Gales at the weekend hampered firefighting efforts along mountainous and coastal areas while also allowing flames to spread more rapidly, but authorities said Monday the situation was improving.

A Greek and a Danish national died and two others were hospitalized in the helicopter collision. All four were private operators chartered by the Greek firefighting service.

Authorities warned areas surrounding Athens remained at high risk. More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from the region, including more than 250 rescued by boats from beaches in the area.

As parts of southern Europe continued to struggle with high temperatures, firefighters in France guarded against potential flare-ups inside a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris.

Easing winds help halt the advance of the flames

Strong winds eased Monday, allowing the deployment of 12 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters around the fire-hit Greek seaside resort of Porto Germenos where multiple evacuations have been ordered.

“To put it in a headline: conditions are better but we are pressing forward because there are still multiple points of activity,” Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said. “This is a difficult fire that has troubled us.”

The blaze was blamed on a faulty power line from a wind farm and led to the arrests of two contractors on charges of negligent arson.

Despite improved detection methods and an expanded cooperation among European Union members, Greece and other countries along Europe's Mediterranean coast suffer devastating wildfires every summer as spells of heat wave temperatures grow longer.

Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.

Massive blaze in France contained as evacuees return home

In France, thousands of evacuees were allowed to return home and or to holiday accommodation Monday after a massive wildfire remained contained. More than 224,000 people had fled in what officials said was the country’s largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.

The wildfire burned about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles), making it France’s largest wildfire on record. Monday's return includes Cap Ferret peninsula, a tourist hot spot along the Atlantic coast, and Le Porge, the municipality hardest hit by the fire, where 183 homes were destroyed. Campsites remain closed.

A second wildfire in Provence did not flare up overnight, but was still not contained Monday as stronger winds were expected, firefighters and authorities said. About 1,500 firefighters, supported by water-dropping helicopters, continued reinforcing fire lines along the blaze that tore through about 18 square kilometers (7 square miles).

The European Forest Fire Information System said the risk of wildfire remains high across parts of the continent through Aug. 5, including traditional cooler northern countries.

Firefighters in the Netherlands were battling a large blaze Monday in a forest in the southern province of Limburg, authorities said, as the country sweltered though another day of hot, dry summer weather. The national railway operator halted trains between two towns in the area due to the fire.

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Corbet reported from Paris. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Thomas Adamson in Paris and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands contributed.

Less than 10 miles away, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens was making her own appeal at another Black church, where one of the city’s most prominent pastors made the case for her.

There were fewer than 48 hours left in Michigan’s fiercely contested Democratic Senate primary. And after more than a year spent preaching starkly different visions for their party — with tens of millions of dollars poured into the race and national attention focused on it — both candidates had come to some of the same places looking for the votes to win it.

First, Black churches. Later, union halls. Then rallies surrounded by their core supporters.

Stevens, who has been through several competitive Democratic primaries, has a name for the frenzy of the closing days: “the last word phenomenon.”

“Everyone’s trying to get in their last points,” Stevens said.

Where the candidates chose to make those final points reflected the simple contest underneath all the money and ideological warfare: which one can assemble enough of Michigan’s Democratic coalition to win Tuesday.

The primary has become one of the clearest tests yet of where Democratic voters want their party to go. El-Sayed, a progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and other leaders on the party’s left, has run against much of the Democratic establishment. Stevens, a four-term congresswoman backed by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and many of Michigan’s top Democrats, has made electability and experience central to her case.

The stakes extend well beyond the primary. The nominee will need to bring a fractured Democratic coalition back together to defeat Republican Mike Rogers in November and hold an open seat that is critical to the party’s hopes of taking control of the Senate next year.

Both hopefuls focused on the Detroit area, where Democratic primaries are often decided

Democratic primaries in Michigan have long run through Detroit, where support from the city’s Black voters is often crucial.

El-Sayed’s pitch to those voters Sunday — during stops at three churches — centered on a vision of economic opportunity and equal treatment.

“I believe in the kind of America where no matter where you grow up, the color of your skin, how you pray, you deserve equal rights in this country,” El-Sayed told the congregation at Kingdom Covenant Church.

“You deserve to go to a good school, you deserve to get healthcare, you deserve to graduate and get a good job,” he added.

El-Sayed was joined by Democratic Reps. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, as well as Yusef Jackson, the son of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson who is president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

Pastor David A. Johnson II said welcoming a political candidate was not something he typically did, but “this particular season, it’s time for us to do something different.”

For Robin Robertson, a 59-year-old Detroit resident, El-Sayed’s visit came just in time. Robertson said she had gone back and forth over whom to support, waiting until the campaign’s final days to decide.

She ultimately settled on El-Sayed, saying Stevens “had a good run.”

“His agenda seems to match more for me the things that we need right now,” Robertson said. “And then, he’s here in my little church. That was confirmation that I’m going to vote for him.”

Stevens, meanwhile, emphasized her longstanding connections to Detroit-area churches.

At a church in Pontiac on Sunday afternoon, Stevens stayed after the service to speak individually with congregants, greeting many like familiar faces.

“I come here year-round. This isn’t just a campaign thing,” Stevens said. “Our churches are places of community refuge, community connection.”

Stevens and her allies have also made a direct appeal to Black voters through advertisements highlighting her ties to former President Barack Obama and her work as chief of staff for his administration’s auto rescue effort from 2009 to 2011.

Her campaign acknowledges that a strong showing among Detroit voters will likely be necessary for her to win Tuesday.

Reggie Williams, a longtime constituent who was supporting Stevens at an Oakland County event Sunday evening, said he continues to back her because she “has always been there for the people.”

“She is out and about in the community, always has boots on the ground,” Williams said.

Stevens, El-Sayed will focus on different parts of Michigan on final day of campaigning

After spending much of Sunday pursuing some of the same Democratic constituencies, El-Sayed and Stevens will take different paths across Michigan for the final full day of the primary.

El-Sayed plans to remain in Detroit, joining canvass launches and trying to turn enthusiasm in the state’s largest city into votes.

“This has been the heart of my public service," El-Sayed said about his decision to end the campaign in Detroit. “We wanted to come back here and demonstrate what this movement is and what it could mean."

Stevens will head west, making stops across West Michigan as she tries to maximize support in a region with Democratic strongholds in cities such as Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

The divergent schedules reflect the final calculation facing both campaigns after more than a year of campaigning: There are few voters left to persuade, and increasingly the task is making sure the ones already won over actually cast a ballot.

For El-Sayed, that means leaning into a volunteer operation his campaign says has grown to 12,000 people statewide and trying to drive turnout in places such as Detroit. Stevens is relying on the broader institutional support she has accumulated across the state, including endorsements from many of Michigan’s most prominent Democratic officials, such as Sen. Gary Peters and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

By Monday night, there will be no more churches to visit, union halls to address or rallies to hold. The television ads that have blanketed Michigan will have run their course, too.

Then comes what Stevens described as the inevitable other side of the “last word phenomenon.”

“The votes will be counted,” she said. “The election will be had.”

Deputies say they responded to that crash on July 29th, when they got another call that a similar car had just crashed into the front yard of a Port St. John home.

As deputies, along with Florida Highway Patrol troopers, arrived, they say they found several people out front, with one holding a cloth to their neck after being stabbed by Jadarius West.

The victims told deputies they were inside when they heard a loud crash, followed by West running onto the back porch and making his way through the sliding glass door.

That’s when, deputies say, the victims told them West demanded the keys, grabbed a knife, and cut one of the victims on the hand before stabbing a second victim in the neck.

A third victim was unharmed.

All three victims made it out, while West stayed inside, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies say they created a perimeter when West jumped out the window and was arrested.

West is facing multiple charges, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and is currently held on no bond at the Brevard County Jail.

ORIGINAL STORY: Payton Halloway went missing around 11 p.m. Friday from Altoona.

On Saturday, deputies traced a call the juvenile made to a neighbor’s phone before a witness reported seeing her climb into an SUV.

Deputies said they believe Payton Halloway was “actively avoiding being found,” and may have been with her boyfriend.

Deputies told News 6 earlier Saturday that Halloway has had some recent health issues, so they believed she may have been endangered.

The sheriff’s office has not said where or how Payton was found.

They have also not said if she was with her boyfriend.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% following its wild July, where it swung up and down as oil prices shot higher because of the war with Iran and worries grew about whether Big Tech’s massive investments in artificial-intelligence technology will translate into profits and whether chipmaker stocks soared too high in the euphoria around AI.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 624 points, or 1.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6% higher.

Some of the strongest action was in the oil market, where the price for a barrel of Brent crude fell 4.9% to $83.65. It dropped after President Donald Trump said over the weekend that he decided to hold off on ordering U.S. forces to carry out new strikes against Iran at the urging of allies in the region.

Brent careened between $72 and $102 last month as worries rose and fell about when the war with Iran would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again to deliver crude to customers worldwide.

The latest acquiescence by Trump on Iran helped to ease worries about inflation potentially getting worse, and Treasury yields correspondingly fell in the bond market.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.68% from 4.75% late Friday. It, though, remains well above its 3.97% level from before the war with Iran.

That jump is threatening to undercut prices for stocks and other investments, while slowing the economy by making borrowing more expensive for U.S. households and businesses. The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate has already leaped to its highest level in a year.

The drop in oil prices helped airlines and other companies with big fuel bills lead the market. United Airlines flew 5.6% higher, while American Airlines climbed 5.7%. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings steamed 5.4% higher.

On the losing end of Wall Street were stocks of companies that make computer chips, which have been swinging sharply on worries about whether their surging revenues because of the AI boom are sustainable.

If AI ends up produce less profit and productivity than hoped, Big Tech companies could curtail their spending sprees on data centers that have helped chip stocks soar to tremendous heights.

Micron Technology fell 4.9% Monday and was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500, but its stock is still up more than 170% for the year so far. Advanced Micro Devices fell 2.7 % to trim its surge for the year so far to 116%.

The manic swings for AI stocks have been most dramatic in South Korea, where the Kospi index is dominated by just two tech titans, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Seoul’s Kospi fell 5.1%. It was coming off a 17.9% surge from Friday, which was its best day in history.

In neighboring Japan, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% after the United States and Japan confirmed they had moved together to to prop up the value of the Japanese yen against the dollar. A stronger yen would help to limit inflation in Japan, but it could also potentially hurt Japan’s exporters.

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AP Writers Matt Ott, Elaine Kurtenbach, Mayuko Ono and Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.

The order leaves in place a declaration — rejected by a judge as improper self-dealing — giving Trump and his family retroactive immunity for any tax audits.

Trump says new talks to wind down the war in Iran will start Monday afternoon, after announcing he's holding off on another massive wave of strikes. His comments once again brought oil prices down on hopes of reviving shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Immigration remains a stronger issue for Trump than the economy or Iran, according to a new AP-NORC poll, even after three people were killed in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month.

Here is the latest:

Falling oil prices help calm Wall Street’s inflation worries, while chip stocks get back to sinking

Oil prices are easing and helping to calm Wall Street’s worries that inflation could potentially get even worse. That has U.S. stock indexes rising early Monday, but several major chip stocks are falling again including Micron and AMD.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 625 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%. The price of a barrel of Brent crude fell 5.1% to $83.42 after Trump said over the weekend he would hold off on ordering new strikes against Iran at the urging of allies in the region. Treasury yields fell.

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Trump overhaul could gut Head Start preschool quality standards

The Trump administration is planning a dramatic overhaul of Head Start that would gut its quality standards, two people familiar with the deliberations said.

Head Start, established in the 1960s to help fight poverty, has long been considered by experts to be a gold standard for early education. It has more than 100 pages of regulations that cover everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings to family engagement.

The Republicans would replace these with around a dozen pages of rules that leave most specifics to state and local law, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is not yet public and they feared reprisal.

The draft rules would require more documentation from homeless or unemployed parents, and an early version would have barred even the U.S. citizen children of parents who are in the United States illegally.

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US dollar weakens sharply against Japanese yen after Trump intervenes in market

The U.S. dollar weakened sharply against the Japanese yen on Monday after Trump and Japan’s finance minister confirmed that both sides had intervened in markets.

The yen’s prolonged weakness against the dollar has been a source of frustration for Tokyo. Since Japan imports so much of what it consumes, a weak currency pushes prices higher. High oil prices have amplified pressure on Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to do more to address the rising cost of living.

Normally, foreign exchange markets determine the relative values of currencies, and officials usually stay mum on any interventions, but Trump confirmed it on Sunday.

A weaker dollar makes U.S.-made goods more competitive. Analysts are describing the intervention as a “low-cost” way for Washington to pay a favor to a key U.S. ally.

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Blanche order keeps Trump’s ‘self-dealing’ immunity for any past tax audits

The document released by Blanche on Sunday night keeps a provision of the IRS settlement that provided broad tax-audit immunity for Trump and family, while limiting its scope.

It clarifies that the immunity “applies by its terms only retroactively” to claims open at the time of the settlement, and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.

On Friday, Trump’s attorneys notified a court they would appeal a judge’s scathing ruling that characterized the settlement of the president’s lawsuit against the IRS as an improper exercise in self-dealing.

The judge said that because Trump manipulated the court system by suing an agency he controls, the government cannot claim in official proceedings that the agreement resulted from a legitimate legal process.

Trump says talks on Iran war will begin on Monday after he holds off on ‘massive’ strikes

Trump said new talks to wind down the war in Iran and revive traffic through the Strait of Hormuz will start Monday afternoon, after announcing he is holding off on new massive strikes he had threatened to unleash on the country. Iranian state media, however, quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States.

Israel struck the Gaza Strip again over the weekend, after the U.S. and Hamas said a deal was reached for the militant group to disarm, a potential step toward ending the war in Gaza that depends on Israel stopping its attacks. The Israeli military said the strikes targeted militant operatives.

Hospitals in Gaza said at least 17 people were killed, including children. A strike on one residential apartment killed three family members including a 4-year-old child, according to Nasser hospital, where the bodies arrived.

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Why immigration remains strong for Trump among Republicans, according to a new AP-NORC poll

Immigration remains a stronger issue for Trump than the economy or Iran, according to a new AP-NORC poll, even after three people were killed in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in July.

Trump is not getting a glowing endorsement on his immigration approach from Americans overall, the new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found: Only 39% of U.S. adults approve of his performance on immigration, a decline from 49% at the beginning of his second term.

Despite that, about 8 in 10 Republicans continue to approve of how Trump is handling immigration. That’s a slight decline from the beginning of Trump’s second term, when about 9 in 10 Republicans approved, but his support within his base has been mostly stable despite a chaotic year of immigration enforcement actions.

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Iran déjà vu: Trump once again threatens massive escalation against Tehran only to walk back

Trump has played this hand before during the 5-month-old Iran war.

It starts with a grim warning to Tehran that he’s on the cusp of ordering U.S. forces to “obliterate” its power plants or seize key parts of its oil industry if its leaders don’t quickly agree to U.S. terms to end the war. It ends with him edging away with a last-minute declaration, sometimes at the behest of Gulf allies, that he’s going to give diplomacy more time.

The hardball strategy aims to create movement in negotiation through pressure and chaos. But the tactic is facing a challenge with an Iranian theocracy that believes it holds a higher threshold for strategic pain than Washington.

The latest episode began on Friday when Trump grimly declared that he was “losing faith” in negotiations with Iran and warned that the U.S. military “ will be hitting them very hard.”

But by late Saturday night, Trump declared on social media that there were signs of progress on reaching an agreement and so he was calling off a plan to carry out new, massive strikes for the time being.

▶ Read more

Blanche rescinds fund for Trump allies after GOP senators threaten to block his attorney general bid

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche finally put it in writing, issuing a formal order late Sunday terminating Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” to compensate his political allies. The move follows weeks of negotiations with two Republican senators who were blocking his nomination for the permanent job.

A spokeswoman for Texas Sen. John Cornyn confirmed the deal, which comes ahead of a Tuesday confirmation vote for Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The other GOP senator, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, did not have immediate comment.

Blanche said at a June hearing that the Justice Department would not move forward with the fund to compensate those who believe they were unfairly prosecuted, as he faced bipartisan outrage over the possibility that violent rioters who attacked police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be considered for payments. But Cornyn and Tillis, both members of the Judiciary panel, have said they wanted to see the promise in writing before they endorsed Blanche’s nomination — especially as Trump continued to express support for the idea.

▶ Read more

It starts with a grim warning to Tehran that the Republican president is on the cusp of ordering U.S. forces to “obliterate” its power plants or seize key parts of its oil industry if its leaders don't quickly agree to U.S. terms to end the war. It ends with him edging away with a last-minute declaration, sometimes at the behest of Gulf allies, that he's going to give diplomacy more time.

The hardball strategy — one that Trump honed during his years competing in New York’s real estate scene and has employed in politics — aims to create movement in negotiation through pressure and chaos. But the tactic is facing a challenge with an Iranian theocracy that believes it holds a higher threshold for strategic pain than Washington.

While Trump has reveled in the U.S. military decimating layers of Tehran’s leadership and devastating its air force and navy, Iran is betting it can outlast Trump as he faces diminished stockpiles of munitions and the difficulty of executing a war that is unpopular with the American electorate ahead of November’s midterm election.

The latest episode began on Friday when Trump, surrounded by his Cabinet, grimly declared that he was “losing faith” in negotiations with Iran and warned that the U.S. military “ will be hitting them very hard."

Hours later, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt heightened speculation in Washington — and around the globe — with an ominous statement asserting "Iran will continue to pay until they come to the table in, what President Trump deems, a meaningful way.”

But by late Saturday night, Trump declared on social media that there were signs of progress on reaching an agreement and he was calling off a plan to carry out new, massive strikes for the time being.

The next day Trump emphasized that requests to give diplomacy more time from unnamed Iranian officials as well as leaders from Gulf allies — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — were key to his about-face.

“It would have been disastrous for them. And they didn’t want us to do it,” Trump said of Iran as he spoke to reporters on his way back to Washington from a weekend at his New Jersey golf club. “And frankly, Saudi Arabia didn’t want it either. They thought that a deal is imminent.”

Critics see Trump reaching for a reset button in this pattern

Trump may still come to the conclusion that a massive escalation in the conflict with Iran is necessary.

But critics say his hesitation also might reflect an unspoken understanding inside the administration that U.S. military might alone may not be enough to compel Iran to back down and bring an end to a now monthslong war that Trump had earlier downplayed as a weekslong excursion.

“I think what we’re seeing here is a president who has an approach that’s just rather erratic,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on CBS News' “Face the Nation.” “At this point, he's trying to get us back to February. And I think if he could — if he had a big reset button he could hit — he would certainly take that option.”

There have been several moments over the course of the conflict when Trump has demonstrated his proclivity for the bellicose only to back off at the last minute, while declaring his threats spurred progress:

— In early April, the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire in an announcement that came less than two hours before a deadline Trump had set for Tehran to capitulate or face attacks on bridges and power plants — strikes he said would mean “a whole civilization will die.”

— After days of dire threats against Iran, Trump announced on May 18 he was holding off on a major planned military strike because “serious negotiations” were underway, crediting Gulf allies for persuading him to show restraint.

— Then in June, Trump threatened to hit Iran “VERY HARD” and seize Iran’s energy base on Kharg Island to "assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets,” he wrote on social media, only to call off the strikes in a later post after claiming that peace negotiations had progressed with high-level Iranian leaders.

Left unsaid by the president was that such an endeavor would require U.S. troops on the ground in Iran — a risky proposition politically for a president who campaigned on avoiding foreign entanglements and criticized past administrations for getting bogged down in endless wars.

Call with Saudi crown prince affected Trump's decision

With this latest episode, Trump suggested that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a particularly important role in him turning away from escalating the fight.

The U.S. president spoke by phone with the de facto leader of the kingdom on Saturday before announcing he was halting strikes that he later boasted would have been one of the biggest U.S. operations since World War II.

The crown prince conveyed that an escalation in fighting could have a severe impact on the global economy if Tehran responded to a new U.S. bombardment by targeting some of the United States’ Gulf allies, according to a person briefed on the call who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

Saudi officials, the person added, have underscored in their engagements with the Trump administration that the kingdom is in a good position to defend itself against further potential Iranian strikes — as are fellow energy titans Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — but that Kuwait could be more vulnerable to attacks by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

As Trump threatens escalation, Republicans face tough polling

Trump has insisted that November’s midterm elections aren't shaping his approach to the conflict that’s spurred unease across the global economy.

But it's certainly on the minds of his fellow Republicans.

About two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran, which began Feb. 28, has not been worthwhile, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research published last week. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as about 37% of Republicans.

One of Trump's most outspoken allies on Capitol Hill suggested on Sunday the administration needs to modulate its approach on Iran.

Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said on NBC's “Meet the Press” that the debate in Washington has lost perspective on the devastation the U.S. military has inflicted on Iran since the start of the war.

Still, the Republican lawmaker acknowledged that further escalating the conflict could lead to a further surge in already elevated energy prices and “a lot of inflation for the American people.”

Kennedy made the case that tightening sanctions and targeting Iran's nuclear program — rather than escalating the conflict — might be the best bet for the moment.

“They’re all hellish choices,” Kennedy said. “But for the moment I’d maintain the status quo.”

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AP writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed reporting.

“When the 2027 school year starts we will need to have a Superintendent,” one speaker said during Monday’s meeting.

District Communications Officer Sherri Owens confirmed Kornegay’s retirement announcement, telling the board, “Diane Kornegay recently announced she’s retiring.”

Kornegay has served in the role for just under a decade, and the board on Monday approved revisions to the superintendent job description. Board members said they want a candidate with deep experience in Florida schools.

They’re “looking for someone who has at least 10 years experience in Florida Schools,” including “at least five” years at a senior leadership level, a speaker said.

The board said it hopes to select a new superintendent by the end of October.

Another major topic at the meeting: updated plans for two new schools, including a proposed high school on Wellness Way.

Executive Director of Facilities and Growth Planning Kelly Randall said the district is moving forward with a required step tied to the state’s review process: “The capital plan the Board approved in September of 2025, reformatted for submittal to D.O.E.”

District leaders described Monday’s action as a “check-the-box” move for the Florida Department of Education.

Board members said the proposed Wellness Way high school could help families whose students currently travel about 15 miles to attend East Ridge High School, easing commuting stress.

For residents worried about congestion in the area surrounding the planned high school and elementary school, the board said additional road projects are expected before the schools open.

“There is a lot of road network to be built in that area. Lake County has been spearheading that,” one speaker said, adding that the high school is likely 5 - 7 years away, giving time for road improvements intended to relieve congestion.

News 6 will continue tracking this story as more details are released.

Monday's witnesses are expected to include police officers and doctors involved in the immediate response to the killings, building on testimony some of their colleagues gave for the prosecution last week.

Witnesses in ensuing days could shed more light on the mental health issues at the heart of the case. Clancy's defense says she was a loving mother who was overmastered by postpartum psychosis, a dangerous psychiatric condition that afflicts a small proportion of women after childbirth and affects their hold on reality.

Prosecutors contend that she acted intentionally and should be held criminally responsible for the deaths of Callan, Dawson and Cora Clancy, who ranged in age from 8 months to five years.

Clancy, 35, wept at the defense table as ex-husband Patrick Clancy and other witnesses testified last week about the killings.

He found the children in the basement of the family's home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, and their mother gravely injured in the yard. She had jumped out a second-floor window and remains paralyzed from the waist down.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

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Lindsay Clancy’s lawyers don’t dispute that the former labor and delivery nurse killed the children. But in the criminal trial and a medical malpractice lawsuit, her attorneys have said that she had bipolar disorder that wasn’t fully diagnosed until after the killings and that her condition seemed to worsen on an ever-shifting lineup of psychiatric prescriptions, some of them problematic for bipolar patients.

In the three months before the January 2023 killings, various clinicians prescribed Lindsay Clancy a range of antidepressants, sleep aids, an antipsychotic and other medications while she reported increasingly profound insomnia, anxiety, despair and confusion about what was real, according to her lawsuit.

Defendant sought help for postpartum depression

When she sought care at a postpartum depression program in late December 2022, providers noted that her symptoms might be due to medication, according to her lawsuit. It says those clinicians told her to taper off the antipsychotic drug and then discharged her after a day.

Clancy checked herself into a psychiatric hospital that New Year’s Eve and spent several days there. Once home, she resumed appointments with her psychiatrist, who last saw her for 17 minutes on Jan. 23, 2023, according to her lawsuit.

The next day, she believed a commanding voice was telling her to “kill the children so you can kill yourself,” according to her lawyers.

That evening, she asked her husband to run some errands, a request that prosecutors cast as a ploy to get him out of the house. In a rare site visit this past Friday, jurors passed the businesses to which he went, and then they were escorted through the Cape Cod-style home where the Clancys lived.

Father returns home to a shocking scene

In anguished testimony, Patrick Clancy told jurors last week about returning to a horrible scene at that house: a bloodied bedroom, an open window, his wife on the ground below it, the children in the basement, throttled with exercise bands.

“She killed the kids!” he told a 911 dispatcher on a call played in court.

In separate lawsuits, Lindsay and Patrick Clancy allege that various providers failed her and should have recognized she was a risk to herself and the children. The providers, at least those who have responded to date, deny the allegations and dispute that she clearly told them she intended to harm the children.

Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham sought in an opening statement last week to keep jurors' focus on the defendant, not her doctors.

“This is not a public debate about women’s mental health and how the medical system treats women," Buckingham said.

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

Superintendent Serita Beamon delivered her annual State of Our Schools address Monday, unveiling a new strategic plan and celebrating record academic achievements — even as the district confronts financial pressures that have already forced hundreds of job eliminations.

“I’m incredibly proud of where we are as a district, but I’m equally excited about where we’re going,” Beamon said.

A district with a strong foundation

Before addressing the challenges ahead, Beamon took time to lay out just how much ground the district has to stand on.

Seminole County Public Schools serves more than 58,000 students with nearly 6,500 employees, making it the largest employer in Seminole County. The district is the 13th largest in Florida.

For more than 20 years, the district has maintained an A rating from the Florida Department of Education — and this year, it holds a dual distinction as both A-rated and academically high performing, a designation that requires no failing schools, compliance with class size requirements and a clean financial audit.

“We are number one in Central Florida, number one of the 14 largest school districts, and number 11 out of all 67 districts in the state of Florida,” Beamon said.

Academic highlights: From third grade reading to college credit

The district posted some of its strongest academic numbers in years heading into the new school year.

This year, 95% of Seminole County schools earned an A or B grade — the highest combined total since 2011. Third grade reading proficiency climbed to 72%, up from 69% the previous year, ranking the district first in Central Florida and in the top five statewide.

Every one of the district’s 12 middle schools earned an A or B — and nearly half of all eighth graders completed Algebra 1 before entering high school, with more than 1 in 5 completing geometry.

Biology scores at the high school level jumped nine percentage points in a single year, vaulting the district from 27th in the state to ninth — and first in Central Florida.

“These efforts demonstrate exactly what happens when talented people align around a common challenge and then push,” Beamon said.

Looking ahead: AI, chronic absenteeism, new strategic plan

Beamon used the address to look forward, not just back — and she was candid about the work still ahead.

Chronic absenteeism remains a concern across the nation, and Seminole County is no exception. Beamon said the district has made progress reducing absenteeism at the elementary and middle school levels but acknowledged the challenge persists.

“Attendance remains one of the strongest predictors of academic success, and students need to be in school to benefit from the high quality instruction, meaningful relationships, and opportunities available in our classrooms each day,” she said.

On artificial intelligence, Beamon said the district has spent two years piloting AI tools, developing staff training and building policy — keeping a clear priority in mind throughout.

“We’ve worked with the knowledge that AI may be able to complement great teaching, but it will never replace it,” she said. “The heart of learning has always been, and will always be, those relationships between students and caring adults.”

Beamon also unveiled a strategic plan built around six priorities: safe and supportive environments, preparing students for a strong future, developing critical thinkers and lifelong learners, empowering staff, engaging families and community, and running an efficient, aligned district.

“This is not about changing who we are,” Beamon said. “It’s about becoming even better at what we do.”

Nearly $30M in cuts — and it’s still not enough

Despite those achievements, Seminole County Public Schools made nearly $30 million in cuts this school year — and the reductions still weren’t enough to fully balance the budget.

About 300 positions were eliminated in the process, a reality Beamon called painful but unavoidable.

“Always, always painful when we’re looking at having to reduce,” Beamon said. “But we hope that most of that cutting came through natural attrition or retirements and that sort of thing.”

School Board Chair Robin Dehlinger said the impact is felt most in the area that makes up the largest share of the district’s spending.

“The biggest proportion of our operating funds is salaries and benefits,” Dehlinger said.

The cuts have rippled beyond spreadsheets and into classrooms. News 6 previously spoke with parents at Millennium Middle School after several longtime teachers’ contracts were not renewed. The district cited budget cuts as a factor.

Beamon pointed to two forces squeezing the budget simultaneously: declining enrollment and an inadequate funding increase from the state.

“It certainly does not keep up with inflation, and it is offset for us in the ways when we’re looking at the declining enrollment and how that is impacting our system,” she said. “It simply doesn’t keep up with what we need to do here in Seminole County.”

Florida increased per-student funding by approximately 1.4% this year. Dehlinger said the broader trend is concerning.

“We are concerned about what we see as a declining support in terms of funding public schools,” she said, calling on the community to press state legislators on the issue.

Keeping schools open as enrollment falls

The district projects a decline of between 1,500 and 2,000 students in the coming school year. Because Florida schools are funded on a per-student basis, every student who leaves takes dollars with them.

Beamon cited a combination of shifting demographics, population changes and the growth of Florida’s school voucher program as factors driving the decline.

As neighboring districts have made difficult decisions — Orange County closed seven schools — Seminole County is committed to a different approach.

“We’re looking carefully at all of the ways that we can keep our schools open,” Beamon said. “One of the ways we looked at this year was doing some shared staffing models at some of our smaller schools.”

Dehlinger offered specifics: a bookkeeper shared between two elementary schools, a secretary split between campuses, or even a co-principal overseeing more than one school.

“We made a commitment that we’re not closing schools, and we’re able to make that commitment,” Dehlinger said.

Beamon said the model consolidates resources without eliminating programs or opportunities in the classroom and hopes it can be expanded if needed in future years.

Dehlinger framed the enrollment challenge in competitive terms.

“There’s a marketplace and we can be competitive in that marketplace,” she said, adding that the district is exploring outreach to help families better understand the opportunities available within Seminole County’s public schools. “We’re held to a very high standard and accountability, which many of those options are not.”

New facilities, new opportunities

Even amid budget constraints, the district is making strategic investments in its buildings and programs.

At Lake Howell High School, a new performing arts auditorium is set to open in December 2026. The second floor will house the Cyber Hawk Academy, a program designed to prepare students for careers in cybersecurity.

Lake Mary Elementary School is undergoing a full renovation, with students set to move into new, modern learning spaces after winter break in January 2027 — a project Beamon called “the perfect example of blending a school with 100 years of history and a new, modern facility.”

Transparency questions linger after Sabal Point incident

As the new school year approaches, parents have also pressed the district for accountability following an incident at Sabal Point Elementary School last fall.

A 23-year-old paraprofessional self-reported “concerning thoughts” to a school resource officer on Sept. 24. According to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, the employee had thoughts about cutting a 6-year-old student’s throat with a knife when he became frustrated, and also said he had thoughts about carrying out a school shooting. He requested to be placed under a Baker Act and subsequently resigned after being placed on administrative leave.

Parents were not notified for several days, sparking outrage at a subsequent school board meeting.

Monday, our News 6 team asked the superintendent about the changes that followed ahead of a new school year. Beamon acknowledged the incident — while noting legal limits on what the district can publicly share.

“What the Sabal Point situation showed us is that when we sat down with parents, with staff, we sat down with our law enforcement partners — for the things that we can share — we looked at where do we put that in the calculus for when something is happening,” Beamon told News 6.

She said the district made procedural changes and the school board updated its policy on law enforcement partnerships following those conversations.

“We’ve listened, we’ve learned, and we are looking forward to moving forward in a real collaborative way with our parent community,” Beamon said.

School safety: SROs, weapon-detecting dogs

School safety remains a top priority. At the board’s upcoming meeting, agreements with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department and seven municipal law enforcement partners will be renewed, ensuring an SRO in every school. Also up for a vote: a new weapon-detecting dog program through the Longwood Police Department.

Beamon thanked Sheriff Lemma and law enforcement partners by name during her address, calling Seminole County’s safety model “innovative and collaborative.”

“We can all sleep better at night because of it,” she said.

E-bikes on radar, no countywide ban yet

Both Beamon and Dehlinger addressed growing concern about e-bikes among younger students when asked, a conversation gaining momentum across Central Florida. Dehlinger said she hopes the region moves toward a unified, countywide policy rather than each district acting independently.

“What other counties do will have an impact on how people think about things,” Dehlinger said.

Despite the challenges ahead, she was resolute about where things stand as the first bell approaches.

“Right now for this school year, all of our schools are open, all of our schools are staffed, and we are ready to go,” Dehlinger said.

Beamon echoed that forward-looking sentiment in her closing remarks.

“Every morning, more than 58,000 students walk through the doors of our schools — carrying hopes, dreams, talents and unlimited potential,” she said. “I truly believe that our best days are still ahead.”

The policy, which takes effect this school year with a grace period for families to adjust, prohibits students without a driver’s license or learner’s permit from bringing e-bikes or e-scooters to school. District leaders said about 11,800 students regularly use the devices to travel to and from campus, with most of those riders attending middle school.

The vote followed hours of public comment, with many families arguing the restrictions would create transportation challenges.

“If this passes tonight, I don’t know how they are getting to school,” one parent told board members.

Others urged the board to approve the changes, saying safety should take priority.

“I support the policy generally,” another parent said. “There are other ways to get to school.”

One speaker simply pleaded, “Let the kids scoot.”

Even students weighed in. A seventh grader told the board that riding an e-bike has allowed them to get to school while both parents work full-time.

“With my parents having full-time jobs, this has allowed me to get to school on time,” the student said. “I don’t believe this is the best way to keep them safe.”

Board members said the regulations were prompted by a growing number of crashes involving the devices. District leaders reported 41 incidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters that resulted in injuries between December and May.

Board member Alicia Farrant said the district hopes the policy also encourages broader action beyond Orange County.

“I do believe it will let the state know this is a problem and we really do have to have some regulations and rules in place,” Farrant said.

Among those supporting the changes was Ashley LaChance, whose 13-year-old son, Colton Remsburg, was killed after the e-scooter he was riding was struck by a pickup truck in Lake Nona. While she said education remains important, LaChance told the board immediate action is necessary.

“Families need to understand while a temporary change might be uncomfortable, this permanent change is unbearable,” she said.

LaChance says, “We are starting a nonprofit organization called Helmet On, which is developing a smart helmet that uses innovative technology to improve safety and help break through the limits of traditional helmets."

While in the meeting, several parents argued the district should focus on traffic safety education instead of restricting access to e-bikes and e-scooters. Speakers called for students to receive instruction on responsible riding, helmet use and traffic laws.

Multiple board members responded that enforcing roadway safety cannot become another responsibility for educators.

“Asking our teachers to take up traffic enforcement sets them up to failure,” one board member said.

Another added, “We do not need to be the DMV.”

Some parents questioned whether the policy would improve safety, arguing students could simply park their e-bikes off campus and continue riding to school. Other board members said families successfully transported children to school long before e-bikes became commonplace.

“Families have been getting kids to school for years without e-bikes or e-scooters,” one board member said.

The district said the new regulations will be implemented for the upcoming school year, with a grace period intended to give families time to adjust.

The district’s regulations outline requirements for where the devices can be used and stored, along with additional expectations for student riders.

The district is requesting the Osceola County Commission place a referendum question on the November ballot asking voters to approve or reject an operational millage to help fund both traditional and charter schools.

Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff said the stakes couldn’t be higher.

“We are now at a point where it’s going to be pretty catastrophic over the next four years if we don’t do something,” Shanoff said.

The proposed millage — one mill — equals $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property value. For a home with a taxable value of $200,000, that works out to $200 per year. If approved, the millage would last for four years.

“One mill, we have calculated, would generate $62.5 million. Now because about 25% of our students attend charter schools, we would need to provide the charter schools with their proportional share. So this this millage, not just benefits students in your traditional stock schools, but it also benefits the traditional charter schools as well,” Shanoff explained.

If approved, a independent citizen advisory committee would oversee how the money is spent. Shanoff tells News 6 that the money would go toward competitive pay and benefits to recruit and retain teachers and staff, maintaining safety and security personnel, and preserving academic programs including arts, music and athletics.

Here is the question voters would see on ballot:

“To provide for essential operating expenses, including competitive compensation and benefits to recruit and retain high-quality teachers and staff, maintain safety and security personnel, preserve academic programs, arts, music, athletics and student activities, shall the School District of Osceola County levy an ad valorem tax of one mill for four years, to be shared proportionately between public and charter schools, with oversight by an independent citizen advisory committee?”

District leaders say budget pressures are not new. Over the past two years alone, the district has already been forced to make significant reductions.

“Over the last two years, over $60 million we’ve had to cut out of our budget,” Shanoff said. “Osceola County schools, we only we generate the the second lowest per pupil funding in the entire state. We have the second lowest administrative overhead in the state. So when people say, ‘oh, we’ll just cut the district office,’ we’re already lean at the district office. We really can’t cut any more than we’ve already cut. So at the end of the day, it’s really important that our public knows that we’ve taken the austerity measures that we can possibly take.”

Without new revenue, Shanoff warns those cuts will continue and deepen. About 80% of the district’s total operating budget goes toward salaries and benefits, making personnel the most likely target.

“If it doesn’t pass, we’re going to be looking at further austerity because we will have to cut people,” he said. “There’s no other way to handle this than to cut people, and when we cut people, that means that we cut critical services and critical programs to our schools.”

One area of particular concern is school safety. State law mandates that schools have at least one armed security officer during the school day. Osceola County schools are currently staffed by school resource officers through a cost-sharing partnership between the district and local municipalities — including the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, St. Cloud Police Department and Kissimmee Police Department.

Shanoff said that arrangement could be jeopardized if local governments face their own budget constraints, especially as voters statewide consider Amendment 3, which would overhaul state property taxes.

“If the municipalities run short of funds, the responsibility of staffing armed security at schools comes back to the school district, and we will have to go with private armed security, different than having actual law enforcement on campus,” Shanoff said.

The millage, he says, would help cover the municipality’s share of those costs and keep sworn law enforcement officers in schools.

Beyond safety, Shanoff points to federal funding reductions as another growing threat to student programming.

“If Title 4 goes away, all of a sudden we run the risk of having to cut back on our arts and our athletics programing. If we end up doing that, all of a sudden we’ve taken away the draw for so many of our students into schools. We know that our parents want our kids involved in the arts. We know that our parents want our kids involved in athletics,” Shanoff said.

“We want to make sure that those opportunities are still available for our students, because many of them use those opportunities as a launching point to where they go next. And for many of them, that means also being able to pay for college, which is really, really important.”

Shanoff also frames the millage as a matter of regional competitiveness when it comes to hiring qualified teachers.

“Otherwise, we stand to lose really great teachers and staff members who can then go somewhere else in Central Florida that may be paying more as a result of having their operational millage already in place and approved,” he said.

As for whether the district is considering closing or consolidating schools, like other districts have recently done, Shanoff says that it is not an option right now, but he did not rule it out entirely.

“I think everything is on the table,” he said. “Especially in lean budget times and especially as costs continue to rise. I think that school districts are forced to do more with less.”

On Monday, the Osceola County Board of Commissioners will vote on whether or not to put the referendum question on the ballot. The board cannot make any changes to the question, only decide if it will go before voters.

If they pass it, voters would then be able to weigh in on the millage question on Nov. 3. For more information on the millage request, visit the school district’s website.

Grande had been due to star alongside her “Wicked” co-star Jonathan Bailey in a production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park With George” at the Barbican theater in 2027.

Empire Street Productions said Sunday that Grande will no longer be part of the West End production. A representative for Grande told People magazine that the 33-year-old singer “will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour.”

“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” the statement said. A representative for Grande did not offer further comment to The Associated Press.

With Grande’s recent breakup from “Wicked” co-star Ethan Slater, the ongoing tour and last week’s release of the album “Petal,” attention has swelled, fueling rampant speculation online about her health and appearance. Grande has previously expressed discomfort with public discourse around her weight.

“I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” she said in a 2023 TikTok video.

Late last year, while promoting “Wicked: For Good,” she reshared a 2024 interview in which she said it was uncomfortable having being picked apart for her appearance since she was a teenager. In the December social media post, she called the clip a “loving reminder to all.”

Grande found fame as a child performer on Nickelodeon before releasing her debut album, “Yours Truly,” in 2013. She has won three Grammy Awards and was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for her role as Glinda in “Wicked.”

Grande's next concert is Monday in Chicago. Her tour is due to wrap up in London on Sept. 1.

“We know this cannot have been an easy decision, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support,” Empire Street Productions said. The company said “Sunday in the Park With George” will open next summer as planned, and that casting would be announced “in due course.”

Scattered showers rolled in, some packing heavy rain that lingered into the evening. Rainfall totals varied across central Florida with some spots seeing over an inch of rain, while others recorded less.

Tonight’s lows will remain muggy, settling in the mid-to-upper 70s under partly cloudy skies.

As kids head back to school this week, mornings at the bus stop will start off dry but humid, so lightweight, breathable clothing is a good idea.

By late afternoon, scattered downpours are likely across the interior, meaning umbrellas and rain jackets will come in handy for the trip home. Some heavy, slow-moving storms could lead to minor flooding, much like over the weekend.

As for the tropics, the National Hurricane Center is closely monitoring Invest 97L, an area of low pressure near the Cabo Verde Islands. There’s a 60% chance of development into a tropical depression within 48 hours, and a 90% chance over the next seven days. While it may organize enough to become Tropical Depression Five or even Tropical Storm Erin by mid-week, its eventual path—and whether it impacts any land—remains uncertain.

Orange County Public Schools begins the school year with an estimated 3,000 fewer students than last year.

With the drop in enrollment, OCPS is projected to receive a $27 million reduction in state funding.

[VIDEO BELOW: Innovative school bus-tracking app]

The difference in funding has prompted the district to issue a four-year pause on the construction of relief schools.

Luminary Elementary School, which opens Monday, is Orange County’s newest campus. After opening two more schools next year, the district will halt new construction until 2031.

Superintendent Maria Vazquez attributed the drop in enrollment to declining birthrates and Florida’s school voucher program.

“I do believe we are the top choice when it comes to educating your child, but it also involves all of us listening to what it is our families need and want in their public schools, and then for us to take action on those needs,” Vazquez said.

[VIDEO BELOW: Trooper Steve on crosswalk safety]

In Seminole County, district leaders estimate a decline in enrollment of more than 1,000 students, which translates to a $13.5 million loss in state funds.

Superintendent Serita Beamon said there was a reduction in workforce at both the school level and district level to accommodate for the reduced funding.

On Monday, the district highlighted a new expansion of Seminole High School’s Health Academy as an example of specialized education programs that are offered throughout the county.

“We have more options for parents and they can fulfill all of their desires for their students’ education career right here in our public schools,” Beamon said.

The Orange County school district has hired a recruitment firm to survey families who have left the district and is attempting to increase enrollment by luring those students back.

Vazquez said the early results from the recruitment firm have been promising.

“We have some very preliminary numbers that indicate that we have recouped families that had left OCPS,” Vazquez said. “Right now, it looks like we’ve recouped a couple of hundred families to come back.”

OCPS is expected to have a better idea of enrollment numbers and recruitment efforts after the first two weeks of school.

“If schools had more students show up, they will gain allocations and dollars,” Vazquez said. “If there were schools where families did not show up or their enrollment is down, then we will adjust for that as well.”

For the third time as superintendent, Dr. Mark Rendell greeted bus drivers and students, starting at 6 a.m. at a bus depot in Titusville and then before the first bell at Pinewood Elementary in Mims.

When the bus routes started Monday, the district began a new program to protect students by penalizing drivers who go around buses as students are getting on and off their buses.

[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]

“If a driver drives past a stopped school bus, they’re gonna be recorded and they’re gonna be issued a ticket,” Rendell said.

After a five week grace period to start the new year, the ticket will be $250.

“The whole goal is to make sure our students can get on and off the bus, safely,” Rendell said. “The $250 ticket should get everybody’s attention.”

Brevard County community correspondent James Sparvero then turned his conversation with Rendell toward a new cell phone policy the school board is set to debate on Tuesday.

The board is considering not allowing K-12 students to use their phones at any time during the school day.

Rendell called it a strengthening of the phone policy that was enacted during debates about student discipline in recent years.

Students weren’t allowed to use their phones in class.

“The board’s taking a step to make sure that students don’t use the cell phones at all during the day,” Rendell said. “The idea is from the first bell of the day to the last bell of the day, students aren’t using their cell phones. They’re not distracted. They focus on their school work.”

Parent Rebecca Dean said she thinks it’s a bad idea.

“I just think, overall, it’s a better option for our kids to have their phones,” she said.

For parents who are concerned that their children won’t have access to their phone in case of emergency, Rendell said they will be able to.

“Students are always gonna be able to access their phones if they need to in emergency,” he said. “And also, we used to handle emergencies without cell phones years ago. So, we’ll still be able to do that.”

They are consolidating Exceptional Student Education services for children with special needs. Some parents have criticized the move that will see many ESE students in general classrooms.

“They might have an additional cognitive disability or they could have a hearing disability or a vision disability,” said Dr. Rene Clayton, Osceola County district’s deputy superintendent.

Osceola County School District’s Deputy Superintendent said they are trying to address the learning challenges of all students.

That’s why they are now putting many of their ESE students in general classrooms. They used to be in separate classes.

Clayton said this will be a good learning experience for all students.

“They will have exposure and opportunities to work together and understand each other better and be more accepting of one another,” Clayton said.

Having all different types of students in the same classes was decided a few years ago and is now being implemented.

“It is not for financial reasons at all, it is decided because we have challenges with making sure that we have enough people that are fully certified, providing the highest quality services and having the greatest outcomes for our students,” Clayton said.

There are just over 13,000 ESE students who will be affected.

However, there will be a few schools set up for those with the most severe challenges.

[WATCH: Osceola County talks driver shortage, new bus app on first day of school]

The decision Tuesday followed an emotional, hours-long meeting where more than a dozen parents, students and educators urged the board to keep the observance, which has been recognized in the district since 2019.

The observance, which takes place throughout October, is one of dozens of monthlong, weeklong, and daylong holidays listed on the OCPS school board calendar for celebrations and observances. The list also includes Hispanic Awareness Month, National Bullying Prevention Month, Florida Family Engagement Month, Black History Month, Autism Awareness Month, and Internal Audit Awareness Month.

None are listed on the regular school district calendar on the website.

[WATCH: New school opens in Orange County as district works to improve enrollment]

Board member Alicia Farrant, who introduced the proposal, called the proclamation redundant, noting that OCPS also recognizes June as Pride Month and June 12 as Pulse Remembrance Day to honor the victims of the 2016 nightclub shooting.

“Orange County Public Schools are seeing a huge decline in enrollment, and many of the families that I’ve spoken to who are leaving are doing so because the school is continuing to show that their focus is not on all the children and making sure that education is a priority, but instead focusing on smaller community groups and celebrating them,” Farrant said. “I have parents who come out and tell me that this is happening, but they’re afraid to say anything because of the retaliation.”

Other parents and educators spoke in favor of keeping the proclamation, including local advocate Judi Hayes, whose son also addressed the board.

“These are kids who are really disproportionately affected by mental health issues,” Hayes said. “And I feel like anything that we can do to help those kids feel comfortable, feel included, not singled out, is important.”

[RELATED: Florida public schools face leaner budgets, declining enrollment amid scholarship growth]

Regular public school classes let out at the end of May. Only summer school is in session in June.

OCPS said plans for how schools will mark LGBTQ+ History and Awareness Month will be determined by the individual schools.

A district spokesperson said it can include acknowledgments posted on the web or on school marquees.

This marks the second time in two years that an effort to remove the proclamation has failed.

2025-26 OCPS School Board Observations-Celebrations by Christie Zizo

According to an August survey from the National Retail Federation, 37% of people who still had half of their shopping to do were waiting to find the best deals.

News 6 went to Academy Sports where not only are qualified purchases tax free, the company is also offering other savings.

Sunil Keshwah, visiting from Georgia, said his family didn’t know about Florida’s month-long sales tax holiday and that they would benefit.

“We’re really excited,” Keshwah said. “Definitely have some stuff on our list that we can make use of getting them while we’re here.”

[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]

News 6 visited an Academy Sports store where managers said several items fall under the tax-free holiday, including footwear, lunchboxes, backpacks and clothing.

The company is also holding last year’s pricing on kids’ clothes and shoes and is offering a 10% discount to teachers and school staff for the month of August.

Even though they don’t live in Florida, Keshwah said promotions like this help with budgeting.

“We have to start planning a lot more, just basic groceries, like what we’re going to buy, when we’re going to buy, shopping around more, using coupons, fliers, sales ads a lot more,” Keshwah said.

Anthony Morrison, store director at Academy Sports, said the retailer aims to ease the stress of back-to-school shopping.

“We understand that convenience is key and so is price,” Morrison said. “So, if we can make a one-stop shop for everybody to come in here, it be affordable, friendly. That’s our main priority as a company right now.”

The National Retail Federation estimated total back-to-school shopping for K-12 at $39.4 billion in 2025, up slightly from $38.8 billion in 2024.

Eric Anderson told News 6 he got the first email from Walmart in early April.

“I said, ‘Oh, this is just a junk email, nothing’s going to come,’” Anderson said.

Then, the packages arrived, including duplicate car vacuums, three of the same shower curtains, three of the same women’s sweaters and two sets of toy cars.

“I have no use for any of these,” Anderson stated.

Anderson also said he was expecting a large box containing a mobility scooter he believed cost about $400, but instead found a small phone holder.

“I expect to go out and see a box this big. There’s a phone holder,” he explained.

According to Anderson, the purchases were made through his Walmart account and charged to credit cards linked to it. He reported the orders as fraudulent to Walmart and to his credit card companies immediately. In letters Anderson provided to News 6, both card companies, Bank of America and Capital One, initially sent letters stating they were investigating the charges.

A little more than a week later, both card companies sent Anderson another letter stating he was on the hook for the charges.

“After researching your case, we found insufficient evidence of fraud because information we discovered leads us to believe you or another account user benefited from the transactions,” Capital One stated in its letter.

Meantime, Bank of America told Anderson in its letter, “We made this decision because we confirmed the merchandise was shipped or services(s) was provided to an address listed on your account.”

Anderson called the situation frustrating, “The system didn’t work for me. I reached out to my credit card company, immediately, which is what you’re told to do in cases of fraud.”

Anderson told News 6 his Walmart account had been compromised and that Walmart confirmed to him that it was hacked. He said his account was suspended, preventing him from printing receipts to return the items, and he claimed repeated calls to Walmart left him getting “the runaround.”

“I actually got frustrated. I kind of gave up on it,” he said.

After News 6 contacted Walmart, the company reached out to Anderson. They marked the purchases as fraudulent and provided return shipping labels to Anderson. He said he shipped the items back and received a refund.

“I wanted to let you know that after several weeks and much correspondence with Teresa from Walmart, they finally refunded all of the money back to my credit cards,” Anderson wrote in an email to News 6, “I know this would not have happened without your involvement.”

Walmart’s website advises customers who see unauthorized charges to contact their bank or credit card company immediately. The retailer also recommends resetting passwords and deleting any saved payment information.

Some leftover moisture and the sinking provided by that clockwise spin overhead produced some patchy dense fog throughout our area Sunday morning and will do the same for our interior counties tomorrow. Confidence is high this will carryover into Tuesday as well, as we return to the grind and kids get back to school in most counties as well.

Thankfully, we aren’t tracking any significant weather players in the immediate future for your week ahead. It looks like fog and warmer afternoon temperatures will remain the talk of the town as we go through the next five days together.

We will have some twists and turns ahead though, as we look beyond the next couple of days deeper into the month of January.

Subtropical ridging takes hold of our local weather pattern starting as early as tomorrow afternoon, as our daytime high’s surge at least 3-5 degrees above the norm.

We’ll follow that stride throughout the workweek, and then weekend brings some change. This change could be rather abrupt and even dramatic if current trends continue.

A strong winter storm is slated to develop during the latter half of the week, sometime late Thursday into Friday. The storm in of itself won’t have any influence on us, however it will begin the familiar tugging on cold air from up north across the heart of the lower forty-eight.

By late Saturday and the first half of Sunday, our next cold front will be dropping by for a visit.

Rain chances are still a bit up in the air, but with warmer temps situated out ahead of the front and quality moisture being pulled in along its leading edge suggest a few of us could get some more much-needed rain.

The temperatures are the primary detail we’re monitoring. With as fast as we raced towards above average territory we could plummet right back to below average temperatures, and perhaps stay there for a little while with some fluctuating going on beyond that.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! We have a couple days of morning fog and warmer temps to get through before we can start really discussing another big-time Orlando cooldown.

The embassy said “Kyiv terrorists” wanted to “scare the Italians working in Russia and to show them that they too are in the crosshairs and could become the scoundrels' next victims.”

It said the Saturday night attack on the Balzi Rossi restaurant killed five and injured 19, adding that its Italian chef and his staff were unhurt only thanks to a Russian security guard's “vigilance and selfless dedication to his professional duty.”

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities.

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which coordinates various security agencies, initially reported a lower death toll in a statement issued shortly after the attack. It said the bomb killed three people, including a woman who carried the explosive device into the restaurant, a guard who stopped her, and a guest inside. It said 21 others were injured when the bomb detonated near the restaurant's entrance.

The committee didn’t say who was the target or name the mastermind.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Sunday described the bombing as a “brutal terrorist act,” but did not say who was responsible for the blast at the upscale restaurant, which is located on the ground floor of a high-rise apartment building that is one of seven skyscrapers in the city that date to the era of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the embassy’s statement or explain the higher death toll. The ministry did not issue its own statement on the incident.

Several Russian media outlets claimed the bombing targeted a Russian general who was celebrating his birthday at the restaurant. Some claimed that the general was Col.-Gen. Alexander Chaiko, who recently was appointed the chief of Russia's aerospace forces. The claims could not be independently verified.

Russia blamed Ukraine for past attacks on military officials

Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for a series of bombings and other attacks against senior military officials after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Earlier this year, Russia’s Federal Security Service said authorities would tighten security around senior military and government officials following the attacks.

In February, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alexeyev, ​the deputy head of the GRU ‌military ⁠intelligence service, was shot three times at a Moscow apartment building, but survived. Ukraine denied its involvement.

In December, a car bomb killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff, in southern Moscow. Ukraine refrained from comment.

In April 2025, another car bomb that Moscow blamed on Kyiv killed Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in Russia’s General Staff. Ukraine didn't claim the attack but hinted at its involvement.

And in December 2024, a bomb hidden in a scooter killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed the Russian military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, one of the few attacks Ukraine openly acknowledged.

Among other prominent victims of bombing attacks in Russia were Daria Dugina, the daughter of influential nationalist thinker Aleksandr Dugin, and Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known pro-Kremlin military blogger. Kyiv denied involvement in the attack on Dugina, and remained coy about the attack on Tatarsky.

A 54-year-old who took over in October 2024, Pochettino led the U.S. to the World Cup round of 16, where the tournament co-hosts were eliminated with a 4-1 loss to Belgium.

Still, he helped the seeded U.S. to a pair of firsts in the expanded 48-nation tournament, clinching advancement from the group stage with a game to spare and winning three games in a single World Cup. The team captivated American fans with excited audiences in stadiums and record television viewers.

“The magic thing that happened during the World Cup, the connection with the people, of course with the whole organization and everything was a key point,” Pochettino said during a Zoom news conference from his home in Barcelona, Spain.

Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin is again the lead philanthropic funder supporting Pochettino’s contract. Pochettino earned just over $5 million in his first seven months as coach, according to the U.S. Soccer Federation tax return.

Since reaching the quarterfinals in 2002, the U.S. has lost four straight round-of-16 games.

“What we learn(ed) is that we can compete, that we have the quality and we have the talent,” Pochettino said. “We were so close. That gap with the best teams in the world is not too big.”

Pochettino said there is potential to make soccer in the U.S. “grow and grow and grow and be one of the important sport(s) in America, like it is in the rest of the world.”

“We have players and organization that can compete with the best organization in the world in that sport,” he said. “We learned that the fans are amazing and when they were so excited to discover a sport that made our fans become crazy, no? The connection was amazing.”

Pochettino views the next cycle as a new start for a program lacking quality depth at goalkeeper and central defender.

“It is going to be important to provide the young kids that we really believe that they have the potential to arrive in 2030, in four years, to start to work and start to know,” he said.

Before taking the U.S. job, Pochettino coached Espanyol (2009-12), Southampton (2013-14), Tottenham (2014-19), Paris Saint-Germain (2021-22) and Chelsea (2023-24).

When Pochettino replaced Gregg Berhalter two years ago, he signed an initial contract through the 2026 World Cup. Pochettino said ahead of the tournament that he had discussed a possible new deal with the USSF. He also said in May that his agent had spoken with AC Milan, a club that then hired Rúben Amorim.

Pochettino, who has homes in Spain and London, said he may move to the U.S. He intends to stay with the American team until 2030 but left himself an out.

“Four years time is a really long period. You never know what can happen in soccer,” he said. “Today people really love you. In eight weeks time, maybe that change(s), that feeling."

He has led the U.S. to 17 wins (including a penalty-kicks victory), 13 losses and one draw. Twenty-three of 62 players to appear under Pochettino have accounted for the team’s 57 goals.

“We know we have a lot of work to do to achieve our clear ambitions, including competing to win Men’s World Cups and having soccer become the most played sport in every community,” USSF CEO JT Batson said in a statement.

U.S. coaches have not been successful when they remained for a second World Cup cycle.

After leading the Americans to the 2002 quarterfinals, Bruce Arena was unable to get his team past the group stage in 2006.

Bob Bradley helped the U.S. reach the round of 16 in 2010, then was fired a year later after the team lost the CONCACAF Gold Cup final.

Jurgen Klinsmann took over and in December 2013 was given an extension through the 2018 World Cup. The Americans reached the round of 16 in 2014 but Klinsmann was fired in late 2016 after the U.S. lost its first two games in the final round of qualifying. Arena returned but the U.S. failed to reach the 2018 World Cup.

Berhalter was hired in late 2018 and led the Americans to the round of 16 in 2022. Given a new contract in 2023, he was fired a year later after the U.S. failed to advanced past the group stage of the Copa America.

“We are going to demand more from them," he said of the players. “We are not going to be in some situation(s) not flexible like we were because before it was (for) the benefit of players, benefit of structures that were already built. But now it’s about to start the house from zero.”

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

Two photographs published with the announcement showed Suu Kyi shaking hands with Arnaud de Baecque, the ICRC’s representative to Myanmar, and meeting with him in a wood-paneled room.

The Presidential Press and Information Bureau, which released the photographs, said the meeting was held Monday morning but did not disclose the location of the meeting or provide details about what was discussed.

The ICRC confirmed in a statement on Monday that one of its delegates visited Suu Kyi under its standards and procedures for visiting people deprived of liberty, and spoke with her in private, but it did not disclose details of the discussion.

The organization said it continues to engage with all relevant actors to maintain and expand its access to places of detention in Myanmar.

Two other photographs showed Suu Kyi cutting a pink birthday cake bearing the inscription, “Happy Birthday Aunty Suu,” suggesting they may have been taken during a celebration for her 81st birthday in June.

In the photos, Suu Kyi appeared relaxed and was smiling. She did not show any obvious signs of ill health, although her physical condition could not be independently assessed from the images.

The release came as calls are growing from other countries, including Myanmar's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, for access to or engagement with Suu Kyi as part of efforts to resolve the country's political crisis.

Kim Aris, her younger son living in London, and Myanmar democracy activists has been waging an online campaign named to demand evidence his mother is alive and well.

In a statement sent to the AP, Aris welcomed the reported ICRC visit, saying it could mark the first positive development concerning his mother in more than five years.

“This may be a first step, but it must not be the last,” Aris said.

He thanked governments, the international community and supporters for standing with his family and backing his campaign to seek proof of his mother’s well-being, while stressing that he had not yet received independent confirmation of her condition.

He said he hoped the visit would lead to direct family contact and her eventual release together with all political prisoners.

Suu Kyi was detained Feb. 1, 2021, when the army seized power from her elected government. She has not been seen publicly since then, and the last official photo of her released was in April, when she was moved from prison to house arrest and her sentence was reduced as part of a prisoner amnesty for a Buddhist holiday.

The country's military leaders, who have faced sanctions and widespread international isolation since seizing power in 2021, have sought to project a return to normalcy by holding a 2025 election and increased engagement with regional neighbors.

However, critics say the transition to a nominally elected government largely composed of former generals and holdovers from the previous military-led government has done little to change the military’s grip on power.

Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the opposition National Unity Government, said the ICRC’s meeting with Suu Kyi shouldn’t be taken as a real move to address human rights or democracy issues.

“Since, from the outset, a country’s leader was wrongfully arrested and imprisoned by finding faults where there were none, she must be released without any conditions,” he said.

The talks will seek to end the conflict and revive stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war.

Iranian state media quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States.

Elsewhere, Israel struck the Gaza Strip over the weekend, days after the U.S. and Hamas said a deal was reached for the militant group to disarm, a potential step toward ending the war in Gaza.

Hospitals in Gaza said at least 17 people were killed in the weekend strikes, including children. A strike on a residential apartment in southern Gaza killed three family members, including a 4-year-old child, according to Nasser hospital, where the bodies arrived.

The Israeli military said the strikes targeted militants.

Here is a look at the most important developments in the Middle East today.

Trump announces renewed talks

Trump said Sunday that he decided against carrying out major strikes against Iran at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He said a plan was in place for U.S. forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II,” but he decided to give diplomacy more time after hearing from key Gulf leaders, as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials.

“Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” he said. He did not provide further details or say who would be involved in the talks.

Trump has had a pattern of threatening massive strikes that he later calls off, with the announcements often later upended by renewed attacks. The abrupt shifts have been a defining feature of the five-month war that has upended global markets and sent the prices of fuel and other basic goods soaring.

Iran negotiates with Oman on contested trade route

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Tehran is not currently holding negotiations with the United States.

Esmail Baghaei, an agency spokesperson, said Monday that ongoing talks were with Oman, the country that lies on the other side of the strait, and were focused only on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the channel.

Nine vessels transited through the strait Sunday, most of them using an Iranian-controlled route, according to trade data and analytics platform Kpler.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived Monday in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf to participate in the Arbaeen commemorations, an annual pilgrimage for Shiite Muslims, his office said on social media.

Araghchi’s trip comes as Iraq has been walking a tightrope between Iran and the U.S., an act that has only grown more fraught since the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran in February.

Syrian and Iraqi leaders discuss security concerns

Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Iraq’s Kurdish regional president met Monday to discuss ways of improving mutual cooperation and contributing to regional security.

The meeting between al-Sharaa and Nechirvan Barzani came amid regional tensions as Iranian-backed Iraqi militia groups carried out multiple drone strikes targeting American interests across Iraq, including the country’s Kurdish region.

Syrian state media reported last month that authorities at the country’s border with Iraq thwarted an attempt in June to smuggle weapons believed to have been headed to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. Hezbollah denied the charges.

Iran executes 2 men it says spied for Israel

Iran’s judiciary said it executed two men Monday after convicting them of spying for Israel during both last year’s 12-day war and the ongoing conflict.

The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the two as Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat, who were accused of providing military coordinates, images and other intelligence used in attacks on Iranian targets. It did not specify where the executions took place.

Last week, Iran publicly hanged two men convicted of killing four police officers during nationwide anti-government protests in January.

Gaza’s residents swelter in tents

Soaring temperatures in Gaza this summer have turned the makeshift tents sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians into suffocating ovens. Made of plastic sheets, the shelters trap heat during the day and offer little ventilation, forcing many families to spend hours outside.

The extreme weather compounds an already dire humanitarian crisis. With limited access to clean water, electricity and sanitation, overcrowded camps are grappling with flies, mosquitoes and other insects. Humanitarian agencies such as the Norwegian Refugee Council warn that the conditions heighten the risk of dehydration, heat-related illnesses and the spread of skin infections, diarrheal diseases and other communicable illnesses.

“It’s very hot. We can’t stay inside the tents. Our tent is made of nylon,” said Aida Abu Hadeesha, a woman displaced from the town of Rafah, near the border with Egypt. “There is no breeze, nothing, and our kids are suffering," she said, adding that the stifling heat continued all night. "The flies and the cockroaches attack us.”

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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press reporters Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is term-limited, making the race to replace her a top takeover opportunity for Republicans. Although Kansas votes reliably Republican in statewide federal contests, the state also has a 60-year streak of electing governors from the opposite party of their immediate predecessors.

The Republican primary for governor will be the latest test of President Donald Trump’s influence in Republican primaries this year. He has endorsed state Senate President Ty Masterson over former state Rep. Charlotte O’Hara, financial services executive Philip Sarnecki, state Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt and Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab.

The Democratic primary field features state Sens. Ethan Corson and Cindy Holscher and Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog.

Sarnecki has outspent the rest of the field, thanks in large part to the $2.5 million he loaned his campaign. His running mate, data analytics firm founder and former Wichita school board member Joy Eakins, also has deep pockets. She loaned her own gubernatorial campaign $1 million before dropping out and joining Sarnecki’s ticket. She has since made a $50,000 contribution to the campaign.

Schwab loaned more than $2.1 million to his campaign and ranked second in overall spending. Masterson was fourth in overall campaign spending, but he outraised Sarnecki and Schwab in donor contributions, excluding candidate loans.

In the Democratic primary, Corson about doubled Holscher and Skoog's combined fundraising and spending. He also has a key endorsement from Kelly.

In the race for U.S. Senate, Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall seeks his party’s nomination for a second term and has Trump’s endorsement. Marshall won his 2020 primary with about 40% of the vote against former Secretary of State and current state Attorney General Kris Kobach.

He faces a quixotic primary challenge from Arch Naramore, who will appear on ballots under his middle name, Pond. Naramore challenged former U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback for the Republican nomination in 2004, receiving 13% of the vote in a head-to-head matchup.

The crowded, 11-candidate field for the Democratic nomination includes former U.S. Department of Agriculture official Christy Davis, Methodist megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton, real estate developer and entrepreneur Erik Murray, state Sen. Patrick Schmidt, retired financial services executive Sandy Spidel Neumann and marketing professional and Afghanistan War veteran Noah Taylor.

Hamilton has outraised the rest of the combined Democratic field.

Republicans have won every U.S. Senate election in Kansas since 1932. No Democrat has ever been elected to the seat Marshall holds since the state first began direct elections of U.S. Senators in 1914.

Voters will also decide a statewide ballot measure that would allow the direct election of state Supreme Court justices and remove the governor's role from the process. Under the current system, a commission of mostly attorneys compiles a list of three finalists to fill a state Supreme Court vacancy, and the governor makes the final choice.

Also on the ballot are contested primaries for U.S. House, secretary of state and state Board of Education. All 125 state House seats are up for election in 2026. Republicans control 70% of seats in the chamber.

Johnson County in the Kansas City suburbs is the most populous county in the state and plays a big role in both statewide Democratic and Republican primaries, as do Wichita-based Sedgwick and Topeka-based Shawnee counties. The state’s two most heavily Democratic counties, Douglas and Wyandotte, tend to be more influential in Democratic primaries than in Republican primaries.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET. Polls in most of the state are in the Central time zone and close at 8 p.m. ET, but some polls are in Mountain time and close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, secretary of state, state Board of Education and state House, as well as for a statewide ballot measure.

Who gets to vote?

Voters registered with a political party may vote only in their own party’s primary. In other words, Democrats can’t vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may participate in either primary if they affiliate with that party at the polls.

How many voters are there?

As of May 1, there were about 2 million registered voters in Kansas, including about 894,000 Republicans, about 495,000 Democrats and about 588,000 voters not affiliated with any party.

How many people actually vote?

About 463,000 Republican primary votes and about 289,000 Democratic primary votes were cast in the 2022 primaries for governor.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 45% of the Democratic primary vote and about 28% of the Republican primary vote in the 2024 state primaries was cast early in-person or by mail.

As of Friday, about 133,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, roughly 62,000 from Republicans and about 60,000 from Democrats.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Kansas counties vary in how they release vote results, but about half release results from mail voting along with in-person Election Day voting over the course of the night.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2022 Democratic primary for governor, the AP first reported results at 8:24 p.m. ET, or 24 minutes after polls closed in most of the state. The vote count surpassed the halfway mark at about 10:02 p.m. ET. The last vote update of the night was at 3:31 a.m. ET with about 96% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

There are no automatic recounts in Kansas, but candidates may request and pay for one regardless of the vote margin. If the candidate requesting the recount is declared the winner, then the counties will bear the costs. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 91 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

The Slovenian rider’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG team announced its lineup for the three-week race on Monday, confirming Pogačar will take part after claiming a record-equaling fifth Tour de France crown last month.

“It was my first ever Grand Tour back in 2019 and an amazing experience,” Pogačar said. “Spain is a country I love to visit and race in and I think the time is right to go back.”

Exclusive clubs

Pogačar joined Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spaniard Miguel Indurain, and Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault as the only riders with five Tour de France titles to their names.

Unlike male riders including Hinault, Anquetil, Merckx and Jonas Vingegaard, however, Pogacar has not won the Spanish Vuelta for a hat trick of Grand Tours wins.

Pogačar, who won the Giro d’Italia in 2024 by a big margin, is also bidding to become just the fourth male rider to win the Vuelta and Tour de France in the same year after Anquetil, Hinault and Chris Froome.

Spanish Vuelta

The 81st Vuelta starts on Aug. 22 with an individual time trial in Monaco – where Pogačar lives – before making its way through France and Andorra to Spain. It concludes in Granada on Sept. 13 after nearly 3,300 kilometers of racing.

The 27-year-old Pogačar won three stages when he finished third on his last and only appearance so far at the Vuelta.

“Joining Pogačar are João Almeida, Jay Vine, Pavel Sivakov, Pablo Torres, Kevin Vermaerke, Domen Novak and Ivo Oliveira,” UAE Team Emirates-XRG said.

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

The small Phoenix Tailings refinery tucked inside an office park in Exeter, New Hampshire, could play a key role in helping America break the chokehold China has on the processing of critical minerals, but it will take 14 to 18 months to build a new factory with a $500 million loan from the Pentagon to drastically expand the company's separation and metallization capacity, a particularly weak stage in the U.S. mines-to-magnets supply chain.

The task that workers carry out in heat-resistant suits and sealed face masks has become more urgent with the war in the Middle East rapidly drawing down munitions because critical minerals are a key ingredient in widely used U.S. weapons systems such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, THAAD interceptors and F-35 fighter jets. While the White House is demanding military contractors speed up weapons production, it’s also imposing even stricter rules banning them from sourcing critical-mineral components from China.

“It will be a tall order and a challenge to replenish these stocks and scale up in the time frame needed to meet defense demand and regulations,” said Anthony Balladon, the chief commercial officer and a co-founder. He said the company is working hard to greatly increase its capacity.

Although the U.S. is quickening its pace to rebuild the domestic supply chain of critical minerals, free of control from its most formidable rival, most new U.S. mines are years away from reality, so extracting some of these hard-to-pronounce elements from existing mine waste can help satisfy the growing demand in the meantime.

Phoenix Tailings

has big plans

As its name indicates, Phoenix Tailings taps tailings, or waste from traditional mining, as well as recycled magnets and disk drives as the raw materials for separation and metallization, the stage at which China has the strongest hold.

To make inroads, the company, based in Woburn, Massachusetts, plans to build a facility to extract and produce critical metals, such as neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, dysprosium, samarium and yttrium, which are needed in defense, aerospace and automotive industries.

“We call it the Freedom facility because, ultimately, the purpose of this is to ensure that the entire Western Hemisphere, the United States and its allies are free of Chinese influence within the rare-earth space,” Balladon said.

On a recent afternoon, two technicians in heat-resistant hazmat suits were operating an apparatus of cylinders, tubes, funnels and control panels set up on a platform with bright yellow railings. A chemical process involving electricity removes oxygen and turns the oxides feed into a grayish metal: neodymium-praseodymium, which can be used to make extremely strong permanent magnets used in fighter jets, missiles, radar systems and drones.

The metals Phoenix Tailings refines and other critical minerals play “an outsized role” in defense systems, Balladon said. A $150 million weapons system won’t work if it's missing critical minerals that may be worth only $20,000 to $30,000, he said.

The U.S. defense sector is particularly reliant on samarium and needs 50 to 100 tons each year, but the U.S. capacity is very limited, he said.

Phoenix Tailings is among the few companies capable of producing the final metal, according to Balladon, but its capacity is only about 200 kilograms (440 pounds) a year. He said the company will scale up to about 5 tons in the next three months but it will be next year or 2028 before it reaches its goal of 120-ton capacity.

Another US magnet maker looks to France

For years, the U.S. magnet maker Arnold Magnetic Technologies relied on China for samarium to produce the extremely strong, stable-in-high-temperature magnet that goes into precision-guided missiles such as the Tomahawks.

That doesn’t work any more. For Arnold, the solution has come from a relic of Europe’s past rare-earth industry — abandoned mined dirt in the French city of La Rochelle.

Solvay, a Belgium-headquartered chemical company, ceased operations to separate and process rare earths from the mined dirt in the 2000s. That was when China was building up most of the world’s processing capacities with a determination to dominate.

Then came April 2025, when China weaponized its near-monopoly by choking the outflow of processed critical materials and forcing the U.S. government to back off in their trade war. It was then that Solvay restarted separating neodymium and praseodymium at the La Rochelle site, and this year it began to separate heavy rare earths such as samarium, dysprosium and terbium, a Solvay spokesperson said.

“This ramp‑up is driven by several factors: rapidly growing demand for permanent magnets, increased geopolitical focus on supply chain security, and strong customer demand in Europe and the United States for more diversified, resilient and traceable sources of supply,” the company spokesperson said.

In Rochester, New York, where Arnold is headquartered, higher costs by Solvay, as compared with China, have not been a deal-breaker, because the samarium-cobalt magnets that it manufactures account for only a small cost in a weapon system, said Matt Blake, chief executive officer of Arnold Magnetic Technologies. “They are not the absolute cost drivers,” he said.

The surge in demand for such magnets has worked in the company’s favor, said Aaron Williams, the company’s chief commercial officer. “From our end, it’s a good opportunistic growth," he said.

But not all metals are equal

Brodie Sutherland, chief executive officer of Patriot Critical Minerals Corp., which seeks to explore and mine tungsten in the U.S., is concerned that the U.S. will not be able to get by without China-sourced tungsten after Jan. 1, 2027, a deadline imposed by the Pentagon.

The U.S. is fully dependent on imports, with China controlling roughly 80% of the global mine supply and an even larger share of downstream processing, Sutherland said.

Efforts to ramp up U.S. production will take years, he said, and in the meantime the Pentagon and its defense contractors will need to rely on existing inventories, expanded recycling and limited non-China sources.

Iran war and Trump's China order create pressure and opportunity

The need to increase production has become more urgent as the war with Iran digs into the U.S. military’s already diminished stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors. This could force the U.S. and its Middle Eastern allies to take more risks to conserve those air defenses, potentially putting American troops at risk, according to an analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

It also has raised concerns that the U.S. military would have diminished firepower in any potential future conflict with China. CSIS warned in May that it could take at least three years to replenish stockpiles of the Tomahawks, Patriots and THAADs, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptors.

But just last month, Trump, a Republican, complicated the mission by announcing stricter controls on defense contractors sourcing critical materials from China. His executive order also curtails the Pentagon’s waiver authority should a contractor cite “non-availability” of a domestic source. It criticizes defense contractors for failing to prioritize domestic production.

“It is the policy of the United States that not only the finished equipment deployed by our military, but also the critical materials and components necessary to manufacture, maintain, sustain, and repair that equipment, are sourced domestically or from allied nations,” the July 20 order declared.

In a statement, Lockheed Martin said “we continuously assess the global rare earth supply chain to ensure access to critical materials that support our customers’ missions.” Several other major U.S. defense contractors, including Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman, didn’t respond to The Associated Press' requests for comment.

Balladon is confident that U.S. companies and partners can rise to the task. “Ultimately, with the right support and partners across the industry," he said, “we think we can make it happen.”

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Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.

The Mutiara Sentosa 2 ferry was traveling from Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java to the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi. Initial reports said it was carrying 271 people, including 39 crew members, based on the ship’s manifest, when the fire broke out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

However, by Monday officials said many more people were aboard than listed, and the number of people missing was unclear. Officials were relying on reports from families of victims and survivors in an attempt to determine the number of the missing.

It is common in Indonesia for the number of passengers on a boat or ferry to differ from the manifest. Such discrepancies can complicate search and rescue efforts, said Nanang Sigit, the search mission coordinator who also heads the Surabaya Search and Rescue Office.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation. Indonesian navy ships assisted, along with a number of passing vessels, at the scene about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Sapudi island in the Sumenep regency.

The vessel was also loaded with 180 vehicles, mostly trucks.

Ahmad Abdul Karim, a survivor, said the fire appeared to have started in a truck on the lower vehicle deck.

“Fanned by the wind, the flames spread extremely quickly,” Karim said, “In less than 30 minutes, everyone had been instructed to move to the bow of the ferry.”

Another passenger, Azhari, said many passengers had just woken up when the fire erupted, apparently from the rear of the ferry.

“The fire spread quickly to the middle of the vessel,” Azhari, who goes by a single name, said in a television interview. “There was no other option for us but to jump into the sea.”

He said passengers were in the sea for about four hours before passing vessels began pulling them to safety.

Television news showed exhausted survivors disembarking from a rescue vessel at a harbor in Surabaya, while rescuers transported bodies to ambulances and grieving relatives waited for information.

Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi said the government would review the performance of the ferry’s operator, Atosim Lampung Pelayaran, after the National Transportation Safety Committee, or KNKT, completes its investigation.

“First we need to determine the cause based on KNKT’s findings,” Purwagandhi said.

The ferry was built in Japan in 1992 and was sold to Indonesia in 2015. With a length of 160 meters (525 feet), it can accommodate 689 passengers and 49 crew, along with up to 181 vehicles.

The Mutiara Sentosa 2 serves the Surabaya-Makassar route, a voyage that typically takes around 40 hours and is primarily used by domestic travelers and cargo transport between the islands of Java and Sulawesi.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

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Associated Press journalists Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

The state is one of the nation’s most competitive electoral battlegrounds, as the last three presidential elections firmly established. In 2026, in addition to the pivotal U.S. Senate contest, Michigan will host fiercely contested races for governor, U.S. House and the state Legislature.

Progressives scored high-profile victories in the past year with the election of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s mayor and several U.S. House primaries where progressive candidates defeated longtime Democratic incumbents. While those contests all were waged on safe, heavily Democratic turf, the race to replace Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters is expected to be a marquee matchup in the November general election, raising the stakes of Tuesday’s Democratic primary between U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and former Detroit public health official Abdul El-Sayed.

Stevens has endorsements from much of the state’s Democratic establishment, including Peters, term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, former U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and state Attorney General Dana Nessel. Her notable out-of-state backers include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and South Carolina U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who recently campaigned with Stevens in heavily Democratic Detroit.

El-Sayed has endorsements from prominent progressive leaders including U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

While El-Sayed has outraised Stevens in the campaign overall, including more than doubling her fundraising haul in the first two weeks of July, the two were on roughly even footing in terms of available cash heading into the final stretch of the primary season. But Stevens has benefitted from heavy spending by outside groups, including a committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The group, the United Democracy Project, has spent more than $30 million since June in support of Stevens and against El-Sayed, according to Federal Election Commission records. AIPAC’s political operation has been active in supporting pro-Israel candidates in primaries this year, but its sizable investment in the Michigan U.S. Senate primary marks a dramatic escalation in the group’s willingness to engage in a single contest.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s July withdrawal from the primary has not added much clarity to the race. She has not endorsed either remaining candidate, and both campaigns are vying for her former supporters. Her name remains on the ballot.

The winner will face former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination. Rogers ran for the state’s other U.S. Senate seat in 2024 but narrowly lost to Democrat Elissa Slotkin.

Wayne County, home to Detroit, is the state’s most populous county and is a major source of votes in statewide Democratic primaries. Oakland and Macomb counties in the Detroit suburbs and Grand Rapids-based Kent County are key state battlegrounds in both primaries and general elections. Washtenaw County, home of the college town of Ann Arbor where El-Sayed has taught, is heavily Democratic and wields more influence in Democratic primaries than in Republican ones.

In previous establishment-vs.-progressive statewide Democratic primaries, the progressive candidates tend to post their strongest numbers in Washtenaw and Kent counties, regardless of the statewide outcome. Sanders carried both counties decisively in his narrow win over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential primary and placed a close second in both in his 17-point primary loss to Joe Biden in 2020.

Wayne County has the state's highest share of Black residents, at about 37%, according to the U.S. Census. About 8% of Wayne County residents are of Arabic, Middle Eastern or North African descent, the highest share of any county in the nation.

In the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Wayne delivered for the establishment candidates. Sanders carried almost every county in 2016, but Clinton still almost won based largely on the strength of her showing in Wayne County.

In the race for governor, Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Republican U.S. Rep. John James are the front-runners in their primaries. Benson faces Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson, while James’ lone remaining opponent is wealthy businessman and former 2024 presidential candidate Perry Johnson.

A handful of Michigan congressional districts could decide control of the U.S. House. Among the most competitive is the 7th District which includes Lansing, the state capital. The three-way Democratic primary features former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, community organizer William Lawrence and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam. The winner will face freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett.

Competitive primaries are also underway to replace James in the 10th District and Stevens in the 11th District.

In the heavily Democratic 13th District anchored by Detroit, Shri Thanedar faces a tough primary challenge from state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who’s won endorsements from El-Sayed, Sanders, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Tlaib in the neighboring 12th Congressional District and several other of Thanedar’s progressive U.S. House colleagues.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 8 p.m. local time, which is 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET. Polls in most of the state are in the Eastern time zone and close at 8 p.m. ET, but some polls in the Upper Peninsula along the Wisconsin border are in Central time and close at 9 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Any eligible voter may participate in any party’s primary. Michigan does not register voters by party.

How many voters are there?

As of July 6, there were about 8.3 million registered voters in Michigan.

How many people actually vote?

About 934,000 Democratic primary votes and about 880,000 Republican primary votes were cast in the 2024 U.S. Senate primaries.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 63% of the vote in the 2024 state primary was cast early in-person or by mail. Michigan adopted early voting for statewide and federal races after voters approved a 2022 ballot measure expanding voting opportunities.

As of Friday, more than 1 million ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Michigan counties vary in terms of when and how they release vote results, but the first vote updates of the night across the state tend to be a mix of results from mail, early in-person and in-person Election Day voting. The most populous counties of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent, Genesee and Washtenaw counties tend to release relatively few results from any vote type in the their first vote updates.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 Democratic U.S. Senate primary, the AP first reported results at 8:03 p.m. ET, or three minutes after polls closed in most of the state. The vote count surpassed the halfway mark at 12:03 a.m. ET. By 4:12 a.m. ET, about 95% of the vote had been counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Recounts in Michigan are automatic in statewide races if the vote margin is 0.1% or less of the total votes cast. There is no automatic recount in state legislative primaries. Under the state’s 2024 recount law, candidates may request and pay for a recount if they have a “good-faith belief” that there’s a “reasonable chance” they would have won the contest if not for a vote-counting error. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 91 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Russia has used glide bombs to smash Ukrainian towns and cities since it invaded its neighbor more than four years ago. The weapons are Soviet-era bombs retrofitted with guidance systems and can carry up to 3,000 kilograms (6,600 pounds) of explosives, leaving huge craters. Ukraine has no effective countermeasures against them.

Meanwhile, six people were killed by Ukrainian drone debris in Arkhipo-Osipovka, a small town on Russia’s Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region, regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said, adding that 40 others were wounded.

Also, three people were killed and two were wounded in Kyiv’s overnight attack on the illegally annexed Crimea, said the peninsula’s Russian-installed head, Sergei Aksyonov. He gave no details.

Neither side’s claims could be independently verified.

Russia's glide bombs are big and hard to stop

The Sunday evening onslaught on Zaporizhzhia killed a 71-year-old woman and wounded 31 people, including a 16-year-old girl, as the glide bombs damaged 22 apartment buildings in four districts of the city, Fedorov said.

While Moscow’s forces have captured the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and hold other parts of the region, its capital city of the same name remains in Ukrainian hands. It is one of the four regions, also including Donetsk, Kherson and Luhansk, that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022 even though its forces do not completely control them.

Other large-scale damage of civilian areas of Ukraine has resulted from Russian ballistic missiles, and late Sunday President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made another urgent plea for countries to send Ukraine more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems.

Only Patriot interceptors can reliably stop ballistic missiles, but they are in short supply due to the Iran war.

“The world has Patriot missiles. What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need. Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people — not sit in stockpiles.”

U.S. President Donald Trump last week appeared to back off from his earlier commitment to give Ukraine a license to make Patriots itself. He said Friday that the licensing matter is still under discussion and he hasn’t made a final decision.

Zelenskyy has suggested an alternative to Trump whereby Elon Musk allows Ukraine to use Starlink satellites to target ballistic missile launch sites inside Russia. Officials haven't publicly said whether that is being considered.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 181 long-range strike drones overnight from Sunday to Monday, according to the Ukrainian air force. It said air defenses jammed and intercepted 163 drones, but 14 caused damage at 13 locations.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces struck four bulk carriers carrying cargo for the Ukrainian armed forces, including three in waters of the Black Sea and one in the port of Mykolaiv, but provided no further information.

Ukraine's long-range drone strikes cause more damage

As well the reported Russian deaths in drone attacks, Ukrainian drones also struck another major warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online shopping company.

The strike was part of a campaign that has hit more than a dozen of the retailer’s distribution hubs and severely disrupted its business.

A Wildberries warehouse in the Vladimir region east of Moscow caught fire in the latest attack, the company said Monday.

Three people were injured, Vladimir Gov. Alexander Avdeyev said.

Ukrainian drones also struck the Saratov oil refinery in southwestern Russia, Zelenskyy said. Kyiv has repeatedly targeted that refinery, and many others, since last year as it tries to choke fuel supplies to the Russian army and deny Moscow income from oil exports.

The Engels military air base near Saratov, which is the main base for Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers, and other targets inside Russia, including fuel storage tanks at the Lyudinovskaya oil depot in Russia’s Kaluga region, were also targeted, according to Zelenskyy.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday reported that its air defenses overnight intercepted 131 Ukrainian drones over a number of Russian regions, as well as Crimea and the Black Sea.

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

Before late last week, the dollar was trading above 163 yen, touching 40-year highs. After regulators were suspected of stepping in, it fell below 160 yen.

Early Monday, after the official announcement of the intervention, the dollar fell to nearly 155.20 yen. That’s a big drop for the exchange rate. The dollar was trading at 156.70 yen early Monday Eastern time.

Even though it has attracted millions of bargain-hunting tourists, the yen's prolonged weakness against the dollar has been a source of frustration for Tokyo. Since Japan imports so much of what it consumes, a weak currency pushes prices higher. High oil prices have amplified that problem and that's putting pressure on the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to do more to address the rising cost of living.

Joint intervention was needed to stem the yen's decline

Efforts earlier this year to raise the value of the yen against the dollar did little to budge the exchange rate.

Normally foreign exchange markets determine the relative values of currencies, but there are many factors that shape what happens in the markets.

A big gap between interest rates in the U.S. and Japan has led investors to sell yen and buy dollars to take advantage of the higher yields from dollar-denominated assets. Both the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve kept their interest rates unchanged at meetings last week, maintaining that gap.

So, last week, when the dollar slipped below 160 yen and stayed there, the U.S. side was suspected of lending a hand.

Officials usually stay mum on such actions. But on Sunday, Trump confirmed that the U.S. side had helped, and Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama likewise issued a statement saying the finance ministry had purchased yen in coordination with the U.S. Treasury Department.

“We will not hesitate to conduct further joint intervention,” she said.

Such overt acknowledgment of market intervention is rare, said Neil Newman, managing director and head of strategy at Astris Advisory Japan. He said the last big example was when governments intervened following a massive earthquake and tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan in 2011.

Why the US is helping support the yen

When asked why Washington was helping, Trump said Sunday that “We have a good relationship with Japan. We’re very strong —- very, very strong financially — and they are, you know, they have a weakening yen, and they wanted a little bit of help, and we’re always there for Japan. Japan’s been very good to us, with the exception, of course, of Pearl Harbor.”

Trump said the U.S. got “financial benefit” out of the intervention, calling it a “signal of friendship.”

“It’s also good for the world economy,” he said.

A weaker dollar makes U.S.-made goods more competitive, reducing their costs in yen terms, and might help increase American exports to Japan, Newman said.

“It’s very rare that the Americans will work with the Japanese on this, but there is an alignment of interests here basically between Japan and America,” Newman said.

It was a “low-cost” way for Washington to pay a favor to a key U.S. ally, while also protecting the stability of foreign exchange and bond markets, Shigeto Nagai, head of Japan economics for Oxford Economics, said in a report.

Analysts question if the intervention worked

The latest intervention appears to be having a more durable impact than earlier cases this year, and the yen may have a slightly stronger path for the rest of the year, Nagai said.

But the factors that have contributed to the yen's long-term weakness remain.

Takaichi has pushed to cut Japan's sales tax on food to 1% from 8% and to dramatically increase government spending. Such moves would tend to weaken the yen since it would increase inflation and add to Japan's already massive government debt.

The Bank of Japan has moved slowly to raise its benchmark rate from near zero to the current 1%, its highest level in 31 years but still well below the Federal Reserve' s rate of 3.5%-3.75%.

It likely will continue to slow-walk any changes as it evaluates the impact of the Iran war and other factors on the economy, Nagai said.

Meanwhile, a surge in oil prices because of the war and resulting higher inflation has kept the Fed from cutting rates.

“The yield differential remains wide, Japan’s energy-import burden remains significant, and the Bank of Japan is still moving more slowly than the market would normally require to generate a sustained currency reversal,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

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Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok. AP journalist Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

If commissioners approve the proposal, the measure will appear on the November ballot, allowing voters to decide whether to permanently prohibit the construction, expansion, operation or approval of new data centers in Edgewater.

Unlike a temporary moratorium, the proposal would establish a lasting prohibition on data centers and would also prevent the city from adopting future policies that would allow them.

The proposal comes as data centers continue to expand across the country to support growing demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies, including platforms such as ChatGPT.

At a recent commission meeting, several residents voiced concerns about the potential impact large-scale data centers could have on the community.

“I haven’t seen too much positives other than the fact that it’s just ChatGPT, which I’m in college, I use,” said Edgewater resident Jack Gwen. “That’s the only positive, but because of all the negatives and how much resources used for it, I would say permanently banned because I don’t want to see any other purpose in that.”

Others pointed to concerns over infrastructure and quality of life.

“We don’t have the water resource. Our water is bad enough,” resident Robert DeVoe told commissioners. “We don’t have the grid for it. If you want to know what they sound like, go on top of Publix and then put it in your living room. It’s loud as crap.”

The local debate comes as Florida’s new data center law, SB 484, takes effect. The legislation, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prevents utilities from passing the cost of power grid upgrades for data centers onto residential customers, gives local governments authority to reject proposed projects, and requires strict water-use permitting.

Critics of data centers argue the facilities can place significant demands on electricity and water resources while generating noise from cooling systems and backup equipment.

“I’m living in Edgewater myself,” resident Tyler Dijacklin said. “I definitely would be concerned about the prices of things going up if a data center showed up in the area.”

Edgewater is not alone in examining restrictions on data centers. Other Central Florida communities, including Lake and Seminole counties, have also considered or implemented restrictions and temporary moratoriums as officials weigh the industry’s potential economic benefits against concerns over infrastructure, utilities and neighborhood impacts.

The Edgewater City Commission is scheduled to meet Monday at 6 p.m. at City Hall. If commissioners approve placing the measure on the ballot, voters will decide in November whether to make the proposed data center ban permanent.

The contest, as well as primaries for Missouri’s seven other U.S. House seats, will be the first held since Republican state lawmakers adopted a new congressional map backed by President Donald Trump that was designed to boost their party’s chances of keeping control of the chamber in November’s midterm elections.

In the St. Louis-based 1st Congressional District, freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell seeks a second term. He must first clear a strong primary challenge from his predecessor, former U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, who was a member of the group of progressive House members known as The Squad.

Bell defeated Bush in the 2024 primary by nearly 6 percentage points with the help of about $8.6 million in outside spending from the political arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which promotes U.S.-Israel relations. Bush has been a vocal critic of Israel since its response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The committee spent about $3.1 million in July against Bush and in support of Bell ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

The district is heavily Democratic. Democratic then-Vice President Kamala Harris received about 78% of the district vote in her unsuccessful 2024 presidential run against Trump.

On the other side of the state, Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver is running for a 12th term on much different turf than the compact, Kansas City-based district he’s represented for more than 20 years. The Republican-controlled state Legislature’s mid-decade redistricting plan carved up heavily Democratic Kansas City among three districts and stretched what remained of Cleaver’s 5th Congressional District eastward to pick up heavily Republican areas. Cleaver is now running in a district that Trump carried with about 58% of the vote, compared with the current 5th District, which supported Harris with about 61% of the vote.

The six Republicans running to challenge Cleaver in November include former Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks, state Sen. Rick Brattin and former law professor Brett Hueffmeier. Burks led the Republican field in fundraising, more than tripling Brattin in both money raised and cash in the bank as of mid-July.

Voters will also decide the fates of four statewide ballot measures, including one that would make it harder to pass citizen-driven proposals to amend the state constitution and another that would eliminate the state income tax.

Amendment 4 would change the vote threshold required to pass voter-initiated ballot measures to amend the state constitution. Currently, only a simple statewide majority is needed to approve a constitutional amendment put on the ballot by voters. If Amendment 4 passes, a voter-initiated proposal would require a vote majority in each of the state’s congressional districts.

Amendment 5 would require the state Legislature to phase out individual income taxes in Missouri and expand sales taxes.

About half of Missouri’s 34 state Senate seats and all 163 state House seats are up for election in 2026. Republicans hold roughly 2-1 ratio majorities in both chambers.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

Polls close at 7 p.m. CT, which is 8 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. House, state auditor, state Senate and state House, as well as in four statewide ballot measures.

Who gets to vote?

Any eligible voter may participate in any party’s primary.

How many voters are there?

As of the 2024 general election, there were 4.4 million registered voters in Missouri.

How many people actually vote?

About 586,000 Republican primary votes and about 322,000 Democratic primary votes were cast in the 2022 primaries for state auditor.

By comparison, about 698,000 Republican votes and about 379,000 Democratic votes were cast in the 2024 primaries for governor.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

About 12% of the vote in the 2024 state primary was cast early in person or by mail. Missouri does not have a long tradition of pre-Election Day voting. The state began allowing no-excuse early voting in the 2022 general election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Local election officials tend to release all or almost all results from mail and early in-person voting in the first vote update of the night. In roughly half of Missouri’s counties, they are released along with some results from in-person Election Day voting. But the state’s most populous jurisdictions tend to release very few in-person Election Day results in the first vote update.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primaries, the AP first reported results at 8:06 p.m. ET, or six minutes after polls closed. The vote count surpassed the halfway mark at about 10:20 p.m. ET. The last vote update of the night was at 12:26 a.m. ET, with about 99.9% of total votes counted.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Missouri does not have automatic recounts, but candidates for federal, judicial and state offices, including state Legislature, may request a recount if the margin is less than 0.5% of the vote. Candidates for local offices may request a recount if the margin is less than 1% of the vote. A court may also order a recount as part of an election contest proceeding. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 91 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

The fires in and around Spokane, the state's second-largest city, burned about 12 square miles (about 31 square kilometers) by early Monday and filled the sky with smoke and haze. They were 0% contained, Courtney James, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, said.

The weather forecast for Monday called cooler temperatures and light winds following strong wind gusts Sunday. No rain was in the forecast.

The fires were among dozens of wildfires across the Western U.S. that stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them.

At least 390 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) has burned across the state, and some of the fires, including those in the Spokane area, have not been contained.

No one hurt or unaccounted for — so far

Fire and law enforcement officials said there had been no reports of injuries or people unaccounted for — but they stressed it was early in the response effort.

Officials also said that the evacuees in Spokane included patients at its U.S. Veterans Affairs hospital.

Video from the Spokane area showed buildings on fire, black smoke billowing up near neighborhoods, and the smoking ruins of homes, with only chimneys still standing. Several officials expressed concern that the area does not appear likely to get a break in coming days from the weather, which is expected to remain dry.

“We are not out of danger,” U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said during a news conference Sunday with federal, state and local officials in Spokane. “The next couple of days will be challenging.”

Investigators had yet to determine how the blazes started.

Fire officials said two drone operators who were not authorized to operate during the wildfires have been cited. There were at least 26 “drone incursions” over the fires on Sunday, they said.

Grassland in flames in parts of Idaho, Oregon and Utah

Spokane was hardly the only place struggling to contain fires.

Crews using bulldozers and helicopters continued for a 10th day to fight a fire that has burned nearly 525 square miles (about 1,360 square kilometers) of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon. The area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities said the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.

The weather in the area was expected to remain sunny — and dry — well into the week, with temperatures rising to more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday. Officials say the fire was caused by lightning.

In central Utah, a massive blaze more than doubled in size over the weekend and was nearly 57 square miles (147 square kilometers) by Monday morning. More than 100 cattle have been killed, according to local law enforcement.

Officials called the fire “catastrophic" as heavy winds helped flames jump containment lines.

The fire is moving north toward Fillmore, a town of about 2,600 people and the seat of Millard County. Mandatory evacuations were ordered Sunday evening for the southern portion of Fillmore.

The National Weather Service issued warnings about the air quality across the northwest. It issued red flag fire warnings for parts of Utah and Montana and western Nebraska, and extreme heat warnings for the southern parts of Arizona, California and Nevada and northern Montana.

Spokane sets up shelter for impacted residents

Authorities in Spokane set up a shelter at the city's main convention center. About 400 people were staying there, officials said Sunday.

Spokane Public Schools opened a free emergency drop-in camp for children on Monday. Court trials in Spokane County scheduled for this week were continued to the week of Aug. 10.

Meanwhile, several larger fires continued to burn in less populated areas northwest of Spokane, including one about 80 miles (129 kilometers) from the city that has burned about 210 square miles (544 square kilometers). Another fire in eastern Oregon, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the northwest in the Stinkingwater Mountains, has burned about 336 square miles (870 square kilometers).

“The whole northwest is heavily impacted right now,” said Keila Vizcarra, the spokesperson for the federal team from California handling what's been named the Big Grass Fire in western Idaho and eastern Oregon.

While the forecast follows a familiar summertime pattern, another disturbance moving west across the Atlantic could bring even more moisture and rain chances heading into the weekend.

MONDAY & TUESDAY

Rain chances remain elevated at 50 to 70 percent both Monday and Tuesday as tropical moisture lingers across the state.

Storms will develop through the afternoon, with the coverage spreading toward the east coast by late day. A few stronger storms could produce wind gusts up to 50 mph, frequent lightning, and torrential downpours.

While widespread flooding is not expected, Central Florida remains under a ‘marginal risk’ (Level 1/5) for excessive flooding, with western Marion County under a ‘slight risk’ (Level 2/5).

High temperatures will climb into the lower 90s with heat index values between 100 and 106 degrees.

MIDWEEK

By Wednesday and Thursday, winds will turn onshore, allowing the Atlantic sea breeze to become more active. That means coastal communities could see a few showers earlier in the day before the highest storm coverage shifts inland during the afternoon and evening. Coverage sits between 30-40%.

Temperatures will remain seasonably hot, with highs in the lower 90s.

WEEKEND

Looking ahead to Friday and the weekend, forecast guidance continues to suggest another disturbance may move westward across the Atlantic toward Florida.

If it holds and reaches Florida, it would bring another surge of tropical moisture, increasing rain and storm coverage once again.

It’s too early to know exactly how organized the feature will become or precisely where it will track, but the current forecast calls for higher rain chances Friday into Saturday along with the potential for locally heavy rainfall. At this point, storm chances remain at 60-70% through the weekend.

The strengthening onshore flow could also create a higher risk of dangerous rip currents at Atlantic beaches beginning late this week.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is running for reelection for the 3rd Congressional District seat she first won narrowly in 2022. A former auto shop co-owner, she is the best-known and best-funded of the four Democrats on the ballot. She also faces challenges from three Republicans, including state Senate Minority Leader John Braun, who has a key endorsement from President Donald Trump. The southwest Washington district is expected to be a key U.S. House battleground this fall.

Washington state has a top-two primary system in which all candidates compete on the same ballot and the two highest vote-getters regardless of party advance to the general election.

The 3rd Congressional District borders Oregon to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Trump received 50.3% of the vote from 3rd District voters in 2024, besting the 47% Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris received. Gluesenkamp Perez received 50.1% of the vote in the 2022 general election and about 52% in 2024.

Incumbents are running for reelection in nine of the state’s 10 congressional districts. The exception is the 4th Congressional District, where Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse is retiring after six terms. Newhouse was among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

Eleven candidates are running to replace him, including Yakima County Commissioner Amanda McKinney and entrepreneur and former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler, both Republicans. Trump endorsed McKinney in January on the five-year anniversary of the insurrection. He previously endorsed Sessler’s unsuccessful bid to unseat Newhouse in 2024. Trump received 59% of the 4th District vote in the presidential election that year.

About half of Washington’s 49 state Senate seats and all 98 state House seats are up in 2026. Democrats currently control about 60% of seats in each chamber.

Three of Washington’s nine state Supreme Court justices are on Tuesday’s ballot, including Chief Justice Debra Stephens. A fourth seat is open. Although state Supreme Court seats are nonpartisan, liberals hold a majority and the ideological balance of the court is not at stake.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

When do polls close?

In-person voting centers close at 8 p.m. PT, which is 11 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. House, state Senate, state House and state Supreme Court.

Who gets to vote?

Any eligible voter may participate in the state’s top-two primary system.

How many voters are there?

As of July 1, there were about 5.1 million registered voters in Washington.

How many people actually vote?

About 2 million votes were cast in the 2024 all-party primary for governor. That was slightly higher than the roughly 1.9 million votes cast in the 2022 all-party U.S. Senate primary.

How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?

Washington conducts its elections almost entirely by mail, and very few voters cast their votes in person. In the 2024 state primary, about 58.5% of voters delivered their ballots to a drop box, while about 41.3% sent their ballots through the mail.

As of Thursday, about 699,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

The first vote updates of the night tend to include mostly results from mail voting with relatively few results from early in-person or in-person Election Day voting. A handful of counties, including two of the more populous in the state, Spokane and Clark, often release the bulk of their absentee results in their first vote update, but most counties roll them out over the course of the night.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 11:06 p.m. ET, or six minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:43 p.m. ET, with about 51% of total votes counted. The vote count surpassed the 75% mark on the Thursday following the election at 7:56 p.m. ET and reached about 95% of the total vote six days after the election at 7:24 p.m. ET.

When will the AP declare a winner?

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

How do recounts work?

Machine recounts in Washington state are automatic if the vote margin between the top two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and less than 0.5% of the total votes cast for both candidates. Manual recounts are required for statewide contests if the margin is less than 1,000 votes and less than 0.25% of the total votes cast for both candidates. For all other races, manual recounts are required when the margin is less than 150 votes and less than 0.25% of the total votes cast for both candidates. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 91 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

Deputies were called to a home on Lake Juanita Road off U.S. 17 in Seville late Monday night for a well-being check due to concerns about the man’s mental health.

According to the sheriff’s office, the situation escalated when the suspect pointed a shotgun through a window at a responding deputy.

The suspect, Austin Mowery, 28, surrendered around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and was not injured. He was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail and charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, according to the sheriff’s office.

No deputies were injured during the incident.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

According to the police department, the warrant was served around 10:30 p.m. Saturday on Loughton Street with assistance from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office SWAT team and the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force.

On Thursday, police said two teens were killed on a vacant industrial property near the historic Athens Theatre. That’s about three miles from where police say they served the search warrant on Saturday.

The victims were identified as 19-year-old Dustin Rose and 18-year-old Samson Campbell.

Police have not provided the name of a suspect.

A family member of Samson released a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses, as well as Dustin’s family and friends.

The police department hasn’t provided much information, but said they were attempting to locate Shakoi Donovan on an active warrant.

The incident happened just before 3 a.m. Saturday near East Quayle Avenue and South Eustis Street.

Donovan is facing charges of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated battery on a LEO, fleeing to elude, and others.

It is unclear what led to the charges or how Donovan was found. He is booked into the Lake County Jail on no bond.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Head Start, established in the 1960s to help fight poverty, has long been considered by experts to be a gold standard early learning program. Its regulations, which stretch more than 100 pages, outline requirements on everything from child-to-teacher ratios and child health screenings to family engagement.

The Republican administration would replace those regulations with around a dozen pages of rules, leaving most of the specifics up to state and local law, said the people familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss information that was not yet public and because they feared reprisal.

The draft rules would require more documentation from parents who are homeless or unemployed, the people familiar with the deliberations told The Associated Press. An early version of the proposal also would have barred parents who are in the United States illegally from enrolling their children, even if the children are U.S. citizens. It's unclear whether those provisions will make the final draft.

Head Start's rules target poverty, experts say

Head Start serves more than half a million low-income babies, toddlers and preschoolers nationwide. For families that qualify, it offers free preschool and screenings to identify developmental delays. It also offers supports for families.

The changes to Head Start would deliver a win for conservatives who have sought wholesale elimination of it. The Trump administration would also further its efforts to eliminate regulations it views as onerous or unnecessary.

If the changes take effect, they could make Head Start unrecognizable, said Khari Garvin, who ran the Office of Head Start under President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

“We'd have the carcass of Head Start,” Garvin said. “You might have a program that's called Head Start, but in substance it will not be.”

Proposal has a long way to go to take effect

The proposed rules were originally reported in The Bulwark. The White House, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Head Start, did not respond to questions about the changes.

Tommy Sheridan, deputy director of the National Head Start Association, said the organization has yet to see the proposed rules. But he said the potential for a massive overhaul has left the organization on edge.

“We're very anxious,” Sheridan said. “When it does come out ... we’ll be ready to fight back where we need to fight back.”

Still, he emphasized that Head Start centers might not be impacted for months, if the rules get on the books at all. Once the proposal is made public, federal law requires the administration to give at least a month for the public to weigh in on it. Then, once finalized, it may take more time for the rules to take effect. There's also the potential for a lawsuit to halt implementation.

Current rules cover dental screenings and staff-to-student ratios

Head Start was created as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty and targets the myriad challenges that low-income households face. It serves children and adults alike, coaching parents on reaching their goals, connecting them with services and even employing them.

Head Start operators, which include school districts and nonprofit organizations, are required to provide medical, dental and vision screenings for children and to monitor them for developmental delays. There's also a curriculum framework and prohibitions on physical and emotional abuse of children.

Many of the features that make Head Start distinct from mainstream preschools are spelled out in 122 pages of performance standards. The Trump administration's proposal would toss most of that rule book and replace it with a much shorter version that eliminates or loosens many requirements, the people familiar with the proposal said. But the proposal also calls for some new regulations, such as requiring all instruction in English.

Requirements around staff-to-student ratios and safety standards would be erased. Operators instead would be instructed to follow local and state laws, which are often far more permissive. And the new proposal also says nothing about suspensions and expulsions, the people said, making it easier for programs to kick out kids with disabilities who are difficult to educate.

Head Start is under threat

Head Start, which has enjoyed robust bipartisan support for decades, has faced several threats since Trump took office last year. Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint authored by the official who is now Trump's budget chief, called for the federal government to get rid of the program altogether. Last year, in a draft budget, the administration proposed exactly that, saying: “The federal government should not be in the business of mandating curriculum, locations, and performance standards for any form of education.” After public outcry, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department oversees Head Start, told Congress the program's funding was safe.

Funding for the program was disrupted not long after Trump took office, leading some programs to have to shutter temporarily. It was once again halted after a government shutdown in October that led some centers briefly to close their doors.

Earlier this year, Trump officials also erased a Biden-era rule that mandated raises and greater benefits for Head Start employees. When the rule went in to effect in 2024, Head Start teachers, the majority of whom have bachelor's degrees, earned less than $40,000 a year on average.

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed reporting.

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

Persistent drought and successive extreme heat waves have deprived one of Europe's largest rivers of water, pushing the Danube's levels in Hungary's capital Budapest to around 10 centimeters (4 inches) on Monday, well below the previous all-time low of 33 centimeters (13 inches) set in 2018.

Water levels are not expected to rise on the Danube in the coming days or even weeks as no significant rainfall is forecast, and as a renewed extreme heat wave bears down on the region with daytime highs topping 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), electricity and water use are on the rise.

Hungary's Paks nuclear plant on brink of shutdown

The Danube's record low levels have pushed Hungary's only nuclear power plant, the Soviet-built, four-reactor plant at Paks, to the brink of powering down entirely for the first time in its 44 years in service.

The Paks plant, which uses water from the Danube to cool its reactors, on Monday was producing only 240 megawatts of power rather than the usual 2,000 due to successive power-downs of its four reactors.

In video posted to Facebook on Monday, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said engineers had managed to keep the plan’s final operating turbine temporarily running, averting an expected shutdown on the weekend. A full power-down will likely only happen on Tuesday or Wednesday, Magyar said.

“This is very good news, because the complete shutdown of the Paks power plant can still be avoided, at least temporarily, on one of the biggest consumption days,” he said.

The Paks plant, located around 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Budapest, accounts for nearly half of Hungary’s electricity production and around a third of its consumption. Hungary has relied on regional electricity imports as well as renewable sources to try to make up for the deficit from the Paks plant.

Hungary’s government last week asked major industrial users to curb their electricity consumption and sought voluntary savings from households in order to conserve supply, particularly in peak demand hours between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.

It also announced that electric-powered freight trains would not be permitted to run during peak hours beginning on Monday in order to conserve an estimated 70 to 90 megawatt-hours of electricity per day.

While conservation measures were initially voluntary, Magyar’s government on Saturday issued a decree allowing for them to be made mandatory for large industrial or commercial consumers.

He said Monday that the conservation push had resulted in 700 fewer megawatts of electricity being used the previous day, and thanked Hungarians for their efforts.

Serbia and Romania grapple with low Danube levels

Meanwhile, plants in neighboring countries have also seen dramatic drops in power generation, as well as disruptions to shipping and agriculture.

Romania’s military on Monday used 180 kilograms (397 pounds) of explosives to blast rock near the lower Danube’s Bala Canal in an effort to redirect water into the river’s main channel and toward the state-owned Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

The Danube's water flow has fallen to 1,500 cubic meters per second in Romania, less than a third of its July average. Authorities have already shut down one reactor unit at the Cernavoda plant, which is operating at about half its normal capacity.

Acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan announced a nationwide state of alert in the energy sector on Friday, and warned that the Danube’s low water levels threatened the shutdown of Cernavoda’s second reactor. He appealed to citizens to voluntarily limit electricity usage in peak evening hours.

In Serbia, record-low Danube levels have pushed the country’s key hydroelectric plant to operate with only 20% of its capacity, prompting Prime Minister Djuro Macut to preside over an emergency meeting on Monday focusing on energy problems.

Macut appealed to residents to “minimize the use of big consumers of electricity in their homes, such as air conditioners.” He described the situation in a statement late on Sunday as “serious and demanding.”

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Associated Press writers Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England, contributed to this report.

The July 2026 report from the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, known as OPPAGA, analyzed milestone inspection data from 2024 and 2025. The inspections were required under a law passed after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, which killed 98 people.

How the inspection process works

Under Florida law, condominium and cooperative buildings that are three or more stories tall must undergo a milestone inspection by the time they reach 30 years of age — or 25 years if located near saltwater. Inspections must be repeated every 10 years.

The process begins with a visual phase one inspection by a licensed architect or engineer. If substantial structural deterioration is found, a more in-depth phase two inspection follows, which can include destructive or nondestructive testing. Building owners must begin any repairs identified in a phase two report within 365 days

Inspections completed, but gaps remain

In total, building officials across the state reported 8,736 completed phase one milestone inspections and 1,575 completed phase two milestone inspections for 2024 and 2025 combined.

Building officials also granted 1,587 extensions for initial inspection deadlines. Ninety-four percent of those extensions were issued in coastal counties and municipalities, where the bulk of eligible buildings are concentrated.

The report noted that not all jurisdictions submitted data. OPPAGA received 2024 milestone inspection data from 71% of local enforcement agency jurisdictions and 2025 data from just 64% — meaning the full picture across Florida may be larger than what the report reflects.

Dozens of buildings flagged as unsafe

Milestone inspections identified 30 buildings as unsafe or uninhabitable in 2024 and 24 more in 2025, spread across eight counties statewide. Despite those findings, building officials reported that most buildings deemed unsafe or uninhabitable were not vacated.

Of the 30 buildings flagged in 2024, officials confirmed only five were vacated. For 2025, building officials reported none of the five buildings for which responses were received had been vacated.

Osceola County provided the following statement about its buildings appearing in the report:

“The safety of our residents and visitors remains the County’s highest priority, and we take our responsibility to identify, address, and resolve building safety concerns seriously.

While the OPPAGA report identifies buildings reported to the DBPR, it does not reflect the actions taken by Osceola County or the conditions that were identified. The Office of Building Safety identified areas requiring corrective action, required immediate stabilization measures where necessary to protect occupants, and worked with property owners to obtain the permits needed to complete permanent repairs to the affected portions of the structures.

Based on those findings and corrective measures, none of the buildings were determined to require evacuation or to be uninhabitable. Had conditions warranted such action, the Office of Building Safety would have exercised its authority to restrict occupancy or order the buildings vacated until the hazards were corrected.

As of the report’s publication, six of the 10 buildings identified had been fully repaired and restored. The remaining four are progressing through the inspection process while the necessary repairs are completed to bring them into compliance with applicable building code requirements.”

Osceola County

Repair costs range from under $1,000 to $30 million

Building officials reported 903 permit applications for repairs identified through phase two inspections. Estimated values ranged from under $1,000 to $30 million, with concrete, electrical and structural repairs among the most common.

The average permit value was $337,229 in 2024 and $496,236 in 2025. Fifty-six permits in 2024 and 30 in 2025 exceeded $1 million. Ninety-three percent of 2024 permit applications and 100% of 2025 permit applications were for buildings in coastal counties and municipalities.

Data collection needs work

OPPAGA identified several limitations in how the state collected inspection data. Among the concerns: building officials used inconsistent definitions when determining whether a building was unsafe or uninhabitable, since Florida law does not define either term.

The report recommended the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, known as DBPR, provide clearer guidance to local enforcement agencies — including a webinar or guided tutorial — to improve accuracy and consistency in future reporting cycles.

DBPR Secretary Melanie Griffin acknowledged the challenges in a written response included in the report.

“This effort presented challenges because the milestone inspection process and related statewide reporting requirement are still maturing, and local building departments vary in size, staffing, resources, and familiarity with statewide data reporting,” Griffin wrote.

Griffin said the department is developing additional guidance and virtual training for the 2026 reporting cycle.

• Vacation rentals often advertise lower nightly rates but can add substantial cleaning, service, and occupancy fees.
• Many hotels have responded by eliminating or reducing some fees while adding amenities like breakfast, daily housekeeping, and loyalty rewards.
• The better value increasingly depends on the length of the stay, the size of the group, and what travelers actually need.

Americans are traveling again in big numbers.

If you’ve sat in holiday traffic, struggled to find a parking space at the airport, or searched for a hotel only to find “No Vacancy,” you’ve probably noticed.

According to a recent survey by global consulting firm Deloitte, about 53% of U.S. adults – roughly 138 million people – planned to take a leisure vacation in 2025, up from 48% the year before. Researchers say many travelers now place a higher priority on experiences than they did before the pandemic.

But while more Americans are traveling, one question has become harder to answer: where should you stay?

The emergence of vacation rentals

Vacation rentals had been growing in popularity for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated their appeal. Travelers sought private homes instead of crowded hotels, while remote work made longer stays more practical.

For many consumers, platforms like Airbnb (launched in 2008) and VRBO (launched even earlier in 1995) promised something hotels couldn’t: the feeling of living like a local. Whether it was a beach house, a downtown loft, or a mountain cabin, vacation rentals offered more space, greater privacy, and amenities such as full kitchens and laundry facilities. Just as importantly, they often cost less than a comparable hotel stay.

That value equation, however, isn’t as clear as it once was.

As nightly rates climbed and cleaning fees, service charges, and other costs became more common, travelers began questioning whether vacation rentals still offered the savings they once did. Consumers have started asking a question that would have seemed almost unthinkable a decade ago: is a hotel actually the better bargain?

Part of the answer lies in something hotels generally do well: price transparency.

The price puzzle

Vacation rentals often advertise an attractive nightly rate, but the final bill can look very different after service fees, taxes, and other charges are added (especially cleaning fees). Hotels have fees of their own – such as parking or resort fees – but many have also responded by offering perks like complimentary breakfast, regular housekeeping, discounted dining, and loyalty rewards that can change the value equation.

The result is that comparing a hotel with a vacation rental isn’t always as simple as comparing nightly rates. Travelers increasingly have to compare the total cost of the stay, and the amenities included in that price.

Vacation rentals used to primarily compete on price – today, it’s more about value.

When vacation rentals still win

Despite the changing economics, vacation rentals continue to offer significant advantages in certain situations. Years ago the pitch was, “You’ll save money.” Now the pitch is, “You’ll get more space, more privacy, a kitchen, laundry, and room for the dog.”

Consider these instances when looking at a vacation rental:

• Large groups: Renting a three-, four-, or five-bedroom home is often less expensive than booking multiple hotel rooms.
• Parking: Free driveways and garages can save travelers from nightly parking fees and provide added peace of mind.
• Kitchen: Preparing even a few meals can significantly reduce dining costs.
• Laundry: Washing clothes during your trip lets everyone pack lighter, avoid airline baggage fees, and skip expensive hotel laundry services.
• Pet-friendly: Vacation rentals often provide more options – and fewer restrictions – for travelers bringing pets. 

When hotels may be a better bet

• Short weekend trips: That shorter stay comes without the cleaning fees associated with longer stays typically associated with a vacation rental.
• Solo travelers or couples: As one person or a couple, you don’t need as much space as a large family or group. Single and double occupancy hotel rooms could be the right fit.
• Business travel: If you’re spending all day in meetings, paying extra for a full kitchen and multiple bedrooms may simply not make financial sense.
• Loyalty points: Most major hotel chains let guests earn points toward free nights and other perks. Vacation rental platforms have introduced rewards programs of their own, but they generally aren’t as extensive.
• Free breakfast: It might not sound like much, but feeding a family of four before heading to a theme park can save $50 or more every morning.
• Daily housekeeping: As I pointed out in my recent skimpflation story, it isn’t guaranteed anymore. But, unlike many vacation rentals, most hotels will still freshen your room on request, swap out towels, and make the bed.
• No checkout chores: If you’ve ever used a vacation rental you know the drill: towels in the bathroom, sheets in the laundry room, refrigerator must be clean, garbage has to be taken out. Like The Honey Badger, hotels don’t care.
• Front desk support: Though many vacation rentals have someone you can call with a problem, that person is rarely on site and at your door within minutes. Hotel front desk support can handle everything from a malfunctioning lock to heating and AC problems to a neighbor who is making too much noise at 2am.
• Easier cancellations: Hotels are built on the model that plans change and that travelers need flexibility. While you are usually locked into a room within 24 hours of check-in, vacation rentals lock you in at much longer intervals.

Vacation rentals changed the way millions of people travel by proving a vacation didn’t have to revolve around a traditional hotel room.

That hasn’t changed.

What has changed is the way travelers have to shop for them.

The cheapest nightly rate doesn’t always produce the lowest vacation bill, just as the most expensive room isn’t always the worst value. The question isn’t whether hotels or vacation rentals are cheaper – the question is which one offers the better value for the trip you’re taking.

The film also made $572 million from over 73,500 screens internationally, with China contributing $121 million alone, adding up to a $927 million worldwide debut that is second only to “Endgame” ($1.2 billion).

Tom Holland’s run as the comic book webslinger has been a mighty one. “No Way Home,” his third standalone Spider-Man movie, made over $1.9 billion worldwide to become the eighth-highest earning movie of all time, not accounting for inflation. It was also the first movie since the beginning of the pandemic to cross the $1 billion mark.

But the triumph of “Brand New Day” also comes on the heels of another major movie featuring Holland and Zendaya: Christopher Nolan’s“The Odyssey,” which slid to second place in its third weekend in theaters with $51 million. Their combined might helped propel the biggest weekend of all time for North American movie theaters, with an estimated $430 million in total ticket sales, according to Rentrak.

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” started strong, with a record $168 million opening day from 4,487 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, besting “Avenger: Endgame’s” $157 million Friday. The studio predicted it would lead to a $325 million opening weekend, which would still have beaten the second-place record. It takes the place of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” which opened to $260 million in December 2021. In the realm of best opening weekends in North America, they’re followed by “Avengers: Infinity War” ($257 million in 2018) and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($247 million in 2015).

Expectations were always high for “Brand New Day,” which was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and cost a reported $225 million to produce, not including marketing expenses. But there were worries it wouldn’t attract the same level of mass audience enthusiasm as its predecessor which integrated past Peter Parker actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield into the mix. In reality, interest was higher than ever. “Brand New Day” also received strong reviews from critics and audiences. It currently has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes; Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore and a five-star rating on PostTrak.

Ticket buyers were predominately male (about 61%) and many were on the younger side, with slightly more than half the audience under the age of 25, according to PostTrak exit polls. The biggest group was between the ages of 18 and 24, which made up 36% of the audience; 27% were between the ages of 25 and 34. The box office analytics company EntTelligence estimates that about 24.1 million people attended “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” this weekend.

It’s also the biggest ever opening for Sony Pictures.

Tom Rothman, the Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, praised “the incomparable Tom Holland” in a statement. Rothman famously pushed back the production of the movie to allow Holland to act in “The Odyssey” as well.

Cries about the death of the superhero movie have been looming since “Endgame” with more than a few high-profile flops in the years since, including several from the once-impenetrable Marvel Studios. Still, when they work, they really work, most notably with “No Way Home” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which made over $1.3 billion.

Marvel Studios president and ‘Spider-Man’ producer Kevin Feige said in a statement, “This debut reflects the enduring power of Marvel’s characters, and the connection they continue to have with fans around the world — and, as audiences saw, it sets up exciting things to come.”

Producer Amy Pascal added that it “reinforces that moviegoers are hungry for stories that are both spectacular and deeply human.”

This year has also seen a resurgence of moviegoing from younger audiences, who have made hits out of movies like “Obsession,” “Backrooms” and “The Drama,” which also starred Zendaya.

They’re also helping blockbusters soar, and in a business that is partly propelled by momentum, “Spider-Man” had the benefit of coming after “The Odyssey,” which fell only 43% in its third weekend. “The Odyssey” has now earned $395.5 million domestically, bringing its global total to $911.4 million. The film will soon open in South Korea (Aug. 5), China (Aug. 14) and Japan (Sept. 11). Its studio, Universal, also became the first this year to surpass $4 billion globally thanks in part to “Michael,” which it distributed internationally, and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”

A slew of animated PG-rated holdovers rounded out the top five: “Toy Story 5” was in third place with $6.3 million, followed by “Minions & Monsters” in fourth and “Moana,” in fifth. And there were bright spots further down the chart as well. In sixth place with $2 million, “Hadestown: The Musical” surpassed “Hamilton” to become the highest grossing live theater capture release ever with a running total of $18.2 million.

Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, said the “Spider-Man” effect could help the summer movie season surpass the $4 billion mark for the first time since the Barbenheimer summer of 2023, and the third-ever billion dollar August.

“This is perhaps the most important summer moviegoing season in the history of the business,” Dergarabedian said. August, he added, "could set up a home stretch of the box office year like no other and one that could push us over that $10 billion mark."

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

1. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” $355 million.

2. “The Odyssey,” $51 million.

3. “Toy Story 5,” $6.3 million.

4. “Minions & Monsters,” $5.8 million.

5. “Moana,” $5.3 million.

6. “Hadestown: The Musical,” $2 million.

7. “The Invite,” $1.2 million.

8. “I Want Your Sex,” $600,000.

9. “Young Washington,” $477,727.

10. “Obsession,” $470,000.

Through the end of July, several spots across east Central Florida are experiencing one of their warmest summers on record. Orlando is having its second-hottest summer on record, with an average temperature of 84.4 degrees, trailing only the legendary summer of 1903. Sanford ranks fifth hottest, Leesburg seventh, Daytona Beach eighth and Melbourne eleventh.

• Orlando: 84.4° (2nd hottest)
• Sanford: 84.0° (5th hottest)
• Leesburg: 83.7° (7th hottest)
• Daytona Beach: 82.4° (8th hottest)
• Melbourne: 82.6° (11th hottest)

The persistent heat has been driven by an almost nonstop pattern of high pressure over the Southeast, limiting widespread rainfall and allowing temperatures to climb into the 90s nearly every afternoon. Even when storms develop, they’re often too isolated or too brief to provide lasting relief.

The lack of consistent rainfall has also allowed drought conditions to linger much longer than they normally would during Florida’s wet season.

Meteorologist Jonathan Kegges recently reported that parts of Central Florida are experiencing the longest stretch of severe drought since 2000, despite being well into the heart of the rainy season. Read more about the drought here.

Summer Isn’t Over Yet

While the calendar says August is almost here, Florida still has plenty of summer left.

Climatologically, August is one of Orlando’s hottest months, with average highs in the low 90s and tropical humidity keeping heat index values well above 100 degrees. That means several more weeks of intense heat are likely before meaningful relief arrives later in the fall.

Could El Niño Change the Pattern?

One factor worth watching is the developing El Niño in the Pacific Ocean.

El Niño’s biggest influence on Florida typically arrives during the fall and winter, when it often brings a stronger subtropical jet stream, more storm systems and wetter-than-average conditions.

It doesn’t provide immediate relief during the heart of summer, but as we move deeper into the season, it could help shift the pattern toward more frequent rainfall and, eventually, cooler weather later this year.

Skubal is a free agent after this season, and Detroit is under .500. But even considering all that, trading away the 2024 and 2025 Cy Young Award winner couldn't have been easy. The Tigers will be judged on how the three prospects they acquired — Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith — perform. History shows that it's possible to come out OK when trading a pitcher of Skubal's caliber, but there are plenty of teams who got little in return.

Here are eight other instances when a reigning Cy Young winner was traded before the end of the following season (hat tip to Baseball Reference for the transaction recaps):

— Frank Viola, Minnesota to New York Mets, 1989: Among the players Minnesota received for Viola were Rick Aguilera and Kevin Tapani. The former would save 42 games and the latter would win 16 in 1991, when the Twins won the World Series. Viola wasn't a rental — after finishing the 1989 season in New York, he went 20-8 in 1990 for the Mets. But New York never made the postseason with him.

— David Cone, Kansas City to Toronto to New York Yankees, 1995: Cone was actually traded twice the year after his Cy Young season in Kansas City. Toronto acquired him for Chris Stynes and two players who never made the majors. When the Blue Jays floundered, they dealt Cone — in the final year of his contract — to the Yankees for Marty Janzen and two players who never made the majors.

— Pedro Martinez, Montreal to Boston, 1997: Ouch. Montreal knew what it had in Martinez, but he was entering his walk year so the Expos traded him shortly after the '97 season for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas. Boston was able to keep him long term, and in 1999 and 2000, he turned in one of the best two-year pitching stretches in the live ball era: 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA, followed by 18-6 with a 1.74 ERA.

— Roger Clemens, Toronto to New York Yankees, 1999: New York was coming off a 114-win season and a World Series title when it sent fan favorite David Wells to Toronto along with reliever Graeme Lloyd and infielder Homer Bush. In return, the Yankees landed Clemens, who like Skubal was fresh of two straight Cy Youngs. He added another with New York in 2001 and kept pitching until 2007.

— CC Sabathia, Cleveland to Milwaukee, 2008: Another good comp for Skubal, in that the Brewers got Sabathia as a partial-season rental right before he hit free agency. It was worth it when he went 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA down the stretch to help Milwaukee reach the playoffs for the first time in 26 years. Outfielder Michael Brantley was a player to be named later in the package that went back to Cleveland, and he would become a five-time All-Star.

— Cliff Lee, Cleveland to Philadelphia, 2009: Yes, that's two straight seasons Cleveland traded away the previous year's Cy Young winner — and Lee wasn't even a pending free agent. He helped the Phillies reach the World Series before being re-traded to Seattle. As part of the deal for Lee, Cleveland got Carlos Carrasco, who would pitch there for over a decade.

— R.A. Dickey, New York Mets to Toronto, 2012: The Mets picked the right time to deal Dickey, who won 20 games in 2012 before New York sent him to the Blue Jays in December. Right-hander Noah Syndergaard and catcher Travis d'Arnaud were part of the return, and both were still with New York when the Mets won the pennant in 2015.

— Justin Verlander, New York Mets to Houston, 2023: Verlander is a tricky case since he actually left the Astros as a free agent after winning the Cy Young for them in 2022. Then New York traded him back to Houston in the middle of the 2023 season.

Trivia time

Which 1974 Cy Young winner was able to switch teams for 1975 after an arbitrator declared him a free agent?

Performance of the week

Kyle Freeland threw Colorado's first complete game since 2002 on Sunday in an 8-1 victory over Kansas City. It was Freeland's 251st start and first complete game. Eduardo Rodriguez is now the lone pitcher in major league history with at least 250 starts and no complete games.

Comeback of the week

Two of the craziest comebacks of the season came this week, courtesy of teams trying to stay in the American League wild card race.

Baltimore trailed Detroit 7-0 in the top of the seventh with Skubal on the mound. The Tigers had a 99.4% win probability according to Baseball Savant. The Orioles finally chased Skubal with Leody Taveras' two-out RBI single, and by the time Detroit's bullpen got out of the inning it was 7-5. Baltimore tied it in the eighth, both teams scored twice in the 11th and then the Orioles won 10-9 in 12.

On Thursday, Kansas City led Minnesota 3-0 with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the ninth. (Win probability: 99.5%.) A hit batter, a single and a walk loaded the bases. Then Kody Clemens hit a grand slam to give the Twins a 4-3 victory.

Trivia answer

Catfish Hunter was freed when arbitrator Peter Seitz concluded Oakland owner Charlie Finley failed to make a payment into a long-term annuity fund as specified in Hunter's contract. Hunter then signed with the Yankees.

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

“It makes me more hungry to keep proving I am who I say I am,” said the star running back, who received a three-year extension in May worth $45.75 million. “It’s making me want to do more than I’ve done in the past.”

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield said he feels “disrespected” by the Buccaneers for not getting the contract extension he sought and plans to play out the final season of his three-year, $100 million deal.

Several players know exactly how they feel, entering the season with something to prove because of either signing a big-money deal, looking for another contract, joining a new team, trying to overcome an injury or working to rebound from mediocre play.

A.J. Brown, WR, Patriots

The three-time Pro Bowl pick was traded by Philadelphia to New England in June for a 2028 first-round draft pick and a 2027 fifth-rounder. Brown, who's still only 29, had 339 catches for 5,034 yards receiving with 32 touchdowns in four seasons with the Eagles — a tenure also marked by cryptic social media posts and comments that soured his relationship with the franchise, including quarterback Jalen Hurts. In New England, Brown gets a fresh start with his childhood favorite team.

Jalen Carter, DT, Eagles

The Eagles signed the ninth overall pick in 2023 to a four-year extension that included $106 million guaranteed through the 2031 season. The huge deal makes Carter the league's highest-paid defensive tackle. It also comes after he had just three sacks last year while shoulder injuries limited him to 11 games. Carter said he feels the responsibility of living up to the contract and returning to his game-wrecking level of play.

Keon Coleman, WR, Bills

The 23-year-old wide receiver has the talent to be a star for the Bills' Josh Allen-led offense. But inconsistency and lapses in focus on and off the field have prevented Coleman from reaching that potential. He has been disciplined three times for being late to meetings. After having eight catches for 112 yards in Buffalo's season opener, Coleman had just 30 receptions for 292 yards in 12 other games. He acknowledged in minicamp that this is a “make or break” season.

Breece Hall, RB, Jets

Hall ran for 1,000 yards for the first time in his career last season and also had 350 yards receiving with five overall TDs while playing in 16 games. He was mentioned often in trade rumors last year, but remained with the Jets. With Frank Reich running the offense, Hall should continue to be a do-it-all bell cow out of the backfield with the hope — based on what the Jets paid him — he'll firmly establish himself as one of the league's top running backs.

Baker Mayfield, QB, Buccaneers

The No. 1 overall pick in 2018 by Cleveland revived his career in Tampa Bay after replacing Tom Brady in 2023. Mayfield insists he has shown himself with the Buccaneers to be a franchise quarterback — and wants to be paid as such. In his first two seasons in Tampa Bay, he made the Pro Bowl and led the Buccaneers to NFC South titles. Mayfield got off to another terrific start last season, but fizzled down the stretch with injuries.

Kyler Murray, QB, Vikings

Arizona released Murray in the offseason, a disappointing end to what was a promising beginning for the 2019 top pick. He signed with Minnesota in March for the veteran minimum of $1.3 million, giving the Vikings a veteran to compete with J.J. McCarthy for the starting job. Murray has been productive at his best as a dynamic dual threat. But he has had to deal with injuries and questions about his work ethic, something he'll try to put to rest with the Vikings. But he needs to beat out McCarthy first.

Michael Penix Jr., QB, Falcons

The eighth overall pick in 2024 came to Atlanta as the Falcons' possible quarterback of the future. Injuries and inconsistency have threatened those hopes. Penix opened last season as the starter, was benched late in Week 3 in favor of Kirk Cousins and then tore an ACL in Week 11. He's working his way back from that injury this summer and the Falcons aren't quite sure when he'll be fully ready. Atlanta signed Tua Tagovailoa, who's also currently banged up, in the offseason to compete with Penix.

Rashee Rice, WR, Chiefs

The 26-year-old wide receiver, who missed the Chiefs’ voluntary offseason workouts and mandatory minicamp, served a 30-day sentence in a Dallas County jail for violating the terms of his probation, stemming from his role in a car crash that left multiple people injured on a Texas highway. Rice also had surgery to clean debris in his right knee shortly before he was sentenced. When he has played, he has been a productive target for Patrick Mahomes with 156 catches for 1,797 yards and 14 touchdowns. But Rice has also played just 28 games in three seasons because of a suspension and injuries.

C.J. Stroud, QB, Texans

The second overall pick in 2023 had a terrific first season, winning AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, leading the Texans to the playoffs, making the Pro Bowl and giving Houston hope its franchise QB was in place. Stroud's last two seasons might have caused some doubt. The Texans have made it to the postseason in each of his three NFL seasons, but Stroud had his worst performance in the divisional round against New England when he threw four first-half interceptions. The Texans exercised the fifth-year option on Stroud’s rookie contract in April and he's eligible for an extension, with talks ongoing.

Brian Thomas Jr., WR, Jaguars

The 2024 first-rounder set franchise rookie records for catches (87), yards receiving (1,282) and TD receptions (10), quickly emerging as Trevor Lawrence's top target. But Thomas' production nosedived last season with 48 catches for 707 yards and just two TDs. He also tied for second in the NFL with 10 drops. Thomas was impressive during offseason workouts and minicamp, and the hope is being in his second year in Liam Coen's offense will help him more closely resemble the playmaker he was as a rookie.

Deshaun Watson, QB, Browns

Healthy again after tearing an Achilles tendon in 2024 and missing last season after reinjuring it, Watson's competing with Shedeur Sanders for Cleveland's starting job. And this could be the 30-year-old QB's last chance to redeem himself. He has played in just 19 games since being acquired from Houston in 2022 for three first-round picks and then signing a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million deal. He was suspended by the NFL for the first 11 games that season for his alleged sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions. If Watson starts in Week 1 for new coach Todd Monken, it'll be his first game since Week 7 of the 2024 season.

Malik Willis, QB, Dolphins

Tennessee thought Willis could potentially be its franchise QB when it drafted him in the third round in 2022. That never materialized and Willis was traded to Green Bay two years later. He rejuvenated his career last season while filling in for an injured Jordan Love and parlayed that into a three-year, $67.5 million deal with Miami. Willis will be the starter from Week 1, but the Dolphins are putting a lot of faith in a quarterback with only six NFL starts.

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

U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney responded to an NCAA request for clarity about her Friday ruling that granted a fifth year to athletes who graduated high school in 2022 and were not included in the new NCAA rule that allows five seasons of eligibility for Division I players.

That decision, she said, still stands, but has no impact on other NCAA rules, including its prohibition on players signing pro contracts, then coming back to college.

The ruling, as first written, had the potential to upend the upcoming college football season, where teams are starting camp planning on the so-called “five for five” rule to take effect beginning next fall.

Extending it to players this fall granted hundreds a chance to return to school. In the direct aftermath of the decision, some media reports were listing players on NFL and CFL rosters who were signaling they’d be open to returning to school.

But that appears to be off the table after Sweeney's clarification that said there are no changes to the NCAA's rules regarding pros; no exceptions over when athletes can enter the transfer portal; and no impact on elements of the landmark House lawsuit settlement, which dictates how many players teams can put on rosters and how much schools can pay them.

The rulings out of U.S. District Court in Denver figures to impact sports differently. Football teams, for instance, have already started practice for this season, while baseball doesn't start for a while.

In making decisions, teams figure to factor the NCAA's coming appeal of Sweeney's order and whether to risk bringing back players who could then be declared ineligible if her decision is overturned.

NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a statement after Sweeney's initial ruling came out Friday, saying the ruling was potentially chaos-inducing and a reason Congress needs to pass the Protect College Sports Act. That bill, being considered in the Senate, includes lawsuit protection for the NCAA over eligibility rules, the likes of which they defending in several courts around the country.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Infantino’s secretive proposal to raise $4.2 billion from investors including the New York investment firm of Joshua Kushner was dropped early Saturday, days after the revelation in media reports provoked a global furor.

UEFA led the backlash and on Thursday its 55 member federations met to agree boycotting all FIFA events and competitions while the proposal was active.

Now lawyers for UEFA have informed FIFA that the European body is “actively considering legal action, arbitration, and/or regulatory complaints ... arising out of and in connection with the FFE (FIFA Forward Enterprise) plan proposed by FIFA and all related matters.”

The letter dated Friday from the legal firm Dechert in New York was seen Monday by The Associated Press.

The letter named 18 FIFA executives who it said should retain data, documents and electronic messages as potential evidence.

“UEFA puts you on formal notice that any destruction, deletion, alteration, concealment, or loss of relevant materials following receipt of this notice — or following any earlier date on which you were, or reasonably should have been, aware that proceedings were anticipated — may constitute spoliation of evidence,” the letter said.

On Saturday, UEFA signaled it wants to end Infantino’s decade-long presidency, saying he had lost the confidence of world soccer and that “no option should be off the table.”

Hours earlier, Infantino withdrew the divisive proposal that offered FIFA’s 211 member federations one-off payments of $20 million each with a mid-September deadline to accept.

The FFE spin-off valued by FIFA at $20 billion would have taken control of the soccer body’s money-making commercial and tournament operations. The 211 members already effectively own the Zurich-based not-for-profit governing body.

It was the project of just one man, FIFA’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said in a stinging statement Friday to the AP which said staff felt deceived by their boss Infantino.

Legal proceedings are “reasonably anticipated,” UEFA’s lawyer Andrew J. Levander wrote, citing the belief of soccer stakeholders that the plan was “fundamentally incompatible with the proper governance of football.”

Opposition to Infantino

UEFA has been most outspoken against its former employee Infantino while the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF, the North and Central American and Caribbean soccer body, also have made strong statements to oppose Infantino’s plan.

Infantino has most support from his traditional base in Africa, while South America’s CONMEBOL is relying on him to expand the 2030 World Cup to 64 teams from 48. That would give more hosting games to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, the home country of CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez.

The private equity plan has provoked a stunning turnaround in fortunes for Infantino who left New York after the World Cup final two weeks ago seemingly a lock to be re-elected unopposed next March for a fourth and final term in office through 2031. The spin-off operation could have created a commissioner-like role for him beyond 2031 paying much more than his current $6 million annual salary and bonus deal as president.

FIFA briefed at the World Cup that Infantino had got pledged letters of support from about 200 of the 211 member federations.

Those letters are now likely being withdrawn across Europe with the Wales federation the first to announce its reversal.

The candidate deadline is Nov. 18 for an election exactly four months later in Morocco, one of Infantino's strongest allies and a co-host of the 2030 tournament with Spain and Portugal.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

In its most recent report, Florida TaxWatch compared property tax levy growth with population growth/inflation from 2014 to 2024. In several counties, property tax growth was much higher than population growth and inflation over the same time.

Counties with the biggest property-tax growth (2014–2024)

Here are the counties with the largest increases in property tax levies over the last decade:

• 1. Walton County (Panhandle): 216.1% tax growth vs. 90.4% population+inflation
• 2. Pasco County (Tampa Bay area): 169.2% vs. 70.2%
• 3. Osceola County (Central Florida): 157.3% vs. 96.9%
• 4. Nassau County (Northeast Florida): 147.4% vs. 78.4%
• 5. St. Lucie County (Treasure Coast): 146.2% vs. 75.9%
• 6. Manatee County (Gulf Coast): 145.8% vs. 74.7%
• 7. St. Johns County (Northeast Florida): 139.5% vs. 103.3%

How Florida looks overall

Statewide, Florida TaxWatch says property tax levies rose 108.1% from 2014 to 2024. Over that same period, population + inflation rose 54.9%.

Why it matters

Property taxes are a hot topic in Tallahassee. State leaders have sent a tax relief measure to the ballot in November, and state audits have also been looking closely at local government spending.

While many homeowners in the state have argued that their property taxes are too high, several local governments have similarly contested that the taxes are necessary to fund public services.

Regardless, the full list of counties ranked by property tax growth during this timeframe is as follows:

Method note: This county-by-county comparison includes property taxes from all local taxing groups in each county — counties, cities, school districts and special districts.

Source: Florida Department of Revenue and the Office of Economic and Demographic Research; calculations by Florida TaxWatch (Nov. 2025).

The list is released as summer travel ramps up—an important reminder, Orkin says, because bed bugs can hitchhike home in luggage and other personal items after stays in hotels and short-term rentals.

Where Florida ranks

Orkin’s rankings are based on the metro areas where the company conducted the most residential and commercial bed bug treatments from May 2025 to May 2026.

Florida cities on the 2026 list include:

• Tampa — No. 46 (new to Orkin’s top 50)
• Miami — No. 47 (down six spots from last year)

While Florida doesn’t appear in the top 10, Orkin said fast-growing and high-traffic destinations joining—or shifting within—the list underscores how travel and turnover can help spread infestations.

The full top 50 list (and how much they rose/fell from last year)

1. Chicago
2. Los Angeles (+2)
3. Detroit
4. Cleveland, Ohio (-2)
5. Indianapolis
6. Springfield, Illinois (+3)
7. Washington, D.C. (-1)
8. Columbus, Ohio
9. Pittsburgh (+3)
10. Grand Rapids, Michigan (-3)
11. Denver (+3)
12. New York (+3)
13. Milwaukee (-3)
14. Baltimore (-3)
15. Cincinnati (-2)
16. Raleigh, North Carolina (+7)
17. St. Louis (+1)
18. Charleston, West Virginia (+1)
19. Davenport, Iowa (+2)
20. Flint, Michigan (-4)
21. Atlanta (-4)
22. Philadelphia (+3)
23. Dallas (+1)
24. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (+10)
25. Cedar Rapids, Iowa (-5)
26. Hartford, Connecticut (+9)
27. Charlotte, North Carolina (+5)
28. Peoria, Illinois (+5)
29. South Bend, Indiana (-2)
30. Seattle (+9)
31. Richmond, Virginia (-3)
32. Youngstown, Ohio (-10)
33. Greenville, South Carolina (-3)
34. Nashville (+10)
35. Buffalo (+2)
36. Omaha, Nebraska (-10)
37. San Francisco (+5)
38. Dayton, Ohio (+5)
39. Norfolk, Virginia (-8)
40. Knoxville, Tennessee (-11)
41. San Diego (+8)
42. Toledo, Ohio (-6)
43. Las Vegas (+3)
44. Syracuse, New York (+6)
45. Fort Wayne, Indiana (-7)
46. Tampa, Florida (new to top 50)
47. Miami (-6)
48. Minneapolis (-8)
49. Kansas City, Missouri (new to top 50)
50. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (new to top 50)

Why Florida travelers should pay attention

Orkin notes bed bugs can be found anywhere, but they spread more easily in places with high resident and visitor turnover—such as:

• apartment buildings
• dormitories
• hotels

“Travel season brings excitement, but it also makes awareness especially important,” said Dr. Shannon Sked, Orkin entomologist and National Technical Director. “Bed bugs are resilient pests that can be difficult to control once introduced into a home or hotel room, and they are skilled at hiding in cracks, crevices and personal belongings.”

Orkin’s S.L.E.E.P. checklist to avoid bringing bed bugs home

• Search the room for bugs and signs (speckled stains, shed skins, musty odor)
• Lift sheets, curtains and cushions to check hiding spots
• Elevate luggage on racks, away from beds and furniture
• Examine luggage when repacking and again at home
• Place dryer-safe clothes in a hot dryer for 30–45 minutes after returning

The “register of economic beneficiaries” was accessed at night from Wednesday into Thursday last week, the government said. It said that the breach was noticed on Thursday, that measures were taken to secure data and the system taken offline.

The government said there were no indications that any data was altered or deleted.

The list of people behind companies, foundations and trusteeships is part of efforts to combat money laundering and terror financing.

Liechtenstein is a nation of 40,000 people between Switzerland and Austria, and the financial industry is central to its economy.

The government set up a crisis unit over the weekend to investigate the attack.

The fires in and around Spokane, the state's second largest city, burned about 8.2 square miles (about 21 square kilometers) over the weekend and were among dozens of wildfires across the Western U.S. that stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them.

A total of about 390 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) has burned across the state, and some of the fires, including those in the Spokane area, have not been contained.

No one hurt or unaccounted for — so far

Fire and law enforcement officials said there had been no reports of injuries or people unaccounted for — but they stressed it was early in the response effort.

Officials also said that the evacuees in Spokane included patients at its U.S. Veterans Affairs hospital.

Video from the Spokane area showed buildings on fire, black smoke billowing up near neighborhoods, and the smoking ruins of homes, with only chimneys still standing. Several officials expressed concern that the area does not appear likely to get a break in coming days from the weather, which is expected to remain dry.

“We are not out of danger,” U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell said during a news conference with federal, state and local officials in Spokane. “The next couple of days will be challenging.”

Investigators had yet to determine how the blazes started.

Grassland in flames in parts of Idaho, Oregon and Utah

Spokane was hardly the only place struggling to contain fires.

Crews using bulldozers and helicopters continued for a 10th day to fight a fire that has burned nearly 525 square miles (about 1,360 square kilometers) of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon. The area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities said the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.

The weather in the area was expected to remain sunny — and dry — well into the week, with temperatures rising to more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday. Officials say the fire was caused by lightning.

In central Utah, a massive blaze more than doubled in size over the weekend, jumping from 16 square miles (about 41 square kilometers) to about 56 square miles (145 square kilometers) by Sunday morning. More than 100 cattle have been killed, according to local law enforcement.

Officials called the fire “catastrophic" as heavy winds helped flames jump containment lines overnight. The fire is moving north toward Fillmore, a town of about 2,600 people and the seat of Millard County. Mandatory evacuations were ordered Sunday evening for the southern portion of Fillmore.

The National Weather Service issued warnings about the air quality across the northwest. It issued red flag fire warnings for parts of Utah and Montana and western Nebraska, and extreme heat warnings for the southern parts of Arizona, California and Nevada and northern Montana.

High winds make it hard to fight fires in Spokane area

While temperatures Sunday in Spokane were forecast to remain below 80 F (27 C), wind gusts from 35 mph (56 kph) to 45 mph (72 kph) had been expected by the afternoon, said Benjamin Cossel, public information officer for the federal response team from California called in Saturday night to deal with the fires.

“We have weather working against us, and we have terrain working against us,” Cossel said.

There were three fires in the Spokane area: the Old Trails Fire, the Fairview Fire and the Meadowview Fire. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency Saturday, and the National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert for eastern Washington.

Cossel said that as it gets warmer during the day, cool air that's closer to the ground and keeping winds at bay will rise, allowing those winds to move through the area. The Spokane River cuts through the city of about 229,000 people, and there are steep canyons on both sides that channel the wind.

“They push the fire through the canyons, up, up the slopes, and then outside the slopes and around,” he said. “It's very, very hilly, very, very steep slopes, a lot of canyons that create really turbulent, really challenging sort of wind scenarios.”

Spokane sets up shelter for impacted residents

Authorities in Spokane set up a shelter at the city's main convention center. About 400 people were staying there, officials said Sunday.

Spokane County Commissioner Chris Jordan said relatives of his were in an area affected by the fires and that they don't know if their home is still standing. He said he spoke with them as they were leaving the home.

“They’re in their car and all they can see is smoke everywhere, and it was incredibly scary for so many people,” he said during the news conference.

Heather Rosenstrater, president and CEO of Avista Corp., the area's electric and natural gas utility, said about 10,000 people were without power Sunday, down from a peak of 30,000. Avista needs to repair two transmission lines, she said, so it's possible that demand for electricity over the next few days could cause outages.

Meanwhile, several larger fires continued to burn in less populated areas northwest of Spokane, including one about 80 miles (129 kilometers) from the city that has burned about 210 square miles (544 square kilometers). Another fire in eastern Oregon, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the northwest in the Stinkingwater Mountains, has burned about 336 square miles (870 square kilometers).

“The whole northwest is heavily impacted right now,” said Keila Vizcarra, the spokesperson for the federal team from California handling what's been named the Big Grass Fire in western Idaho and eastern Oregon.

A spokeswoman for Texas Sen. John Cornyn, one of the senators holding up Blanche’s nomination, confirmed the deal, which comes ahead of a Tuesday confirmation vote for Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The other GOP senator, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, did not have immediate comment.

Blanche said at a June hearing that the Justice Department would not move forward with the fund to compensate those who believe they were unfairly prosecuted, as he faced bipartisan outrage over the possibility that violent rioters who attacked police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be considered for payments. But Cornyn and Tillis, both members of the Judiciary panel, have said they wanted to see the promise in writing before they endorsed Blanche's nomination — especially as Trump continued to express support for the idea.

In a statement, Blanche said the order came after “good faith discussions.”

“My team and I have met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions," Blanche said.

DOJ order says ‘beyond any doubt’ that fund is dead

In a statement accompanying the order, the Justice Department said that “although the Acting Attorney General has repeatedly advised Congress through testimony, including under oath, as well as in written responses, that the Fund is not moving forward, and the Department has repeatedly represented to district courts that the Fund is not moving forward, today’s Order officially rescinds the May 18, 2026 Order.”

Since the settlement of the president's lawsuit against the IRS was announced, “No Members were appointed; no funds were transferred; no process for receiving claims was established; no claims were paid,” the order says. “This order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund.”

The document released by Blanche on Sunday night also limits the scope of another provision of the settlement that provided broad immunity for Trump and members of his family from tax audits.

The deal clarifies that the tax audit immunity agreement “applies by its terms only retroactively” to claims open at the time of the settlement and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings.

Cornyn, Tillis echo GOP colleagues' concerns as they block Blanche nomination

Cornyn, who lost reelection this year after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, and Tillis, who is retiring when his term ends in January, have blocked Blanche's nomination as many of their GOP colleagues have criticized the fund.

The Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on Blanche’s nomination that had been scheduled for Thursday morning after Tillis and Cornyn said they needed more from the administration before they could provide the necessary votes.

The two senators have repeatedly said the Justice Department seemed interested in reaching an agreement, but the White House wouldn’t budge even to aid the confirmation of Trump’s loyal former personal attorney, who has aggressively pursued the administration’s priorities as acting attorney general.

“I think as far as Blanche and the Department of Justice, we were pretty much on the same page,” Cornyn said Thursday. “But then when the president got wind of it, he wasn’t willing to go along with it.”

Blanche, who served as Trump’s defense lawyer in his criminal cases, entered the Justice Department last year as deputy attorney general. He was elevated to the top post after Pam Bondi was fired in April by Trump, who was frustrated by her failure to successfully prosecute his political enemies.

Though Blanche insisted he wasn’t auditioning for the permanent job, he has moved aggressively to pursue the Trump administration’s agenda and accelerate investigations into the president’s perceived foes.

Trump continues to express support for his settlement

The two sides have been negotiating for weeks, but Trump has said repeatedly during the talks that he thinks the fund should go forward and threatened to move forward with it if Blanche was not confirmed.

After the Thursday vote was delayed, Trump said in a social media post that he might pull Blanche’s nomination and resubmit it after Cornyn and Tillis leave office next year.

On Sunday evening, Trump said that people who had faced charges from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and could have benefitted from the fund had “their lives destroyed.”

“This would be a reimbursement for the pain that they suffered,” Trump said. “A lot of people like it.”

On Friday, Trump’s attorneys notified a court they would appeal a judge’s scathing ruling that characterized the settlement of the president’s lawsuit against the IRS as an improper exercise in self-dealing. The judge in her order last month referred one of Trump’s attorneys for potential disciplinary action and criticized Blanche’s involvement in the settlement, given his prior representation of Trump.

Blanche has said he disagrees “with the judge’s insinuations” about him. Justice Department lawyers had previously written in court papers that the fund was not moving forward but they refused a judge’s request to have Blanche and other administration officials file a declaration under penalty of perjury that the administration would not take any further action to create the fund.

The Justice Department said the court’s demands were “unnecessary.”

The General Assembly will begin debate on a proposed constitutional amendment intended to give Democrats greater latitude to draw congressional maps favoring their party, which currently represents seven of the state's eight House districts. The proposal would have to be approved by voters before lawmakers could begin considering new district lines.

Deep blue Maryland’s move, which the state's minority Republicans have called a blatant power grab, is the latest turn in the national battle over redistricting, which kicked off a year ago and has reshaped the U.S. House map ahead of this year’s midterms.

Democratic state Senate President Bill Ferguson blocked a different redistricting initiative earlier this year that could have put new maps in place before the fall elections, worried the move could backfire upon judicial review. But he has said his views shifted after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in late April. That decision offered new grounds for Republicans to swiftly reconfigure districts in Southern states with large minority populations that have elected Democrats, moves that Ferguson called “painful” to watch.

“It felt like the unwinding of any type of democratic norms in the blink of an eye,” Ferguson said in an interview.

Deep blue Maryland could gain one seat

Maryland's lone Republican representative in Congress is Rep. Andy Harris, chairperson of the House Freedom Caucus. Harris' 1st District is centered on the mostly rural Eastern Shore, part of a scenic peninsula separated from the rest of the state by the Chesapeake Bay.

In 2021, lawmakers tried to remake the maps in a way that made Harris' district more competitive for a Democrat to win, drawing in communities across the bay. But a judge struck down those districts in 2022, calling them a “product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.”

In light of that decision and in hopes of avoiding future adverse legal rulings, lawmakers will consider legislation to amend the state constitution to make clear that the parameters the judge cited — including that districts be compact in form and have regard given to “natural boundaries” — apply only to General Assembly districts, not congressional ones.

If approved by a three-fifths vote of both chambers, the amendment would go before voters in the Nov. 3 general election. If approved there, lawmakers could revisit the congressional maps for the 2028 election cycle under the constitution’s new guidance.

Republicans say the move sets up a gerrymander

In advance of the special session, Republicans criticized the move by Democrats and raised concerns about limits set on testimony for the special session.

“We are very concerned with the significant limitations on witnesses, and the reality that any bill hearing is obviously intended to be a brief and meaningless formality,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel said in a statement.

Harris, in an interview, said the “gerrymandering that this constitutional amendment sets up” would break up areas of common interest into districts predominated by urban and suburban areas, disenfranchising rural voters. Such a move would “of course” face a court challenge, he said.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who has expressed frustration over lawmakers' refusal to redistrict earlier this year, cast the move as an urgent necessity in light of Republican moves elsewhere. The proposal currently before lawmakers will ultimately give voters, not “party bosses” the final say, he said.

“And if the people determine that there’s nothing to do, then there’s nothing to do. But if the people determine that we move, we move,” he said in an interview as he became chair of the National Governors Association.

Redistricting reverberates around the country

Maryland’s special session is part of a new phase in a national redistricting battle that began a year ago, when President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts to help the party hold on to its slim House majority in the midterm elections. 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.

Now some states, such as Maryland and New York, are taking steps to redraw congressional districts ahead of the 2028 elections. New York’s Democratic-led Legislature has approved a proposed constitutional amendment to authorize mid-decade redistricting, repeal prohibitions on partisan gerrymandering and make it easier for lawmakers to bypass an independent redistricting commission in the future. The measure needs another round of legislative approval next year before it can appear on a statewide ballot.

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Associated Press reporters David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Steven Sloan in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

The remarks by Doron Spielman, spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, were some of the first public comments since U.S. President Donald Trump announced the agreement.

Spielman told The Associated Press that Israel's intelligence assessment is that Hamas remains committed to rebuilding its military rather than genuinely demilitarizing. He said the Israeli military would not withdraw from Gaza — where it controls more than 60% of the territory — before Hamas disarms.

“Our assessment is that if we redeploy before Hamas is truly disarmed, it will quickly expand its presence throughout Gaza, rebuild its terrorist infrastructure, once again threaten Israeli communities, and seek to carry out another Oct. 7-style attack,” he said, referring to the Hamas militant attack on Israel in 2023 that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

“Disarming means physically giving up the weapons. Nothing less,” Spielman said.

His comments come days after Hamas said that it would begin disarming as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire signed nine months ago to end the nearly three-year-long conflict. It marks a potential breakthrough in ending the conflict, but many hurdles, conditions and long timelines remain.

Hamas says it's agreed to disarm but the process has obstacles

Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan calls on the militant group to surrender its weapons and destroy its vast network of tunnels. It also envisions Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, the arrival of a new technocratic Palestinian government, deployment of an international security force and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave.

Hamas disarming has been a sticking point and has deadlocked negotiations for months. In announcing the deal on social media on Thursday, Trump said it would be carried out in “carefully structured phases.”

A copy of the agreement obtained and verified by the AP said that all weapons held by the Hamas-run police will be transferred to the U.S.-backed Palestinian technocratic committee, known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, upon its arrival in the enclave. It’s not clear when that would happen since it is contingent on other steps.

A process to decommission and store heavy weapons and to dismantle military production sites and tunnels will begin after the arrival of the Palestinian committee and the deployment of international forces. The process will be linked to a phased Israeli withdrawal, according to the agreement.

The areas Israel controls in Gaza have been mostly destroyed and depopulated. Most of the territory’s 2 million Palestinians are in the other part, where hundreds of thousands live in squalid tent camps and destroyed neighborhoods.

Israel appears unlikely to pull back significant forces or make other concessions ahead of its October elections. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a tough reelection battle, with his far-right coalition partners urging him to keep up the pressure on Hamas and leave forces in Gaza, and opponents accusing him of failing to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli communities then, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage. Israel responded with a punishing military offensive that has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The ministry, which was part of the recently dissolved Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

Israel warns that Hamas is rearming

While Spielman said Israel greatly appreciates Trump’s commitment to its security and to finding a durable resolution, the government's position on disarmament is based on detailed intelligence saying that Hamas continues to rearm, recruit fighters, and rebuild its military capabilities.

The White House did not provide additional comments on Sunday, when asked specifically about Israel’s assessment that Hamas remains committed to rebuilding its military.

U.S. officials, who briefed reporters on the disarmament agreement last week, said that Israel had been consulted at every step of the negotiations and was not being asked to do anything more than what it had committed to as part of the ceasefire and hostage release agreement signed last October.

It's unclear what exactly Israel conveyed to the White House. Two people with knowledge of the deal told the AP that Israel had communicated its issues with it to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who's part of the Trump-led Board of Peace. One of them said that among the points Israel wanted was freedom to conduct military operations in Gaza. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

According to another person familiar with the deal, the Israelis raised two other issues: that Qatar and Turkey not be involved in verifying the stages of the agreement, and that Hamas’ weapons be destroyed after confiscation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Israel continues to strike Gaza

Since the ceasefire was signed last October, Israel has continued striking Gaza, saying it’s targeting Hamas and its infrastructure.

Local Gaza hospitals said at least 17 were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including children. A strike on a residential apartment in southern Gaza killed three family members, including their 4-year-old child, according to Nasser hospital, where the bodies arrived.

The Israeli military said the strikes had targeted militant operatives.

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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

Over in the American League, Tampa Bay beefed up its rotation by adding right-hander Freddy Peralta while the New York Yankees acquired young slugger Luis García Jr. to give their Aaron Judge-less lineup a little more pop.

The trade deadline is Monday at 6 p.m. EDT and some of the biggest pitching prizes are already off the board. But other enticing options still remain, including San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller, San Francisco Giants second baseman Luis Arraez and Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Daulton Varsho.

Also on Sunday, the Chicago Cubs added Kevin Gausman to their rotation in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays.

In other recent deals, the surprising Chicago White Sox picked up right-hander Luis Castillo from the Seattle Mariners, and the Atlanta Braves acquired outfielder Lane Thomas from the Kansas City Royals.

Dodgers land Skubal

Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers that already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts.

If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers led the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers going into Sunday's games and now add Skubal to the mix.

“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” an emotional Skubal said on Saturday night. “I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That’s hard to do, so I’m so excited to a part of that. But it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller coaster a little bit.”

The Tigers received three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.

Mets unload Peralta to Rays

The last-place New York Mets traded Peralta to the Rays for three minor leaguers, outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Émilien Pitre and right-hander Gary Gill Hill.

Peralta, a two-time All-Star who can become a free agent following the World Series, has been a disappointment with the Mets after they acquired him from Milwaukee in a January trade.

But he could boost the middle of a strong rotation for the pitching-rich Rays, who began the day with the best record in the American League at 65-45 and a 3 1/2-game lead in the AL East over the New York Yankees.

Garcia ‘both sad and happy’ about trade to Yankees

García has spent his entire seven-year career with the Nationals but acknowledged he would be excited to move to the Yankees.

“I mean it’s a mix of both sad and happy,” García said. “There’s a new chapter in my career, so yeah, 50-50 right now.”

He has a career-high 23 homers and 76 RBIs this season and could help a lineup that's been without Judge for more than two months after he suffered a stress fracture in his right ribs.

“He's been a hitter who has really come of age this year,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “One of the best left-vs-right hitters in the National League. We think he fits our ballpark very well and should hopefully give a little jolt to our offense which has obviously scuffled a little over an extended period.”

The Nationals received four right-handed pitchers for Garcia — Jake Bird, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert and Ben Grable.

Bird, 30, has a 5.93 ERA in 30 games with the Yankees this season, all in relief. Cruz, 26, has a 1.69 ERA in four games. Cebert and Grable have spent the full season in the minors.

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AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick in New York and AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow in West Sacramento, California, and Charles Odum in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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

House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X that throughout her career, Granger "broke barriers for women in public service.” He added that she “was a dear friend who will be greatly missed.”

Granger, who began her career as a high school teacher and a businesswoman, accomplished many firsts as a politician. She was the first woman elected mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, and the first Republican woman to chair one of the most powerful committees in Congress, the House Appropriations Committee.

First elected to the House in 1996, she did not seek reelection in 2024 and experienced worsening “health challenges” in her final months in Congress, according to a statement her office released in December 2024. Granger, who didn’t cast a vote in Washington after July 2024, didn’t specify or elaborate on those health challenges but said in the statement that frequent travel to Washington had become “both difficult and unpredictable" since early September of that year.

Granger graduated from Texas Wesleyan University in 1965 and considered a career in fashion design but followed her mother into teaching. She worked in the Birdville school district for nine years, teaching English literature and journalism, according to a profile compiled for the publication “Women in Congress, 1917-2006.”

A divorce would lead to a career change. To earn more money, Granger worked from home selling insurance. Her mother, Alliene Mullendore, who moved in with Granger after a stroke, helped keep an eye on the kids. Granger eventually built a successful insurance business that she managed for more than two decades.

“I was a high school teacher with three children, a 2-year and 6-month-old twins, and my husband left," Granger told The Hill in a 2008 profile. “It's the reason I talk so much to working mothers ... you just fight your way through the day.”

Granger got her political start serving on Fort Worth's zoning commission and then won office to the city council. She went on to win election as the city's first female mayor, serving from 1991 to 1995.

Granger’s “Code: Blue” programs included citizen patrol initiatives that halved the rampant crime rate and partnerships with the private sector that drew major businesses to the city. Her resuscitation of Fort Worth’s flagging economic fortunes drew national attention.

In 1996, she was recruited by both parties to run for the House under their banner, and she won as a Republican.

Upon entering Congress, she was named to an advisory board that consulted then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. She also received seats on three committees: Budget, House Oversight, and Transportation and Infrastructure. She resigned those assignments as part of accepting a seat on the Appropriations Committee.

On the committee, she focused on defense spending, including championing the production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in Fort Worth.

When Republicans took charge of the House in 2023, Granger became the committee's chair, where she sought to enact steeper non-defense spending cuts than the top-line numbers House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden agreed to as part of avoiding an economically disastrous government default.

The Mutiara Sentosa 2 ferry was traveling from Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya in East Java to the city of Makassar in South Sulawesi, with 232 passengers, 39 crew members and 181 vehicles, mostly trucks, and an excavator, when the fire broke out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. in waters off Sumenep regency, according to Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, or Basarnas.

The ferry operator, PT Atosim Lampung Pelayaran, reported the incident to the Surabaya search and rescue office about an hour later, Basarnas said in a statement. It said the company received information from the ferry's captain that the vessel was on fire near the northern tip of Madura island, but contact was later lost.

By 9:45 a.m., authorities determined the ferry was about 19 nautical miles north of Buruan Sapudi island after communicating with the nearby cargo vessel Meratus Project 3, which was unable to approach the burning vessel closely because it was carrying a flammable load.

Footage released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed thick black smoke billowing from one side of the ferry and spreading across much of the ship while videos circulating on social media and messaging groups showed terrified passengers, mostly wearing life jackets, could be seen clustered on the deck and upper sections of the vessel awaiting rescue, some jumping into the sea as orange flames and black smoke billowed from the burning vessel.

The ferry was reported to be nearly engulfed by flames, with passengers gathered on the bridge and bow. A tugboat and another passing vessel moved in and began evacuating passengers shortly before 10 a.m., the statement said.

By Sunday evening, several nearby vessels managed to rescue 227 passengers and crew and recovered five bodies. At least 39 people remained unaccounted for.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known and remained under investigation.

Ahmad Abdul Karim, one of the survivors, said the fire appeared to have started from a truck on the lower vehicle deck.

“Someone came up from the lower deck and told us there was a fire. When we went down to check, two vehicles were already burning," Karim said, "Fanned by the wind, the flames spread extremely quickly. In less than 30 minutes, everyone had been instructed to move to the bow of the ferry.”

Search and rescue teams dispatched a rescue vessel from Surabaya, although officials estimated it would take about six hours to reach the scene. A rigid inflatable boat from the Sumenep rescue post was sent toward the location but later returned to shore because of rough seas and high waves. The Indonesian Navy also deployed a warship to assist.

The 160 meters (525 feet) long and 25 meters (82 feet) wide ferry was built in Japan in 1992 and operated on the Osaka-Shinmoji route as the “Ferry Osaka” before being sold to Indonesia in 2015. It serves the Surabaya-Makassar route, a voyage that typically takes around 40 hours and is primarily used by domestic travelers and cargo transport between Java and Sulawesi.

Indonesia is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where ferries are a common method of travel. Disasters occur regularly, with weak safety enforcement often blamed.

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Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writer Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

By landing the reigning two-time American League Cy Young winner with time to spare and without sacrificing their pursuit of a third straight World Series title, they reinforced their status as both baseball’s dominant power and public enemy No. 1.

“It just seems like there’s always blowback with us,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday. “People are passionate. We feel good about it. There’s nothing that we did that no one else couldn’t have done.”

In the near term, Skubal’s arrival gives the Dodgers another powerful arm to an already loaded rotation responsible for the lowest WHIP and batting average in the majors. He is scheduled to make his debut on Tuesday at the Chicago Cubs, having gone 7-5 with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings over 16 starts for the Detroit Tigers this season.

“We got better,” reliever Edwin Díaz said “We got, like I said, one of the best pitchers in the league, and now we have him as a teammate, so that’s a really good plus for us.”

Having Skubal can allow the Dodgers to be cautious with Shohei Ohtani as he recovers from left knee soreness and a right biceps injury that have kept the two-way superstar from pitching since July 3. Ohtani will resume playing catch sometime during the three-game series against the Cubs, Roberts said, and the Dodgers remain optimistic he will be able to return to the mound this season.

“You can never predict the future, but if you said, ‘Hey, place a bet on it,’ I would be very confident placing it that he will be back pitching,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.

In the medium term, Skubal’s presence further strengthens the Dodgers’ already impressive credentials as they push to become the first National League team to three-peat. If healthy, they will be able to choose from an elite group of starters, many with proven playoff success such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell.

Skubal brings his own track record, having gone 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six playoff starts over the past two postseasons. Friedman described his efforts last fall as “must-see TV.

“I was in awe watching the energy, the dominance he exhibited there, and I can’t wait to see it in Dodger blue,” Friedman said.

Not only did the acquisition further boost their own rotation, it should allow the Dodgers to move other starters into the bullpen, something they did to great effect during the 2025 title run.

“We’re not going to be flippant about this moment in time and how special this group, this era can be in the history of this incredibly storied organization, and we’re going to do everything we can to win the last game of the year,” Friedman said.

In the long term, the Dodgers’ trade for Skubal represents one more salvo in the looming battle over baseball’s finances and competitive balance.

Los Angeles made the trade without giving up any of its most touted prospects in what is regarded among MLB’s top farm systems, which has been a frequent pattern during this run of three titles over the previous six seasons. Those assets have allowed them to consistently upgrade through trades without needing to send established major league contributors back the other way.

Roberts credited the organization’s ability to find and develop talent as being just as important to the Dodgers’ recent success as much as their deep pocketbooks have allowed them to sign the likes of Ohtani to massive contracts.

“I just laud our front office,” Roberts said. “We have to have the players to be able to pull something like this off.”

As long as the current system is in place, the Dodgers will not apologize for their interest to acquire the best players available through whatever means are accessible to them.

“But as we’ve talked about a lot, whenever there’s a star-level player that is available that can really shift championship odds, those are the moments that we’ll be more aggressive,” Friedman said.

Skubal was with the Dodgers in the dugout during a 8-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night. The team also posted pictures of his new Dodgers' No. 29 jersey and locker and video of Skubal meeting his new teammates on social media.

“Just knowing he's in Dodger blue, it's pretty surreal,” Roberts said after the game. “I don't think I've felt this good after getting swept, so that's a silver lining.”

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

Masataka Yoshida homered and drove in two runs, and Jake Bennett (7-4) allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings to help the Red Sox win their fifth straight game. Boston is 23-3 since July 3.

Emmet Sheehan (4-8) was pulled after allowing five runs in 2 2/3 innings, with the Red Sox pushing across two runs in a 30-pitch first inning.

Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu then clocked Sheehan for back-to-back homers to start the third inning, followed by Yoshida’s solo shot for a 5-3 lead two batters later.

Rafaela went 7 for 14 with four homers and five RBIs in the series. He has an eight-game hitting streak with four straight multi-hit outings.

Jarren Duran picked up Boston’s fourth solo homer in the sixth inning off reliever Kyle Hurt.

The Red Sox added two more runs in the eighth inning on a wild pitch and passed ball.

Andy Pages had three RBIs, but the Dodgers couldn’t follow up any momentum created by their blockbuster trade for Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal on Saturday night.

Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing was pulled out of the lineup shortly before the game started because of right arm irritation, with Eliezer Alfonzo taking over behind the plate.

Up next

Red Sox: LHP Patrick Sandoval (0-0, 3.32 ERA) was set to start the opener of a three-game series at home against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.

Dodgers: LHP Justin Wrobleski (11-2, 2.88 ERA) could get the call in the first of three games at the Chicago Cubs on Monday night.

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

Most of the 60,000 migrants who swam, scrambled and later charged into the tiny Spanish exclave in North Africa this week had walked back to Morocco by Sunday, but some stayed on in the hills surrounding the city. Spanish authorities continued searching for bodies in the waters near the stretch of urban beach that tens of thousand of migrants had breached days earlier.

Shops in Ceuta reopened, and the usual blend of residents and tourists in the city of 84,000 were filling the open-air terraces, restaurants and cafes.

At least 72 migrants died, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, Spanish authorities said Sunday. Morocco reported 11 deaths on its side of the border, but it wasn’t immediately clear if these were in addition to those reported by Spain. The kingdom's authorities blamed misinformation and human traffickers for the breach, adding that they were investigating the events.

But the city that prides itself on being home to four cultures was still grappling with the aftermath of the border surge, with locals disagreeing on what caused it and who exactly is to blame.

“It's not the young men's fault,” said Mohamad Abdelkader Driss, 44, a waiter at a fish restaurant in town. “If you open the border, of course everyone comes in, but the young men aren't to blame. The authorities are responsible.”

Some migrants who returned to Morocco described a border that was effectively open and said authorities did little as they watched thousands of people cross.

The unauthorized arrivals on Thursday and Friday of 50,000 to 60,000, mostly young men, swelled Ceuta's population by more than half. Abdelkader lamented what happened, but said that those who breached the border behaved relatively well.

“It could have been much worse,” he said.

Far-right politicians call for remaining migrants to be expelled

The humanitarian crisis caused by the sudden rush of people reignited a debate around immigration in Europe and beyond. Over the weekend, far-right, anti-immigrant Spanish politicians and well-known right-wing influencers descended on the city, sparking counterprotests that included members of the Spanish city's large Muslim population, many of whom are of Moroccan descent.

Alvise Pérez, a far-right Spanish politician and member of the European Parliament, called on Saturday evening for migrants to be expelled as he faced an angry crowd of rival protesters. Pérez eventually had to shelter in a bar as residents banged on the windows, until police escorted him away.

Among the counter-protesters on Saturday was 20-year-old Ceuta resident and student Noor Ahmed. She denounced the protest and presence of figures like Pérez in her city as opportunistic.

“They just want to take advantage of the humanitarian crisis Ceuta is currently experiencing,” Ahmed said.

Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, visited Ceuta on Sunday, slamming the Spanish government for the surge in migrant arrivals, which he called “an invasion.”

“The frontiers of Ceuta and Melilla are the walls of our home and homeland, and they are not being protected by a corrupt and traitorous government,” he said.

The Pope said he was alarmed

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday said he was “following with concern the alarming situation in Ceuta, asking God … that solutions of peace, stability and justice may be found.”

Migration has been one of Pope Leo’s priorities, which he underlined during a recent visit to Spain's Canary Islands, one of Europe’s main migrant entry ports.

Trump added that a plan was in place for U.S. forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II” on Sunday. But he decided to scrap the plan and give diplomacy more time to play out after hearing from key Gulf leaders — including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials.

“I said to the crown prince, ‘What would you rather do? Would you rather us do this or not?’” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew back to Washington after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “They said we would much prefer a deal as opposed to an attack, because you don’t know where these attacks lead.”

Trump and the crown prince spoke on Saturday before the U.S. president announced in a social media post that Mideast allies had reached the "perimeters" of a deal to end the 5-month-old war.

It was another turnabout for Trump, who a day earlier said he’s “losing faith” in negotiations with Iran and offered the ominous warning that the U.S. military “will be hitting them very hard.”

Trump on Sunday reiterated that the emerging deal would include a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway where about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas flowed before the start of the war, and would resolve U.S. concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz without its authorization as part of its conflict with the U.S.

And Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz “will in no way return to the status it was before February 28th,” the day the war started.

On a call with Iranian state TV, he added that Iran is discussing shipping through the strait with Oman, on the other side of Hormuz, but that there’s no current talk about reopening the crucial waterway.

Trump has announced halts to strikes on Iran on several occasions since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, only for things to unravel and fighting to resume again.

Iran’s defense minister said on X that the country was “neither surprised nor passive” following Trump’s announcement and said the Islamic Republic remains alert in the face of concrete threats from the U.S.

While Iran’s leaders appear united in a war strategy signaling strength and endurance, a struggle for control seems to be brewing within the theocracy’s leadership between those who oppose all negotiations with the U.S. and others who count on military pressure to win at the negotiating table.

The latest proposal would bring sides back to negotiations

Trump on Sunday said he expected negotiations to resume “tomorrow afternoon” but did not detail who would be involved in such talks.

A regional official said the proposal announced by Trump over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue working out many of the issues that have stymied prior progress on the deal.

The official, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said the proposal calls for reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, on Arab Gulf countries and Jordan.

The U.S., in exchange, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil as stated in the tentative ceasefire deal, he said.

No deal has been reached yet but mediation efforts are underway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media.

Trump said that Israel is joining his commitment to end the war by implementing the ceasefire deal reached in June. Israel did not publicly comment on the announcement.

Saudis are concerned about Iran's retaliation

Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto leader, raised concerns about the U.S. potentially escalating the conflict when he spoke with Trump by phone on Saturday.

The call was “candid and constructive,” according to a person briefed on the call who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

The crown prince conveyed that an escalation in fighting could have a severe impact on the global economy if Tehran responded to a new U.S. bombardment by targeting some of the United States' Gulf allies.

The call happened before Trump’s social media announcement, the person said. The crown prince sought clarity from Trump on what potential new action he was weighing to take against Iran.

Saudi officials, the person added, have underscored in their engagements with the Trump administration that the kingdom — as well as fellow Persian Gulf energy titans the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — are in a good position to defend against further potential Iranian attacks, but that Kuwait could be more vulnerable to attacks by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

Trump suggested that his conversation with the Saudi crown prince weighed heavily in his decision to halt his plans to carry out strikes on Iran.

“It would have been disastrous for them. And they didn’t want us to do it," Trump said. "And frankly, Saudi Arabia didn’t want it either. They thought that a deal is imminent.”

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo, Giovanna Dell'Orto in Jerusalem, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, contributed to this report.

In a release, state officials identified the appointee as Michael Crabb, a lieutenant for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the owner of The Shirt Shop USA.

“Active in his community, he is the Vice President and a board member of the Florida Safety Council and is a member of the Florida Deputy Sheriff’s Association,” the release reads. “Crabb attended Barry University.”

Crabb is filling in the seat for District 2, which was previously held by former Commissioner Christine Moore.

Moore was elected to that seat in November 2018, representing Apopka, Ocoee, Lockhart, Tangerine, Zellwood, Eatonville, and portions of Pine Hills, College Park and Orlando.

However, she resigned from her board seat earlier this year to run for mayor of Apopka.

Tuesday, Aug. 18 is the Florida Statewide Primary election, a mix of party primaries and nonpartisan local elections, such as school board races, judicial races, and county commission races in some counties.

[ELECTION 2026: Make sure you’re eligible to vote|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

Florida has a closed primary system, which means only members of a political party may vote in party primaries. To be eligible, a voter had to identify with that party by July 20.

However, judicial races and local races, for the most part, are open to all registered voters, regardless of political party.

Everything you need to know in order to vote in the Aug. 18 Statewide Primary, including how to vote by mail, vote early, and vote on Election Day, can be found in our Election 2026 section HERE.

9th Circuit Judge – Group 1 candidates

The 9th Judicial Circuit of Florida handles state civil and criminal cases for Orange and Osceola counties. These are nonpartisan races, open to all voters.

Of the 22 groups up for election this year, Group 1, Group 2, and Group 31 drew more than one candidate.

You can read about the Group 2 race HERE.

You can read about the Group 31 race HERE.

The News Collaborative of Central Florida created a list of common questions to ask the candidates. Questionnaires were sent to all candidates.

Not all of the candidates responded. Where candidates did not respond, we have filled out the information to the best of our abilities.

Our News Collaborative partners at Vox Populi compiled the candidate responses for the 9th Circuit Court race. Below is an excerpt of each candidate’s profile.

Temika Hampton-Johnson

WEBSITE: hamptonjohnson4judge.vote/

What professional experiences have best prepared you for the bench?

I think everything in my professional life has prepared me for that because you need so many qualities. I think it’s safe to say every person who’s running for judge meets the minimum qualifications — they have the education, the background, etc. So what else can you bring that we need? For me, I think my background has helped me most in that my temperament, my demeanor, it’s not in theory. It’s been a working thing.

I mentioned I worked in probation and parole the last five years, of which I solely supervised sex offenders, and what I will tell you is, though I may not agree with the offense, it was not personal for me when that person came into my office. I’d ask, “What are your orders? Are you in compliance with your orders?” That’s it. Each one will tell you they were always treated with respect by me. Being personal didn’t enter into our interactions. Same as a public defender, you don’t pick your clients and I’ve had clients whose personal beliefs did not agree with mine. I’ve had clients who didn’t want me as their lawyer because of my race, but I still represented them, and I still showed up. I still did my job protecting their constitutional right without taking it personal, without bringing my personal opinion or my personal feelings into it, so I think that’s why I say everything in my background has prepared me.

Another thing, I also think having that real-life experience…dealing with regular everyday people, those are the people we see in court often who don’t have an attorney, and those are the ones who we need to restore their belief in our judicial system. I think my background has shown that I’m capable of doing that and exhibiting those behaviors that are necessary to help to restore that trust.

What role should personal values play in judicial decision-making?

Your personal values should not play any role — that’s not your job. My job as a judge is to just apply the law and whatever controlling precedent fairly and efficiently. My personal opinion doesn’t matter and, like I said, that’s not me speaking in theory; that’s me in practice. Most people, when I tell them what I did as a probation officer, they’re like, “How could you do that?” Because it’s not my job. I wasn’t on the jury. It wasn’t my job to judge them. My job was to make sure they complied with their orders…That’s it. Follow the law. They’re not my friends; I’m just doing my job, but they would never tell you that they were treated in an unfair way.

How do you balance precedent with evolving societal standards?

As a judge, you’re obligated to apply the law and follow any binding precedent. However, that can’t be done with just tunnel vision. You’ve got to understand the facts, the circumstances, and, truthfully, the reality facing the people.

If a father loses his driver’s license in criminal court, it impacts his ability to pay child support and family. So, if I’m in criminal court and you come before me, and this is a factor that’s brought up, these are [extenuating] circumstances. There are other mitigating factors. So maybe there’s an option of them doing community service, maybe we’re looking at something where this person can keep their driver’s license because we do see the long-term effect of it now. If it’s a situation where it’s a mandatory suspension, whether it’s a DUI or something like that, there’s nothing I can do about that.

But where there is leeway and there is some room for the judge to navigate some things, I think we need to look at those alternatives, and that’s part of looking at the big picture. It’s not just tunnel vision, where you say “You didn’t pay your fine, your license is suspended, now pay your fine, move on.” Well, [my question is] why didn’t you pay the fine? What’s the circumstances here?

…[You need to apply] justice with integrity. That means each person, when you’re coming in, you’re applying the law fairly. I’m consistent, and there’s no favoritism, no outside influences. It’s treating that person that’s in the courtroom with dignity and respect, regardless of their background or resources, whether they have money or don’t have money.

What steps do you take to avoid conflicts of interest?

The main thing I’ve been talking about is restoring public faith and trust in the judicial system. So you want to make sure at every opportunity you’re avoiding even the appearance of a conflict.

For example, I’ve been asked before [about the support for my campaign] because you’ll hear, “Well, people know you, but your name’s not said a lot, or these people support you, but they’re not openly supporting you,” or whatever the case may be. Because a lot of times when you’re applying for appointment as judge, it’s more about who knows you, who’s recommending you, those sort of different things. The truth is…I get the job done. Every person you talk to about me, they had nothing but positive things to say. However, no one has done anything to advance me, which also means I don’t owe anybody anything when I get there, and that’s where a lot of conflicts come from.

Now, I can’t think of many conflicts that I would have but if there’s one that exists, I have no problem acknowledging it and recusing myself from that case…If someone walks in, and I believe it’s a conflict, I’m gonna’ go ahead and say it ahead of time. I’m not trying to hide anything, and I think that’s part of my military ethical background of allowing people to make informed decisions.

What barriers to justice do you see in the current system, and how would you address them?

As far as people having access to court, if there are things that we can do virtually and the parties feel comfortable and it’s legally allowed, let’s do that. Let’s not drag people down to court if we don’t have to, right? It just saves time, saves resources, and it’s actually more efficient for the docket to help move it forward, but also wanting people to feel comfortable enough doing that, not forcing it, but giving them that option where we can.

I also think [having more knowledge about the court process] is important, doing more for knowing your rights, or general information sessions being provided for people. I know they have the self-help center in the civil department, if you come down to the courthouse, but maybe some things like with public libraries where you do information sessions. In my past, I’ve done quite a few know your rights workshops. There’s still people who need help processing that. One of the things I do right now is volunteer with the Florida Rights Restoration Collective, helping them to file those cases where we’re converting people’s court costs to community service, so we help get their rights restored. I’m doing a resource fair in Seminole County, and I know a lot of people are like, why are you doing stuff in Seminole? You’re not campaigning in Seminole. But it’s not necessarily about the race, it’s about what I believe in doing, and it’s about getting information to people.

I just feel like the more information people have, the more we can help to restore public trust, because when you understand things better, you can reconcile it in your mind, even when it doesn’t go your way… But we also need to provide some resources to help people to understand and navigate the court system, because it is difficult. It’s not easy. Even now as an attorney, I will say it’s not easy. Each judge has their own procedures in each courtroom, so we as attorneys know to go look at the judge’s procedures. However, the everyday citizen coming in may not, but that’s the kind of information in those sessions we can give them.

Charles Hart

WEBSITE: www.votecharleshart.com/

NOTE: Mr. Hart did not respond to our request to fill out the questionnaire. We have put together a brief background piece.

Private practice attorney and former chair of the Orange County Republican Executive Committee Charles Hart is running for the Group 1 seat on the Ninth Circuit Court.

He is challenging incumbent Judge Mikaela Nix (a fellow Republican) and private practice attorney Temika Hampton-Johnson in the nonpartisan Aug. 18 election. Circuit Court judges serve six-year terms and earn $200,836 annually. The Ninth Circuit serves both Orange and Osceola counties.

“As judge, I would work to ensure that every person who appears before the court is treated with courtesy, patience, and respect,” Hart states on his campaign website. “I believe the courtroom belongs to the public, and the judicial system should be accessible, efficient, and responsive to the needs of the community.”

A member of the Federalist Society and a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, Hart has applied five times to the Ninth Circuit Court’s Judicial Nomination Commission and once to the Seventh Judicial Circuit for circuit and county court positions in 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025. He’s never made it past the commission.

Hart has worked as an assistant state attorney and as a public defender for the 18th Judicial Circuit, which comprises Brevard and Seminole counties. He has also maintained a Sanford-based private practice, the Charles C. Hart Law Office, where he specializes in criminal and guardianship law and continues to practice today. A certified Florida Supreme Court family law and county court mediator, Hart opened a mediation practice earlier this year.

In 2022, Hart ran for the Florida House of Representatives in District 39. He was defeated in the Republican Primary by State Rep. Doug Bankson of Apopka.

Hart taught accounting at the University of South Florida’s School of Accounting and Santa Fe Community College during his graduate school and law school years. In his application for a vacancy on the Seventh Circuit’s County Court, he noted that his courses on accounting contained “no critical race theory [or] distortionist history lessons …”

Hart is also known for filing a lawsuit against Orange County’s mask mandate at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, telling Florida Politics at the time that Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Deming’s maneuver to stem the flood of cases and protect public health was a “massive government overreach” and a free speech violation.

Hart did not submit responses to the News Collaborative of Central Florida’s candidate questionnaire.

Mikaela Nix - Incumbent

WEBSITE: judgenix2026.com/

What professional experiences have best prepared you for the bench? As a Ninth Circuit judge for nearly six years, I bring a unique combination of professional experience, character, leadership, and perspective to the bench. I understand how the law operates in practice, having worked with diverse individuals across varied circumstances. I am deeply committed to ethical conduct, maintaining integrity, impartiality, and treating everyone with fairness and dignity. Recognizing that courtrooms are emotional environments, I make difficult decisions calmly and respectfully. I have a passion for law and justice, a commitment to community service, and the temperament necessary to be an effective judge. As one of the first African American women to win a contested judicial race in the Ninth Circuit, I believe judicial independence is essential to justice and democracy.

At my core, I have an unwavering commitment to justice, fairness, and the rule of law. While a law degree opens the door to judiciary, it is character, wisdom, discipline, and dedication to service that determine fitness for the bench. I am committed to serving Orange and Osceola County residents with integrity and compassion, as I often encounter people during their most challenging moments. No defining moment in my courtroom should be handled with anything less than complete dignity, respect, and compassion, regardless of the outcome.

A lawyer knows the law and how to apply it. A judge must know not only the law but also people, principles, human nature, and fairness.

What role should personal values play in judicial decision-making? Judicial decisions should be guided primarily, fundamentally, and consistently by the law itself, rather than by the judges’ personal values, beliefs, moral convictions, political ideologies, or individual preferences and inclinations. This critically important principle and foundational concept of judicial independence can be effectively and reliably accomplished by deciding cases based on the best available evidence presented during proceedings, careful and thorough assessment of witness credibility and reliability, well-established constitutional principles and frameworks that have been developed over time, and both the mandatory and persuasive precedent that has been set by previous court decisions at various levels of the judicial system. Personal values, individual biases, subjective opinions, preconceived notions, and external pressures should not play any role whatsoever in judicial decision-making processes or influence the outcomes of cases in any manner.

The judiciary must maintain strict objectivity in their analysis and reasoning, demonstrate complete impartiality in their considerations and deliberations, and ensure fair, equal, and consistent treatment to all parties who come before the court, regardless of their background, status, or circumstances. This commitment to neutrality and adherence to legal principles serves as the cornerstone of public trust and confidence in the judicial system and helps preserve the integrity and legitimacy of the rule of law in our society. 

How do you balance precedent with evolving societal standards? The legal system balances precedent with evolving societal standards through a concept known as flexible stare decisis, which allows courts to follow past rulings while leaving room to adapt to modern realities.

That question strikes at the very heart of judicial philosophy and the tension inherent in maintaining a stable legal framework while acknowledging the dynamic nature of our society. My approach is rooted in the fundamental principle that judicial decisions must be guided primarily, fundamentally, and consistently by the law itself, rather than by personal values or subjective inclinations. Precedent, or *stare decisis*, is not merely a suggestion; it is the cornerstone of judicial independence and the rule of law, ensuring predictability and fairness.

However, precedent is not static. It is interpreted through the lens of established constitutional principles and frameworks that have developed over time. When societal standards evolve, the role of the judiciary is not to unilaterally impose new moral codes, but rather to assess whether the existing legal precedent remains consistent with the foundational, enduring constitutional structures. This involves careful and thorough assessment of the established law, mandatory and persuasive precedent, and ensuring that any application remains strictly objective and impartial. The law must be applied to the facts presented, with complete dignity, respect, and compassion for all parties, recognizing that wisdom and character, not mere preference, determine fitness for the bench.

What steps do you take to avoid conflicts of interest? To avoid conflict and maintain harmonious interactions in both my personal and professional life, I make it a priority to consistently follow the Laws of Impeccable Communications:

Be Mindful of Your Attitude.

Communicate openly, clearly, and honestly, expressing your thoughts and feelings in a straightforward manner that leaves no room for misunderstanding or confusion.

Treat the person with respect, dignity, and consideration regardless of the situation.

Watch the tone of your voice to ensure it conveys the right message and doesn’t inadvertently escalate tensions.

Be compassionate and patient, understanding that everyone has their own struggles and perspectives that shape how they see the world and respond to different situations.

Despite our best efforts and intentions to the contrary, you are sometimes forced to deal with challenging relationships and difficult people. As challenging as it is, dealing with a difficult person can be a valuable learning experience.

What barriers to justice do you see in the current system, and how would you address them? The persistent and deeply concerning problem of overcrowded court dockets and the resulting significant delays in the administration of justice can be meaningfully and effectively addressed through several carefully considered strategic interventions and reforms, including substantially increasing the number of qualified judges and judicial officers to handle the ever-growing case volumes more efficiently and expeditiously, significantly expanding the availability and widespread use of virtual hearings, remote proceedings, and digital courtroom technologies to improve accessibility for all parties and reduce scheduling conflicts and logistical barriers, implementing and deploying upgraded and sophisticated case management software systems along with comprehensive and ongoing training programs for all court personnel and administrative staff to ensure proper utilization, establishing specialized fast-track divisions and dedicated courtrooms specifically designed to handle certain case types and categories more expeditiously and with greater focus, and hiring additional qualified and certified interpreters to adequately serve the diverse and expanding linguistic needs of participants in civil litigation, family law proceedings, probate matters, and other judicial processes. 

Tuesday, Aug. 18 is the Florida Statewide Primary election, a mix of party primaries and nonpartisan local elections, such as school board races, judicial races, and county commission races in some counties.

[ELECTION 2026: Make sure you’re eligible to vote|How to vote by mail|Election Myths]

Florida has a closed primary system, which means only members of a political party may vote in party primaries. To be eligible, a voter had to identify with that party by July 20.

However, judicial races and local races, for the most part, are open to all registered voters, regardless of political party.

Everything you need to know in order to vote in the Aug. 18 Statewide Primary, including how to vote by mail, vote early, and vote on Election Day, can be found in our Election 2026 section HERE.

Volusia County Council District 3

Volusia County Council members are elected in nonpartisan races, which means all voters can vote in the election, regardless of party affiliation.

Since there are three candidates in the race, the top vote-getter must get more than 50% of the vote (50%+1) in order to win outright. Otherwise, the top two candidates will go to a runoff in November.

The county council District 3 seat represents the southeast part of the county. You can see a map of all of the districts HERE.

The News Collaborative of Central Florida created a list of common questions to ask the candidates. Questionnaires were sent to all candidates.

Not all of the candidates responded. Where candidates did not respond, we have filled out the information to the best of our abilities.

News 6 compiled the candidate responses for Volusia County Council, emailing and calling the candidates over several weeks. Responses were edited for spelling and grammar, but otherwise left intact.

Anthony Gorham

WEBSITE: www.gorhamforsevolusia.com/

Top issues in your race

If elected, what are the THREE most pressing problems you want to address, and what do you suggest to solve them? In the boxes below, please list each issue and how you will address them:

YOUR NUMBER 1 ISSUE and how you plan to address it: Cut wasteful spending. Volusia County desperately needs a full forensic audit. If elected, that will be my top priority. WE THE PEOPLE deserve to know where our money is being spent and why.

YOUR NUMBER 2 ISSUE and how you plan to address it: Responsible growth. Florida will never stop growing but we can limit it by raising impact fees, holding developers accountable for the infrastructure they are responsible for, limiting tax payer fund “tax relief/grants” and fighting the massive re-zoning projects.

YOUR NUMBER 3 ISSUE and how you plan to address it: Return the government back to WE THE PEOPLE. From issues like “Toilet to Tap” to data centers, Volusia County citizens need to have a voice in what’s happening in their County. If elected I vow to put the citizens first and always listen. On big ticket items like “Toilet to Tap” the citizens deserve the right to vote on a charter amendment.

FOR INCUMBENTS: Why do you deserve to be re-elected in this race? FOR CHALLENGERS AND OPEN SEATS: Why do you deserve to be elected in this race? Mr. Gorham did not answer this question.

According to a University of North Florida poll, Floridians say affordability is their top issue. What are your solutions for dealing with Florida’s affordability issue? If elected we need to make infrastructure capacity a real condition of approval, target incentives at housing that working families can actually afford, and keep the county’s own tax and fee burden as low as responsible. Pure “build more of everything” or pure “stop all growth” both fail. Targeted supply tools + strong concurrency + fiscal discipline. We also need a forensic audit so we can cut wasteful spending.

Will you vote YES or NO on the constitutional amendment to slash property taxes and explain your position. How would you replace lost revenue – fees and/or service reductions? I absolutely support cutting property taxes. WE THE PEOPLE should not have to “rent” our property from the government. As I’ve mentioned before a full forensic audit to cut wasteful spending is a must. Cutting “pet projects” is a must. Partnering with private companies may need to happen. Raising fees or taxes is an absolute NO from me. Cutting an estimated $93 million from an almost $2 billion budget isn’t hard and the taxpayers will not suffer that reduction.

Utility costs are rising for customers in Florida, and the proliferation of data centers is expected to exacerbate that issue. How should Florida’s utility regulators respond? Florida as a whole needs to ban data centers. Volusia County needs to be amongst the roughly 14 Counties and cities who banned them. The County Council can only affect unincorporated areas but we can run the county’s own water/sewer systems efficiently and with disciplined rate policy, expand reclaimed water for irrigation, support residential efficiency and weatherization programs, strengthen low-income assistance, and manage growth so infrastructure costs don’t get shifted onto existing taxpayers. We can also communicate with city governments in an effort to lower or keep rates from increasing.

What do you think is the biggest environmental issue your government should address in Florida? There are currently 3 major issues that we can have an impact on and they all circle each other. Effluent water “Toilet to Tap” being pumped into our aquifer, overdevelopment and data centers. Florida Water Management has a set limit each area can pump out of the aquifer. By banning “Toilet to Tap” that limit stays basically flat which means overdevelopment and destruction of our natural wooded areas is capped and data centers will have a harder time getting approved. If we can ban “Toilet to Tap” and data centers then we can focus on developments. All 3 are important.

Danny Robins - Incumbent

WEBSITE: danny4volusia.com/

Mr. Robins did not answer our questionnaire.

Bryon White

WEBSITE: www.votebryonwhite.com/

Top issues in your race

If elected, what are the THREE most pressing problems you want to address, and what do you suggest to solve them? In the boxes below, please list each issue and how you will address them:

YOUR NUMBER 1 ISSUE and how you plan to address it: Responsible growth and land-use planning are my top priorities. I believe growth must pay for growth, and that new development should enhance—not diminish—the quality of life for existing residents. For too long, Florida has relied on a sprawling, extractive growth model that consumes farmland, wetlands, wildlife habitat, and open space while leaving taxpayers to bear the costs of new infrastructure and services. I support a more sustainable approach that encourages urban redevelopment, infill, Low-Impact Development, and the efficient use of existing infrastructure. I will work closely with our municipalities to establish a rural boundary that protects our remaining green spaces and directs growth to appropriate areas. I also support stronger oversight of mitigation credits and other regulatory loopholes that allow the destruction of wetlands and critical ecological corridors. We can grow our economy while protecting the natural resources that make Volusia County a special place to live.

YOUR NUMBER 2 ISSUE and how you plan to address it: Addressing flooding is one of the most important challenges facing Volusia County. During Hurricane Ian, more than 30,000 homes flooded, and our county is now recognized as one of the most flood-prone in the nation. We need a comprehensive approach that combines stronger stormwater management, improved drainage infrastructure, and better coordination with state and federal partners. We must also reform land-use policies to ensure new development does not worsen flooding conditions for existing residents. Growth should never come at the expense of public safety or private property. My goal is to make flood mitigation a countywide priority and ensure that future development is planned responsibly, with the long-term impacts on water, infrastructure, and neighborhoods fully considered.

YOUR NUMBER 3 ISSUE and how you plan to address it: Protecting conservation lands is one of my top priorities. Volusia County voters have twice approved the Volusia Forever program with the understanding that these environmentally sensitive lands would be preserved in perpetuity for future generations. I believe that commitment must be honored. I support strengthening protections for conservation lands and will champion a ballot measure requiring voter approval before any county-owned conservation land can be sold, transferred, or repurposed for another use. These lands belong to the public, and the public should have the final say over their future. Volusia’s natural resources are one of our greatest assets, and preserving them is essential to protecting our quality of life, water resources, wildlife habitat, and local economy. Forever should mean forever.

FOR INCUMBENTS: Why do you deserve to be re-elected in this race? FOR CHALLENGERS AND OPEN SEATS: Why do you deserve to be elected in this race? Development interests and wealthy special interests have gained too much influence in local government through campaign contributions. That is why I have pledged to accept zero campaign contributions from development interests. My loyalty is to the residents of Volusia County, not the people seeking to profit from its growth. I have spent my career serving this community—as a public safety professional, entrepreneur, farmer, and conservation advocate—and I have the experience to help lead Volusia County through the challenges ahead. My platform is practical, achievable, and rooted in what residents consistently ask for: smarter land-use decisions, meaningful flood mitigation, protection of our natural resources, and growth that pays for itself rather than shifting costs onto taxpayers. Volusia County doesn’t need more promises. It needs leadership willing to put residents ahead of special interests and ensure that growth pays its own way.

According to a University of North Florida poll, Floridians say affordability is their top issue. What are your solutions for dealing with Florida’s affordability issue? Florida’s affordability crisis cannot be solved by paving over more farmland and natural areas. More sprawl has not made housing affordable, and in many cases it has increased the long-term costs borne by taxpayers through roads, utilities, stormwater infrastructure, and public services. We need a more balanced approach that expands housing options where infrastructure already exists, encourages redevelopment and infill, and ensures that growth pays for growth. I support working with municipalities to identify appropriate locations for workforce housing, reducing unnecessary barriers to redevelopment, and investing in transportation and infrastructure that lower household costs. Just as importantly, we must protect residents from rising property taxes, flooding, insurance costs, and utility expenses, which have become major drivers of the affordability crisis. Affordability is not just about the cost of housing—it is about the total cost of living in Volusia County.

Will you vote YES or NO on the constitutional amendment to slash property taxes and explain your position. How would you replace lost revenue – fees and/or service reductions? I oppose this amendment because I believe it is a tax shift, not a tax reduction. While I agree that Floridians need relief from rising housing costs, insurance premiums, and property taxes, this proposal would remove a significant source of local government funding without identifying a sustainable replacement. In Volusia County alone, the estimated impact is approximately $92 million per year. The reality is that local governments cannot simply eliminate services at that scale. The costs would likely be shifted elsewhere through higher fees, increased sales taxes, special assessments, reduced services, or other revenue sources. Renters and residents who do not qualify for homestead exemptions could end up bearing a larger share of the burden while receiving fewer services. I support meaningful tax reform, but it should provide real relief rather than shifting costs from one group of residents to another. I am confident that state and local leaders can work together to develop solutions that improve affordability, protect essential services, and ensure that any tax relief is fair, sustainable, and transparent.

Utility costs are rising for customers in Florida, and the proliferation of data centers is expected to exacerbate that issue. How should Florida’s utility regulators respond? I oppose the construction of data centers in their current form because of the enormous demands they place on water supplies and electrical infrastructure. At a time when residents are already facing rising utility costs and increasing pressure on our natural resources, it makes little sense to approve facilities that consume massive amounts of water and electricity while providing relatively few permanent jobs. I have supported efforts to prohibit new data center development until the technology and operating models improve to the point that these facilities can operate without placing an unreasonable burden on local communities. Volusia County’s water resources, environmental health, and utility capacity should be reserved first and foremost for residents and businesses that directly contribute to our local quality of life and economy. Economic development is important, but it must be compatible with responsible stewardship of our natural resources.

What do you think is the biggest environmental issue your government should address in Florida? Flooding is the most urgent environmental challenge facing Volusia County. During Hurricane Ian, more than 30,000 homes flooded, and many residents continue to experience flooding from routine storms and rising groundwater. While extreme weather plays a role, decades of wetland loss, sprawling development patterns, and inadequate stormwater infrastructure have made the problem worse. Addressing flooding requires a comprehensive approach that includes stronger land-use policies, better protection of wetlands and natural floodplains, investment in stormwater infrastructure, and closer coordination with municipalities and state agencies. We must ensure that new development does not increase flood risks for existing residents. Protecting people, property, water quality, and our economy starts with making flood mitigation a top county priority. Growth must pay for growth, and growth that increases flooding is growth we cannot afford.

Toss in a crescendoing meteor shower and a six-planet parade on the same day, and the heavens will be overflowing with awe.

Daytime darkness will descend Aug. 12 across the Iberian Peninsula close to sunset — plus slivers of Greenland and Iceland — as the sun, moon and Earth align perfectly in the sky.

Starting near the North Pole before tracking south, totality will last up to two minutes and 18 seconds, an appetizer for an even longer solar show next year — a 6 ½-minute extravaganza that will sweep from Spain to North Africa and the Middle East.

It will take 1 ½ hours for the umbra, or moon’s sun-blocking shadow, to race along the 5,130-mile (8,260-kilometer) course, most of it over an empty Atlantic. Maximum totality will occur off Iceland’s west coast. By the time it reaches a small patch of Portugal and then Spain with its massive crowds, totality will have dwindled to a minute or so. The spectacle will end in the Mediterranean.

Eclipse chasers gear up for the solar spectacle

Hundreds of millions more on the sidelines are in for a treat as well.

A partial eclipse will delight as far away as Alaska and Siberia, enveloping Canada, the northern U.S., and much of Europe and West Africa.

The closer to totality’s course, the more the sun will vanish behind the moon – 94% coverage in Dublin and 83% in Oslo, Norway. Montreal will see an 18% bite out of the sun, tapering to 9% in New York and 2% in Norfolk, Virginia.

Special eclipse glasses are crucial. even if a morsel of sun is showing.

Adding to the cosmic wonder, the day begins with six of our neighboring planets forming an arc in the sky before dawn and end with the Perseid meteor shower peaking after nightfall under the new moon. Streaking meteors could photobomb totality, with some of the brighter planets and stars visible in the background.

Eclipse mapmaker Michael Zeiler is chasing an even more elusive interloper: the northern lights.

For his 13th total solar eclipse, Zeiler will be on a cruise ship in a Greenland fjord, sailing as a guest lecturer. He’ll point a video camera toward the north to capture any aurora forming during totality. A massive outburst from the sun would be the icing on his eclipse cake.

“What gets me excited is viewing rare phenomena,” Zeiler said in an email.

He’s not the only one revved up.

See who's hosting solar eclipse watch parties and science experiments

The European Space Agency will host a live webcast from Spain’s Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre and a public celebration in Leon. NASA will provide its own coverage, as will the Italian-based Virtual Telescope Project and others.

“For me, it’s not just a scientific moment. It’s not just an incredible alignment of heavenly bodies. It’s also a very human moment,” said ESA’s director of science Carole Mundell. “It’s a real human connection between us with our feet planted on the Earth and the cosmos.”

Two of ESA’s space telescopes will observe the eclipsed sun and its corona, or outer atmosphere. Proba-3, the space agency’s artificial eclipse-making satellite duo, will be in the wrong part of its orbit during totality as seen from Earth, but will try to sneak in some before-and-after shots.

U.S. college research teams are also pitching in, launching more than 60 high-altitude balloons from Spain and Iceland to study Earth’s atmosphere and other changes during the eclipse when the temperature momentarily drops. They launched 10 times as many balloons during the 2024 total solar eclipse that captivated North America.

“A couple of minutes isn’t a lot of time, but it’s still plenty to affect the atmosphere and to make that cold, dark shadow of the moon on Earth,” said Montana State University’s Angela Des Jardins, who leads the NASA-funded balloon project.

Southwest Research Institute’s Amir Caspi also expects a scientific bonanza from his study aboard a NASA high-altitude plane. Four cameras will record the corona in nine wavelengths as the jet chases the eclipse at 460 mph (740 kph), extending totality to nearly three minutes in the air. Caspi anticipates thousands of images gathered from each camera during those precious 180 seconds.

"It’s true the eclipse is short, but it’s still incredibly valuable," he said.

And there's more to come

An exceptionally long total solar eclipse is in store for 2027, yielding nearly three times more observation time.

The southern tip of Spain will take center stage on Aug. 2, 2027, with up to six minutes and 23 seconds of totality extending into Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.

Then on Jan. 26, 2028, a ring-of-fire eclipse will round out Spain’s celestial trifecta — “a lucky coincidence,” according to ESA’s Mundell.

It’s all the more extraordinary considering Spain’s last full solar eclipse — not counting the Canary Islands — occurred two days before the Titanic’s sinking in 1912. Because that rare hybrid eclipse toggled between a ring-of-fire and just a few seconds of totality for Spain, some consider 1905 for the country’s last pull-out-all-the-stops solar eclipse.

The Royal Observatory of Belgium’s Andrei Zhukov can’t get enough of them regardless of their length or origin. His Proba-3 science mission has created more than 60 simulated total solar eclipses over the past two years, with the longest lasting five hours and 38 minutes from two satellites flying in formation.

“We’re looking forward to more eclipses,” Zhukov said, “natural or artificial.”

___

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.

Curator Marcus Lobbes and his team were greeted with boos and whistles as they took to the stage at the end of Saturday evening's performance of “Götterdämmerung,” German news agency dpa reported. However, there was warm applause for the singers and musicians, and particularly for conductor Christian Thielemann.

Festival organizers said ahead of the performance that it would be the first time AI took part on stage at the event, “not as a character, but as an image-generating force.” They said that singers would be “the fixed point within a visually seething cosmos of light, texture, history, and association, amidst projections that erupt, constantly shift, and merge into one another.”

The AI-assisted projections included scenes from previous performances of Wagner's “Ring” cycle and historical themes, and drew from images pre-selected by Lobbes, the director of the Academy for Theater and Digitality in Dortmund, and his team.

The collage that the technology projected on stage puzzled the audience, dpa reported, with images including former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the towers of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and a special postage stamp marking German reunification in 1990.

The festival website said that “every performance will be unique — because the images and associations never stand still.” Two more performances are scheduled.

Investigators are confident that the gunman, identified as 24-year-old Chad Williams, acted alone during the shooting Saturday at an In-N-Out location in Twin Falls, Police Chief Matthew Hicks said at a news conference.

In all, four people died, including Williams, and seven others were injured at the recently opened restaurant in the southern Idaho city of about 56,000 people. Authorities said Sunday that two of the injured were treated at a hospital and released, three were listed as stable, and two were in critical condition.

Hicks said an off-duty state trooper and an armed citizen — whose identities weren't immediately disclosed — both fired back and diverted the gunman from the restaurant.

“We believe their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties,” the chief said. “We want to take a moment and commend the actions of the off-duty officer and the citizen, and their heroic action to stop this incident.”

Hicks said detectives are working to determine Williams' motives, and said the suspect's family was cooperating fully with law enforcement. Officials asked potential witnesses or anyone with information to contact police.

The chief also warned of misinformation spreading online identifying a different man as the shooter, saying that person had “no involvement in this incident whatsoever.”

In-N-Out worker among the victims

One of those killed was an employee, the fast-food chain’s owner said.

“My heart is broken, my chest is heavy, my eyes burn from the tears I've shed. We lost one of our beautiful Associates tonight,” In-N-Out owner Lynsi Snyder said in a statement released early Sunday on social media. “In-N-Out will be mourning with the families and praying for them as they tread through a very painful season.”

The FBI on Sunday encouraged the public to submit images and videos related to the shooting Saturday in Twin Falls that left seven other people wounded, some critically.

The In-N-Out had opened just about a week earlier, on July 24, as part of the California-based company’s recent expansion to Idaho.

Snyder did not identify the worker. Officials were still trying to notify relatives of victims and so were not yet releasing the names, ages or other details about the people hurt in the shooting, Twin Falls spokesperson Josh Palmer said Saturday.

Police who responded to the shooting found the body of the suspected gunman in an area near the restaurant, Palmer said.

Palmer said investigators were interviewing witnesses to the shooting. The restaurant is in a busy shopping plaza, and hundreds of people were in the area when it happened around 2 p.m.

Witnesses describe chaotic scene

Lane Koehn, 34, said he was at a stoplight near the In-N-Out when he saw a person with an AR-style rifle emerge from the drive-thru. A man with a pistol started firing at the shooter.

He then saw someone in an In-N-Out uniform drag a person, also wearing a uniform, bleeding from a gunshot wound to her chest across the parking lot. The employee, Koehn and the man with the pistol stayed until paramedics arrived for her.

“She was pretty bad off, but I don’t know. I hope she made it,” Koehn said.

He said the shooter fired at least three or four rounds and it was not clear whether or not anyone in particular was targeted.

Video taken by a driver from across the street captured a shooter, who appeared to be dressed in black, walking up to a white car carrying a long rifle, opening the driver-side door and popping the trunk. The person then walked to the trunk and reached inside. At that point the driver who shot the video left quickly, fearing that the man might be getting more weapons.

Twin Falls resident Haley Dodaro, 43, and her mother went to In-N-Out for lunch Saturday afternoon. While waiting in the drive-thru line, they saw people running across the road and workers bolting out of the restaurant. At first, Dodaro thought there might have been a fire, but then a man directing traffic in a reflective vest said there was a shooter.

“So that’s when we knew there was a shooting. People were running out crying and screaming. It was very scary,” Dodaro said in a text message to The Associated Press.

Employee told people to get down

Nayeli Rodriguez, 40, of Burley, was inside waiting for food with her daughters when she heard shots from the kitchen. An employee said it was a shooting and told people to get down. Rodriguez said an older man tried to protect her and her daughters, and they were among the last to run outside.

“We were trying to get as far as we could and some angels let us in their car,” Rodriguez said, also via text message. “I left my car there in the parking lot.”

Twin Falls is about 130 miles (205 kilometers) southeast of Boise and about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of the Nevada border.

The Tigers traded the two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner to the Los Angeles Dodgers for three minor league prospects in a deal that was agreed to late Saturday night.

“Baseball has a funny way of challenging you to deal with change,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before the series finale against the Athletics on Sunday. “Sometimes that’s difficult, sometimes it’s part of the game and part of the business. These guys are callous to some of the emotions that come with it.”

Hinch's team responded with an 11-0 win to complete the series sweep and keep the Tigers within 2 1/2 games of the last wild-card spot.

“We played a really good series in the midst of a lot of different things swirling around us,” Hinch said. “This group’s pretty tough. We go through it game by game and showed a lot of character, obviously.”

Moving on without Skubal will be the ultimate challenge. The ninth-round draft pick in 2018 developed into one of the best pitchers in baseball, winning the Cy Young in 2024 and '25 and posting a 2.40 ERA over the past three seasons.

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings and had a major impact in the clubhouse. But with him set to become a free agent after the season, the Tigers opted to trade him for minor league right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Hinch said it was important for the players to appreciate what Skubal gave the team while still understanding the task ahead.

“He wasn’t going to pitch today. So we have to be sort of cold about we got to move on and go play today’s game that he wasn’t going to impact despite the loss of his presence in our clubhouse,” Hinch said. "We have a ton of respect for what he brought every day, his preparation, his attitude, his desire to win. That impact doesn’t leave with him as he gets on a plane to go to a different team. The day-to-day does, and we’re going to have to find a way to overcome it.”

News of the trade broke during Detroit's 8-6 win over the A's on Saturday night with many players first hearing about it from fans near the dugout during the game. Skubal was back in the clubhouse beyond the center-field fence at the minor league stadium where the A's play when he got the news, making it impossible for the players to get the news directly from him until after the game.

But they managed to focus on the game and come up with the win.

“The team’s handled it really well,” first baseman Spencer Torkelson said. “Leading up to the trade, I thought we blocked out the noise amazing. Even in the sixth inning when everyone’s screaming at us from the stands that we traded our best pitcher, I think we kept our focus and kept the main thing the main thing. I think as a team we still believe in ourselves and we know that we’re definitely not out of it.”

The trade came at an uncertain time for the Tigers, who have overcome a slow start to the season to get close to playoff position.

Prized prospect Max Clark was called up from the minors on Friday and has delivered by reaching base safely nine times in three games. But the team also scratched Casey Mize from his scheduled start this weekend in case he gets traded before the deadline Monday.

“It’s a weird, weird place," Mize said. “We’ve played really good baseball the last couple days. We trade our best player. It says we’re 2 1/2 back, but obviously there’s a lot of teams still to overpass, so it’s certainly a strange spot."

The task now will be to try to get back to the playoffs without Skubal after they lost in Game 5 of the division series the past two seasons. Skubal started both of those losses. He had a rough start and took the loss in 2024 against Cleveland. He had a strong start last season with 13 strikeouts in six innings against Seattle but the bullpen squandered a 2-1 lead and the Tigers went on to lose 3-2 in 15 innings.

Skubal said Saturday night after the trade that it hurt that he couldn't help deliver Detroit its first World Series title since 1984.

“Over the last couple of years, we don’t get anywhere near to what we’ve done without Tarik Skubal,” Mize said. “I hope our fan base is appreciative of that, even if it maybe didn’t end the way that everyone wanted it to.”

The Tigers fans might get a chance to see Skubal again later this month when the Dodgers visit Detroit Aug. 28-30.

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

“Perfect pace, perfect read,” he said.

The 24-year-old Thorbjornsen sealed his spot in the FedEx Cup playoff after rolling into the Motor City No. 69 in the standings. The top 70 advance to the postseason after next week’s Wyndham Championship.

“Just to be in the playoff for the first time is very exciting, he said. ”It's great to be playing against the best players in the world."

Thorbjornsen started the fourth round three shots behind leader Davis Riley, whose rough start opened opportunities for the field.

“The start got the best of me and kind of put me behind the eight-ball early unfortunately,” Riley said.

Thorbjornsen took advantage, surging into the lead at No. 14 with his third of four birdies in a six-hole stretch and closing with a clutch, curling putt that went in the right side of the cup.

He's the eighth first-time winner this season on the PGA Tour and the second straight, following Jackson Koivun’s victory last week at the 3M Open.

“It was such a battle, playing with some great players," Thorbjornsen said. "Everyone was in the mix after nine holes.”

Xander Schauffele (65) briefly led during the final round and finished second, two shots behind Thorbjornsen.

“I played really well and he just beat me straight up, so hats off to him,” Schauffele said.

Riley (70) was another stroke behind in third, falling out of the lead with four bogeys.

Rasmus Hojgaard (68) was alone in fourth, four shots back.

Hideki Matsuyama (64), Matt Wallace (67), Kristoffer Ventura (68) were another stroke back, tied for fifth.

Thorbjornsen was born in Cleveland, grew up in Massachusetts and attended Stanford. He won the 2018 U.S. Junior Amateur over Akshay Bhatia, who has three PGA Tour wins.

He went straight to the PGA Tour in 2024 as the No. 1 player in the PGA Tour University ranking.

“I think it's one of the best programs in golf,” Thorbjornsen said. “It’s changed all of our lives.”

Thorbjornsen chipped in from 35 feet for birdie at No. 12 on a day when he accurately aimed for pins that left him with some short birdie putts before his long one on his 72nd hole.

He had a bogey-free round, an accomplishment many other players on the leaderboard were unable to pull off on a day that started with rain and became windy when the clouds cleared.

Riley started with a one-shot lead and quickly lost it — and couldn't find his ball in fescue at No. 4 after about a dozen people helped him try — with three bogeys through six holes.

He rallied with three birdies in a seven-hole stretch before giving back a stroke with a bogey at No. 17, taking away his chance to possibly force the tournament into a playoff.

The eighth and final Rocket Classic drew its strongest field and biggest crowds.

The PGA Tour is moving to a new model for 2028, effectively creating two tours and Rocket Mortgage decided not to exercise its option to host another tournament next year. The Detroit-based company isn’t interested in continuing to spend $15 million a year to be part of the second tier in the new era and didn’t want to double the costs to be part of the elite tier.

“There have been some conversations about having a tournament here again," tournament director Mark Hollis said. “Michigan deserves to have professional golf.”

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

A resolution to the conflict, which has lasted more than five months, could give oil shippers the ability to send vessels out of the Persian Gulf, where tankers of oil and other products have been trapped during the fighting.

The price of U.S. crude oil fell 5% to $80.79 per barrel Sunday night. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 5% to $83.87 per barrel.

Oil prices have been swinging widely since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February, pushing past $100 per barrel multiple times during the spring.

As the conflict continued, high oil prices seeped into the cost of gasoline, jet fuel and many other products that are delivered using diesel. Motorists have paid more at the pump and customers shelled out more for airfare due to higher jet fuel costs. In some countries, fuel supplies ran low, leading to rationing and sporadic closures of schools and government offices.

Meanwhile, oil and gas companies amassed huge profits in the spring due to the high oil, gasoline and diesel prices that resulted when petroleum shippers couldn't get through the critical Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that borders Iran, due to the fighting.

Prices for U.S. crude oil on Sunday night remained about 20% higher than before the conflict began.

Lula's rival, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, has enjoyed open support from members of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, Argentina's President Javier Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Brazil's president said in his party convention speech he wants to boost his country's defense industry, protect its rare minerals, and claimed “no Chinese, no American, no French will touch” these resources without respecting the South American nation's sovereignty.

“We will have to be much more daring to change a lot of things in this country,” Lula said.

Other members of his party highlighted the risk of foreign intervention in Brazil's elections, pointing to Trump and Milei. However,

“This election in Brazil determines the future of Latin America,” Edinho Silva, the Workers' Party chairman, said during Sunday's convention. Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia have elected Trump-inspired presidents in the recent past.

Flávio Bolsonaro's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was an ally of Trump but is now serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for an attempted coup.

Lula has managed to draw centrist parties away from his right-wing adversary and arrives at his party’s convention with higher popularity in the polls than six months ago.

His campaign is specifically boosting a change to Brazil's income tax system that charges less to people on low incomes and a debt forgiveness program that has quickly become very popular.

Workers' Party politicians have expressed worries about foreign-sponsored threats of coordinated automated bot campaigns and social media manipulation designed to influence voters and undermine trust in Brazil's electronic voting system.

On Wednesday at the party convention, Lula said he doesn't want Trump as an enemy.

Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, who will run again alongside Lula, said Sunday that Brazil’s electronic voting system “is so good that it doesn’t take votes from Argentines and Americans,” in a reference to Milei and Trump.

Lula is counting on some level of interference

The Trump administration has also imposed new tariffs on Brazilian exports and changed the designation of two local criminal groups to terrorist groups, which legal analysts say could hurt companies and open a path for other kinds of intervention. Both moves took place after Sen. Bolsonaro visited the White House and the Department of State.

Argentina’s Milei came to Sao Paulo on July 25 to speak at Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party convention and sparked a diplomatic crisis when he insulted Lula and the Supreme Court justice who oversaw the elder Bolsonaro's trial and conviction over the attempted coup.

Netanyahu recorded a video in support of the president’s adversary.

Lula has said he is defending Brazil's national sovereignty. He recently held a long call with China’s President Xi Jinping, the leader of one of Brazil's most important trading partners.

His supporters say he could lead South American trade bloc Mercosur into striking deals with partners worldwide. Though Brazil is by far the biggest economy in the group, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay are also members.

Like his father, Sen. Bolsonaro has recently tried to sow unfounded doubts about Brazil's voting system. Those statements have raised concerns at Brazil's foreign ministry, which in July denied visas to two U.S. Department of State officials reportedly due to fears they sought to do the same.

The U.S. Department of State denied that claim in a statement.

The Senate is likely to vote on the measure before leaving Washington at week's end for its traditional August recess, a period that many lawmakers want to spend shoring up their reelection prospects rather than working in the nation's capital.

The bill generally funds the federal government at current levels though Dec. 11. The House has passed a similar measure, but it did not include various exceptions sought by the White House. Senators have been spending recent days negotiating which of those exceptions to include.

One exception that did not make it into the bill, Democrats noted, was the administration's request to include $1 billion to build “Trump-class” battleships.

In another major difference with the House bill, Democrats say they also were able to include language that will ensure the administration cannot transfer funds from other programs to the Border Patrol.

The late-summer action on a funding fix is unusual. Normally, Congress waits until the final days or hours of a funding deadline to pass short-term funding extensions, but this time senators are acting two months before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said passing the measure was his top priority going into the August recess. He noted that the American people have already experienced two record-breaking government shutdowns in the past 10 months.

“We need to ensure that they do not face a third,” Thune said.

Both parties want to avoid another shutdown

A short-term funding extension is needed because Congress has struggled to get the dozen annual appropriations bills negotiated and approved before the Sept. 30 deadline. By extending government funding now, lawmakers can use the ensuing months to work out their differences on full-year funding.

It won't be an easy lift as Republicans seek a dramatic increase in defense spending while cutting non-defense spending. Trump proposed a 10% cut in non-defense programs overall. Meanwhile, he called for boosting defense spending by some 44%.

A potential shutdown before voters go to the polls is a scenario that both parties are looking to avoid, as polling indicated that neither party evaded blame for last fall's record 43-day shutdown. Democrats sought to extend an expiring health insurance tax credit and refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not include that priority. But Republicans said that was a separate policy fight to be held at another time.

A second spending battle over funding for the Department of Homeland Security took 76 days to resolve when Democrats refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations.

The bill delays a controversial policy on grants

Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with Democratic senators, are seeking to block a proposed rule from President Donald Trump's administration related to grants. The rule would require a senior political appointee at each agency to review grant proposals through criteria that include “ensuring that discretionary awards advance the President's policy priorities.”

Collins and Sen Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said the rule would not take effect during the course of the stopgap spending bill. Collins said she advocated for significant changes to the rule, “citing its potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research.”

Democrats want to kill the administration's effort altogether. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said it was a “disgraceful” effort that would “further politicize all federal grants.”

“While Republicans rejected killing the proposed rule outright, I’m going to keep fighting to put a stop to it once and for all, and I will keep pressing my Republican colleagues to do exactly that,” Murray said.

Democrats fear Trump would turn federal grants into a cudgel to punish perceived political foes and reward allies, while also undermining Congress's constitutional power of the purse. The White House Office of Management and Budget says its effort is about improving accountability to ensure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted or misused.

Peralta, a two-time All-Star who can become a free agent this fall, has been a disappointment for the Mets after they acquired him from Milwaukee in a January trade.

“He gave us everything that he had, stepped out on the mound every single day and competed,” interim Mets manager Andy Green said. “I know he wanted better results. And I think when we struck the deal to get him, we were all hoping for a different set of circumstances on this day than what we’re looking at.”

Green said Peralta was informed of the trade during the early innings of a 2-0 loss to the Miami Marlins that dropped the Mets to 47-66 — their worst record through 113 games since 2003, the last time New York finished last in the NL East.

But Peralta could help a strong pitching staff with the Rays, who began the day with the best record in the American League at 65-45 and a 3 1/2-game lead in the AL East over the New York Yankees.

“Freddy is a proven major league starter with high-stakes experience and a strong track record,” Rays President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander said in a statement. “Adding a pitcher and competitor of his caliber strengthens our team as we push forward.”

The last-place Mets received outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Émilien Pitre and right-hander Gary Gill Hill in exchange for Peralta. Pitre was a second-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2024 draft while Hill was a sixth-round pick in 2022. Smith was picked in the fourth round of the 2023 draft by the Seattle Mariners, who sent him the Rays in the Randy Arozarena trade in July 2024.

The move came a day before baseball’s trade deadline at 6 p.m. EDT on Monday, and hours after the Los Angeles Dodgers landed the biggest prize on the market, ace pitcher Tarik Skubal, in a deal with the Detroit Tigers.

Before joining the Mets last offseason, Peralta went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA over 33 starts in 2025. He led the National League in wins, finished fifth in Cy Young Award voting and helped the Brewers win their third straight NL Central crown.

With the Rays, the 30-year-old right-hander joins a rotation headed by All-Stars Drew Rasmussen and Nick Martinez. Left-hander Shane McClanahan, an All-Star in 2022 and 2023, is 9-6 with a 3.09 ERA in 20 starts but was placed on the 15-day injured list Friday with mid-back tightness on his left side.

Last winter, New York sent youngsters Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams to the Brewers for Peralta and right-hander Tobias Myers, giving up a pair of players rated among the game’s top 100 prospects in the anticipation Peralta would be the frontline starter the team needed.

Instead, he went 5-9 with a 4.99 ERA in 22 starts and failed to complete five innings in four of his last five outings for the Mets.

“I know he’s disappointed by it,” Green said. “He came here to anchor a rotation and felt the weight of that. I know from talking to him he certainly doesn’t feel like it went the way that he thought it would.”

He was 5-5 with a 3.90 ERA after beating Atlanta 8-1 on June 14, but is 0-4 with a 7.93 ERA in his past seven starts, including a June 20 dud when he allowed 10 runs and 10 hits over 2 2/3 innings at Philadelphia.

“I know that so far I let them down,” Peralta said late last month. “I haven’t (done) what I was supposed to do.”

Peralta becomes the latest pitcher traded away by the high-priced Mets, who are selling off assets for young prospects after beginning a miserable 2026 season with World Series aspirations.

“I think where we are today screams that we’re all wishing we were in a different spot,” said Green, who began the season as the Mets’ vice president of player development before moving into the manager’s chair following the firing of Carlos Mendoza on June 26.

They sent David Peterson to the Chicago Cubs for minor league infielder Cole Mathis one day before Mendoza’s dismissal and reliever A.J. Minter to Minnesota for minor league infielders Bruin Agbayani and Billy Amick last Friday.

Peterson and Minter are eligible for free agency after this season as well. New York also is expected to move pitcher Clay Holmes, reliever Brooks Raley and outfielder Tyrone Taylor before Monday’s deadline — and possibly players such as relievers Huascar Brazobán and Luke Weaver, each of whom are under team control next year.

Holmes, who broke his right fibula on May 15, made a rehab start for Single-A Brooklyn Sunday, when he allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings. Raley, Weaver and Brazobán all threw a hitless inning of relief while Taylor pinch-ran in the ninth inning.

“Those guys were all healthy, rested, available, good to go,” Green said. “So we felt comfortable letting them do what they do during a baseball season.”

To open a spot for Peralta on the 40-man roster, Rays outfielder Jake Fraley (hernia) was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

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

Moreno, who has been publicly restrained in recent months as the bitter custody dispute has played out between Miller and his daughter Emily, said in a lengthy post: "If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them. He should not serve in the House of Representatives.”

Moreno wrote that Miller “needs serious psychological help. He is a danger to my daughter, and I hold my breath every minute he has custody of my granddaughter."

Miller, who has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, said Sunday that he will remain in his race for reelection before a Wednesday deadline to replace him. Democrats have seen a new opportunity in the northeast Ohio congressional seat as the Republican incumbent has faced mounting pressure over the domestic abuse allegations in a bitter and drawn-out custody battle with his ex-wife.

“I’m not dropping out of this race and I’ll win in November,” said Miller, who denied abusing his former wife and his daughter.

Asked on Sunday evening if Miller should resign, Trump said that “so far it's accusations.”

“I'll be looking at it,” Trump said.

Scrutiny of Miller has escalated in recent weeks

Accusations against Miller, who was a White House adviser during Trump’s first term, have been public for years but have recently drawn increased scrutiny as back and forth in the case has escalated.

Emily Moreno has said that Miller scalded, hit and threatened her while they were married. Miller denied those allegations in the video, as he has in the past.

“It's incredibly upsetting,” Miller said, as he went through a list of the allegations.

Miller also said he had nothing to do with a broken collarbone on their 2-year-old daughter that led Emily Moreno to contact authorities. The pair, who were married in 2022 and finalized their divorce last year, have presented different theories about how the injury occurred, according to court filings and police reports detailed in an article in July in the magazine Mother Jones that first revealed the child’s injury.

Miller accompanied his announcement with the release of a voluminous cache of investigative and court documents, as well as audio and video clips, related to the custody dispute.

Spokesperson for Miller's ex-wife says video was ‘shameful’

A spokesperson for Emily Moreno, Stefan Mychajliw, said Sunday that the video was “shameful.”

“No loving parent would have ever used their daughter as a PR pawn to save their own political career,” Mychajliw said. “Miller can lie and spin on X, but he cannot do so under oath in a court of law. We are confident that justice will prevail in court.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno's statement on Sunday came after he had declined to comment on the specific allegations for months. Last week, a spokeswoman issued a statement saying the senator “will not litigate these matters in the media or respond to baseless public attacks.”

“Senator Moreno’s top priority is the safety and well-being of his daughter and granddaughter,” said the spokeswoman, Reagan McCarthy.

Potential GOP candidates eye Miller's seat

The senator’s statement was prompting some hand-wringing behind the scenes in his home state, where Trump-endorsed candidates like Miller typically win with ease.

Miller's Democratic opponent, Brian Poindexter, said no one facing such accusations “belongs in the halls of power.”

State Rep. Mike Dovilla, a U.S. Navy veteran and former presidential appointee to the Office of Personnel Management, and Kevin Coughlin, a former state senator and representative who ran for the U.S. House in 2024 and 2026, were among Republicans whose names were being floated should Miller drop his fall House bid, according to a high-ranking Republican who discussed the sensitive subject on condition of anonymity.

Democrats have recently called on Miller to resign, requested a congressional ethics investigation and suggested more help could be directed in the fall toward Poindexter.

Miller won reelection two years ago with just over 51% of the vote.

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Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio.

Tonight

Isolated showers are possible Sunday evening after sunset until around 9-10pm. Mostly dry conditions prevail overnight with the exception of a few rogue showers, primarily north near Marion County. Lows will drop down to the mid 70s with partly cloudy skies.

Monday

As our atmosphere holds on to lingering moisture and a southwest wind, a good round of afternoon storms is once again in store for Central Florida. The difference being coverage is more scattered in nature than the last few days. Spotty showers will begin to develop along the I-75 corridor around lunchtime. Our southwest winds will push them towards I-4 by mid-afternoon, 2-3pm, then favoring areas near I-95 and the beaches just before the evening commute. Scattered showers will persist across Central Florida until sunset, then our skies will calm down. Highs will hit the low 90s.

Week Ahead

Rain chances will slowly decline and revert back to “normal” as our winds finally shift out of the east by mid week with a building ridge of high pressure in the mid levels of our atmosphere. This will help to establish our normal sea breeze pattern starting on Wednesday, meaning afternoon storms will primarily favor areas west of I-4 and push westward from there. By the end of the week and into the upcoming weekend, we will watch a tropical wave entering the Bahamas to our east. As this wave pushes towards Florida late Friday, moisture will begin to increase over our area for the weekend. Rain chances, in turn, will increase for the weekend ahead.

Kurtz went on the injured list with a sprained right thumb on July 11 and returned two weeks later. But he has struggled at the plate since then, going 1 for 18 in seven games since returning to the lineup. Kurtz was also hit on the left forearm with a pitch on Wednesday night but was able to return to the lineup for the next two games.

Manager Mark Kotsay said on Sunday that the team will determine the next steps for Kurtz after he visits the specialist.

The 23-year-old Kurtz is batting .256 with 21 homers and a team-high 69 RBIs. Kurtz ranks third in the majors with 79 walks and is fourth among qualifiers with a .396 on-base percentage going into Sunday's games. He also ranks 12th in the majors with an .879 OPS.

Kotsay said shortstop Jacob Wilson has been dealing with tendinitis in his knee that has prevented him from playing in the field since Wednesday. Wilson was a designated hitter the past three games and was out of the starting lineup on Sunday but should be back at shortstop for the series opener at Cincinnati on Tuesday. Wilson has gone 107 straight games without an error, three shy of Mike Bordick's record for a shortstop set in 2002.

The A's also expect to get right-hander J.T. Ginn off the injured list to start that game against the Reds. Ginn has been out since July 19 with a blister on his right middle finger. Ginn is 8-6 with a 3.46 ERA this season.

Third baseman Zack Gelof will begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday at Triple-A Las Vegas after being out since July 10 after suffering a cut on his right knee when he slid into the wall making a catch.

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

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a light blue shirt under her jacket that said, “Trans kids belong” as she directed her team — the top team in the WNBA — to a 108-100 win over the Fever. There were fans in the stands wearing T-shirts that read, “Trans kids belong in sports.”

It's the third straight Fever game that drew a rally after Cunningham recently voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports in an ESPN article published last week.

Before the contest, Cunningham and Reeve held a conversation at midcourt. Reeve didn't want to share the exact nature of their talk.

“Both of us understand that we have platforms and we both talked about wanting to, more than anything, educate,” Reeve said. “There are some things that we have in common, and maybe some things you differ on, just like any issues. I think it’s how you handle things. It was nice to be in person, for sure.”

Cunningham was booed by the crowd on her first touch of the game and throughout.

Outside the arena, dozens of fans gathered near the entrance. A person using a loud speaker repeated over and over, “Protect trans women.” There were signs held up that read, “Love is truth" and “Thank you Sophie.”

Asked how she and the team are navigating the outside conversations, Caitlin Clark said after the game, “I think we’re excellent.

“I think it’s for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions,” Clark said. “Our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins and obviously we didn’t do that tonight. So we need to find an area to improve in that way.”

Any reaction?

“I just answered,” Clark said.

Cunningham said Friday in Portland that she wasn't concerned about rallies against transgender participation in women’s sports becoming a distraction for the Fever.

“I think everyone who knows me personally, they know that I’m full of love. I’m bubbly. I love the people around me,” Cunningham said Friday. “I love basketball. I love inspiring the next generation and doing that in a positive light. And so that doesn’t even cross my mind. Doesn’t cross my teammates’ minds.”

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

It was the latest in a pattern of announcements the U.S. president has made to first threaten massive strikes and then later call them off. The abrupt shifts have been a defining feature of the five-month conflict that has sent prices of oil and basic goods soaring — and the announcements to date have been upended by renewed attacks days or even hours afterward.

Here is a look at some of Trump’s past major announcements about pausing strikes against Iran:

April 7

The United States and Iran agree to a two-week ceasefire to end the intense fighting that began on Feb. 28 with Israeli and U.S. attacks. Trump makes the announcement less than two hours before a deadline he had set for Tehran to capitulate or face attacks on bridges and power plants — strikes he said would mean “a whole civilization will die.”

April 21

Trump announces that the U.S. is indefinitely extending its ceasefire with Iran a day before it was to expire. He adds that he has been asked by mediators to hold off on attacks to give Iranian leaders time to come up with additional proposals. The fragile ceasefire lasts until May 8, when the U.S. carried out strikes on Iranian tankers.

May 18

After a weekend of dire threats against Iran, Trump says he is holding off on a major planned military strike because “serious negotiations” were underway. “There seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out. If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I’d be very happy,” he said. By May 27, U.S. strikes were back on after negotiations faltered.

June 11

After two days of back-and-forth attacks, Trump threatens further escalation, saying the U.S. would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and take “total control” of its oil and gas industries. Then, a few hours later, Trump posts on social media that there had been a breakthrough in negotiations and called off the strikes.

June 17

Trump signs an initial agreement with Iran that calls for a permanent end to hostilities and for reopening of the strait, and starts a 60-day negotiating clock to reach a final deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear program. Trump left the door open to abandoning it. “It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs,” he said.

July 7

After Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the strait, Trump launches new strikes on Iran while he is in Ankara, Turkey, attending the NATO leaders' summit. Later, he renews his threat to “just finish the job" on Iran after saying he believes the ceasefire is over.

July 27

Trump says he has paused two weeks of intense, daily U.S. strikes on Iran to give negotiations another chance. During 13 days of strikes, the U.S. military had targeted key military and commercial sites as clashes continued to escalate over shipping routes. In response, Iran had launched missiles and drones across the Middle East at countries that host U.S. troops.

Aug. 1

After telling reporters the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard,” Trump says on social media that he has canceled planned strikes, claiming Mideast allies had reached the parameters of a deal to end the war, including a reopening of the strait. “Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump said. In response, Iran’s defense minister said that the country was “neither surprised nor passive” following Trump’s announcement and said Iran continues to remain alert in the face of threats.

Kuwaki closed with a 1-under 70 and looked like a winner as she waited nearly 30 minutes in the scoring room. Henseleit, in the final group, holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Royal Lytham & St. Annes for a 70 to join Kuwaki at 5-under 279.

Henseleit then had the advantage in the playoff when the 23-year-old from Japan was in deep grass short of a bunker and had to lay up short of the green. Kuwaki hit wedge to 3 feet to save par and got another chance when Henseleit missed a 15-foot birdie putt for the win.

The tables turned on the second extra hole. Henseleit's tee shot on the 18th drifted far enough to the right that it was beneath a gorse bush. She did well to get that back to the fairway, and hit wedge to about 12 feet. But her par putt stayed left of the cup, and that left Kuwaki to tap in for par.

“Very happy with how I gave myself the opportunity to win today and how I handled myself. Just got a bit unlucky on the second playoff hole there,” Henseleit said. “I tried really hard and I guess it just wasn’t meant to be today.”

This is the second straight Women's British Open title for Japan, following Miyu Yamashita's victory last year at Royal Porthcawl. Kuwaki, often known for her fashion, becomes the fifth player from Japan to have won an LPGA major over the last three years.

“I can’t believe it,” Kuwaki said through a translator and the trophy presentation.

Tough round for Noh

The disappointment belonged to third-placed Yealimi Noh (74), the 25-year-old Californian who began the final round with a three-shot lead until it slowly went away with bogeys. She fell out of a share of the lead with a bogey on the 14th hole. Noh was one shot behind and had two reasonable looks at birdie — with Kuwaki already in the clubhouse at 279 — but failed to convert.

“It stings being one short,” said Noh, who had missed three straight cuts before this week. “I told myself this morning, no matter what happens I'm happy to be in this position again. A couple of weeks ago, I was losing a lot of motivation. This week has helped me feel so much better about my game.”

Haeran Ryu fell short in her bid to become the first player since Inbee Park to win three straight majors in one year. The Women's PGA and Evian Championship winner was still in the mix on the back nine. She needed birdies and instead closed with two straight bogeys for a 74 to tie for sixth.

Nelly Korda, the No. 1 player in women's golf and winner of the year's first two majors, started eight shots behind and closed with a 68. She was the leader in the clubhouse for the longest time at 2 under until Kuwaki finished.

Korda tied for fourth along with Jeeno Thitikul (73).

Eyes covered

Kuwaki, at No. 46 in the women's world ranking, played bogey-free over the last 13 holes as everyone around her made mistakes. She was in the scoring room after signing and stayed there, even as Henseleit and Noh had birdie chances on the final two holes to force a playoff.

Henseleit delivered with a most unlikely putt, 40 feet across the 18th green. The 27-year-old German raised her right arm as the golf ball still had a few feet to go and punched the air when it dropped for birdie.

It was only the second playoff since the Women’s British Open became a major in 2001.

Kuwaki covered her eyes when she watched the putt go in on TV, then broke into a smile. And moments later, she was in a cart and off to the 18th tee for a playoff and immediately in trouble. Her tee shot stayed short of a bunker but in the slope of thick grass. She smartly tried to get it back in play, and her wedge to 3 feet was as important a shot as any.

It gave her another chance, and the final mistake belonged to Henseleit with the tee shot on the 18th for the second playoff hole.

Kuwaki already has won twice this year and is fourth on the money list on the Japan LPGA, the tour that has produced five recent major champions, including Yamashita, Mao Saigo, Yuka Saso and Ayaka Furue. Kuwaki is now on that list.

“Just to be on a stage like this is just an honor, and every hole I was just focused shot-by-shot and just tried to enjoy it out there as much as I could,” she said.

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

The deal was finalized late Saturday night ahead of Sunday's trade deadline and was first reported by ESPN. It's rare for an All-Star to be traded in the middle of the season, only happening a handful of times before Saturday night.

“Kelsey is one of the league’s most dynamic players,” Mercury GM Nick U’Ren said. “She is a fierce competitor with a winning mentality who impacts the game on both ends of the floor. Her combination of shooting, explosiveness and decision-making allows her to create offense at a high level and makes her one of the league’s most complete guards. We have wanted Kelsey here for a long time, and we’re excited to finally bring her to Phoenix as we continue to build on our foundation.”

Plum will wear No. 0 for the Mercury. She is a free agent at the end of this season and has been sidelined since June 21 because of a lower leg injury. She practiced earlier this week and was expected to play Sunday in the Sparks' game against Portland before getting traded. Phoenix's next game is Monday at Chicago.

Plum was averaging a career-best 23.9 points and 6.4 assists before getting hurt. Los Angeles has struggled without her, including its last six games.

Phoenix is currently 11-19 and six games behind the New York Liberty, who sit in eighth place. New York edged Phoenix 94-92 on Saturday.

The Mercury are coming off a WNBA Finals appearance last season, but have seldom looked like that team despite returning stars Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper.

Akoa Makani is averaging 9.4 points and 2.5 assists this season in 16 games. She was injured earlier in the season with a hamstring issue.

Los Angeles acquired Plum before last season in a blockbuster deal that sent the No. 2 pick to Seattle. The Sparks had hoped they could accelerate a rebuilding effort. Seattle used that pick on Dominique Malonga, who was an All-Star this season.

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

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the 4,400 cabin crew at the airline, announced the strike on its Facebook page. WestJet confirmed the strike and canceled 495 flights Sunday, according to FlightAware, snarling travel plans in Canada in the middle of a three-day weekend. The airline said Sunday that the strike led to travel being canceled for 250,000 travelers.

Key issue is how flight attendants are paid for work performed while still on the ground

A key issue in the dispute is how flight attendants should be paid for duties performed while still on the ground. The union said some of that work is unpaid, while the company said its staff was indeed compensated, citing pay through a “credit hour” system rather than an hourly rate.

“We presented a proposal that would have set a new standard for cabin crew in Canada, making WestJet the only airline to offer an hourly rate covering all time before and after flights, plus a double-digit wage increase in year one among other priorities the union raised,” said Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of the WestJet Group. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t accepted.”

The airline's proposal included a 13% wage increase in October, increases of 2.5% each January for the next three years, retroactive wage payment to last January and additional pay for all hours worked, which is equivalent to another 12% of salary increase, according to WestJet. The proposal also boosted other benefits such as meal per diems, vacation allowance and maternity leave.

Alia Hussain, president of the union chapter that represents the cabin crew, said negotiators “tried until the very last minute to get a fair deal that recognizes the value of the work cabin crews do.”

“WestJet’s offer did not go far enough," Hussain said.

Both sides said they were willing to resume negotiations to reach an agreement.

Flight cancellations leave travelers stranded

Meanwhile, travelers whose flights were canceled struggled to find accommodations or alternate flights.

Keavin Ly, a systems administrator for an animation studio, was stuck in Squamish, British Columbia, with his girlfriend after the couple spent the week rock climbing. They were supposed to fly back to Los Angeles on Sunday morning. The airline offered to reschedule their flight for Aug. 4, but they're scrambling to figure out where to stay between now and then.

“Inconveniently, our Airbnb and car rentals are done, and everything’s booked,” said Ly, 29. They were entertaining the idea of sleeping in the back of a friend's rental car, he said.

Ly had planned to take time off from work to watch a friend compete in a national billiards competition, but now he fears he'll miss it. And his girlfriend will miss shifts as a nurse, he said.

“We’re pretty much at the behest of the airline striking a deal, the cabin crew with WestJet, but all in all I hope they get what they’re looking for and they deserve to get compensated more," Ly said.

The airline said it could not operate any of its scheduled flights on Boeing 737s or 787s, and travelers will be refunded or reaccommodated. WestJet said it would contact people who reserved with them directly via email, while those who booked through a travel agent or third-party platform should reach out to them.

WestJet Encore flights operated on a Q400, as well as code-share flights operated by airline partners, remain unaffected. 

Airline and union under pressure to resume bargaining

Canada’s Minister of Jobs and Families, Patty Hajdu, called the strike “a disappointing development.”

“A strike or lockout does not mean an agreement can’t be reached; the expectation is that parties can and should come to an agreement at the bargaining table,” Hajdu said in a statement. “The federal government will always maintain that the strongest deals happen at the table. Canadians are counting on them to put their best efforts forward to reach a deal at the bargaining table.”

Last August, when Air Canada flight attendants went on strike over a similar issue, stranding more than 100,000 travelers during peak travel season, Hajdu directed Canada’s labor board to order them back on the job.

The union defied the order, forcing Air Canada back to the bargaining table where the parties hashed out a tentative deal. That work stoppage lasted three days before the sides came to an agreement.

WestJet caught the union off guard by publicly releasing its offer to the flight attendants, said John Gradek, a faculty lecturer on aviation management at McGill University in Montreal.

“This is a bargaining strategy on the part of WestJet to intimidate the union,” said Gradek. “I don’t think the union is happy this has gone public. Right now, the union is kind of trying to figure out what the next steps are going to be. The WestJet offer forces the union to come back to the table and get very specific.”

Gradek estimates the dispute is costing WestJet between Canadian $10 million and $15 million (U.S. $7.13 million and $10.69 million) a day.

Gradek doubts the dispute will last a week. He expects the federal government will give the two sides another day or so before intervening but isn’t sure the government will order the union back to work.

“They may try a different strategy,” he said. “They may want to sit in on the negotiations themselves.”

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Associated Press writer Bernard Condon contributed to this report. Bussewitz and Condon reported from New York.

The attack happened in Kabal, a town in Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where demonstrators had gathered near a police station, chanting antimilitant slogans and demanding peace, district police chief Omar Khan said.

According to witnesses, shortly before the attack, speakers at the rally said that ensuring security and eliminating militancy were the state’s responsibility. They also accused authorities of failing to act decisively against militants, saying residents wanted to live without fear after years of violence that devastated the region.

Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial emergency service, said the attacker struck dozens of people who were chanting antimilitant slogans and demanding peace. Police official Omar Khan said at least nine civilians and five officers were among the dead.

President and prime minister offer condolences

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the bombing, expressing deep sorrow over the loss of life. In separate statements they offered condolences to the families of those killed, prayed for the recovery of the wounded and directed authorities to ensure the wounded receive the best possible medical treatment. Zardari and Sharif also said Pakistan’s fight against terrorism would continue until it is eradicated.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the attack. In a statement, he extending condolences to the families of those killed and prayers for the speedy recovery of the wounded.

The Swat Valley was once a stronghold of Islamic militants who imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, before the Pakistani military launched a major operation in 2007 that drove them out and restored government control.

However, militants have resurfaced in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in recent months, fueling fears that the Pakistani Taliban are seeking to regain a foothold in the region. In response, residents have repeatedly staged anti-Taliban rallies to protest the militants’ presence across the valley.

Suspicion falls on Pakistani Taliban

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The TTP is separate from, but allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers. Many of its leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power there in 2021.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring TTP militants, an allegation Kabul denies.

Pakistan has experienced a surge in militant attacks in recent years, particularly targeting police and security forces.

On Friday, Pakistan's military spokesman Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said that Pakistan has recorded 3,145 “terrorism incidents” since January. He said Pakistan had killed 2,084 militants since January, while 819 Pakistanis, including soldiers, police officers and civilians, had been killed.

Chaudhry also said Afghanistan-based militants had carried out 28 suicide attacks in Pakistan since January and alleged that most were carried out by Afghan nationals or people associated with Afghanistan’s security forces. He said the TTP and other militant groups were carrying out attacks inside Pakistan with the support of Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and Pakistan would continue to target the TTP and its support infrastructure.

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Associated Press writers Rasool Dawar in Peshawar and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this story.

Then they climbed inside the cockpit, took it around Indianapolis Motor Speedway's 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course and were even more impressed.

Palou, the four-time series champ, and Rossi, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner, became the first test drivers of the new model and both left the track giving the car rave reviews.

“I am very happy to announce that we will race it next year,” Palou joked Sunday. “I wish (it was next year) — like that's the level of excitement I think among everybody. I think everybody, when we saw it live for the first time, I was shocked at how good it looked and how excited I was to give it a try."

The Spaniard who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing certainly would be leading the pack again if he actually competed in the IR-28 next year because it isn't scheduled to debut until 2028. Naturally, though, Palou, who has won 21 of the last 64 races including Indy in 2025 and is on the cusp of clinching a fourth straight series title, would prefer everything goes quicker.

His interest in this model was piqued after seeing the initial renderings of the lighter, sleeker, jet-like looking car.

The higher sidepod and more expansive, wavier front wings make the car look larger while the digitally display featuring the car's position during a race, qualifying or practice appears just behind the redesigned, less bulky aero-screen give as a high-tech feature.

Designers promised the car would have roomier cockpits, run faster and race better all while adding safety features.

Rossi thought it was better than advertised. He started seven Formula 1 races in four seasons before moving to IndyCars in 2016 and at 6-foot-1, Rossi is one of IndyCar's tallest drivers.

"Not to draw comparisons to F1, we don't like doing that, but I think anyone who drives an F1 car for the first time, they notice how smooth the car is — not from a powertrain standpoint but from the surface standpoint,” Rossi said Saturday. “This car starts to get to that level.”

He added: “It's a little bigger, certainly more room for me. My knees aren't headed into the top of the chassis, which is great. But it's not like you're out there driving a Suburban.”

And even though the goal was not necessarily to post fast laps, both drivers enjoyed the ride. Track officials said no official or unofficial speeds were kept.

Instead, series officials asked Rossi and Palou to produce some baseline measures about the car's on-track performance, which can be used to help modify set-ups for future tests. That made it essentially a two-day shakedown with Rossi scheduled to run three hours on Saturday and Palou three hours Sunday.

There was just one problem — rain.

Each driver had their allotted time slot cut by at least half because of the cool, wet conditions that blanketed the Indianapolis area Saturday and Sunday. Still, it didn't dampen the spirits of either driver.

“It's pretty incredible to be able to be a part of the next evolution and to do it at a place that obviously means a lot to me and all of us here,” Rossi said. “It's small part to play in the history and the future of this championship, and that's super cool.”

What's next remains the great unknown.

While series officials have not yet scheduled the IR-28's next test, Palou wants other drivers to join the parade he and Rossi just led.

“It's super fun," Palou said. “It's just like being on a higher end car. It feels like one of those interiors that are like good leather and it's quiet inside. It's good, it's comfy, so, yeah, I can't wait to hopefully try it in the dry (conditions) and see how it really feels when I push it.”

IndyCar returns to action next Sunday at Portland, Oregon.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing

Kaptur, 80, was a passenger in a vehicle headed to a church service “when the car she was traveling in was struck,” the statement from her office said. The statement said she is “active, alert” and “looks forward to returning to a full schedule soon.”

The House is on its summer recess so she was not expected in Washington this week.

Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in House history, is in a rematch for her closely watched seat against former state Rep. Derek Merrin. In 2024, she won by just more than the 0.5% margin that would have triggered an automatic recount, with a libertarian candidate snagging about 4% of the vote.

Her office said first responders from the Toledo police and fire departments arrived promptly on the scene and had “medical professionals helping to take care of those involved in the crash.” The statement said “we look forward to any additional information from Toledo Police as they investigate the accident.”

The Toledo Police Department’s traffic division did not immediately respond to an AP query.

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Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio.

Since then, all her meals have come from local residents, and she isn't sure when her next one will come. Yet Dikra is certain she does not want to go back.

“I want to stay. I want to go to Spain,” Dikra said, who asked that her last name be withheld for safety reasons.

By Sunday afternoon, Dikra was among the last remaining migrants in the city after tens of thousands of the 60,000 migrants that had breached the border with Morocco on Thursday and Friday walked back to that country. At least 72 people died in the crossing, and the humanitarian crisis the sudden rush of people caused reignited a debate around immigration in Europe and beyond.

In Tangier, Dikra said she worked as a cleaner, but decided to leave alongside her sister and cousin, in part to escape her alcoholic father. She hopes to make use of a hairdressing diploma in continental Spain — from which she remains separated by the Strait of Gibraltar and the European Union's complex asylum system.

Migrants wonder what will happen with holdouts

Abdel Karim, 35, also from Morocco, waited outside Ceuta's official migration reception center on Sunday, asking for updates about what officials were saying they would do with the holdouts still in the city.

Karim was unemployed in Morocco, and had lived in continental Spain years ago, before he was expelled from France where he was living on the streets.

“In Morocco, I'm seen as a deportee,” Karim said. “Those who are deported know what it means — stress, depression, anguish.”

Karim said he saw posts on social media about those making the crossing and took advantage of the chaos. He crossed with 10 euros in his pocket, he said, and pointed to his blistered feet. In Spain, Karim said he wants to do whatever work he can find, and remained unfazed about how he would get there.

Ceuta and its sister city Melilla are not part of the European Union's Schengen area, and those traveling to mainland Europe must go through border checks upon arrival.

At a beach in Ceuta, hundreds of migrants who had arrived days earlier gathered on Sunday evening. Some crowded around an army truck where Spanish soldiers distributed water.

Senegalese migrant Cesse Aliou, 25, rested with a group of sub-Saharan men and women outside the nearby shelter. In Morocco, Aliou said he earned 279 euros ($322) a month at a call center, but the work wasn't stable.

So he boarded a train in Casablanca to Tangier and then to Fnideq, where he said he swam to Ceuta.

Across the street, on another wooded patch near the shelter, a group of migrants began fighting over water that local residents had brought to the area.

“We are very tired. To eat, to sleep, it's very difficult here," said Aliou, pointing to the scuffle. “You see how the situation is.”

The collision laid bare the danger at the most volatile front of Europe’s wildfire emergency. Strong winds drove flames deeper into the region of the Greek capital and forced fresh evacuations, France guarded a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris, while Spain’s major fires stopped advancing.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed “sorrow for the tragic accident” and extended condolences to the families of the firefighters killed in the crash.

"The loss of the Greek coordinator and the Danish pilot at the time they were attempting the major fire in Porto Gremeno fills us all with grief," Mitsotakis said in a statement.

The aircraft were Bell helicopters operating over the Psatha area west of Athens, each with a two-person crew. Foreign firefighting and helicopter crews are often deployed in Greece to help tackle wildfires during the country’s hot, dry summers.

The two crew members who were recovered alive were a Greek and a British national.

The flames had spread rapidly, threatening communities and an industrial district as violent gusts prevented firefighting aircraft from collecting water from the sea. The blaze carried a grim resonance in a region where the 2018 Mati wildfire killed 104 people, Europe’s deadliest blaze this century.

Farther west, containment brought no end to the emergency. France’s largest wildfire remained held within its perimeter after forcing 224,000 people to flee in what may have been the country’s largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.

Hot spots still burned within a 420-square-kilometer (162-square-mile) scar, thousands remained unable to return home, and nearly 3,000 firefighters were deployed against the Gironde megafire and a second, still-uncontained blaze in Provence.

Together, fires in France and Spain have driven roughly a third of a million people from homes and vacation sites, emptied communities at the height of the European summer and stretched emergency services across simultaneous disasters.

Record fire damage underscores Europe’s growing wildfire threat

The mass evacuations in France and Spain are the latest measure of a wildfire threat growing across Europe.

The continent entered 2026 after its worst fire year on record, with more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles) burned in 2025. Over the past four decades, wildfires have been linked to nearly 800 deaths across much of Europe, according to the European Environment Agency.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent. It has warmed more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

Human-caused climate change made the extreme fire-weather conditions behind this year’s French blazes at least twice as likely, scientists at World Weather Attribution found in a rapid analysis conducted while the fires were still burning.

Gale-force winds cripple aerial assault near Athens

Nearly 500 firefighters and 23 aircraft were deployed, but gale-force winds drove flames through dry forest and crippled the response, preventing some aircraft from reaching the sea to collect water.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of Kandili, Agia Skepi and Toutouli as smoke rose over the mountains. Crews were particularly concerned about Porto Germeno, a seaside community on the Gulf of Corinth.

The fire began Friday near Agios Vasileios before sweeping toward Porto Germeno and into the forested mountains west of Athens. Firefighters evacuated 254 people by sea Friday and another 12 Saturday — often the last escape route when fire and smoke cut the few roads from coastal communities.

Wildfire meteorologist Theodore Giannaros estimated the blaze had affected 40 to 50 square kilometers (15 to 19 square miles), though authorities had issued no official figure.

Elsewhere in Greece, flames threatened homes on Kefalonia, forcing evacuations from inland communities as aircraft made water drops over the Ionian island. Firefighters battled another blaze near Nea Tenedos on the peninsula of Halkidiki.

Earlier this week, two firefighters died fighting a fire on Crete, while a third was killed on the Peloponnese.

“A pristine forest, a paradise, was surrendered to the hands of the fire,” local farmer Minas Tzortzanis said Saturday. “There are no words to explain what has happened. Destruction. Total destruction.”

France holds off renewed flames

In southwestern France, the Gironde megafire remained held within its perimeter Sunday but continued to burn after scorching 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) of forest in 10 days.

“The fire is now fixed, which does not mean that the fire is extinguished,” the Gironde prefecture said, using the French firefighting term for a blaze whose advance has been stopped.

The region remained under France’s highest red forest-fire alert. Dry conditions, soaring temperatures around Bordeaux and afternoon winds threatened to rekindle the flames.

In Le Porge, local officials said about 150 homes were destroyed. Mechanic Matthieu Plessis returned Saturday to the ruins of a house that had been in his family for seven generations.

“There are places I don’t even recognize anymore,” he said. “You don’t even know what was here anymore, or who lived where.”

Firefighters from Ukraine, Lithuania and French Polynesia were expected Sunday and Monday to reinforce the operation.

Provence fire stops advancing but remains uncontained

In southeastern France, nearly 1,500 firefighters battled a separate blaze in the Var department that tore through about 18 square kilometers (7 square miles) in little more than a day.

The Gros Bessillon fire was stabilized Sunday after its perimeter held overnight, but it remained uncontained. Some 2,500 people were evacuated as flames threatened nearby communities.

It was the fourth major fire to strike central Var since July 19. A smaller blaze near Brignoles earlier in the week forced actor George Clooney and his family, along with about 700 other residents, to evacuate before it was brought under control.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said France’s fires were generally under control but warned that conditions remained volatile. He appointed a national coordinator to oversee reconstruction in fire-ravaged areas.

More than 1,170 square kilometers (452 square miles) have burned across France this year.

Spain’s deadly fire siege eases

Spain’s major fires — which have killed at least 13 people, produced the country’s largest recorded wildfire and prompted a national emergency — were no longer advancing on Sunday.

In Zamora province near the Portuguese border, more than 20 ground and aerial units guarded the perimeter of the Fermoselle fire against flare-ups in the rugged Arribes del Duero landscape. Most evacuees had returned home, according to local media.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to confront wildfires, warning that climate change is making them increasingly destructive.

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Adamson reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Nicolas Garriga in Lacanau, France; Michael Varaklas in Megara, Greece; and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

Nazca's municipal government said the plane departed from the nearby city of Ica and was operated by Peruvian company Aerodiana. On its website, the airline said that it has offered scenic flights over the Nazca lines for the past 14 years using Cessna Grand Caravan planes.

The Nazca Lines are a group of extensive geoglyphs scraped into the desert around Nazca hundreds of years ago by Peru's Indigenous inhabitants. The lines form images of animals that can only be fully appreciated from planes or viewing towers.

Among the dead were seven Italian citizens between the ages of 18 and 54, two 52-year-old Spaniards and two Germans of 77 and 78 years, Peru's Transportation Ministry said. The other two fatalities were the pilot Américo Salazar and copilot Irenka Guanilo del Carpio, it said in an official report.

President Keiko Fujimori expressed regret over the accident and said a “temporary suspension” of the airport was being considered, though the decision will be made once she receives reports from the relevant ministries.

Peruvian authorities said the accident is under investigation. Aerodiana was not immediately available for comment.

“I do not believe that he is the right man to lead football forward on the world stage," Burnham said. “The plan that was put forward was offensive to many people, football people, around the world, and it can’t be the case that we just move on and forget that, it wasn’t acceptable."

On Saturday, European soccer's governing body UEFA said it had lost confidence in FIFA’s leadership — possibly paving the way for a challenge to Infantino’s presidency. The governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer (CONCACAF) said FIFA leadership had “stopped putting football first.”

Infantino was forced into a backdown over his controversial plans to sell World Cup profits through a commercial subsidiary that would run its top competitions.

Infantino’s plans fell apart after UEFA’s 55-member nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions. CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation also said they opposed the plan.

Despite Infantino's climbdown, UEFA said it would work with other confederations to "devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again.”

“No option should be off the table,” it said.

While Infantino has received pockets of public support from associations including 2022 World Cup host Qatar, Burnham's words were further evidence of the anger generated by his plans.

The next FIFA presidential election is in March in Rabat, Morocco. The deadline for candidates to enter the presidential contest is Nov. 18, exactly four months ahead of the vote.

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

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

The emerging deal “would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump wrote in a Saturday evening social media post.

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump said.

However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz “will in no way return to the status it was before February 28th,” the day the war started.

On a call with Iranian state TV, he added that Iran is discussing shipping through the strait with Oman, on the other side of Hormuz, but that there’s no current talk about reopening the crucial waterway.

Trump has announced halts to strikes in Iran on several occasions since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, only for things to unravel and fighting to resume again.

Iran’s defense minister said on X that the country was “neither surprised nor passive” following Trump’s announcement and said Iran continues to remain alert in the face of concrete threats from the U.S.

While Iran’s leaders appear united in a war strategy signaling strength and endurance, a struggle for control seems to be brewing within the theocracy’s leadership between those who oppose all negotiations with the U.S. and others who count on military pressure to win at the negotiating table.

The latest proposal would bring sides back to negotiating table

A regional official says the proposal announced by Trump over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue working out many of the issues that have stymied prior progress on the deal.

The official, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said the proposal calls for reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan.

The U.S., in exchange, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil as stated in the tentative ceasefire deal, he said.

No deal has been reached yet, but mediation efforts are underway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media.

Trump said that Israel is joining his commitment to end the war by implementing the ceasefire deal. Israel did not publicly comment on the announcement.

Saudis concerned about Iran retaliation

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, spoke with Trump by phone Saturday and raised concerns about the U.S. potentially escalating the conflict with Iran, according to the Saudi press agency.

The Saudis, according to a person briefed on the substance of the call but not authorized to comment publicly, are concerned that Tehran could respond with attacks on the energy infrastructure of the kingdom and other Gulf countries. The call happened before Trump’s social media announcement, the person said.

The crown prince sought clarity from Trump on what potential new action he was weighing to take against Iran, the person said.

A White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity, confirmed the leaders spoke Saturday but did not offer any detail.

Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels attempting to transit through the Strait of Hormuz without its authorization as part of its ongoing conflict with the U.S.

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Madhani reported from Washington. Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo, Giovanna Dell'Orto in Jerusalem, Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, contributed.

Trump is not getting a glowing endorsement on his immigration approach from Americans overall, the new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found. Only 39% of U.S. adults approve of his performance on immigration, a decline from 49% at the beginning of his second term.

Despite that, about 8 in 10 Republicans continue to approve of how Trump is handling immigration. That’s a slight decline from the beginning of Trump’s second term, when about 9 in 10 Republicans approved, but his support on the issue within his base has been mostly stable since last summer despite a chaotic year of immigration enforcement actions.

Republicans are also more likely to approve of how Trump is handling immigration than the economy or Iran. In just the past month, Republican approval of Trump's handling of Iran dropped slightly in AP-NORC polling

The poll found that about half of U.S. adults say Trump has “gone too far” on deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. That number has also remained steady for over a year, despite multiple immigration crackdowns that deployed federal law enforcement to large cities and at least 10 deaths involving encounters with immigration officers since the mass deportation campaign began. Republicans, however, are much less likely to say Trump has overstepped in his immigration enforcement actions.

Overall, Trump’s popularity has fallen since he took office last year, but the findings highlight the relatively muted impact of the past year’s aggressive immigration enforcement on his public standing. That’s a contrast with views of his handling of Iran, where he’s seen more recent signs of slippage, even among his own supporters.

Immigration remains a strong issue for Trump with Republicans

Americans remain divided on whether Trump has overstepped on immigration.

About half of U.S. adults say Trump has “gone too far” when it comes to restricting legal immigration, in line with the last time the question was asked in February. Roughly half — 47% — say Trump has exceeded his authority when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. In each case, about 3 in 10 say Trump’s actions have been “about right,” and closer to 2 in 10 say he hasn’t gone far enough.

Few Republicans – about 2 in 10 or fewer – say he’s “gone too far” on deporting immigrants in the country illegally or restricting legal immigration.

Most Americans, however, say he’s gone too far when it comes to using traffic stops to find and arrest immigrants living in the U.S. illegally — a practice that was at the center of two recent ICE shootings in Maine — and when it comes to sending federal immigration agents into U.S. cities. Republicans were also less likely to see these as oversteps.

James Leatherman, a 68-year-old Republican from San Antonio, is overall supportive of Trump’s handling of the presidency and backs him on immigration in particular.

“You cannot come in here illegally — you’re breaking the law,” he said.

More Americans disapprove than approve of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws. About half of Americans “strongly" or “somewhat" disapprove of the agency's approach, while roughly 3 in 10 “strongly" or “somewhat" approve. There's a wide partisan split, though: About 6 in 10 Republicans approve of ICE’s approach, compared with about 2 in 10 independents and just 4% of Democrats.

Eric Coursen, 76, an independent from Chincoteague, Virginia, agrees with the president that there were issues with the immigration system. He said doesn’t believe in open borders — but he’s deeply opposed to how the administration has been enforcing immigration law.

“It’s like taking some bread when you’re hungry and you take it, you’re going to shoot that person rather than just, you know, get them for theft?” he said. “It’s just overkill.”

Trump’s approval on the economy remains low

About 3 in 10 U.S. adults, 32%, approve of how Trump is handling the economy. That’s down from 40% at the start of his second term, and marks a shift from his first presidential term when the economy was a stronger issue for Trump.

During Trump’s first term, his lowest approval on the economy was 40% in December 2017. Now, his rating is well below that.

Roughly 7 in 10 Republicans – 69% – approve of how Trump is handling the economy. That’s roughly in line with the share who approve of how he’s handing the presidency, but it’s slightly below the 78% who approved early in Trump’s second term.

Leatherman, despite his support for Trump, said he's feeling the pinch of higher prices in his budget. “I almost have to go to the bank to get a loan before I go grocery shopping,” he said.

About 7 in 10 U.S. adults describe the nation’s economy as “very” or “somewhat” poor, in line with April. Republicans are more optimistic, with about 6 in 10 saying that the U.S. economy is doing well, compared with about 2 in 10 independents and roughly 1 in 10 Democrats.

More Republicans approve of how Trump is handling healthcare

Healthcare has never been a strong issue for Trump. Unlike with immigration and the economy, a clear majority of U.S. adults has disapproved of Trump’s performance on healthcare across both presidential terms. That hasn’t changed in the new poll, which found that only about 3 in 10 Americans approve of how Trump is handling healthcare, in line with when the question was last asked in December.

He’s seen a rebound on the issue among his own supporters since late last year, though. Roughly 71% of Republicans now approve, compared with 59% in the December poll.

That shift comes as Democrats kicked off 100 days until the midterm elections last week, with leaders saying they’ll focus on healthcare cuts, in addition to the cost of living and the war in Iran. Democrats and independents continue to overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump’s handling of healthcare.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,165 adults was conducted July 23-27 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 6.0 for Republicans overall and plus or minus 5.4 for Democrats overall.

While Sunday won’t be a washout, periods of scattered downpours and thunderstorms develop through the morning and increase through the afternoon.

There will be more clouds than sunshine.

Highs top out around 90 degrees with extra clouds.

Another elevated chance for thunderstorms returns Monday with rain likely around for the morning commute. The highest chance for morning thunderstorms will again focus around I-75.

Later in the week the pattern is expected to return to a more typical pattern where storms fire in the afternoon.

The storm motion will return to a more east to west motion focusing the heaviest rain west of Orlando.

If the constitutional amendment passes, supporters hope to elect at least four conservative, anti-abortion justices to the seven-member court by 2033.

Kansas is considering the change amid concerns that increasingly contentious and expensive judicial elections in other states are making their courts more partisan and less independent. Spending in a single state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin last year topped $100 million.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a term-limited Democrat who opposes the measure, said gerrymandering and dark money have put the Legislature out of step with the state and, “to think you can make the judicial branch a part of that dysfunctional system is frightening.”

Republicans have a long list of rulings they question

GOP lawmakers cite multiple rulings by Kansas courts over the past two decades as reasons for change.

Most recently, a district court judge earlier this month reinstated a three-day grace period for voters to return mail ballots after Election Day, which GOP lawmakers had eliminated. Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, seeking the Republican nomination for governor, called the decision “outrageous” and urged people to vote yes on the ballot question.

The same judge — a finalist to fill the most recent Supreme Court vacancy — blocked enforcement of a 2025 law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Masterson described him as “radical.”

The list of rulings Republicans criticize also includes rulings on education funding back to 2004. Supreme Court decisions forced lawmakers to increase funding to comply with the state constitution.

“If we elect our Supreme Court, they won't force you to spend money on schools,” Masterson said in remarks in November to a conservative group, the Marion County Patriots for Liberty, the Marion County Record reported.

Abortion remains a key issue on both sides

Electing state Supreme Court justices gained currency among Republicans after a 2022 public vote affirming the high court’s landmark 2019 decision that Kansas' bill of rights guarantees bodily autonomy and access to abortion. Total spending by both sides has exceeded $12 million.

Legislators who worked to overturn the Supreme Court's protections, including Masterson, helped write this year's proposal.

Seven weeks after that 2022 vote, Attorney General Kris Kobach, then a GOP candidate for the office, told a Republican club in Wichita that electing justices would “slowly and quietly” put anti-abortion justices on the high court.

The vote-yes campaign's biggest donor — providing $1.7 million toward the campaign's $3.7 million in spending — is a Nashville-based nonprofit that supports Republican candidates, groups and causes. Kansans for Life, the state's most influential anti-abortion group, has spent at least $87,000 over the past 11 days on mailers and texts.

“Kansans can bring an end to this reign of abortion by voting ‘yes,’” Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, said in an editorial written by a staffer on the anti-abortion group’s website.

Meanwhile, the national and state affiliates for abortion provider Planned Parenthood contributed another $1.6 million toward the vote-no campaign's $8 million-plus in spending.

Jamie Swan, an engineer and college teaching assistant who knocked on doors for abortion rights in 2022, is doing the same to try to halt the proposal.

“I really believe that this is just a power grab,” she said.

Kansas legislators have no say in appointments

Backers of the Kansas proposal brush aside arguments that electing the justices will give wealthy donors control over the Supreme Court.

“Globally and over history, even in its imperfection, the best system is democracy,” said Elizabeth Patton, state director of the low-tax, small-government group Americans for Prosperity, which has spent $935,000 to promote the vote-yes campaign.

Twenty-two states elect their top court’s judges, eight in partisan races. Governors in 26 states appoint them. In South Carolina and Virginia, legislators pick the justices.

Kansas elected justices for nearly 100 years before voters amended the state constitution in 1958. The governor now picks one of three finalists named by a nominating commission controlled by attorneys. Legislators have no role.

A review of every state’s current and past constitutions shows that the last state to add an amendment like the one Kansas is contemplating was Mississippi in 1914. Since then, 18 states’ amendments went the opposite way.

Voters weigh in every six years on whether a justice remains on the bench through a yes-or-no ballot question, but they’ve never booted a sitting justice. Conservatives say that means justices face no consequences for errant decisions.

Retirements and deaths allowed the term-limited Kelly to appoint four of the current justices. Recently, she picked a district court judge who blocked enforcement of longstanding abortion restrictions in 2023.

“We don’t have a good way to fight back,” said state Sen. Mike Thompson, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican, who backs the measure.

Two-a-days in full pads for two weeks straight? Sure. Practices scheduled for two hours that would sometimes bleed into three? You bet.

Not so much anymore.

“I'd go to jail today if I tried to do that,” McCarthy joked.

Or at least, the NFL's version of it. The league has evolved over the last 30 years. The Collective Bargaining Agreement banned two-a-days long ago. There are now specific time limits on practice, and they are policed down to the minute.

So McCarthy has made it a point to get ahead of the curve. Just how far ahead? Well, when the Pittsburgh Steelers walk onto Chuck Noll Field on Monday for their first padded practice of the McCarthy Era, they'll do it with one particular instruction in mind: no tackling. At all.

While most of the changes to camp at Saint Vincent College have been subtle as the team transitions from Mike Tomlin to McCarthy — the volume of the music over the loudspeakers is softer, for example — the decision to do everything but take a teammate to the ground is not.

Tomlin's 19 years in Pittsburgh often began with an “iron sharpens iron” approach during the club's annual stay at the small school tucked in the western Pennsylvania hills. Don't get McCarthy wrong. He plans to run a physical camp, but the “Tempered Steel” mantra the club has adopted — one printed on shirts worn by players and staff — is real in more ways than one.

“It’s a risk-assessment decision,” McCarthy said.

Banning tackling during camp is hardly new. A significant chunk of NFL teams, Pittsburgh's longtime rival the Baltimore Ravens included, have adopted the policy in recent years.

Still, these are the Steelers, who have historically embraced — by reputation if not always in reality — the idea of being a throwback of sorts. So yeah, expect an adjustment period.

“Obviously, I love to tackle,” inside linebacker Payton Wilson said. “It's been great in the past to get that in before the first preseason game, but that's what preseason games are for.”

The Steelers instead will “thud up," meaning defenders will try to wrap up ball carriers but not take them all the way to the ground. It's commonplace during the regular season, but not always in early August.

McCarthy stressed there are tools the team can use to refine their tackling technique without driving each other into the turf. From monitoring a player's positioning using GPS to video analysis to other “sports science” resources to coaching points that have been part of the game since its inception, McCarthy is confident the Steelers will be ready when they need to be ready.

“The long stride, short stride, the specifics of how the fundamentals are being taught to the approach, the strike, the wrap, the finish,” he said. “So these are constants that are taught throughout our whole team.”

The shift will require as much of a mental adjustment as a physical adjustment. Defensive tackle Cam Heyward's first 15 camps were defined in part by what Tomlin likened to full-on sparring as opposed to shadowboxing. There were certain days during camp — Family Day and the team's Friday Night Lights practice at nearby Greater Latrobe High School — when Heyward knew the intensity level would spike.

“It's an alpha sport,” the longest-tenured Steeler said. “And (we'd) just ramp it up.”

McCarthy still wants to do just that, but in a way designed to get the defending AFC North champions to Week 1 as healthy as possible.

His philosophical evolution has more to do with the way the NFL operates in 2026 than any concern about the age of the team he is taking over, though it should be noted that several of Pittsburgh's highest-profile defenders — Heyward, outside linebacker T.J. Watt and defensive back Jalen Ramsey — are all in their 30s.

The way McCarthy figures it, getting defenders in the right position to drop an opponent is the hardest part of the process. Once they get there, finishing the play should be the easy part.

That doesn't mean the Steelers won't be searching for gray areas. Linebacker Patrick Queen spent the first four seasons of his career in Baltimore, where former head coach John Harbaugh placed a “no tackling” edict. That didn't stop Queen and teammate Roquan Smith from “tackling everybody” one day just to prove a point.

Queen doesn't expect to go quite that far over the next few weeks. Besides, it's not like the Steelers are going to run around with flags on their hips like they're preparing for the 2028 Olympics.

“At the end of the day, you still got a chance to put yourself on somebody, put your hip on somebody,” he said. “Whatever you do pre-tackle, it's the same as putting somebody on the ground.”

Besides, there will still likely be drills like “backs on backers,” a perennial camp highlight in which running backs work on pass protection by fending off linebackers charging at them at full speed. It's a drill that helped running back Jaylen Warren first capture the coaching staff's attention as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2022, and one that in many ways lets football players be football players in the most primal way possible.

“We got dogs on the team,” Warren said. “The competition is what leads to that. I don't mind that at all.”

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

Wildberries, Russia's largest online marketplace, is sometimes described as the country’s answer to Amazon. In under two weeks, Ukraine has struck over a dozen of the retailer’s depots, part of Kyiv’s aerial campaign aimed at undermining Moscow's war effort, hurting its economy and making people feel the consequences of the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.

Russian air defenses overnight shot down 635 Ukrainian drones, including over occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov Seas, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. The ministry did not say how many were launched or struck targets.

Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 133 drones during the night, 24 of which hit targets, according to the Ukrainian air force. Later on Sunday, separate Russian attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv killed at least two people, according to local officials.

Ukraine's campaign against Wildberries

Ukrainian drones targeted a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the Russian-Ukrainian border, according to local Gov. Vyacheslav Fedorishchev. He said a fire had broken out but there were no casualties.

Kyiv’s campaign against Wildberries first hit the company's sites in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and in the Tambov region July 18. Strikes followed on facilities across western and southern Russia, as well as Russian-held Crimea. At least nine people have been killed and scores wounded.

Two people were killed as a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the Saratov region east of Samara, local. Gov. Roman Busargin said.

He added that the strikes damaged civil infrastructure in Engels, where the deaths took place, and the regional capital, Saratov.

Both cities have been frequent targets for Ukrainian attacks in recent years. Engels hosts a military airbase, while Saratov is home to a large oil refinery.

In Russia’s Bashkortostan region further north, local Gov. Radiy Khabirov said that air defence had repelled a large-scale drone strike on “industrial facilities” in the city of Ufa. He did not specify what exactly was struck, but said that a blaze was being put out.

In the Udmurt Republic further northwest, three civilians died and two more were wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike, according to acting regional head Olga Abramova.

Abramova said air defenses shot down two Ukrainian drones and “prevented an attempted attack” by Kyiv. She said a civilian car was damaged in the strike, without clarifying if drone debris was the cause.

In Ukraine, one person died on Sunday as a Russian guided bomb struck a residential building in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, according to local administration head Ivan Fedorov. Another attack on Sunday killed one person and set fire to a postal terminal on the outskirts of Kharkiv, in the northwest, said regional administration head Oleh Syniehubov.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan identified the recovered climbers as Purja, Wang Zhong, Nima Sherpa and Kili Pemba Sherpa. The club praised military and civilian rescuers and volunteers involved in the recovery effort.

On Friday, rescuers located four other bodies but were able to recover only three — Omani Nathira Ahmed, American Mallory Geis and Nepalese Bahadur Gurung — because harsh weather grounded search-and-rescue helicopters.

Military-backed rescue teams resumed the search Sunday for the two remaining climbers, while efforts continued to bring down the bodies of Purja and the three others found by the ground team, local officials said.

On Saturday, Purja’s expedition company said the world had lost one of mountaineering’s greats. The company described him as “a leader who inspired millions through his courage, humility and unwavering belief that human potential is far greater than we often imagine.”

Alpine Club of Pakistan President Irfan Arshad Khan said the tragedy was “an immeasurable loss to the global mountaineering fraternity.” He paid tribute to military and civilian rescuers and Sherpas who took part in the search mission.

The expedition was led by Purja, the Nepal-born former British Army soldier widely known as Nims Dai.

He climbed the world’s 14 highest peaks in a record 189 days in 2019, an achievement featured in the Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.” His record was broken in 2023.

A statement from Geis’ family said, “Mallory was a bright light who was loved deeply by her family and friends. She will be profoundly missed.”

The expedition was expected to be the last one for Pakistani guide Sohail Sakhi, who worked with Moving Mountains, a Pakistan-based adventure travel company. Sakhi also was a geographer and high-altitude photographer who had climbed some of the world’s major peaks, according to the company’s website. His body remained missing on Sunday.

Accidents are common on climbing expeditions in northern Pakistan because of avalanches, falling ice and rock, extreme altitude and rapidly changing weather.

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Riaz Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.

The blast on Saturday evening at the Balzi Rossi, an upscale Italian establishment in central Moscow, killed three people, including the woman bomber, Russian state media said, citing local officials.

“Yesterday, a brutal terrorist act was committed in Moscow that claimed human lives. The victims are currently in the city’s hospitals, where they are receiving all necessary care,” Sobyanin wrote on social media Sunday.

He added that a probe into the attack was underway. “Those responsible for committing this crime will certainly be found and will face the punishment they deserve,” he wrote.

At least 21 people were wounded when the explosive device detonated at the restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said late on Saturday, according to Russian state news agency Ria Novosti.

A woman attempted to smuggle the bomb into the establishment, but a security guard refused to let her in before the bomb exploded, reported Ria Novosti. The Moscow Investigative Committee said on Saturday evening the attack was still being investigated.

As of early afternoon on Sunday, there was no further information from Russian authorities, and no one had publicly claimed responsibility.

According to Ria Novosti, the restaurant was closed for a private function on Saturday evening.

Footage released by Russian state media showed heavily armed law-enforcement officers, several ambulances and other emergency vehicles at the site.

Earlier this year, Russia’s Federal Security Service announced that authorities would tighten security around senior military and government officials, after a series of assassination attempts in Russian cities that followed the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

So far, Russian authorities have not drawn any connections between Saturday's blast and these earlier attacks or the war in Ukraine.

Russia previously said Kyiv was behind a car bombing in Moscow last April that killed Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in Russia’s General Staff. Ukraine did not publicly claim responsibility.

But Ukraine's SBU security service earlier said it had organized the killing in December 2024 of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed the Russian military's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces.

Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him.

Among other prominent victims of bombing attacks in Russia were Daria Dugina, the daughter of influential nationalist thinker Aleksandr Dugin, and Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known pro-Kremlin military blogger.

Kyiv denied involvement in the attack on Dugina, and did not respond to Russian accusations that it was behind Tatarsky’s death.

A photo sent to News 6 by Pamela Hedstrom shows the waterspout behind a cruise ship at Port Canaveral.

The waterspout developed in the Banana River between North Merritt Island and the Cape north of SR-528.

Storms moving from land to the ocean and vice versa experience friction from the changing landscape and can help provide low-level wind shear to produce a waterspout or tornado.

No damage was reported from the touchdown.

If you have weather pictures you would like to see featured on news 6 submit here.