has been governed by establishment-oriented Democrats for two decades. The primary results will indicate the level of change being sought in a state confronting serious challenges ranging from affordability to crime and will signal whether the $200 million Steyer put into the race from his own money turned out to be a good investment.

Independents emerge in Senate races in Republican strongholds

If Democrats hope to compete in Senate contests in Republican strongholds this fall, they may have to abandon their party’s nominees and rally around independents.

That’s one of the takeaways after voters on Tuesday finalized general election matchups in Montana and South Dakota, where little-known Democrats earned their party’s nominations. In both states, however, higher-profile independent candidates also qualified for the general election ballot.

It’s much the same in Idaho and Nebraska, which held Senate primaries last month. Democratic leaders in Nebraska are openly endorsing independent Dan Osborne over their party’s nominee, who has promised to drop out to make it easier for Osborne to win.

In Montana, independent Seth Bodnar, a former University of Montana president, looks like the strongest opponent to Republican Kurt Alme — on paper, at least. Bodnar raised more money than all of the five Democratic primary candidates combined. He has even significantly outraised Trump-backed Alme.

In South Dakota, Sen. Mike Rounds cruised to the Republican nomination on Tuesday. He will face Democrat Julian Beaudion, a former highway patrol trooper and small business owner. But it’s a former Democrat now running as an independent, military veteran Brian Bengs, who some Democrats believe may be the tougher challenger.

The Democrats shift toward independents reflects the party’s toxic brand in Republican strongholds.

Absent congressman gets a Democratic challenger

Democrats nominated Rebecca Bennett to take on Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, which stretches from the New York City suburbs to the Pennsylvania border.

The seat is critical for Republicans as they defend a narrow majority in Congress. The race was always going to be one of the most competitive on a map that has been increasingly gerrymandered to protect both parties. But it’s under particularly close scrutiny because of Kean’s extended and unexplained medical absence.

He's missed more than 100 votes since casting his last one on March 5.

Bennett, a former Navy pilot, was among the Democrats in the primary who made the absence and the lack of clarity surrounding it an issue, arguing Kean wasn’t around to protect money for a new rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City. That line of criticism will likely only grow heading into the general election.

Trump reiterated his endorsement of Kean on Monday. The congressman released a statement Tuesday saying he is “focused on my recovery" and would return to “in person work within a matter of weeks.”

New Mexico could make history in governor's race

The stage is set for Deb Haaland to make history this fall after Biden's interior secretary secured the Democratic nomination for governor in New Mexico.

Haaland was the first Native American to serve in the Cabinet. This fall, she could become the first Native American woman in U.S. history to be elected governor.

She defeated Albuquerque-based District Attorney Sam Bregman, the father of Chicago Cubs All-Star Alex Bregman, in a Democratic primary campaign that emphasized her ancestral roots in addition to lowering costs and her governing experience.

Haaland will face Republican Greggory Hull in the general election.

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Peoples and Lodhi reported from New York. Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa contributed to this report.

Congo's military said an attack late on Tuesday by an Islamic State affiliate — a group known as the Allied Democratic Forces — killed 16 people in the Beni territory in North Kivu province.

The militants struck in response for a joint operation of Congolese and Ugandan armies, which have been battling the group that operates in the border regions of the two countries. Last month, the group attacked Congolese villages near the Ugandan border, killing at least 40 people and burning and looting homes.

The violence has hampered efforts to combat the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo type of Ebola, which was announced in mid-May in eastern Congo's provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu.

Since then, Congolese authorities have confirmed 60 deaths in the outbreak out of 344 cases. The number of suspected cases has gone down from 906 to 116. Neighboring Uganda has 15 confirmed cases, including one death, its health ministry said Tuesday.

WHO chief offers some hope for the outbreak

The agency's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that testing is improving in the struggle against Ebola, with scaled-up laboratory and diagnostic capacity though contact tracing in Congo “is not yet where it needs to be.”

"The outbreak had a big head start, and we’re still behind,” he said. But “we are catching up.”

Tedros spoke a day after returning to Geneva from Congo, where he visited the epicenter of the outbreak. "What I saw gave me hope, although challenges remain.”

He also said that blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries “are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response,” and asked for them to be lifted. He stressed that WHO recommends exit screening at airports, ports and border crossings.

He avoided a reporter's question about a U.S. quarantine center in Kenya where American Ebola patients would be quarantined, which has drawn protests.

“I think based on their risk assessment … they (the United States) can do whatever they think is right for them,” the WHO chief said.

The outbreak struck in an extremely vulnerable region

Experts have said the virus spread for weeks in one of the world's most vulnerable regions before lab testing confirmed it. Resources, including protective gear, have been rushed to the outbreak for a type of Ebola with no approved medicine or vaccine.

At least five people have recovered from the virus, rare signs of hope.

“The true extent of the outbreak remains difficult to assess. Extremely limited testing capacity and difficulties accessing certain areas necessitate interpreting these figures with caution,” Doctors Without Borders, said Monday about the case numbers.

Getting a potential vaccine to the region could take months.

“It’s difficult to have an effective vaccine that adheres to the scientific protocol available quickly," Dr. Aruna Abedi, a Congolese epidemiologist who has managed previous outbreaks in the country, told The Associated Press.

While laboratory and diagnostic resources improve for the outbreak, Tedros said the tracing of people who had contact with infected people in Congo is still behind.

"Only about 45% of contacts have been followed up, and to get ahead of the outbreak we need to get that number up to above 90%,” he said. “Insecurity, displacement and mobile populations make contact tracing especially difficult.”

Congo has long struggled with a multitude of security crises and insecurity has over the years created a huge and vulnerable displaced population. Eastern Congo, where the latest Ebola outbreak is taking place, has several active armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group that seized key cities Goma and Bukavu over a year ago, and the IS affiliate.

Wary residents have attacked health centers in the outbreak, at times demanding the bodies of loved ones. Health workers also have been battling mistaken beliefs among some residents that Ebola isn't real, which has kept some from seeking care.

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Moulson reported from Berlin. Associated Press writer Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed to this report.

The 10 rotating seats on the 15-member Security Council are earmarked for different regions of the world. The assembly elects five countries by secret ballot every year to serve two-year terms alongside the council’s five permanent veto-wielding members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

In the other contested race, after four rounds of voting in the 193-member General Assembly, Kyrgyzstan defeated the Philippines by a vote of 143-49 and will join the council for the first time.

Zimbabwe, the African candidate, and Caribbean candidate Trinidad and Tobago had no opponents and both were elected with more than 180 votes.

The Security Council is mandated under the U.N. Charter with ensuring international peace and security, but it has failed in the three major current conflicts because of the veto power of Russia on Ukraine and of the United States, Israel’s closest ally, often on Gaza and on Iran.

There have been decades of efforts to reform the Security Council to reflect the geopolitical realities of the current world, not of the post-World War II era 80 years ago, when the United Nations was established. But they have all failed, though a new attempt is underway.

In the race for the two seats for the group of mainly Western nations, Portugal received 134 votes and Austria 131 votes, while Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse which had served six previous terms on the council, received 104 votes.

“Obviously, the result is a real disappointment,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told reporters. He said Russia campaigned against Germany because of its strong support for Ukraine. “It also may have cost us votes that Germany must always assume a special responsibility for Israel with regard to the Middle East conflict," he said.

Austria’s foreign ministry said its election capped a 15-year campaign and is a “strong international sign of confidence” in the country.

Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubayev told reporters “we understand now is a turbulent time” and said Kyrgyzstan will work together with other council members.

The five new members will take up their seats on Jan. 1. They will replace Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia.

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Associated Press writer Stephanie Liechtenstein in Vienna, Austria contributed to this report.

The Senate voted 53-46 on Wednesday to begin debate on the roughly $70 billion bill to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. The legislation was delayed for weeks as Republican senators navigated the various obstacles to passage created by President Donald Trump and the White House, but they are now moving quickly to pass it after paring it back to its original form.

“Right now, the goal is to get the base bill across the finish line,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Still, Republicans will need to find enough votes to beat back multiple amendments that Democrats — and potentially some Republicans — say they will offer. Republicans are using a process called budget reconciliation that enables them to pass the legislation without any Democratic votes, but they must first wade through a long series of amendment votes that could pose problems for the bill. That process could start as soon as Wednesday evening.

Democratic amendments will test GOP unity

The primary threat during amendment votes is a series of expected Democratic proposals to permanently ban Trump’s $1.776 billion settlement fund, which his administration scrapped on Tuesday after fierce Republican pushback. While acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress that “we are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Democrats say they want it written into the law.

“It is only a matter of time before Blanche and Trump go back on their word,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Thune said Blanche’s comments were “extremely helpful” and he thinks most GOP senators were satisfied by the decision. “We’ll find out,” he added.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana said he was assured by Blanche's promises.

“I think that particular issue is dead,” he said.

Some Republicans still have concerns about settlement

Not everyone is satisfied. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has said he will offer an amendment to block any attempt at resurrecting the fund, which was part of a settlement resolving Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns.

Tillis said he has plans to offer an amendment to put Blanche's promise into law.

“We’ve got a sufficient number of Republicans who have been very clear they’ve got concerns there,” said Tillis.

Thune said he is working with Tillis and others who have discussed amendments as he tries to ensure he has enough votes for a simple majority in the 53-47 Senate.

“Keep in mind, we’ve got to keep them all together, make sure we’ve got 50 votes for it,” Thune said.

Money dropped for Trump's ballroom

The legislation was also delayed by the opposition to $1 billion in security funding for the White House, including for Trump’s new ballroom, that was added to the original bill.

Democrats and some Republicans questioned using taxpayer money for the massive project in a time of economic hardship for many voters. Democrats had planned amendments to strip that language, as well.

As various side issues temporarily derailed the legislation, Republicans have said their top priority is passing the ICE and Border Patrol funding that Democrats have blocked for months in protest of the administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.

But success requires GOP unity in the Senate and the House before it can reach Trump.

Republican House leaders said Wednesday they would like to pass the bill before the end of the week, if the Senate can finish it. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said they are having internal conversations now to make sure they have enough support.

“We just need to make sure everybody’s there,” Scalise said.

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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

The drones flew more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to hit the terminal in Russia’s second-largest city, Zelenskyy said on social media, a day after Moscow launched a major drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Russian authorities said only that the Ukrainian drone strike targeted St. Petersburg’s infrastructure, without providing details. The city's airport briefly suspended flights overnight because of the attack. Authorities cut off mobile internet services.

With the front line barely moving as swarms of drones hinder advances, both sides have sought an edge by launching long-range strikes. The war that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor is more than four years old, with no end in sight.

Ukraine's drone successes embarrass Putin

The latest strikes are another embarrassment for Putin, weeks after he pruned back an annual Victory Day parade in Moscow because of fears of Ukrainian drone attacks.

Putin is set to speak on Friday at the economic forum in St. Petersburg that the Kremlin views as a prestige event. The gathering is sometimes called Russia’s Davos, likening it to the World Economic Forum held in Switzerland.

Major Western investors and officials have stayed away since Russia launched its all-out war against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Saudi Arabia is a special guest this year and is due to send a large business delegation.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine aimed only at “legitimate targets” related to Russia's war effort and indicated that Kyiv plans to escalate its long-range drone attacks. "It is only a matter of time when we will be able to increase the scale of our own mass strikes,” he told reporters.

The strikes on St. Petersburg came a day after Russia's attack on Ukraine killed 23 civilians and wounded 151 other people, as Moscow followed through with its threat of escalating its barrages.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Russia’s deep strikes have already taken on a “systematic” character.

Ukraine needs more air defense help

Ukraine’s own long-range attacks are aimed at diminishing Russia’s oil production, which is a key source of funding for Moscow, and disrupting weapon production. Kyiv has repeatedly targeted oil facilities in St. Petersburg and nearby ports.

But Ukraine is short of American-made Patriot air defense missiles, in part because of U.S. stocks being depleted by the Iran war, leaving Ukrainian territory vulnerable to Russia's ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy on Wednesday expressed frustration with his own government's officials, saying there's an agreement “at the highest political level” for the purchase of Patriot systems, but implementation is being held up by financial, legal and technical considerations.

“The wait has taken too long,” he said on social media, demanding that officials unblock the purchase or there will be “serious personnel decisions.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, visiting Kyiv on Wednesday for talks with Ukrainian officials, said the flow of interceptor missiles from the U.S. to Ukraine continues. The U.S. is “doing what it can” to keep supplying them although it is limited by the production rate, he told a news conference.

Rutte also said young Russians and their families “are being sold a raw deal” by Moscow, as incorporation in the Russian military dooms soldiers to poor training and equipment and low chances of surviving battlefield wounds.

Ukraine also strikes a Russian naval base

Other Ukrainian drone attacks overnight set fire to the Russian guided-missile corvette Boikiy, which was in dry dock at the Kronstadt naval base, according to Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. Kronstadt is an old base for Russia’s Baltic Fleet located west of St. Petersburg. Satellite images showed fire crews working to control the fires onboard.

Drones also hit a Russian manufacturing plant involved in weapon production in the Tambov region, 600 kilometers (370 miles) from Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 354 Ukrainian drones overnight.

In the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, a Ukrainian strike hit a bus that was traveling from Moscow to the Crimean Peninsula, killing seven people and wounding 11 others, according to the Kremlin-appointed head of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin.

In the Smolensk region, two firefighters were killed by a Ukrainian drone attack, according to the regional governor, Vasily Anokhin. He said that two other firefighters and a local resident were wounded.

Meanwhile, Russia fired 198 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine’s air force, with air defenses neutralizing 189.

Authorities in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said that over the previous 24 hours, one civilian was killed and 15 more were wounded, including three children, by Russian strikes.

In the southern Kherson, Russian overnight shelling and drone strikes killed an 86-year-old woman and wounded five other people, according to regional authorities.

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

Last year, global data centers used 448 trillion watt-hours of electricity, more than all but 10 countries of the world, said the report issued Wednesday. That electricity use produced about 208 million tons (189 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide, about the same amount as Argentina, and producing that much energy consumed about 1.2 trillion gallons (4.5 trillion liters) of water, according to the report on the environmental consequences of AI's energy use.

By 2030, data centers will account for nearly 3% of the world's projected electricity use, with 935 trillion watt-hours. If data centers were a country, the country would be projected to rank sixth-highest in power use in 2030. That would produce nearly 440 million tons (399 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide, the report said. The study focused on energy use and didn’t examine the massive amount of water used to cool data centers.

“If you look at these numbers, we're seeing scales comparable to nations,” said study co-author Kaveh Madani, a water scientist and director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Canada. “The demand is enormous.”

Much of the growth of data centers is being driven by AI. About 20% of data centers’ energy is currently due to AI, but that should grow to 40% by 2030, the report said.

First global look at ecological impact

The report is significant because of the credibility and authority of the U.N., not just because of any one set of eye-popping numbers, said Fengqi You, a Cornell University energy engineering professor who directs the college’s AI sustainability issues.

“Its value is that a U.N. institution is putting carbon, water, land, life-cycle impacts and environmental justice into one frame” for an issue that is often shrouded in secrecy and partial disclosures, said You, who was not part of the report.

“The general public should be concerned, but not panicked,” he added.

Jean Su, director of the Energy Justice Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the report is important because it is the first U.N., or even global, report “that shines a light on the environmental harms of AI.”

National Artificial Intelligence Association President Caleb Max emphasized how his industry is becoming more efficient and how it benefits the public: “AI is rapidly becoming part of our everyday lives and adding benefits that improve safety, live longer, work more efficiently, enhance food production, and reduce poverty. The evidence is growing daily that the energy return on investment of AI development is transformative for our world and therefore more than worth it.”

Josh Levi, president the Data Center Coalition, said the industry takes its environmental impact seriously.

“We remain committed to working with policymakers, local communities, and industry partners to ensure that as data centers grow, they do so responsibly, transparently, and in ways that reflect the best available practices,” he said in a statement.

How much energy your query uses and how to trim it

Madani, also the winner of the most recent of the Stockholm Water Prize, said the numbers show the environmental cost of AI, which may seem cleaner at first glance than other mechanical devices, such as cars and furnaces, that have visible pollution.

"AI is not just a virtual thing. We’re talking about something that has physics, something that has real impacts. There is infrastructure there. There is energy that is being used,” Madani said. “A lot of hardware is behind all these operations that to us seem very, very clean because we don’t see smoke out of our devices. On our cellphone, there is no visible smoke or out of our computer or something. But somewhere else someone is suffering.”

People can reduce AI’s massive energy appetite by being less polite and more concise in their queries, Madani said. The report found that cutting word use in requests by 30% can reduce energy used by AI by 25%. That would save about the same amount of electricity as what about 700,000 people in Africa use in a year, the report said.

“If you’re too polite, then that extra ‘please’ you put there can make a huge difference,” Madani said. “You’ve got to be very precise and be short.”

A typical ChatGPT-style query is about 200 times more energy-intensive than the type of basic text classification used in an email spam filter, for example. AI-generated images or video require much more energy.

And the more complicated the AI, the more energy it takes to train or learn. The report said GPT-3 used about 1.3 billion watt-hours to train, but the next version used 50 to 70 billion watt-hours.

But it's not training that really feasts on power, said study co-author Miriam Aczel, a United National University environmental policy researcher. About 90% of the power use of AI comes from operational requests, she said. GPT alone accounts for 2.5 billion prompts a day, she said.

Efficiency still means more power use

Even though tech advocates can argue that their machines are becoming more efficient, there's a common paradox that finds when things get more efficient, they are used more often and total energy use soars even if individual uses are more efficient, Madani said. While some companies tout the use of renewable energy for data centers, Madani said that means the supply of clean electricity is depleted and thus dirtier energy is used elsewhere.

One of the problems in conducting this study is that many companies and places are not transparent about what data centers and AI are consuming or even where and how big they are, Aczel and Madani said.

“We cannot manage what companies do not disclose,” Cornell's You said.

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

The SETI Institute said Wednesday that extensive radio scans by its telescope in Northern California found no signs of otherworldly technology from our solar system’s latest interstellar visitor.

The object labeled 3I/Atlas was discovered last summer sweeping through our neck of the cosmic woods. Scientists quickly identified it as a comet that migrated from another star, although a few insisted without evidence it might be associated with intelligent life.

It’s only the third known object from a faraway star — all deemed of natural origin — to venture into the sun’s turf.

Several NASA spacecraft observed the celestial iceball as it swung past Mars last October, venturing within 19 million miles (30 million kilometers) of the red planet. The closest it ever got to Earth was in December at a whopping 167 million miles (269 million kilometers) away.

SETI said it conducted more than seven hours of observations in July soon after the comet was discovered, searching through a wide range of radio signals. The team identified nearly 74 million narrow-band radio signals.

After accounting for human interference or signals matching the object's movement, only slightly more than 200 signals remained, all of which “traced back to technology on the surface of the Earth or our own Earth-orbiting satellites,” according to SETI.

Results were published in the Astronomical Journal.

These results "show how realistic it is to detect a signal with the technology we have today,” co-author Valeria Garcia Lopez of Furman University said a statement. “That is why it is important to keep searching for technosignatures, even from objects we might not expect to have signals.”

SETI's Sofia Sheikh, the lead author, and her team pointed out that NASA's Voyager spacecraft will one day become extraterrestrial objects in neighboring star systems. Launched in the 1970s, the twin probes are the most distant spacecraft from Earth, drifting in the space between stars.

“Voyager and similar probes will eventually become interstellar objects in other stellar systems. We thus know that no extrapolation is needed for the idea of interstellar technological objects, as we have a proof by existence,” they wrote.

Almost 1 billion miles away now (1.3 billion kilometers) as it makes its way back to interstellar space — never to return — the comet is estimated to be within 1,444 feet (440 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) in size. Scientists suspect it could be as old as 11 billion years, twice as old as the sun.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The government says the development on the Adriatic coast would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership.

But the venture, spanning an abandoned island and a nearby stretch of seafront on Albania’s southern coast, has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of long-time Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Kushner and Ivanka Trump found the site on a barefoot hike

The luxury project has two components: a coastal development in the Narta Lagoon area, which is a wildlife reserve, and a smaller resort on the nearby uninhabited island of Sazan, a communist-era military base.

The planned development of hotels, apartments, villas and a marina is linked to Kushner and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.

In an interview this week with U.S. podcaster David Senra, Ivanka Trump said they discovered the site by accident.

“We were on a friend’s boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it,” she said. “We swam to the island. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated.”

An investment firm linked to Kushner has been granted special investor status by Albanian authorities.

Harsh rule, pristine beaches

Albania has 450 kilometers (280 miles) of coast that remained largely underdeveloped during decades of harsh communist rule.

Protest groups fear the sections of that pristine coastline could be snapped up by powerful investors. And public anger grew after video showed an activist being dragged by a private security guard while demonstrating at the site.

The development is planned within a nature reserve and one of Albania’s most valuable biodiversity areas, a key stopover for migratory birds along the Adriatic coast.

Protesters have carried cardboard cut-outs of pink flamingos, one of the protected migratory bird species, at rallies in the capital Tirana.

Since late May, excavators and other heavy machinery have entered the area, opening access routes, digging into the sand, clearing land among pine trees and installing fencing.

Environmental groups from Albania and elsewhere in Europe condemned the work, with one prominent local group charging that long-protected habitats are being "irreversibly destroyed.”

A multi-billion dollar bonanza?

Albania’s state anti-corruption agency has confirmed it opened an investigation related to the project but has not disclosed details.

The government says the land earmarked for the project is privately owned. But competing claims have emerged questioning the privatization — a common type of legal dispute.

Rama has committed to the venture, saying it would align with Albania’s ambition to become a major global tourism destination.

“Albania should not be a country that fears an extraordinary project like this one, where exceptional partners have come together to invest 4 billion euros ($4.6 billion),” Rama said.

He added: “There is no chance for this investment to stop as long as I am here.”

However, the demise of a similar project in Serbia offers a cautionary tale. In November, Serbia's Parliament passed a special law to enable the building of a luxury complex in the capital, Belgrade, to be financed by an investment company linked to Kushner.

The following month, Serbia's prosecutor for organized crime charged four people, including a government minister, with abuse of office and falsifying of documents to help pave the way for the development.

Kushner later withdrew from the planned multi-million investment that would have replaced a sprawling bombed-out military complex, a designated heritage zone whose legal protection was lifted by the former officials now on trial.

The administration this week has proposed slapping double-digit tariffs on products from dozens of major U.S. trading partners after an investigation into imports of goods allegedly made with forced labor. And more tariffs are likely coming.

Under the proposal released in Washington late Tuesday, 16 economies — including Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Taiwan and the United Kingdom — would face 10% levies for allegedly failing to enforce bans on forced labor. Another 44 trading partners — including China, Japan, India, South Korea and Switzerland — would be hit with 12.5% import taxes.

The tariffs are part of Trump's push to replace revenue lost when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down sweeping global tariffs he'd imposed last year. This latest barrage is likely to unsettle key trading partners that have been hit with waves of tariffs since Trump returned to the White House early last year.

“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement. "This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.''

Greer's office said failure to prevent such imports is "unreasonable and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce."

Trump's tariffs are paid by U.S. importers who usually try to pass along those higher costs to customers.

The administration, mindful that Americans are growing increasingly unsettled by high prices with midterm elections just months away, said that it would limit the impact by exempting from the latest proposed tariffs a long list of products, including aircraft parts, food products (from coffee to beef) and rare earth minerals crucial in the production of smartphones and cars. Also spared would be products from Canada and Mexico covered by a North American trade pact.

The new tariffs would not take effect immediately. They are subject to public comment and review. Public hearings on the proposed duties are due to begin on July 7.

The plan drew immediate pushback. A Chinese government spokesperson denied the forced labor allegation and called for resolving economic issues through dialogue, saying a trade war doesn’t serve anyone’s interests.

“There is no such thing as forced labor in China, and we oppose using it as an excuse to engage in political manipulation,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing.

The U.S. has long said imports of goods that include material from China’s far-western Xinjiang are at risk of using forced labor. Beijing denies allegations of forced labor in the Muslim majority region.

But critics saw the proposed tariffs as a pretext to reinstate tariffs on dozens of countries across the globe that hadn’t passed legal muster.

“Accusing EU of not doing enough against forced labour is absurd,″ Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, posted on social media. “The EU has adopted the world’s most stringent rules against products made with forced labour. This looks very much like trying to make the facts fit a legal justification for tariffs that has already been decided.″

The new maneuver shows how determined the Trump administration is about keeping a wall of tariffs around the American economy, the world’s largest, despite repeated setbacks in court.

In February, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump had overstepped his authority by invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth last year. The justices struck down the tariffs and set the stage for companies who paid them to seek refunds.

After the loss in court, Trump turned to another law to impose temporary 10% tariffs globally. But those stopgap levies expire July 24. And a specialized trade court ruled last month that they, too, were illegal – though the government can continue collecting them while that case works its way through the courts.

Trump’s tariffs have provided tens of billions of dollars in revenue for a federal government that persistently spends more than it collects in taxes. He had been counting on the IEEPA tariffs to make up for some of the revenue lost to his massive 2025 tax cuts.

But tariff collections have begun to fall since the legal defeats. They peaked at more than $31 billion last October but were down to $22 billion in both March and April of this year, according to the Treasury Department.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have vowed to replace the lost revenue. And they’ve turned to a legal authority that has withstood legal challenges in the past: Section 301 of Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes 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.

"What's somewhat brilliant about this way of approaching 301 is that politically it's very hard to argue that you shouldn't go after forced labor and force countries to enforce forced labor laws on the books,'' said trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former U.S. trade official.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will soon introduce legislation on forced labor in supply chains. “Canada has a very strong legislative regime against forced labor in supply chains,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. “We don’t want any element of forced labor coming in goods and services, and we want to use our influence to eliminate this practice of forced labor and child labor.”

In its nearly 100-page report on forced labor, the USTR said that even if a country enforces a ban on forced labor domestically, importing goods made with forced labor violates the rules of fair trade.

Majerus expects to the new tariffs to be ready by the time the temporary ones expire next month. “The USTR is under enormous pressure to make sure there's no gap (in tariff revenue), probably from the White House,'' he said. ”I'm confident, based on the schedule they're on now, that they will have these done and ready to implement.'' He noted that the investigation on forced labor is "working at about two times the normal speed'' of typical 301 cases.

The administration is also pursuing a Section 301 case into whether 16 U.S. trading partners (accounting for 70% of U.S. imports) — including China, the EU and Japan — are overproducing goods, driving down prices and putting U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage.

And on Monday the administration proposed 25% Section 301 tariffs on Brazil, charging that the world's 10th-biggest economy with "unreasonable'' trade practices including lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs of its own.

Tuesday's report defined forced labor as “work or service exacted from a person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily.”

It cited an estimate by the UN’s International Labor Organization that as of 2021, 27.6 million people were engaged in forced labor.

Rice imported from Myanmar, tobacco from Malawi, beef from Brazil, and cotton and polysilicon from China were among the many products it said are prone to involving forced labor.

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Elaine Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok.

Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this story.

Writing on the Truth Social platform the previous day, Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement” for de la Espriella, calling him an “intelligent, strong and tough leader” who will take on a “radical leftist Marxist,” referring to progressive Iván Cepeda, in the June 21 runoff election.

He emphasized the importance of the elections for the two countries' relationship.

“With my head held high and a heart full of patriotic gratitude, I receive your words and your steadfast support," de la Espriella, known as “El Tigre” or “The Tiger,” wrote on X. "Thank you, Mr. President!”

This is not the first time Trump has backed candidates in foreign elections, a practice that has drawn criticism from opponents who say the U.S. should not meddle in other countries’ domestic politics. Last year, Trump endorsed Honduras’ National Party presidential candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura, who went on to win. He also backed libertarian President Javier Milei in Argentina during legislative elections that proved critical to the leader’s political agenda.

Cepeda in comments to the press Wednesday denounced Trump's remarks as having an “interventionist tone” and called on him to respect Colombia's sovereignty.

Trump’s support in the Colombian presidential campaign underscores the current tension between Washington and Bogota as relations between the countries have grown strained under Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Sharp disagreements have emerged over migration, Israel’s military actions in Gaza and anti-narcotics strategies, particularly regarding the bombing of drug boats in the Caribbean.

Petro rejected Trump’s support for the conservative candidate and urged citizens to vote freely so as to “not become anyone’s slaves or colony.”

“When a country intervenes in the decisions of another country, freedom dies,” Petro wrote on X.

While the U.S. remains Colombia’s largest export market and was long considered Washington’s primary ally in the hemisphere, relations have cooled significantly under the current administration.

De la Espriella, who holds dual Colombian and U.S. citizenship, is a Trump supporter and a member of the Republican Party. With no prior experience in elected office, he secured 43.74% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election, followed by Sen. Cepeda — an ally of Petro — with 40.90%, according to preliminary counts.

The candidate has said his views align with U.S. policies, particularly regarding the fight against narcotics. He has promised to eradicate thousands of hectares of coca leaf crops — the raw material for cocaine — and to halt the trafficking bound for the United States.

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

The space agency confirmed Wednesday that the mission had ended after more than a decade of observations.

“The team really did experience the loss of a loved one with the end of the mission here,” said NASA project manager Mike Moreau.

Launched in 2013 to study the red planet’s atmosphere from orbit, Maven mysteriously fell silent in early December after passing behind Mars. Data indicated the spacecraft went into a fast spin, which disrupted its orbit and drained the onboard batteries.

A review board convened by NASA earlier this year concluded that the spacecraft is useless and unable to be recovered. It's expected to remain in orbit for another 50 to 100 years before crashing into the planet, posing no issue to other spacecraft until then. An investigation continues into what caused the problem.

Besides studying Martian weather and observing a stray interstellar comet last year, Maven helped relay information from NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on the surface. NASA officials said four other spacecraft around Mars — two U.S. and two European satellites — will pick up the slack, with no rover science lost.

"The team is certainly broken up about this, but at the same time we are incredibly proud of the science we've accomplished over the last decade,” said Maven's lead scientist, Shannon Curry of the University of Colorado Boulder.

The spacecraft advanced scientists' understanding of the Martian atmosphere and evolution, Curry said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

District attorney's spokesman Sean Webby confirmed Wednesday that the warrant has been issued in response to a video Aiyuk posted to social media last December that appeared to show him speeding on the road in front of Levi's Stadium.

The California Post first reported the arrest warrant.

Aiyuk posted an apology a few days after the video that appeared to show him driving well over the posted speed limit of 40 mph.

"Sorry ya’ll, my car content won’t come with speeding anymore,” Aiyuk wrote in a social media post. “Was praying with my son tonight and wouldn’t want anybody else to miss out on an opportunity to do the same with their loved ones! My apologies.”

Aiyuk is currently on the reserve/left squad list after he stopped showing up late last season as he rehabilitates a knee injury that has sidelined him since October 2024.

The issues with the 49ers and Aiyuk go back to last summer when the team previously voided $27 million guaranteed in his contract for next season for failing to participate in meetings and other team activities.

General manager John Lynch has said he doesn't expect Aiyuk to play again for the 49ers. The team has been waiting to see if another team is willing to trade for Aiyuk. The 49ers otherwise could either cut him or keep him on the reserve list.

Aiyuk has three years remaining on the four-year, $120 million extension he signed last year. But he now has no guaranteed money remaining.

The 28-year-old Aiyuk has 294 catches for 4,305 yards and 25 TDs since being drafted in the first round in 2020.

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

Santos placed the bets on another prediction marketplace, Kalshi, after publicly announcing his intention to be at the Feb. 24 speech, according to a person familiar with the investigation. He later blamed a delayed flight for missing the event.

The suspicious trades were detected by Kalshi and referred to the Commodities Future Trading Commission, which has opened a probe into Santos for possible insider trading, according to a second person familiar with the investigation.

Both spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

By the time of the State of the Union address, Santos was already working in an influencer capacity for Polymarket, using his substantial online platform to promote the controversial brand. He was released from federal prison last October after Trump granted him clemency in a fraud case.

In response to an inquiry from the AP, a Polymarket spokesperson said the company was in the process of terminating the contract as a result of this week's revelations.

Santos did not respond to phone calls and text messages from the AP.

On his podcast, “Doing Time with George Santos,” the former congressman has spoken about his involvement in prediction markets, which he called “easily manipulable.”

“There’s definitely some space for speculation. There will be investigations. There will be scrutiny,” he said in March. “I just want to make sure that people understand: It is not straightforward. It is not a crime to do prediction market."

He continued: “I think it’s fun and you can make a little money and you can have fun with it, but just understand that there will always be advantaged players in this game and it’s very hard to understand who they are.”

Santos won election to Congress in 2022 after campaigning using a fake persona as a wealthy, self-made Wall Street dealmaker, when he actually had no background in finance and was struggling to pay his rent.

He was expelled from Congress and pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identify theft in a criminal case involving stealing money from donors, using some of it on personal expenses including designer clothing.

Sentenced to more than seven years in prison, Santos served 84 days before Trump commuted his sentence.

The leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee held the hearing as they push legislation unveiled last week that supporters hope can break the congressional gridlock over how to regulate college athletics. But it's already facing criticism from some senators and the two most influential conferences in college sports.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., would regulate payments to athletes, limit them to one “free” transfer during their careers and create a “Lane Kiffin Rule” restricting coaches from leaving programs during the season. Cruz touted the proposal as “the last, best hope we have to save college sports.”

“If you had the biggest, baddest Ferrari that you could ever have and it was going 150 miles an hour toward the Grand Canyon, somebody needs to tap the brakes. And I think that’s what we all need to do here,” Saban said in his opening remarks.

Notably absent from the the witness list, which included Notre Dame’s athletic director and the commissioner of the newly reconstructed Pac-12 conference, were any representatives from either the Big Ten or Southeastern Conferences. Saban won seven national championships at SEC schools Alabama and LSU but said he was not in Washington to represent any conference or team.

The SEC and the Big Ten, the two most powerful conferences in college sports, oppose the bill, arguing it “leaves critical issues unresolved.”

Asked after the hearing about opposition from the SEC and Big Ten, Cruz told the Associated Press he remains confident the bill can pass Congress.

“We're going to get the votes," Cruz said. “If we do nothing, there is no alternative. As every witness testified, college sports is facing a crisis.”

Cantwell said at Wednesday's hearing that the legislation is intended to restore competition to college athletics by ensuring success is determined by how universities “build a team, and not because they have a billionaire in their back pocket.”

She also addressed the conferences’ opposition directly, suggesting they fear a more level playing field and the idea “that somebody’s going to come in and rearrange the deck chairs of those conferences, steal the eyeball schools, and then basically leave everybody with everything else.”

While Cruz and Cantwell, the two top-ranked lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee, support the bill, passage through the Senate is far from certain. President Donald Trump has yet to comment on the bill publicly.

Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, an ally of Trump's, said he had “grave concerns” about the bill. He said his most important concern was “it does nothing about protecting, biological women from competing with men and sports" — an issue that Trump has dealt with via executive orders but that has not come up in any version of these bills.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., a former college football coach at Auburn, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that “there’s going to have to be some changes” to the bill in order for him to support it.

House Republican leadership had been working toward a vote on its own college sports bill, known as the SCORE Act, before the Congressional Black Caucus announced its unanimous opposition.

The CBC said the legislation should not move forward in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that effectively disabled a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. They say athletic leaders are failing to address concerns about the decision’s impact on Black political representation.

On Wednesday, the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to Cruz and Cantwell urging the committee to pause consideration of their bill as well.

“Meaningful engagement and action by college athletics leadership should be viewed as a necessary first step,” the letter stated.

This week, my Florida Foodie adventure didn’t take me to a restaurant. It took me meat shopping — and I left with a cart full of ideas for everyday dinners and that “please invite me to every cookout” energy that Memorial Day weekend is made for.

If Winter Park isn’t close to you, Wild Fork also has Central Florida locations in Dr. Phillips and Lake Nona, so you can make a quick stop no matter what side of town you’re on.

Wild Fork is the kind of one-stop shop that works for pretty much any type of shopper. If you’re trying to keep dinner simple (and affordable), you can grab everyday cuts that can beat the prices at the big-name stores. If you’re shopping for a special occasion, there are premium options that feel like a splurge without the restaurant markup. And if you like to have a little fun in the freezer aisle, they’ve even got exotic meats that make you do a double take.

I’ll be honest: when a store is mostly frozen, my brain immediately goes to “freezer burn” and “this is going to taste like the inside of a cardboard box.”

Wild Fork made me rethink that — because their whole thing is blast freezing. The short version is that blast freezing happens quickly, which helps protect texture, flavor and nutritional value better than slow freezing.

So instead of frozen being a compromise, it’s more like… the strategy.

And from a shopper perspective, it keeps costs and waste low.

Also: I’m a big believer that the sides can make or break a meal.

And this is where Wild Fork really fits how I actually shop, because it’s not the kind of place where you grab the meat… and then realize you still have to hit a second store for everything else (which I hate). They’ve got sides, vegetables, herbs, seasonings, dessert — all the supporting characters you need to turn a protein pick into a full meal.

Most of the time, grocery shopping feels like a trade-off. If you’re saving money, you’re bracing yourself to give up quality.

What surprised me about Wild Fork is that it didn’t feel like I had to choose.

I could shop for everyday dinners, keep it affordable, and still walk out feeling like I got something high quality. And if I wanted to go premium for a summer cookout? That option was right there too.

And if you’re in the mood to be a little chaotic — or you just want a conversation starter for your next BBQ — I’m not saying you should treat yourself to kangaroo… but I’m also not saying you shouldn’t.

The only tortoise native to the Southeast (and why that matters)

Gopher tortoises are the only tortoise species found east of the Mississippi River. They live in dry, sandy uplands such as longleaf pine, oak scrub, sandhills, and even coastal dunes. These are places where digging is easy and sunlight reaches the ground.

That’s the key: gopher tortoises need open, sunny habitats with low-growing plants for food. When the forest canopy closes in and shade takes over, their food disappears, and so do they.

One tortoise, an entire neighborhood

Katherine explained that gopher tortoises are a keystone species, which means they shape the entire ecosystem around them. They don’t just live in the habitat; they actually build it.

Their burrows provide shelter for up to hundreds of other species in Florida, including snakes, mammals, birds, and many insects and other small animals. Think of it as the original Florida starter home: cool, stable, and always available when the weather turns violent, which in Florida happens pretty often.

Those burrows also help other wildlife survive extreme heat, drought, and even fire. Underground, the temperature and humidity stay fairly constant, making a gopher tortoise burrow one of the best natural refuges in the state.

The habitat problem: Florida’s “high and dry” is disappearing

We filmed in oak scrub and longleaf pine habitat, an ecosystem that once covered a large part of the Southeast. Today, more than 90% of that habitat has been lost because of development and lack of management.

The issue is painfully simple: the places gopher tortoises want to live are the same places humans want to build.

Flat, high, dry land is perfect for tortoises and also for houses, roads, apartments, and almost anything that comes with a mailbox. When development spreads into these uplands, tortoise habitat gets fragmented or destroyed, and burrows can be buried, blocked, or erased.

Also, many of these ecosystems depend on fire. Without regular prescribed burns or natural fires, woody plants take over, the habitat becomes thicker and shadier, and it slowly stops being suitable for tortoises.

Why they’re so hard to find (even when they’re right there)

I learned quickly that gopher tortoises spend most of their lives underground. They come out to bask, forage, and sometimes socialize, but if you’re picturing a tortoise casually posing for your camera like it’s an influencer, that’s not going to happen.

Their burrows can be surprisingly deep and long, sometimes reaching about 40 feet in length and usually about six feet below the surface. According to the National Park Service, gopher tortoise burrows can stretch up to thirty feet long and reach depths of eight feet, sometimes even more, which shows just how extensive their underground homes can be—so when you’re standing at the entrance wondering what’s inside, there is a lot more to these burrows than meets the eye. Anyone home?’ there’s a good chance they’re deep inside, enjoying their perfectly climate-controlled bunker.

The twist: the tortoises weren’t in the state park

Here’s the part that hit me the hardest: even after all that effort, the gopher tortoises I eventually found weren’t in the state park two hours away.

They were ten minutes from my house—in the middle of suburbia.

That’s the real lesson from the whole experience. Nature isn’t always a far-off adventure. Sometimes it’s right outside your door, or even under your feet. Once you realize that, protecting wildlife habitat feels less like an abstract ‘save the planet’ idea and more like protecting the place where you actually live.

A few extra gopher tortoise facts (and where to learn more)

Defenders of Wildlife has great resources on gopher tortoises, including why they’re considered a keystone species and how their burrows support hundreds of other animals.

If you want to learn more or support their work, visit Defenders of Wildlife by clicking here.

You can also start with their tortoise resources by clicking here.

And a Defenders blog post specifically on gopher tortoises by clicking here.

How you can help (without “helping” too much)

If you see a gopher tortoise, the best thing you can do is give it space and avoid disturbing it or its burrow. These are not aquatic turtles, and they should never be put in ponds, lakes, or near water just because it seems right.

If you have gopher tortoises on your property, Katherine suggests looking into a gopher tortoise-friendly yard certification from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Sometimes the most effective way to help conservation isn’t glamorous. It can be as simple as letting a tortoise keep its unique sand tunnel undisturbed.

Super Awesome Cool Pottery in Central Florida is making sure that second group doesn’t stay scared for long.

The studio offers hands-on experiences that feel equal parts art class and stress relief — especially its beginner pottery wheel class, where first-timers learn the basics of throwing clay and leave with pieces that are uniquely their own.

“Pottery is such a mindfulness activity. For that hour, it’s just the you and the clay. So you’re focusing on the present moment,” said Hunter Holmes, who teaches classes and handles marketing coordination at Super Awesome Cool Pottery.

Beginner pottery wheel class: what to expect

If you’ve ever watched someone on a wheel and thought, I could never do that, this is the class designed to prove you wrong.

Holmes said the beginner potter’s wheel class is structured, guided and friendly for all skill levels.

“You’re going to be guided through the creation of two bowls on the potter’s wheel,” Holmes said.

After the wheel portion, students move to the studio area to glaze and paint their pieces — and they can take their time.

“The class is about an hour long in the wheel room. Once you’ve completed the class, you can stay as long as you like to paint your bowl,” Holmes said.

Super Awesome Cool Pottery then takes over the behind-the-scenes part of ceramics: drying, glazing and kiln firing. Finished pieces are typically ready for pickup in about a month to a month and a half.

“We hold them for about 4 to 6 weeks so we can let them fully dry, avoid any explosions in the kiln,” Holmes said. “We’ll then put a clear coat of glaze on top to make sure everything is food safe, and then we fire them and give you a text when they’re ready.”

A no-pressure studio that celebrates imperfect art

One of the reasons beginners relax quickly is the studio’s emphasis on process over perfection.

Holmes encourages students to avoid comparing their work to others.

“Don’t judge by your neighbors, don’t compare yours to mine. The clay is going to do what the clay is going to do,” he said.

That’s part of what makes ceramics feel approachable: everyone starts with the same ball of clay, but the outcomes are wildly different.

“We start with the same ball of clay and everything looks completely different,” Holmes said.

The lesson extends beyond art technique. If a bowl collapses or the clay wobbles, the point isn’t to panic — it’s to try again.

“The clay teaches you that when things go wrong, it’s okay. You can start over. You can recycle the clay and use it again,” Holmes said.

More than wheel classes: pottery painting, kids programs and Ferret Night

The studio’s calendar goes beyond the wheel.

Super Awesome Cool Pottery also offers pottery painting — the kind of drop-in, low-pressure activity that works for families, date nights and friend hangouts.

And yes, the studio hosts Ferret Night, where guests paint pottery while ferrets roam and visit tables.

“Throughout the night, ferrets will come and play at your table,” Holmes said.

For parents looking for creative options, the studio also offers youth programming.

Holmes said afterschool programs focus on helping kids bring their ideas to life and build confidence through art.

“They can bring images from their head to creation to reality,” he said.

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Pottery Wheel Classes - Orlando, FL (@superawesomecoolpottery_) • Instagram photos and videos

Why it’s a Central Florida must-try

In a region packed with theme parks and big attractions, Super Awesome Cool Pottery is the kind of experience that feels personal — you get an hour of hands-on focus and then you leave with a tangible souvenir you made yourself.

It’s also the rare activity that’s fun whether you arrive with friends or come solo looking for a new hobby.

Holmes summed up the studio’s promise simply: “You guys bring the fun and the creativity. We’ll handle the rest.”

How to find Super Awesome Cool Pottery

You can find Super Awesome Cool Pottery on Instagram at Super Awesome Cool Pottery_ and on Facebook as Super Awesome Cool Pottery. For class details, availability or pickup questions, call (407) 720-3699. You can also find them online at www.superawesomecool.com

The science center is unveiling The Dome by Dr. Phillips Charities on Monday, June 1, a fully transformed immersive theater designed to thrill audiences with 8K laser projection, 30,000 watts of 7.1 surround sound, a nearly seamless NanoSeam screen, and new luxury seating.

For nearly three decades, the domed theater has been a centerpiece of the Orlando Science Center experience — welcoming nearly four million guests and standing out as one of the last museum theaters in the United States to show analog film, according to the science center.

Now, after a top-to-bottom overhaul, the iconic venue is launching a new chapter that combines next-generation visuals and audio with the return of planetarium-style storytelling.

“Orlando Science Center is a home for bold experiences that inspire curiosity and wonder,” said JoAnn Newman, the science center’s president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “The Dome by Dr. Phillips Charities is a step forward in how we present storytelling that educates and inspires contemporary audiences.”

What’s new inside the Dome

The reimagined theater features eight Christie Griffyn projectors delivering 8K laser imagery that the science center says is brighter and sharper than ever before.

The space was also physically redesigned to improve sightlines and expand capacity. The former central projection structure was removed, and seating was increased to 315 guests.

A major visual upgrade comes from the theater’s new screen system: 419 individual panels create a nearly seamless surface intended to maximize clarity and immersion.

Audio is a centerpiece, too. A 7.1 surround sound system delivers more than 30,000 watts — built to make audiences feel like they’re under a rocket launch, inside an ocean storm or drifting through deep space.

The experience starts before the show

Orlando Science Center also redesigned the lobby leading into the Dome, adding a dramatic LED wall and large-scale projection surfaces to wrap visitors in motion and light even before they take their seats.

The updated lobby also includes automated vending with popcorn, candy and drinks.

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A return to planetarium roots

The Dome’s relaunch also signals a return to Orlando Science Center’s planetarium heritage.

From 1972 to 1984, the organization was known as the John Young Museum and Planetarium, and planetarium-style programs helped define its early years.

The Dome’s new programming lineup is expected to include planetarium shows, giant screen films, full-dome educational presentations, and musical laser light shows.

The premiere schedule includes a live planetarium experience led by Orlando Science Center presenters exploring the skies above Orlando — from constellations and planets to distant phenomena at the edge of the universe.

Who helped make it happen?

The project was supported through the science center’s Unlock Science Campaign, including contributions from Dr. Phillips Charities, Orange County Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Bert W. Martin Foundation, and The Magruder Foundation, the science center said.

“Dr. Phillips Charities is dedicated to the education and enrichment of our community and proud to further our legacy of support with this amazing venue,” said Ken Robinson, president and CEO of Dr. Phillips Charities, in a prepared statement.

Plan your visit

The Dome by Dr. Phillips Charities premieres Monday, June 1, at Orlando Science Center.

Tickets and showtimes are available through Orlando Science Center.

That was easier to swallow during the first three rounds, when others down the lineup picked up the slack. Now, it is a problem that could cost them the Stanley Cup.

The Hurricanes have met their match in the final against the Vegas Golden Knights, a seasoned opponent with no glaring weaknesses who won the opener 5-4. With Game 2 on Thursday night, the pressure is squarely on Carolina's best players to get it together before it is too late.

"I know we have a better in us, and we've got to show it," Aho said Wednesday. “It's on us to figure it out.”

Top-line scoring woes

Through 14 games this postseason, the trio of Jarvis, Aho and Svechnikov has scored just three times against a goaltender at even strength. The success of the second line of Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake made getting past Ottawa, Philadelphia and Montreal a breeze with a single loss in the three series combiend.

Vegas is a different animal, and Game 1 showed the frustration seeping through for the first line.

“This league is weird: You grip your stick a little tight and you get into a weird matchup, and it can look worse than it is,” Hall said. "But things can change on a dime, especially this time of year.”

The Hurricanes have been waiting nearly two months for that change. Coach Rod Brind'Amour for several weeks has exhibited patience and praised Jarvis, Aho and Svechnikov for doing good things away from the puck that contribute to winning, even if they're not showing up on the scoresheet.

His tone has changed facing a deficit in the final.

“They got to play in the other team's end,” Brind'Amour said. “They’re too much one and done and not even one (scoring chance), and it’s not a lot of time. So, they got to get a little more offensive zone time. Kind of like that last shift they had. That was one of the shifts you could say: ‘OK, there you go. That’s how it needs to look.’ We need them to get going.”

Glimpse of what could be

That final shift came with the score tied late in the third period Tuesday night, hemming the Golden Knights in their own end and generating quality opportunities. Jarvis had one shot blocked, then two more stopped by Carter Hart, including a flashy glove save that set the table for Tomas Hertl to score the winning goal 21 seconds later.

It was a marked improvement from earlier in the game, when Jarvis passed up an open shot looking for a pass and later missing a wide-open net.

“The chances are there,” Jarvis said. “We’ve had our looks. We just have to capitalize now more than ever. We can’t dwell on the past, can’t dwell on the stuff we missed. It’s about the next shift, the next shot.”

Easier said than done because Vegas is going to adjust, too. Coach John Tortorella has preached a consistent approach, and there is a reason the team has won 20 of 25 games since he took over in late March.

“We have thoughts on how to play this team,” Tortorella said. “We need to be patient. In a number of things, how we have to play, I think, requires patience — and when you get a little antsy against that team, they can capitalize. They’re that good. I think we have an understanding of how we have to go.”

What the Hurricanes need

While Jarvis, Aho and Svechnikov have looked off at times, there is little evidence it comes from a lack of caring. Maybe it's trying too hard.

“It’s not about work ethic or trying harder, but it doesn’t matter at the same time,” Aho said. “There’s also a part that we almost sometimes try to do too much, instead of just letting the game happen and play the game, let the game come to you in a way."

Teammates are trying to keep those guys' heads up and focused as best as possible. Defenseman Jalen Chatfield is all about bringing the positivity.

“Everybody’s giving everything out there,” Chatfield said. “That’s not the question. Sometimes it’s bounces. Sometimes things happen in hockey, but I think as a group, (it is about) leaning on each other to help each other play our best.”

Hall, the No. 1 pick in 2010 and MVP in 2017-18 who has found a groove with his sixth NHL organization at age 34, doesn't feel the need to coach up other players who are struggling. He maintains the belief that Jarvis, Aho and Svechnikov will turn things around.

“Those guys are great players,” Hall said. “They had their chances and their looks (in Game 1). Some of the looks didn’t turn into chances. But we know how good they are, and we know how good they can be and it’s only a matter of time.”

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Congo's soccer federation said it was in discussions with the Spanish soccer federation and relevant international bodies to find solutions.

Government authorities in the southern city of La Linea de la Concepcion announced the decision to not authorize next Tuesday's friendly citing possible health risks linked to the Ebola crisis.

Congo was playing a warmup against Denmark in Liege, Belgium, on Wednesday.

An outbreak of a rare type of Ebola virus has plagued Congo and Uganda. The World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern.

Congo had already canceled a three-day World Cup preparation training camp and a planned farewell to fans in the capital Kinshasa because of the outbreak the eastern part of the country.

All of the Congo players and the team’s French coach, Sébastien Desabre, are based outside of the central African country with most of them playing in France.

Soccer's governing body FIFA previously issued a statement saying it was aware of and monitoring the situation regarding an Ebola outbreak and was in close communication with Congo soccer officials to ensure the team was made aware of all medical and security guidance.

Congo will play in Group K at the World Cup. It faces Portugal for its opening game in Houston on June 17.

The Leopards then face Colombia in Guadalajara on June 23 before playing Uzbekistan in Atlanta for their final group game on June 27.

Congo's first World Cup qualification since 1974, when it was called Zaire, sparked scenes of jubilation across the nation, which has been battered by decades of conflict.

___

AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The New York company raised its outlook Wednesday and shares dipped less than 1% in midday trading.

“We're off to a strong start to the year,” said CEO Tony Spring, who is in the third year of an attempted turnaround of the storied retailer. “We're operating with discipline and focusing on what matters most — our customers.”

Comparable sales — sales at established online channels and stores— rose 3% during the first quarter. That was higher than the 1.8% gain during the final quarter of 2025 and it was the strongest first quarter for such sales in four years, the retailer said. Macy's stores posted a comparable sales increase of 1.6%, while the company's Bloomingdale's stores delivered a 10.2% increase, its highest first-quarter sales volume on record. Bluemercury, the cosmetics chain also owned by Macy's had a 6.4% comparable sales gain.

It’s the latest encouraging sign for Macy’s, which had been mired in a yearslong sales slump. Under Spring, who took over the top job in early 2024, Macy’s has closed unprofitable stores and spent millions modernize others. The company has beefed up customer service. It’s also been trying to differentiate its luxury business from its rivals with exclusive merchandise.

Some of the outsized performance at Bloomingdales has been attributed by retail analysts to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Saks Global, the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

Still, Macy’s is contending with the same challenges faced by its the retailer sector as a whole.

U.S. retailers have spent months navigating an uncertain economic environment, from President Donald Trump’s tariffs to the impact of soaring gasoline prices due to the Iran war. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has been above $4 per gallon since March, according to according to AAA. A gallon costs 40% more than than it did before the war. The latest batch of earnings reports from major retailers underscore how shoppers are under increasing financial strain as they try to factor in higher prices for gasoline, groceries, utilities and almost everything else.

Spring told The Associated Press in a phone call Wednesday that the company is closely monitoring events given the uncertainty about the U.S. economy, but there's been no noticeable pullback in customer spending at its stores since gas prices started rising.

He reasons that Macy's improved assortment and perceived value are landing with customers. There have been strong sales in prom dresses, men's shoes, dresses and fragrances. Spring, however, noted disappointing furniture sales with shoppers continuing to put off purchases of big ticket items.

“Despite the choiceful consumer, despite all the things that are going on that we read about every day in terms of the geopolitical, macroeconomic environment, fashion and newness and the consumer’s desire to indulge is still happening,” Spring told The AP. “And we’re very pleased that we are taking share.”

The Macy’s customer generally makes over $75,000 a year, while a majority of Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury customers earn more than $100,000, Spring said.

Spring said that higher-income shoppers continue to spend freely, boosted by gains in the stock market, while the middle income shopper has remained more selective. He said lower-income customers continue to struggle but are focusing on Macy's designated areas for heavily discounted merchandise.

Macy's sales have also been helped by its online business. The retailer recently launched Ask Macy’s, an artificial-intelligence-powered shopping assistant. The tool helps shoppers discover brands and get personalized product recommendations.

Macy’s reported net income of $63 million, or 23 cents per share, in the quarter ended May 2. Adjusted earnings per share was 13 cents, a dime better than Wall Street had expected, according to FactSet.

That compares with a $38 million profit, or 13 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Net sales rose to $4.68 billion from $4.6 billion in the year-ago period. Revenue this quarter also edged out projections on Wall Street.

The company now expects annual net sales of between $21.5 billion and $21.75 billion, up from previous guidance of $21.4 billion to $21.65 billion in March. Macy’s upped its projections for comparable sales, saying on Wednesday that they will likely increase between 0.5% and 1.2%. The company in March predicted a decline of 0.5% to a gain of 0.5%.

It also now anticipates adjusted earnings per share for the year to be in the range of $2 to $2.20, up from its previous guidance of $1.90 to $2.10 per share.

For the full fiscal year, analysts were expecting $2.09 in adjusted earnings per share on revenue of $21.6 billion, according to FactSet analysts.

With construction set to begin this month, the new facility will replace the services lost when Rockledge Medical Center closed last year due to facility neglect and costly renovations after court documents showed the company was billions of dollars in debt.

“This decision is necessary to ensure the safety of patients and team members,” Orlando Health officials said in February 2025.

According to a news release, the project, Orlando Health Viera Hospital, will be located in Borrows West between Lake Andrew Drive and I-95, just south of Viera Boulevard.

It will be built on a 40-acre health and wellness campus and will include a seven-story hospital, in addition to housing 240 beds in a three-story 60,000 square-foot medical office building.

“We are honored that Orlando Health has chosen Viera as the home for this transformative investment, which will not only meet vital healthcare needs but also provide new jobs in the community,” said Todd J. Pokrywa, president of The Viera Company.

The new construction is expected to add more than 1,000 additional jobs to the region and will include emergency services, imaging, laboratory services, pharmacy, and so much more.

“This is an exciting day for this region and for Orlando Health as we move forward with plans for this state-of-the-art facility,” said Ohme Entin, president of Orlando Health East Region and SVP, Orlando Health.

Entin also noted that the addition of this new facility will build on the amount of healthcare that the community deserves.

Ye has drawn widespread controversy in recent years for a series of antisemitic remarks, leaving Dutch authorities under mounting pressure to cancel the gigs on June 6 and 8.

The Central Jewish Council filed the emergency lawsuit on Tuesday, arguing that Ye should be banned from the country for voicing admiration for Adolf Hilter and selling T-shirts featuring swastikas.

According to the Amsterdam District Court, there were no grounds to bar Ye from performing. “There are no indications that West’s presence in the coming days will lead to concrete public order dangers,” the court said in a statement.

The Central Jewish Council expressed disappointment with the ruling. “The feeling we are getting is that it is okay if you are antisemitic,” Chanan Hertzberger, the organization’s chair, told The Associated Press.

Lawmakers in the Netherlands supported a motion to bar Ye from entering the country but the country's immigration minister said there was no legal basis for such a move. Ye's remarks were “reprehensible” but there was “no reason to bar him," Bart van den Brink told journalists last week.

The 48-year-old was set to perform his first European dates in more than a decade. In April, he was barred from entering the U.K. over his remarks, setting off a series of cancellations. Shows in Italy and Poland have been scrapped.

More than 100,000 fans turned out in Istanbul on Saturday evening to watch Ye’s first performance in Turkey.

Concert organizers say 70,000 tickets have been sold for the two upcoming shows at the Gelredome in the eastern Dutch city of Arnhem.

Ye apologized in January through a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal, stating that his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

The artist Wyland says he hand-painted the sprawling mural that covered roughly 17,000 square feet (1,580 square meters) across two of the building's walls.

The mural stood for nearly three decades before workers began painting over it last month, causing an uproar among residents who admired the mural's grand scale and message of ocean conservation.

The area’s World Cup organizing committee said in a statement that, in place of Wyland's mural, new artwork is planned "that captures this current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity, and global spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026.” It said a portion of Wyland's mural would be preserved.

Wyland filed suit Monday in U.S District Court in Dallas saying that World Cup organizers, along with the building's owner and management company, painted over his mural without his consent or even notifying him. He says their actions violated a 1990 federal law passed to protect visual artists from destruction of publicly displayed works.

Wyland is seeking at least $25 million in damages. His lawsuit says world soccer's governing body, FIFA, and other defendants “hastily and irrevocably destroyed a civic landmark” to promote the World Cup.

“Though FIFA claims they were working to develop art for the host city, in truth, they defaced an historic fixture of the host city,” the artist's lawsuit says.

A FIFA spokesperson said Tuesday the federation “has no involvement in this whatsoever” and referred a reporter to the tournament's local organizing committee.

A spokesperson for the North Texas FWC Organizing Committee declined to comment. The committee isn't named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for Slate Asset Management, which manages the building where the mural was painted over, said in a statement that local World Cup organizers asked Slate in March to donate the mural space for “a new public art installation.”

“Slate is not being compensated in any way for the use of the wall space and was told by the local groups that Mr. Wyland had been notified,” the management company's spokesperson said in an email.

Dallas is hosting more World Cup matches than any of the other sites in the event co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with nine matches set to be played at AT&T Stadium in suburban Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

Wyland's Dallas mural, titled “Whaling Wall 82,” was finished in 1999 and is among more than 100 similar murals known as Whaling Walls the artist painted around the world to promote the conservation of ocean life.

An online petition protesting the mural's destruction and calling for protecting of public artwork in Dallas has received more than 2,600 signatures.

Wyland's lawsuit alleges violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act, a 1990 federal law that protects artwork of “recognized stature” even if someone else owns the physical artwork.

A judge cited that law in 2018 when he ordered a property owner to pay a group of New York graffiti artists $6.7 million for whitewashing dozens of their spray-painted murals on buildings that once housed a factory in Queens. The ruling was upheld on appeal.

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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.

New York Judge Gregory Carro said he sealed the virtual proceeding at the request of the defense but provided no other details, raising questions about transparency in the closely watched case.

Court hearings in the U.S. are presumptively open to the public, but judges are permitted to close them in certain circumstances, such as to protect sensitive or confidential information.

Carro held the hearing in his chambers at the Manhattan courthouse where Mangione is set to go to trial on Sept. 8. Mangione, his lawyers and prosecutors all appeared via video conference. A lawyer representing news organizations sent a letter to Carro asking his reasons for sealing the hearing but was ignored by the judge and rebuffed by his staff.

When the lawyer, Jeremy Chase, called Carro's chambers Wednesday morning, he said the judge's clerk told him: “We don't read emails or letters at night. We go home.” She then hung up on him, he said in an email to news organizations obtained by The Associated Press.

After Wednesday's hearing, Carro returned to the courtroom and announced it's "sealed at the moment.” He scheduled an in-person hearing for June 16. That one, he said, will be open to the public.

Spokespeople for Mangione’s defense team and for the Manhattan district attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. A message seeking comment was left for a spokesperson for New York’s state court system.

Laura Italiano, a veteran New York City courts reporter who was in Carro's courtroom on Wednesday, said this is the third time in six months that the judge and court staff have silenced or ignored journalists seeking access to evidence or proceedings in Mangione's case.

At a pretrial hearing in December, court officers ejected a reporter from the courtroom after she tried objecting to Carro's decision to seal certain evidence. In February, Carro held a 27-minute, off-the-record bench conference during an otherwise public hearing. Reporters emailed the judge to no avail and asked a court officer to relay a note to him, but the officer refused.

“We’re seeing serious transparency problems and the trial hasn’t even begun,” Italiano said. “There's huge public interest in this case and the judge is carrying on as if that were not the case.”

Carro scheduled Wednesday’s hearing at the end of Mangione’s last court appearance on May 18.

After meeting briefly with prosecutors and Mangione’s lawyers at the bench at that prior proceeding, Carro said he’d hold a virtual hearing to discuss scheduling and jury selection issues. He gave no indication that it would be sealed, nor has anyone said how, why or when Mangione’s lawyers asked for it to be.

Typically when virtual hearings are scheduled in New York courts, the press and public are able to follow along by watching on TV monitors in the judge's courtroom. When a party requests that a proceeding be sealed, a judge will often solicit input from the other side and allow third parties, such as the public and news media, to also provide input.

An AP reporter emailed Carro directly on Tuesday, asking him to share, even broadly, his reasoning for sealing Wednesday's hearing, and whether a transcript or recording would be provided. The judge didn’t respond and, instead, forwarded the email to the court’s press office.

Mangione, 28, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the Dec. 4, 2024, killing. His federal trial, which involves stalking charges, is set to begin on Oct. 13. He could spend his life in prison if convicted in either case.

Thompson, 50, was killed as he walked to a Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Group’s annual investor conference. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, an Ivy League graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. At the May 18 hearing, Carro ruled that a gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Mangione to the killing can be used as evidence against him.

The gun, a 3D-printed pistol, matches the one used to kill Thompson, prosecutors said. The notebook describes wanting to “wack” a health insurance executive and rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel.”

The hotel is considered an important part of history during the Jim Crow era, with trailblazers like Jackie Robinson among those who passed through its doors.

“So, people opened their doors for him, especially people of color; that’s what we do,” said Freddrick Caine, a barber at W’s Beatitudes Barber Shop just down the road from the hotel.

For those who lived through segregation, like Carla Johnson of Ms. Carla’s Kitchen, also on the same street as the hotel, the building serves as a reminder of how far the community has come.

“I can remember back in the day [hotels] all used to be up and down here, used to be all the motels, because we couldn’t go on the beachside,” Johnson said.

The hotel’s history runs deep. Famous musicians like Dizzy Gillespie performed at its Stardust Night Club, and it was featured in The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, a Black travel guide.

“That’s where we had to stay because we were on — it’s called the Chitlin Circuit, believe it or not. James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr. A lot of the Black actors, singers, they came through here,” Caine explained.

The city of Daytona Beach purchased the building after a fire led to its condemnation in 2023, but officials initially moved toward demolition, citing the high cost of restoration. Last summer, following pleas from the community, the city gave prospective buyers 90 days to submit proposals.

[WATCH: Historic Daytona Beach hotel faces demolition, community fights to save landmark]

Now, an update on those efforts is expected.

Many residents want to see the hotel repurposed in a way that breathes new life into the boulevard while honoring its deep roots.

“Maybe a museum; there are restaurants around here that could go in there,” Caine said. “Something’s got to be done about it to where it’s going to benefit everybody. But if not, it’s like forgotten history, and that’s not what we want either. If no one is here to tell our story, we won’t even know where we come from.”

“It is very important because I would like for my kids to see my black history and see the beginning of when Mary McLeod came in. I would love to see all the kids come in and see that,” Johnson said.

The Daytona Beach Community Redevelopment Agency is set to receive a presentation on the Campbell Hotel during its Wednesday night meeting at 6 p.m.

Wells’Built: Orlando’s historic hotel turned museum

Another historic Central Florida hotel for Black travelers faced a similar fate decades ago, but is now a museum for African American history in Orlando.

Dr. William Monroe Wells, one of Orlando’s first Black doctors, built the Wells’Built Hotel in Orlando’s Parramore neighborhood in the 1920s. The hotel welcomed some of the most notable people in the Black community for decades.

But in the 1990s, the hotel was slated for demolition until it was saved and turned into a museum by the late State Senator Geraldine Thompson.

Today, the Wells’Built Museum of African American History and Culture preserves artifacts and documents of Black life in Orlando. Last year, the museum was awarded $2 million for long-needed renovations.

He said Wednesday the finished product probably won't be ready until 2028 and would be a system "that outlives any player.”

The tour is moving toward a model of two tracks that Rolapp first mentioned in March. The top track for the top performers would be roughly 16 tournaments, not including the majors or postseason. Track 1 would have around 120 to 130 players.

Track 2 would be for those aspiring to get to Track 1. The purses would be smaller and the title sponsors would pay less, though Rolapp sounded confident there would be sponsors willing to spend less for such tournaments. Still under discussion is whether players could move up to Track 1 in the middle of the season depending on their performance, such as winning multiple times.

Key to a new model, Rolapp said, was bringing back the 36-hole cut, which would make sense if the fields are going from 72 players to 120 players or more. The tour now has “signature events” with 72 players and a 36-hole cut at only three such events hosted by golf greats.

“At the end of the day, sports is about how good the athletes are and what the competitive consequences are,” he said. “I think you’ll see that in Track 2. And I think you’ll see people fighting to stay on Track 1. And I think we have lost a lot of that with the smaller field, no-cut events.”

He said the tour wants to get back to the competitive meritocracy that makes golf unique.

Rolapp has leaned on the pillars of scarcity, simplicity and parity since he first appointed a Future Competition Committee in August, leading to speculation that tour would go to a smaller, more streamlined schedule that would create fewer opportunities.

Rolapp painted a different picture Wednesday while meeting with a small group of reporters.

“I think when you see where we land, you’re not going to see that,” he said. "But what you are going to see is an elevation of tournaments. And you’re going to have a collection of Track 1 that are special, that are bigger. I think what we have found as we’ve talked to sponsors both for Track 1 and Track 2, there’s a lot of demand for both. And the price points will be different.

“The bigger events ... not everyone can afford and may not be sort of consistent with their business goals,” he said. “That's great. There’s other price points too for it, and I think there’s plenty of demand for both Track 1 and Track 2 in that regard because there’s definitely people who want to invest different amounts in these events.”

The postseason format also is being revamped. Rolapp said he invited all the PGA Tour's broadcast partners and even those with whom the PGA Tour does not have contracts, such as streaming services, to provide insight into the tour's thinking toward a new media rights deal.

Rolapp has pointed toward June 23 — a day after the next board meeting — for a full update.

“I feel good where we are, but I also had expectations that it wasn’t going to be easy,” Rolapp said. “You don't have a good process if there’s not tension. That means you’re not asking the right questions.”

Still under discussion are details that include which tournaments are going on Track 1 and Track 2, the courses they play and perhaps going to bigger markets the tour is not in, such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Denver and Philadelphia, for example.

There also is the issue of players who defected to LIV Golf, a rival league that has its own set of issues now that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia will stop paying for it after this year.

Brooks Koepka ended his LIV contract and took advantage of a program the PGA Tour created that allowed him to return immediately with financial stipulations, such as a $5 million charity donation and no access to PGA Tour equity for five years.

Patrick Reed also is on his way back through his play on the European tour, though he is not eligible for PGA Tour events for one year since his last LIV appearance.

Bryson DeChambeau is a little more complicated, mainly because DeChambeau was among those who kept his name on an antitrust lawsuit against the tour.

Rolapp repeated his view that he would not concern himself with LIV players until it was time.

“All fans want the best golfers in the world together. I think we have most of them, pretty close to all of them. And we're building a tour that attracts the best players in the world,” Rolapp said. "I think this new model will even improve upon that.

“But we do have to account for whatever lingering discipline is left, or rules that have been broken,” he said. “There’s scar tissue, and that has to be accounted for. That’s not to say we’re going to be punitive, it’s just that we’re a membership organization of rules.”

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

While talks are in early stages, expanding U.S. nuclear deterrence in Europe could reassure continental allies of continued U.S. military support at a time when President Donald Trump has led an effort to reduce his country's conventional defense involvement in Europe.

“We are talking, in order to create better conditions for nuclear deterrence and for Poland to play an important role in that,” Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski told Polish Radio on Wednesday.

Poland, however, has denied any plans to host nuclear weapons. That would be “an extremely serious matter, which is serious in terms of political consequences,” he said.

“Discussions are indeed taking place. I do not want to go into details at this point as they are classified, but discussions are ongoing, and Lithuania is certainly not standing on the sidelines,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas Kaunas said Tuesday, according to press agency BNS.

Both ministers were replying after anonymous sources cited Tuesday by the Financial Times said the United States had signaled openness to deploying elements of its nuclear arsenal in new European countries, in addition to the six currently thought to host nuclear weapons.

The FT reported that Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the NATO members located closest to Ukraine, were interested in potentially hosting bases for U.S. dual-capable aircraft, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.

The Pentagon declined to comment, but a Defense Department official said the U.S. and NATO “continuously assess the security environment” and work to keep effective deterrents. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US has had nuclear weapons in Europe for decades

The United States has stationed nuclear weapons in several European countries for decades as part of its security guarantees to NATO allies.

In recent years, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the broader threat Moscow poses to NATO have prompted discussions about the possibility of expanding the U.S. nuclear cooperation with Europe.

“Work to assess and potentially adapt NATO’s nuclear deterrence posture has been ongoing for several years and is not linked to any decision taken by the U.S. to adjust its conventional posture in Europe,” an official tasked with communicating for NATO but not authorized to be publicly named told the AP.

The NATO nuclear sharing program includes U.S. nuclear weapons deployed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and Britain, as well as dual-capable aircraft owned by both the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. maintains full control over the nuclear weapons.

Poland has expressed its willingness to participate in the U.S. nuclear deterrence program since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with former president Andrzej Duda even welcoming the hosting of nuclear weapons. The current government led by Donald Tusk has been more cautious, speaking only about a bigger role in nuclear deterrence.

The U.S., however, has repeatedly indicated that placing nuclear weapons in eastern countries of NATO would be too provocative for Russia, Artur Kacprzyk, a nuclear deterrence analyst with the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw, told the AP.

“There might be a middle ground there, which could be called ‘nuclear sharing light'. You would have, for example, Polish planes, certified for carrying U.S. nuclear weapons, but the weapons won’t be deployed in Poland. This aircraft from the east could be a sort of backup if, let’s say, German or Dutch aircraft are destroyed before they can use those nuclear weapons.”

U.S. and French deterrence efforts are complementary

Earlier this year, Poland said it would be one of several European countries to join France’s initiative of coordinating its nuclear deterrence efforts with European allies. France has been the only nuclear power in the European Union since Britain’s exit from the bloc in 2020.

The French-initiated cooperation is “complementary” to the U.S. deterrence, Kacprzyk said, but it has a different nature.

Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, Denmark and Norway also have said they were interested in the French initiative, which allows for the temporary deployment of France’s nuclear-armed aircraft to allied countries. It also allows partners to participate in France’s deterrence exercises and allows allies’ non-nuclear forces to participate in France’s nuclear activities.

Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz told Polish broadcaster TVP on Tuesday that nuclear deterrence would be discussed during a NATO meeting in Brussels on June 18. He said both the French initiative and the U.S. program are part of those efforts.

Increasing nuclear cooperation in Europe might help the U.S. offset conventional reductions but it cannot fully substitute the forward presence of conventional troops, especially in countries bordering Russia, Kacprzyk said.

“Communicating ‘I might risk nuclear war to defend an ally but I don’t want to send my soldiers into the fight’ is a conflicting signal,” he said. “You need coherent signals at all levels of deterrence.”

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McNeil reported from Brussels and Toropin from Washington. Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.

Sanmu Chen tried to tie a symbolic red thread to a street signpost in Causeway Bay, a busy shopping district close to a park that had for decades hosted an annual candlelight vigil on June 4 to commemorate those who died in the crackdown that ended student-led protests in Beijing in 1989.

Hong Kong was for decades the only place in China where a large-scale public commemoration of the crackdown was held. The massive annual vigils were banned in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and public acts to mark the Tiananmen Square killings have become increasingly sensitive in the city in recent years.

Chen said his thread was 6.4 meters (about 21 feet) long — an apparent reference to the June 4 crackdown date.

Police officers stopped Chen and searched his bag before letting him go. When asked by a reporter about his gesture with the red thread after his release, Chen said it was meant to express his condolences for those who died.

“It's abnormal when people monitor you when you are saying or doing something,” he told reporters.

Chen has been detained at least twice in recent years

In 2024, Chen was briefly detained on June 3 after appearing to write the Chinese characters of “eight nine six four” — a set of numbers referencing the date of the crackdown — with his hand in the air.

The year before, he was also detained on the same date in the same neighborhood, where he chanted “Hong Kongers, do not be afraid. Don’t forget, tomorrow is June 4.”

As night fell on Wednesday, another artist, Chan Mei-tung, stood outside a nearby department store holding up a question-mark-shaped balloon. Police officers also stopped her quickly and escorted her back to a subway station.

The police did not immediately comment Wednesday's actions.

Authorities banned vigils and arrested organizers

In 1989, under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese military was sent to Tiananmen Square to end weeks of student-led protests on the night of June 3-4. Soldiers fired live rounds. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers.

Annual vigils in Hong Kong's Victoria Park used to attract tens of thousands each year until the event was banned in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.

That same year, Beijing imposed a national security law in the city following massive anti-government protests in 2019. Since then, authorities have increasingly silenced dissent. Many leading activists have been arrested and some vocal media outlets shut down. Dozens of civil society groups have been disbanded, including the one that organized the vigils.

Three former vigil organizers were charged in 2021 with inciting subversion under the national security law. Two of them have gone on trial and are waiting a verdict, possibly in July. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The third organizer entered a guilty plea, which can typically result in a sentence reduction.

The Hong Kong and Beijing governments say the security law is crucial for the city’s stability. Hong Kong authorities say the law stipulates that human rights shall be respected and protected in safeguarding national security.

A carnival is now held at the former vigil site

After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, the former vigil site became the location of a yearly carnival organized by pro-China groups.

Over the past three years, some people who tried to commemorate the Tiananmen Square killings on the crackdown’s anniversary, have been detained there.

This year's carnival began on Wednesday. Later in the day near the site, Tang Ngok-kwan, who was also a vigil organizer in the past, bowed in commemoration. He told reporters he read the list of the victims in a low voice and criticized that the event name contains the word “carnival,” which carries a festive vibe.

The action by Tang and similar muted expressions in Hong Kong underlined the decline in civil liberties promised by Beijing when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

But even as public commemoration faded in Hong Kong, overseas communities keep the memories alive by hosting vigils and rallies in places like London and Canada.

Wu’er Kaixi, who was a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, told reporters in Tokyo that the democracy movement in China “is still there.”

“We are managing to survive, (it’s) not easy, but we are surviving, because just like 37 years ago, we were driven to the square, to the streets of Beijing by one thing — hope,” he said.

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Associated Press video journalist Alice Fung in Hong Kong contributed to the report.

Kinski, now 65, has urged Wenders to reedit the film. Last month, she told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung: “That was my first film, he was my first director and he didn't protect me.”

Wenders, the acclaimed director behind “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire,” issued a statement apologizing to Kinski.

“I recognize that Nastassja Kinski should have been better protected back then,” Wenders said. “For that, I apologize to you, Nastassja, unreservedly, no ifs and buts.”

“The Wrong Move” marked the film debut of Kinski, the daughter of actor Klaus Kinski. It stars Rüdiger Vogler as an aspiring writer wandering through Germany. His encounters include an apparently mute teen acrobat played by Kinski, who appears topless in a scene.

Wenders said he was “withdrawing it from all current forms of distribution and exhibition,” including streaming services and broadcast television. His nonprofit Wim Wenders Foundation owns “The Wrong Move.”

The film will remain unavailable, Wenders said, until a mutually agreed upon solution can be found. He said he will seek “a broad dialogue” that includes Kinksi, the German Film Academy and other film groups.

“It is necessary for our society to find appropriate ways of dealing with controversial film works from the 20th Century and to face new learning processes and inclusive perspectives regarding cinema,” said Wenders.

Representatives for Kinski did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment Wednesday.

At the German Film Awards last week, Wenders spoke about his quandary over the film. Speaking to the audience at Germany's equivalent of the Oscars, Wenders said retroactively editing it “sets a precedent that affects you all, and then it becomes possible with all your films later on.”

Kinski would go on to co-star in Wenders' 1984 film “Paris, Texas,” but long maintained misgivings about her introduction to the film business. At the ages of 14 and 17, she also appeared nude in the films “To the Devil a Daughter” and “Stay As You Are.”

“If I had had somebody to protect me or if I had felt more secure about myself, I would not have accepted certain things. Nudity things,” Kinski told W Magazine in 1997. "And inside it was just tearing me apart.”

Around it, everything else is brand new.

The racetrack that straddles the border of Queens and Long Island is smack in the middle of a massive $550 million reconstruction project that included knocking down the gargantuan brick grandstand and rebuilding a smaller, modern facility suited for horse racing in the 21st century. A year from now, the Belmont Stakes will return to its traditional home at Belmont Park after a three-year hiatus upstate at Saratoga Race Course to allow for the work to get done.

“It’s hugely important to get it back to Belmont,” Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said. “The opening of a new facility is something that can really give the industry a shot in the arm.”

Belmont Park 2.0

Aqueduct Racetrack will close to consolidate racing in New York to two locations after shiny new Belmont Park reopens on a limited basis Sept. 18. It is scheduled to be fully complete by next spring, ahead of the 159th Belmont Stakes and then the Breeders' Cup World Championships in the fall of 2027.

“Once you’re in the paddock and you get towards the building, you start to really see how it’s going to feel on a big day here,” said New York Racing Association president and CEO David O’Rourke, who has been with the organization since 2008.

“This consolidation was always discussed from Day 1. It was always on paper. To finally get to that point, we’re really excited."

The Associated Press took a hard hat tour of the construction site last month, where tarps and ladders are everywhere and tools strewn about the building, which is significantly smaller than the structure that reopened in 1968 after the last demolition and rebuild and held 100,000 people.

Roughly 300 construction workers plus 100 more support staff have put in more than 2 million hours, installing 1,728 tons of structural steel and pouring 40,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Building for horses and people

All the perks are there, including 31 suites — the old Belmont Park had none — along with a sports bar, a giant infield video screen and all the amenities of a stadium or arena. Lone Star Park in Texas was the last new racetrack to open in the U.S., back in 1997.

“This is a modern facility,” O'Rourke said. “It’s state of the art.”

That includes the racing surfaces because unlike stadiums and arenas for all-human sports, a ton of effort goes into making sure conditions are as good as possible for the horses. While the building is still a work in progress, the surfaces are done and ready: the dirt track known as “Big Sandy," two turf courses with grass that look straight out of European racing, and a synthetic track designed to race through the winter.

Updated technology allowed NYRA executive VP of operations and capital projects Glen Kozak and his team to install new drainage systems, along with track mats and bases designed to make the surfaces as safe as possible. Each marker pole has a robotic camera, and a 15-million gallon pond in the infield should hold enough water to irrigate without needing outside hydration.

“We’ve been given the opportunity here to start from the ground up and put all best practices in place,” Kozak said. “The quality of the irrigation, the health of the grass — all those components that go into better racing and better for the horse and rider, we were able to implement here.”

Back to Belmont

While the Belmont has been up at Saratoga, the third leg of the Triple Crown was shortened to 1 1/4 miles from the “test of the champion” 1 1/2-mile distance that was its hallmark. O'Rourke confirmed the plan is to go back to normal next year.

“The Belmont being a mile and a half with their big racetrack, I really kind of think that’s a unique opportunity as a lot of these horses won’t ever have to do that again in their career,” Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Cherie DeVaux said.

When American Pharoah ended the sport's 37-year Triple Crown drought in 2015 and Justify swept the Derby, Preakness and Belmont in 2018, each won the final race at 1 1/2 miles in front of a huge crowd. Pletcher wondered if it would have been the same the past three years at Saratoga and is glad the future includes the traditional distance.

“It’s such a unique race, and you don’t get the opportunity to run that far very often,” Pletcher said. “And to do it at a facility like Belmont, where it’s a once around mile and a half oval that's, to me, the ultimate race, especially when there’s a Triple Crown on the line.”

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AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing

Republicans could net about 10 additional U.S. House seats in the November elections if redrawn voting districts perform as they were intended. The question is whether that's enough for the GOP to hold on to a majority in the chamber, where Democrats need to gain only a few seats to take control.

Political trends and historic patterns favor Democrats. President Donald Trump's approval ratings are negative. And the incumbent's party has lost House seats in every midterm election over the past two decades.

This election season already has been unusual. Voting districts typically are redrawn only after a census at the start of each decade. But Trump urged Republicans last summer to redraw congressional districts to their advantage to try to prevent losses in the 2026 midterms.

Since then, Republicans think they could win as many as 16 additional seats from new House maps enacted in eight states — Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama. Democrats, whose counterattack faced several setbacks, think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts in California and Utah.

Nearly 145 million people — about two of every five U.S. residents — live in states with new congressional districts for this election.

Yet the mid-decade redistricting battle didn't go as far as it could have.

Republicans in Kansas and Democrats in Illinois both rebuffed party pushes to take up redistricting. In Republican-led Indiana and South Carolina and Democratic-led Maryland, new congressional districts passed the state House but ultimately died in the state Senate. The Virginia Supreme Court invalidated new voter-approved districts that could have helped Democrats win up to four additional seats. And the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a lower court order that could have helped Democrats gain a congressional seat in New York.

Here's a look at the states with new U.S. House maps:

Texas

Current map: 13 Democrats, 25 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a revised House map into law last August that could help Republicans win five additional seats. Democrats think they could still win some of those seats.

Missouri

Current map: two Democrats, six Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a revised House map into law last September that could help Republicans win an additional seat by reshaping a Democratic-held district based in Kansas City. Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins has until Aug. 4 — the date of Missouri's primaries — to decide whether to reject an initiative petition seeking a statewide vote on the map.

North Carolina

Current map: four Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: The Republican-led General Assembly gave final approval in October to revised districts that could help Republicans win an additional seat.

Ohio

Current map: five Democrats, 10 Republicans

New map: A bipartisan panel composed primarily of Republicans voted in October to approve revised House districts that improve Republicans’ chances of winning two additional seats. Democrats think they could still win those seats.

California

Current map: 43 Democrats, nine Republicans

New map: Voters in November approved revised House districts drawn by the Democratic-led Legislature that could help Democrats win five additional seats.

Utah

Current map: no Democrats, four Republicans

New map: A judge in November imposed revised House districts that could help Democrats win a seat in the Salt Lake City area.

Florida

Current map: eight Democrats, 20 Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed revised House districts in May that improve the GOP’s chances of winning four additional seats. Legal challenges are pending.

Tennessee

Current map: one Democrat, eight Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed new House districts in May that improve the GOP’s chances of winning an additional seat by carving up the lone Democratic-held seat, a majority-Black district based in Memphis. Legal challenges are pending.

Louisiana

Current map: two Democrats, four Republicans

New map: Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed off on new House districts in May that improve Republican chances of winning an additional seat by eliminating a majority-Black district held by a Democrat that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as an illegal racial gerrymander.

Alabama

Current map: two Democrats, five Republicans

New map: The U.S. Supreme Court in June allowed the state to use a congressional map approved by Republican state lawmakers that improves the GOP's chances of winning an additional seat by reshaping a Democratic-held district that has a large number of Black voters.

The purpose of the Hurricane Hunters’ mission is to collect crucial data on the health and condition of a tropical cyclone to create a more accurate forecast for the public.

By now, we all know about these Hurricane Hunter planes. They’ve, in fact, been in service for 50 years, but behind the scenes, NOAA is experimenting with some new toys to bring hurricane hunting to the next generation, like specialized drones.

These Black Swift drones are ejected from the Hurricane Hunter and fly through the violent eyewall and boundary layer - collecting data such as temperature, wind speed and direction, and dewpoints at multiple levels of the storm, including areas previously too dangerous to measure, while the ocean gliders measure parameters at the surface before, during, and after a storm.

It is too dangerous for the planes to fly really low over the surface of the ocean. These uncrewed systems are really helping to fill in that gap and allow for more data and more accurate information to get to the forecasters so they can make better forecasts.

This invaluable data is transmitted in real time back to the team onboard, then relayed to the National Hurricane Center, where it feeds into their modeling, including their new experimental AI model.

While this new technology is advancing our hurricane forecasting capabilities, the Hurricane Hunters have no plans to switch to a fully automated system. The passion to protect their communities remains the core pillar of the Hurricane Hunter mission.

As another hurricane season approaches, the hunters are ready. Armed with smarter tech, advanced tools, and a passion that has spanned half a century.

The U.S. Open returns to Shinnecock Hills for the first time since 2018, when Brooks Koepka won during a tough, dry week in which no one finished under par.

Scheffler had never been to the fabled course on New York's Long Island, which held the second edition of the U.S. Open in 1896. This major is bigger than usual for the world's No. 1 player because a victory would make him only the seventh player to complete the career Grand Slam.

“It was kind of what I expected,” Scheffler said. “I had heard some rumors about how difficult the greens were. I was a little surprised at the width of the fairways, but the green complexes there are extremely difficult, and I think that’s where the greatest challenge comes from.”

He also said the rough was thick and penal. That's typical of a U.S. Open. A vintage U.S. Open has firm greens, and that looks to be the case, provided the weather cooperates.

Narrow fairways? Not so much.

“The fairways are very generous,” said McIlroy, who missed the cut with rounds of 80-70 when he first played a U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. "They’re more generous than they were in 2018. But the first cut of rough is 5 inches long. So it’s like the first cut is maybe three paces wide and then it gets into the fescue.

“So if you miss the fairway even by a yard ... but you shouldn’t. The fairways are very, very generous. So if you miss the fairway, I feel like you deserve a bad lie.”

It will be a big week for the USGA to get it right. In 2004, the par-3 seventh green was so dead on Sunday that players couldn't keep the golf ball on the putting surface and USGA officials wound up watering the green between groups.

Then in 2018, some of the greens became so severe that it was thought to be borderline unplayable. Phil Mickelson swatted a moving golf ball on the 13th green out of frustration. Officials softened the course so much for the final day that Tommy Fleetwood shot 63.

The course has a reputation of being tough, and Scheffler felt it lived up to that.

“The rough, also, was a really good penalty for the width,” he said. "Once you start missing fairways out there, you have no chance. But the fairways are generous enough to where it provides you some opportunity, and that way it’s just that the green complexes are extraordinarily difficult.

“They can put the pins wherever they want and make the scores as high as they could possibly want them to be.”

McIlroy said the greens were around 11 on the Stimpmeter when he played on Monday and he doesn't see a need for them to get much faster.

“I think if they can keep them at that green speed, they can get them firm, and they can use the hole locations that they want to use without having some of the struggles that they have had the last couple of U.S. Opens. ... If it’s set up the right way, I think it’s one of the best championship tests in the country. It’s an amazing golf course.”

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

The Swiss soccer federation at the team's training camp in San Diego confirmed why Embolo’s travel approval to the U.S. had been put under review Tuesday. He has a conviction that became binding this year.

Embolo was charged after an altercation in Basel city center in 2018 and his guilty verdict was upheld at appeal last September. The verdict was finalized in April, just weeks before Embolo was due to travel to the U.S. for the third World Cup of his career.

“The embassy’s inquiries focused specifically on whether any physical violence had been involved. This was not the case,” the Swiss soccer body said. “Breel and the team are now awaiting approval so that he can travel to San Diego and join the squad as soon as possible.”

Switzerland starts its World Cup campaign on June 13 against Qatar at the San Francisco 49ers’ stadium in Santa Clara.

The Swiss then play Bosnia-Herzegovina in Inglewood, California and finish Group B against tournament co-host Canada in Vancouver on June 24.

The 29-year-old Embolo is set to be Switzerland’s first-choice striker and has scored 24 goals in 86 internationals.

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

The separately ticketed experience runs select Friday and Saturday evenings from June 5 through Aug. 8.

The night begins with a welcome cocktail — or mocktail — during a beachside reception at Serenity Bay, where animal ambassadors from the park also make special appearances. Guests then move to Laguna Grill for an all-you-care-to-eat Caribbean-inspired buffet paired with a live performance featuring four acts inspired by Earth, Air, Water, and Fire — including aerialists and a dramatic fire knife finale, according to a news release.

“Paradise Nights adds a new dimension to Discovery Cove,” said Brad Gilmour, park president of Discovery Cove. “Guests spending the day with us can extend their visit into the evening with a memorable dinner and live entertainment experience, while those looking for a unique night out in Orlando can join us exclusively for Paradise Nights, no daytime admission required.”

Guests can check in as early as 6 p.m. and enjoy the evening until approximately 9 p.m.

Pre-sale tickets start at $117 for adults and $53 for children ages 3–9, with gratuity included. Children under 3 are free but require a reservation. An optional sloth encounter — limited to 10 guests per night — is available for $59 per person.

For more information, click here.

The case was an early test of how the courts would respond to President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

Dugan had been scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, but U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman postponed the proceedings indefinitely to instead hear arguments about whether to overturn her conviction.

Adelman did not rule from the bench and did not indicate when he might issue a decision. Dugan and attorneys for both sides left the courtroom without commenting to reporters.

Former judge's attorney points to a Virginia case

Dugan’s attorney Steven Biskupic argued that her conviction was invalid and should be overturned. He said that was necessary because a federal appeals court in April overturned a key Virginia immigration case that the judge and prosecutors had cited in the Dugan case.

Biskupic argued that based on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturning that ruling, Dugan was improperly convicted, procedurally, under a certain federal law.

“Our primary argument is this was an invalid theory of conviction," Biskupic said.

In the Virginia case, an immigrant who was in the country illegally was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and later escaped. He was recaptured and indicted on a charge of obstructing a pending immigration proceeding.

The federal appeals court found that the ICE action did not constitute a “pending proceeding,” as is required under the federal obstruction law.

Dugan’s attorneys argue that she should not have been charged because there was no “pending proceeding” against the immigrant in her courtroom being sought by ICE agents, only a warrant filed for his arrest. The filing of a warrant does not constitute a “proceeding” under the law, Biskupic argued.

Prosecutors countered that the facts in the Virginia case are different and don’t apply to Dugan's. They also argued that other cases support Dugan's conviction.

“The court should stick with its ruling,” said Richard Frohling, acting U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin.

In response to a question from the judge, he contended that the appeals court was wrong to overturn the Virginia case. The judge also quizzed Frohling on what constitutes a proceeding under the law and how long it lasts.

“It could be a couple minutes, it could be a couple years," Frohling said. "It all depends on the context.”

Dugan's sentencing was postponed so the court can hear new arguments

Dugan, 67, faces up to five years in prison after a jury convicted her on Dec. 19. But it is unlikely that Dugan would be sentenced to prison. Federal sentencing guidelines generally call for probation for defendants like her who have no criminal history and are convicted of a nonviolent crime.

She resigned from her position as a Milwaukee County circuit judge two weeks after her conviction amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers. She had been a judge for nine years.

Dugan was present for Wednesday's arguments but did not speak.

The Trump administration brought the case against Dugan as the president pressed ahead with his sweeping immigration crackdown. Trump’s administration and his allies branded Dugan as an activist judge, while Dugan’s attorneys said she was being unfairly targeted and argued, unsuccessfully, that she was immune from being charged because she was a judge.

Dugan’s case marked the first time that a state judge in Wisconsin went to trial on charges of obstructing immigration agents. She was acquitted of concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor.

Dugan helped an immigrant wanted by ICE agents

On April 18, 2025, immigration officers went to the Milwaukee County courthouse after learning Eduardo Flores-Ruiz had reentered the country illegally and was scheduled to appear before Dugan for a hearing in a state battery case.

Dugan confronted agents outside her courtroom and directed them to the chief judge’s office because she told them their administrative warrant wasn’t sufficient grounds to arrest Flores-Ruiz.

After the agents left, she led Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a private jury door. Agents spotted Flores-Ruiz in the corridor, followed him outside and arrested him after a foot chase. A week later, FBI agents arrested Dugan in the courthouse, leading her outside in handcuffs.

Flores-Ruiz was deported in November.

A victory by Lee's Democratic Party had been widely expected because its main rival, the conservative People Power Party, remains in disarray after President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office and sentenced to life in prison over his martial law debacle in late 2024.

The joint exit polls by South Korea’s three major TV stations — KBS, MBC and SBS — showed the Democratic Party was forecast to win at least 11 of the 16 mayoral and provincial gubernatorial posts up for grabs in Wednesday's elections. The polls suggested the PPP had a clear lead in only one race, while the other four races were too close to call.

Vote counting was underway, with early results suggesting that Democratic Party candidates led in 12 contests.

“The conservatives’ support base has been fractured and weakened in the wake of Yoon’s impeachment, while the liberals’ support base has grown stronger," said Jeong Han-Wool, director of the Korean People Research Institute. “A win by the ruling party would help provide the Lee government with a considerably stable political foundation."

Election win would give Lee a further boost

Thursday will mark one year in office for Lee, who won a snap election triggered after Yoon's ouster. Lee's approval ratings still hover over 60%. He's been credited with what he calls “pragmatic diplomacy” that eased concerns that his rule would hurt ties with the U.S. and Japan. His popularity has also been attributed to a booming stock market and efforts to be more transparent about government decision-making procedures.

Whatever the outcome of Wednesday’s election, Lee’s foreign policy agenda will likely remain unchanged. The Democratic Party would also maintain its majority status at parliament, though 14 new members of the 300-member National Assembly will be chosen in separate by-elections on Wednesday.

With more allies at mayoral and gubernatorial posts, Lee could pursue his regional policies more easily and effectively, given 14 of the 16 regional leadership posts are currently held by the PPP, said Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership.

That will help his party's preparations for the 2028 parliamentary elections, Choi said.

Much attention is focused on Seoul’s mayoral race

The Seoul mayoral election is considered the most important one. The exit polls and early vote counts showed Democratic Party candidate Chong Won-o ahead of his PPP rival and current mayor Oh Se-hoon.

Bipartisan disputes flared late Wednesday after the election commission announced a shortage of ballot papers in 14 polling stations in Seoul caused a temporary suspension of voting there. Commission officials said they allowed voters to cast ballots past the poll closing time.

PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok said the incident seriously hurt voters' rights to cast their ballots. He called for vote counting to be halted, and said authorities must hold a new election depending on investigation results.

The Democratic Party flatly rejected the PPP’s demands, saying they were “not even worth considering.” But it expressed deep regret over the election commission's flawed management.

Election results are crucial for the conservative opposition

The PPP is still struggling with internal feuding between reformists who joined the Democratic Party-led push to impeach Yoon and his loyalists who attempted to protect the embattled leader.

Among the candidates running for the parliamentary by-elections is Han Dong-hoon, leader of the reformist faction who was eventually expelled from the PPP. Pre-election surveys show Han, now an independent, holding a slim lead over the Democratic Party’s Ha Jung-woo, a former Lee adviser on artificial intelligence, in a race in Busan, the country’s second biggest city.

Jeong, the institute director, said that a Han victory could help anti-Yoon reformists regroup and emerge as a new force among the struggling conservatives in South Korea. But Choi said Han’s win could worsen a divide in the conservatives because Yoon loyalists would feel a sense of crisis and close ranks further.

“Those were Froot Loops,” Spielberg says, smiling. “My favorite.”

Spielberg’s latest, like some of his earliest and most beloved films, again concerns what might fall from above. “Disclosure Day,” which Universal Pictures releases June 11, returns Hollywood’s preeminent big-screen craftsman to one of his most abiding questions: Are we alone?

Coming nearly half a century after “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Disclosure Day” is a grand bookend for one of the most cosmically-minded moviemakers of our time, whose dreams of extraterrestrial life have shaped all of ours. It’s a distant answer to the final notes of “Close Encounters.” But while Spielberg grants his 1977 film was “speculative,” “Disclosure Day,” he insists, is the real deal.

“It’s my first film that will be considered science fiction that I do not consider to be science fiction,” Spielberg said in a recent interview. “It’s much more reflective of the world as it is evolving and discoveries that are being made as we speak.”

Spielberg, at 79, is trying to revive and reconsider the alien wonder that’s long lingered in his mind, from “E.T.” to “War of the Worlds.” “Disclosure Day,” Spielberg’s first summer movie in a decade, is already being hailed as one of his best in years. But this time, Spielberg is testing whether he can conjure some of his trademark movie magic less with imagination than with conviction.

“I’ve been a believer since I made ‘Close Encounters’ 50 years ago,” Spielberg says. “But I would always say: Until I’ve seen a UAP or a UFO with my own eyes, I’m not going to categorically state that life from out there has come here.

“But I’ve changed that,” he adds. “I’m now willing to change my mind because of the circumstantial evidence which is overwhelming.”

Aliens again, but different

“Disclosure Day” stars Josh O’Connor as a cybersecurity whistleblower with government evidence, long suppressed, chronicling a history of alien encounters. Guiding him in his escape from a corporate executive (Colin Firth) trying to keep it all under wraps is the disclosure movement’s leader (Colman Domingo). Meanwhile, a meteorologist named Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) begins having a mysterious epiphany.

When he first began thinking about the movie, Spielberg called up the screenwriter David Koepp, a longtime collaborator who wrote “Jurassic Park” and “War of the Worlds.”

“I said, ‘Sure, what’s it about?’” recalls Koepp. “And he said, ‘Oh, you know, aliens again. But different this time.’”

Spielberg was coming off an unusually long break by his breakneck standards. His 2022 film “The Fabelmans” pulled from his own childhood, dramatizing his parents’ painful divorce and his own origins as a filmmaker. Spielberg’s first gut-wrenchingly autobiographical movie left him unsure of what was next.

“It was the hardest question I ever had to ask myself because there was such completion in resolving so many personal issues that I had never aired in public before ‘The Fabelmans,’” Spielberg says.

“I didn’t care whether people thought ‘The Fabelmans’ was just a tale, a yarn, or if they cared that it was all true. I didn’t care about that. It was something I did for myself. I always used to say it was $40 million of therapy that I didn’t have to pay for. Universal did,” he says, laughing.

But Spielberg, having long followed reports of alleged alien encounters, was inspired by the 2023 House Subcommittee on National Security hearing on UAPs: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. Among the witnesses was whistleblower and former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch, who testified that the government concealed a program investigating UAPs.

The Pentagon then denied it. Yet in April, President Donald Trump said the Pentagon is preparing to release some “very interesting” UFO files.

Those 2023 testimonies and others so fueled Spielberg that he produced a 50-page treatment on what would become “Disclosure Day." During the writing process with Koepp, he texted him more notes, he says, “than I’ve ever sent to anyone in my life.”

“There was a period in there where I believe he re-read the script every single day for a year,” Koepp says. “We’d be in different time zones and I would wake up to 30 or 35 texts from his most current reading of the script. When the leader of the project has that level of commitment, it tends to bring along everyone. You up your game.”

Extraterrestrial empathy

Spielberg has long considered his filmography split in two, between the filmmaker who made “Jaws” and “E.T.” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and the one who, after 1985’s “The Color Purple,” was increasingly drawn to darker and more serious material with films like “Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “Munich.”

“Disclosure Day” is a kind of bridge between both modes of Spielberg — a thrilling chase movie filled with wonderment that’s nevertheless grounded in reality and recent history. And its most ardent message is quite earthbound. Blunt’s character’s clarity comes from looking people in the eye. As much as it’s about aliens, “Disclosure Day” is about empathy.

“I think every movie should have a great emphasis on empathy because empathy sometimes feels like it’s in short supply,” Spielberg says. “We have it, sometimes we can’t use it. Sometimes it’s not allowed to be used if you want to stay aligned with your friends and your belief systems. But I think empathy is there for all of us.”

“Disclosure Day” opens in a much different movie world than Spielberg's earlier alien adventures. It's one of few big, original studio movies this summer — a moviegoing season that the “Jaws” filmmaker pioneered. But neither franchise domination, AI nor streaming make Spielberg fret for the future of movies.

“The audience gives me faith in the movies," says Spielberg. "Even though the numbers are still not pre-COVID level numbers for any films being released now, it’s more robust than it has been for many years. The audience gives me belief that people still want to congregate in a dark space in the company of strangers to share an experience of a film made by storytellers. And that gives me faith to continue making films.”

Spielberg will turn 80 this December. Around the same age, Martin Scorsese began to frankly ponder how many movies he had left. Spielberg doesn’t think the same way.

“I never think about how many more I have,” he says. “I’m just hopeful that I will be inspired when something comes along, as I was with ‘Disclosure Day,’ as I was with ‘Fabelmans,’ as I was with ‘West Side Story.’”

More inspiration is already on the way. Spielberg hopes that his next movie will be a Western. Despite his deep fondness for the genre and an indelible encounter with John Ford, it’s one genre that’s eluded him.

“I always feel like parts of the ‘Raiders’ adventure movies are like Westerns,” he says. “Whenever Harrison (Ford) was on a horse, it made me wistful for wanting to direct a full Western, a real Western.”

Margaret Fairchild in “Disclosure Day” has some echoes with another Spielberg protagonist: Richard Dreyfuss’ Roy Neary in “Close Encounters.” Both are compelled by a strange force beyond their control. It’s a character type that Spielberg, a compulsive movie maker, grants he connects with. “Disclosure Day” is his 35th feature film.

“I identify with characters who aren’t afraid of mysterious things happening to them,” Spielberg says, “and who are fighting for their survival by trying to discover what they don’t know.”

Trump announced he'd now be the headlining act of the Great American State Fair.

That put to rest any possible scenario where a president who has built his personal and political persona on seizing the spotlight might cede the stage to avoid overshadowing a national celebration bigger than himself. It also offered a peek into how the president is likely to approach hosting the upcoming World Cup.

From his reality shows before becoming a politician, to hours spent entertaining at events in ways planned and impromptu, to proudly showing off his various properties and efforts to overhaul the White House, the president relishes hosting. Last year he even jokingly mused about leaving the presidency to do it again full time on TV.

Trump can be a gracious, personable and highly watchable master of ceremonies — but he's also one who tends to make every event about himself.

“The president has an outsized personality,” said Timothy Naftali, former director of Richard Nixon’s presidential library and professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “There’s a predictability to the way in which the president frames his actions — or any actions around any event associated with him — and that’s just part of who he is, and his makeup and his professional background.”

Exhibit A is the fair, which begins June 25 and was supposed to feature concerts but now will be kicked off by a Trump rally. That will follow a UFC bout at the White House on June 14. Trump is a longtime cage match fan and the event marks his 80th birthday, but the president has sought to bill it as part of the anniversary festivities.

Many presidents relished hosting — but not like this

Andrew Jackson threw open the White House for an 1829 Inauguration Day bash so unruly that staff eventually dispersed the crowd by moving tubs of whiskey and ice cream to the lawn. Franklin D. Roosevelt mixed pre-dinner cocktails for friends and aides at White House gatherings he playfully dubbed “The Children’s Hour.” Audrey Hepburn was among the luminaries Ronald Reagan hosted at the White House.

Trump frequently had first-term dinners with business leaders but has more fully embraced the role since returning to the White House. He built a patio area similar to one at his Mar-a-Lago estate and frequently travels to Florida and his properties in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Sterling, Virginia, to headline fundraisers and other swanky gatherings.

Asked if Trump might overshadow events meant to bring the country and the world together, White House spokesman Davis Ingle pointed to the president's efforts to lead extensive renovations at the White House and around Washington. He said in a statement that the “historic beautification" gives the city "the glory it deserves during our nation’s historic semiquincentennial celebration — something everyone should celebrate."

Still, Trump has found unprecedented ways to inject himself into the anniversary.

The State Department is issuing passports with the president's picture and officials have designed a new $250 bill with his likeness. The Trump Organization, being run by Trump's children while he's president, applied to trademark “Trump 250" logos and other merchandise.

The U.S. Mint is also producing a 24-karat gold commemorative coin with Trump’s face, though that recalls a half-dollar silver coin bearing the likeness of President Calvin Coolidge to help mark America's 150th anniversary in 1926.

Past presidents had starring anniversary roles

Ulysses S. Grant opened a Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1876. Richard Nixon, in 1971, inaugurated a five-year “Bicentennial Era” ahead of the 200-year mark, though he resigned before the big day arrived.

Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, then in the midst of an ultimately unsuccessful reelection campaign, began the week of July 4, 1976, by inaugurating the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and attending a Kennedy Center event featuring Bob Hope, O.J. Simpson and others reading patriotic texts.

On Independence Day, Ford spoke at historic Valley Forge, then traveled to Philadelphia's Independence Hall, declaring, “Liberty is a living flame to be fed, not dead ashes to be revered.“ He also went to New York Harbor for a tall ship parade, presided over naturalization ceremonies at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate and hosted a state dinner for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

Still, “while Ford certainly hoped to use the bicentennial to promote his reelection campaign, he didn’t do it in such a self-aggrandizing, self-centered, narcissistic way,” said Marc Stein, a history professor at San Francisco State University and author of “Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s.”

Ford, added Naftali, “knew when to step out of the limelight and make sure the focus was on what mattered, which was the United States of America and the Declaration of Independence."

Trump, by contrast, “generally has contempt for norms” and rarely mentions “the great sweep of history,” Naftali said.

Dueling anniversary planners as Trump pushes to revise history

Congress charged a national organization, America250, with planning commemorative events. Ahead of the 2024 election, the group drafted a memo asking whomever the incoming president was to mobilize federal agencies and welcoming presidential involvement in events and initiatives.

Asked about Trump, America250 Chair Rosie Rios said the group “has had a very supportive and collaborative relationship with the organizations planning initiatives on behalf of the president.”

But Rios' organization is separate from Freedom 250, a mix of public and private partnerships which the Trump administration established to fund and prepare anniversary events — which has caused confusion.

America250 aims to "inspire our fellow Americans to reflect on our past, strengthen our love of country, and renew our commitment to the ideals of democracy through programs that educate, engage, and unite us as a nation."

That might seem a departure from the “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order Trump signed last year. It sought to beat back a “revisionist movement” responsible for “replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth.”

Stein, now serving a one-year term as president of the Organization of American Historians, is helping organize “We Want More History,” a push to coordinate local events celebrating the public's love for the subject in fact-based ways.

He said Trump's version of history is "closer to propaganda, and it’s closer to cheerleading.”

World Cup gives Trump another platform to play host

The president has similarly taken his exceeding-normal-limits approach to the soccer tournament the U.S. is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada.

He created a federal World Cup task force, and leads it. He collected a peace prize from soccer's governing body, FIFA, and said he'd be on stage to present the tournament's golden trophy to the winning team.

Trump even oversaw the tournament's draw at the Kennedy Center, which he's sought to rename for himself, sparking legal challenges.

He returned to the same building to headline December's Kennedy Center Honors, noting, “We never had a president hosting the awards before." He later posted on social media, "Would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make ‘hosting’ a full time job?”

Naftali noted, “Whatever filters there were in the first term — and there weren’t many — are gone."

“It’s undiluted Donald Trump."

It's the Knicks' ninth time in the title series, and the eighth time they've played Game 1 on the road. It's the Spurs' seventh time in the title series, and the sixth time they've played Game 1 at home.

Granted, a good amount of time has passed for both teams since they've been on this stage: The Knicks haven't played in the finals since losing to the Spurs in 1999, and the Spurs haven't been there since beating the Miami Heat in 2014.

“I think we’re just locked in and focused on the task at hand,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said. “Then we can look back when everything is all said and done and really embrace this process and this run. It’s an honor, but can’t focus too much on the outside world and the run so far.”

The run the Knicks are on coming into this series is without compare: 11 straight wins by a total of 262 points, the most lopsided 11-game run — regular season or playoffs — in NBA history.

The Spurs have a different kind of streak going into Wednesday night. They've never lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals, going 6-0 in openers when they make the title round.

Most players on both teams are making their finals debuts in this series. Spurs guard De'Aaron Fox said it's still going to be important for his team to remember how they got to the finals in the first place.

“This is a hard thing to do. It’s hard to get back to these places,” Fox said. “Don’t change anything that we’re doing. There’s a reason that we’re in the finals. There’s a reason that we won (62) games. There’s a reason we didn’t lose three games in a row the whole year. So, we don’t want to get to this place and then start changing the way we play.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

A court in the town of Naivasha ruled that the girls will be remanded at a children’s home to allow investigators to complete their inquiries and determine whether to bring charges.

The fire on May 28 ripped through the Utumishi Girls School dormitory that houses 202 students. Investigators said the school matron failed to open an emergency door, forcing all students to scamper through a single doorway.

The accused girls have been in police custody for six days, during which interrogations revealed the fire was started by lighting a mattress at the dormitory’s exit using a matchstick and paraffin. No motive has been revealed so far.

Police arrested nine girls after questioning students and reviewing CCTV footage that investigators say shows some students setting a fire inside the dormitory.

Hezron Mogire, a lawyer representing the nine girls, told the court there were “no compelling reasons” to detain the girls for 30 days, as requested by investigators.

“Nonetheless, the court has taken a different view. We have already briefed our clients, and they are well informed,” he said.

Mbogo Macharia, the lawyer representing the families of the 16 girls who died in the fire, called for a thorough investigation within 21 days.

“During that time, it is expected by the courts, by the nation, and also by us as the victims that the investigations will have concluded, we will have gotten the answers that we very much want to hear, and we will have found a way forward in respect to finding justice for the victims,” he said.

The results of DNA tests to determine the identities of some of the bodies that were charred beyond recognition are expected later Wednesday.

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AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Worker bees perform a myriad of jobs to keep up the hive, including collecting food, nurturing young bees and caring for the queen, who lays all the eggs. New research reveals that the honeybees responsible for crafting the queen's home effectively run a fever to help melt and blend special chemicals into the wax.

“No one had ever thought that there might be a specialized group of workers that were building these queen cells,” said bee researcher Julia Bowsher with North Dakota State University, who had no role in the study.

These newly identified bees were younger and also had patterns of expression in their genes that made them uniquely suited to the task. The resulting peanut-shaped home was also distinct in its makeup, as it was made of softer wax with a higher melting point than the kind used to build worker bees' homes.

Queens are raised eating royal jelly secreted from the glands of worker bees and scientists have long believed diet was the main key to making a monarch. The new findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggest that the queen's environment might also play a role.

To test that theory, researchers raised baby queens in cups capped with either queen or worker wax. Despite eating royal jelly, the queens raised in worker wax were smaller and didn’t survive as well.

“For centuries, we believed ‘you are what you eat’ was the only rule for making a queen bee. Our study rewrites that rule to say ‘you are where you live, too,'" Kai Wang, a study co-author with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said in an email.

The findings offer a rare look inside the hive, but questions remain.

Honeybees pollinate and ensure the survival of crops such as blueberries, squash, watermelon and almonds. Further research is needed to learn more about the secret lives of queen cell-building bees and the exact combination of factors that produce the hive's head honcho.

“I would really like to know more about the specific chemical composition of this wax and which active ingredients are directly affecting the growth of the queens,” Bowsher said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The league debuted a new spot — “History is Calling” — promoting the finals early Wednesday, hours before the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks begin this year's title series.

Britell — the composer known for “Succession,” “Moonlight” and “Andor” — envisioned a piece that the league said, “draws inspiration from the emotional progression of basketball, from anticipation and momentum shifts to the defining moments that shape outcomes.”

Nas provides the voice, with nods to the 80-year history of the league and what it takes to get to the NBA Finals. Nas worked closely with Britell on the music itself, collaborating to shape the final sound of the project.

“Thirty teams start this journey, but only two are left standing,” Nas begins. “The math is simple. The quest, anything but. This isn't just a series. This is legacy. Everything's on the line, because history is calling. This is the NBA Finals.”

The NBA said Britell's score “marks the first expression of the league’s new signature audio identity,” and that Britell and Nas will have an expanded partnership with the league going forward.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

The program delivered on a campaign promise of President Prabowo Subianto and aimed to fight malnutrition by feeding nearly 90 million children and pregnant women. But it has come under steep criticism due to high costs and cases of food poisoning among schoolchildren who consumed the meals.

Prabowo fired Dadan Hindayana on Tuesday and replaced him with the agency's deputy chief. Investigators searched the agency’s offices early Wednesday.

Before Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office made Wednesday’s arrest announcement, Hindaya could be seen being led out in handcuffs, wearing a detainee red vest and a black shirt, and escorted into a green prison van.

Prosecutors also arrested two other suspects, Sony Sonjaya, the Deputy Head of the Nutrition Provision Division and Lodewyk Pusung, the Deputy Head of the Organizational Development and Institutional Relations Division. Both were fired on Tuesday. Prosecutors only published their initials, but the Minister of the State Secretariat, Prasetyo Hadi, shared their names with reporters.

Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, AGO’s Director of Investigation, told reporters that based on the “examination ... and two pieces of sufficient evidence,” the three were named as suspects “in the criminal investigation of corruption related to the management of the Free Nutritious Meal program at the National Nutrition Agency for the 2025–2026 period.”

The Free Nutritious Meal program is implemented through foundations operating in schools. Investigators allege these foundations were used to facilitate criminal activities and were linked to agency officials and employees. Despite failing to meet the eligibility requirements to become program partners, they were allegedly approved by manipulating the agency’s partner verification system, with the suspects' help, Nahdi said.

“These foundations receive incentives worth billions of rupiah every day,” he said, adding that investigators are still calculating the damage to state coffers.

Hadi said Tuesday the three suspects were dismissed for failing to adhere to "standard operating procedure ... implementing governance, including maintaining food quality."

Hadi stressed the government's continuing commitment to the free meals program. “Services to the public must not be disrupted in any way,” he told reporters.

The meals program is expected to cost $28 billion through 2029.

One of Prabowo's goals was to fight malnutrition and help farmers by purchasing their harvests, but critics had questioned whether the program was affordable and logistically possible in a vast archipelago of more than 282 million people.

“Aaron is a guy that I stay really close in touch with, and I know the respect that he has for Myles,” McVay said. “Talked to him about the opportunity to be able to bring (Garrett) on board. If Aaron decides he wants to dust them off at the age of 35, I bet you he could still do it at a pretty high clip.”

While the Rams would never close the door on Donald's possible return to the NFL, McVay confirms it's entirely up to the superstar defensive tackle to open that door if he wants to play alongside Garrett.

The possibility of Donald's return from two seasons in retirement became a hot topic almost immediately after the Rams swung their blockbuster trade Monday to acquire Garrett from the Cleveland Browns. Now 35 years old, Donald walked away in March 2024 after a prolific 10-year career spent entirely with the Rams.

ESPN personality Pat McAfee stoked the idea on Tuesday when he said he had texted about a comeback with Donald. McAfee said Donald told him that Garrett’s arrival in LA “for sure got me thinking,” and that he’s “gotta see if that fire can light back up.”

Donald racked up eight All-Pro selections, 10 Pro Bowl nods, three AP Defensive Player of the Year awards and a Super Bowl ring during 10 seasons in St. Louis and Los Angeles. He went out near the top of his game with a franchise-record 111 sacks as the NFL's best interior pass rusher, saying he was ready to step back from the daily grind required to maintain that level of play.

But because Donald retired at a relatively young age for defensive linemen, his possible return has been a topic of conversation for two full years in Los Angeles, where the Pittsburgh native still spends most of his time with his family. Rams fans openly pined for his return last season while the team appeared capable of making a second Super Bowl run, but Donald resisted the lure.

Donald even worked out with Jared Verse, the first-round pick and rising star edge rusher who was traded to Cleveland along with three high draft picks. The Rams gave up a fortune to get Garrett, the two-time AP Defensive Player of the Year and one of Donald's very few peers in the 21st century.

Garrett has previously spoken of his respect for Donald's game, and the Rams' new superstar nodded along Tuesday while McVay praised Donald.

The Rams' defensive line is already strong, with Garrett joining 12-sack edge rusher Byron Young and strong interior linemen Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske and Poona Ford. Garrett has already secured his No. 95 jersey from Ford, who wore it with the Rams last season.

“There was a conversation,” Garrett said with a laugh.

“A conversation and a couple of bucks?” McVay interjected.

“Maybe more than a couple of bucks,” Garrett said with a laugh. “He was open to it.”

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

Answer: Your situation is pretty common. Most couples I know develop a division of labor over time, where one person is in charge of financial matters and the other person is less involved. That’s definitely the case for my husband and me. He’s in charge of paying all the monthly bills and preparing our tax returns, but the financial planning and investment decisions are up to me. This type of arrangement might work well for a long time, but can become less sustainable with age, particularly if the “finance person” in the relationship dies or develops a major health issue.

Online tools and mind maps

Illustrating your financial situation with charts and graphs is a great idea that might help your spouse become a little more involved. Morningstar’s  Portfolio X-Ray  tool includes a variety of images that help illustrate your financial situation. Websites for most major brokerage firms also include some visual tools. Schwab, for example, offers a Portfolio Checkup and a bar graph illustrating your account’s monthly income from dividends and interest income. Vanguard has a Portfolio Watch tool and a variety of performance illustrations, tools, and calculators.

A  mind map, which we used with clients when I worked for a financial advisory firm, can be another way to picture your entire financial situation on one page. There are various  softwaretemplates  for drawing a mind map, or you can simply sketch it out with a large sheet of paper and a pencil. Start with your names at the center of the page. Then draw spokes connecting to various categories, such as names of other family members; investment accounts; real estate and other assets, insurance policies, estate plans, key goals and values, and contact information for accountants, estate planners, and other professionals. It can be helpful to go through the mind map together and make any updates needed at least once a year.

Other ways to communicate about money

A few other ideas—though not related to charts and graphs—might also be useful.

I like the idea of putting together a  net worth statement  that itemizes cash, taxable accounts, real estate, retirement accounts, and debt for each member of the couple as well as items owned jointly. It’s a good idea to update this document at least once a year and  discuss it as a couple. If you set up the document as a spreadsheet, you can include columns with additional information such as account numbers, what each account is used for, which accounts are subject to required minimum distributions, or tax issues like potential capital gains.

Many couples also put together a  binder  (sometimes humorously called a “Doomsday Book”) that contains information about where to find important paperwork, insurance policies, how bills are paid, what each account is for, steps the surviving spouse will need to take, final wishes, and any other critical information.

A well-qualified financial adviser can bridge the information gap

Finally, you could consider working with a good  financial adviser,  who can help involve your spouse in financial matters while you’re still living and step in to fully manage investments and personal finance decisions if you pass away before your spouse. Make sure the adviser holds the Certified Financial Planner designation and charges fees that are reasonable. Although a 1% fee is still the industry standard for accounts of $1 million or less, it’s possible to find advisers who charge significantly less, including a few who price their services based on hours worked instead of a percentage of assets under management.

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This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.

Amy C. Arnott, CFA, is a portfolio strategist for Morningstar and co-host of The Long View podcast.

Related links:

What If This Turns Out to Be a Terrible Time to Retire?

https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/what-if-this-turns-out-be-terrible-time-retire

Bill Bengen: ‘Inflation Is the Greatest Enemy of Retirees’

https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/bill-bengen-inflation-is-greatest-enemy-retirees

3 Big Questions to Ask Your Aging Parents

https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/3-big-questions-ask-your-aging-parents

The 27-nation bloc unveiled a “tech sovereignty” package on Wednesday with measures to promote homegrown European alternatives to Big Tech services and hardware.

The efforts by Brussels have gained urgency as leaders worry about dependence on technologies from foreign providers, which they say could be “weaponized” against Europeans. Those fears crystallized after the International Criminal Court's top prosecutor was sanctioned by the Trump administration, which led to Microsoft canceling his email account, sparking fears of a “kill switch” hidden in U.S. tech services.

“Europe wants to be in the position to make its own choices, avoiding risky dependencies on single dominant suppliers, one company or one third country,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, who oversees tech sovereignty, told reporters in Brussels.

“Because we live in a world where geopolitics and technology go hand in hand. Those who champion technological innovation will shape the future, and we must ensure that Europe plays a leading role in this.”

A cornerstone of the package is a sequel to the EU's 2023 Chips Act to further boost local production of semiconductors by cutting red tape for chip fabs and fostering a European chipmaking ecosystem.

Europe's vulnerability to the global chip supply chain centered in East Asia was highlighted last year in a power struggle at the Chinese-owned, Netherlands-based chipmaker Nexperia.

Another key part of the package is supporting local cloud and AI development, with plans to triple Europe's data center capacity by over the next five to seven years. The EU is pushing to expand data centers to keep up with the AI boom, which is driving demand for cloud computing services.

The proposals from the EU's executive arm still need to be debated by the EU's two other main institutions, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.

Police were pelted with chairs, cans, rocks and flares on Tuesday by some of the hundreds of people who attended a protest in the English southern coastal city of Southampton, where Henry Nowak was killed in December. Two people were arrested and 11 officers and a police dog were injured, police said.

Nowak's death has triggered debates about policing and knife crime and has spurred claims by far-right activists and politicians that there is bias against white people in the justice system.

Nowak’s killer, Vickrum Digwa, who is Sikh, falsely claimed he was the victim of a racist assault by 18-year-old Nowak, who was white. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded man as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday that the case had left “serious questions to answer, including how accusations of racism informed police thinking." But he called the street violence “disgraceful and completely unacceptable.”

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Nowak's family had "made a powerful call to us all yesterday to not let Henry’s death be used to create further division, hatred or tension.

“There can be no justification for hijacking this tragedy to stir up violence and disorder. Those responsible can expect to face the full force of the law,” she said.

Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder and sentenced Monday to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years. The judge said he didn’t believe Nowak had said anything racist to his attacker.

After the sentencing, police released video showing officers dismissing Nowak when he told them he had been stabbed and repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates allegations of police wrongdoing, is probing the actions of the officers from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary. The National Police Chiefs’ Council said it will review its anti-racism guidance in the wake of the killing.

After the sentencing hearing, the victim’s father, Mark Nowak, said the case was not about racism or religion, and that he wanted his son’s death to lead to safer streets and not to be used to create “further division, hatred or tension.”

But Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party, said on Tuesday that it was an example of so-called two-tier policing — a popular far-right talking point that claims ethnic minorities are better treated than white people.

Farage urged people to respond to the incident with “pure cold rage,” and said, “white lives matter just as much as Black lives.” X owner Elon Musk and British far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, have also expressed outrage at the crime.

Starmer said Farage's “appeal for rage” was “unforgivable.”

“I don’t believe there’s two-tier policing in this country," he said Wednesday in the House of Commons. “I’m really shocked that he pretends to have respect for Henry’s family and then acts in this way.”

In the wake of the killing, some politicians have called for Sikhs to be banned from carrying ceremonial knives, known as kirpans. The judge said Digwa had a small kirpan but also had an 8-inch (21-centimeter) sheathed Sikh dagger that was used as the weapon to kill Nowak.

Hampshire Police chief constable Alexis Boon said he understood the “desire for answers and accountability.”

“But that must be done in the right way and not used as an excuse to threaten and intimidate my officers and bring violence to our streets, causing fear and harm to those living and working in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight,” he said.

Kalshi, the online prediction marketplace, referred Santos to the Department of Justice after detecting suspicious trades made by him ahead of Trump’s Feb. 24 speech, the person said. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Kalshi also reported the trades to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal regulatory body that has vowed to crack down on insider trading in prediction marketplaces.

The Justice Department and the CFTC didn't immediately respond Tuesday to inquiries from the AP.

Santos also did not respond to text messages or phone calls.

The referral was first reported by NPR. Santos told NPR that he wasn't aware of the investigation. He declined to say whether he had a Kalshi account.

“I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no,” Santos told NPR.

The convicted ex-congressman had repeatedly discussed his intention to attend the State of the Union, which came just four months after he was granted clemency by Trump in a fraud case that led to his expulsion from the U.S. House.

On the eve of Trump's speech, Kalshi put the odds of Santos attending at close to 75%.

Then, minutes into the speech, Santos posted on X that he had been waylaid at the airport. Immediately, several social media users accused him of running another scheme.

“Santos talking to his accountant and telling him to open his Kalshi account and bet all his money on No,” one user wrote, alongside a meme of Al Pacino counting money in the movie Scarface.

In March, Santos addressed the complaints on his podcast.

“I guess people lost money,” he said. “Some people made unexpected money. That’s to show you how fragile these markets are.”

Santos, who won office as a Republican after inventing a bogus persona as a Wall Street dealmaker, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft in 2024.

After serving just 84 days, he was ordered released by Trump, who called Santos a “rogue” but said he didn’t deserve a harsh sentence and should get credit for voting Republican.

Prediction markets, including Kalshi and its chief rival Polymarket, have drawn scrutiny as their businesses have expanded — with some lawmakers urging the platforms to do more to guard against insider trading.

Both companies have said they are reporting suspicious trades to federal regulators. Some investigations have led to criminal charges. In April a soldier involved in the military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was charged with using classified information to win more than $400,000 predicting the date of his capture on Polymarket.

In April, the Senate approved a bipartisan resolution to prevent its own members from using prediction markets.

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The story has been updated to correct in the first sentence that Santos is a former congressman, not a current one.

Hardest hit would be Asian economies that depend on crude oil, fuel and natural gas from the Persian Gulf, supplies that have been largely choked off by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the risk of Iranian attack. And poorer countries where people spend more of their incomes on fuel and food would also be severely affected, the OECD said.

But the consequences of sharply higher energy prices and inflation would be felt around the world. Global growth would slump to levels not seen except for major setbacks like the COVID-19 pandemic and the global financial crisis and recession of the late 2000s. Under the OECD's prolonged disruption scenario, global growth slows from 3.4% last year to 2.1% this year and 1.8% in 2027, potentially pushing some economies into or close to recession.

Under a different OECD scenario for a time-limited disruption, in which energy production and shipments from the Gulf start to return to pre-war levels in the middle of this year, growth would slow to 2.8% this year and rebound to 3.1% next year.

“The global economy entered 2026 with robust momentum, but the outlook has weakened significantly since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, with effects likely to be felt for some time," OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. “The longer the disruptions last, the larger the economic and social costs become.”

Cormann warned that government spending aimed at relieving energy costs needed to be aimed at those most in need and temporary, to avoid running up excess government debt and preserving incentives to save energy.

Despite repeated outbreaks of violence, a declared ceasefire in the war between the US and Iran remains officially in place. The ongoing risk to shipping however means that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has dwindled to a trickle, down more than 90% compared to before the war. That has disrupted about a fifth of the world's supplies of crude oil and fuel products as well as of natural gas.

The OECD report follows a UN study warning that higher energy prices will impact almost billion people in poorer countries and small island states that depend on imported fuel, forcing tradeoffs between covering energy bills and investing in essential public services. More than 30% of people in those countries already live below the extreme poverty line, defined as living on $3 or less a day.

The OECD is an international intergovernmental organization and policy forum of 38 democracies with market-based economies, headquartered in Paris.

His name and face became synonymous with the 1959 revolution led by his brother, Fidel Castro. Decades after the triumphant revolution, Fidel Castro stepped down, and Raúl Castro served as Cuba's president for 12 years.

He formally retired from politics in April 2021 but still serves as general of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, has a seat in the National Assembly and is considered to play a central role in rising tensions with the U.S., which recently indicted him.

Here’s a look at the life of a man known as the “hero of the Republic of Cuba.”

Raúl Castro became involved in politics early

Castro was born on June 3, 1931, in the village of Birán in eastern Cuba. He was the fourth of seven children; his mother was Cuban and his father Spanish.

As a child, he attended school in Santiago de Cuba but later moved to Havana, where he began studying law at the university and became deeply involved in student politics, opposing the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

By 1953, he was part of a group that attacked military barracks in Santiago de Cuba as part of a failed effort to overthrow Batista. He was charged, jailed and later released, fleeing to Mexico, where he joined the guerrilla group that would soon unseat Batista.

After a victorious revolution in 1959, Castro was appointed minister of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces and oversaw battles in Africa and Latin America that rankled some U.S. Republicans.

Many Cubans, including María Cristina Barrio Ramos, a 62-year-old teacher who lives in Havana, praised him for his actions.

“He gave us everything so that we could be free,” she said. “We owe our freedom and dignity to him.”

In October 1965, Raúl Castro became the second secretary of the Central Committee of Cuba's Communist Party. At the time, Fidel Castro lauded him in a speech.

“It is a privilege for me that, in addition to being an extraordinary revolutionary figure, he is a brother,” Castro said as his sibling stood up and smiled as the crowd around him applauded.

Fidel Castro was known for praising his brother: “Everyone who gets to know him and become close to him realizes his humanism, his great character, and his feelings; they are surprised by the image of Raúl as belligerent, aggressive and harsh, when they see the feelings of friendship, affection, and love he is capable of having for people. And he has been a great mentor and a great educator.”

Castro rises to power after brother’s health worsens

In 2006, Fidel Castro’s health began to decline, and Raúl Castro was temporarily handed power in late July of that year until Cuba’s National Assembly elected him as president in February 2008.

In the years that followed, Castro proved himself to be more liberal than his brother, allowing private enterprises to operate in Cuba while former U.S. President Barack Obama lifted restrictions on remittances and family travel, and allowed U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba under certain conditions.

By 2015, the U.S. and Cuba restored diplomatic relations and reopened embassies. A year later, Obama traveled to Cuba to meet with Castro. That same year, commercial flights between the two countries restarted.

During a historic 2016 press conference in Havana, Castro famously tried to raise Obama's left arm, whose hand went limp in an image that went viral.

Under Castro, Cuba also entered negotiations with Russia’s government in June 2014 that led to the cancellation of 90% of a multibillion-dollar debt dating from the time of the Soviet Union.

In 2018, Raúl Castro left the presidency in the hands of Miguel Díaz-Canel, marking the first time in decades that a person without “Castro” as their last name took control of the government.

In April 2021, Castro announced he would not seek another political position. Since then, he has made only sporadic public appearances.

Castro retires but remains a high-profile figure

Ever since officially retiring from politics, Raúl Castro has appeared in public only sporadically, but he is believed to still wield power behind the scenes even as he leads a discreet life.

His grandson and bodyguard, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of a Caribbean summit earlier this year. Since then, Cuban and U.S. officials have confirmed talks, but tensions between the two countries remain high.

Raúl Castro was last seen at a May 1 rally that drew tens of thousands of Cubans. He was dressed, as usual, in olive green military garb and stood at the side of Díaz-Canel. Behind him was Castro's grandson.

Almost three weeks later, the U.S. government indicted Raúl Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles over Cuban waters. He faces charges including murder and destruction of an airplane.

While the government and its supporters have condemned the indictment, Raúl Castro has remained mum.

As his birthday approached, social media was flooded with the hashtag #RaúlesRaúl, a political figure who has long been adverse to birthdays, monuments and statues, just like his brother.

The Cuban Embassy in the U.S. noted on X: “Not many people have the privilege, the health, the stoicism — and if you like, you can also add: that quintessentially Cuban stubbornness — to reach the age of 95.”

Meanwhile, Cuba's Communist Party posted several videos Tuesday on X of Cubans praising Castro.

“To talk about Cuba, you have to talk about Raúl,” said Digna Guerra, director of the island’s national choir. “He represents Cuban identity, he represents the Cuban people, he represents the revolution, which for us has immense significance. … Thank you for existing.”

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Associated Press videographer Ariel Fernández contributed.

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

City officials say the project’s developer — Tony Benge’s Standard Investments and Holdings LLC — failed to provide required design specifications by a July 2024 deadline.

Nearly two years later, city leaders say they still do not have what they need to move the project forward.

The proposed development would have focused largely along Station Street and included affordable housing, retail and restaurant space, and a public plaza.

A tentative timeline for the project called for plans to be delivered last summer, permits to follow, and site work to begin early this year, with the public plaza expected to be completed in January.

At a city meeting in 2025, commissioners questioned why progress had stalled.

“I’m kind of trying to figure out what happened between 2022 and today that nothing really has been done,” one commissioner said.

A representative for the development said, “Since the developer agreement was finalized, we have been actively moving this forward.”

That representative claimed that he himself did not agree to a timeline.

Some residents said they are not surprised by the delays.

“It’s just typical of what happens. You have to rethink and rethink and rethink. And then by the time you’re finished rethinking, nothing’s been done,” Apopka resident Donna Rudd said.

If the notice of default is issued, the developer would have 30 days to correct the issue. If the problem is not resolved, the city could terminate the agreement and walk away from the project.

The vote comes as the new city commission and Mayor Nick Nesta take a fresh look at major projects approved under prior leadership.

The meeting is set for 1:30 p.m.

He's been known in the United States for centuries as the English ruler who lost the American colonies. You might remember him as the maniacal monarch from the Broadway musical or the subject of the 1990s play and film, “ The Madness of King George.” Americans of a certain age would recall him as the tyrant who taxed them without consent in the song, “ No More Kings."

Except the runup to the Revolutionary War didn't happen quite that way — a point worth noting in this age of disinformation, misinformation and “alternative facts.” In George's time, Parliament approved laws and taxes, as it does now. And that list of 27 complaints against the king in the Declaration of Independence? Mostly “wartime propaganda,” according to British historian Andrew Roberts, who says all but two crumble under scrutiny.

Historians now generally agree: George was not mentally ill during the Revolution.

“Truth became the first casualty of the American War of Independence, as it is in most wars," Roberts wrote in his 2021 biography, “The Last King of America.” “The American Revolution is a testament not to George III's tyranny, which was fictitious, but to Americans' yearning for autonomy.”

America's backstory, as told by the Founders, is up for review

The American origin story is rooted in the notion that George III was its vanquished villain, an irrational tyrant who oppressed the American colonists. Scholars began pushing back against that narrative before the United States' bicentennial, with the Prince of Wales writing a spicy rebuttal in 1972.

“If the average schoolchild remembers anything about history after leaving school, he will remember that George III was mad,” that prince, now King Charles III, wrote in the foreword to a biography on his five-times great grandfather. “If he is American as well then madness is often given as a reason for the 'irrational' behavior of the King toward the Colonists, making it necessary for them to declare independence."

Perhaps, he closed, "Americans will soon come to see the true George III without bias and traditionally held opinions."

George inherited the throne from his grandfather in 1760, at age 22, and with it an empire that stretched from England into North America and to Asia. He saw himself not merely as England's ruler but the father of his subjects — duty-bound to be their role model. In family and British life, he emphasized order, integrity and an Enlightenment-era curiosity about art, books and the natural world.

George was, like every British king since, a constitutional monarch — meaning that he had influence and selected the prime minister, but Cabinet members and the House of Commons passed laws and budgets. George's job was to assent to the policies passed by Parliament. So it can be argued that he went along with what the colonists saw as Britain's oppressive and coercive policies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765, the first direct tax on the colonies.

The future founders condemned the move and popularized the war cry, “No taxation without representation.” As Britain saw it, the members of Parliament represented the colonies. The colonists argued that they were represented by their elected colonial assemblies, which already taxed them. After they imposed damaging boycotts on British goods, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 — but followed that same day with an act saying the British Parliament could legislate for the colonies.

In the decade that followed, relations soured. Not helping was Parliament's passage of the Tea Act in 1773, to which revolutionaries responded by dumping tea into Boston Harbor. That shocked George, who the next year approved Parliament's acts designed to rein in Massachusetts' ability to govern itself.

The Continental Congress met and petitioned the king, as “your majesty’s faithful subjects,” for relief. George stood with Parliament.

In April 1775, the “shot heard ’round the world” rang out from a clash between militiamen and British troops in Lexington and Concord, launching what Brits widely call the American War of Independence — the Revolutionary War.

George III’s archives went public in 2015 — and fueled a shift on “the king’s malady”

Queen Elizabeth II released the uncatalogued Georgian Papers, 280,000 from the period held at Windsor Castle, and later put them online as part of a five-year project to digitize the records. What emerged was a detailed reappraisal of a monarch who kept charts, lists, letters, speeches and notes — including dates and the time of his writings — tracking a long list of administrivia: crop yields, botany, land management, household stores and expenses and closely tracked the politics in Parliament.

But the 2015 archives released something else: more detail on medical notes, including doctors orders, treatment reports, observations by others of George's behavior during his illnesses. Those raised questions on the cause of what historians had called “the king's malady.”

The long-accepted theory that George suffered from porphyria, a physiological metabolic disorder, was wrong, Roberts wrote in 2021. His analysis of 100,000 Georgian documents and 21st-century medical research pointed to bipolar affective disorder Type 1 — defined in part by at least one severe manic episode. George had been known to suffer extended bouts of mania after 1788.

As America turns 250, George's story is told differently — even in America

Dig into the American Revolution in 2026 and you won't find much, if any, suggestion that George was "mad" during the war years. If anything, the story during the semiquincentennial casts George as more of a whole person than the tyrant depicted in the ad hominem complaints peppered throughout the Declaration of Independence.

The Library of Congress' exhibit is titled, “The Two Georges,” the king and George Washington, “Parallel lives in an age of Revolution.”

And the first gallery in the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia is begins 15 years before the Revolution, when Americans had great affection for George III and showed it by posting royal symbols on items ranging from drinking vessels to fire backs and a royal coat of arms that probably hung in the city's courthouse.

“We make the point that he was literally called ‘the king of liberty’ in popular culture, said R. Scott Stephenson, the museum's president and CEO. "This was not a despot in anyone's minds.”

Charles name-drops George III during his speech to Congress

On April 29, Elizabeth's son, King Charles III, twice name-dropped George III from the rostrum at the heart of American democracy. First, he endorsed the “Tale of Two Georges” theme, noting that George III was his five-times great grandfather.

“King George never set foot in America,” he said lightheartedly, “and, please rest assured, I am not here as part of some cunning rear-guard action.”

None of the modern-day patriots in his audience — elected members of Congress whose forebears rejected the rule of George III — batted an eye or booed.

That night, Charles invoked his ancestry by name again at a White House state dinner in a further celebration of America's 250th birthday. “As the direct descendant of King George III,” Charles said, “I know this is a nation that never gives up.”

That's true of some Americans and the narratives they prefer, according to Roberts. Asked whether his findings took hold in the American psyche, he responded by email: “Nothing will dislodge the Americans from their desire to see GIII as an evil dictator.”

The launch window lasted until 8:02 a.m., but the launch was scrubbed due to weather. SpaceX has not announced a backup launch date.

The mission will launch 29 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit and marks the 12th flight of the first-stage booster supporting the launch.

The booster previously supported missions including SES O3b mPOWER-E, Crew-10, Bandwagon-3, mPOWER-D, CRS-33, and six additional Starlink missions.

Following stage separation, the first stage booster is scheduled to land on SpaceX’s A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

About 65% of U.S. adults believe same-sex marriage should be legal, down slightly from 71% in 2022 and 2023.

Most of the change is due to dropping acceptance among Republicans. In the new survey, which was conducted in May, only 37% of Republicans say same-sex marriage should be legally valid, while 35% say gay and lesbian relations are “morally acceptable.”

The views of Democrats and independents are largely stable in the findings released Wednesday, with most in both groups saying same-sex marriage should be legal and that gay or lesbian relations are moral.

The widening partisan divide is also reflected in policy around LGBTQ+ issues across the U.S., particularly regarding transgender people, and a rising push in some states to ban same-sex marriage.

Recent shifts have been subtle and partisan

The downtick in support for same-sex marriage, while slight, is still striking because of how dramatically American views on the issue have shifted over the past few decades.

According to Gallup’s trend data, only 27% of U.S. adults supported legal same-sex marriage in 1996. Since then, support for same-sex marriage rose steadily until a few years ago, when it peaked with around 7 in 10 U.S. adults saying same-sex marriage should be legal.

Opinion about the morality of same-sex relationships followed the same pattern. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults said same-sex relations were morally acceptable in 2001. That increased nearly 30 percentage points over the next two decades.

Over the past few years, Gallup's data has shown signs of a shift in the other direction. In addition to the slight decline on same-sex marriage, the new poll also found that 62% of U.S. adults view gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable, down from 71% in 2022.

Same-sex marriage remains recognized nationwide

Same-sex marriage has been recognized nationally since a 2015 Supreme Court ruling. That case capped a 12-year run in which court rulings and state laws recognized it in most states.

By last year, there were more than 800,000 married same-sex couples, according to data compiled by the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.

The pushback has never stopped, though. A call to overturn the 2015 reached the Supreme Court last year, invoking the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who has called for undoing it. The court turned away the appeal without comment.

Last year, the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly called for reversing the ruling that led to nationwide marriage recognition and imposing a ban.

Lawmakers in at least 11 states introduced legislation for their current or most recent sessions calling on a ban on same-sex marriage, according to an Associated Press analysis of bills compiled by the legislation tracking service Plural. Most didn't pick up momentum. But the Tennessee House passed a measure to allow private citizens and organizations not to recognize the unions; Idaho's House passed a resolution calling on the Supreme Court to undo the 2015 decision.

A similar number of states have had measures aimed at protecting same-sex marriage introduced recently.

Acceptance of transgender people is also down

In a sign that views of LGBTQ+ issues may be shifting more broadly, the new Gallup poll found that about 4 in 10 Americans view changing one’s gender as morally acceptable, down from nearly half in 2021.

The rights of transgender people have been a hot-button political issue this decade.

Most Republican-controlled states have adopted laws in the last five years to bar gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors, restrict which school bathrooms transgender people may use and bar transgender girls and women from some sports competitions.

Trump has signed executive orders seeking some of the same policies on a federal level.

This week, one of those policies suffered a blow when a court ruled that the military illegally banned transgender troops.

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The Gallup poll, conducted May 1-17, was based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,001 U.S. adults. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The update comes from a social media post by Rep. Anna Eskamani (D - Orlando), after she says she spoke with his legal team.

The post shares that ‘Uncle Lou’ does not qualify for an immigration bond and has decided not to fight his case any longer.

Cleon Williams, also known as ‘Uncle Lou’, was arrested on May 9 during a sting operation and was held in the Orange County jail on an immigration hold before facing a second-degree misdemeanor charge.

That charge was because he was accused of intent to sell alcohol without a license.

He was eventually picked up by ICE on May 19.

‘Uncle Lou’ was a fixture in the Orlando community for about 2 decades, with supporters saying his bar helped emerging talent.

Local lawmakers were unsuccessful in their attempts to help free Williams.

The post by Eskamani said, “Under a new federal administration, he may have a viable pathway to return in the future. This is not the news we wanted, and I’m grateful to everyone who has rallied around Uncle Lou.”

Williams’ attorney said his client will look for a pathway to return once there’s a new administration in Washington.

All three have been included in their national team squads for the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, but others have not been so fortunate.

France striker Hugo Ekitike sustained an Achilles injury in April that could take more than six months to heal, ruling him out of the World Cup and probably the start of next season with Liverpool.

Brazil stars Rodrygo and Éder Militão are out. So is Bayern Munich and Germany forward Serge Gnabry after injuring his adductor in training.

Messi caused the biggest scare after the Argentina great left the field injured while playing for Inter Miami last month. He has been included in coach Lionel Scaloni's squad as defending champion Argentina aims to retain its trophy, but it is still not known whether he has fully recovered from what was described as muscle fatigue.

Yamal, Spain's new superstar, missed the final weeks of the season for Barcelona because of a hamstring injury that made him fear he would miss out on his first World Cup.

“I remember the play in which I got injured,” he said. “I was praying inside for it not to be serious, for it to be a cramp or something like that, because I knew the World Cup was very close.”

Players and coaches have increasingly warned about the impact of an ever-packed schedule, and the expanded World Cup comes a year after the relaunched, supersized Club World Cup. The Champions League has also been expanded in recent years.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta describes the demand on players as “an accident waiting to happen."

Players definitely ruled out of the World Cup

Argentina: Joaquín Panichelli (ACL)

Brazil: Éder Militão (hamstring), Rodrygo (ACL)

England: Ben White (medial ligament)

France: Hugo Ekitike (Achilles)

Germany: Serge Gnabry (adductor)

Netherlands: Xavi Simons (ACL)

United States: Cameron Carter-Vickers (Achilles), Patrick Agyemang (Achilles), Johnny Cardoso (ankle)

Scotland: Billy Gilmour (knee)

Spain: Fermin Lopez (foot)

Ones to watch

Argentina: How soon Messi will be involved is not known. Cristian Romero sustained a knee injury at the end of the season, but has been included in Argentina's squad.

Canada: Star left back Alphonso Davies injured his hamstring and it is not certain he will recover in time for his team's opening game against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Croatia: Veteran midfielder Luka Modrić broke his cheekbone in April. He was back playing for AC Milan well in time for the World Cup, but was wearing a protective face mask. Defender Joško Gvardiol returned to training for Manchester City in early May after four months out with a broken leg, but is going to the World Cup.

United States: Gio Reyna made just four league starts this season for Borussia Mönchengladbach, and none since Dec. 19. “He can help because he’s a different player, different talent, and I think in all the roster you need to have a player like him,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said.

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

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

Tesla’s best-selling EV gets a round of updates for 2026 that include revised styling, a smoother ride and a more upscale cabin. But Toyota’s all-electric SUV shouldn’t be counted out. It has been thoroughly overhauled for 2026, and the result is a much more compelling proposition than the outgoing model. Edmunds’ experts put these two electric SUVs head-to-head to find out which one deserves a spot in your driveway.

Range and charging

Formerly known as the bZ4X, Toyota’s first all-electric SUV has been so extensively revised that it now carries a new name. Pleasingly, range has improved considerably. The front-wheel-drive version of the 2026 bZ can go up to 314 miles on a single charge, according to EPA estimates. Edmunds has verified that in its own independent testing, with a test bZ covering 331 miles, an impressive result for a small electric SUV.

As with the bZ, different versions of the Model Y have varying range estimates. The longest comes from the Premium Rear-Wheel Drive, which can go an EPA-estimated 357 miles. Edmunds hasn’t range tested that Model Y version, but other tested Model Ys have matched their EPA estimates.

Edmunds also tested the bZ and Model Y for charging speeds at a public fast-charging station. Both SUVs yielded similar results and could potentially add up to about 100 miles of range in 15 minutes. The Model Y is a bit more convenient to charge at Tesla’s nationwide network of Supercharger stations, however.

Winner: Model Y

Driving experience and interior space

The Tesla Model Y remains one of the more engaging electric SUVs to drive. It accelerates quickly, has a smooth ride, and feels sporty and stable when going around corners. The cabin is well insulated from road and wind noise, and the front seats offer a wide range of adjustments for comfort during longer drives.

While the outgoing bZ4X felt sluggish, the bZ flips the script with brisk acceleration in both single- and dual-motor configurations. The front-wheel-drive bZ actually outpaced the base Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive in Edmunds’ 0-to-60 mph testing, while an all-wheel-drive bZ trailed just behind the Model Y All-Wheel Drive in the same test. The bZ also has a comfortable ride over bumps, but it doesn’t feel as composed as the Model Y when cornering.

Interior space is significantly better in the Model Y. It has more rear legroom, which allows adults to be more comfortable and provides extra space for installing bulky rear-facing child safety seats. The Model Y also has more cargo space and a few more useful spaces to store small items.

Winner: Model Y

Technology

Tesla’s infotainment system remains a highlight, with a clean interface and quick response. Dual wireless chargers add convenience, and Tesla’s advanced driver assistance features help set it apart. The Full Self-Driving (Supervised) feature is particularly notable for allowing for hands-free driving on both highways and city streets. However, the lack of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration may be a sticking point for some buyers.

Toyota counters with a new 14.1-inch touchscreen infotainment system that’s easy to use and supports wireless connectivity Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Dual wireless phone chargers are up front, and a total of four fast-charging USB-C ports are on board. Standard driver assistance features are comprehensive. The bZ also has a hands-free driving feature, but it only works at low speeds on the highway.

Winner: Model Y

Pricing and value

The base Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive starts at $41,630, including destination. However, it’s missing some features you’ll probably want in an EV. The Premium version of the Model Y is what you want because of its added power, slightly greater range and a more upscale interior. A Model Y Premium All-Wheel Drive costs $51,630.

The Toyota bZ starts at $36,495 and comes well equipped for the price, especially when you consider the improved performance and range now on offer. The top-line bZ Limited adds even more features and is comparable to the Model Y Premium. It costs $46,895 in its available all-wheel-drive configuration.

Winner: bZ

Edmunds says

The Toyota bZ’s improvements make it a far more appealing electric SUV than before, and its low starting price strengthens its appeal for value-focused buyers. That said, the Tesla Model Y continues to set the benchmark in this segment with its superior technology, performance and overall refinement. While Toyota has made meaningful progress, the Model Y remains the better choice.

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

Security cameras have recorded at least three nighttime instances where groups of people entered or exited sewer tunnels via maintenance holes on streets in Brooklyn and Queens.

In one video, taken early Friday morning in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, a group of roughly seven people were recorded popping out of a maintenance hole in the middle of an intersection, in full view of passing cars.

Some wore headlamps and carried what appeared to be shovels and other tools. One narrowly missed getting run over by a vehicle as they pulled themselves out of the ground.

In another video, a group of about seven people could be seen emerging from a maintenance hole around 2 a.m. on a quiet street in Brooklyn's Gravesend neighborhood. They made their way to a couple of parked cars and pulled out fresh clothes to change into. Police say the group entered the sewers about 11 p.m., meaning they could have been underground for three hours.

On May 5, three people dressed in waterproof hip waders and other protective gear pried open a maintenance hole cover and descended into the sewer on a street in Queens. The last person pulled the cover shut as approaching cars slowed to a stop.

Aki Jakupovic, the owner of an auto detailing shop, said his shop’s surveillance cameras recorded that group of sewer spelunkers. He said he couldn’t venture a guess as to what the people did below ground but worried they were “up to no good.”

The city Department of Environmental Protection said it inspected the sewers at both Brooklyn locations and verified the sewer infrastructure wasn’t damaged. The incident in Queens is still under investigation, the agency said.

Rob Wolejsza, the department’s spokesperson, stressed that entering the sewers is not only illegal but “extremely dangerous.”

“Sewers can contain numerous hazards, including noxious and potentially deadly gases, unstable surfaces, flooding risks, and confined spaces,” Wolejsza said in a statement. “For these reasons, members of the public should never enter a pipe, drain, catch basin, manhole, or outfall.”

Last month, a woman fell into an open maintenance hole on a busy street in midtown Manhattan and died. Utility officials said the hole cover had been dislodged by a truck.

Police, meanwhile, said they don’t believe there’s any threat to public safety after conducting a thorough sweep of the areas. There have been no reports of injuries and no arrests, and the investigation is ongoing, the department said.

On Tuesday, at the busy intersection in Williamsburg where the second group was spotted, resident Anthony Purdie said he isn’t convinced it was simple curiosity that drew the group to explore the sewers in the cover of night.

“They look like they were looking for something important, like money, or for doing some type of hurting,” he said. “Ain’t no fun and games. I mean, seven grown adults going down there? Got to be something, man.”

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

WEDNESDAY

Behind the front, northeast winds will kick up, with sustained speeds of 15 to 20 mph and occasional gusts topping 25 mph, especially along and north of the Orlando metro and near the coast.

The biggest difference will be the temperatures.

Afternoon highs will only reach the low 80s across much of Central Florida, running about 7 to 10 degrees below normal for early June. Even more noticeable will be the drop in humidity, with overnight temperatures falling into the 60s inland and low 70s along the coast.

THURSDAY & FRIDAY

The cooler, drier pattern sticks around through Thursday, with plenty of dry time expected across most of the region. A few isolated coastal showers cannot be ruled out, mainly south of Melbourne, but widespread rain is not anticipated.

Temperatures will gradually begin warming again on Friday and through the weekend. By Saturday, many inland communities will once again approach 90 degrees, while coastal areas stay slightly cooler thanks to the afternoon sea breeze.

WEEKEND

The comfortable stretch won’t last long.

Moisture begins increasing again by late weekend, with rain chances slowly climbing into next week. Temperatures will also trend warmer, with highs returning to the upper 80s and lower 90s and humidity levels rising once again.

The rare albino buffalo became a sensation when a farmer noticed that his blond tuft of hair resembled the distinctive locks of the U.S. president. After a video of the pale horned mammal went viral on social media, large numbers of people started showing up at the farm outside Dhaka to see him for themselves.

The animal was originally meant to be slaughtered for the Muslim festival of sacrifice. But citing security concerns, the government ordered him transferred to the zoo in the capital, where large crowds are now braving sweltering heat to see him.

On Tuesday, visitors pressed against the fence of the buffalo's enclosure, filming with their phones as some fathers hoisted small children on their shoulders for a better view.

A zoo worker pampered the animal, brushing his hair to one side and hosing him down with water to keep him cool as fans blew on him.

“There is a resemblance to Donald Trump in its eyes, hairstyle, and skin color,” said Mohammed Nasim, a student in Dhaka. “And just as Donald Trump has a distinctive personality and lifestyle, this buffalo, after going viral, is now living a similar kind of life, enjoying a lot of attention and special treatment.”

Local media reported that the exhibit initially included a sign that said “Donald Trump,” which has since been removed. The zoo curator was fired on Saturday, though no official cause was given for the dismissal.

Some clearly found the naming in poor taste.

“Giving a farm animal the name of one of the world’s most influential leaders was certainly the wrong thing to do," said Dhaka resident Mohammad Joynal Adedin, who visited the zoo to see the buffalo anyway. “It seems disrespectful. I think the farmer who did this made a poor decision.”

The buffalo was sold ahead of Eid al-Adha, the “Feast of Sacrifice.” When Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed ordered police to take it into custody, the authorities refunded the buyer.

"Since before Eid, I had been seeing posts on Facebook saying that ‘Donald Trump’ would be sacrificed. Later, I heard that instead of being sacrificed, it had been placed in a zoo,” said Mohammad Habibur Rahman, a visitor to the zoo from the southwestern Bangladeshi city of Jashore.

“So, I thought I would come to the zoo and see ‘Donald Trump’ for myself," he said.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it was ordering Google to give online publishers the option, in what it called a “world first.”

The watchdog is seeking to loosen the U.S. tech giant’s stranglehold on the U.K’s online search market by using new digital powers to force changes to the company’s business practices.

Under the decision, Google will have to give publishers “effective tools” to prevent their content from being used to power the company's generative artificial intelligence services and its AI search features like AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Google will also have to properly cite publisher content in AI-generated search resulted by using clear links, and let publishers opt out of having their content used to fine-tune AI models.

The watchdog said the decision will give publishers a stronger hand when negotiating content deals with Google. Publishers are defined as anyone who puts content on the web that's available to people in Britain.

The CMA's ruling was expected, because it had released draft proposals at the start of the year after using its new digital powers to label Google a “ strategic” player in online search advertising.

It previously found that news publishers had suffered a drop in traffic since Google rolled out its AI Overviews - summaries that appear at the top of some search queries - because fewer users are clicking through to the original articles.

The watchdog said its requirements will also apply to big changes that Google unveiled in May, which further embed AI in the company's search services.

Google is “engaging with regulators like the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority to ensure website owners have the right tools as user preferences evolve," the company's general manager of search ecosystem, Mrinalini Loew, said in a blog post.

“Today, we’re beginning to test a new control that lets website owners manage how their links and content appear in generative AI Search features.”

CMA Chief Executive Sarah Cardell said the measures will result in “fair treatment, greater transparency and meaningful choice for businesses and consumers” and will help tens of millions of British users “better understand and trust the information presented to them.”

Tammie Jo Baker was a mother, a grandmother, and a soon-to-be great-grandmother who, according to her family, lived for the beach and the people she loved.

“She was always smiling. She was always happy,” Baker’s granddaughter, Hannah McBride, said.

Baker was working at an access ramp in Daytona Beach Shores when a woman drove into the toll booth Baker was inside before driving into the water. Video taken in the moments after the crash shows the truck submerged in the ocean.

The family said Baker’s connection to that stretch of coastline ran deep.

“She loved the beach,” Baker’s daughter, Luella Harris, said.

“She lived on the beach. So, like just working out here was probably like a plus to it, you know? So, it was very, very difficult for her to want to be away from [the beach],” McBride added.

For Harris, the grief is wrapped in memories of her mother’s humor.

“My mom was good for saying the most inappropriate things, but it always made everybody laugh,” she said.

That humor, her family says, showed up in the most unexpected moments, including one that Harris-Baker cannot help but laugh about even now.

“‘Hotel California’, and she was just singing it, and then all of a sudden, she broke out in like a death metal voice, and like, the whole place was like, what? What is that?” she recalled.

Family members gathered for a vigil at the beach where she was working that day to honor her life. Daytona Beach Shores Mayor Nancy Miller attended the vigil and used the moment to urge drivers to be more careful in the area.

“Slow down, slow down,” Miller said. “You have to know this is a driving beach and please slow down.”

For those who knew and loved Baker, the loss is still raw and difficult to process.

“It’s very shocking. It’s hard to hear, like, people just talking about it and you don’t even know, that was my mom,” Harris said.

As her family prepares to say goodbye, they want the world to know Baker was the force that held them all together.

“She was the glue of the family. So, it’s going to be hard to pick up those pieces. But mainly, we’re really thankful that she had lived a good life,” McBride said.

New York's Jordan Clarkson and San Antonio's Dylan Harper — who'll face off in the Finals that start Wednesday — were both born in the U.S., but both have links to the Philippines through their mothers. And Clarkson raved about Harper, whose rookie year has been nothing but impressive.

“He’s been really good throughout the whole year,” Clarkson said. “I’ve been watching him, keeping up with him, as well. Him being so young and having so much poise throughout this whole playoffs, it’s a great sight to see a young star coming in this league and doing what he’s doing.”

The significance of this isn't lost on Harper either.

“I think me and him get to do something really special, representing our country, where we’re from, represent everything on the biggest stage in basketball,” Harper said. “I feel like over there in the Philippines, basketball is probably the biggest thing. I think we’re very excited for that and we’re just very blessed and grateful to be in this position.”

Not a lot of Finals history

Only six players on the Knicks and the Spurs have appeared in previous NBA Finals games.

San Antonio’s Harrison Barnes played in 13 for Golden State, Luke Kornet played in six for Boston and Kelly Olynyk played in five for Miami.

For New York, Mikal Bridges played in six for Phoenix, Dillon Jones played in three for Oklahoma City and Jordan Clarkson played in two for Cleveland. Another member of the Knicks — OG Anunoby — was with Toronto for its run to the 2019 NBA title, but did not play in any of those six games.

Combined, those six players with past Finals experience have scored 265 points in the title round.

Don't expect overtime. Or a lot of close games.

The last 44 NBA Finals games have all ended in regulation, the longest run without overtime in the title series in league history. There was a 34-game stretch without an overtime game from 1984 through 1990.

Of course, it's tough to have a shot at going to overtime when games aren't close down the stretch. Out of the last 81 Finals games, 50 have been decided by double figures.

The division champion stat

An annual reminder: Division championships mean nothing anymore ... until the NBA Finals.

If San Antonio wins the NBA title, it will mark the 14th time in the last 15 seasons that a division champion has wound up winning.

The only exception in that span was Golden State in 2022. Before that, the last team to not win their division but win the NBA title was Dallas in 2011.

The Knicks were second in the Atlantic Division behind Boston this year, so they're trying to buck this trend.

Welcome back, Mike Brown

It's been 19 years, but Mike Brown is back in the NBA Finals as a head coach. The New York coach took Cleveland to the title round in 2007 — getting swept by San Antonio that year.

Just by getting here this year, Brown joins an exclusive club of coaches to take multiple franchises to the NBA Finals.

Pat Riley (Los Angeles Lakers, New York, Miami) and Alex Hannum (St. Louis, Philadelphia, San Francisco) took three franchises to the Finals. Brown joins Rick Carlisle, Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, KC Jones, Bill Fitch, Gene Shue, Bill Sharman and Red Auerbach on the list of those to take two different franchises to the title round.

Wemby's amazing year

San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama has had a postseason like no one in league history, and his totals are only going to get more impressive.

So far in these playoffs, Wembanyama has 394 points, 183 rebounds, 100 made free throws, 60 blocked shots and 30 3-pointers.

That's just the playoffs. Only 19 players — him included, of course — had those totals over the entirety of this regular season. (No Spurs player has ever had a regular season with all those numbers, except Wembanyama.)

And since 3-pointers came into play, nobody in NBA history has ever done all that in the same postseason, until now.

If this goes 7 games ...

If this NBA Finals goes the seven-game distance, Spurs players Keldon Johnson and Julian Champagnie might tie an NBA record.

Or break it, depending on how you count.

Johnson and Champagnie both enter these NBA Finals with 100 games played so far this season. That's seven shy of the NBA record for games played in a season — shared by Charles Oakley and Tayshaun Prince.

They both played 107. But Johnson and Champagnie also played in the NBA Cup title game, which means they would have technically played in 108 games this season — though the league doesn't recognize the Cup final in any statistics.

Money matters

The Spurs and Knicks are playing for $5,157,417 in bonus money. That's the difference between winning and losing the NBA Finals out of the league's playoff pool, which topped $35 million this season.

The Spurs have already secured $6,594,508 out of that pool this season. The Knicks have clinched $6,438,024.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

It’s fair to say the appointment of Thomas Tuchel was not universally well received.

“I’m sorry I have a German passport,” the serial-winning former Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich coach quipped at his official unveiling in 2024.

He had woken that morning to some unflattering headlines in the British media.

The Daily Mail described it as a “dark day for England” and said the national team had gambled on a “GERMAN.”

The leader of the right-wing Reform Party Nigel Farage asked on X: “Why can’t we have an English manager?”

Never mind that Tuchel was a Champions League winner who had lifted trophies in three different countries. Or the fact that England has gone down the foreign route before: a Swedish coach in Sven-Goran Eriksson and an Italian in Fabio Capello. And in the days before Tuchel’s appointment, there were rumors that Pep Guardiola was also a leading candidate.

Historic rivals

A point of contention was the fact that Germany has long-been England’s biggest soccer rival. Since winning the 1966 World Cup final against West Germany, England has often struggled against the Germans in major tournaments. Some England fans have brought 20th-century history to the rivalry with provocative chants taunting Germany about World War II.

Debate about Tuchel's nationality, however, dissipated quickly, helped by his easy-going charm when dealing with the media and a perfect winning record during England's World Cup qualifying campaign.

According to professor Jan Rüger, author of the upcoming book “Great Powers: A History of Britain and Germany,” the wider reaction to Tuchel's appointment points to a change in Anglo-German relations after the tensions that prevailed in the decades following two world wars.

“There were questions, but it certainly hasn’t turned into an ongoing saga in the way in which it would have in the 1990s or even around the turn of the century,” Rüger told The Associated Press. "Then it would have been unthinkable to have a German manager.

“Germany really isn’t the bad guy anymore. That’s long since passed. I don’t think it works portraying Germany as the bogeyman.”

England coaches face fierce criticism

Time will tell if Tuchel is portrayed as a hero or villain at the World Cup. If England fails, his nationality might be raised again. But England managers of the past have been the subject of brutal criticism by fans and media, regardless of what it says on their passport.

Tuchel's predecessor Gareth Southgate was widely credited with making England fans fall back in love with the national team during his eight-year spell, yet he faced a torrent of abuse from sections of supporters during the 2024 European Championship, with plastic beer glasses thrown in his direction after one match.

Southgate departed after leading England to back-to-back Euros finals and the World Cup semifinals in 2018.

He goes down as the nation's second most successful manager after Alf Ramsey, who led England to World Cup victory in 1966.

If Tuchel can end England's trophy wait, he would become a national treasure.

“Everyone in the squad, the staff, everyone believes we can win it,” midfielder Kobbie Mainoo said.

Difficult decisions

Tuchel stunned some fans and players with his squad selection for the World Cup, leaving out big names including Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

It was evidence that he would not be swayed by public opinion, which has been a criticism of previous coaches.

“Everything I know about international football tells me that tournaments are won by teams, not individuals,” he said. “What we’re trying to achieve in the summer can only be achieved as a team."

Midfielder Jordan Henderson was one of the surprise inclusions at the age of 35.

“I know everybody likes to speak about players that aren’t here, unfortunately that’s the case with every England squad really," Henderson said. “There’s so many good players, so much talent, but for us as a squad here, it’s about being together and we’re here for a reason and it’s about bringing that, being the best version of yourself, being best version individually and collectively, working every day to achieve our dreams.”

A proven winner

Tuchel is the 14th coach tasked with the challenge of ending England's trophy drought, which now stretches to 60 years.

After Southgate's departure the English Football Association said it was looking for a candidate to “win a major tournament”. That might sound obvious, but even coaches who had won big prizes with club teams such as Bobby Robson, Terry Venables, Eriksson and Capello could not emulate that success with England.

Southgate got closer than anyone since Ramsey despite a modest coaching career before being handed the national job.

His success appeared to be grounded in developing a connection both within his squad and with supporters. As a former player who missed a penalty in a semifinal shootout defeat to Germany at Euro 1996, his emotional understanding of what it means to represent England appeared to resonate with a new generation.

As a foreign coach — albeit one who coached in the Premier League with Chelsea — Tuchel cannot bring that same dynamic to the role.

He does, however, fit the description of a winner of major tournaments, having led Chelsea to the Champions League in 2021. He was also Champions League finalist with Paris Saint-Germain.

He won league titles in France with PSG and Germany with Bayern Munich.

In Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice, he has three of the biggest stars in European soccer and enough talent at his disposal that he felt able to leave out the likes of Foden and Palmer.

“I love the difficult decisions and I love the tough decisions because they bring in the end clarity, they bring a certain edge, and it’s what you need to go all the way," Tuchel said. “From day one, we said we will always try to select and build the best group, which is maybe not necessarily just to collect the best talents.”

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

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

Democrats dodged the possibility of a primary shutout in one redrawn district near San Diego, but still ran a risk of having no candidates make it to the November ballot in a second district they banked on outside of Sacramento. California’s unusual primary system, in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party, means that if one party runs too many candidates, they can split the vote and all miss making it to the general election.

Democrats had feared that scenario in the San Diego-area district held by the retiring Rep. Darrell Issa that was redrawn last year to become a swing seat. Republican San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond advanced to the November ballot for that seat Tuesday. An avalanche of nine Democrats also entered the running — and San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert nabbed the other slot.

The situation was more dubious in suburban Sacramento, where Rep. Kevin Kiley, who left the GOP to become an independent after his conservative district was divvied up into more Democratic ones, was fighting to make the ballot along with a lone registered Republican and a host of Democrats. Only one Democrat was in the top three of the race late Tuesday.

California was Democrats' prize in midterms redistricting

California has been the bright spot for Democrats in a redistricting war kicked off by President Donald Trump to help his party retain control of the House. After Texas redrew its map to make as many as five more seats winnable for the GOP, California voters allowed Democrats to suspend their state’s own independent redistricting commission and create a new map in retaliation.

But when Virginia Democrats tried to replicate that, they were blocked by their state Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, letting Republicans eliminate some majority-Black congressional districts in the South.

Younger progressives challenge veteran Democrats

The schism between establishment Democrats and a younger, insurgent progressive wing is a defining characteristic of many of this year's primaries across the country, and it's no different in California.

In Sacramento, city council member Mai Vang is challenging 81-year-old Rep. Doris Matsui, who succeeded her late husband after he died in 2005.

The split in the party was encapsulated at a polling place in the suburb of Elk Grove on Tuesday. Tamara Alton, a 65-year-old marriage and family therapist, said she was voting for Matsui, who seemed likely to end up in one of the top two slots as of late Tuesday.

“I’m going with who I know,” Alton said.

Democrat Khydeeja Alam, 42, a small farmer who also works for the state, said she planned to vote for Vang.

Alam, who is Muslim, said Matsui didn’t do enough to engage with Muslim Americans after the war in Gaza began.

“She’s not been accessible, which has been a really big disappointment,” Alam said.

Rep. Brad Sherman, whose Southern California district stretches from the San Fernando Valley to Malibu, made it to the November ballot while fending off a challenge by Democrat Jake Levine, a 42-year-old lawyer who argues that it is time to move on from the 15-term congressman. Republican Larry Thompson, a lawyer, also advanced to the general election for that seat.

In a redrawn district that stretches from Napa Valley into conservative Northern California farming communities, 14-term Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson drew a younger challenger, former venture capitalist Eric Jones, but advanced nonetheless.

And in a safe Democratic district in San Francisco, Scott Wiener, a state lawmaker and former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, advanced to the November race to replace retiring former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Supervisor Connie Chan, who was endorsed by Pelosi, took the second slot.

Republicans grapple with redrawn districts

California's congressional primaries also will determine the fate of Republicans targeted in the Democratic redraw.

In the Central Valley, they redrew the seat held by Republican Rep. David Valadao to make it even more Democratic. Valadao is a survivor of several targeted Democratic campaigns and one of two remaining Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

He made it to the general election on Tuesday, so the primary will determine which Democrat faces him — state Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, a moderate backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or Randy Villegas, a political science professor at College of the Sequoias and a school board member who represents the party’s liberal wing.

The district was rattled Tuesday evening by an hourslong standoff in downtown Bakersfield between police and a man holding local residents inside a bank. Local officials said the main county building and its ballot drop box remained open, but Bains canceled her election night party, citing the standoff.

In Southern California, sitting Republican Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim were drawn into the same conservative district and had been battling over their pro-Trump credentials. That was on the mind of Brett Christensen, a 55-year-old school safety monitor who voted for Calvert — who ultimately advanced to the general election — because Christensen thought the congressman had been a more reliable conservative vote.

“Young Kim’s voting record has not been consistent,” Christensen said outside a polling place in the city of Orange.

Meanwhile, in the San Francisco suburbs, six Democrats and two Republicans are running for the seat formerly held by Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned and ended his gubernatorial bid amid sexual harassment allegations. The top two vote-getters advance to the November ballot to fill the seat starting in 2027, while a special election will be held June 18 for the remainder of Swalwell's current term.

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This story corrects the spelling of the name of a candidate who is running in San Francisco. It is Saikat Chakrabarti, not Saikat Charkrabati.

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Sophie Austin in Elk Grove, California, and Amy Taxin in Orange contributed to this report.

The outlet reported this week that Google is pushing to do so as part of a “debug program.”

More specifically, the program is aimed at releasing sterile mosquitoes — dubbed “good bugs” — to bring down populations of mosquitoes that actually spread diseases like Zika, yellow fever and dengue.

Per officials with the program, this method can prevent the spread of such diseases without relying on unsustainable pesticides or trying to clear all of the standing water in an area, which is simply unfeasible.

“Our good bugs are male mosquitoes that have a naturally-occurring bacteria called Wolbachia, which makes them unable to have offspring with wild female mosquitoes," the program’s website reads. “Male mosquitoes can’t bite or spread disease, so good bugs will stop bad ones from reproducing.”

A Federal Register last month shows that if approved for a permit, Google plans to release the 32 million mosquitoes into Florida over the course of two years.

The EPA is seeking comment until June 5 before making the decision on whether to issue the permit.

State officials have released the official list of license plate configurations last year that were considered to be too racy for approval.

Many of the plate configurations either spell out or allude to sexual profanities, so reader discretion is advised.

The full list of 130 rejected plate configurations is below.

In a release, company officials said that the GLP-1 “Create a lifestyle that lasts” brochure can help customers find food and other items throughout the store that may help with weight loss.

“Within this brochure, you can use the overview of each department to spark ideas for your shopping list and learn more about the benefits of each item in the detailed sections of the brochure,” the release reads.

Per the company, the new brochure can be found on the pharmacy counter and is available to all customers.

[RELATED: Publix responds after ‘Pub Sub’ drama with News 6 anchors]

Meanwhile, Publix also pointed out other resources to help support a GLP-1 lifestyle:

• Better Choice shelf tags: When shopping the store or online, be on the lookout for the Better Choice shelf tags. These green tags identify items that have needed nutrients like fiber — as well as fewer unhealthy ingredients like saturated fat, added sodium, and added sugar.
• New digital weekly ad categories: Publix now has new protein and fiber categories in its digital weekly ad to help customers score the best deals on products that are good sources of protein and fiber.
• Explore protein picks and fiber finds: The QR code within the GLP-1 brochure leads to a product page that highlights protein and fiber options. Customers can filter to find products on sale or that have available coupons.

Uncle Robbie Thorpe, 68, turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Victoria state after two lower courts rejected his bid to launch a private prosecution against the king in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. Indigenous Australians use the titles uncle and aunt as marks of respect for community elders.

His case alleges the monarch, who is also Australia’s head of state, the Australian government and its institutions were perpetuating a genocide of Indigenous people by maintaining systemic disadvantages on multiple socioeconomic levels, making them the most underprivileged minority in the country.

Indigenous Australians account for 4% of the population. They die younger than other Australians, suffer worse health problems, and are more likely to be imprisoned and unemployed than other groups, according to official statistics.

Thorpe told The Associated Press if he exhausts his legal options in Australia, he would take the offense under the Genocide Convention to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.

“It’s clear that they’re unwilling, unable, reluctant to deal with these international legal issues like genocide,” Thorpe told the AP before the hearing, referring to the Australian judiciary.

He later told the judges Indigenous people were dying because their disadvantage in Australia was compounding.

“The Crown is responsible for all this mess,” Thorpe said. “Australia’s got away with genocide of Aboriginal people since they arrived here."

The British colonized Australia in 1788 and violently seized Indigenous people’s land without a treaty.

“They totally failed to prevent (genocide). That’s the crime here. They failed to prevent genocide knowingly and they failed to punish anyone for it,” he added.

The British punished Indigenous people for speaking their language and for practicing their cultures in a bid to make them Christian and Western. Generations of children were taken from Indigenous families in now-discredited assimilation policies.

Thorpe wore a traditional possum-skin coat in court and carried a feather from an Australian wedge-tailed eagle, an Indigenous totem.

He requested to be addressed in court as Uncle Robbie or by his tribal name Djuran Bunjileenee.

Justice Karin Emerton, the court’s presiding judge, referred to him as Uncle Robbie.

The king was identified in court documents as Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor.

Thorpe is attempting to charge the king under Indigenous law that has existed for more than 65,000 years, state common law and federal criminal law, court documents show.

In dismissing Thorpe’s appeal last year, a judge ruled that a magistrate was not allowed to consider Indigenous law and genocide was not an offense under common law.

The federal attorney-general would have to sign off on any genocide prosecution under federal law, the judge ruled.

Following a two-hour hearing on Wednesday, Emerton said the three judges would deliver their verdict at a later date.

If Thorpe loses, his final option would be Australia’s High Court before attempting to have the king prosecuted in The Hague.

The building in the Malviya Nagar neighborhood in the southern part of the city had a restaurant on the ground floor and a hotel above. The predominantly residential area is densely populated and is popular with students and young professionals.

The blaze was extinguished with the help of eight fire engines, and more than 40 people were rescued and taken to nearby hospitals, Delhi police said in a statement.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

Images from the scene showed firefighters trying to douse the blaze as thick smoke billowed from the building. Some people trapped inside were seen hanging from windows and shouting for help as flames and smoke swept through parts of the building.

Local residents also joined rescue efforts, helping evacuate people trapped inside and carrying some of the injured to safety.

Some of the victims were foreign nationals who had traveled to India for medical treatment, local media reported. Many foreign patients travel to New Delhi for medical treatment and often stay in nearby hotels or residential accommodation during their visits.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences over the deaths, his office said in a post on X. It also said that the families of those killed would receive 200,000 rupees ($2,088) each in financial assistance.

Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents.

The pact struck in 2022 with the Solomons’ then-Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare created fears in the United States and among allies including Australia that it would allow the Chinese navy to build a base in the South Pacific.

Before Wale became prime minister in a parliamentary vote May 15, he had called for the detail of the treaty to be made public.

Wale said Wednesday he had only been provided with a copy a few days ago and after he had “removed certain people from key positions.” He didn’t identify those people.

“I haven’t had a good look at it. I’ve had a look at it,” Wale told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra.

“I’ve been praying and fasting about it. … There is a nondisclosure clause in it, so I couldn’t show it to you right away. But we are going to be reviewing (the treaty), as we are reviewing other security agreements that we have with many other countries,” he added.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China was “ready to work with the new government of Solomon Islands to expand pragmatic cooperation in various fields so as to better benefit the two peoples.”

Wale was visiting Australia in his first overseas trip since he became leader of his nation of 700,000 people, 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) northeast of Australia.

Wale and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese announced their governments would negotiate a comprehensive strategic treaty that would elevate the bilateral relationship and cover security and economic issues.

Wale’s predecessor, Jeremiah Manele, had resisted Australia’s efforts to forge closer ties, but Wale said the two governments had decided to “reset” the bilateral relationship.

“We acknowledge that there’s been some problems in the past few years,” Wale said.

Albanese said Australia should be the Solomons’ primary security partner, rather than China.

“We have said very clearly we want Australia to be the security partner of choice in our region and we want the Pacific family to look after our security in this region,” Albanese said.

Wale said the regional looking after its own security was "the direction we want to take.”

China has provided police instructors to the Solomons as part of their bilateral deal. The Solomons doesn’t have a military, so police there have a larger security role than in countries with defense forces.

The Solomons provided China with a diplomatic coup in 2019 when Sogavare’s government switched official recognition to Beijing from Taiwan, the self-governed island democracy China claims as part of its territory.

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Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.