The S&P 500 fell 0.5% but remains near its all-time high set Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 272 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%.

Wall Street’s losses solidified in the afternoon when oil prices accelerated upward. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2.7% to $90.87.

It’s been careening back and forth because of uncertainty about what the war with Iran will do to the global flow of crude. Last month alone, Brent zigzagged between $72 and $102 as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach a deal that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again.

Monday’s rally for oil prices sent Treasury yields in the bond market higher, which in turn raised the pressure on the economy and prices for all kinds of investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.72% from 4.68% late Friday. It has shot up from just 3.97% before the war with Iran, largely because higher oil prices are worsening inflation and upping the probability that the Federal Reserve will have to hike interest rates.

Higher rates could keep a lid on inflation, but they do so by intentionally slowing the economy. The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate has already jumped near its highest level in a year because of the rise in the 10-year Treasury yield, though reports last week said that inflation in July was not as bad as earlier in the summer.

Usually around this time of year, anticipation is building on Wall Street to hear from the head of the Federal Reserve about where it may take interest rates. But the Fed’s new chairman, Kevin Warsh, may give little insight at this year’s economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at the end of this month, according to Thierry Wizman, a strategist at Macquarie Group

Warsh has been adamant about giving Wall Street less guidance about the Fed’s plans for interest rates.

Wall Street has run to records despite high inflation in large part because profits are booming for U.S. companies.

Those in the S&P 500 index are on track to deliver growth of roughly 50% for earnings per share in the spring from a year earlier, according to FactSet. That’s much better than analysts expected and would be the best since five years ago, when the economy was erupting out of the chasm created by the COVID pandemic.

Nearly all the companies in the S&P 500 have turned in their profit reports for the spring. Still to come are big retailers, including reports this week from Home Depot, Target and Walmart.

They’re facing pressure. Their customers’ incomes may be turning iffier after U.S. employers surprisingly cut more jobs last month than they added. At the same time, their customers are continuing to see bills rise quickly as inflation remains much higher than anyone would like.

A report last week said that shoppers surprisingly spent less at U.S. retailers last month than in June, and CEOs for retailers could give color this week on what they’re seeing.

On Wall Street, trading was relatively quiet Monday.

L3Harris Technologies fell 4.6% after the defense company said Christopher Kubasik stepped down as its CEO and chairman following “certain conduct by Kubasik that was not consistent with the values of the Company.” It gave few details but said the conduct was not related to its financial reporting, controls, customer relationships or operational performance.

Alphabet dipped 0.5% even though Berkshire Hathaway said it increased its investment in Google’s parent company, along with several homebuilders. Berkshire built a reputation for buying stocks at affordable prices under its former CEO, famed investor Warren Buffett.

Constellation Brands fell 6.2% after Berkshire said it sold all its holdings in the seller of Modelo beer and Robert Mondavi wine.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 40.70 points to 7,745.06. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 272.63 to 53,459.78, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 84.25 to 26,644.91.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.7% after a report said Japan’s economy grew at a slower pace in the April-June quarter than economists expected. Indexes jumped 1.3% in Hong Kong and 1.4% in Shanghai for some of the world’s biggest moves.

___

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Michelle Champan contributed to this report.

___

Earlier versions of this story incorrectly reported that Japan’s economy grew slightly faster than expected in the April-June quarter.

The Trump administration is making it harder for the public to know, moving to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace.

The EEOC's Republican majority voted 2-1 Tuesday to rescind the data collection requirement, submitting the proposal to a 30-day public commentary period before final approval. The proposal is a quiet but profound salvo in President Donald Trump's shake up of civil rights enforcement, ending a practice that has endured through 10 Republican and Democratic administrations.

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, an outspoken critic of diversity and inclusion practices who has urged white men to come forward with discrimination complaints, argued that requiring companies to submit the annual demographic reports risks encouraging companies to justify discriminatory practices to diversify their workforce.

“It may promote racial stereotyping at work, and it may encourage employers to engage in discrimination," Lucas said during a hearing ahead of the vote.

Former Democratic EEOC commissioners and civil rights organizations have denounced the proposal, saying it will deprive the agency of a critical tool for uncovering discrimination patterns and tracking how women and racial minorities have fared since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which created the EEOC and prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, sex, national origin and religion.

The EEOC, which receives more than 88,000 worker complaints each year, has historically used the data to guide its enforcement priorities and inform some of its investigations.

Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal, the sole Democrat left on the EEOC since Trump moved to wrest control of the agency, voted against the proposal.

“Today, the commission discusses whether to turn back time to a period before the civil rights movement, kneecapping its ability to protect workers,” Kotagal said.

Here's what to know about the reporting requirement and the proposal to end it:

How the EEOC has collected the data

Since 1966, the EEOC has required companies with at least 100 employees, or federal contractors with at least 50 workers, to submit a form called the EEO-1 each year.

The form, which has evolved over time, identifies 10 job categories from “Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers” to “Laborers” and “Service Workers.” It asks employers to report on the number male and female workers in each job category, as well as the number of workers from different race and ethnicities: Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian, American Indian or Alaska Native and two or more races.

The data typically covers more than 50 million employees and 73,000 employers nationwide.

A view into gender and race in the private sector

The EEOC launched during the Biden administration an interactive tool allowing the public to explore historical demographic metrics across industries and job categories. The most recent data is from 2023. Under the Trump administration, the EEOC last collected EEO-1 data for the year 2024 but has not publicly disclosed it. Collection of the year 2025 would have begun this year.

The data shows white men dominating executive and senior manager roles at private companies, though women and minorities have made inroads, especially in the years following the #MeToo and Black Lives Matters movements.

Women remain underrepresented in the top ranks of companies. While they make up nearly half the workforce at the companies surveyed, women held just 34.5% of executives and senior manager roles in 2023. That was up from 29.2% a decade earlier.

White and Asian women made the fastest gains, and by 2023, were no longer underrepresented in senior roles compared to their numbers in the overall workforce. In contrast, Black and Hispanic women remained sharply underrepresented in executive and senior manager roles despite making modest gains.

Asian men have been proportionally represented in senior roles for years, while Black and Hispanic men remained underrepresented in 2023.

Of those demographic groups, only one was overrepresented in senior roles: white men, who made up a third of the overall workforce at the companies surveyed but held 52.7% of executive and senior management roles.

Why the government wants to end the data collection

Lucas said the annual reporting requirements impose “hundreds of millions of dollars” on costs on employers, a burden she argued was unnecessary absent “any allegation, indication, or evidence of discrimination.”

The move was recommended by Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s blueprint that has guided many of the Trump administration’s policies.

A group of former Democratic EEOC commissioners and legal counselors said there is little evidence that companies are routinely using employment data to engage in quotas or race-based hiring.

“This is simply inaccurate and unsupported speculation, at odds with the ways in which this data is actually collected, managed and used,” the former officials said in a statement.

Instead, the officials said, tracking such data encourages companies to proactively examine their hiring, promotion, benefits and other policies to ensure they are not unnecessarily erecting barriers.

Kotagal said the agency has used the data to determine whether a discrimination charge might be part of a deeper pattern at a company. She cited a recent investigation of California supermarket chain Vallarta Food Enterprises, in which the EEOC alleges the grocer failed or refused to recruit, hire or promote non-Hispanic individuals. In that case, EEO-1 data showed that “nearly 100 percent of its employees were Hispanic,” Kotagal said. “It’s a key tool in our toolbox.”

The agency has also issued special reports on demographic employment trends across certain industries or roles.

Kotagal highlighted a 2024 report on the tech sector, which showed that women had made virtually no gains between 2014 and 2022, and that workers under 40 years old had actually lost ground. The report also found tech company workers were more likely that others to file age or pay discrimination charges, suggesting systemic barriers to women and older workers in the industry.

The report has been removed from the EEOC’s website.

Corporate retreat from demographic disclosure

The EEOC is prohibited from publicly releasing an individual company’s EEO-1 form, only publishing the information in the aggregate. In recent years, however, a growing number of the country’s top companies began publicly releasing their forms in response to pressure from shareholders and Democratic elected officials to show transparency in their diversity efforts.

Many of those companies have complained that job categories in the EEO-1 forms don't align with their internal structures, a point Lucas echoed Tuesday, saying the categories don't reflect the modern workforce. But advocates of EEO-1 disclosure argued it's the only standardized form that allows for comparison across companies, and offer more detail.

However, the trend toward transparency has started to reverse.

Companies have started to pull back on publicizing both EEO-1 forms and their own diversity reports, which conservative advocates and the Trump administration have seized on to argue that companies are using discriminatory tactics to add women and minorities to their ranks.

In 2025, 24 companies in the S&P 100 — the largest U.S. publicly traded companies — chose not to disclose their EEO-1 data after having done so the year before, according to Andrew Jones, principal researcher at The Conference Board Governance & Sustainability Center. Still, 60 S&P 100 companies did release the data.

Meanwhile, fewer companies are publicizing any form of demographic metrics. The number of Russell 3,000 companies that disclosed metrics on women in the workforce fell from 75% in 2024 to 62% in 2025, according to a study by The Conference Board using data from corporate governance data and analysis firm ESGAUGE. Those disclosing metrics on minority representation fell from 30.9% to 26.5%.

Why companies may keep gathering data

Companies are still likely to keep track of their demographic data, whether or not they disclose any of those metrics publicly, and even if they are no longer required to submit annual EEO-1 reports. That's because Title VII requires employers to keep records that could be pertinent to any discrimination investigation, and the EEOC is empowered to request them.

“What we are generally advising is to stay the course,” Jennifer Robins, counsel in law firm Saul Ewing’s Labor and Employment Group. “Private litigants, employment discrimination lawsuits are not going away, and this data is helpful to defending oneself.”

The EEOC has demanded extensive demographic data from companies to bolster Lucas' own marquee cases. Those include an investigation into diversity, equity and inclusion practices of sports giant Nike, which Lucas has alleged discriminate against white employees; a lawsuit against the New York Times for allegedly discriminating against a white man who was passed over for a promotion, and an investigation into alleged antisemitism against staff at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lucas emphasized Tuesday that the EEOC would continue to demand data in the course of its investigations. Kotagal warned employers that under future leadership, the EEOC could reinstitute the EEO-1 collection.

Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, said she sees the elimination of EEO-1 data as part of an effort to obscure the prevalence of discrimination against racial minorities and women and create of a sense of urgency around protecting white workers from DEI-related policies.

But Frye said the data "doesn’t suggest that their top priority ought to be discrimination against white men.

"If the chair is moving forward with an agenda that thinks she ought to be focused on men and ought to be focused on white people, my answer is, ‘Well, does the data tell you that?’” Frye said.

___

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Hamas has already agreed to the proposal. American negotiators appeared to acquiesce to Israeli demands that Hamas disarmament must come before any reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian enclave. They did not publicly signal that Israel had made any commitments to withdraw from the 60% of Gaza that Israeli troops currently occupy.

That’s a major sticking point in the plan and one that Hamas had pressed negotiators to compel Israel to fulfill prior to the meeting. The talks came days after Netanyahu rejected the 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the ceasefire deal forward, saying there would be no withdrawal without disarmament.

A day earlier, Kushner met for two hours with Hamas' leader in Egypt.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the director of the U.S.-created Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, were also in the meeting with Netanyahu, according to a source familiar with the plans and a diplomatic source. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

At stake are the lives of some 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, rebuilding plans and future control over the territory.

Netanyahu says talks were ‘deep and constructive’

In a statement, Netanyahu's office said the talks were “deep and constructive.” Israel and the board agreed to establish two working groups — one on the disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza and another focused on public health issues for Gaza.

Israel and the board agreed that the demilitarization “should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction," the statement said.

A Board of Peace official said they also agreed that the demilitarization must include “every weapon, light and heavy, and every tunnel.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

“Backed by President Donald Trump, the parties share clear goals: a fully demilitarized and deradicalized Gaza that poses no threat to Israel, and where Gazans can pursue prosperity and dignity peacefully,” the official said.

Another Board of Peace official said the meeting was “very productive” and resulted in agreement on “a path forward.”

"The Israelis are going to give this a chance. Now it’s up to Hamas to show if it truly intends to comply,” said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Asked if Israel had committed to the U.S. plan for Gaza, a spokesperson for Mladenov said it was a “work in progress.”

Meeting followed Kushner's conversation with Hamas

Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law, met Sunday with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Cairo on disarmament, according to a regional official and a Hamas official, who both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also were there.

The Hamas official said the Hamas leader demanded that Israel halt its attacks on Gaza and withdraw to the so-called “yellow line” dividing the territory before beginning implementation.

The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza. In May, Netanyahu said the next step was to move to 70% control, with Israel “tightening the grip” on Hamas “from every direction.”

Several regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a statement Sunday condemning Israel’s rejection of the road map. They said Israel "now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.” Other signers included Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the ceasefire mediators.

The foreign ministers’ statement called on the Board of Peace and the U.S. to take “immediate and concrete measures” to keep any party from obstructing the plan’s implementation.

Talks spark hope and doubt in Gaza

While some in Gaza hope that efforts to implement the road map will bring an end to the war sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, others are skeptical.

Mohammad Abu al-Qombuz cast doubt on all talks and visits currently taking place.

“A conference here and there, it is all lies. We need a definitive solution that would work for everybody,” said Abu al-Qombuz, who lives in a Gaza City tent camp, part of the territory's vast displaced population.

Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza.

But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, and the road map entails the creation of a “credible pathway toward achieving Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” something Israel’s current government rejects.

Until the road map is agreed to, other elements of the ceasefire are on hold, including reconstruction and the deployment of international forces to separate Israeli forces from committee-controlled areas.

Netanyahu faces a challenging election on Oct. 27 as he tries to hold onto power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza, and it’s not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then.

Also coming up is the anniversary of the 2023 attack.

___

Frankel reported from Jerusalem, Magdy from Cairo and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press journalists Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel; Collin Binkley in Washington; and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

Location: Remote in MI, TX, or FL

Description

Graham Media Group is searching for its next Sales Support Coordinator who will be responsible for assisting the sales team with the processing and fulfillment of sales orders, strategically process makegoods, troubleshoot scheduling problems and traffic issues, solve billing discrepancies, manage program changes, provide weekly reports and correspondence with clients.

The key function of this role is to assist management, account executives and the sales team in reaching annual budgets for TV, Digital and New Business. Qualified candidates must be able to multi-task and get their task assignments done accurately and efficiently.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with Account Executives to coordinate advertising campaigns
• Input and manage broadcast orders into Wide Orbit – for local, national, paid programming, pay-for-delivery, and political campaigns
• Work makegoods with buyers/agencies and input into order management systems
• Monitor network and station schedules for program changes
• Resolve billing discrepancies and assisting with collections
• Regularly monitor campaign performance to ensure clients’ goals are being met
• Pull TV post reports to ensure campaign delivery is on track
• Provide in-depth reporting tailored to each client’s goals and objectives
• Troubleshoot scheduling problems, preemptions and traffic issues
• Communicate with advertisers for video and traffic instructions, scheduling changes and campaign performance as needed. Encourage upsell opportunities where appropriate
• Serve as backup coverage for other national and/or local sales support as needed
• Provide reports for clients and management
• Establish and maintain high retention rates and a high level of customer satisfaction by exceeding customer expectations and proactively anticipating their shifting needs
• Responsible for Political order entry as well as maintaining our FCC files related to Political
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Minimum of 1 year of related work experience in media sales preferred or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Bachelor’s degree in marketing or related field preferred
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Strong organizational, multi-tasking and time management skills a must!
• A team player who can work with others toward common goals
• Adaptable and flexible with ability to shift focus on new priorities
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously
• Ability to adhere to strict deadlines and complete work in a timely and accurate manner
• Understand Nielsen & ComScore ratings and impressions
• Experience in a television station’s sales/traffic department preferred
• Previous experience with Wide Orbit applications highly preferred
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel/spreadsheets and PowerPoint or presentation tools. Comfortable learning new software and processes as needed

Please send resumes to Brittany Salyers at bsalyers@grahammedia.com

Graham Media Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, GMG will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks.

The fraction of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 4.2%, up from 3.6% the year before. That’s an estimated 155,000 children nationally during the 2025-2026 school year.

It’s the fourth consecutive year that the national average exemption rate has reached a new record, and the vast majority are parents withholding shots for nonmedical reasons. Exemptions increased in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

Experts point to turmoil caused by federal health officials.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a leading voice in the antivaccine movement before President Donald Trump put him in charge of federal health agencies. In the last 18 months, Kennedy and other federal officials have repeatedly tried to revise and reduce childhood vaccination guidance. Earlier this month, Trump called for revamped childhood vaccination recommendations that promote his discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.

“The root cause of this is primarily because there’s so much chaos and confusion in vaccination recommendation systems in the last year or so,” said Dr. James Campbell, of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Vaccination rates fell for many diseases

The CDC reported that 92.4% of 2025-26 kindergarteners got their required measles-mumps-rubella shots, down slightly from the previous year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination rate was 95% — the level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

Vaccination rates also fell for polio, for the combination shot against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, and for the first dose of the vaccine against chickenpox.

The rate held steady for protection against hepatitis B. But that's a vaccine given shortly after birth, and it will take a few years before recent federal efforts to upend infant hepatitis B vaccine recommendations would appear in the vaccination rates of kindergartners, Campbell said.

The vaccination numbers were posted as the U.S. experiences its worst year for measles since 1991.

The numbers indicate that more than a quarter of a million children entering kindergarten are susceptible to measles, said Campbell, a University of Maryland researcher who is chair of the AAP's infectious diseases committee.

Those at-risk kids are not evenly distributed — concentrations of unvaccinated children are higher in some places than others, which helps explain why measles waves vary in intensity.

This is when public health officials typically tout vaccines' benefits

The CDC data is coming out as school and health officials across the country are encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated as the school year starts.

“Back-to-school season is an important reminder that protecting our children’s health is both a shared responsibility and a shared goal,” North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai said in a statement. “Vaccines help keep our children and teens healthy and in the classroom.”

In the past, the CDC has released the vaccination coverage data in its flagship publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC officials usually speak to the trends and stress the importance of vaccinations.

But since the Trump administration took office early last year, the agency has posted the data online. This year, the agency issued a three-sentence statement that noted a small decline in vaccination coverage among children entering kindergarten and said: “CDC continues to encourage parents to discuss vaccination options with their doctors.”

Medical exemption rates are steady

Public health officials focus on vaccination rates for kindergartners because schools can be cauldrons for germs and launching pads for community outbreaks.

For years, those rates were high, thanks largely to school attendance mandates that required key vaccinations. All U.S. states and territories require that children attending childcare centers and schools be vaccinated against a number of diseases, including measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and chickenpox.

All states allow exemptions for children with medical conditions that prevent them from receiving certain vaccines. And most also permit exemptions for religious or other nonmedical reasons.

In the last decade, the percentage of kindergartners with medical exemptions has held steady, at about 0.2%. But the percentage with nonmedical exemptions has risen.

According to the CDC data, 17.5% of kindergartners had an exemption to one or more vaccines in Idaho in the last school year. But fewer than 0.5% did in Connecticut.

___

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.

Location: Detroit, MI (Graham Media Group HQ)

About the Role

Graham Media Group is seeking a highly analytical, detail-oriented, and process-driven Revenue Planning & Analysis Analyst II to join our Revenue Operations team. Reporting directly to the Director of Revenue Planning & Analysis, this role serves as a critical bridge between Revenue Operations, Sales, Finance, Technology, and Market Leadership teams.

The ideal candidate combines strong analytical capabilities with expertise in data governance, quality assurance, process documentation, Salesforce and project management. This individual will champion data integrity across revenue systems, lead cross-functional initiatives, develop scalable operational processes, and leverage emerging AI technologies to drive efficiency and innovation across the organization.

Responsibilities:

• Conduct recurring audits of Salesforce, reporting platforms, and revenue datasets to ensure compliance with data standards
• Partner with stakeholders to improve data collection methods, system adoption, and overall data quality
• Monitor key data health metrics and build scorecards to measure accuracy and completeness
• Create and maintain user guides, training materials, process documentation, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to support system adoption and operational consistency.
• Support onboarding and ongoing training efforts for revenue systems, reporting tools, and operational processes
• Partner with the Salesforce Administrator to support CRM enhancements, testing, user adoption, data hygiene, and reporting
• Assist in troubleshooting system issues and validating system changes and integrations
• Document processes, workflows, and system requirements to support ongoing optimization efforts
• Act as the Revenue Operations team’s project manager for key initiatives, coordinating efforts across Sales, Finance, Marketing, Technology, and Market Leadership.
• Gather business requirements, document processes, manage timelines, and communicate progress to stakeholders.
• Drive process improvement initiatives that increase efficiency, scalability, and operational effectiveness.
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI and automation to improve reporting, forecasting, documentation, and operational workflows
• Assist in the design, testing, and deployment of AI-powered solutions and agents that increase productivity and streamline business processes

Requirements:

• Experience creating and maintaining training materials, user guides, process documentation, and standard operating procedures
• Ability to communicate complex processes and technical concepts in a clear, user-friendly manner for both technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience facilitating training sessions and supporting user adoption of new tools, systems, and processes is a plus
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail — you catch errors before others do
• Collaborative, low-ego, and comfortable in a fast-moving, multi-market environment
• Media, broadcasting, or advertising industry experience a plus, but not required

Please send resumes to Becky Hollandsworth at Bhollandsworth@grahammedia.com

Graham Media Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In addition to complying with the requirements of federal law, GMG will comply with applicable state and local laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Any offer of employment is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment drug screening, investigative background check, employment/education verifications and reference checks.

Clancy's mother, Paula Musgrove, sounding at times emotional, described her daughter as a dedicated and loving mother whose mental health began declining in October 2022 — about three months before Clancy strangled the children and attempted to kill herself.

“Mom, will you please come up and stay with me for a bit? I’m really sick. Something is wrong,” Clancy wrote in a text message displayed to the jury. “I had horrible insomnia all night, and I just don’t know how I am going to get through the day. ... It’s just really scary, and I don’t want to be alone.”

___

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.

___

Musgrove also recalled a more alarming disclosure in December, when she was standing in the kitchen with Clancy and her then-husband, Patrick Clancy. Musgrove said her daughter appeared nervous and told them she needed to tell them something.

“She told us she had thoughts of harming the children,” Musgrove said.

Musgrove, who lived in Connecticut, often stayed with her daughter in Massachusetts from October into December 2022. She said Clancy was scared of sleeping alone, became increasingly paranoid and believed the medications she was taking “were destroying her mind.”

Clancy’s sister described a similar decline. Allison Ozga testified that at the end of December Clancy told her she had experienced suicidal thoughts every day for a month.

The testimony came in the fourth week of Clancy's murder trial, soon after the prosecution rested their case.

Prosecutors argue that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, planned the Jan. 24, 2023, killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house by sending him to get takeout and to the pharmacy.

Clancy’s attorney Kevin Reddington does not dispute that she killed the children. But he says she shouldn't be held criminally responsible because she had postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth. He said she also had bipolar disorder and that antidepressants prescribed worsened her condition.

‘How could a mother hurt her children?’

A former co-worker testified Monday about Clancy’s years as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, describing Clancy as a “really good” nurse who loved her job and was “compassionate, kind and a patient advocate.”

“She was the type of nurse that you wanted taking care of you or your loved one when you walked onto our unit,” said Margaret Hamp.

Hamp said she and Clancy worked night shifts together and that Clancy regularly sought parenting advice from her co-workers, asking about everything from children’s sleeping habits and choosing a daycare provider to monogrammed lunch boxes.

Hamp also recalled a conversation from Clancy’s first year on the unit after a pregnant patient arrived with plans to harm herself. Hamp said she spoke with Clancy about mental health during pregnancy and postpartum and asked whether she had heard of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001.

“I explained that to her, and she cried,” Hamp testified. “She said, ‘How could a mother hurt her children?’”

A disputed picture of her mental health

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard that Clancy had sought treatment for severe mental health problems, including admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital. But witnesses also noted Clancy wouldn't always take the medications prescribed to help with her insomnia, anxiety and depression, and that she expressed fears she was addicted to some of them.

The defense has argued that Clancy was overmedicated and that her care was disjointed, with doctors not speaking to one another or sharing notes. The defense also showed she was discharged from one facility after a day and denied a higher level of care at another when she couldn't show that she had a suicide plan.

Prosecutors have questioned the seriousness of Clancy's suicide attempt and showed through texts and photos that she performed many normal activities the day of the killings, including taking her children to the doctor and playing with them in the snow.

Her doctors have testified they never saw Clancy exhibit signs of mania or psychosis, though she did repeatedly talk of feeling suicidal.

Clancy hasn't testified and isn't required to do so, but jurors have seen her break down in sobs at several points, including when prosecutors showed the jury autopsy photos of the children.

At the start of the trial, Patrick Clancy described the horror of returning home to find his dead children. During his testimony, prosecutors played a harrowing seven-minute 911 call, which was not released to the public. Clancy can be heard checking on Lindsay Clancy in the backyard, before heading down to his basement and finding his children.

He screams and howls before telling a dispatcher, “She killed the kids!”

After ordering the Pentagon to scale back annual joint military exercises with South Korea, claiming the nation declined to help with the United States’ war against Iran, Trump said that he has spoken with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about a scheduled conversation.

Trump’s son-in-law and Mideast negotiator Jared Kushner held hourslong meetings with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday after talking with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament. Netanyahu rejected a 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the truce deal forward in Gaza. Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament.

The Latest:

Melania Trump helped reunite child and family separated by the war in Ukraine

According to the first lady’s office, it was the latest of 34 children that Melania Trump has helped reunite with their families after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, the first lady penned a letter calling for peace to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which, she said at the time, led to an “open channel of communication” about the welfare of children caught up in the war.

“There is nothing more powerful than reuniting a mother with her child after an extended period of time,” Melania Trump said in a statement Monday.

‘I like the idea of declaring’ the Strait of Hormuz a territory

The president was asked about an offhand comment he made last week about the waterway crucial to oil shipping that’s become a centerpiece of negotiations over the war with Iran.

“I like the idea of declaring it a territory,” Trump said on Monday, without providing further details.

It’s not the first time Trump has toyed with the idea of expanding American territory. He has previously mused about taking over Greenland, Canada and Venezuela.

Trump likens his sentiment toward South Korea to his feelings about NATO

The U.S. president further explained his decision to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, likening his relationship with Seoul to his often-frayed ties with the transatlantic alliance.

Trump said the U.S. keeps tens of thousands of troops in South Korea for its protection, and was rebuffed when it asked Seoul for assistance regarding the war in Iran earlier this year.

As he discussed his decision on South Korea, Trump said “look at NATO” and later added, “all I want is fairness.”

“We can’t go around and protect all of these countries, especially when they’re not there to help us,” Trump said.

Trump says concerns about conditions on USS Lincoln are ‘fake’

Trump downplayed reports about conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln to reporters in the Oval Office. The aircraft carrier has been the subject of escalating concern over mental health and supply issues for American sailors enduring nearly nine months at sea.

Trump called it a “good period of time” but added that “over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer.”

The carrier has had a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days.

But Trump said he spoke with a retired admiral over the weekend who recounted being on ships for “much longer.” Trump said the admiral assured him that the Lincoln is “beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.”

Trump did not name the admiral.

Trump administration pauses contentious border construction in Texas’ Big Bend National Park

The Trump administration says it is temporarily pausing construction of a controversial border construction project in the Big Bend National Park while the head of the agency tasked with building the wall visits Texas to do an “on-the-ground evaluation.”

The project through the national park in southern Texas has faced fierce bipartisan opposition by critics who say it is marring a pristine environmental area and that the region’s rugged and remote terrain already serves as a deterrent to migrants and smugglers.

Rodney Scott, who heads Customs and Border Protection which is tasked with building the wall, said in an announcement on X that he was visiting Texas to do an evaluation.

“CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation,” Scott said.

▶ Read more

Trump calls UK prime minister’s text exchange a ‘miscommunication’

The U.S. president was asked about a report that said new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham exchanged messages with someone posing as Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff.

“I’m sure that he had a miscommunication,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The report from Politico said Burnham thought he was messaging with Wiles before he became suspicious and cut off communications.

Earlier Monday, the White House said the incident had nothing to do with Wiles’ devices being hacked.

Trump says North Korea’s Kim has responded to request for a conversation

The U.S. president was pressed on whether he has had a conversation with the North Korean leader.

Trump said “yeah he has” responded to Trump’s request to have a conversation, referring to Kim Jong Un.

Trump offered no other details, but noted later during the Oval Office appearance that “I get along with him very well.”

Trump says his administration is taking a look at Flock cameras

The president said there are pros and cons to Flock Safety cameras, which have come under scrutiny from civil rights groups and lawmakers in both parties.

“It’s being studied right now,” Trump said when asked about the subject Monday at an Oval Office event. “We’ll have an answer soon as to our views on it.”

The company’s nationwide network of cameras record the license plate numbers and other characteristics of passing vehicles.

Thousands of police agencies can use Flock data to support investigations, and advocates call it an important crime-fighting tool. Critics say it amounts to needless mass surveillance.

Trump sits with 10-year-old and his lifeguard rescuer in Oval Office

Nathanial Rai had been swept off his feet along the California coast, was rescued by a 16-year-old lifeguard and was now sitting in the Oval Office.

Rai wore a dark suit and maroon tie and sat on a gold couch aside his father and the president of the United States. Across from Rai was his rescuer Ryder Williams, both of whom watched Trump speak of their ordeal, a video of which went viral.

“He’s a real hero. I don’t know if I’d do it,” said Trump. “I wouldn’t probably. You’re lucky I wasn’t on the service that day.”

Trump meeting with teenage lifeguard who saved boy in dramatic viral video

A teenage lifeguard who saved a 10-year-old boy from pounding waves off the California last month is being honored at the White House on Monday.

President Donald Trump is meeting Ryder Williams after saying the teen deserved a civilian honor. Trump previously said on social media that he would be inviting Williams to the White House to reward his bravery.

Dramatic video of the rescue went viral last month. It showed Williams clinging to Nathaniel Rai as waves repeatedly crash over them. The pair disappeared from view and reemerged after several seconds as the wave receded.

A second lifeguard was eventually able to help get them both back to shore at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz.

Trump initially commented on the video in response to a post from his son, Eric Trump, who said Williams deserved “the highest civilian honor.”

After killing hundreds in boat strikes, US military expands campaign on land

The Trump administration says it is seeking to expand its lethal campaign of bombing boats off Latin America’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts onto land.

It will be “like you saw with the strikes on the drug boats,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a military drill in the jungle in Panama last week. “Same effect on land.”

The government has lined up regional allies to let the U.S. military operate within their borders in a campaign to assert what it calls “American dominance over the Western Hemisphere.”

Critics say the expansion could pave the way for more civilian casualties and anger toward Washington that may outlast the Trump administration.

▶ Read more

Trump dwarfs his predecessors in ultra-rich appointees

Wealth, perhaps second only to loyalty, has been a prized attribute for Donald Trump during his second presidency.

The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total of his three predecessors, according to a report from Public Citizen.

The consumer advocacy group’s report Monday says 57 Trump officials are worth at least $100 million, including 17 ambassadors and eight of his Cabinet members. Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon are billionaires.

The president, himself a billionaire, has described his deference to the financial success of the ultrawealthy. Yet Trump owes his White House comeback to support from middle-income working Americans drawn to his pledge to lower everyday costs, and now faces an electorate decidedly less keen on his handling of the economy.

▶ Read more

Public Citizen says ultra-wealthy White House can lead to corruption

Trump’s views are well established: Financial success is evidence of executive mastery and negotiating strength.

And to encourage billionaires to deliver future economic growth, Trump has pursued policies on artificial intelligence and financial regulation that could benefit wealthy people, along with tax cuts and reduced regulatory burdens for large-scale investments.

But a government populated by so many of the economic elite presents potential problems, the report’s authors said.

“When the people holding the reins of government are drawn overwhelmingly from the ranks of the ultra-rich, it leads to misplaced incentives and corruption, and begs the question, ’Whose interests they are truly serving?” said Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen’s co-president.

Trump’s scaling back military training with South Korea is ‘inane,’ senator says

Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump appears to be appeasing North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un while worsening relations with U.S. allies.

“This is another inane, haphazard decision by President Trump and his chaotic administration,” Reed said in a statement.

“America’s alliances are built on trust and strength,” he said. “When President Trump cuts military exercises to flatter a dictator or punishes South Korea for declining to join a war he started, all of our allies — and adversaries — think that America’s commitments are negotiable.”

Reed noted that the U.S. and South Korea have conducted joint military exercises since the 1950s as a show of strength and deterrence against aggression from North Korea. And he warned that warned that China and Russia are watching how easily Trump abandons America’s allies.

The buck stops somewhere else: A look at Trump’s tendency to avoid blame

President Harry Truman famously kept a “The Buck Stops Here” sign on his White House desk. The current Oval Office occupant often veers from that motto of taking responsibility.

Trump has blamed his predecessors for the weak economy, high inflation and the increasingly unpopular war in Iran that has kept oil prices high and his approval rating low while sending shock waves through the global economy.

He blames vandals for the problem-plagued Reflecting Pool renovation, and now the dead grass where his July 4th event was held on the National Mall.

All presidents try to shift some responsibility, but none in modern history has taken it as far as Trump.

The White House says Trump is working to correct long-festering challenges. But his unwillingness to accept blame sometimes leads him to deny problems, which could put GOP seats in jeopardy as Republicans face voters.

▶ Read more

Wall Street nears new records as big US companies report booming profits

Big U.S. companies in the S&P 500 index are on track to deliver growth of roughly 50% for earnings per share in the spring from a year earlier, according to FactSet. Still to come are profit reports from big retailers, including Home Depot, Target and Walmart this week.

They’re facing pressure. Customers’ incomes may be turning iffier after U.S. employers surprisingly cut more jobs last month than they added, as bills rise quickly with inflation much higher than anyone would like. Shoppers surprisingly spent less at U.S. retailers last month than in June.

And the wait continues to see what the Iran war will do with oil prices. Brent crude rose 0.7% to $89.15 a barrel Monday, a relatively modest move after jagged recent swings.

▶ Read more

Trump threatens Oman during interview with Fox News

Trump has warned Oman as the Gulf nation works with Iran on a plan for the Strait of Hormuz, telling Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way” using an expletive for emphasis.

Fox News did not provide audio of the Monday interview.

This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”

Trump also said the expiration of the 60-day deadline on ending the war was irrelevant and said there was no timeline, Yingst said. And Trump said the U.S. has a backchannel for talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yingst said.

Supreme Court again rebuffs Trump, upholds $5 million for E. Jean Carroll

The Supreme Court on Monday again rebuffed President Donald Trump’s push to throw out a jury’s $5 million finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her.

The Republican president’s lawyers had asked the justices to reconsider their refusal to hear his appeal.

It’s unusual — although not unheard of — for the court to grant such requests. Trump paid the judgment shortly after the court declined to take up his appeal in June.

Trump and the Justice Department are also asking the high court to toss out a second Carroll verdict totaling $83 million. They argue he’s immune from being sued over comments he made about her in 2019, when he was president. The court has not yet acted on that appeal.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir advocates killing ’30 to 40′ people in Gaza every night

The comments by an extremist Israeli lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition surfaced Sunday and were quickly shared by Palestinian media, but scarcely mentioned by Israel’s domestic media.

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was speaking on a podcast about Israel’s recent drawdown of strikes in Gaza.

“I disagree with the prime minister,” he said. “I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

In the past, similar statements by Ben-Gvir and other Israeli officials were widely condemned and presented to the U.N.’s world court as evidence of genocidal intent. Israel denies it has committed genocide in Gaza.

▶ Read more

Kushner meeting with Netanyahu as he seeks approval of Gaza road map

Trump son-in-law and Mideast negotiator Jared Kushner was holding meetings with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday after talking with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament.

The Israeli leader rejected a 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the truce deal forward in Gaza. Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament, and the group is urging mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to sign on as well.

But Israel, which under the road map must withdraw from Gaza, says Hamas must fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal will occur.

Trump’s 60-day deadline for an Iran peace deal is expiring

The deal Trump signed at Versailles set an ambitious 60-day deadline for ending the war with Iran and reaching an accord on its nuclear program. The deadline was Monday, and the two sides are even further apart.

Talks, such as they are, have focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting a U.S. blockade. Both were supposed to have happened under the interim deal. There has been no sign of any compromise on the strait, or that detailed nuclear talks have even begun.

The U.S., meanwhile, has no good options for getting out of the war it started alongside Israel. Acceding to Iranian control over the critical international waterway where global energy supplies moved freely before the war would be tantamount to admitting defeat. Escalating the deeply unpopular war would jolt the world economy and drive up prices ahead of U.S. elections.

Iran says deal with Oman over shipping through Strait of Hormuz is nearly final

Iranian Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Monday that “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route,” and the sides are working to finalize details for the joint statement.

He did not elaborate, but details that have previously emerged suggest the deal would reopen the strait with ships entering through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.

The U.S. has sought an acceptable deal on opening the strait before ending its blockade of Iranian ports and it was not clear whether this would meet Washington’s expectations.

US Central Command chief visited aircraft carrier after Trump’s comments

Adm. Brad Cooper visited the USS Lincoln amid reports that its record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days is taxing the crew’s mental health and creating supply shortages. The Lincoln has been supporting Trump’s war against Iran, including the blockade on Iranian ports.

Cooper praised the carrier’s leadership on Sunday for making mental health and resilience a priority. His visit followed comments by Trump on Friday that their deployment is “not nearly long enough.”

Top Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have requested a classified briefing on the ship’s situation. Republicans have been less outspoken.

Trump blames vandals for damaged grass where he held his July 4 celebration

Trump on Sunday said vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the same spot where Trump had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration.

Trump made the accusation in a social media post without saying why he believes it’s the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. He posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.

“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for damage to his renovation projects in the nation’s capital, often without evidence and sometimes despite opposing accounts from his officials.

▶ Read more

Meanwhile, the 60-day negotiating period to find a peace deal between the United States and Iran was expiring, with no word of an extension and both sides seemingly as far apart as they were at the start.

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

Iran says it is near finalizing a deal with Oman

Iran said it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between the two countries, and they are now working to finalize details for a joint statement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran, Iran's capital, that “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route.”

He did not elaborate, but details that have previously emerged suggest the deal would reopen the strait with ships entering through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during an interim period.

The U.S. has sought an acceptable deal on opening the strait before ending its blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran effectively closed the strait — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28.

Trump says US will bomb Oman if it gets in the way

Trump told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way,” using an expletive for emphasis.

Fox News did not provide audio of the interview.

This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”

Trump also said the expiration of the 60-day deadline on talks to end the war was irrelevant and said there was no timeline, Yingst said. Trump said the U.S. has a back channel for talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yingst added.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres wants Iran and the U.S. to resume peace negotiations, saying there is no military solution to the conflict, according to U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.

Dujarric said the U.N. chief also thinks the countries need to “lower the rhetoric that we’ve been hearing in recent days.”

Kushner meets with Netanyahu over Gaza road map

Mideast negotiator Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the day after he had a rare, two-hour meeting with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament of the Palestinian militant group.

Netanyahu last week rejected a 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the ceasefire deal forward in Gaza.

Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament, and the group is urging mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to sign on.

But Israel, which under the road map must gradually withdraw from Gaza, says Hamas must fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal.

Israeli troops occupy about 60% of the strip, and Netanyahu has previously threatened to advance further.

Houthi rebels say they attacked boats in the Red Sea

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed that they attacked a ship and four military boats on Monday in the Red Sea off the Yemeni city of Mokha, near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The rebels fired a number of ballistic missiles at the vessels, resulting in the capsizing and burning of the boats, Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Houthis, said in a statement.

The rebels claimed that the vessels belonged to Saudi Arabia, without providing evidence. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia, and The Associated Press could not independently verify the Houthi claim.

Saree also said the rebels launched a drone attack on government forces in the central province of Marib.

Drone attacks target Iraqi officials

Two officials in northern Iraq were targeted in drone attacks that the regional counterterrorism service said were launched from the border with Iran.

One was fired at the office of Masrour Barzani, prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, and the other targeted the home of a top regional intelligence official, the counterterrorism service said.

There were no casualties and no immediate claim of responsibility.

Since the beginning of the war in Iran, Tehran and Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have launched regular attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq, and on bases of exiled Iranian Kurdish dissident groups, but Monday’s direct attack on regional government buildings was unusual.

Barzani on X called the attack “a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability" of the region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi appeared to be trying to distance Iran from the attack. He said on social media that nothing justified the attack on Barzani and that “Kurdish friends should be vigilant against false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors.”

U.S. forces currently stationed in the Kurdish region of Iraq have begun withdrawing ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

___

This story was corrected earlier to show that the first name of the prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region is Masrour Barzani, instead of Masoud Barzani.

A forest ranger said the fire in Belgium could continue for months underground in peaty soil and sporadically flare up.

Europe is sweltering through one of its hottest and driest summers on record, which a recent study said was fueled by climate change.

Rain helps, but Belgian blaze is not yet under control

Belgium’s King Philippe interrupted his summer vacation to visit emergency services fighting the wildfire in the eastern High Fens, about eight kilometers (five miles) from the German border, as it spread east after moving into a pine forest on Sunday.

The fire in Liège province has burned an estimated 30 square kilometers (about 12 square miles), leaving blackened trees and smoldering ground.

While the fire did not significantly grow, due in part to favorable winds, it remained out of control in areas inaccessible to ground crews, the Wallonia region said in an update.

Some 500 firefighters were aided by aircraft sent from Norway, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands and local police with drones after a cold front brought overnight rain. Farmers were helping supply water to firefighting efforts, regional officials said. Helicopters emptied huge sacks of water over the flames as smoke billowed from forests.

“We managed to maintain the fire where the firemen are situated but there’s still a place which is totally inaccessible, where the fire is still going on in the direction of Monschau in Germany,” said Nicolas Yernaux, spokesperson for the Wallonia regional public services.

He said overnight rains helped contain the blaze and dampen the possibility that smoldering fires will flare up again, but he said they did not significantly impact the center of the fire.

A forest ranger from the region told The Associated Press that the blaze could continue for months underground because of the peaty soil.

“What we see here is that the grassland has burned and the fire has gone into the soil to a certain depth, into the peat, and it is still burning," said Yves Pieper. “It can go down very, very low in the peat layer.”

He said the fire can continue smoldering largely unseen underground for weeks or months before flaring up again, noting that new flames had already appeared nearby.

Precautionary evacuation orders remained in effect for hundreds of residents.

Veterinarian Hugues Guyvot, who was involved in animal rescue efforts, said large animals were able to flee but smaller ones like frogs and mice likely burrowed and were baked underground in a landscape of peat bogs.

“Maybe it will take decades to recover from this fire,” he said.

Greece quickly extinguishes fire near main airport

In Greece, fire department investigators examined the area on the island of Salamina where a fast-moving wildfire on Sunday killed two people, injured another nine and destroyed several homes. The island lies just west of the Greek capital.

New wildfires broke out elsewhere Monday. Dozens of firefighters along with two water-dropping planes and two helicopters raced to tackle one in Spata, an area east of Athens that includes the main international airport. The fire department said the blaze was contained within 30 minutes.

Separately, the fire department said an 80-year-old man was arrested in the northern town of Kavala on arson charges for allegedly deliberately setting fire to dried vegetation. It was among 302 fire-related arrests since Jan. 1 in Greece, including 31 for deliberate arson and 271 for negligence that sparked fires, the department said.

France says a fire in the southwest is under control

In southwestern France, authorities said a fire in the Landes region was under control after four days of battling the flames, allowing about half of the evacuated residents to begin returning home.

More than 600 residents evacuated last week as the fire burned about 17 square kilometers (6.6 square miles) during a prolonged spell of extreme heat. Some respite was on the way Monday as temperatures began to drop.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the state would provide a 12 million-euro ($13.9 million) aid package to Gironde and Landes, the regions hardest hit by the wildfires, to help rebuild homes and support affected businesses, including in Le Porge, where 183 homes were destroyed in a massive blaze last month.

Croatian police arrest arson suspects

In Croatia, four people are suspected of deliberately starting as many as 10 fires in the region around the coastal town of Zadar, a major tourism hub on the Adriatic coast.

The suspects were questioned by an investigative judge following their arrest on Saturday on a tip from residents.

The four are suspected of starting fires on Aug. 14 and 15 with an aim to “endanger lives and valuable property and inflict damage on a large number of residents in Zadar county,” police said in a statement. There was no word on a possible motive.

Police said they were assessing the extent of the damage caused.

___

Corbet reported from Paris. Elena Becatoros in Argostoli, Greece, and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed.

“Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors at the start of Davis' Las Vegas trial. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”

Davis, 63, is charged with murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in Shakur's death. He pleaded not guilty. His lawyer in the defense opening called the prosecution's narrative “fiction.” If convicted, Davis faces life in prison.

Palal showed jurors video of Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’ nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson outside the boxing match at the MGM Grand hours before the shooting on Sept. 7, 1996.

Davis spent the next two hours planning how to get even, said Palal, and Shakur was gunned down “in an act of revenge.”

What he told investigators in 2008

In a 2008 interview with a federal task force investigating the killing of Shakur's rival, the Notorious B.I.G., Davis instead talked about the Shakur shooting. He described handing a gun to the men in the back seat of a white Cadillac that fired on a black BMW with Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight inside.

As prosecutors played audio of Davis explaining the moment Shakur was shot, members of Shakur’s family, including his stepbrother Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, stared ahead and listened intently from the audience.

Palal told jurors Davis held onto a visceral hatred for Shakur for decades that drove him to speak.

He said as early as 1998, the defendant talked to the FBI and admitted he had been in Las Vegas the night of the shooting. He spoke again in 1999 to the FBI and said again he was in Las Vegas then but denied responsibility.

In 2009, he admitted to his role in the killing in an interview with Las Vegas police, Palal said.

“And now 30 years later, we’re going to ask you to finally hold Duane Davis accountable,” Palal said.

He also showed jurors the 2019 memoir that Davis co-authored, “Compton Street Legend,” that the prosecution will use and that the defense fought to keep out of the trial, along with several of the defendant's interviews.

How Davis' legal team is defending him

Davis, wearing a blue suit and tie, watched the presentation while sitting next to his attorney. He sat quietly with his hands folded on the table in front of him, occasionally nodding along as his attorney spoke.

“The state has just told you what they believe is the evidence in this case,” attorney Michael Sanft said to jurors in his opening. “What they are telling you, they are representing as fact, when it's really fiction.”

Sanft said Davis wasn't previously charged for the 1996 killing because law enforcement knew that he was “full of crap.”

“There’s no facts,” he said, to back up what Davis said in his book.

The defense attorney also pointed to missing documents in the original investigation and distrust between Los Angeles and Las Vegas police departments. He pointed out that the Compton Police Department was shut down in September 2000 due to corruption.

He called one detective’s work “biased,” “sloppy” and “incomplete.” He said retired Detective Clifford Mogg read portions of Davis’ book into the record as if it were fact, but said Mogg didn’t verify claims in it.

Most eyewitnesses didn’t live to trial

The story of the drive-by shooting has long gripped the hip-hop community, partly because no one was charged until Davis was indicted in 2023.

The other three men riding in the Cadillac have all died in the years since.

“When he says he’s the only person who can tell what happened, he’s right,” Palal said.

Shakur remains a cultural icon and is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time, despite dying at 25. He was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

Witnesses describe the night Tupac was shot

Retired Las Vegas police officer Garry Dale was the first of the 35 to 45 witnesses the prosecution plans to call at the trial expected to last about a month. He recounted how he and another officer stopped a car carrying Knight and Shakur because the vehicle didn’t have a license plate. They let the pair go with a warning.

About 10 minutes later the two officers responded to a call about a shooting and found Shakur being pulled from the car by EMTs, Dale said. Knight had been grazed by bullets, but told the officers to take care of Shakur, he testified.

Dale jumped in the ambulance and tried to get Shakur to tell him who shot him. The retired officer said that Shakur said something like “no, we’ll take care of it.”

Another witness, Ingrid Stokes, testified that she and her friends were heading home from Las Vegas when they encountered Shakur and Knight, who was friends with a woman in Stokes’ group.

Knight invited them to a nightclub, she said, and they decided to meet them there.

The car Stokes was riding in was one lane over and a car length ahead of Knights’ vehicle, when they heard gunshots while stopped at an intersection, she said.

Stokes said they feared more gunfire and drove away, almost hitting a white four-door vehicle in the process.

When they returned to the scene, police treated them like suspects, she said, and made them sit on the sidewalks. She was scared to talk about the case, worried about poor treatment from law enforcement and the potential for retribution from the unknown shooter.

“Snitches get stitches,” she said.

___

Associated Press journalists Ty ONeil in Las Vegas, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

The Republican president’s lawyers had asked the justices to reconsider their refusal to hear his appeal. The court denied Trump’s petition along with several others.

It’s unusual — although not unheard of — for the court to grant such requests. Trump paid the judgment shortly after the court declined to take up his appeal in June.

Trump and the Justice Department are also asking the high court to toss out a second Carroll verdict totaling $83 million. They argue he’s immune from being sued over comments he made about her in 2019, when he was president. The court has not yet acted on that appeal.

Carroll is a longtime advice columnist and former TV talk show host. She testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly 1990s encounter into a violent attack in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury retailer across the street from Trump Tower in Manhattan. The jury found Trump liable for defaming Carroll when he denied her allegation in 2022.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said they were pleased by the Supreme Court's decision.

"As a result, the jury’s unanimous verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court,” Kaplan said in a statement.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

Many residents on Flores island in East Nusa Tenggara province spent the day mourning victims while military teams tried to deliver food, clean water and clothing to inaccessible communities by plane.

The Saturday morning quake left widespread damage, with buildings collapsed onto parked cars, homes shattered and trees and boulders blocking roads.

“My house is just rubble now,” said Rasyid Jafar, a clothing trader in the village of Reo, the hardest-hit area in Manggarai regency. "We need food, medicine and clean water urgently.”

During Indonesia’s Independence Day ceremony in the capital, Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto asked participants to pray for people affected by disasters in East Nusa Tenggara and other parts of the country, while leading a nationwide moment of silence honoring the nation’s independence heroes.

More than 4,500 homes were damaged when the quake struck Flores island early Saturday. Some 19,000 people were forced into temporary shelters and 213 people were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency or BNPB. The disaster also damaged 122 health facilities, 252 schools and 84 places of worship.

The province's governor declared a 14-day state of emergency on Sunday.

The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued but later lifted. Authorities have since recorded 1,576 aftershocks into Monday, though only 54 were felt by residents.

Thousands await aid amid devastation

Thousands of people on Flores camped outside collapsed homes under tarpaulin tents overnight into Monday, sleeping outside because of the danger of more aftershocks.

For many residents, the disaster revived painful memories of a powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Flores in 1992, killing about 2,500 people.

As thousands of survivors remain in need of food, shelter and medical treatment, the government said more than 1,800 military and police personnel have been deployed across the disaster zone, supported by 10 aircraft and several vessels, to distribute more than 100 metric tons of emergency aid.

Nearly 5,400 food packages, two field hospital tents, medicines and clothing were being delivered to communities across the disaster zone, as logistical challenges slowed deliveries to some hard-hit communities, national disaster agency Deputy Chief Abdul Muhari said in a video statement.

Authorities set up two emergency field hospitals in the worst-hit town of Ruteng to treat earthquake victims after local hospitals were damaged, with two crisis management teams overseeing a health emergency operation center, Muhari said.

He also said rescue teams continued searching for victims in the affected areas, although no residents have reported any family members still missing.

Rescuers struggle to reach isolated communities

Aid workers reached tiny Palue Island, one of the areas closest to the earthquake’s epicenter, late Sunday, after a difficult sea and land journey through landslide-hit terrain, authorities said. Thousands of residents remained in urgent need of assistance.

"The roads are steep and many were blocked by landslides. It was a near-death journey,” said the deputy police chief of Sikka regency, Marselus Yugo Amboro, whose team was among the first to reach the island with emergency supplies.

He said initial assessments revealed extensive damage, with one villager killed, two seriously injured and nearly 150 homes destroyed.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on the island of Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries, nearly 170,000 in Aceh province alone.

___

Karmini reported from Jakarta. Associated Press journalists Edna Tarigan, Dita Alangkara and Andi Jatmiko, in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this story.

The project through the national park in southern Texas has faced fierce bipartisan opposition by critics who say it is marring the area's pristine environment. They argue the region’s rugged and remote terrain already serves as a deterrent to migrants and smugglers. Border crossings in the area have historically been lower than other regions and have dropped even further over the past two years.

“CBP is pausing all construction activity in Big Bend National Park while I visit and conduct a personal, on-the-ground evaluation,” Rodney Scott, who heads Customs and Border Protection, said on X. Scott said over the next couple of days, he was going to “listen to local leadership, community members and stakeholders” to address what he said were “real” national security threats while protecting the park.

While it isn’t clear whether the brief suspension portended a more permanent halt to the construction in the area, it reflected the intensity of the bipartisan opposition and was a rare concession from the administration on a signature promise of the president’s that it has raced to complete.

Congress gave the Trump administration $46 billion last summer to build a wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and the administration has been charging ahead and waiving numerous regulations in an effort to swiftly build the wall.

Scott has said that he expects the first layer of the wall to be built by the end of next year.

But the administration has run into fierce opposition in Texas especially when it comes to construction in and near Big Bend National Park and a state park to the west.

Customs and Border Protection earlier this year backed off of plans to build a 30-foot tall bollard wall through the parks but was still moving forward with other border protection measures such as a new road, lights, miles of barriers designed to stop cars from crossing the border and technology such as fiber optic cables to be buried under the fences.

That has sparked opposition from Democratic and Republican sheriffs in the region, former national park officials, local residents who rely on the parks for their livelihood and from some Texas elected officials. Critics have said it will scar the rugged landscape that attracts tourists who raft down the Rio Grande River and take advantage of some of the clearest night skies in the U.S. to gaze at stars.

Last week, bulldozers were seen clearing land at the park, sparking even more concern and raising questions from one of the state's Republican senators. Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the Republican primary to the state's attorney general, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin over construction concerns.

“My constituents believe that the 1,000-foot riverbank cliffs and remote Big Bend terrain offers its own source of deterrence for any illegal migrants crossing into the United States. The dangerous terrain includes steep mountains, deep canyons, and expansive deserts which they believe act a natural barrier that limits large-scale movements,” Cornyn wrote.

Trump made the accusation in a social media post on Sunday without saying why he believes it's the work of vandals instead of trampled turf from the Independence Day festivities. The Republican president posted a photo showing a once-grassy area by the World War II Memorial, now patchy and brown across much of the sprawling turf.

“Look what VANDALS did to the grass connecting the vandalized World War II Monument and the vandalized Reflecting Pool, which will be opened again, and better than ever, shortly,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“Anybody who thinks the Reflecting Pool wasn’t vandalized should go back to Law School!” he added.

Trump has repeatedly blamed vandals for damage to his renovation projects in the nation's capital, often without evidence and sometimes despite opposing accounts from his officials. Trump lashed out at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro this month after her office concluded that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was the result of poor construction and not the work of vandals, as Trump claimed.

The photo Trump posted matches what you'd expect to see with a large summer event, according to Penn State University turf professor John Kaminski.

“Nothing in the photograph clearly indicates vandalism. Jumping to that conclusion seems like a fairly large leap, although it is impossible to rule anything in or out,” he said.

Bradley S. Klein, a freelance journalist and golf course consultant, said the president's post didn't make clear what the problem was in detail.

“He sounds like every grumpy golfer who’s complaining about their golf course and actually has no idea what it takes to maintain it on a day-to-day basis,” he said.

Messages seeking more information were left with the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior.

Authorities on Friday announced an arrest in connection with vandalism at the World War II Memorial, after the words “Clean hands dirty $” were found painted on the monument and bubbles filled a fountain. Pirro said felony charges were being brought against Melissa L. Farris, who was in custody and couldn't be reached for comment.

A woman identified on her Facebook page as Melissa Lovewell on Thursday posted a video in which she is seen taking cans of spray paint from her bag and then painting the monument. “I will wait here to be arrested for spraying our veterans’ fountain,” she says. “It was me. I’m doing it. It’s on camera.”

The woman was identified by her Kentucky driver’s license as Melissa L. Farris, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, an arrest warrant says.

Charging documents in that case make no mention of the grassy area Trump is highlighting in his new claims. Authorities said Farris had previously been arrested for camping on federal property a few blocks from the World War II Memorial, but not the area cited by Trump.

That stretch of lawn is instead where a large stage was built and crowds gathered to hear from Trump and watch fireworks at a July 4 event celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary. Trump claimed without providing evidence that more than 400,000 people attended the event before a storm hit the area and delayed his remarks.

Photos from the time, taken by a streaming webcam atop the Washington Monument, show a large bandstand and seating areas covering nearly the entire lawn Trump now says has been vandalized. Associated Press photos from the days that followed showed workers removing the structures, revealing brown, damaged grass underneath.

On Aug. 1, Trump posted a different photo of the same area that appears to show the numbers “86 47” — which federal officials have said constitutes a threat against Trump, the 47th president — emblazoned into the grass. He cited it as evidence refuting Pirro's conclusion, calling it “a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass.”

“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” he wrote.

Those numbers are not visible in the photo Trump posted to social media on Sunday.

The Southeastern Conference gets bragging rights with nine ranked teams, but the Big Ten isn’t far behind with eight.

Indiana finished the 2025 season at No. 1 in the rankings after a historic 16-0 run and national championship game victory. This season, Ohio State enters with the best odds (+600) to win it all. Notre Dame (+650), Texas (+650), Indiana (+800) and Oregon (+800) round out the top five.

The Top 25 voters are more than 60 journalists covering college football for AP members and other news organizations. They’re urged to base their votes on head-to-head results, not reputation, preseason speculation or regional bias.

What comes next?

Now comes the good part.

The first regular-season poll will be released at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 8, after the opening two weekends of college football. After that, the AP Top 25 will drop every Sunday at 2 p.m. ET through the end of the regular season.

The final regular-season poll will be released Dec. 6 at 11 a.m. ET, right before the College Football Playoff bracket is revealed. The final AP Top 25 of the season will be released at noon on Jan. 26, after the national championship game.

The CFP bracket based on the preseason AP Top 25

Based on the AP Top 25 preseason rankings, the CFP would open like this:

— No. 9 seed Mississippi at No. 8 Texas A&M. Winner vs. No. 1 Ohio State.

— No. 12 seed Boise State at No. 5 Texas. Winner vs. No. 4 Notre Dame.

— No. 10 seed Oklahoma at No. 7 seed Miami. Winner vs. No. 2 Oregon.

— No. 11 seed Texas Tech at No. 6 Indiana. Winner vs. No. 3 Georgia.

Music City Kickoff got a good one

Last year’s Week 1 featured three marquee matchups between ranked teams as Texas traveled to Ohio State, Miami faced Notre Dame and LSU took on Clemson.

This year, the inaugural Music City Kickoff game in Nashville will feature the only ranked-on-ranked matchup in Week 1. No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 24 Louisville meet at Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans, on Sept. 6.

The ranked matchups pick up in Week 2 with two ranked matchups featuring SEC and Big Ten schools. Texas will host Ohio State in a rematch under the lights on Saturday, Sept. 12, while Oklahoma heads to Ann Arbor to face Michigan at noon.

No. 4 Notre Dame set to embark on revenge tour

No matter how Marcus Freeman wants to downplay it, Notre Dame is still smarting about not being selected for the CFP after winning 10 straight games following season-opening losses to Miami and Texas A&M.

Quarterback C.J. Carr returns and is being touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate. He’ll be working with a deep receiving corps led by Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse. Former Ohio State receivers Mylan Graham and Quincy Porter also are in the mix.

All-America candidate Leonard Moore returns at defensive back while defensive end Boubacar Traore and linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa add punch to the Notre Dame’s defense.

No. 2 Oregon appears set to break through

Oregon has the look of a team that could be ready to break through and win its first national championship.

The Ducks have one of the most seasoned teams in the nation with quarterback Dante Moore among six starters back on offense. Defensive lineman A’Mauri Washington and edge Matayo Uiagalelei lead a defense that returns eight starters.

Each of the last two years the Ducks have had their season end in the CFP with a loss to a Big Ten opponent they were playing for the second time that season.

In 2024, Oregon won the Big Ten title with a 13-0 record in its first year in the conference and was the No. 1 CFP seed. The Ducks, who beat Ohio State 32-31 in the regular season, lost 41-21 to the Buckeyes.

In 2025, Oregon’s only two losses were to Indiana – 30-20 in the regular season and 56-22 in a playoff semifinal.

“I think that speaks volumes about our league, especially when you’re talking about repeat games within our league,” coach Dan Lanning said. “We have some unbelievable coaches, great teams. There’s a lot of things we studied with ourselves in this offseason.

“Sometimes the ball has to bounce the right way. Sometimes you can do something schematically. We have studied other teams that have won games in their second opportunity. We’re looking for our opportunity to be a team like that.”

No. 1 Buckeyes are loaded but face tough schedule

Ohio State starts a season No. 1 for the ninth time. The Buckeyes didn’t end there the previous eight.

They have an excruciating schedule but are built for what awaits.

Jeremiah Smith is the most productive receiver in the nation, quarterback Julian Sayin is one of the most accurate passers and the offensive line is elite. There are plenty of talented transfers waiting to emerge for a defense replacing eight starters, all of whom were drafted.

The Buckeyes visit Indiana on Oct. 17 and host Oregon on Nov. 7. Those games will go a long way in deciding which teams make the Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis, not to mention impact CFP seeding.

Missouri only team that will play 5 of the preseason top 10 teams

No. 25 Missouri has the 12th-toughest schedule in the country, according to ESPN, but the Tigers are the only team that will play five of the top 10 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll.

All five of those are bunched into the Tigers’ final seven regular-season games. They play No. 8 Texas A&M on Oct. 10, at No. 9 Mississippi on Oct. 17, No. 5 Texas on Nov. 7, at No. 3 Georgia on Nov. 14 and No. 10 Oklahoma on Nov. 28.

Oklahoma, which plays four top-10 teams, has ESPN’s second-toughest schedule behind Arkansas. No. 5 Texas’ schedule is ranked third in degree of difficulty.

On the bubble

Clemson was the first team out with 112 points, five fewer than No. 25 Missouri. Florida, Boise State, Arizona, TCU, Navy and South Carolina were the next teams out, each received double-digit points.

The bubble teams enter the season in unique position to move up quickly in the ranks. With Clemson just points away at No. 26, a Week 1 win could easily do the trick.

The bad news? Clemson heads to No. 11 LSU for its season debut on Sept. 5.

Expectations remain high for Texas – just not as high as last year

After ranking No. 1 in last year’s preseason poll, the Longhorns enter the 2026 season at No. 5, behind Ohio State, Oregon, Georgia and Notre Dame.

Texas will be put to the test early, with a Week 2 rematch against Ohio State giving the Longhorns a chance to make a case for a higher ranking.

Arch Manning struggled under high expectations in his first career start last season against Ohio State, gaining momentum only in the fourth quarter of a 14-7 loss. After completing nine passes for 38 yards and an interception through the first three quarters, Manning finished the game with 17 completions for 170 yards.

A Week 2 win against the top-ranked team in the preseason poll would give the Longhorns the kind of start they desperately needed last year.

In the ACC, it’s Miami … and everyone else

Miami has a good-sized lead over the other ACC teams in the preseason poll. The Hurricanes came in at No. 7 and earned one first-place vote after a season that ended just shy of a national title.

SMU was the next-closest team at No. 19. Louisville squeaked in at No. 24.

The ACC also had three teams ranked in last year’s preseason poll. Clemson ranked No. 4 before what turned out to be a disappointing season. Miami ranked No. 10, and SMU came in at No. 16.

The ACC ended up being a weird one last year, with an unranked Duke team taking on then-No. 16 Virginia in the conference championship game. Duke delivered a 27-20 overtime win, but it wasn’t enough for the CFP committee to view them as a viable option. Miami instead earned an at-large bid, and James Madison and Tulane secured bids as two of the five highest-ranked conference champions.

Clemson left out of preseason poll for first time since 2011

Clemson is unranked in the AP preseason Top 25 for the first time since 2011.

The Tigers almost got in. They received the most voting points among teams left out. They’re five points behind No. 25 Missouri.

Clemson is coming off a 7-6 season, its worst since 2010. The offense struggled to get anything going in the ground game and was second-to-last in the ACC in third-down conversions. The defense underachieved.

Look for the offense to be much better with the return of offensive coordinator Chad Morris, who led some of the nation’s most potent offenses when he had the same job at Clemson from 2011-14. The defense should play with more confidence in Tom Allen’s second year as coordinator.

Clemson gets a measuring-stick game right away when they open at No. 11 LSU.

Five teams got first-place votes, but not No. 3 and No. 5

Of the top seven teams, five received first-place votes: Ohio State (40), Oregon (14), Notre Dame (6), Indiana (8) and Miami (1). Voters skipped over No. 3 Georgia and No. 5 Texas, which both fell into the top five but didn’t receive first-place votes.

Perhaps most notably, voters don’t see an SEC team breaking a three-year championship drought. After Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana took home the last three titles, faith in the Big Ten remains high.

Ohio State and Oregon, the top two teams in the poll, give the Big Ten its first preseason 1-2 since 1961 — a sign that voters expect the conference to bring home a fourth straight national title.

Sarkisian: Preseason polls great for conversation, and that’s about it

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, whose team landed No. 5 in the AP Top 25 preseason poll, doesn’t put much credence in the polls. The polls do have some value, though, he said.

“I love the polls for college football fans, for the excitement, for the marquee matchups, for all those things,” he said. “But the polls internally, they just don’t matter. They’re really irrelevant. I think we’ve gotten to a point now as a team to understand that what matters is how we play each and every Saturday.”

Georgia holds steady in the top five

Georgia enters the season at No. 3, marking the eighth straight year with a top-five preseason ranking.

The Bulldogs will have plenty of familiar faces taking the field this fall, with quarterback Gunner Stockton, running back duo Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens and tight end Lawson Luckie bringing valuable game experience to the offense. Expectations are high for linebackers Raylen Wilson and Chris Cole, while KJ Bolden, Kyron Jones and Ellis Robinson IV will hold down the secondary.

Georgia earned the No. 3 seed and a first-round bye in the 12-team College Football Playoff after beating Alabama in the SEC Championship game. The Bulldogs went on to fall 39-34 to Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl.

Conference breakdown

SEC (9): No. 3 Georgia, No. 5 Texas, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 9 Mississippi, No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 11 LSU, No. 13 Alabama, No. 20 Tennessee, No. 25 Missouri

Big Ten (8): No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Oregon, No. 6 Indiana, No. T-14 USC, No. 16 Michigan, No. 17 Washington, No. 18 Penn State, No. 22 Iowa

Big 12 (4): No. 12 Texas Tech, No. T-14 BYU, No. 21 Utah, No. 23 Houston

ACC (3): No. 7 Miami, No. 19 SMU, No. 24 Louisville

Independent (1): No. 4 Notre Dame

No Group of 6 teams ranked

After two non-power conference teams (Tulane, James Madison) made the CFP in 2025, none cracked the preseason Top 25.

Since two were ranked in the preseason in 2022, only Tulane in 2023 and Boise State in 2025 have started a season in the Top 25.

Boise State, which has moved from the Mountain West to the new Pac-12, was the top vote-getter among Group of Six teams outside the Top 25. Nine others got at least one vote.

New coaches, same expectations

Four Top 25 teams have new coaches, and they’ve been given a short runway.

Pete Golding, who begins his first full season at No. 9 Mississippi, was able to keep key pieces of the staff and he brought back top players. He led the Rebels to the CFP semifinals after Lane Kiffin’s ugly departure, and another magical run is possible.

Speaking of Kiffin, much is expected at No. 11 LSU. The Tigers haven’t gone to the CFP since winning it all in 2019 and have lost at least four games in five of the six seasons since.

Penn State is No. 18, which seems generous given Matt Campbell will be relying on players he brought with him from Iowa State.

Morgan Scalley, entering his 19th year at No. 21 Utah, gets back QB Devon Dampier and RB Wayshawn Parker but not many other starters from an 11-2 team.

SEC has 9 ranked teams to Big Ten’s 8

Having Ohio State and Oregon enter the season Nos. 1 and 2 ahead of sixth-ranked defending conference and national champion Indiana is a flex for the Big Ten, which already is riding the momentum of winning the last three national titles.

Having five of the top 10 teams, and seven of the top 13, bolsters the SEC’s contention that it has greater depth. The SEC has nine ranked teams compared to the Big Ten’s eight.

The debate goes on over conference supremacy and will only heat up when the Big Ten and SEC square off in the first heavyweight games of the season Sept. 12. That’s when No. 10 Oklahoma visits No. 16 Michigan and No. 1 Ohio State goes to No. 5 Texas. Both are rematches of games won by the home team last year — OU 24-13 and Ohio State 14-7.

Longhorns, No. 1 in last year’s preseason poll, look to bounce back

The Longhorns entered the 2025 season at No. 1 after receiving 25 first-place votes — two more than No. 2 Penn State. But after a Week 1 loss to Ohio State, Texas found itself fighting upstream to maintain its top-ranked status. An October loss to a struggling Florida team didn’t help either, knocking Texas out of the rankings altogether.

The Longhorns, despite gutting out a few impressive wins, ultimately fell short of the 12-team College Football Playoff after Georgia handed them a third loss.

Eyes will be on quarterback Arch Manning, who the Longhorns hope makes the expected jump from year one to year two as a full-time starter. Manning, a favorite for the Heisman Trophy this year, will have to lead a team facing plenty of expectations once again.

Buckeyes are an early favorite

It’s the first time the Buckeyes have topped the list since the 2015 preseason.

Ohio State ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the entire regular season last year, only dropping after a Big Ten Championship game defeat from Indiana. With a 12-1 record, Ohio State still earned the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff. The Buckeyes ultimately went on to drop 24-14 to eventual runners-up, Miami, in the Cotton Bowl.Gallery

This season appears promising with quarterback and receiver duo Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith returning to the offense. Veteran defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr. is expected to anchor the defense. Notre Dame and Texas are tied for the second best odds at +650. Indiana (+800) and Oregon (+800) round out the top five.

How are votes counted?

There was a time when voters called, emailed and faxed their votes to the AP. Long ago, the ballots were tabulated by hand.

Now voting is done online and all the tabulation is automated.

There is a 1-25 point system, with a team voted No. 1 receiving 25 points down to 1 point for a 25th-place vote. After that, it’s simple: The poll lists the teams with the most points from 1 to 25 and others receiving votes are also noted.

Where did we leave off?

After shocking the nation with a perfect 16-0 record, Big Ten title and national championship victory, the Indiana Hoosiers were unanimously voted No. 1 in the final poll of the season.

Runners-up Miami finished right behind after falling just short of a national title. Miami’s No. 2 ranking was its highest since the 2002 season.

Ole Miss, Oregon and Ohio State rounded out the top five.

But a lot can change from one year to the next.

Eight Hoosiers ascended to the pros, including Heisman winner and first-overall pick Fernando Mendoza. Miami had nine draftees, including three first-rounders.

Ole Miss, Oregon and Ohio State have the advantage of a returning quarterback in 2026 — each in the Heisman conversation ahead of the season.

The origin story

The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll started in 1936, the brainchild of former sports editor Alan J. Gould.

The number of teams ranked, the number of voters on the panel and how the ballots are tabulated has fluctuated over the years, but no news organization has been ranking teams and naming a major college football national champion longer than the AP. It has been the Top 10, Top 20 and, since 1989, the Top 25.

At a meeting on Monday, the city clerk is asking commissioners to give policy direction on how garage sale permits are administered and regulated by the city.

Currently, residents are required to obtain a no-cost permit from the city prior to conducting a garage sale.

The city clerk, however, has indicated the permitting process has been a strain on administrative resources.

As part of a review of ordinances, the city clerk’s office has recommended two policy options for commissioners to consider.

The first option, which staff recommends, would be to eliminate the permit requirement while retaining regulations governing garage sale activities.

A second option would be to retain the permit requirement and establish a fee.

According to the city’s study of 18 nearby municipalities, 11 require a garage sale permit and eight of those charge a permit fee between $1 and $10.

Based on the survey, the city found a fee of approximately $5 would be consistent with neighboring jurisdictions.

City staff would draft an ordinance once commissioners make a decision on a permit option.

The discussion is scheduled for Monday at 6 p.m.

The Team Penske driver is embracing the challenge of proving he can win a title in the format that puts a greater emphasis on banking consistently strong finishes.

“Do I have a little chip on my shoulder? That’s a clear yes,” Logano said with a chuckle after his victory Saturday at Richmond Raceway. “So much so that our team slogan is ‘4 the haters.’ That’s where we’re at. That’s good extra motivation.”

With an impressive surge from 20th to ninth in the standings over the past six races, Logano has flipped the narrative on the elimination playoffs that were in place for 12 years.

From 2014-25, the waning races of NASCAR’s regular season typically were a scramble to make the championship field as a win earned a berth.

But that safety valve has disappeared in the Chase, which will rely entirely on points to set the 16-driver field.

The top 16 in the provisional Chase have been unchanged for the past four races, and the grid for the 10-race title run likely will remain the same at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend.

Shane van Gisbergen holds the 16th and final spot by 50 points over Ryan Preece, who dropped 21 points further below the Chase cutline with a 17th-place finish at Richmond.

The next three drivers ranked outside the Chase — Ross Chastain (12th at Richmond), Brad Keselowski (26th) and Erik Jones (27th) — also lost ground, diluting the potential drama of a surprise qualifier.

“The number of guys that feel the pressure of making the Chase is probably less,” said Christopher Bell, who is among seven drivers who have clinched Chase spots. “In years past, everybody on the outside still had an opportunity to get in, and now it’s kind of dwindled to a couple guys fighting for the spots.”

There’s been more intrigue toward the top half of the standings — particularly the progress of the Team Penske trio.

As Logano continued his push up the points ladder, teammate Ryan Blaney moved past Ty Gibbs into second in the standings at Richmond. Austin Cindric, Penske’s third driver, shored up his title eligibility with a career-best third on a short track to move up a spot to 15th in the points.

Denny Hamlin has a 115-point lead on Blaney and likely will clinch the Chase’s top seed Sunday at New Hampshire, which will be followed by the Aug. 29 regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.

The standings then will be reset for the Chase, which begins Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway with the championship leader ahead by 25 points. Second will start 10 points ahead of third, and the remaining 14 spots will be separated by five-point increments.

“Getting to second is top of mind because every point is going to matter,” Blaney said.

There also is an emphasis on finishing the regular season in the top half of the points standings.

Racing Insights, a NASCAR analytics firm, ran more than 25,000 computer simulations of Chase outcomes, and the champion started in the top six 85% of the time.

Logano, who made the Chase only once while racing under the system in his first five Cup seasons from 2009-13, is 36 points from sixth-ranked Chase Elliott.

“We’ve been able to switch our goals from making the Chase to winning the championship,” said Logano, whose No. 22 Ford was ranked 17th before winning two of the past four races. “It’s quite the turnaround. I look at the last month and a half, we’ve been capable of winning all of them.”

Logano could be among several more drivers who lock into the championship Sunday with a solid result at New Hampshire.

Crew chief Paul Wolfe credited Logano with buoying morale when the team notched only two top-five finishes in the first half of the season.

“I’m proud of everyone sticking together,” Logano said. “There are times you see teams break, and it doesn’t take much longer running the way we were until something probably was going to break. We’ve been able to make quite the recovery to have a legit shot at the championship.”

Larson double duty

After finishing sixth at Richmond, Kyle Larson immediately flew to Iowa and scored his fourth victory in the Knoxville Nationals, a prestigious sprint car event. Larson qualified on the pole position last week by winning a preliminary race at the renowned dirt track in Knoxville, Iowa.

He had expected to miss Saturday's main event because of the schedule conflict with Richmond, but a rain delay at Knoxville Raceway allowed the two-time Cup Series champion to arrive in time to lead all 50 laps. “It’s extremely surreal just to talk about the day and the range of emotions,” Larson said.

___

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

The process launched by newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche is a victory for Second Amendment advocates who have long pushed for nonviolent people with felony convictions to be given a pathway to regain their legal right to own firearms.

“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and the federal government should not permanently deprive Americans of a constitutional right without regard to whether they pose a danger to public safety,” Blanche said in a statement. The attorney general said the new process will protect “public safety while giving deserving Americans a real path to restoration.”

It’s the latest move by President Donald Trump's administration to ease firearms restrictions. The Justice Department moved earlier this year to roll back and modify a slate of gun regulations. Separately, the department recently decided against challenging a court ruling that struck down regulations on firearm suppressors and certain guns.

Federal law has long allowed people who've had their gun rights stripped because of felony convictions to petition the government for the ability to own firearms again, but Congress since 1992 has effectively barred the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from processing applications.

The Trump administration's rule aims to circumvent that by establishing a new application system using an online portal.

The Justice Department says restoration will be granted on a case-by-case basis, weighing a person's record and reputation to determine whether they pose a likely threat to public safety. Officials say people who have been convicted of violent crimes, registered sex offenders, people living in the country illegally and others whom officials believe pose a danger to society will be denied “absent extraordinary circumstances.”

Kris Brown, the president of Brady, which advocates for stronger gun laws, said her group is still reviewing the administration’s final rule but has stressed the need for a “robust and thoughtful system that minimizes the risk to public safety."

“Yet the Trump administration has consistently shown us they have no such discretion, including by restoring gun rights to convicted domestic abusers and violent January 6 insurrectionists, and by tirelessly rolling back broad policies proven to prevent crime and gun violence,” Brown said in a statement.

Jared Bridegan, 33, was killed in Jacksonville Beach in 2022 when he got out of his vehicle to remove a tire that was placed in the road while his 2-year-old daughter from a second marriage was strapped in her car seat.

More than four years later, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is on trial in Duval County court for first-degree murder and solicitation of murder. He’s accused of arranging Bridegan’s death by hiring a gunman. Shanna Gardner, 39, faces her own trial in September.

“The killer was a stranger to Jared Bridegan. The murder was personal,” Assistant State Attorney Christina Simak Stifler said.

“A tire in the road, a dark place,” she said in her opening remarks. “No one would see and no one would know and no one would trace it back to those responsible. ... The architects of Jared Bridegan's murder intended it to be a perfect crime and it almost was.”

Defense says Fernandez Saldana didn't act like a mastermind

But defense attorney James Hill told jurors that Fernandez Saldana, an Army veteran, had no motive to get rid of Bridegan and his actions shortly after the killing — a road trip to Pennsylvania and back — didn’t resemble that of a criminal schemer “running from the law.”

“He had access to a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Hill acknowledged, referring to his wife Gardner's trust fund. “He could have fled the country.”

While addressing the jury, Stifler traced the bitter relationship between Bridegan and Gardner, the execution-style killing and the difficulty of trying to solve a shocking homicide with no witnesses. The victim, she said, had no obvious enemies and was a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Bridegan and Gardner were divorced in 2015. The end of the marriage, however, led to years of acrimony about how to jointly raise their twins, from religion to doctor's appointments and even school conferences, Stifler said.

She said Gardner did not want her children involved with the Mormon church.

“They fought over everything," the prosecutor said of the relationship.

Victim's daughter heard the gunshots

Bridegan remarried and had two more children. Gardner, meanwhile, married Fernandez Saldana, who was a maintenance man at a gym where she worked out.

Bridegan was attacked shortly after returning 9-year-old twins to Gardner’s home from his “date night” with the children.

He was driving back to St. Augustine with one of two children he had with wife Kirsten when he stopped his Volkswagen Atlas and put on warning lights to remove a tire from the road. Bridegan was shot twice moments later.

Traffic began to back up. The first trial witness, Jonelle Cruz, testified that she comforted Bridegan's daughter with a blanket in a separate vehicle while her boyfriend tried to figure out what had happened.

“She was shaking. She was very worried about her dad,” Cruz said.

Stifler said police a few months later discovered a lead “that blew the case open.” A tire at a rental property owned by Fernandez Saldana was very similar to the tire that had blocked Bridegan's vehicle when he was shot.

Police matched DNA on those two tires to Henry Tenon, a former tenant with a criminal record and financial problems. Records revealed that he was paid $10,000 by Fernandez Saldana after the murder, though the checks said the work was for landscaping, roof repair and a business idea.

“Mario Fernandez has hired him to do work, not murder,” Hill told the jury, disputing anything nefarious.

Alleged gunman pleaded guilty but backed out

Tenon, 65, was charged as the gunman who shot Bridegan. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and had agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana. But he withdrew the plea earlier this year and will get his own trial in 2027.

Stifler said Gardner, who was from a wealthy family, relocated to Washington state with her children after Bridegan's death. Fernandez Saldana, meanwhile, moved to Orlando.

“Ms. Gardner got what she wanted: full control over her children and the freedom to move out of Jacksonville, Florida,” the prosecutor said.

Bridegan was chief technology officer at Utah-based Clean Simple Eats before working at Microsoft, according to his obituary.

Rodri was expected to undergo a medical on Tuesday as Barcelona and City exchanged documentation to finalize the agreement.

Barcelona agreed to a deal worth 76.5 million euros ($88.5 million), a person with knowledge of the transaction confirmed to the Associated Press on Sunday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the transfer have not been made public.

“Very happy to arrive. There have been some very intense days, but I'm happy that everything has been resolved,” Rodri told reporters briefly. “For me it's a dream to play for Barcelona. I'm excited about being with my teammates, many of them I already know. Now it's time to get to work and give my best.”

The 30-year-old Rodri helped Spain secure its second World Cup title last month and will join international teammates Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo, Pau Cubarsí, Gavi and Pedri at Barceclona.

Rodri won the Golden Ball as the World Cup’s best player. He had one year left on his contract at City. His deal with Barcelona reportedly will go until 2030.

Real Madrid was also reportedly interested in signing Rodri, and he had loudly praised the Barcelona rival in the past.

Hansi Flick's Barcelona, chasing a three-peat in La Liga, has already boosted its squad with England forward Anthony Gordon, who will help to make up for the departures of Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres, who scored the winning goal in extra time in the World Cup final against Argentina.

The club is also set to add defender João Cancelo in the next few days.

Rodri joined City from Atletico Madrid in 2019. He scored the winning goal in the Champions League final victory over Inter Milan in 2023, and won the Ballon d'Or as the world's best player the following year after being part of Spain's European Championship-winning team.

His departure further weakens City's midfield, with Bernardo Silva having left for Real Madrid this offseason.

Rodri did not play on Sunday in City’s 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield. He is recovering from minor back surgery he underwent after the World Cup.

___

AP Sports Writers Steve Douglas and Joseph Wilson contributed to this report.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

The standoff, in the village of Qusra, has seen groups of settlers surround several Palestinian houses and prevent residents from leaving. The United States has condemned the siege and the Israeli military has deployed troops it says are there to maintain order.

The siege of Palestinian homes by Israeli settlers comes as violence in the West Bank has soared in recent months. The settlers, emboldened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, have ramped up attacks on Palestinian towns and villages, harassing residents and setting homes, mosques and fields ablaze.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 87 Palestinians so far this year, according to Palestinian health officials. Palestinians have killed three Israelis, including two who were killed during clashes in the West Bank village of Tell last month.

As Loui Ridi, an Ohio-based owner of one of the houses, landed in Israel, settlers were still roaming near Qusra, according to video footage taken by his brother. It showed settlers driving ATVs and speaking with soldiers.

Ridi had also watched the scenes unfold from afar through his home security cameras.

“I've been watching this live for many days and now this is the second week. I can't sleep,” he told reporters at Israel’s main international airport. “I can’t let the settlers steal my house while I was watching."

He finally arrived in Qusra on Monday evening, where he first reunited with his mother and sister before moving on to his house. Ridi's brother, Qusai Abu Rida, and his teenage son had stayed inside the home to protect the property.

As Ridi waited for Israel’s military to escort him to the house, he said he believed little had changed since early last week, when the siege began.

Israel has since declared the neighborhood where Ridi’s home is located a closed military zone. But on Monday, his brother’s footage still showed soldiers interacting amicably with settlers.

“I should be able to go to my house freely, anytime I want,” he said. “It is a frustration and a nightmare for the entire family.”

__ Metz reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Syrians have taken to social media and the streets in recent days to demand answers about the death of Mohammad Ghamira, who was buried Monday in his hometown of al-Haffah in coastal Latakia province.

When insurgents unseated former President Bashar Assad in December 2024 after a nearly 14-year civil war, they opened the country's notorious prisons. During Assad's rule, rights groups say, thousands of prisoners were killed in mass executions or died from injuries and disease. Detainees were subjected to torture, beatings and rape.

Officials with the government of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa have promised accountability in Ghamira’s case, but rights groups say it is not an isolated incident and that abuses persist in detention centers.

The detainee had hemophilia, which affects blood clotting

Ghamira, a 29-year-old father of two, was a former volunteer with the White Helmets civil defense organization, which operated in opposition-held areas before Assad's fall.

He died in a hospital in Latakia on Sunday after being released from jail. He had been detained days earlier following an "allegation of theft involving a sum of money,” Latakia’s internal security command said in a statement, without giving more details.

Syria’s Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh, who was previously head of the White Helmets, said on X that Ghamira had died of “complications from cerebral and gastrointestinal hemorrhaging” that “resulted from a beating he sustained after being detained at the al-Haffah police station.”

Al-Saleh and Ghamira’s relatives said he had hemophilia, a condition affecting the blood’s ability to clot.

Ghamira’s uncle, Issam Ghamira, said in a video interview with state news agency SANA that the family had told the police chief in al-Haffah that his nephew had hemophilia and warned against hitting him. Despite that, he said, his nephew was hit while in custody.

Syria’s interior ministry announced an investigation into Ghamira’s death and said seven interior ministry personnel were detained for questioning.

Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba, speaking to journalists, acknowledged “shortcomings and deficiencies” in some of the country's police departments but said others were doing “exceptional” work.

“God willing, this painful incident will serve as a catalyst for positive change in the operations of the ministry of interior," he said.

Watchdogs call Ghamira’s death part of a wider problem

In a report released in March, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said it had documented “torture and ill-treatment” in 18 official detention facilities and 12 “makeshift facilities” in different areas of Syria between January and October 2025, in the months following Assad's ouster as the new government asserted control.

The practices it documented included beating prisoners with rifle butts, sticks, pipes, bars and cables; the use of electric shocks and other forms of torture; mock executions; and sexual violence.

Syrians for Truth and Justice, a human rights organization that tracks abuses, in a report published earlier this month said that “severe beatings, electric shocks, humiliation, threats, deprivation of basic necessities, and deaths in custody continue to be common practices at the hands of multiple security and military actors.”

The group concluded that the incidents were too widespread to treat as isolated incidents but that there was not evidence of a “single centralized system equivalent in structure and direction to the torture apparatus entrenched by the Assad regime.”

“It is somehow widespread, but it’s not structured,” Bassam Alahmad, the group’s executive director, told The Associated Press. “For us, there is no evidence that these orders came from the commanders to torture people, but still (the authorities) have a responsibility to stop this behavior."

Syrians whose loved ones disappeared or died in detention centers during Assad’s rule said they were disturbed to see the patterns being repeated under the new government.

Families for Freedom, a group representing relatives of detainees, said in a statement, “What happened to Mohammed reopens the wounds of torture and death in detention for thousands of Syrian families — practices Syrians have struggled for years to end, and the recurrence of which cannot be accepted today.”

___

Sewell reported from Beirut.

The Tempo guard has been out for two months with a left plantar fascia injury she suffered in a June 16 game against the Indiana Fever. Without her the team has struggled, dropping 10 straight games. Toronto was in the mix for a playoff spot before the skid that has left the Tempo at 10-23 for the season, the third-worst record in the league.

Sykes said at practice Monday that she just needed to get cleared by the doctor to be able to play.

"It’s been a testing eight weeks, but, you know, it taught me a lot about myself. I got to show up for my teammates and the org in a different way,” Sykes said. “I’m just grateful that I got that time. I got a lot of therapy sessions in. I got to find out a lot about myself. In this point in my career, I’ve been here before, but it seems like this injury was way harder to deal with.”

Even when she wasn't able to play, Sykes was a veteran presence on the team, trying to keep her teammates' heads up during the skid.

She could make her return against Caitlin Clark and the Fever on Tuesday. The Tempo have a busy week ahead, with back-to-back games against Indiana at home and then against Washington on the road. Then Toronto will trek across Canada to Vancouver to face Portland on Friday and Las Vegas on Sunday.

It will be the second straight season that the WNBA will play games in Vancouver; Atlanta faced Seattle last season there in front of a sold-out crowd.

The timing is tough because the Tempo just came back from a five-game road trip that saw them criss-cross the U.S., with games on the West Coast, Atlanta and Dallas before returning home.

After the two games in Vancouver, the team finishes off its pre-World Cup schedule with three more road games in Seattle, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The Tempo also played a pair of games in Montreal in July, splitting with Dallas and New York.

Power poll rankings

Minnesota held onto the top spot in the power poll again this week as the unanimous choice. The Lynx beat Portland and Las Vegas on the road last week. Golden State was second and the Aces were third. Indiana, Washington and New York were next. Atlanta was seventh, with Dallas, Portland and Chicago following the Dream. Phoenix, Los Angeles, Connecticut, Seattle/Toronto rounded out the poll.

Honoring Diana

The Phoenix Mercury retired Diana Taurasi's No. 3 jersey on Sunday in a halftime ceremony with a star-studded crowd in attendance. At the end of the evening, Taurasi stepped to the microphone one more time, pausing as the crowd gave her a 45-second standing ovation. Her 30-minute speech was a mixture of seriousness and comedy, drawing laugh from the thousands of fans who stayed after the Mercury lost to Portland.

Player of the week

Clark was the AP player of the week. Indiana's star guard averaged 25.7 points, 9.7 assists and 3.3 rebounds to help the team win all three of its games last week. Other players receiving votes were Allisha Gray of Atlanta, Olivia Miles of Minnesota and A'ja Wilson of Las Vegas.

Game of the week

Indiana at Dallas, Thursday. The teams will play for the second time in two weeks, with the Wings looking to get a measure of revenge for the loss last week in Indiana. Paige Bueckers put on a show for Dallas, but it wasn't enough to overcome the play of Clark, Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston.

___

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

The league announced the approval Monday after a vote. Feliciano and Jones reached an agreement in May to buy the Padres from the family of late owner Peter Seidler at an MLB-record valuation of $3.9 billion. The deal is still contingent on the official closing of the transaction in the coming weeks.

“José and Kwanza understand the unique place the Padres hold in San Diego and the powerful bond between the club and its fans,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We look forward to their leadership of the Padres and to working with them to build on the club’s strong foundation in a market that is so important to Major League Baseball.”

Seidler's family announced its intention to explore a sale of the Padres last November, two years after Peter Seidler's death. The 53-year-old Feliciano, a co-founder of Santa Monica-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital, emerged from the competition as the Seidler family's top choice.

Padres CEO Erik Greupner and general manager A.J. Preller will remain in charge of day-to-day operations, according to MLB's announcement.

“We are a family first, and becoming owners of the San Diego Padres means joining an even larger one,” Jones and Feliciano said in a statement. “We are grateful to the Seidler family, and especially to Peter, for raising the expectations of what this franchise can achieve. ... Our ambition is clear: to bring a World Series championship to San Diego and build an enduring organization capable of competing for championships year after year. We intend to be engaged owners, bringing our energy, experience and perspective while working alongside the talented team already in place and investing ambitiously and thoughtfully in the Padres’ future.

“We are all in and committed to winning.”

Peter Seidler assumed majority control of the Padres in 2020 after first joining their ownership group in 2012, but he became beloved in San Diego for his aggressive financial pursuit of winning and his eagerness to engage with the team's fan base. He died at 63 in November 2023.

The Padres dramatically increased their payroll under Seidler, allowing Preller to build the foundation for the current team, which has made four playoff appearances in the past six years and won at least 89 games in three of the last four seasons during the most successful stretch in franchise history. San Diego is currently in the playoff race again, winning 17 of its last 24 games to surge into an NL wild-card position at 67-58.

Manfred thanked the Seidler family, including John Seidler, who became the Padres' chairman after his brother's death.

“Continuing the legacy established by the late Peter Seidler, the Padres reached the postseason four times in the last six years, energized one of baseball’s most passionate fanbases and strengthened the club’s role as a cornerstone of the San Diego community,” Manfred said.

When Feliciano and Jones reached their agreement to purchase the Padres earlier this year, they praised the team as "a unifying force in San Diego, rooted in community, connection and belonging.” They've since been spotted at Padres games in San Diego and in Mexico City.

The Padres have never won a World Series, but they were a valuable commodity for potential owners as the only team in the four biggest North American sports leagues in a metropolitan area with roughly 3.3 million people. Downtown Petco Park has become one of the liveliest ballparks in the sport, and the Padres ranked second in the majors in attendance last season.

Feliciano, who was born in Puerto Rico, becomes the second Latino principal owner in baseball, along with the Los Angeles Angels' Arte Moreno. Latino and Hispanic players comprise roughly 30% of major league rosters.

Feliciano and Jones will hold an introductory news conference at Petco Park on Monday, Aug. 24.

___

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

Jaylen Edgar was 17 at the time of the shooting and was charged as an adult. He faces two counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a minor, and culpable negligence with personal injury.

Edgar, now 18, is accused of fatally shooting Tyrek Hill, 25, and Timothy Schmidt Jr., 19, during Halloween celebrations in downtown Orlando, also injuring seven others.

Last month, Edgar wrote a letter to the judge presiding over his case claiming he was suffering from “extreme mental or emotional disturbance” at the time of the shooting.

In the letter, Edgar asked Judge Keith Carsten to consider the emotional state he was in at the time. He also wrote that he takes full responsibility for what happened and expressed regret over the impact his actions may have had on others.

Earlier this year, Edgar underwent a psychological evaluation. The results of that evaluation remain confidential on his criminal docket.

The Lions, currently in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, are three points behind D.C. United for ninth place. A win Wednesday night against the Chicago Fire and a loss from D.C. would put the Lions back in.

The top seven seeds in each conference get into the first round of the playoffs, while eighth and ninth place play in a wild card match.

“We know where we want to go,” interim head coach Martin Perelman said after training Monday morning. “It’s one game at a time, especially when you have this congested calendar.”

Since the World Cup break, the Lions have lost only two of the last seven games, one loss on the road and the other in Leagues Cup play. In the last three weeks, the Lions have played six games.

Wednesday’s game against Chicago features a rematch of European rivals between Orlando City’s Antoine Griezmann and Chicago’s Robert Lewandowski. Griezmann played for Atletico Madrid in Spain, and Lewandowski played for Bayern Munich in Germany.

Kickoff is Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Inter.co Stadium.

Here are some of her most memorable films and television shows, and where to stream them.

“A Bug’s Life” (1998)

She was already a veteran of soaps (she got her first role at age 4, playing Sarah Roberts on “One Life to Live”) and commercials when she was selected to voice Princess Dot in the Pixar movie. Co-director and writer Andrew Stanton said he wanted to include a little girl because of his newborn daughter.

WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Disney+.

“Remember the Titans” (2000)

Playing the football-loving, wise-beyond-her-years Sheryl Yoast was a breakthrough moment for Panettiere, who was 10 at the time of filming but playing “nine and a half, thank you very much,” as she so memorably informed Denzel Washington’s Coach Boone. It was her absolute favorite movie to film, she told ET in 2023. “What an incredible time in my life … I was surrounded by the cutest boys. Kate Bosworth was like my big sister,” she said in the interview. “If I had wished to go back to any time in my life, it would be going back to ‘Remember the Titans.’”

WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Hulu and Disney+.

“Ice Princess” (2005)

A teen sports trifle that’s now bonded in tragedy after the deaths of both Michelle Trachtenberg and Panettiere, who played Casey Carlyle’s (Trachtenberg) fellow junior ice skater Gennifer “Gen” Harwood and daughter of Kim Cattrall’s coach character. Panettiere did much of her own skating in the film.

WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Disney+.

“Bring It On: All or Nothing” (2006)

It might not be a particularly good movie, or her only cheerleader role of the year, but the third “Bring It On,” co-starring Solange, has become a nostalgic millennial classic. Rihanna also had a cameo as herself, as a cheerleading competition judge.

“I loved the passion that people had for ‘Bring It On.’ When fans would come up who loved that movie, they would freak out — have a physical, visceral reaction to me that I had never seen before,” Panettiere told Entertainment Weekly this year.

WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms.

“Heroes” (2006-2010)

“Save the cheerleader, save the world.” Panettiere was the indestructible Claire Bennet at the heart of the popular sci-fi series, the first season of which regularly drew over 14 million viewers.

“I think ‘Heroes’ is really hot because it's just a really great combination of everything that people love,” she told The Associated Press in 2008. “They love reality, they love sci-fi and then things like ‘X-Men’ where they get to, you know, dream of something bigger. And at the core of it are these human stories that people just can relate to.”

WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix.

“I Love You, Beth Cooper” (2009)

Chris Columbus directed this teen rom-com about a nerd (Paul Rust) and the popular girl of his dreams. Yes, her character here was a cheerleader as well.

WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms.

“The Cove” (2009)

When she was 18 years old, Panettiere, who advocated for whale and dolphin safety as a spokesperson for The Whaleman Foundation and creator of the “Save the Whales, Again!” campaign, went to Taiji, Japan, to protest and disrupt the dolphin hunting with a group of activists on paddleboards. A tense encounter with the men on the boats was featured prominently in the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove.” Weeks after the film won, she returned to Taiji to try to meet with officials about their whaling practices.

WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Tubi, Fandango and Pluto TV.

“Nashville” (2012-2018)

Playing rising country superstar Juliette Barnes was perhaps her defining role, but she wasn't even originally envisioned as the series' main star. Connie Britton's Rayna was.

“Unfortunately, after the pilot, it was clear that my billing had gone way up. I went from maybe number five in terms of importance to nipping at Connie’s heels,” she wrote in her memoir. “I was deeply uncomfortable with this development.”

On Jay Shetty's podcast this year, she spoke about how closely Juliette's trials resembled her own. “I didn't know where Juliette began and Hayden ended,” she said. “I didn't even realize I was becoming her constantly, and I wasn't able to take care of myself.”

WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix.

“Scream VI” (2023)

Fans immediately took to Panettiere’s horror movie loving character Kirby Reed in the otherwise much-derided “Scream 4,” which left her fate ambiguous. In the 2022 “Scream,” it was revealed that she was still alive. Panettiere played a part in advocating for her return in “Scream VI,” which became a box office hit.

“It was thrilling that people fell in love with Kirby,” Panettiere told ET in 2023. “I loved playing Kirby, so I’m glad they love her as much as I did.”

WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix.

Police said Panettiere was found unresponsive in an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday. Lifesaving measures were performed but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

No cause of death has been determined and Panettiere's death remains under investigation. An autopsy found no signs of trauma and police said officers saw no signs of foul play.

The television and film performer, who would have turned 37 on Friday, had been open about her private battles and wrote at length about them in the memoir, “This Is Me,” which came out in May. She described lifelong scars from her early fame, and acknowledged being addicted to alcohol and enduring postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter, Kaya, with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” her father, Skip Panettiere, said in a statement provided to ABC. “She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen.”

A publicist for Panettiere did not provide any additional details in response to inquiries from The Associated Press.

Panettiere started out as a child actor

Panettiere was one of two children born to Skip Panettiere, a former New York City fire captain, and Lesley Vogel, a former soap opera star who had been the prime force behind her early career before the two became estranged. Panettiere began acting in commercials and soap operas, including as the ever-troubled Lizzie Spaulding on “Guiding Light.” In “This Is Me,” she wrote that the traumas her character endured, from being kidnapped to killing her mother’s boyfriend, led her to associate “catastrophe with adoration.”

“Grown-ups gave me positive attention when — as an actor — I failed, got sick, screamed and cried, killed, grieved, and suffered,” she wrote. “Is it any wonder why I’ve faced so many real struggles in my life? I’ve often wondered whether — unintentionally — I’ve brought on my traumas because I’m wired to think they’re good for me.”

She had much warmer memories of her role as a cheerleader with supernatural powers in “Heroes,” which propelled her to fame in 2006. The series revolved around the mantra: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.”

“I think ‘Heroes’ is really hot because it’s just a really great combination of everything that people love — they love reality, they love sci-fi and things like ‘X-Men’ where they get to dream of something bigger,” Panettiere told the AP in 2008. “And at the core of it are these human stories that people can relate to, very rugged. And it’s just grabbed everyone in every age group.”

She went on to win three Teen Choice Awards for that role and was nominated for a Grammy for a children’s spoken word album, “A Bug’s Life: Read-Along,” also voicing a role in the Disney animated movie.

Panettiere later played a brash country upstart opposite Connie Britton on “Nashville,” which aired on ABC for four seasons before being canceled and revived on CMT. She did her own singing in the show, which scored some hits on country charts, spawned U.S. tours and earned Panettiere two supporting actress Golden Globe nominations. Eleven songs that Panettiere recorded for “Nashville” appeared on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs charts during the show’s run, including two featuring Britton.

She checked herself into rehab

Panettiere’s daughter, now 11, began living with Klitschko full-time in Ukraine when she was 2. At the time, the actor was struggling with mental health and addiction.

“I think there’s been this very common misconception that I just gave up my child,” she said in an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty in May. “That could not be farther from the truth.”

She said she was in a “horrible cycle for years of battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse” while “just trying to find my way back, my way out of the darkness.”

She entered rehab in 2015, while filming “Nashville.”

“I was the one who put myself in the first treatment center. I was drowning,” she said in a 2023 interview with Women’s Health magazine.

Panettiere had endured numerous family struggles, and tragedy. Her parents' marriage was strained, and eventually ended. Her younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, who was also an actor, died of a heart condition in 2023, at age 28. Years earlier, Hayden had made the painful decision to part professionally with her mother, who throughout her childhood had “defined and driven her” and watched her “struggle, learn, grow, fall apart, and triumph.”

“She and I spent so much time together, so deeply enmeshed in each other’s lives, that we started grating on each other,” Panettiere wrote in her memoir. “I hated when Mom whispered about other actors during auditions, positive that they could hear her compare them to me. I hated when Mom went to industry parties and got tipsy on the merlot she loved.”

In recent years, she had been in a tumultuous relationship with actor Brian Hickerson.

On Shetty’s podcast, Panettiere recalled how she exploded into the public eye through “Heroes,” including the first time she was tracked by the paparazzi. She described her response as “sheer terror.” In her memoir, she would remember unwanted encounters with fellow celebrities — from an Oscar-winning actor-director exposing himself to her to being forced into bed with a “famous thirtysomething British singer-songwriter.”

She had spoken positively about her experience filming “Remember the Titans,” saying she felt similar to the character she played — Sheryl Yoast, the opinionated, football-loving daughter of Will Patton’s Coach Bill Yoast. Panettiere also appeared in two of the “Scream” movies, and starred as the title character in the 2009 film “I Love You Beth Cooper.”

In her memoir, Panettiere described herself as an “optimist to the core” who refused to be defined by tragedy.

“One thing I know from my 36 years in the public eye is this: Life is a process that evolves day by day, year by year and — like it or not — you are engaged in a cycle of growth until the moment you take your last breath,” she wrote.

___

Associated Press writer Dave Collins and National Writer Hillel Italie contributed reporting.

Russia has repeatedly battered the Ukrainian power grid since its all-out invasion more than four years ago. Moscow hopes to sap Ukraine’s will to fight by denying civilians light, heating and running water during the bitter winter months.

Ukrainian officials, who say Russia is “weaponizing winter,” fear Moscow will pursue its campaign through the coming winter, too.

Russian drones and missiles struck facilities in several regions of the country, with one asset hit multiple times during the week, Naftogaz said, reporting serious damage to equipment and production capacity. No employees were hurt in the attacks, the company said.

DTEK Group, a coal mining and power production company which says it is the largest private investor in Ukraine’s energy sector, also said a Russian attack started a fire at one of its mines, killing a 52-year-old man.

With troops largely bogged down by drones and robots along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line, both Russia and Ukraine are expanding their aerial campaigns and devising new long-range weapons.

Ukrainian long-range attacks on Russia killed seven people, while five civilians died in Ukraine after strikes by Moscow’s forces, officials said Monday as they collated overnight attacks.

With the Russian capital now within range of Ukrainian drones that regularly attack the region, organizers canceled a large military music festival due to be held on central Moscow’s Red Square from Friday.

The organizers of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival said on social media Monday that the event was postponed until next year due to reasons beyond their control.

In May, authorities significantly scaled back Russia's annual Victory Day celebrations on Red Square for the first time in nearly two decades. Officials put the move down to the “current operational situation” but did not elaborate.

Ukraine depended heavily on foreign military aid after Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022 but has gradually increased its domestically produced firepower, firing a salvo of more than 800 long-range drones at Russia on Sunday.

Ukraine also has successfully targeted depots owned by Wildberries, Russia’s main online retailer, as far as 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) from Ukraine’s border.

Russian forces have increasingly hit apartment blocks, ports, schools and hospitals, among other urban targets, killing close to 17,000 civilians, according to the United Nations. The death toll of 437 Ukrainian civilians in July was 70% higher than the same month in 2025, it said last week, as Russia's barrages intensified.

Russia has exploited Ukraine’s severe shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, which are the only way of countering ballistic missiles.

But Kyiv is swiftly innovating, with Ukraine now developing its own ballistic missile to hit back at Russia and working with European countries on developing more anti-ballistic air defenses.

___

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

The verdict against Lev Shlosberg, a senior member of the Yabloko party, was another step by the Kremlin to stifle dissent since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. Yabloko is the only official political party overtly opposing the war.

In a separate ruling Monday, Russia’s Supreme Court upheld its earlier decision to bar Yabloko from the ballot in the Sept. 18-20 parliamentary vote, denying an appeal by the party.

The moves against Shlosberg and Yabloko highlight the Kremlin’s intolerance toward any criticism of the war, now in its fifth year.

It was Shlosberg's second trial in 2 years

Shlosberg, 63, is Yabloko's deputy chairman and served in the regional legislature of Pskov from 2016-21. He stood trial in the city of Pskov, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of Moscow, on charges of "discrediting” and spreading “false information” about the Russian military.

The charges stemmed from a debate in which he called for ending the war and from posting on his Telegram channel a British tabloid front page featuring an image of a bloodied woman next to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the headline: "Her blood ... his hands.” Shlosberg has rejected the charges as unfounded.

It was the second trial for Shlosberg in the last two years. He has also been designated a “foreign agent,” a label that carries strong pejorative connotations in Russia and brings additional government scrutiny. He was convicted of violating the foreign agent regulations.

In December 2025, he was placed in pretrial detention on the new charges and has been behind bars ever since. He is one of several prominent Yabloko members in recent years to be jailed or designated a “foreign agent” as Kremlin pressure on the party has mounted.

Yabloko called the sentence ‘barbaric’

In his final statement to the court Friday, Shlosberg said that for 30 years, Russia has traveled “a path from hopes for freedom to the almost complete destruction of human and civil rights and freedoms.”

He said the war in Ukraine has “changed the lives of every Russian citizen without exception,” and predicted that once its true death toll becomes known, “the entire country will shudder.”

Yabloko said Shlosberg received a “barbaric sentence” for “love of the Motherland and calls for a ceasefire.” In a statement on Telegram, the party said Shlosberg will appeal.

Amnesty International denounced the verdict against Shlosberg.

“His arbitrary prosecution and sentencing are blatant reprisals for exercising his right to freedom of expression to call for peace,” said Marie Struthers, the group's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director.

“The Russian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Lev Shlosberg and quash his conviction," her statement added. “They must repeal legislation criminalizing peaceful anti-war expression, end the persecution of Yabloko members and supporters, and respect the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and political participation for all Russians.”

Supreme Court upholds removing Yabloko from the ballot

In Moscow, the Supreme Court upheld its ruling of a week ago to remove Yabloko from the ballot in the election for the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, denying an appeal by the party.

The Central Election Commission in July had allowed Yabloko on the ballot along with 10 other parties. Young social media users and many Russian opposition figures in exile have since come out in support of Yabloko, urging voters to back the party, once a leading liberal voice in parliament that later lost its bloc of seats as the Kremlin tightened its grip on politics.

In recent years, Yabloko was the only registered opposition party that opposed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Its campaign slogans for this year’s election included, “For a ceasefire agreement, diplomacy and peace!” “Our goal is to prevent nuclear war!” and “For a Russia free from fear and political repression!”

Several Kremlin parties publicly assailed Yabloko for its anti-war stance after it got a slot on the ballot. The Motherland Party filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court, demanding its removal from the ballot, accusing Yabloko of copyright infringement and exceeding campaign spending limits. The party also viewed Yabloko’s stance on Ukraine as unlawful and tantamount to calling for the violation of Russia’s territorial integrity.

Yabloko rejected these accusations, but the Supreme Court sided with the Motherland Party.

As the court met Monday on Yabloko's appeal, the party's supporters gathered outside the courthouse and Russian media reported that several dozen people were detained.

Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who co-founded Yabloko in the 1990s and chairs its political committee, deplored the court's ruling in an online statement. It marked “a serious, deepening crisis in the Russian political system and a lack of understanding of a desired future,” he said.

“People begin to feel this more acutely, regardless of their political views and positions," he said, adding that Yabloko's campaign “for peace and freedom” hit this particular “sore point.”

Yabloko chairman Nikolai Rybakov told reporters after the ruling that the party will continue its fight by lodging a complaint to the Presidium of the Supreme Court and possibly going to the Constitutional Court.

“We achieved the main thing: The whole world knows how many people in Russia want peace, want to live normally and to raise children under a peaceful sky in their country,” Rybakov said.

Regarding the prison term handed to Shlosberg, Rybakov said that “our feelings are with Lev and other political prisoners who have fought and are fighting for peace, for people to not die.”

The National Weather Service said repeated rounds of heavy rain and thunderstorms would continue for one more day before a cold front sweeps the weather pattern off the East Coast on Tuesday. In the meantime, much of West Virginia, southeast Ohio and northeast Kentucky were under a flood watch through Monday evening, with high water lingering from previous storms increasing the possibility of flash flooding.

Elsewhere, hot weather posed more of a problem, particularly across the South, Southeast and Southwest. The weather service issued extreme heat warnings for portions of Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Arizona, Nevada and California.

In Indiana, where days of storms and flooding left at least seven people dead, floodwaters receded in Indianapolis’ White River and rains eased in other parts of the state Sunday. But a flood warning remained in effect Monday morning for part of Randolph County in east central Indiana, where thunderstorms had dropped between 1 and 2 inches of rain by 8 a.m., and residents of half a dozen counties were urged to stay off the roads except for essential travel.

“While we have seen encouraging trends, the work is far from over,” said Jacob Spence, director of the Metropolitan Emergency Services Agency in Indianapolis, where city officials on Sunday launched a website to support affected residents.

South of Indianapolis, officials in Madison Township said firefighters and others rescued 10 people from their homes Sunday night. Others had to be rescued from their cars after attempting to drive through flooded roadways.

“This remains an active and potentially dangerous situation,” the fire department said in a social media post. “We cannot stress this enough: DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH FLOOD WATERS.”

A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms that began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.

Also, among the seven victims was a 31-year-old cyclist found dead early Sunday in a hole that opened up on a washed-out road in Henry County, east of Indianapolis. Henry County Coroner Brian Clark said the man, James Briar, appears to have gone around a barricade and fallen into the collapsed road.

Heavy rains hammered Indiana over the past week, causing rivers to crest and setting records as roads and bridges were seriously damaged or washed out entirely by the rushing waters.

More than 106,000 utility customers statewide remained without power as of Monday morning, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to the online utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

The drenching rains and destructive flooding were among the impacts of severe storms that have wreaked havoc across the Midwest and beyond in recent days. Tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding brought serious damage to communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.

The National Weather Service forecasts heavy rain and thunderstorms across the upper Ohio Valley to the central Appalachians, with the possibility of severe storms late Monday across eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.

The 6-pound, 9-ounce (3-kilogram), girl born Aug. 3 in Lisbon, Portugal, is the third child of Eugenie and husband Jack Brooksbank.

“Two weeks ago today we welcomed our girl to the world," Eugenie said on Instagram. “And since then we’ve had the most special, cosy and love-filled time.”

Eugenie is the younger daughter of the former Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. She's the niece of King Charles III.

The infant girl has two brothers, August, 5, and Ernest, 3.

She was named in honor of three people “we love and admire past and present,” including Eugenie's late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, and to reflect her English and Portuguese roots.

The name was also inspired by Queen Adelaide (1792-1849), who was married to King William IV, as well as Maria Adelaide of Portugal. Annina is the name of a close friend.

The Buckeyes received 40 first-place votes and Oregon received 14 in voting by 69 media members who cover college football.

Ohio State will go into a season No. 1 for the ninth time, and first since 2015. The Buckeyes are now tied with Alabama for second-most preseason No. 1 rankings behind Oklahoma's 10.

Oregon has its highest preseason ranking in program history after having opened No. 3 four times.

Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas round out the top five. Defending national champion Indiana starts at No. 6 and is followed by Miami, Texas A&M, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Notre Dame received six first-place votes, Indiana got eight and Miami one.

This is the first year a conference has held down the top two spots in the preseason poll since Oklahoma and Nebraska of the Big Eight were 1-2 in 1987.

The last time the Big Ten had the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the preseason was 1961, when Iowa and Ohio State topped the poll. The Hawkeyes lost four of their last five games after a 4-0 start and finished that season unranked. The Buckeyes went 8-0-1 and ended the season No. 2 behind unbeaten Alabama.

The Big Ten has won three straight College Football Playoff championships (Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana) and will be going for an unprecedented fourth straight national title. This is the fourth consecutive year the Big Ten has had two of the top three teams in the preseason rankings.

The Southeastern Conference leads all conferences with nine teams in the preseason Top 25, marking the third straight year it has had at least that many. Five of the top 10 teams are from the SEC for the first time since 2013.

Four Big 12 teams are ranked, with conference champion Texas Tech the highest at No. 12. The Atlantic Coast Conference has three ranked teams, with the Hurricanes joined by No. 19 SMU and No. 24 Louisville. There are no Group of Six schools in the Top 25.

Top-ranked Buckeyes

The offense is loaded. Heisman Trophy finalist Julian Sayin was the most accurate passer in the nation by a wide margin last season, Jeremiah Smith leads the nation in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns over the last two years and Bo Jackson is coming off a 1,000-yard rushing season as a freshman.

There is little concern about the defense even though eight starters must be replaced for a second straight year. At least six transfers are projected to start or play major roles.

Ohio State will get tested early and often. The Buckeyes visit Texas on Sept. 12 and five of their nine conference games are against preseason ranked teams, including at Indiana and against Oregon at home.

The Buckeyes have ended a season No. 1 in the AP poll six times (1942, 1954, 1968, 2002, 2014, 2024).

Bulldogs best of the SEC

The beat goes on for Kirby Smart's Georgia Bulldogs. They're in the preseason top five for the ninth straight year. The two-time defending SEC champion Bulldogs are favored to play in a sixth straight conference title game and appear in the CFP for the sixth time in 10 years.

Texas, the preseason No. 1 last year, opens in the top five for the third straight year. No. 8 Texas A&M is in the preseason top 10 for the first time since it was No. 6 in 2022, the year that marked the beginning of the end for coach Jimbo Fisher.

Pete Golding's first full season as Mississippi head coach starts with the No. 9 Rebels in the preseason top 10 for the second time in three years and third time since 1970. No. 10 Oklahoma is in the preseason top 10 for the first time since 2022, when it was in the Big 12.

What about the Hoosiers?

Indiana is the seventh returning national champion in 40 years, and second in three years, to be ranked outside the top five in the preseason (Michigan went into the 2024 season ranked No. 9 after winning the national title).

The Hoosiers became the first team in the modern era to go 16-0, and they return lots of talent and signed a top-10 transfer class. The move from Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 NFL draft pick Fernando Mendoza to TCU transfer Josh Hoover at quarterback apparently put doubts in the minds of voters.

Poll nuggets

— Ohio State will try to become the 12th team to start and finish No. 1 since the AP preseason poll debuted in 1950. The last team to do it was Alabama in 2017.

— Notre Dame has its highest preseason ranking since it was No. 2 in 2006. The Fighting Irish, who have a Heisman candidate in quarterback CJ Carr, bring a 10-game winning streak into the season and are still smarting from being left out of the playoff.

— Lane Kiffin's first LSU team is No. 11 after finishing 7-6 and unranked under Brian Kelly and Frank Wilson.

— Ten of the 12 CFP teams last season are ranked. The two that aren't are James Madison and Tulane from the Group of Six.

— No. 23 Houston has its first preseason ranking in four years and third since 1991.

___

Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here

The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total under the three previous presidents, according to a report from the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

It’s the numbers for the Trump administration, in the context of previous administrations, that stand out in Public Citizen’s report, published on Monday. In all, 57 Trump officials are worth at least $100 million, including 17 ambassadors and the remaining 40 in senior posts across the executive branch.

Look no further than Trump's Cabinet. Eight of its 23 members fit the category, notably Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, both billionaires.

The president, himself a billionaire, has described his inclination toward appointing the ultrawealthy as deference to financial success. And yet, Trump, who owes his White House comeback to support from middle-income, working Americans drawn to his pledge to lower everyday costs, now faces a midterm election electorate decidedly less keen on his handling of the economy.

Presidents have long sought counsel from the nation’s wealthiest people and tapped some for high-profile administrative leadership roles. Likewise, presidents routinely reward wealthy and influential supporters with ambassadorships.

Among the most notable examples is Andrew Mellon, the aluminum, oil and banking tycoon who was among the handful of the nation’s wealthiest people in the 1920s and served as treasury secretary for three presidents.

The Trump officials worth at least $100 million include Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, who are also billionaires, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and special envoy Steve Witkoff, both worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

By comparison, Republican George W. Bush’s administration and Democrat Joe Biden’s each included five members worth $100 million or more. Democrat Barack Obama’s included three, the report states.

A government populated by so many of the economic elite presents potential problems, the report's authors said.

"When the people holding the reins of government are drawn overwhelmingly from the ranks of the ultra-rich, it leads to misplaced incentives and corruption, and begs the question, ‘Whose interests they are truly serving?” said Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen’s co-president.

The list does not include Trump, whose net worth Forbes estimates at more than $6 billion. Nor does it include space and social media giant Elon Musk, who advised Trump last year on an effort to reduce the federal government's size, scope and workforce and is the world's wealthiest person, with a net worth Forbes estimates at about $860 billion.

Trump's views are well established: Financial success is evidence of executive mastery and negotiating strength.

“They have great competence, those people. Incredible competence. Some of the smartest business leaders,” Trump said last year in explaining why he put considerable weight on advice from business executives.

He has also pointed to investments by wealthy people as a signal of future economic growth. To encourage billionaires to deliver, Trump, in his first year back in the White House, pursued policies on artificial intelligence and financial regulation that could benefit wealthy people, along with tax cuts and reduced regulatory burdens for large-scale investments.

Still, last month, only 32% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, down from 40% at the beginning of his second term and as his Republican Party faces headwinds in its attempt to hold both majorities in Congress in November.

___

This story has been corrected to show Lutnick is commerce secretary, not treasury secretary.

Marsh died Friday in Connecticut, his friend Jeffrey St. Clair, a co-editor of the online magazine Counterpunch, told The Associated Press. St. Clair said Marsh had been suffering from a degenerative brain disease for several years. Jim Rotolo, the SiriusXM radio host, announced Marsh’s death on his social media accounts.

Springsteen paid tribute to Marsh in an Instagram post, writing that the loss had left the band “heartbroken.”

“My great friend Dave, with his straight out of Detroit attitude, was a true Rock ‘n’ Roll lifer. He was soulful, intelligent, heartfelt, opinionated, bruising and often fantastically argumentative,” Springsteen wrote. “He deeply believed in what I was trying to accomplish and his lifetime of support meant the world to me.”

Steven Van Zandt also wrote a remembrance on Instagram, writing “he was fearless, relentless, arrogant, everything you'd want in a RocknRoll troublemaker. And by the way, a tremendous writer.”

Marsh was an early champion of Springsteen, writing about him for Creem magazine and penning his first Rolling Stone cover story in 1978. In 1979 his biography “Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story” was released and became a best seller. He followed it in 1986 with “Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s.” Legend has it that he was the one responsible for getting Jon Landau, Springsteen's longtime manager and record producer, to his first Springsteen concert.

Born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1950, Marsh dropped out of Detroit’s Wayne State University in 1969 to write for the new rock magazine “Creem,” where Lester Bangs was among his friends and mentors. Springsteen wasn’t Marsh’s only subject, but he was always close by. In 1979, he married Barbara Carr, who would go on to be Springsteen’s co-manager alongside Landau for decades. The rocker even attended their wedding.

He and Carr also devoted much effort to The Kristen Ann Carr Fund, a charity that they started named after their daughter who died from sarcoma at age 21 in 1993. Later that year, Springsteen hosted a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, where they raised $1.5 million.

Marsh also wrote “The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made,” a biography of The Who, and a book about The Kingsmen hit “Louie Louie.” In recent years he was a frequent co-host and guest on the E Street Nation SiriusXM channel.

___

National Writer Hillel Italie contributed from New York.

We’ve compiled a non-exhaustive list of upcoming Space Coast launches so you can know what to expect.

[RELATED: Best spots to watch a rocket launch]

Keep checking back, though, because as most space enthusiasts know, launch schedules are subject to change due to weather, technical reasons, and range restrictions.

I repeat: All launch dates and times are tentative!

• Date: Aug. 20
• Vehicle: Falcon 9
• Mission: Starlink
• Launch Time: 11:19 a.m. to 3:19 p.m.
• Location: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

• Date: TBD
• Vehicle: Blue Origin New Glenn
• Mission: Blue Origin will launch a Blue Moon lunar lander carrying NASA payloads on a demonstration mission.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 36

• Date: TBD
• Vehicle: Boeing Starliner
• Mission: An uncrewed Boeing Starliner will deliver cargo to the International Space Station and undergo in-flight validation of a series of system upgrades.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: TBD

• Date: TBD
• Vehicle: ULA Atlas V
• Mission: TBD
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

• Date: Q4 2026
• Vehicle: ULA Vulcan
• Mission: Sierra Space will launch its uncrewed Dream Chaser space plane atop a ULA Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
• Launch Time: TBD
• Location: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Launch Complex 41

Tyler's “If I Sing You A Love Song" played as her rose-covered coffin was carried into Swansea Minster for the invite-only funeral that was projected on a screen outside. Her “It’s a Heartache” played as the coffin was placed in front of the altar.

“Bonnie was always a star but never a diva,” her manager, Matthew Davis, said in one of several tributes. “She never forgot her roots or where she came from. She would have been amazed and very gratified at the massive outpouring of love from all over the world that has occurred since her sudden and unexpected passing.”

The Grammy-nominated pop star, beloved for her 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” died last month in a hospital in Portugal at 75. She had been hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery.

The funeral was held less than a week after her signature song served as the soundtrack at celebrations marking a total eclipse that darkened skies across parts of Europe.

Crowds lined the streets Saturday in her seaside Welsh village of Mumbles as a hearse carried her coffin, draped in a Welsh flag, home.

Kathleen Davies, who joined the crowd outside the church, said she was starstruck when she first saw Tyler but later came to learn she was down to earth.

“She’s Welsh through and through,” Davies said. "Everything about her, she’s natural, there’s no fake stuff. When you see her on the interviews, she’s just who she is.”

Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins, a coal miner’s daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside Swansea. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers.

Canon Justin Davies said in a eulogy written by her family that she first performed in a contest at a rugby club in the late 1960s, singing ”Those Were The Days,” made famous by Mary Hopkin.

“She came in second and won just one pound, but was hooked," Davies said. “The rest, as they say, was history.”

Tyler went on to earn three Grammy nods and in 2013 represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 19th. She was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II, thanks mainly to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

The ballad shot to the top of the charts in Britain and the United States and has had more than 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017, 2024 and most recently during last week’s solar eclipse.

She was also known for “Holding Out For a Hero,” from the soundtrack of the film “Footloose.”

___

Melley reported from London.

Deputies were called Monday evening after a resident noticed the Amazon truck had been parked near the end of his driveway for several hours.

Patrick Miranda, who lives nearby, said he called the sheriff’s office non-emergency line after noticing the truck was still running.

“I see the phone is still plugged in. The backpack is there and again the car is running, but there is no one,” Miranda said. “It seemed kind of strange.”

Surveillance video from Miranda’s home shows deputies and Lake County Fire Rescue responding to the scene. One image shows the side door of the Amazon truck open.

Miranda said a deputy initially opened the passenger-side door and appeared to react to fumes before opening the rear doors and finding the woman unconscious.

“The police officer opened the passenger side front and he had some fumes, he had to reel back from,” Miranda said. “Then he opened the back, the sliding doors, and she was lying there in the back unconscious.”

Miranda said he later saw one of the deputies step away from the truck and appear lightheaded.

“I’m not sure if there were fumes from either the vent, if there’s a package,” Miranda said. “There was a lot of speculation at the time from both the officers and the other people involved.”

Because of concerns about potentially toxic substances, Miranda said firefighters wearing gas masks responded and the area around the truck was secured.

He also said the woman was sprayed with a fire hose before paramedics began life-saving measures.

“Because they were worried about toxic chemicals, I remember they did use a fire hose to rinse her off to make sure there was nothing on her clothes or person,” Miranda said. “But immediately after that, they were using life-saving measures.”

The woman was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the sheriff’s office.

The cause of death has not been determined.

On Monday, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office identified the woman as Jaylene Vargas Gonzalez.

“Detectives with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Bureau are continuing to investigate this incident,” the sheriff’s office said.

Miranda said fire rescue crews remained at the scene for several hours, including conducting what appeared to be an examination and cleanup of the delivery vehicle.

Amazon released this statement to News 6:

“We’re deeply saddened by this tragic incident, and our thoughts and prayers are with the driver’s loved ones during this difficult time. We’re cooperating fully with local authorities in their investigation.”

The crash happened around 8 p.m. Saturday on Little Lake Conway.

According to an arrest report, 63-year-old Steven Adams’ orange and white boat collided with a blue Yamaha personal watercraft. The two riders on the PWC were transported to the hospital with apparent arm injuries, police said.

Adams initially left the scene before officers located him at the Perkins Boat Ramp. He admitted to operating the boat at the time of the crash. Officers noted Adams had bloodshot, watery eyes, slow movements, and an odor of alcohol on his breath, the arrest report states.

Adams performed poorly on field sobriety exercises and later refused to provide a breath sample.

Adams was charged with boating under the influence and refusal to submit to a lawful test.

Trump was visiting the Nassau County police academy in suburban Long Island, where he was expected to promote new FBI crime statistics being released Friday showing a decrease in violent crime for 2025. But despite the setting and an array of uniformed local police officers behind him on stage, the event was overwhelmingly a political one, with Trump lashing Democrats and promoting his record and his party's candidates.

Trump's visit aimed at boosting Republicans in closely contested races across his home state, but just how much his presence will help is in question as he faces lagging approval ratings and a deeply unpopular war in Iran with no end in sight.

Trump briefly touched on the new crime statistics, but before long he was returning to familiar attacking lines, calling his opponents “Radical left Democrats” and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, “Sleepy Joe."

“We call them Dumb-ocrats now because their policies are so dumb. Fighting to defund the police. Does that play well in this room?” Trump said at one point, turning around to look at the officers behind him.

Trump slams Democrats and promotes policies on crime, tariffs and more

He criticized the state’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and insulted the state’s Attorney General, Letitia James, as “a real slob” and “a disgrace.”

James successfully sued the president and his companies for financial fraud. The Justice Department last year secured a mortgage fraud indictment against James, but the case was dismissed after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who charged her and another Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, was illegally appointed.

He touted his deployment of the National Guard to cities around the U.S., including in the nation's capital. Trump repeatedly said that “young, beautiful girls in the White House" have thanked him for making Washington safer. It was not clear who he was referring to, but he said, “These young, these gorgeous, beautiful girls are — they want to be safe.”

“Two years ago, we were in a hellhole, and now we have one of the safest cities,” he said.

The new FBI statistics released Friday showed the homicide rate in the United States dropped to the lowest it’s been in 75 years. The report on 2025 crime statistics also showed that overall violent crime dropped 9.3% last year. Experts note that national violent crime rates have been declining since 2022, and pinpointing an exact reason is difficult.

Trump also promoted his tariff policies, along with his tax cuts and spending law passed last year and suggested that the tax breaks on overtime would be popular with police officers. Many of his lines, especially the political attacks, didn’t get as much of a reaction from the uniformed officers as it did from the crowd of regular Trump supporters in the audience, who enthusiastically cheered and booed on cue.

To the side of the stage during his remarks were the new U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, who each spoke to warm up the crowd before the president. Their appearance at an event that in part was designed to help Republican candidates broke longstanding norms in which the nation’s law enforcement generally tried to steer clear of participating in overtly political events.

Also seated among the guests of honor was actor Kelsey Grammer.

Trump narrowly won Nassau County in 2024, flipping the county in the largely Democratic state to Republicans for the first time in more than two decades.

It's home to one of the largest police forces in the nation and two Democratic House seats that Republicans now see as winnable this fall, and it's home turf for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican challenging Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Crime becoming a theme in New York races

It's the second time this year Trump has visited New York in support of Blakeman and other Republicans. He stopped by the Hudson Valley area in May for a speech in which he said Blakeman would curb “out of control” crime.

Crime has emerged as a significant issue in the governor's race, with both candidates claiming to have the better track record of making New Yorkers safe. Hochul visited a different Long Island police department in July to announce a statewide investment in policing technology.

Blakeman, who briefly took the stage during Trump's remarks, said he was honored Trump was visiting.

In a Fox Business interview on Thursday, Blakeman downplayed concerns that Trump's visit would be unpopular with voters in New York City.

“When the most powerful person in the world comes to visit you and shows that you have a relationship together, I think that’s a very good thing,” Blakeman said, adding that even voters who disagree with Trump might appreciate a governor with a direct line to the president.

Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said the governor “has invested billions in public safety to protect New Yorkers — ‘MAGA all the way’ Bruce Blakeman is bringing Donald Trump to tour the county where he let violent crime spike to decade highs and Trump’s unaccountable ICE agents abuse their power.”

For GOP, safety is seen as a winning issue

Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist, said Trump's visit stands to boost Blakeman along with Republican challengers looking to unseat a pair of Democratic incumbents in Nassau County districts. Michael LiPetri Jr. is challenging Rep. Tom Suozzi in New York's 3rd Congressional District, while Jeanine Driscoll is opposing Rep. Laura Gillen in the 4th Congressional District.

The focus on crime is seen as a cornerstone issue for Republicans that appeals to Trump's base along with suburban swing voters, Gorman said.

“On the strategic level, crime is an issue that Republicans feel comfortable going on offense with, where the country kind of broadly agrees with them,” he said.

Trump is touting the issue as he faces low approval ratings on a number of other issues, including the economy and the Iran war. An AP-NORC poll from August 2025 found that Trump’s handling of crime was among his strongest issues, though his approval on the issue had fallen by 10 points by December 2025.

___

This story was first published on Aug. 14, 2026. It was published again on Aug. 17, 2026, to correct the name of the lawmaker who represents New York’s 4th Congressional District to Rep. Laura Gillen, not Rep. Lauren Gillen.

___

Price reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Dagmarie Aponte Iturrino is facing felony charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence, along with a misdemeanor charge of disrupting a school function.

The case dates back to November 2024, when Aponte and her husband, Jorge Rivera, confronted Volusia Sheriff’s Office School Resource Deputy Julia Curtin at Deltona Middle School.

According to investigators, the couple was upset after their 11-year-old son was arrested and handcuffed following an incident in which he was accused of pushing another student. The parents also said their son had been bullied.

What began as a verbal confrontation quickly escalated.

Body-camera video captured the chaotic encounter as deputies say Rivera punched Curtin, knocked her to the ground and took her Taser. Curtin then drew her firearm before Rivera was taken into custody.

Aponte was also arrested and charged in connection with the confrontation.

The case has taken several twists since the arrests.

Aponte initially pleaded no contest to the felony and misdemeanor charges. Under an agreement with prosecutors, they were not expected to seek jail time.

However, Aponte later hired a new attorney and asked to withdraw her plea.

During a February hearing, Aponte testified that she did not fully understand her options when she entered the no-contest plea.

“He told me that if I pled to the judge that my record could be sealed and I could go back to work like nothing happened,” Aponte testified, referring to her former attorney.

Aponte’s former attorney disputed her claims, testifying that he explained the plea agreement and her options, including going to trial.

Judge A. Kathleen McNeilly ultimately granted Aponte’s motion to withdraw her plea, finding that her attorney had established good cause under Florida law. The decision cleared the way for Aponte to take her case before a jury.

Aponte has maintained that she was attempting to de-escalate the confrontation between her husband and the deputy and was not trying to be violent toward Curtin.

Her husband has already resolved his case.

Rivera pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. The judge withheld adjudication, meaning Rivera was not formally convicted of a felony.

Jury selection in Aponte’s case is expected to begin Monday at the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand. The trial is expected to last approximately two days.

Jurors are expected to see body-camera video of the confrontation and hear competing accounts of what happened inside Deltona Middle School.

If convicted of the felony charges, Aponte could face up to five years in prison on each third-degree felony count.

A spokesperson for Burnham declined to comment, saying it was policy not to discuss “national security matters.”

Politico cited four unnamed officials in first reporting that Burnham thought he was messaging with Susie Wiles before he became suspicious and cut off communications.

The White House said the incident had nothing to do with Wiles’ devices being hacked.

Last year, the U.S. government investigated a series of messages that elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in the U.S. received messages from someone posing as Wiles.

Soon after those incidents, the State Department warned U.S. diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officials using artificial intelligence. The warning followed the discovery that an impostor posing as Rubio had attempted to reach out to at least three foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor.

The FBI had warned of “malicious actors” misusing AI to impersonate senior U.S. government officials.

Burnham, who became prime minister less than a month ago, has tried to forge good ties with the White House. Trump initially warmed to Burnham's predecessor, Keir Starmer, before souring on him.

Under the new policy, only students with a learner’s permit or driver’s license will be allowed to ride e-bikes or e-scooters to school — and even those students will need to obtain a permit from their school first. That means elementary and middle school students will not be allowed to ride electric devices to campus at all.

Scott Howat, Chief Communications Officer for OCPS, explained who will still be permitted to ride.

“The only individuals that will be able to ride the electric scooters or e-bikes will be those that have a learner’s permit or have a driver’s license, and they’ll have to receive a permit from their school in order to have the device,” Howat said.

The district says it is not yet focused on writing discipline. Right now, OCPS is prioritizing outreach to families and students about safety concerns surrounding the devices.

The change appears to be working, even before formal enforcement begins. Howat said the district is already getting feedback from school leaders.

“We are hearing from principals that the numbers are down as well,” he said.

Outside College Park Middle School, students were arriving on regular bikes — with no e-bikes or e-scooters spotted in the half hour before the first bell.

Once the ban is in effect, students who break the rules will face consequences. Howat said the district will follow a structured process.

“Once it goes into place, there will be a process where we will give progressive warnings or discipline for those who are still violating the ban,” he said.

Last week, OCPS held a workshop to begin shaping what that discipline will look like. District leaders say a plan will go before the school board at its next meeting on Aug. 25. Once approved, the policy will be added to the student code of conduct.

The specific discipline consequences have not yet been finalized.

Deputies responded around 2 a.m. Saturday to the area of Indian Trails in reference to a verbal dispute when they heard someone had fired a gun in the area.

Upon arrival, they discovered a gathering at the residence and located numerous spent shell casings in the street nearby.

Several bullet holes were found in a window and on the roof of an unoccupied vehicle parked a short distance from the scene. No injuries were reported, deputies said.

Deputies searched the area for suspects but came up empty.

The investigation remains active and ongoing and additional details will be released as they become available.

The outbreak unfolding in one of Congo’s most vulnerable regions is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever, with 4,945 cases including 2,325 deaths, according to government data released overnight into Monday.

This is Congo’s 17th and largest Ebola outbreak. The toll eclipses that of the country's 2018-2020 outbreak when 2,299 deaths out of 3,481 cases were recorded.

The latest data shows 101 new cases and 33 deaths reported in the previous 24 hours. Over 1,000 people have recovered, while 730 remain in hospitals or isolation.

The outbreak has infected and killed more people at a greater speed than any other outbreak in history. The World Health Organization has said it is on track to surpass the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the deadliest on record with more than 11,000 deaths.

There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for the current outbreak across six provinces in Congo's east. Trials for those are ongoing in Ituri province, the epicenter.

Most new cases and deaths are being reported outside of people being monitored. Challenges also include strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger from long-traumatized communities, territories difficult to reach due to bad roads, and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real.

WHO warned over the weekend that the outbreak is still moving at an “exceptional pace” ahead of efforts to track it, noting that it reached a weekly record of 579 cases and 304 deaths in the previous week.

“A substantial scaling up of response activities is underway to get ahead of the outbreak,” the agency said.

On Friday, United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher announced the allocation of an additional $30.5 million and the deployment of 20 more staff to aid the response on the frontlines.

“This is a wake-up call,” Fletcher said. “We need speed, scale and solidarity before this virus gets even further ahead of us.”

The primary for governor could set the direction for both parties in the state. A longstanding rivalry between DeSantis and President Donald Trump broadly shapes the Republican contest, while moderate and progressive candidates compete to guide beleaguered state Democrats out of their electoral doldrums.

Eleven candidates are competing for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, including Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, former investment firm CEO James Fishback and former state House Speaker Paul Renner.

Donalds has Trump’s endorsement and enjoys an overwhelming financial advantage over the rest of the field. He backed Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 presidential primaries and was considered as a possible Trump running mate that year.

Collins is a close DeSantis ally who says he is running to “protect the DeSantis legacy.” He was tapped by DeSantis to serve as lieutenant governor in August 2025. In his announcement, DeSantis said Collins, an Army Special Forces veteran who lost a leg to combat injuries, was “the Chuck Norris of Florida politics.” Nonetheless, DeSantis has not endorsed a candidate in the primary.

Six Democrats are running to succeed DeSantis, including former Republican U.S. Rep. David Jolly, state Rep. Dotie Joseph and former high school math teacher Dayna Marie Foster, who is backed by the state’s Democratic Progressive Caucus.

Jolly took an unlikely path to running for governor as a Democrat, joining the party in 2025 after leaving the GOP in 2018. He has a commanding fundraising lead over the rest of the field in spite of his past political affiliation. He has tapped former Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham as his running mate, and her name will appear alongside his on the ballot. Graham is the daughter of the late Bob Graham, the longtime Democratic U.S. Senator and governor.

Florida Democrats have faced a drought in statewide elections, particularly for governor. A Democrat last won the governorship more than 30 years ago. DeSantis was reelected in 2022 with a 19-point margin over former Gov. Charlie Crist, another former Republican-turned independent-turned Democrat.

In the U.S. Senate race, Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody faces minimal opposition for the party’s nomination. Moody was state attorney general in January 2025 when DeSantis appointed her to fill Rubio’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. She is now running to complete the final two years of Rubio’s term.

Her Democratic opponent in November will be either state Rep. Angie Nixon or retired Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman. Vindman, a former National Security Council staff member, was a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment in 2019. His brother, Eugene, was elected to Congress from Virginia's 7th District in 2024.

Nixon, along with Joseph in the race for governor, was among a group of Black state lawmakers who led unsuccessful Democratic efforts to block Republican redistricting plans in 2022 and 2026.

The new congressional boundaries Republicans enacted in May essentially eliminate four congressional districts currently or most recently represented by Democrats. Democratic U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor in the 14th District around Tampa and Darren Soto in the 9th District near Orlando are both running for reelection in their new Republican-friendly districts and will face the winners of crowded GOP primaries.

In South Florida along the Gold Coast, Republicans redrew the area with the hope of reducing the number of Democratic districts from five to three. Like Castor and Soto, U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz is running for reelection in a new Republican-friendly district, but he must first clear a primary challenge from union organizer and democratic socialist Oliver Larkin.

In another South Florida district, former U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is mounting a comeback bid after resigning from the 20th District in April. She’ll face U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the Democratic primary in the new 20th, which is no longer a majority-Black district.

Republican U.S. Reps. Randy Fine and Cory Mills face competitive primary challenges in the 6th and 7th Districts, respectively, while a crowded Republican primary to replace Donalds in the 19th District has attracted a lot of out-of-state interest. Former U.S. Reps. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and Chris Collins of New York, as well as a former Illinois state senator, all seek the Republican nomination.

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 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET. Most of the state is in Eastern time, and polls there close at 7 p.m. ET. A few counties are in Central time, and polls there close at 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. Senate, U.S. House, governor, chief financial officer, agriculture commissioner, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Only voters registered with a political party may participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

How many voters are there?

As of July 20, there were about 13.5 million registered voters in Florida. Of those, about 5.6 million, or about 42% were Republicans; about 4.1 million, or 30%, were Democrats and about 3.3 million, or about 25%, were not registered with any party. The rest were registered with other parties.

How many people actually vote?

About 1.5 million Republican primary voters and about 1.1 million Democratic primary voters participated in the 2024 U.S. Senate primaries.

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

About 63% of the Republican primary vote and about 77% of the Democratic primary vote in the 2024 U.S. Senate primaries was cast early in-person or by mail.

As of Friday, about 663,000 Republican ballots and about 610,000 Democratic ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

Florida counties release all or almost all of their results from early in-person and mail voting in their first vote updates of the night, usually before releasing any results from in-person Election Day voting. Less than a third of counties release any in-person Election Day results in their first vote update.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 8 p.m. ET, just as the final polls closed in the state. The last vote update of the night was at 11:47 p.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?

Florida requires a machine recount in races where the vote margin is 0.5% or less of the total votes cast. A manual recount of overvotes and undervotes is then required if the machine recount results in a vote margin of 0.25% or less of the total votes cast. 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 77 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

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

Among the 10 shows in the 2026-27 season will also include the return of “Hamilton,” “Wicked,” “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,” “Jersey Boys” and “The Sound of Music.”

The new shows include “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Death Becomes Her,” “The Great Gatsby” and “BOOP! The Musical.”

Here’s a look at the shows and dates, including summaries provided by the Dr. Phillips Center:

Hamilton: Sept. 29-Oct. 18, 2026

The unforgettable story of passion, unstoppable ambition and the dawn of a new nation, seen by more than 28 million people around the world. Based on Ron Chernow’s acclaimed biography and set to a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, R&B and Broadway, Hamilton has had a profound impact on culture, politics and education. Hamilton features book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler and musical supervision and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. In addition to its 11 Tony Awards®, it has won Grammy® and Olivier Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Buena Vista Social Club: Oct. 20-25, 2026

Step into the heart of Cuba, beyond the glitz of the Tropicana, to a place where blazing trumpets and sizzling guitars set the dance floor on fire. Here, the real sound of Havana is born—and one woman discovers the music that will change her life forever. Inspired by true events, five-time Tony Award®-winning musical Buena Vista Social Club™ brings the GRAMMY® Award-winning album to thrilling life—and tells the story of the legends who lived it. A world-class band joins a sensational cast of musicians, actors and dancers from across the globe for an authentic experience unlike any you’ve seen or heard before. “A jaw-dropping, soul-stirring must-see!” (The Washington Post).

SPAMALOT: Nov. 3-5, 2026

SPAMALOT brings the distinctly British wit and comedic genius of Monty Python to life in a hysterical story of adventure, romance and King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail. The production returns following a celebrated 2023 Broadway revival at the St. James Theater under the direction and choreography of Josh Rhodes. Lovingly ripped from the film classic, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, SPAMALOT features everything you need for a great knight at Dr. Phillips Center: flying cows, British royalty, dancing girls, rubbery shrubbery, and of course, the Lady of the Lake. This 14-time Tony-nominated musical features fan-favorite songs such as “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” “The Song That Goes Like This” and “Find Your Grail.”

Death Becomes Her: Dec. 1-6, 2026

THE TONY AWARD®-WINNING “PERFECT MUSICAL COMEDY.” Madeline Ashton is the most beautiful actress ever to grace the stage and screen. Helen Sharp is the long-suffering author who lives in her shadow. When revenge and vanity collide, their world is turned upside down by a mysterious woman with a secret that’s to die for. After one sip of a magical potion, both begin a new era of life—and death—with their youth restored and a grudge to last eternity.

Wicked (season option): Jan. 6-31, 2027

Welcome to the wonderful Land of Oz—where there is a young woman, born with emerald-green skin—smart, fiery, misunderstood and possessing extraordinary talent. Featuring the iconic songs “Defying Gravity,” “Popular” and “For Good,” Wicked has been called “a magical Broadway musical with brains, heart and courage.”

The Great Gatsby: Feb. 9-21, 2027

The party’s roaring in Orlando. This Tony Award®-winning musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel is an unforgettable journey of love, wealth and tragedy, bringing the Roaring Twenties vividly to life on stage.

The Sound of Music: March 16-21, 2027

For 65 years, The Sound of Music has been one of our favorite things. Featuring beloved songs like “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and “Edelweiss,” this Rodgers & Hammerstein classic continues to captivate audiences with its timeless story of love, resilience and the power of music.

BOOP! The Musical: March 30-April 4, 2027

Betty Boop’s dream of an ordinary day off leads to a bright and bubbly Broadway musical adventure filled with color, music and love. A show-stopping celebration that’s fun for audiences of all ages.

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: April 20-May 2, 2027

Disney’s beloved musical returns in a breathtaking new touring production with spectacular sets, dazzling costumes and the unforgettable songs audiences know and love.

Beetlejuice (season option): May 11-16, 2027

The ghost-with-the-most returns to Orlando in this hilarious Broadway musical adaptation of Tim Burton’s beloved film.

Jersey Boys: June 22-27, 2027

The original Broadway sensation returns to the road. Go behind the music and inside the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons in the Tony Award®-winning musical that features unforgettable hits including “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and more.

Ukraine's drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.

The attacks on about 20 Wildberries facilities have underlined Kyiv’s ability to strike far and wide inside Russia and posed a new challenge to President Vladimir Putin nearly 4½ years into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

They have badly shaken the empire built by Tatyana Kim, the country’s richest female entrepreneur, whose fortune has been estimated at $8.1 billion.

Hundreds of thousands of individual sellers have lost their merchandise, sending shock waves across Russia’s economy. Wildberries has drawn massive loans from VTB and other banks as it expanded and likely will have trouble repaying them, putting more pressure on the financial system.

An online giant began in a Moscow apartment

Kim, 50, was born in Grozny, the capital of the province of Chechnya, to an ethnic Korean family of an engineer and a teacher. She launched Wildberries in 2004 from her Moscow apartment soon after giving birth to her first child while working as an English teacher.

“The idea was born from my own needs, and turned out to be needed by hundreds of thousands,” said Kim, now a mother of seven. “If a product or service makes your own life easier, you’re on the right track.”

Wildberries initially sold clothing before expanding to appliances, household items, cosmetics, books and more. The platform with its distinct purple logo has become an undisputed leader in e-commerce, accounting for about half of all online orders in Russia. Businesses big and small use it to store, ship and deliver merchandise across the country's 11 time zones.

An estimated 500,000 to 800,000 sellers use Wildberries, often described as Russia's Amazon. After Western brands fled following the war in Ukraine, online retailers filled the void with merchandise from China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.

The company also acquired a bank, expanded to tourism and even considered buying an airline.

In 2024, Kim divorced her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, triggering a fight for control of the company. Bakalchuk sought the support of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his feared paramilitary forces but eventually lost the battle, which peaked in a shootout at a business center near the Kremlin that left two people dead and several wounded.

Wildberries depots are easy targets

Unlike smaller competitors Ozon and Yandex Market, the company has prided itself on relying on about two dozen mammoth warehouses as the core of its vast logistical network, stockpiling the goods before shipping to about 100,000 storefront distribution points.

As Ukraine embarked on a strategy of long-range drone attacks deep inside Russia, it has expanded from striking military bases, oil refineries and other infrastructure to Wildberries warehouses, which provided particularly soft targets.

Since the first attack July 18 in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and in the southwestern Tambov region, Wildberries depots burned one after another in massive fires that flooded social media.

The depots, some as big as 300,000 square meters (about 3.2 million square feet) were unprotected. It took three days to extinguish the fire in Elektrostal, a key Moscow region hub.

On Sunday, Ukraine set ablaze another such hub in Podolsk, also near the capital.

Seven of Wildberries' 10 largest logistics centers have been knocked out of operation, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said. Wildberries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“These are not military and high-value political targets, therefore they’re not especially secured, they’re not really built to be able to shrug off drone strikes,” said podcaster Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert who heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy.

The strikes have stretched from the European part of Russia to Yekaterinburg, over 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) from Ukraine's border.

There's scarce public data, but some estimates indicate up to 20% of the company's total warehouse space has been destroyed, with assessments of losses running as high as $6 billion.

Kim said Wildberries’ sites have been “reinforced and strengthened” defensively, but the attacks continued. Some warehouses suffered only minor damage, and Ukraine tried to hit them again.

Wildberries said it's rearranging supply chains to create “partner hubs” for storing merchandise — a challenging process, given its dependence on big depots.

Attacks cause a ripple effect

Ukrainian officials have said Wildberries sells gear and technical components, including drones, to the military. Moscow denied it, but such dual-use items as drone components, flak jackets or thermal weapon sights remain available on the platform.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the attacks were designed to disrupt military supplies, breed popular discontent and cause a domino effect in the Russian economy by putting stress on major banks, including VTB and Sberbank, that made massive loans to Wildberries.

Wildberries’ debts were estimated at the equivalent of about $15 billion at the end of 2025.

Russia's small and medium businesses already have been hit hard by tax increases, regulatory hurdles and, most recently, a fuel crisis from attacks on oil refineries.

Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultancy, said Monday the attacks have exacerbated Russia's business environment and are an attempt by Kyiv “to undermine public confidence.”

“There is a segment of the manufacturing sectors in Russia and elsewhere that are definitely suffering significantly from that,” he said.

Wildberries had recently changed its seller policy, exempting it from liability for stock damaged by a “force majeure” that includes drone attacks.

Kim pledged to support sellers with discounts on storage, free transfer of goods to other sites, discounted loans and other measures. Wildberries also issued some reimbursements that covered only a fraction of the losses.

Russia’s Central Bank has asked lenders to restructure loans to small and medium businesses that lost merchandise.

Meanwhile, many owners of Wildberries pickup points face lost revenue amid the plunging deliveries. Some vented frustrations on social media about going out of business.

The lost goods mean tens of thousands of small businesses can't continue to operate, service their loans or pay taxes. Many are pleading for government support.

Galeotti said the strikes reflected Kyiv's effort to bring the war home to Russia.

“It’s not just about seeing great clouds of black smoke over your cities because of some oil refinery on the outskirts being hit," he said. "You might be a small business whose inventory has just gone up in smoke in one of the Wildberries’ warehouses. Or else you just simply might be an ordinary consumer who just suddenly is no longer going to get the goods that you plan to buy.”

Some analysts warn the attacks could fuel stronger anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western fervor.

The Wildberries attacks have played into the hands of Russian hawks who urge escalating the war, said pro-Kremlin political expert Sergei Markov.

“It strengthens the view that it’s necessary to hit Europe,” he said. “And better sooner than later.”

Former President Dmitry Medvedev sought to stir up anger at Ukraine for trying to destroy an essential daily routine for millions.

“Our enemy is fighting not the Russian leadership or the army, but ordinary citizens,” he said.

At a meeting on Monday, the city council will hold a discussion about policies governing the use of LPRs and safeguards in place to prevent misuse of the program.

The discussion was scheduled after a resident brought up a concern at a meeting on August 3 that use of LPRs may be a violation of citizens’ rights under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“You are now having a geo-fenced search running in the city at all times,” the resident said. “Residents should not have to surrender their privacy, simply to be told an unproven surveillance system makes us safer.”

Last year, the city council adopted a resolution approving the lease of eight license plate readers from Flock Group, Inc.

Flock is a private company that provides automated license plate recognition technology. Its cameras capture a vehicle’s license plate along with information such as the vehicle’s make, model, and color.

The system also records the time, date, and location associated with a vehicle and stores that information for a limited period.

The stated goal is to help law enforcement identify vehicles connected to crimes.

But critics argue the technology creates a widespread surveillance network that can track where people drive — raising concerns about privacy and how that information is accessed and shared.

John Powers is an Oviedo resident and would like to see the city reverse course on its LPR policy.

“I think they’re an absolute invasion of privacy. It’s an assumption of guilt until proven guilty,” Powers said. “They can reconsider it. I hope they consider taking them away.”

The city council will discuss the police department’s license plate reader program during its meeting on Monday at 6:30 p.m.

The upcoming departures of Gov. Mark Gordon and U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, along with U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s decision to run to replace Lummis, marks the first time in 32 years that Wyoming has had open seats for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House at the same time. The races for Wyoming Secretary of State and state Superintendent of Public Instruction are also open seats, with both incumbents seeking higher office.

All statewide elected offices in Wyoming currently are held by Republicans.

Gordon considered seeking a third term and challenging a state term limit law but ultimately decided against it. Four candidates now seek the Republican nomination to replace him: state Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, former state House Speaker and current state Sen. Eric Barlow, retired Marine Corps colonel and 2022 gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien, and professional bull rider and rodeo producer Curt Blake.

The Degenfelder and Barlow campaigns are on roughly even financial footing, with Degenfelder raising about $1.3 million and Barlow raising about $1.2 million. Bien raised about $192,000, while Blake reported raising no money.

President Donald Trump has endorsed Degenfelder. The winner will face Democrat Kenneth Casner in November.

Among the five Republicans running to replace Lummis in the U.S. Senate are Hageman, former Kirby Mayor Sam Mead and former environmental services business owner Jimmy Skovgard.

Hageman is in her second term in Congress. She was Trump’s pick in 2022 to defeat then-U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the president’s harshest Republican critics following the attack on the U.S. Capitol and his attempts to remain in office after his 2020 election defeat.

Trump has once again endorsed Hageman in her U.S. Senate bid. She has raised about $2.4 million for her campaign, nearly 10 times that of Mead, her closest competitor in fundraising.

The winner will likely face former Democratic state Rep. James Byrd, who is the only candidate in the two-person primary field to report raising any money for the campaign.

Nine active candidates are competing for the Republican nomination to replace Hageman in the U.S. House in what’s shaping up to be the most expensive contest on Tuesday’s ballot. The field includes former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, Senate President Bo Biteman, businessmen Steve Friess and Reid Rasner, and Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray.

Friess, Rasner and Gray have outspent the rest of the field, thanks to sizable loans each candidate has made to their campaigns. Friess, who is a son of the late Republican megadonor Foster Friess, loaned $3 million to his campaign. Rasner loaned about $1.9 million to his campaign, while Gray floated his campaign about $1.4 million.

Neither Trump nor Hageman have made an endorsement in the primary.

In the Democratic primary, former Democratic state Sen. Lisa Kinney, like Byrd in the U.S. Senate race, faces an opponent who has not raised any money.

About half of Wyoming’s 31 state Senate seats and all 62 state House seats are up for election in 2026. Democrats hold only eight seats across both chambers, giving Republicans overwhelming supermajorities. Republican members of the conservative Freedom Caucus movement hold an outright majority in the state House.

Laramie and Natrona counties, home to Cheyenne and Capser, respectively, are the state’s most populous and most influential in statewide elections. Campbell, Sweetwater, Fremont, Sheridan and Park counties also tend to play important roles in primaries. Albany and Teton counties are the most Democratic-friendly in the state and tend to have an outsized say in Democratic primaries. They were the only counties that Cheney carried against Hageman in the 2022 primary, before a 2023 law prohibited Democrats and Republicans from changing their party affiliation at the polls.

The winners of Tuesday’s Republican primaries will have an advantage heading into the general election in a state that’s only elected one Democrat statewide in more than 30 years. Wyoming is one of the most reliably Republican states in the country. It was Trump’s best state in 2024 and 2020 and his second-best state in 2016.

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. MT, which is 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, treasurer, state school superintendent, state Senate and state House.

Who gets to vote?

Only voters registered with a political party may participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary. Voters registered with a party had been able to change their party affiliations at the polls on Election Day, but the 2023 law ended that practice.

How many voters are there?

As of August 1, there were about 272,000 registered voters in Wyoming, including about 212,000 Republicans, about 30,000 Democrats and about 25,000 voters not affiliated with any party.

How many people actually vote?

About 104,000 Republicans and about 10,000 Democrats participated in the 2024 state primaries for U.S. Senate. More Republicans voted in the 2022 primary for governor, with about 164,000 voters casting ballots, compared to about 7,000 in the Democratic primary. 2022 was the last statewide primary held before the law restricting party affiliation changes was enacted.

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

About 30% of the Republican primary vote and about 52% of the Democratic primary vote in the 2024 state primary was from absentee ballots cast either in-person or by mail.

As of Friday, about 30,900 Republican primary ballots and about 4,300 Democratic primary ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

In recent elections, more than half of Wyoming counties released all their vote results in their first vote updates, regardless of vote type. Almost every county released at least some in-person Election Day vote results in their first vote updates.

Laramie County tends to release a significant amount of in-person Election Day vote before releasing any results from absentee voting.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 9:27 p.m. ET, or 27 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 12:58 a.m. ET with about 98% 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?

Recounts in Wyoming are automatic if the vote margin is less than 1% of the votes cast for the winning candidate. Candidates alleging fraud or error in the result may request and pay for a recount. The cost is covered by the affected counties if the recount changes the result. 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 77 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

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

Trump cited his good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the decision, a likely bid to reengage with Kim, who views U.S.-South Korean military exercises as invasion rehearsals. But experts say the North Korean leader, now emboldened by his advancing nuclear arsenal and expanding military cooperation with Russia, won’t likely return to talks unless he is assured of serious U.S. concessions.

The 11-day, summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises began Monday morning as scheduled and it wasn’t known which parts of the training were being downsized. Trump's announcement baffled many in South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia where national security is a top priority due to threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.

Trump orders military to ‘substantially reduce’ drills

Trump said in a social media post that the exercises are not only costly but “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his time in the White House.

Trump instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” the exercises. He added that he recently asked President Lee Jae Myung if South Korea would join the U.S. in the “denuclearization” of Iran, “and they said, ‘No thanks!’”

Trump’s move is the latest example of the American president appearing to turn against an ally in favor of a leader cast by previous administrations as an adversary. Trump and others in his administration also have railed against NATO allies over a perceived lack of support for his war against Iran, even as they seek to confront an increasingly aggressive Russia in the Baltic region.

The trust many South Koreans have in the U.S. has eroded following a tariff war instigated by Trump’s administration and his transactional approach to security.

South Korea hopes for talks between US and North Korea

The office of South Korea's president said later Monday that the government hopes “friendly relationship” between Trump and Kim would lead to “meaningful dialogue” between the U.S. and North Korea and start discussions on promoting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. It said that South Korea will make necessary diplomatic efforts for that.

South Korea and the U.S. are closely discussing practical and military contributions that can be made to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to South Korea's presidential office.

Lee is a liberal who espouses improved ties with North Korea. Since taking office last year, his government has taken proactive steps to improve ties with North Korea, including turning off front line loudspeakers that blared K-pop music and world news. On Saturday, Lee offered to hold talks to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The conservative People Power Party, the main opposition party, lambasted Lee for allegedly “turning a blind eye on the public's security concerns” caused by Trump's announcement and prioritizing hopes for U.S.-North Korea diplomacy.

North Korea has shunned any talks with South Korea and the U.S. and accelerated weapons testing activities since Kim's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with Trump broke down in 2019. Kim also has bolstered his diplomatic credentials by aligning with Russia over its war against Ukraine and taking steps to deepen cooperation with China.

In September 2025, Kim suggested he could resume talks with the American president if the U.S. drops “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea. Experts say Kim likely aims to use his enlarged nuclear arsenal to win major concessions like extensive sanctions relief.

“Trump’s recent social media posts about Kim Jong Un suggest a willingness to reengage, but North Korea is busy profiting from Russia’s war against Ukraine while modernizing its own military,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

Downsizing the U.S. and South Korean drills “can damage alliance coordination, slow the process of South Korea taking on greater responsibility for its own defense, and weaken deterrence against possible conflicts in Asia,” Easley said.

Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at Washington’s Center for a New American Security, said “reducing joint drills weakens military readiness over time against another potential North Korean attack.”

Military drills test tactics and anger North Korea

South Korea's military earlier said the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises this year would be similar to previous years in scale, with about 18,000 South Korean soldiers taking part.

The U.S. military said the drills would incorporate lessens from recent conflicts such as North Korea's battlefield experiences in the Russia-Ukraine front, while including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing and distribution of prepositioned military equipment.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry on Friday accused the U.S. and South Korea of plotting more provocative drills this year and vowed to respond with “a new level of a deterrent.” Earlier this month, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea in a likely protest of the drills.

Duyeon Kim, the analyst, said North Korea uses U.S.-South Korean drills “for domestic propaganda purposes to create a false narrative of a hostile America and justify its nuclear weapons program.”

This is not the first time Trump has sought to suspend the drills. After his first summit with Kim in 2018, Trump unilaterally announced the suspension of the U.S.-South Korean summertime exercises, calling them “very provocative” and “tremendously expensive.”

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea feels less urgency to return to talks with the U.S. and South Korea now than when it entered talks with its rivals in 2018, but is unlikely to completely ignore Trump's overture.

He predicted North Korea will likely say it has noted Trump's post but will wait for further action showing the U.S. intends to drop hostilities against North Korea.

Jeanine Rising calls the mystery aircraft “5 O’Clock Charlie.”

“We started getting woke up at 5:00 in the morning by a plane buzzing overhead,” Rising said. “Almost every single night we’re getting buzzed at 5:00 in the morning.”

Rising has lived near Space Coast Regional Airport since 2012 and said she is accustomed to aircraft and even rocket launches. She said these early-morning flights are different.

Sometimes, Rising said, the aircraft passes only once. Other mornings, she hears three or four passes roughly 10 minutes apart, lasting about half an hour.

She said she has submitted several complaints to the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority but has not received an explanation.

So News 6 started looking.

Brevard County Mosquito Control Director Joseph Faella ruled out his agency’s aircraft, saying the reported time and frequency did not match mosquito control operations.

News 6 then reviewed Flightradar24 data.

On Friday morning, the tracking data showed aircraft N2190P passing over Rising’s area around 5:14 a.m. Rising said she was awakened by an especially loud pass at about 5:18 a.m.

News 6 also reviewed Thursday morning’s flights and found N4136P circling above the same area around the time Rising reported hearing the aircraft.

An employee at Volare, a flight school based at Space Coast Regional Airport, confirmed to News 6 that both aircraft are part of the school’s operation.

The employee said pilots fly during those early-morning hours to maintain “nighttime currency,” which refers to federal requirements for pilots to maintain recent nighttime takeoff and landing experience before carrying passengers at night.

Those requirements do not mandate that the flights take place specifically at 5 a.m.

Volare’s owner was not available Friday to answer questions about why the school uses those early-morning hours or whether the flights could be moved later.

News 6 also emailed and left a voicemail with the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority but had not received a response as of Friday evening.

Rising said she is simply looking for relief.

“Just get somebody to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to quit doing this,’” she said. “So I can get some sleep.”

Speaking at The Plaza Live, Dyer pointed to a 19% citywide reduction in crime last year as one of Orlando’s biggest achievements, noting the city recorded just 10 homicides — the fewest in 50 years and the largest decrease in homicides of any major U.S. city.

“These numbers are more than just statistics,” Dyer said. “They represent secure neighborhoods where residents can sleep better knowing they’re supported by officers working day and night to protect us all.”

On housing, Dyer said Orlando has added nearly 24,000 residential units over the last six years — equivalent to every home in Altamonte Springs. The city’s “Orlando Unlocked” initiative is modernizing zoning, streamlining approvals and converting vacant city-owned lots into affordable housing.

Dyer also highlighted the Vision Zero traffic safety program, crediting more than 100 safety projects with a 40% drop in deadly and serious injury crashes since 2020 — representing 60 lives saved.

Closing the address, Dyer urged residents to pay close attention to Amendment 3 on the November ballot, warning that if passed, Orlando could lose up to $80 million annually in property tax revenue — threatening police, fire, parks and other essential services.

“Our decisions at the ballot box in November will shape how cities and counties provide the services we all depend on,” he said.

Although the state has long been safe Republican territory in federal elections, this year marks the third consecutive election cycle in which Alaska finds itself among a handful of states at the center of the fight for control of Congress.

At the top of the ballot, Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan faces a strong challenge from Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in his bid for a third term. They are the most notable contenders among 16 candidates in the state’s all-party primary, in which the top four vote-getters will advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. The winner in November will be determined by ranked choice voting, as is the case for all Alaska general elections following a new law approved by voters in 2020.

Sullivan was first elected in 2014 after defeating Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, 48% to 46%. He won his 2020 reelection with 54% of the vote and a 13-percentage-point lead over his Democratic opponent.

Peltola was first elected in a 2022 special election to replace longtime Republican congressman Don Young, who died after almost 50 years in office. She defeated Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich in Alaska’s first statewide ranked choice voting election. She was elected to a full term later that year but lost her 2024 reelection bid to Begich, who is the nephew of the former U.S. senator.

Peltola has raised about $18.5 million for her campaign, compared with about $11.7 million for Sullivan. As of July 29, Sullivan had about $7.3 million in his campaign account, compared with about $4.6 million for Peltola.

The only other U.S. Senate candidate who reported raising any money was another Dan Sullivan, a former teacher who shares the same first and last name as the Republican incumbent. Republicans tried unsuccessfully to block the other Dan Sullivan from appearing on the ballot, accusing him of colluding with Democrats to help elect Peltola by confusing voters, which he and the Peltola campaign have denied. An Alaska court overturned efforts to boot the challenger from the ballot.

Sen. Sullivan will appear on the ballot as “Dan S. Sullivan” alongside the labels of “Registered Republican” and “Incumbent.” Challenger Sullivan will be listed as “Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.” without any party affiliation listed, although he filed for office as a Republican.

Nick Begich also faces a crowded field in his bid for a second term in the state’s lone congressional seat, but only commercial fisherman and former Bristol Bay Borough School Superintendent Bill Hill has emerged as a credible challenger. Hill is running as an independent, but he has the backing of several local union organizations as well as that of Anchorage pastor Matt Schultz, the top Democrat in the race before he suspended his campaign and endorsed Hill.

Begich raised about $5.5 million for the campaign, compared with about $1.3 million for Hill, and the incumbent sits atop a far larger campaign war chest.

Seventeen candidates are running to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Among them is former Gov. Bill Walker, who is running as an independent.

Republican candidates include former state Sens. Click Bishop, Shelley Hughes and Lesil McGuire, former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, former state revenue Commissioner Adam Crum, Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor Edna DeVries, former state Attorney General Treg Taylor and business owner and conservative activist Bernadette Wilson.

Former state Sen. Tom Begich and former state Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins are the two Democrats in the race. Begich is the brother of Mark Begich and the uncle of Nick Begich.

Voters will also decide a statewide ballot measure that would impose contribution limits on state and local political campaigns. A 2021 federal court ruling lifted limits on what an individual could give a candidate.

Half of Alaska’s 20 state Senate seats and all 40 state House seats are up for election in 2026. Republican lawmakers outnumber Democratic lawmakers, but both chambers are organized by multiparty coalitions rather than along strict party lines.

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 midnight and 1 a.m. ET. Almost all polls in the state close at midnight ET, but one polling location in the Aleutian Islands closes at 1 a.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, as well as a statewide ballot measure.

Who gets to vote?

Any voter registered in Alaska may participate in the state’s all-party, top-four primary system.

How many voters are there?

As of Aug. 3, there were about 602,000 registered voters in Alaska. About 380,000 voters, roughly 63%, were either undeclared or nonpartisan voters; about 142,000, or 24%, were Republicans; and about 70,000, or 12%, were Democrats.

How many people actually vote?

Roughly 190,000 voters participated in the 2022 U.S. Senate and gubernatorial primaries. About 108,000 voters participated in the 2024 U.S. House primary.

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

About 23% of the U.S. Senate primary vote and about 28% of the U.S. House primary vote in the 2022 state primary was cast early in person or by mail.

As of Thursday, about 18,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

When are early and absentee votes released?

A mix of vote results from in-person Election Day and early in-person voting are released in the first vote update of the night. Typically, nearly all in-person Election Day results and in-person early voting results are released by the last update of the night, with the bulk of mail voting results released in the days following election night.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 1:03 a.m. ET, or three minutes after final polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 4:58 a.m. ET, with about 89% of total votes counted. The count reached 100% on Sept. 1 at 6:57 p.m. ET, 12 days after the election.

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 Alaska are automatic in the event of a tie vote. Candidates may also request and pay for a recount. 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 77 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

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

That’s true — with a caveat. Wasserman Schultz is seeking her 12th term by running in a new district after Republicans scrambled the state’s congressional map earlier this year.

The fallout pushed Wasserman Schultz, a former national party chair with powerful ties in Washington, to cross district lines from her Fort Lauderdale exurb and be the only white candidate against four Black candidates in an area of Broward County that has helped send Black Democrats to Congress since 1992. That’s yielded an uncomfortable fight following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act provisions undergirding minority voting strength and effectively cleared Old Confederacy states, including Florida, to reshape House districts.

“For her to come in like this is just another Broward seat, it's a complete erasure of our history, our fight for Black access,” said former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, 47, who resigned from the seat in April while facing an ethics investigation but now wants it back.

Another candidate, 27-year-old progressive organizer and substitute teacher Elijah Manley, said Republicans’ redistricting ploy is not Wasserman Schultz’s fault. But she “had other options,” Manley added, including running in her new home district, which was gerrymandered to include the more conservative Gulf Coast.

“Instead, she stabbed us in the back, trying to take away Black representation,” Manley said, pointing to Congressional Black Caucus warnings that it could lose more than a quarter of its 60-plus members this fall.

Wasserman Schultz, 59, is by far the best funded out of five Democratic candidates and benefits from Florida rules that do not require a majority to win primaries.

She argued that she can ably advocate for the whole region after representing wide swaths of Broward as a state and federal legislator across three decades. “I’m not air dropping myself into this district,” she told The Associated Press. “I have represented diverse communities. I know how to tailor my service to them and represent a district more broadly.”

A win by Wasserman Schultz would be a rarity

President Donald Trump started pushing Republican-run states to redraw House boundaries last year to help preserve the party's fragile majority. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded with an effort that clusters southeast Florida Democrats together, intending to reduce five Democratic seats to three. Broward, the state’s most Democratic county, situated between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, now has just one presumed-Democratic district anchored in and around Fort Lauderdale.

Nationally, white lawmakers typically hold some of the 115-plus House seats where the voting-age population is majority non-white. Wasserman Schultz does it in her existing north Broward-Palm Beach district, which was drawn after the 2020 census to be 42% Hispanic, 18% Black and about 6% Asian American. White voters compose the remaining third.

But a white lawmaker is a rarity for majority or plurality Black districts, like the new Florida 20th. The district is 42% Black, 23% Hispanic and 4% Asian, the rest white. The Black share includes a large Caribbean population, most notably Haitian Americans.

Going into November, an Associated Press analysis found that Wasserman Schultz is the only white Democrat positioned to represent any of the remaining districts with a Black majority or plurality.

Cherfilus-McCormick said she can win, despite losing Black constituents she previously represented in Palm Beach County. She dismissed concerns over federal criminal charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds. She has pleaded not guilty and has denied alleged violations of House rules.

The criminal case and redistricting fit together, she insisted, and “the people see what’s going on — them trying to silence the only Haitian member of Congress and take away our voice.”

Manley, though, was more circumspect about Wasserman Schultz’s status as the favorite. He mused about upsetting the veteran congresswoman on Tuesday yet looked ahead to the 2028 elections, hoping Black Democrats rally around one candidate rather than four. The current field also includes former 2 Live Crew rapper Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell and real estate broker and former local elected official Dale Holness.

Von Howard, a Black resident of Plantation, said the choice was wrenching. He declined to disclose his vote but said he wanted someone who “understands the totality of the district.”

“If you're not of the people, and you just want this for the clout, in some instances, that could be a turnoff,” the 47-year-old said.

Broward NAACP President Marsha Ellison was more direct, without endorsing any candidate.

“The whole mission was to take away Black power, so we don’t have representation to understand our lived experience,” she said. “That may not be important to Debbie, but it’s certainly important to us.”

There's a debate over what representation means

Wasserman Schultz said she occasionally hears those concerns from voters. Her response is that “lived experience matters, but experience broadly matters" as well.

She notes her Appropriations Committee seat, which could be even more influential should Democrats win a House majority. She recalls programs impacting Black communities she helped create and fund since her first years in the Florida Legislature.

“I fight every single day to help improve the lived experience of the people that I represent,” she said.

Wasserman Schultz also said she’s worked to connect across race and culture in Broward. Because of her existing district makeup, “I spent six years learning Spanish,” to converse with individuals and in town halls, news conferences and interviews broadcast on Spanish-language stations.

“Out of respect,” she said, “anything I can do to inspire people’s confidence that the person representing them understands them.”

Wasserman Schultz is a recognizable figure

Several times outside of early voting sites, Black, white and Hispanic voters waved or stopped to talk to the congresswoman. Among them were Broward County sheriff’s deputies who wanted photos and a trio of women who lamented they had been drawn into a new Republican-leaning district.

Yusdefs Delgado, a naturalized citizen from Colombia, told Wasserman Schultz that he enjoys her social media posts but wants to hear more about policy and less about the president.

“We know Trump sucks,” he told her, smiling and confirming that he voted for her. “I don’t agree with her on everything, but she’s closest to where I am, and I trust her to try to do the right thing for us,” Delgado explained later.

Cherfilus-McCormick and Manley said that’s not enough given the environment after the Supreme Court decision, Trump’s attacks on diversity initiatives and his push to rewrite how the U.S. tells its history on race and racism.

“We’re not at a place in this country where we can be completely colorblind politically,” Manley said. “We’re just not.”

Wasserman Schultz said the new district “is drawn in a way that the plurality population has the ability to elect the person of their choice” — language that alludes to the now-diminished Voting Rights Act. Voters, she said, can “consider all of the qualities that matter to them.”

As for putting herself on the ballot again, she remained unapologetic.

“Trump and DeSantis did this to our community,” she said, adding, “I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them steal Broward’s political power, de-unify us and prevent us from standing up for our community’s values.”

___

Associated Press journalist Matthew Klein contributed from Washington.

With two Democrats competing on the ballot, the seat in California’s 14th Congressional District is guaranteed to remain under Democratic control and further narrow an already fragile Republican majority in the chamber.

State Sen. Aisha Wahab and Bay Area Rapid Transit Board President Melissa Hernandez were the finalists in the June 16 special primary, in which the top two finishers regardless of party affiliation advanced to Tuesday’s special election. The two also will compete in the fall in a slightly redrawn district for a full term that begins in January 2027.

Wahab placed first in both the June 16 special primary and the June 2 primary for the full-term seat to replace Swalwell, who has denied the allegations against him. In both contests, Wahab led Hernandez by more than 20 percentage points.

Hernandez has more than doubled Wahab’s fundraising and spending for the campaign, but as of the end of July the two were on roughly even footing in terms of cash in the bank.

The race has also attracted the attention of several outside groups, including some affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization. United Democracy Project, a super political action committee backed by AIPAC, spent $1.2 million on the race in August in support of Hernandez and in opposition to Wahab, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Another group, Bold America, which has received funding from United Democracy Project, has spent about $1.7 million on the race since the special primary, also in support of Hernandez and in opposition to Wahab.

Collectively, outside groups have spent about $4.1 million on the race since mid-July. About $3.7 million was spent to benefit Hernandez’s campaign, compared with just shy of $400,000 to benefit Wahab’s.

The boundaries of the 14th Congressional District were redrawn as part of a new congressional map approved by voters in a 2025 statewide ballot measure known as Proposition 50. The map goes into effect for the full-term seat in January, while the winner of the special election will serve under the current boundaries for the remainder of the year.

Proposition 50 was placed on the ballot in response to mid-decade redistricting efforts led by President Donald Trump in several Republican-controlled states. While the plan created a congressional map more favorable to Democrats, no dramatic changes were made to the 14th District. Under the current boundaries, Democrats make up 50.4% of registered voters in October, compared with 17.6% for Republicans. Under the new boundaries, Democrats comprise about 49.7% of registered voters as of mid-May, compared with about 17.4% for Republicans.

In 2024, Democratic then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried the current 14th District with 65.8% of the vote in the presidential election against Trump. If the election had been held under the new boundaries, Harris would have received 65.4% of the vote.

Both versions of the district are contained entirely within Alameda County in the East Bay. The current district includes Hayward, Livermore, Pleasanton and Union City, as well as parts of San Leandro, Fremont and Dublin.

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. PT, which is 11 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot?

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare a winner in the 14th Congressional District special election.

Who gets to vote?

Any registered voter in the current version of California’s 14th Congressional District may participate in the special election.

How many voters are there?

As of May 2026, there were about 423,000 registered voters in the 14th Congressional District, including about 210,000 Democrats, about 73,000 Republicans and about 116,000 voters with no party preference.

How many people actually vote?

Nearly 124,000 voters cast ballots in the June 16 special primary. About 276,000 people voted in the regularly scheduled 2024 general election in the 14th District.

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

About 98% of votes in the June 16 special primary were from absentee ballots delivered in person or by mail.

As of Wednesday, about 52,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, about 32,500 from Democrats, about 7,800 from Republicans and the rest from unaffiliated or third-party voters.

When are early and absentee votes released?

In Alameda County, the first vote update of the night usually includes only results from mail voting, but the county typically still has a sizable number of mail ballots left to tally by the next morning.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the June 16 special primary, the AP first reported results at 11:17 p.m. ET, or 17 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 1:03 a.m. ET, with about 87% of total votes counted. The vote count reached 99.9% complete at 7:26 p.m. ET on June 18.

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 California. Any registered voter may request and pay for a recount. 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 77 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

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

MONDAY

Afternoon temperatures will climb into the mid to upper 90s, sending heat index values well into the triple digits.

A heat advisory remains in effect for all of Florida from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. as feels-like temperatures soar over 110 degrees.

There will also be a chance for showers and storms, but the best coverage today will be from Kissimmee to Cape Canaveral and points north, where rain chances range from 20 to 50 percent.

Any storms that develop could produce frequent lightning, wind gusts up to 55 mph and heavy downpours. Westerly winds aloft will push storms eastward and eventually offshore through the evening.

Rain outlook

As moisture gradually spreads across Central Florida, rain and storm chances will increase closer to normal levels through the week. Expect roughly a 40 to 60 percent chance of afternoon and evening storms each day.

The persistent west to offshore flow will continue to push storms toward the east coast and offshore. The main concerns with stronger storms will remain lightning, gusty winds and heavy rainfall.

Temperature outlook

The dangerous heat will continue through at least Wednesday, and additional Heat Advisories remain possible.

By the latter half of the week, increasing moisture, clouds, and rain chances may help temperatures trend slightly closer to normal.

The crash happened Friday night around 8:15 p.m.

According to an FHP report, a 2019 Honda Insight was hit as it exited a parking lot on Wickham Road by a truck approaching the Capron Trail intersection. Both cars ran off the road.

A 42-year-old woman in the Honda Insight died at the hospital, and two people in the other car had non-life-threatening injuries, troopers said.

The crash remains under investigation.

The crash happened around 10:30 a.m. near mile marker 242 northbound, near the exit for U.S. 192 / Orange Blossom Trail in Kissimmee.

Three people were transported with non-life-threatening injuries, troopers said

The crash is under investigation.

One person died in a landslide that struck an apartment building in the southern city of Geoje on Monday, the Interior and Safety Ministry said in a report. It said two people were injured in Geoje and two others in nearby cities.

The heavy rains that have pummeled southern South Korea since Saturday have forced about 390 people to evacuate to safe places and caused power outages at about 3,580 houses, the ministry report said.

In the Philippines, heavy monsoon rains flooded key streets and snarled traffic early Monday in the densely populated region of metropolitan Manila and a dozen outlying provinces, forcing the government to suspend government work and cancel classes at all levels starting at noon. Schools were asked to shift to online learning.

About three weeks of intermittent monsoon rains and a storm that lashed the main northern island region of Luzon two weeks ago left at least 23 people dead, mostly due to landslides and floods, and affected 5 million people, including nearly 25,000, who remained in government emergency shelters on Monday in several northern provinces, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

Among the dead were 10 people, including children, whose houses were buried by an Aug. 9 landslide in the northern mountain resort city of Baguio. Three others were dug out alive with injuries by rescuers from the avalanche of mud, rocks and debris that collapsed from a mountainside as people slept, officials said.

Crews responded to the 30 block of East Princeton Street. The fire was mostly contained to the garage and garage attic, firefighters said. Crews quickly extinguished the fire and searched both units, confirming no one was trapped.

Crews were able to prevent significant damage to living areas.

Red Cross has been notified for those displaced, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Check back for updates.

Lanes were closed at Roger Williams Road but have since reopened.

No word on the cause of the water main break.

Tim Adams, owner of Clermont Orthodontics, is preparing to distribute a four-page letter to businesses throughout downtown Clermont this week. The letter urges local businesses to oppose the possibility of a parking garage at the city parking lot near 7th Street and West Minneola Avenue.

“I’m going to present this letter to all the businesses in the downtown Clermont area so that they have an idea of what’s at stake here,” Adams said.

Adams said his biggest concern is the potential size of the structure and how it could affect the visibility of businesses nearby.

“This would be a huge parking garage,” Adams said. “All the businesses over there would be blocked from view. They would be hidden behind this massive structure.”

Adams said businesses including Mullets, Family Table and other nearby businesses could be affected if a large parking structure is built at the site.

He contacted us after watching a News 6 report about the city’s efforts to evaluate potential locations for a downtown parking garage.

The city is currently considering two potential locations: one behind City Hall and another near Minneola Avenue and 7th Street. The city has formed a special committee to evaluate the potential project and its possible locations.

Mike Wacht with the City of Clermont said the Minneola Avenue and 7th Street location already has parking, which could make it easier to develop.

“There’s already parking, existing parking there,” Wacht said. “So it doesn’t require redevelopment. It doesn’t require knocking down buildings or having an impact on the commercial district.”

But some residents are concerned about how a parking garage could affect traffic in the surrounding neighborhood.

Jared Batchelor, a Clermont resident, said additional traffic could create safety concerns for pedestrians and people using scooters and bicycles.

“You’re going to increase accidents,” Batchelor said. “You have a lot of kids going around on motorized scooters. Motorized bikes, got a lot of pedestrians with their foot traffic, with their pets. Pushing traffic through the residential side is never a good thing.”

The area near 7th Street and Minneola Avenue is already used for public parking. City information lists multiple downtown parking areas, including lots along 7th Street between Montrose Street and Minneola Avenue and between Minneola Avenue and Osceola Street.

Another potential location is just up the street, behind City Hall.

Some residents say they would prefer a location farther from the waterfront while still keeping the garage within walking distance of downtown.

“Let’s not try to start the waterfront,” Clermont resident Adam Atherton said. “Maybe something that’s back a couple of blocks so you can still get there.”

Amanda Walsh, owner of Cheeser’s Palace Cafe, said putting a garage near the waterfront could affect the real estate surrounding downtown.

“If you put it down by the water, you really take away from the real estate that impacts the downtown area,” Walsh said.

For now, no final location, design or size for the parking garage has been approved.

The special committee will continue evaluating the potential locations and other details of the project before making a recommendation to city leaders. News 6 reported that the committee is considering the City Hall and Minneola Avenue/7th Street sites.

The debate comes as Clermont continues to consider how to provide additional downtown parking while balancing the needs of businesses, residents and the city’s existing downtown environment.

According to an FHP report, the driver of a GMC Yukon was leaving a driveway onto Hawaiian Court when they hit the 80-year-old, who was walking in the road. The man went to the hospital, where he died, and the driver stayed on scene.

The driver was not injured.

The crash is under investigation.

In just two years, a wave of major solar companies has filed for bankruptcy, the latest being Freedom Forever in April of this year, leaving customers confused, frustrated, and stuck with systems they don’t know how to manage.

Susan Bradley and Norman Beyer say the solar panels on their roof aren’t a symbol of energy savings; they are a reminder of what the couple calls the biggest financial mistake of their lives.

“I’m 74, he’s 80. I have made a few blunders in life. I will say this is probably the biggest one,” Bradley said.

The couple had been considering going solar when a door-to-door salesperson came knocking.

“He said, ‘If you’d like to talk to somebody and get some information,’ and I said yes,” Bradley recalled. “Should’ve said no, but I said yes.”

The pitch was straightforward: lower power bills and energy independence. The company, Freedom Forever, moved fast. Less than a week after signing the contract, crews were already on their roof.

“I do believe that was the reason they got them up there so fast because once they had them on the roof, we were in with them and there was no way out,” Beyer said.

Before they could even determine whether their panels were working, an email arrived from Freedom Forever, one of the largest residential solar installers in the country, announcing it was filing for bankruptcy.

“We’ve got this thing on our roof, and no idea what to do with it,” Bradley said. “We never saw this coming.”

Freedom Forever is far from alone. Over the past two years, a wave of major residential solar companies has filed for Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection:

• Freedom Forever
• Sunnova Energy International
• Titan Solar Power
• SunPower
• Lumio Solar
• Vision Solar
• Sunworks Inc.
• iSun Inc.
• ADT Solar (shut down)

Why are solar giants collapsing?

Industry experts point to a combination of high overhead costs and a shifting market. “The problem is that these bigger companies tend to have much higher overhead costs. And then when the market shifts, they can go bankrupt pretty quick,” said Luke McCarr, owner of Aspire Solar.

Reduced government subsidies and tax credits compounded the problem. U.S. Congressman Darren Soto said the loss of a key federal incentive hit the industry hard.

“We had a 40 percent solar tax credit until the big ugly law took it out last year. And so you have a lot of companies that were doing just fine, and then that incentive got taken away; they are in tough situations right now,” Soto said.

Local companies step in for ‘Orphan Customers’

While industry giants struggle, smaller local companies are picking up the pieces. Luke McCarr, owner of Aspire Solar in Central Florida, says his phone has been ringing nonstop with calls from abandoned customers.

“They’re super upset. They’re very frustrated. And I’m the one who has to pick up the phone,” McCarr said.

The demand was so consistent that McCarr created a dedicated service rate specifically for what he calls “orphan customers”- homeowners left behind when their solar installer went under.

“It just kind of made sense: ‘Okay, you need to be adopted, so we’ll help,” he said.

“Our regular service call is 300 bucks, but I noticed that these customers are really upset. So we slashed it. If your solar company went out of business, our first service call is now half price; it’s 150 bucks. We can fix whatever problem within an hour,” said McCarr.

What to do if your solar company went bankrupt

If your installer has gone under, industry experts say don’t panic. Here are the steps to take:

Contact the hardware manufacturer directly: When an installer files for bankruptcy, the physical equipment on your roof—panels and inverters—is made by independent, third-party manufacturers that are still in business. Start by identifying the brand names of your hardware. If you don’t have paper contracts, you can retrieve your complete permit package as a matter of public record from your local city or county building department. Then call the manufacturer’s support line directly. Major manufacturers maintain lists of certified local contractors in your area who can handle warranty claims and perform repairs.

Verify your permits and net-metering approval: A physical array on your roof doesn’t automatically mean your system is legally generating power or crediting your electric bill. Confirm with your local municipality that a building or electrical inspector officially passed and closed out your installation permit. Then contact your electric utility to verify that your Net-Metering Agreement or Permission to Operate (PTO) has been processed. Without that paperwork, excess energy your roof generates cannot be credited back to your monthly bill.

What to Know Before You Sign a Solar Contract

For homeowners still considering going solar, industry experts say a few key steps can prevent costly mistakes down the road:

Watch out for lease traps: Leasing options have grown across the solar industry, but they carry long-term financial commitments that catch many homeowners off guard. Federal tax credit rules generally prohibit homeowners from buying out a lease within the first five years. If you try to sell your home during that window, the buyer must agree to assume your exact monthly payment structure and annual rate escalations, which frequently stalls real estate transactions. Buyout terms after five years are often tied to vague “fair market value” language rather than a fixed number, leaving consumers vulnerable to unexpectedly high costs.

Size your system by kilowatt consumption, not dollar averages: The main reason homeowners end up paying double bills—a solar loan payment on top of a high utility bill—is an improperly sized system. Sales pitches often rely on rough monthly estimates like “my bill is usually $350,” which leads to underpowered installations. Pull your utility statements for the last full year and calculate your total annual electricity usage in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Ask any contractor to design a system that meets that exact kWh figure rather than a general dollar estimate.

Check your roof’s lifespan first: High-end solar panels are built to last 25 to 30 years, but removing and reinstalling an array to replace an aging roof can cost thousands in uncovered labor fees. Make sure your roof has at least 10 to 15 years of remaining lifespan before mounting equipment on top of it. If your roof is already 12 to 14 years old, it may be smarter to replace or repair it before installing solar.

Know what your hardware can and can’t do: Not all solar components last the same amount of time. Traditional string inverters, the boxes typically mounted on the side of a house, usually need replacement after 12 to 15 years. Micro-inverters mounted behind individual panels often match the full 25-year lifespan of the panels themselves. Also, standard solar panels alone will not keep your lights on during a grid outage. Panels require a functioning grid connection to transfer power unless the system is paired with battery storage.

It might make for a fascinating playoff race.

There are seven teams fighting for the final AL wild-card spot and all of them have a record below .500. The Baltimore Orioles would make the playoffs if the season ended Sunday, sporting a 61-63 record.

Right behind them: The Texas Rangers (61-64), Toronto Blue Jays (61-65), Detroit Tigers (60-64), Minnesota Twins (60-65), Cleveland Guardians (60-65) and Seattle Mariners (59-66). The Houston Astros could be in the mix as well with a 63-62 record that gives them a narrow advantage in the AL West.

Many of those teams were sellers at the trade deadline this month. The Blue Jays traded outfielder Daulton Varsho to the Astros, the Orioles traded former No. 1 pick Adley Rutschman to the Red Sox and the Tigers dealt ace Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers and right-hander Casey Mize to the Padres.

Now at least one of those teams might find itself playing baseball in October anyway.

Only three teams in MLB history have made the playoffs with a losing record and all of them happened during seasons when the schedule was much shorter than normal.

The 1981 Kansas City Royals (50-53) qualified for the postseason thanks to a split-season format caused by a players' strike during the middle of the summer. In 2020, the Houston Astros and Milwaukee Brewers both squeezed into the playoff bracket with a 29-31 record during the pandemic-shortened season that had an expanded playoff field of 16 teams.

Trivia question

Joshua Báez became the first player to hit three home runs in his big-league debut, leading the Cardinals to an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.

Only seven players have hit even two homers in their first regular-season game in the majors since 1900. Who are they?

The workhorse returns

Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara has had a great bounce-back season with a 13-7 record and 3.43 ERA after struggling last year following Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss the 2024 season.

He's also doing what he does best — pitch deep into games.

The 2022 National League Cy Young winner has already thrown 170 2/3 innings this year, which leads the big leagues by a large margin. If he continues at this pace, he'll throw roughly 220 innings in 2026.

Throwing more than 200 innings has become increasingly rare over the past few decades as teams lean more on their bullpens. Only three pitchers reached the mark last season — Logan Webb, Garrett Crochet and Cristopher Sanchez.

Just 20 years ago in 2006, there were 45 pitchers who hit 200 innings.

If Alcantara manages to make it to 220 this season, that will be most in the big leagues since — Sandy Alcantara. He threw 228 2/3 innings during 2022 when he won the Cy Young.

Dodgers in the dumps

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the two-time defending World Series champs and one of the favorites to win the title again this season.

They sure aren't playing like these days.

Los Angeles is 5-11 in its past 16 games, having been swept by the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs and losing series to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers in that span. Since July 1, the Dodgers are 18-21.

“I say this because it’s just been four or five, six weeks of below average production in our offense. It’s just the truth, and I think we have just haven’t played clean baseball for quite some time, and that speaks to the defense,” manager Dave Roberts said.

The Dodgers have a chance to gain some momentum this week with three games against the Colorado Rockies and three more against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Rockies are in last place in the NL West while the Pirates have fallen to 61-65 after a promising start to the season.

Trivia Answer

Jose Fernandez (D-backs, 2026), Chase DeLauter (Guardians, 2026), Trevor Story (Rockies, 2016), J.P. Arencibia (Blue Jays, 2010), Mark Quinn (Royals, 1999), Bert Campaneris (Kansas City Athletics, 1964), Bob Nieman (Browns, 1951)

___

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

The 41-year-old superstar’s contract with Riyadh club Al-Nassr, signed in December 2022, expires next June, and he has told Vogue magazine that another is unlikely.

“This is probably my last year of football, and I want to leave a spectacular legacy,” Ronaldo said.

The Portugal forward, who has scored 976 career goals, married long-time partner, Georgina Rodriguez, earlier this month.

“I have my future all mapped out,” he said. “I have so many things to keep me busy that to tell you just one thing is hard. Because football could leave a big hole, you have to fill your time in various ways, not just one.

“And also have more fun, travel more, watch and play padel, which I really like, and continue to enjoy what I’ve earned — what we’ve earned. Because after all, it’s been 25 years with a lot of sacrifice.”

The 2026-27 SPL season is Ronaldo’s 25th as a professional. During his career, he has won five Ballon d’Or awards and five UEFA Champions League titles.

Ronaldo’s 28 league goals last season helped Al-Nassr become champion of Saudi Arabia in May to secure his first trophy since arriving in Riyadh, and a first league title for the club since 2019.

After returning from his wedding, he missed Al-Nassr’s first game of its title defense on Saturday, watching from the sidelines as it opened with a 3-0 win over Al-Fateh.

“Cristiano is here today, and he is always present with us,” Al-Nassr coach Ange Postecoglou said after the game.

Ronaldo could play against Al-Diriyah in the King’s Cup on Tuesday.

“The most important thing now is recovery, especially as we have only two days after this match,” former Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest coach Postecoglou said.

Ronaldo’s comments came days after long-time rival Lionel Messi revealed that, following his father’s death, he may soon retire.

“I don’t know how to carry on,” Messi, 39, said. “I used to just play football, and now I’m really not sure if I’ll carry on doing it for much longer.”

__

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

However, that doesn’t mean it’s OK for you to start gathering them.

These plants are considered endangered, and state statutes explicitly prohibit anyone from purposefully destroying, harvesting or selling them — whether on public lands or someone else’s private property.

Instead, Florida law requires residents to have a permit to harvest saw palmetto berries on privately-owned land, potentially including your own.

That said, the law carves out an exception for people who who legally harvest or handle saw palmetto berries from up to two plants on their property for home or personal use. Just be sure not to sell or trade them without a permit.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd issued a reminder about this law last week when he discussed a recent arrest involving a man accused of harvesting these berries.

[RELATED: Sheriff Grady Judd discusses saw palmetto berry arrest]

That man — identified as Rodney Michael, 55 — was reported driving his truck through a wooded area on the campus of Warner University, Judd said.

“He hid his truck in the woods,” Judd explained. “Now, as you know, in this day and age, that’s shows red lights all over the place.”

Upon arrival, law enforcement found no one in the truck, though it was “full of saw palmetto berries,” Judd added.

“So our buddy here walks up and said, ‘That’s my momma’s truck,’” Judd continued.

However, Michael admitted to driving the truck there, thus being in possession of the palmetto berries, Judd said.

Now, he faces charges of trespassing, grand theft, dumping property without a permit, and harvesting palmetto berries without permission.

Meanwhile, you can find more information on how to obtain a permit to harvest saw palmetto berries by visiting the FDACS website here.

The report includes migration data between July 1, 2024, through July 1, 2025, examining which areas of the country saw the largest volumes of comers and goers.

[BELOW: The BEST beaches in Florida for summer 2026?]

While Florida has overall been a hotspot for movers in recent years, the report had some troubling results for the following counties:

• Pinellas County: Ranked No. 2 nationally for numeric population decline (-11,384 people)
• Miami-Dade County: Ranked No. 3 nationally for numeric population decline (-10,115 people)
• Taylor County: Ranked No. 1 nationally for percent population decline (-2.2%)
• Monroe County: Ranked No. 4 nationally for percent population decline (-2.0%)

But when it came to Central Florida, there were quite a few areas that saw a huge amount of growth instead.

For example, the Orlando metro area saw a nearly 40,000 gain in residents during this time, putting it No. 10 nationwide for numeric growth.

[BELOW: Why is Gen Z flocking to The Villages?]

And when it came to percentages, Ocala topped the entire country, with roughly 3.4% growth. The Lakeland metro area dipped just a bit under at No. 4, with 2.7% growth.

Last year, moveBuddha released its annual migration report, showing that Ocala had become the second-most popular city in America. The Villages, Palm Coast and St. Augustine followed closely behind.

“Ocala, FL, wasn’t the nation’s favorite in 2024, but this year, its in-to-out ratio has risen 74%, from 2.39 to an astronomical 3.09. Maybe that’s because it has landed on lists showcasing how to retire on a strict budget, or because its prices remain affordable compared to other Florida cities.

#2 Port St. Lucie, FL, and #3 Palm Coast, FL, have also seen 70%+ rises in their move ratios. In the case of Port St. Lucie, that’s skyrocketed its ranking up 113 places. What do all three of Florida’s most popular have in common? They’re retirement havens, affordable compared to nearby alternatives, and off the beaten path — none are truly commutable to Florida’s largest economic centers."

moveBuddha, "2025-2026 Migration Report"

[BELOW: The top attraction in the U.S. can be found on this Florida island]

Meanwhile, the full rankings of U.S. cities by population growth are as follows:

That idea drew the two-time Oscar nominee to “The Magic Faraway Tree,” a family adventure about Tim, a stay-at-home father whose family is forced to reconsider life after his wife, Polly, quits her job. They move to the countryside, where their children discover the magical Faraway Tree and its ever-changing worlds, sending the family into a series of fantastical adventures. The film, based on Enid Blyton’s children’s books, arrives in U.S. theaters on Friday.

For Garfield, the story’s themes of nature, imagination and community feel especially timely as technology increasingly shapes everyday life. “I think people are craving connection and community and a kind of reconnection to the earth and to each other,” he said.

Garfield said he became passionate about the project after reading Simon Farnaby’s screenplay. “I really just adore his sense of whimsy and heartfeltness and magic and joy,” he said. “I felt very, very passionate about it.”

Tim’s journey reflects the film’s larger ideas about finding wonder outside the routine and distractions of modern life. For Garfield, that sense of wonder extends beyond fantasy. “I think it’s all around us,” he said. “There are so many things to be in awe of on this planet.” The film, he said, is ultimately about recognizing that “there’s magic in the ordinary” as well as in the extraordinary.

Garfield, whose credits include playing Spider-Man, says he is drawn to roles with an element of play, community and the natural world. He focuses on “anything that keeps me awake to the remembering of the connection that we have to each other, the connection we have to nature, how we are all interconnected,” he said.

Garfield grew up reading Enid Blyton’s “The Famous Five” with his brother but did not read “The Faraway Tree” series as a child. His mother introduced him to another beloved literary adventurer: Bilbo Baggins, the hero of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.”

“Any underdog story, really, those are the ones that get me,” Garfield said.

Another childhood escape was the video store. Garfield remembers being fascinated by the rows of VHS tapes and the possibilities behind their covers. The habit has survived in a new form in adulthood: spending an evening browsing streaming services without picking anything, enjoying the feeling of looking “into the windows of all these imaginary worlds.”

That may help explain why Garfield welcomes the resurgence of VHS and other analog technology among younger audiences.

“I dig that,” he said. “The regression to analog is looking good to me.”

The deadline was Monday, and the two sides are further apart than they were then.

Talks, such as they are, have focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting a U.S. blockade on Iran, both of which were supposed to have happened under the interim deal. There has been no sign of any compromise on the strait, or that detailed nuclear talks have even begun.

The U.S., meanwhile, has no good options for getting out of the war it started alongside Israel.

Acceding to Iran's latest demands would mean giving it control over a critical international waterway that carried a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas before the war — and would be tantamount to admitting defeat. Escalating the deeply unpopular war would further draw down U.S. supplies of advanced missile interceptors, jolt the world economy, and drive up gas prices ahead of U.S. congressional elections.

So both sides have dug in, hoping the other will blink first. So far, neither has.

The interim deal collapsed weeks later

The June deal, known as the Memorandum of Understanding, called for a halt to all military operations and set a 60-day deadline for an agreement to permanently end the war and resolve the longstanding dispute over Iran's nuclear activities.

It called for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened but gave Iran a vaguely defined role in facilitating traffic, leaving open the possibility it could charge fees after the 60-day deadline. Iran has seized on that clause to claim control over the waterway.

A week after the deal was signed, Iran began firing on vessels using a route along the coast of Oman, on the other side of the strait, that is overseen by the U.S. military and intended to bypass Tehran's control.

The U.S. responded by striking Iran, which retaliated by attacking Arab countries hosting American forces, like Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain. The U.S. canceled waivers issued as part of the deal that had allowed Iran to sell its oil internationally and Trump restored a blockade of Iran's ports.

Each side accused the other of violating the June agreement, of which almost nothing remains.

The fighting eventually died down. A related truce in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah has mostly held, even as Israeli troops occupy large areas in the country's south. Lebanon's "territorial integrity and sovereignty" were to have been ensured under the June deal.

Iranian officials say they stopped negotiating with the U.S. in June, while acknowledging that messages have been relayed by intermediaries. Trump says the talks have continued, occasionally claiming progress after pulling back from threatening major strikes.

Pakistan, which played a key role in brokering the June agreement, noted last week that the deadline was Monday while expressing hope it would be extended.

“We are not closing the chapter,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said. “Pakistan is making all-out efforts to bring the two parties to the negotiating table.”

Iran's leaders think they can force Trump to give up the strait

Earlier this month, Iran issued a list of demands for reopening the strait, including the lifting of the American blockade, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from around Iran and the payment of reparations for damage inflicted in the war started by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

Even then, Iran has said it would control the strait — and potentially charge fees — through an agreement it is negotiating with Oman, and that the strait will not go back to being an open, toll-free waterway as it was before the war.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have meanwhile begun attacking Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, threatening another crucial trade route that had been used to relieve some of the pressure from the strait being closed.

Trump has rejected Iran's demands — saying it's Tehran that should pay war reparations and claiming the U.S. controls the strait. He appears to be banking on economic pressure — in the form of the blockade and longstanding sanctions — to bring Iran's rulers to their knees.

Iran's economy has been battered by the war and isolation, and inflation has soared. The crisis could stoke renewed anti-government protests, like those that were brutally crushed in January.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which rose immediately after the interim deal, is back to a small fraction of what it was before the war. Rising prices of fuel and other goods are expected to climb further the longer this continues with effects far beyond the Middle East.

The clock is still ticking for both sides.

___

Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed.

President Donald Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced last week during a visit to Panama that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to allow the U.S. to carry out joint military operations against criminal groups on their soil, following Ecuador, which launched similar missions with the U.S. in March. Guatemala, however, has denied reaching such an agreement.

It will be “like you saw with the strikes on the drug boats,” Hegseth said during a military drill in the jungle in Panama. “Same effect on land. And so we’re working with Ecuador. We’re working with Colombia. We’re working with partners to bring the fight to the (designated terrorist organizations) on land.”

The expansion marks a new phase in the Trump administration’s campaign to pressure governments across Latin America to align with its security priorities and assert what it calls “American dominance over the Western Hemisphere."

Voters across the region are increasingly embracing Trump-aligned leaders, giving Washington more willing partners. But critics warn that the widening U.S. military campaign risks civilian casualties and a backlash against the U.S. that could outlast the Republican administration.

“What's going on is an attempt to legitimize the increased use of the U.S. military in the region,” said Michael Shifter, a Latin America expert at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank. “It projects power, demonstrates military superiority and enables Washington to impose its agenda. This is not cooperation, it’s obviously a very asymmetrical relationship.”

Escalating unilateral boat strikes to joint land operations

The U.S. military has operated in Latin America for generations, supplying allies with weapons, intelligence and training to fight drug trafficking, while leaving a fraught legacy of support for military coups and dictatorships.

But since Trump returned to office in January 2025, Washington has pursued its most interventionist approach to the region in decades.

His administration has designated 20 Latin American criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organizations,” sent U.S. forces into Venezuela to capture its president and involved CIA agents in drug lab busts in Mexico. It has killed more than 200 people in over 60 boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, offering little evidence that those targeted were “narco-terrorists” and drawing questions about the strikes’ legality.

But sustained U.S. combat operations alongside local forces would be “new and different,” said William LeoGrande, a Latin America specialist at American University, testing deep-rooted sensitivities over national sovereignty and the presence of U.S. troops.

Hegseth provided few details about what joint operations with Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras would look like. But in Colombia, where Trump-backed Abelardo de la Espriella took office this month, he raised the prospect of U.S. forces joining strikes against armed groups including the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia’s last major guerrilla group. Hegseth said de la Espriella had requested greater U.S. military involvement.

“Anywhere you traffic drugs or you threaten the American people or our partners, you are a target just like ISIS or al-Qaida,” Hegseth said, equating drug traffickers with Islamic extremist groups that dominated U.S. national security priorities for decades.

On Saturday, following a drone attack by the ELN on troops, de la Espriella vowed the rebels would “pay a high price."

Concerns over US military presence in Latin America

Ecuador has emerged as the clearest case of direct U.S. military involvement, launching joint raids with Washington despite voters overwhelmingly rejecting foreign military bases in a November 2025 referendum. A New York Times investigation found that one strike on an alleged drug lab in March instead destroyed a cattle farm.

The push to extend such agreements has gained the most traction among Trump’s ideological allies in the region — conservative leaders elected on promises of aggressive crackdowns on crime in recent months.

Guatemala stands out as an exception. Its progressive government has worked closely with Washington on security despite political differences. But President Bernardo Arévalo has denied agreeing to joint anti-drug operations, saying they would be illegal without congressional approval.

Honduras, Colombia and Ecuador did not respond to requests for comment on Hegseth’s remarks.

A notable outlier from the new U.S. anti-trafficking alliance is Mexico, a major source and transit point for fentanyl and other drugs entering the U.S. Progressive President Claudia Sheinbaum has cooperated closely with Washington on security but resisted mounting pressure for a U.S. military role in fighting cartels on Mexican soil.

“Ultimately, the United States will have to define what ‘joint operations’ means in each of these countries. It may discover pretty quickly that this is something most governments — even governments on the right — are quite uncomfortable with," said Adam Isacson, a defense analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America.

'There is only so much sovereignty they can cede'

Observers question whether a more militarized approach would produce lasting security gains. Shifter said the campaign may serve partly as a show of force, building on the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the Trump administration seeks to offset foreign policy setbacks elsewhere, including in the Middle East.

Others warn the strategy risks civilian casualties, particularly in Colombia, where armed groups operate among civilian populations and often function as de facto authorities in areas beyond the state’s reach. Rather than beating back those groups, military strikes are more likely to force them to adapt, said Jeremy McDermott, co-director of the Colombia-based investigative organization InSight Crime.

“The U.S. bombs an ELN camp in Colombia or in Venezuela, what is the first thing the ELN are going to do? They’re going to dismantle all their camps and move into the villages and towns,” he said.

In the long term, experts say, deeper U.S. military involvement could test how far voters are willing to go in putting security over sovereignty, potentially constraining even Trump’s closest allies.

“All of these presidents, no matter how far right they are, face pressure to do something about security and to make a show of pursuing the ‘bad guys’ who are making people feel unsafe. There is broad agreement on that," Isacson said. “But they also know there is only so much sovereignty they can cede before public opinion begins turning against them."

___

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Press journalists Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City, Guatemala, Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Astrid Suárez in Bogotá, Colombia, contributed to this report.

States are seeking extensive financial damages that could, in theory, total as much as $1.4 trillion, plus changes to how the company operates Facebook and Instagram.

The lawsuit accuses the social media giant of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features that get children addicted to its platforms. It also claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law.

“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains,” the lawsuit says.

Dozens of states filed the lawsuit three years ago. The trial set to begin Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, features four of the states as plaintiffs — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey. The other 25 states are expected to have trials later.

Meta said it disputes the allegations, and the trial evidence will show its commitment to supporting young people. “We’ve listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most,” the company said in a statement.

States seek to land a major blow against Meta

For Meta, which already lost two pivotal cases over harms to children and teens this year, the stakes are high. The company reported a rare profit decline last month, in part due to $2.4 billion in legal expenses.

The $1.4 trillion figure, which Meta disclosed in a legal filing, is almost as high as the Menlo Park, California, company’s entire market capitalization — that is, the value of all its outstanding shares on the stock market. Paying it would inevitably put Meta Platforms in bankruptcy and perhaps put the company under state ownership.

“The state attorneys general are going for the gusto,” said Eric Goldman, a professor and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law. “They are trying to set the definitive precedent in this case and they have asked for extraordinary damages and they are going to seek extraordinary structural remedies if they succeed.”

Meta calls the possible penalty “untethered to any claimed violation” by the states.

“A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement,” Meta said in a July 6 filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

If Meta loses the trial, the court would have wide discretion over the size of any financial penalty, and legal experts say anything close to $1.4 trillion would be unlikely.

“It’s not plausible in the sense that Meta doesn’t have that much money and could not get it,” said James Grimmelmann, a law professor at Cornell Law School and Cornell Tech. “An award that large would put Meta into bankruptcy, wipe out its owners, and effectively result in the states owning Meta.”

As a practical matter, Grimmelmann added, “that seems extremely unlikely to happen.”

In other cases that have involved high potential damages for multiple individual offenses, he said courts have stopped short of imposing the maximum penalties. One example is the Anthropic artificial intelligence training case, where plaintiffs were claiming damages of $150,000 per book that Anthropic copied, but the penalty ended up being $3,000 per book, totaling about $1.5 billion.

Trial seeks to hold Meta accountable on state and federal statutes

The federal trial this week is more complex than one earlier this year, in Los Angeles, where a state court awarded $6 million in damages from Meta and Google’s YouTube to a single plaintiff, a young woman who testified she became addicted to social media as a child.

That case was a bellwether, or test case, picked from thousands of similar civil tort lawsuits to give both plaintiffs and the defendants an idea of how their arguments fare in court. The jury determined that Meta and YouTube were negligent in the design or operation of their respective platforms, and that the negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to the plaintiff. They also determined each company knew their platforms could be dangerous when used by a minor and that they failed to adequately warn of that danger.

The Oakland case, meanwhile, has state attorneys general as the plaintiffs and centers on state and federal statutes they allege Meta violated, which lay out potential penalty amounts for each violation.

“And there’s a lot of them because it’s four different states and at least three different kinds of statutes. There’s a child privacy statute, there’s a false advertising statute and there’s unfair competition statutes,” said Rebecca Allensworth, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School.

Meta has added safety tools — but states want more

An outcome that leads to changes in how Facebook and Instagram operate could be as consequential as any financial penalty.

Meta has introduced a slew of new features in recent years designed to protect minors. In 2024 it launched teen accounts on Instagram, which are private by default and come with messaging and content restrictions, and parental controls. The company also uses artificial intelligence to determine if kids under 13 are using Instagram or if teenagers are lying about their age to access adult accounts.

Safety advocates have called on the company to do more. A New Mexico judge earlier this month ordered new safety measures on the platforms including time limits for minors, AI chatbot restrictions, and mandatory warnings on the platforms, but his order applied only to users in the state.

“These AGs have a real chance at fixing the product,” Laura Marquez-Garrett of the Social Media Victims Law Center said Friday in a virtual discussion with advocates hosted by the Tech Oversight Project. “For these companies, this is a real point of reckoning. As these cases go forward, this is a leap forward, folks, not a step.”

During jury selection last week, prospective jurors were asked whether and how much they believe Meta has contributed to the youth mental health crisis. While many agreed that it did, they also put responsibility on parents, and said things like climate change and the state of the world are also causing children's and teenagers' mental health issues.

___

AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this report.

Rescuers dug through debris looking for anyone buried beneath landslides triggered by the quake across six regencies on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in the Muslim-majority country. They focused on three regencies that remained inaccessible: hardest-hit Manggarai, East Manggarai and Nagekeo.

“We have cleared most landslides and reopened roads to previously isolated villages, although communication disruptions and power outages continue to hamper search efforts,” said Fathur Rahman, head of the search-and-rescue office in Maumere, the capital of Sikka regency.

More than 900 homes were destroyed and 450 more damaged in East Nusa Tenggara province, forcing about 5,000 people into temporary shelters. At least 241 homes were damaged in the Flores region alone, said Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s chief for disaster prevention.

The quake occurred at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued and later lifted.

Authorities have since recorded at least 995 aftershocks, but only 46 were felt by residents, Muhari said, adding that 135 people were injured.

Many residents at Labuan Bajo, the gateway to Komodo National Park, one of Indonesia’s best-known tourist destinations, spent the night outside because of the aftershocks.

“The shaking was terrifying, so intense that my house nearly collapsed,” said farmer Anastasia Imad, speaking from a makeshift green tent beside her damaged home. “We feared the aftershocks would bring it down on us while we slept.”

Landslides blocked sections of the Trans-Flores Highway, a roughly 700-kilometer (435-mile) road linking communities across the mountainous island.

Meanwhile, relief workers distributed rice, ready-to-eat meals, drinking water, blankets and medicine, while emergency shelters were set up for displaced residents. Authorities said restoring electricity and communications, as well as delivering aid to remote villages isolated by landslides, were among the biggest challenges.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.

Flores has experienced some of the country’s deadliest disasters. A powerful earthquake and tsunami in 1992 killed about 2,500 people on the island.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on the island of Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

___

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

For Phoenix Mercury fans, that case is already closed: She's undeniably the G.O.A.T.

Taurasi was inducted into the Mercury Ring of Honor on Sunday at halftime of a game between the Mercury and Portland Fire, with the franchise retiring her No. 3 jersey and celebrating a superstar who has become synonymous with basketball in Arizona for more than two decades.

“This place has made me who I am,” Taurasi said just before her banner was unveiled in the arena's rafters. “You guys let me grow, you let me fall, you let me get back up and gave me the space to become who I am today. Through the championships, all the good times and all the bad times, the loyalty you have given me is something I will take with me forever.”

Two decades of excellence in Arizona

Taurasi, 44, played for the Mercury from 2004 to 2024 and won just about every championship and award that is possible for a player.

She's the WNBA's career scoring leader (by more than 2,000 points), an 11-time All-Star, a six-time Olympic gold medalist, a five-time scoring champion, a three-time WNBA champion, a two-time WNBA Finals MVP, the 2009 regular-season MVP and the 2004 Rookie of the Year.

She said Sunday's honor ranks up there with her biggest accomplishments.

“Today's a big one,” Taurasi said before the game. “Today feels different. When your number goes up there, you can't use it anymore, it's done. So if there was any little competitiveness still in me, I think today it goes up in the rafters with the number and it feels really good.”

More than the sheer numbers, she's remembered for her fierce personality that resonated in Arizona, helping turn the Mercury into one of the WNBA's premier franchises. Taurasi was surrounded on Sunday by friends and family, including her wife, Penny Taylor, and their two children.

She said she's lucky to have 20 years of friendships to celebrate — including her long relationship with the “X-Factor," which is the nickname for the team's loyal fan base.

“When I walk into (the arena), I don't see strangers, I don't see employees,” Taurasi said. “I see friends, I see people I go to dinner with, I see people I text regularly with. This isn't just something where I showed up and said, 'Well, let's see what we can do here and then leave.'"

“I treated this like my extended family. I think that's why walking in today — I'm really emotional.”

Thousands of fans celebrate

Hundreds of fans had gathered in downtown Phoenix more than two hours before the game — many wearing the No. 3 jersey Taurasi donned for two decades — even on an August afternoon with temperatures topping 105 degrees. Some took pictures in front of a mural featuring Taurasi on the side of the arena.

The announced attendance was 16,513, a sellout and a testament to how much the WNBA has grown since she debuted with the Mercury in 2004 after a stellar college career at UConn.

A string of tributes flowed throughout the evening, including from Suns star Devin Booker, former teammate Brittney Griner and recent football Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Larry Fitzgerald. Three-time WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes and 23-time gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps were also in attendance.

Taurasi’s name was in lights several feet off one of the baselines, with some real, live goats grazing on hay. There was also a “Goat Plush Toss” where game staff threw toy goats into the stands.

The celebration continued during a postgame ceremony that featured video tributes from Lisa Leslie, Paige Bueckers, Magic Johnson and LeBron James and in-person praise from several others, including a poem from her wife, Penny.

At the end of the evening, Taurasi stepped to the microphone one more time. It took her a little while to start speaking — the crowd gave her a 45-second standing ovation.

Her roughly 30-minute speech was half serious and half comedy routine, drawing multiple laughs from the thousands who stayed.

“Tonight feels like the end and the beginning of so many things in my life,” Taurasi said. "Driving to the game today, I didn't know if I was going to suit up and play, whether it was my funeral or a celebration.

“I've come to realize — it's all of it. And it's amazing.”

___

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

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir made the statement while speaking to a former Gaza-held hostage, Rom Braslavski, on Braslavski's podcast. The two were discussing Israel's recovery from the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, when Ben-Gvir criticized Israel's recent drawdown of strikes in Gaza.

“It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister," he said. “I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

In the past, similar statements by Ben-Gvir and other Israeli officials were widely condemned. Many have been presented to the U.N.’s world court as evidence of genocidal intent. Israel denies it has committed genocide in Gaza.

Israel’s domestic media has made scarce mention of the statement, highlighting how once-fringe ideologies like Ben-Gvir’s are surging in the leadup to Israeli elections Oct. 27.

Figures like Ben-Gvir have become more popular among Israelis since Hamas’ brutal attack in 2023, when the militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. Many hostages have recounted long-term starvation, physical and psychological abuse and, in some cases, sexual abuse.

Ben-Gvir oversees Israel's police force and prisons

Ben-Gvir does not have power over the country’s military and cannot order strikes on Gaza. But, after operating for decades within Israel's far-right fringe, he is now one of the most influential people in the country.

He has substantial control over key parts of Israel’s security apparatus, running the country’s prisons — where thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank are incarcerated — as well as the national police force.

He has previously boasted of lessening food rations for Palestinian prisoners. Israel’s top court ruled in 2025 that the prison service under Ben-Gvir was depriving Palestinians of a minimum subsistence diet.

Ben-Gvir criticizes drawdown of Israeli strikes in Gaza

Until recently, Israel was striking Gaza nearly every day, attacks that have killed over 1,250 people since an October truce deal came into effect, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Israel's military, which says the strikes have targeted Hamas militants, appeared to ease off on the attacks in a quiet concession to U.S. President Donald Trump after Netanyahu rejected the president’s latest attempt to move the truce forward.

Israeli media last week reported that the authority for carrying out strikes has now been limited to the army’s chief of staff, raising the ire of right-wing lawmakers such as Ben-Gvir.

Ben-Gvir advocates mass emigration, expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza

In the same taped appearance, the lawmaker advocated for mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza — a proposal that international lawyers say could amount to ethnic cleansing — and resettlement of Gaza by Israel.

Twenty years ago, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, dismantling a block of 21 Jewish settlements known as “Gush Katif” and pulling out its forces.

“I see all of Gaza as ours,” said Ben-Gvir in the interview. “Settlements not just in Gush Katif but throughout Gaza, encouraging as much emigration as possible, sending them to their countries, and for the terrorists, no emigration, nothing, just to kill them one by one.”

Trump’s latest proposal involves Hamas gradually giving up its weapons while Israeli forces halt their attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza. Hamas accepted the deal, although the group linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government and most of its political class adamantly reject.

Netanyahu says Israel will not retreat from any of its positions in Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed. The stance leaves other elements of the ceasefire, including the deployment of international forces and any reconstruction of the devastated territory, on hold.

U.S. negotiator Jared Kushner had a rare meeting with the Hamas leader on the Gaza ceasefire. And the 60-day negotiating period that began with the June 17 signing of an interim agreement between the U.S. and Iran is set to end with no word of an extension.

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

US Central Command chief visits aircraft carrier

Adm. Brad Cooper visited the USS Lincoln as reports have emerged of mental health and supply issues. The Lincoln arrived in the Middle East in January and has been supporting the U.S. war against Iran, including the blockade on Iranian ports. It has spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 240 days.

“History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era,” Cooper said of the Lincoln strike group in a statement released Saturday. Extended deployments of carriers — which can have more than 5,000 sailors and Marines on board — have raised concerns.

In a statement Sunday, Cooper praised the leadership on the carrier for making mental health and resilience a priority.

Cooper also went to Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to meet with civilian and military leaders, according to the Central Command statement.

The U.S. Navy's blockade is in response to Iran asserting control over the Strait of Hormuz after the war started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes. Before then, about one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passed through what had been considered an international waterway.

Talks between the U.S. and Iran have stalled while Iran talks with Oman about how to manage the strait that runs between them.

US negotiator meets with the Hamas chief

U.S. negotiator and President Donald Trump ’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held a rare meeting with the Hamas chief in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

The meeting in Egypt with Hamas’ Khalil al-Hayya was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also attending.

Mediators are pushing for the implementation of a road map that calls for the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the handing over of power to Palestinian technocrats.

Netanyahu has rejected Trump’s latest plan to advance the stalled ceasefire, saying Israel will not withdraw from any of the roughly 60% of the territory it controls until Hamas has been completely disarmed — something the militant group controlling the rest has resisted.

Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the director of the U.S.-created Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire, Nickolay Mladenov, are to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a person familiar with the plans and a diplomat who both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

Separately, Kushner met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. The president’s office said the meeting called for Israel and Hamas to “fulfill their obligations under the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” without elaborating.

Israel targets two Hezbollah commanders in Saturday’s strikes

Israel’s military said it targeted two Hezbollah commanders in Saturday's strikes in southern Lebanon, the deadliest attacks since a truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went into effect in June.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said at least 11 people were killed.

Israel’s military said early Sunday one strike killed Abu Hassan Alaa, whom it described as a senior Hezbollah commander who had taken part in attacks against Israel’s soldiers in southern Lebanon. Earlier, the military said a strike killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, also described as a Hezbollah commander, adding that his family was with him.

Israel and the Lebanese government announced a “framework agreement” in June, laying out a plan for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah’s disarmament. Hezbollah has refused direct talks and wasn’t party to the U.S.-mediated deal.

Iran insists Qatar is holding 3 of its pilots

Iran again on Sunday alleged that Qatar was holding three Iranian pilots who went missing in March when their jets were downed, which Qatar has denied.

Iran’s state TV reported Sunday that the commander of the Missing Persons Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff has urged Qatar to allow Iranian Air Force experts to conduct a field investigation.

This is the first known case in the war where Iran has said a regional country is holding its fighters. Tehran has repeatedly targeted regional countries that are hosting U.S. military bases.

An Israeli strike in Gaza wounds five

An Israeli strike hit Khan Younis in southern Gaza and wounded five people, including a child who was seriously injured, according to the Kuwaiti and Nasser hospitals, where the casualties were taken.

Israel's military said it struck a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided since a ceasefire took hold in October between Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes, killing at least 1,262 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir advocates killing ’30 to 40′ people in Gaza nightly

An extremist Israeli lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition publicly advocated killing “30 to 40” people in Gaza each night in comments that surfaced Sunday.

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir was speaking to a former Gaza-held hostage, Rom Braslavski, on Braslavski’s podcast. The two were discussing Israel’s recovery from the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, when Ben-Gvir criticized Israel’s recent drawdown of strikes in Gaza.

“It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister,” he said. “I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

Similar statements in the past have been presented to the U.N.’s world court as evidence of genocidal intent. Israel denies it has committed genocide in Gaza.

The NFL's active leader in sacks has agreed to a one-year contract for what will be his third team in three seasons, and second consecutive NFC East home. Miller is expected to arrive on the West Coast on Monday.

Dallas has only have two full practices remaining in its annual three-week California excursion. The Cowboys break camp before their second preseason game at Arizona on Saturday. Camp practices will resume in Texas next week.

Miller, who has 138 1/2 sacks over 14 seasons, dropped the quarterback nine times in his only season with Washington a year ago. He joined the Commanders after he was cut by Buffalo in a salary cap move.

The 37-year-old went to high school south of Dallas and starred at Texas A&M before Denver drafted Miller second overall in 2011. He was the Super Bowl MVP when the Broncos won the 2015 title with a dominant defensive performance against Seattle. Miller won another championship with the 2021 Los Angeles Rams.

Miller was The Associated Press NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year with 11 1/2 sacks in his NFL debut 15 years ago and was an All-Pro three times in his first six seasons. His stint with the Bills was plagued by injuries and a Dallas domestic violence case that led to a four-game suspension.

Even though Miller has been mostly a backup the past three seasons, the nine sacks with the Commanders were his most since he had 9 1/2 in his second Super Bowl-winning season. The Rams acquired him from the Broncos in a midseason trade.

___

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

At this year’s D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, Imagineers have traded big reveals for bigger details, offering a closer look at some of the projects underway at Disney World as well as some surprise announcements.

Here’s a breakdown of the big Disney World announcements in the Disney Experiences Showcase.

Magic Kingdom

Villains Land

During Destination D23 2025 at Walt Disney World, the only update fans received on the highly anticipated Villains Land was that Imagineers had traveled to Europe for architectural inspiration.

Now, the picture is getting a little more clearer.

At D23 2026, Walt Disney Imagineering officially confirmed the name: Villains Land.

The land’s storyline centers on a corrupted Wishing Well deep in a foreboding forest, where Disney’s most iconic villains have gathered to claim its dark magic and build their own sinister lairs.

Two headline attractions were detailed. The first is a roller coaster set around Maleficent’s mountaintop fortress, promising elements Imagineers say they’ve never attempted before.

The second is a dark ride hosted by the Magic Mirror, transporting guests into a mystical “Mirror Realm” filled with classic Disney Villains brought to life through special effects and physical set pieces.

The Villains Land presentation also included a show-stopping surprise: actress Glenn Close made an appearance as Cruella De Vil, teasing a Cruella-themed ride experience as part of the land.

Imagineers compared Villains Land’s size and scale to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Piston Peak

Walt Disney Imagineers pulled back the curtain on two new attractions coming to Piston Peak National Park in Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland: Cars Ridge Run Rally and Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along.

The level of detail packed into the land is staggering — from snow-capped mountain peaks and roaring geyser fields to rugged mud flats and tree-covered trails, every inch of Piston Peak is designed to immerse guests in the world of Disney and Pixar’s “Cars”.

Imagineers are even using “Parkitecture,” an architectural style developed by the National Park Service, to ensure the land’s buildings blend seamlessly into the surrounding landscape.

Cars Ridge Run Rally will also debut a completely new ride vehicle designed to actually drive over terrain, so guests will feel every bump, drop, and rock along the course.

Carousel of Progress

Walt Disney World’s Carousel of Progress is getting its most significant update in decades, and it’s coming with some star power.

Disney Legend Jamie Lee Curtis and Emmy-winning actor Bryan Cranston will take on the iconic roles of mom and dad as the beloved Magic Kingdom attraction is updated for a new generation.

Cranston and Curtis join a refreshed version of the show that will feature all-new time periods, a new scene set in the 1980s and an Audio-Animatronic version of Walt Disney himself.

The updated attraction is set to debut in late spring 2027.

Disney Legend Jamie Lee Curtis and Emmy-winning actor Bryan Cranston will voice Mom and Dad in Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom 🏰 #D23 #WaltDisneyWorld pic.twitter.com/1MZvwhiUxZ

— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks) August 16, 2026

EPCOT

Spaceship Earth

EPCOT’s iconic Spaceship Earth is getting its first update in nearly 20 years.

Disney Imagineer Ali Rubinstein revealed at D23 that the reimagined attraction will shift its focus from human communication to the broader theme of human connection, bringing the geodesic sphere into the internet age and beyond.

Reimagination, Reimagination

As a surprise finale to the Disney Experiences Showcase, Disney saved one of its most anticipated announcements for last, teasing a reimagined version of Journey Into Imagination With Figment and promising the long-awaited return of Dreamfinder alongside the iconic purple dragon.

The current version of the attraction has been running for 24 years, outlasting the original Journey Into Imagination, which ran for 15 years after opening in 1983.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Monstropolis

Disney revealed that parts of Monstropolis at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will open to guests in 2027, giving fans their first look at the highly anticipated land inspired by Disney and Pixar’s “Monsters, Inc”.

The new land will feature a show called “Welcome to Monstropolis” at the Glob Theater, hosted by Mike and Sulley, along with dining at the iconic Harryhausen’s restaurant — complete with a sushi chef Audio-Animatronics figure — and Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza.

The land’s headlining door coaster will lift guests 40 feet in the air in just four seconds before launching them directly into the iconic door vault, and Disney Legend Randy Newman composed an original song for the land, marking the first time he has written a song specifically for a Disney theme park.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Yeti alert

In what might be considered a surprise announcement at D23, Disney revealed the Yeti Audio-Animatronic is coming back to life inside Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

The beloved creature, which anchors the finale of the high-speed mountain ride, has long been out of commission — leaving guests with little more than a strobe light effect in place of the iconic beast.

Tropical Americas

Why did it have to be snakes? Why not?!

Disney Imagineers announced the name of the upcoming Indiana Jones attraction at Animal Kingdom: Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent.

Set in the new Tropical Americas land, the ride will take guests on a thrilling journey through ancient Maya ruins — complete with monstrous bats, oversized scorpions, and plenty of snakes.

Disney Legend Harrison Ford is also serving as the model for the attraction’s Audio-Animatronics figure, marking the first time his likeness will appear on a Disney attraction anywhere in the world.

For the new Pueblo Esperanza land, Disney Imagineers revealed the official name of the upcoming Encanto attraction: Antonio’s Fiesta de Encanto.

The ride celebrates Antonio’s magical gift of communicating with animals — a fitting nod to Animal Kingdom’s dedication to the animal world — and invites guests into Casita as part of a joyful celebration of his gift day.

Back on the job the morning after the alert was lifted, Isidro threw a rope over an avocado tree about 20 feet (6 meters) high and climbed up. Fifteen minutes later, he had filled a box with avocados bound for the United States.

“Thank God ... and now we’re getting paid!” he shouted happily after several days without work.

Eight days after the alert affecting Michoacán state and the deployment of more Mexican troops in the region, U.S. authorities fully lifted the restrictions that spurred producers to shut down operations, and exports resumed. Michoacán is Mexico’s main avocado-producing state and a region where four cartels designated by the Trump administration as terrorist organizations operate.

By the weekend, orchards were operating again, packing plants were running at full speed and U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors had returned to certify the fruit and ensure it was free of pests before entering the United States.

The workers were happy to get their daily wages back. Some producers hoped the increased security would reduce violence and extortion. Others feared the calm would not last long.

“We’ll be safe for a while, we’ll see what happens next,” said Valentín Rodríguez, a longtime avocado industry businessperson.

Many threats are possible in a violent state

The U.S. alert caught Isidro high in a tree in an orchard in Santa Ana Zirosto, an area of green, low hills in western Michoacán where criminal groups are very active. There were no explanations, just the foreman’s shout to stop cutting.

Isidro, 39 years old and with two decades of experience as a harvester, knew that this meant either starting to look for another job until the situation returned to normal — since they’re paid by the day — or supporting his family solely on what his wife earned from a small store.

More than 90 miles (145 kilometers) away, in the town of Tacámbaro, an engineer at an avocado packing plant received the alert in the early hours of the morning: The facility should be kept sealed and under quarantine.

Some 200,000 people employed by Michoacán’s avocado industry were left in limbo.

Authorities did not say what threat triggered the alert. But in a state where numerous local cartels make money not only from drugs but also from extortion, there are plenty of possibilities.

Some growers have come to consider extortion an unavoidable production cost. A producer from Michoacán told The Associated Press recently that he pays 1 peso per kilo exported in extortion fees and exports about 90 metric tons a day, which amounts to more than $5,000 in daily payments.

In March alone, Mexico shipped nearly 4,800 tons of avocados a day to the United States.

Trucks loaded with avocados are also sometimes robbed on roads in western Michoacán. And some farmworkers have been stopped and beaten by armed men near the border with Jalisco without being told why, according to one worker who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Mexican avocado production is US-controlled

U.S. inspectors have been assaulted and temporarily detained in the past, triggering similar export suspensions. On some occasions, threats arose after inspectors detected pests and were pressured not to report them, said an official familiar with their work who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The U.S. Embassy does not usually provide details about the incidents.

Inspectors now have less of a presence in the orchards, which are located in isolated hills where armed groups operate with little interference, and concentrate on packing plants.

“If the United States says that it is suspending technical services for security reasons, it’s impossible to export. If it's for a plant health, it’s the same,” said Rodríguez, who grows, packs and sells avocados. “We are at the mercy of whatever the U.S. market and government decide to do with the industry.”

There is also a political dimension, he said, adding that Mexico didn't export avocados to the United States for eight decades after a worm was found in an avocado pit in 1914. The U.S. ban was lifted in 1997 as domestic production could no longer meet growing demand.

Exports rely on inspection and certification

More than 80% of Mexican avocados are sold to the U.S. Thousands of tons of avocados travel daily to the United States, especially at the beginning of the year, when demand for guacamole surges ahead of the Super Bowl. To keep that volume moving, certification is key.

Isidro is a “certified” picker. He knows how to disinfect cutting tools before using them, handle the fruit quickly and carefully, and report any spots or damage. The orchards where he works are also certified, providing dining and bathroom facilities for workers.

Jesús Méndez, his supervisor, inspected the boxes before they were loaded onto a truck with the tracking details. The trucks wait until all those in the area are ready before traveling in convoys to packing plants, accompanied by police patrols to prevent robberies.

At the packing plants, inspections continue, checking quality, the fruit’s flesh and possible pests. The avocados then move along mechanical lines that sort them by size before workers place them into boxes.

Once labeled and sealed, the trailers head for the U.S. border. At the slightest security alert, every point along the route can be brought to a standstill.

Fears remain despite the return to work

The deployment of more than 1,500 soldiers to protect Michoacán’s avocado-growing region and recent arrests of people allegedly involved in extortion have eased concerns, but only partially.

Luis Manuel Soto, a 36-year-old grower and packer from western Michoacán, hopes the increased security will bring improvements. So far, he says, he has not felt them.

In 2024, he said, armed men pulled him from his vehicle and threatened to kill him unless he paid them and withdrew a complaint over extortion and an attempt to seize his orchards. The threats returned last July, even though one person involved in the earlier case has been convicted.

“They left me a funeral cross and ... a written message saying I had only days left,” Soto said from a town near Morelia, Michoacán’s capital.

The threats have continued by phone. Now he divides his time between occasional visits to his orchards, managing his businesses and social projects remotely, and going to prosecutors’ offices to request protection.

In Santa Ana Zirosto and surrounding communities, residents welcome the military presence.

“It gives us some peace, but it also scares us a little because it could lead to confrontations with some of the groups,” said Méndez.

A blaze in eastern Belgium burned about 30 square kilometers (12 square miles) in the High Fens, a large nature reserve, in one of the country’s worst wildfires in recent history.

About 600 residents in the nearby municipalities of Waimes and Bütgenbach, in Liège province near the German border, were told to evacuate on Saturday as winds shifted and smoke spread through the area. Authorities also advised tourists to leave, while a nearby gymnasium was opened to receive evacuees.

Liège provincial governor Hervé Jamar said in a statement Sunday that more than 250 emergency personnel have been deployed, including over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, as well as police and military officers and civil protection staff. Firefighting helicopters operated by Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also helped.

Two killed as fires break out on a Greek island

In Greece, two people were killed in a wildfire Sunday on the island of Salamina, west of Athens, Greek firefighters said.

The bodies were recovered in the village of Peristeria, where strong winds fueled the rapidly spreading blaze. A second blaze was reported in the Selini area. Firefighting and coast guard vessels evacuated some 500 beachgoers in the area.

Some 260 firefighters were responding to the blazes, including 15 ground teams, 10 aircraft and eight helicopters.

The island had been placed at high wildfire risk on Sunday, with near gale-force winds. “These conditions enabled the fire to quickly reach dangerous proportions and spread rapidly within seven minutes toward nearby residential areas,” said Fire Brigadier General Vasileios Vathrakogiannis.

Dry conditions fuel record-breaking Belgium wildfire

The blaze now torching Belgium has far surpassed a 2011 fire that burned nearly 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the same area and was previously the country's largest wildfire on record, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, said conditions were much worse this time. “We’re dealing with something much deeper because we have very dry soil,” he said.

René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forest, said the fire was still spreading Sunday in an area that was difficult for crews to reach.

“On the eastern flank, there’s a line at least a kilometer long where the fire is slowly advancing toward a municipal forest,” Dahmen said. “That’s the first priority now.”

Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said on X firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading towards the west and toward the German town of Monschau.

In Germany, local authorities warned Sunday that the fire was about 1.5 kilometers (just under a mile) from the border.

Some farmers from both Belgium and Germany filled up tanker trucks, pumping water from a nearby lake before heading toward the fire area to help firefighters.

European countries send firefighting aircraft

Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive assistance from other countries, EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, who is in charge of crisis management, said on X.

“The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone,” Lahbib said. Sweden sent two water-bombing aircraft, while three helicopters — two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic — were also being deployed.

The fire follows weeks of unusually hot and dry weather. The High Fens’ mix of heathland and peat bogs has complicated efforts to contain the flames.

Belgium was hit by another spell of intense heat this week, with temperatures reaching about 37 C (98.6 F) in parts of the country Friday.

Wildfires burn in France and the UK

In France, firefighters battling a wildfire in a pine forest in the southwestern Landes region faced no major flare-ups overnight, Landes Prefect Gilles Clavreul said. Authorities estimated the total area burned at 17 square kilometers (6.6 square miles), while about 650 people had been evacuated from their homes.

It was the third major wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France this summer, following two others in late July. A massive wildfire in the neighboring Gironde department burned about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) and forced the evacuation of about 220,000 people as it spread toward the Atlantic coast and the Bordeaux area.

In the U.K., emergency crews were fighting 14 wildfires in South Wales with the support of military personnel. Authorities warned that although the heat wave is easing, drought conditions mean the risk of wildfires remains high.

Fires gutted more than a dozen homes in the West Midlands in central England this week as officials recorded the hottest day of the year on Thursday, when temperatures reached 38.1 C (100.6 F).

In Germany, firefighters made significant progress against a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, allowing about 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home Saturday. Officials said Sunday there were no open flames and crews had established a cleared cordon around the affected area to prevent the fire from spreading.

___

Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Sylvia Hui in London, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, contributed to this report.

Trump said in a social media post that the exercises, which began Monday, are not only costly but “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” during his time in the White House.

“Therefore, and based on the fact that it is too late to cancel, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to substantially reduce the Joint Military Exercises!” Trump wrote. The president added that he recently asked South Korea’s president if they would join the U.S. in the “denuclearization” of Iran, “and they said, ‘No thanks!’”

The move is the latest example of the president appearing to turn against an ally in favor of a leader that previous administrations have cast as an adversary. Trump and others in his administration have also railed against NATO allies over perceived lack of support for his war against Iran, even as they seek to confront an increasingly aggressive Russia in the Baltic region.

It is also a sharp turnaround from how his administration has viewed South Korea in recent months.

In May, Hegseth praised the longtime ally for its “commitment to increase defense spending" and its "leadership in assuming primary responsibility for the security of the Korean Peninsula" during a meeting at the Pentagon.

“It demonstrates alliance burden-sharing that all of America’s partners would do well to follow," the defense secretary added.

What the US military says about the joint exercises

The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.

The U.S. military has said the summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises reinforce “the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security” and reaffirm “the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands.” The exercises are one of the two main combined drills conducted by the South Korean and U.S. militaries annually, along with their springtime training.

U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and maneuver, a wet gap crossing, and distribution of prepositioned military equipment, according to the U.S. military. South Korea's Defense Ministry confirmed that the exercises began on Monday as planned.

The joint training started days after North Korea resumed ballistic missile testing activities in defiance of U.N. bans.

Trump's decision was sharply criticized by Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot, who said that “hollowing out these joint exercises is shortsighted and a mistake” in a social media post made just hours after the president's own post. Earlier this month, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected the launches of two ballistic missiles from North Korea in what were the North’s first ballistic weapons testing activities since late June. The missiles landed in the waters off North Korea’s east coast.

North Korea threatens strong response

North Korea has been pushing hard to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. Experts say Kim likely believes a bigger weapons arsenal would increase his chances for wresting more concessions from the U.S. in future negotiations.

North Korea on Friday threatened unspecified stern steps against the U.S. and South Korea, describing their military drills as a “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that are triggering greater instability in the region.

The warning was typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’ drills as a pretext to ramp up testing activities to modernize weapons and promote public support for the reclusive North Korean leader.

Trump met with the North Korean leader three times during his first term to discuss the country’s nuclear program, most recently in 2019. Since returning to office, Trump has expressed interest in continuing those discussions. In September 2025, Kim said he held “good personal memories” of Trump and suggested he could return to talks if the U.S. drops “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea.

Trump's announcement came a day after he posted a photo of himself standing next to North Korea's Kim, writing that the two leaders get along great “despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture.”

This is not the first time that Trump has sought to end the exercises. During his first term he also issued a surprise announcement that called the war games “provocative.”

“We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” Trump told reporters after his 2018 meeting with Kim in Singapore.

__

Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

The fifth Corgi Race Vilnius drew dogs and their owners to the Lithuanian capital's Vingis park on Saturday for what organizers said was the biggest edition yet. There were competitors from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, the United States and Britain — the country most closely associated with the breed, famously a favorite of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

“In the first year, we gathered 40 corgis from one city. This year, it’s 150 from nine countries, and for the first time we have a participant from the place where the breed originated,” organizer Edvinas Miskas said.

“We call Vilnius the European capital of corgis, and when people from the breed’s homeland start coming to us rather than the other way around, that title begins to sound a little more serious.”

Ninety-four dogs took part in the main running event, competing in qualifiers, semifinals and the final.

In the final, which pitted corgis against each other over 25 meters (82 feet), the winner was American competitor GG, short for Gustave the Girl Dog. Another U.S. entrant, Mr. Corgington, finished a close second. Lithuania's own Moka, a two-time former champion, was third.

But much of the program dispensed with speed to explore the other skills of the dogs — and their owners.

There was a costume parade featuring 38 corgis in diverse outfits including a dinosaur suit, a dress and doggy sports gear. Amigo swept both the four-judge jury and the public Facebook vote for a flawless costume entry with a knight-like look.

In the “smartest nose” challenge, dogs searched for hidden treats. Latvian corgis Tora and Rusty shared the win.

And then there was the loudest bark competition. The first British competitor, 12-year-old Pembroke Welsh corgi Duke from Sedbergh in northwest England, didn't participate in the main race because of his stately age but was a hopeful in the barking stakes after, as his owner put it, training for his whole life.

It was Mr. Corgington who won the loudest bark contest, though.

He was one of the most traveled competitors. The final race offered him a rematch after he finished second against GG at a major race at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Washington — her second consecutive win there.

Half of the corgis registered in Vilnius this year were taking part for the first time. But six veterans — costume winner Amigo, Foksas, Foksis, Madeira, Bulka and Dziugas — have attended every edition.

If so, the Fever looked playoff-ready in their 95-91 overtime win over the Atlanta Dream on Sunday.

The Fever showed impressive depth with four players scoring 18 or more points. Perhaps of more importance, Indiana responded to a major challenge from an Atlanta team that began the day one-half behind the Fever for the important fourth-place spot in the playoff standings. The top four teams receive home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

“Coming into each night, we know how important that win is to hopefully get home-court advantage in the playoffs,” Clark said.

Atlanta led 72-64 entering the fourth quarter. Indiana held the Dream to nine points in the final period of regulation.

Despite giving the Fever an overall grade of only “B-minus” for the game, Clark had praise for her team.

“Just proud of our group,” Clark said. “Super resilient. ... Obviously, this was a big one.”

Clark scored 26 points with nine assists. After scoring only five points in the first half, Kelsey Mitchell had an important layup late in overtime to finish with 20 points. It was Mitchell's 19th consecutive game scoring at least 20.

“Kelsey struggled from the floor in the first half, and she found it in the second half,” White said. “I think that’s part of her growth, which is knowing to stay with it, that it’s going to come.”

White said Clark and Mitchell “were both terrific” and said Clark was effective in creating scoring opportunities for her teammates.

“The way that she’s getting us into offense, the way she’s using the floor to give her teammates shots ... she’s allowing the game to flow, and she’s doing a great job of finding her teammates in that,” White said. “The way she does that, it opens things up for her.”

Makayla Timpson delivered Indiana's first three field goals of overtime to score a career-high 20 points. Aliyah Boston added 18 points with 14 rebounds.

Clark said Atlanta, which had 32 points from Allisha Gray and 15 points with 14 rebounds from Angel Reese, “is a team that will be scary in the playoffs. They're great at what they do. They have a lot of different weapons.”

The Dream also had the support of a sellout crowd of 17,044 at State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and also the usual site of Dream games when Clark and the Fever are in town.

“For us, these are the games you get up for, that’s what’s fun about competition,” Clark said. “You know, you want to play the best. It brings out the best in you. Obviously, that’s been a challenge and we’re really good at that.”

___

See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Lawyers for the BBC argued that Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr. have “personal knowledge" and likely have records relevant to elements of Trump's claims against the broadcaster, according to a filing Friday in federal court in Florida.

The broadcaster has been unable to serve subpoenas because the three have Secret Service protection and other security personnel around them, the filing says.

Trump filed the lawsuit in December seeking $10 billion in damages from the BBC, accusing it of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices.

The allegations center on the way a 2024 documentary edited a speech Trump gave on Jan. 6, 2021, before protesters attacked the Capitol in Washington. The lawsuit accuses the BBC of “splicing together two entirely separate parts of President Trump’s speech” to “intentionally misrepresent the meaning of what President Trump said.”

It added that the editing was "a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The BBC has apologized to Trump for the misleading edit, but said it had not defamed him.

The latest court filing said that Trump's family members had knowledge of issues that were relevant to Trump's argument “that it would be materially false to imply that he incited violence" on Jan. 6, 2021.

It cited that Donald Trump, Jr. and Ivanka Trump were both present in the Oval Office when Trump was still revising his speech, adding that Donald Trump, Jr. spoke directly with his father after violence had broken out at the Capitol.

The filing says the BBC asked Trump to accept the subpoenas on his daughter and son-in-law's behalf or to direct the Secret Service to allow the subpoenas to be served, but he refused. The broadcaster asked the court to allow the subpoenas to be served by email and certified mail.

The judge has given Trump's legal team until Friday to respond to the BBC's request.

Trump's legal team said that “the BBC is simply trying to distract away from their own obvious liability.”

“The BBC intentionally defamed President Donald J. Trump, and now the BBC is seeking to harass him, his family, and supporters by abusing the deposition process," according to the team.

A trial has been provisionally set for February in the case.

Last week, a federal judge in Florida granted Trump a temporary reprieve from an order that he provide details of his business empire’s financial performance as part of the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Roy Altman agreed to put that order on hold while he considers an amended complaint from Trump that would narrow his claim that he suffered damage to both business and reputation.

___

Associated Press journalists Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems on Saturday evening at the MuMe museum, making off with three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473, as well as the double-sided panel depicting the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà, which was removed from an armored display case, the news agency LaPresse reported.

They removed all five panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych from their frame, but abandoned two behind a wall while fleeing.

Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated the value of the stolen works at 70 million euros ($81 million) to 80 million euros ($92 million).

“We are devastated by what happened. They were two of Antonello da Messina’s most important and best-known works. It is a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world,” MuMe director Marisa Mercurio told the ANSA news agency.

Mercurio said the theft occurred just before 10 p.m., and that the alarms were working and the guards were on site. She described the works as central to the region's heritage.

“These are not merely works by Antonello da Messina,” she told Sky TG24. “They are works that hold considerable significance in terms of our identity, as well as, of course, their artistic and cultural value, because they are works by our very own Antonello da Messina.”

Messina’s top culture official, Enzo Caruso, called the theft “more than a loss” and “a disaster.”

“Messina without Antonello is deprived of the very essence of the greatest artist of the European Renaissance,” Caruso told Sky, calling for the swift recovery of the stolen works.

Caruso noted that international interest in the artist had intensified since Italy’s Culture Ministry acquired Antonello’s devotional painting “Ecce Homo” for $14.9 million through negotiations with Sotheby’s in New York earlier this year.

Lynda Albertson, an art-crime analyst, said the works are instantly recognizable, impeding any effort to sell them through reputable channels.

“Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that — to their cost,” Albertson, who is the chief executive of the ARCA art crimes research association, told the Italian daily La Repubblica. She said such famous artworks often pass from one criminal to another, serving as collateral for other illicit activity.

The museum was closed Sunday while investigators gathered evidence. Neither museum officials nor the Carabinieri could immediately be reached for comment.

The Ferragosto holiday, which marks the feast of the Assumption of Mary, marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season, and was being celebrated in Messina with a procession that culminated in prayers and a blessing in the main Piazza Duomo around the time of the heist.

The theft comes just days after police in the northern Italian city of Parma announced that they had recovered three stolen artworks by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth about 10 million euros ($11.5 million). Five people have been detained in the March 22-23 theft from the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Parma province.

With his dad on the bag, Whaley fulfilled Andy Whaley's unwavering belief and capped the tournament victory of his life at Merion with a father-son embrace that put an exclamation point on a career that at one point seemed destined to dry up on English soil.

“He can actually see me happy, and I can see him happy coming off the golf course,” Whaley said.

Whaley played with double gloves, needed an umbrella, was stung by a wasp at rainy Merion Golf Club and still pushed through the inconveniences to cap a tremendous tournament and hold off Jay Leng Jr. to win the U.S. Amateur on Sunday.

Whaley should keep the rain jacket.

The 22-year-old Englishman gets to soak up the spoils that come with winning amateur golf's greatest prize.

With the sky finally clear on the rain-slogged course, Whaley sank his final putt for birdie to win the 36-hole final 4 and 3 and hugged it out with his caddie — his father. Whaley's mother ran out to join them for a family embrace while Andy gripped the famed wicker basket flagstick.

“This week it just clicked,” Andy Whaley said. “I can’t explain it. I don’t know why.”

His son broke down in tears as he held the Havemeyer Trophy and dedicated the win to his father, who never gave up on Jack, even as he kept missing cuts as a teenager.

“As we were driving back, I was looking at my dad with some of the names that are on this thing,” Whaley said after his win. “I never thought my name would among such impressive people.”

Whaley made a rapid rise from NAIA star to Florida State to amateur champion the college senior now has an exemption into the 2027 US Open, and the 2027 British Open at St. Andrews and the Masters should he remain an amateur. He wore his Florida State Seminoles cap and team colors for the championship round.

Whaley won the seventh U.S. Amateur held at Merion and is the first Englishman winner since Matt Fitzpatrick at Brookline in 2013.

Whaley shook off a wasp sting on the fourth fairway in the afternoon session before he rallied his way to the title. Leng, a Stanford junior, held a 2-up advantage through the first 18 holes after both players bogeyed the par-5 18th on an overcast and windy round.

Whaley pointed to a spot on his right ankle where the wasp got him and left him throbbing for the next two holes.

“I had to pull this stinger out,” Whaley said with a laugh.

Maybe the stinger will be immortalized down the line at Merion.

The U.S. Amateur does hold a special place in Merion history. Take a look at the rock near the 11th hole tee box at Merion and one of the grandest holes in golf is marked.

“On September 27, 1930, And on this hole, Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., completed his ‘Grand Slam’ by winning the U.S. Amateur Championship.”

It was on that hole where Bobby Jones closed out Eugene Homans 8 and 7 in the 36-hole final and clinched golf’s only season Grand Slam with a win at the U.S. Amateur.

Ben Hogan also has a plaque that honors his 1-iron on the 18th hole of the 1950 Open.

“It's a huge honor to be part of the names of all the famous people,” Whaley said.

Aaron Rai used double gloves months earlier in his PGA Championship victory at nearby Aronimink Golf Club, just as Whaley did months later.

Whaley made the change after he sliced one out of bounds on six because the rain affected his grip.

“It seemed to work, so I kept going,” Whaley said.

Merion is set to host the US Open in 2030, 2040, and 2050, alongside the U.S. Women’s Open in 2034 and 2046.

Consider, Whaley will be only 46 years old in 2050.

Whaley is No. 90 in the world amateur golf ranking, while Leng is at No. 23.

Leng gets pretty nice consolation prizes. He also earned a spot on the 2026 U.S. Walker Cup team, in the Masters and the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach next year, provided he is still an amateur.

The other five players named to the Walker Cup team were Kihei Akina, Ryder Cowan, Josiah Gilbert, William Jennings and Stewart Hagestad.

“It shows I can compete with the best,” Leng said. “I can compete with anyone, honestly. I can’t wait to see what’s next.”

___

See AP’s full golf coverage here

For a player who has endured five runner-up finishes in nearly seven months of close calls, Scheffler had reason to wonder what was next to go wrong. He asked caddie Ted Scott as they walked over to take a penalty drop, “When is this going to stop happening?”

Almost immediately, as it turned out.

Scheffler drilled a mid-iron to 10 feet for birdie two holes later. He holed a 20-foot birdie on the next. A two-shot lead at the start quickly turned into a runaway. He closed with a 4-under 66 for an eight-shot victory, the largest margin in 68 years at the TPC Southwind.

“I felt like I had some close calls this year, so it was nice to finish the tournament off,” Scheffler said.

It helped to post a 61 in the second round and keep the lead going into Sunday. This was his 11th straight time he converted a 54-hole lead into a win.

This victory was the 21st of his career — all since 2022 — and it ended nearly seven months without a title during a season that has been marked by astonishing consistency but only one trophy to show for it from his season opener at The American Express in the California desert.

“I felt like a week like this was coming,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I was on repeat all year just being like, ‘Hey, I’m playing solid. I’m close.’ It feels good to be answering some different questions at the end of this week.”

He finished at 17-under 263, eight shots clear of his Dallas neighbor Si Woo Kim, who closed with a 68 to finish eight shots behind. The previous record was John Cook winning at TPC Southwind by seven shots in 1996.

Scheffler has now won 10 of his 21 tour titles by four shots or more.

Sam Burns, one of Scheffler's best friends in golf, played with him in the final group and took double bogey on the par-5 third hole. He shot 73 and tied for third with Alex Noren (69).

“I don't think it would have mattered if I played well,” Burns said. “He was going to be tough to beat today.”

Scheffler won $3.6 million from the prize fund, and he clinched an additional $23 million in bonus money for being No. 1 in the FedEx Cup through next week's BMW Championship. No one can catch him. No one is particularly close in the game at the moment, even when he's not piling up trophies.

Scheffler now has two victories, five runner-up finishes and five other top 4s in another stellar year that until Sunday was marked by his lack of winning compared with previous years. The TPC Southwind was the course he had played the most times without winning, and the FedEx Cup playoffs opener had been the only postseason tournament he had yet to win. All that changed.

Scheffler's most recent start was another runner-up finish at the 3M Open in Minnesota, another rally that came up short. But it was those two weeks at home that made the difference.

“I felt like I found something just getting my hands on the club,” he said. “I had a really good kind of prep week coming in, probably the best I played at home over the course of this year. I didn’t really feel like I needed to be on the range hitting balls. I was just getting out playing, competing.”

More than a few of those games were with Kim, who earlier this year said of Scheffler, “He calls me ATM.” Kim moved to a career-best No. 13 in the world.

Im wound up with a 75 to tie for fifth, but it was enough for the South Korean to move from No. 53 into the top 50 who advance to the BMW Championship next week in St. Louis. Im kept alive his chances of reaching the Tour Championship every year since he was a rookie in 2019.

Im bumped out Keith Mitchell, who stood in the water left of the 18th fairway to play a shot from the bank as he tried to give himself his best chance. That shot tumbled into the water, he made bogey and narrowly missed out.

So did Jordan Spieth, who needed to close with four pars to reach the BMW Championship for the first time since 2023, and finished with a bogey from the water on No. 15 and three pars for a 70.

The top 50 who advance also are assured of playing all the $20 million signature events next year.

Scheffler put himself squarely in the mix for a fifth straight PGA Tour player of the year during a season in which no one has stood out based on titles alone. The body of work has been impressive, and Scheffler still has two tournaments remaining.

___

See AP’s full golf coverage here

Niland's daughter, Haven, said he died Saturday morning in McKinney, a Dallas suburb.

Niland made 111 starts in 124 games over nine seasons with Dallas. He played for Philadelphia for one year before retiring after the 1975 season.

Niland made the Pro Bowl for six straight years from 1968 to 1973. He was a first-team All-Pro selection in 1969, 1971 and 1972.

He helped protect Roger Staubach when Dallas beat the Miami Dolphins 24-3 in the Super Bowl on Jan. 16, 1972.

Niland, a Massachusetts native, starred at Iowa before he was taken by the Cowboys with the fifth overall selection in the 1966 draft. He was inducted into the Hawkeyes' Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006.

He is survived by Shaughn, his wife of more than 30 years, and daughters, Jordan and Haven.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Spieth and Keith Mitchell, who was up to his knees in water on the 18th trying to salvage his postseason, narrowly missed out advancing in the PGA Tour postseason Sunday, losing a chance to be guaranteed to play in all the $20 million signature events in 2027.

One birdie over his last three holes would have done it for Spieth. Mitchell would have needed to shave two shots from his score. He made bogey from the water on the 18th.

“I just feel like I’m kind of getting back to playing really good golf, like it’s close to kicking off, and I’m not going to play a tournament for a long time,” Spieth said after closing with three straight pars for an even-par 70.

Spieth came into the first playoff event at No. 54 and was projected to need something around the top 15 — depending on others around him — to make it to the BMW Championship for the first time since 2023.

He made it through the worrisome stretch of holes — Nos. 11 through 14 at the TPC Southwind — with a pair of bogeys and a 30-foot birdie putt.

“If you can get through there unscathed, you know you're looking at some opportunities on the other side,” Spieth said.

But he tugged his tee shot on the 15th far enough to the left that it found the water, leading to bogey. His chip from behind the green on the par-5 16th was too strong and rolled off the green, and he missed a 15-foot birdie putt. He missed a birdie from about that distance on the 17th.

Needing a birdie on the 18th, he went from a patch of dirt right of the fairway just over the green, still a putter in hand from 35 feet. He started walking before the long birdie putt finished short of the cup, giving him a par.

“I just didn’t execute enough shots and ... a couple bounces could have gone one way or the other,” he said. “I needed to be almost flawless today.”

Mitchell, who has never been among the top 30 to reach the Tour Championship in his nine years on the PGA Tour, started at No. 49 this week and was on the bubble seemingly all week. He said he never looked at a leaderboard until walking off the 17th green.

If he was safe, he could have played out to the right, away from the water, knowing a bogey wouldn't hurt him. But he was right on the projected bubble of top 50. He took on the shot. He thought it was ideal, but it barely cleared the water, and hopped below the hazard line on the bank of grass.

For Mitchell, there was no option. He removed his shoes and rolled up his pants, took his stance in the water up to his calves and gave it a shot. It bounced short and took a hop to the left, riding the bank down into the water. He did well to make bogey for a 72. In the end, even a par would have left him less than a point short of Matt McCarty at No. 50.

“I thought it was perfect when I hit it. Caught a little bit of a gust, and it came up that short,” Mitchell said. “The second shot was obviously interesting, and I just didn’t play it far enough right.”

The new points system that puts an emphasis on season performance means the postseason is not nearly as volatile. Sungjae Im, who started at No. 53 and started the final round tied for second, comfortably advanced.

Mitchell was the only one from the top 50 to fall out.

Maverick McNealy came in at No. 50 and was on the bubble all afternoon, played bogey-free on the back nine with two birdies for a 69 to tie for 19th — same position as Spieth — to secure his spot among the top 50. McCarty figured he was out when he tied for 63rd in the 69-man field. He made it on the number when Mitchell and Spieth couldn't catch him.

“I think the top 50 number is probably the most important number on the PGA Tour right now,” McNealy said. “I’m excited to get to St. Louis and just take a Hail Mary swing to see if I can get into the Tour Championship, which is the goal every year.”

___

See AP’s full golf coverage here

Gov. Josh Green said no one is believed to have died when the homes washed away. Earlier, a search-and-rescue mission was launched in the coastal communities of Na’alehu and Wai’ohinu, near the Big Island’s southern tip.

He spoke at a news conference as the storm continued to punish the islands with strong gusts and pounding rain, reaching a total of nearly three feet (one meter) in places.

Cynthia Channels, a local organizer who works with unhoused people and families in need, has been driving around Oahu in her pickup truck, assessing damage. For her, the wind has been the worst part of the storm.

“The winds are really bad, people’s shingles are falling off the roofs,” Channels said.

Green said its not clear if a vehicle wreck that killed one person Saturday in the South Point area of the Big Island was storm related.

Storm hits islands with flooding and power outages

Honolulu, on Oahu, was bearing the brunt of the tropical storm conditions spreading westward over the island chain. The Honolulu Fire Department had received more than 600 weather-related responses by noon local time Sunday, including 147 reports of downed trees. There were also roofs blown off, downed power lines and one swimmer who had to be rescued, a city statement said.

Much of the state remained under a flash flood warning, though the National Hurricane Center downgraded the Big Island to a flood advisory Sunday.

“Basically, the best thing to do right now is just stay home for a bit longer,” weather service meteorologist Stephen Parker said. “The storm won’t last forever and once those kind of threats get cleaned up, it will be safe to be out and about again.”

More than 200,000 homes and businesses were without power by midday, according to the utility tracker poweroutage.us. That included nearly two-thirds of customers on the Big Island. At least three hospitals were operating on generator power, the governor said, adding damage to roads and several small bridges was making some places hard to reach.

“Everyone is safe and healthy,” said Green, a medical doctor who previously worked in emergency departments of remote hospitals on the Big Island. “But boy, a lot of work ahead.”

Powerful waves pounded the Big Island’s coast. Just missing landfall, the eyewall didn’t weaken, and its winds pounded mountainsides as bands of rain blew nearly sideways. The storm came three years after the state experienced the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century.

Lala isn’t losing strength as wind and rains lash Hawaii

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Oahu, Kauai and Niihau, raising the possibility of destructive flooding.

The heaviest rain Sunday was falling on Lanai, Moloka’i and Oahu, while the highest wind gusts topped 100 mph (161 kph) at the towering Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island, Parker said.

As of 11 a.m. in Hawaii, Lala was centered about 140 miles (220 kilometers) west of Honolulu with top sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory. The storm was moving west-northwest at about 16 mph (28 kph).

The advisory said the storm's strength is expected to change little through Monday and forecasters expect Lala could become a hurricane again on Tuesday or Wednesday when it has moved well west of the island chain.

Some higher-altitude places on the Big Island, dominated by Mauna Kea, have been hit with as much as 35 inches (89 centimeters) of rain. That’s enough to loosen steep slopes where some of the 210,000 islanders live off the grid in improvised housing.

As the hurricane approached, shelters were opened, events were canceled and ranchers were urged to leave their cattle in pastures rather than structures that might collapse. Many residents are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating floods in March and took precautions.

A beloved bakery is damaged

The Punalu’u Bake Shop on in Naalehu, Big Island, a tourist hotspot and major local employer, was severely damaged. Zachary Kennedy, the manager of the Hawaiian sweet bread bakery, said water rushed through their factories and retail store, leaving behind around three feet (1 meter) of mud.

“This is a different level of damage, it’s literally catastrophic,” Kennedy said.

Kate McLellan, a resident on Oahu’s North Shore, was still waiting for the worst of the storm after her power went out Sunday morning, glued to the weather network.

In March and April, her community was hit by back-to-back storms with heavy rain and high winds, keeping residents on high alert. Memories of that storm were “giving that same uncertainty and hesitation and panic and anxiety,” McLellan said.

Nicole Clark has been sheltering in place on Kauai and is prepared to stay there after her school was canceled Monday for her kids because of a tree blocking a road. Still, she said she’s inspired and comforted by the sense of community established across Hawaii during storms like this.

“It’s a good feeling during hard times,” Clark said.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Geoff Mulvihill, Alexa St. John and Ed White contributed.

___

Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

“It was incredible, to see green and the tricolors all over the course,” the Irishman said. “The support kept me going. It was much appreciated. It was just a roar, ‘Go Ireland, go Paul.'"

Whether waving flags or roaring for their athletes, Irish fans have made their mark at the European championships in Birmingham. Ireland's athletes have taken note, as have broadcasters and organizers.

“It feels like a home championships,” O’Donnell, who finished 43rd, told The Associated Press.

The official Instagram account of the games, Birmingham 2026, posted: “Beginning to think the Irish fans are the best fans in Europe!" In another post, it added: “From Dublin to Birmingham and everywhere in between, they follow their athletes across the world, and the noise they bring is unmatched.”

Kate O'Connor won the heptathlon on Saturday to double Ireland's gold tally. Mark English had won the 800-meter final on Thursday, followed minutes later by a silver medal for Rhasidat Adeleke in the 200 meters. Andrew Coscoran picked up a bronze in the 1,500.

Husband-wife duo Eoin Murphy and Emma McNelis of Dublin were in Alexander Stadium to see O’Connor complete her heptathlon victory.

“It feels like there’s as many Irish as British here — at the stadium,” McNelis said as they watched the marathon.

Murphy bought an Irish flag at the Dublin airport for their weekend trip. For him, Coscoran's bronze was the highlight "because it was so surprising. He was in the middle of the pack for most of it.”

In interviews with Athletics Ireland, Irish competitors marveled at the support they’ve received in Birmingham.

O’Connor described the experience as “probably the closest we’ll ever get to a home games.”

“It’s a championships that I’ll obviously never forget for winning gold but also never forget the roars, the cheers, the support,” she said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”

“Seeing so many kids as well out there that are screaming for autographs and photos," O’Connor added, "it kind of makes you realize the effect that you have on the country by, I don’t know, running, jumping, throwing, doing all those events as well as you can.”

Ireland's medal haul for the championships stayed at four. Sarah Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan competed in the 1,500 final Sunday night but finished outside the top three.

National pride is a big factor

In an annual survey, champion boxer Katie Taylor regularly tops the list as Ireland’s “most admired athlete” despite boxing not ranking among the favorite sports. Gaelic Games topped the list just ahead of soccer, with rugby third and "athletics/tennis" fourth in the 2025 edition of the Teneo Sport and Sponsorship Index.

Athletics stars from this week will likely get some love in the next version.

Adeleke was second to Taylor in the 2024 survey after winning a gold medal and two silver medals at the 2024 European championships in Rome.

This week, the 23-year-old Adeleke said she felt like she was home thanks to the Irish fans.

“Definitely trumped any other nation that was out there. So loud, so supportive,” she said.

Adeleke's silver on Thursday came shortly after English's gold.

“Twenty minutes, two medals. That’s a great night out for us.”

___

See full AP coverage of European sports here

Hunt had already won two individual titles — the 100 and 200 — and added a third gold Saturday in the women’s 4x100 relay at Alexander Stadium.

The team of Jeremiah Azu, Dina Asher-Smith, Zharnel Hughes and Hunt won Sunday in a time of 39.97 seconds. Germany was second in 40.11 and Spain third in 40.42.

On the anchor leg, Hunt pulled away from Gina Lückenkemper to cross the line for gold.

“Oh my gosh, I'm over the moon,” Hunt told the BBC. “To finish it off with some of my best friends in the sport ... to do it all together is incredible.”

Asher-Smith won her career eighth European championships gold and became the competition's most decorated athlete with her 11th medal, moving one ahead of the late Polish sprinter Irena Szewinska.

This was the debut of the mixed 4x100 relay in the European championships.

“It’s good to get to try something new,” Asher-Smith told the BBC, although she added, “I was absolutely terrified.”

Four in a row for Duplantis

Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis earned his fourth consecutive European championship title by clearing 6.15 meters.

Duplantis is the world record holder — he vaulted 6.31 meters in March. That was his 15th world record. He first broke it in 2020 and has eclipsed his mark by 1 centimeter each time since.

The two-time reigning Olympic champion watched on as Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis (6.00) lost momentum after getting over 6.10 but knocking the bar off on his way down. Karalis took his second straight silver at the championships. France's Baptiste Thiery (5.85) earned bronze.

Italy wins medal table

Bragging rights were on the line in the last event of the week-long championships when Britain and Italy were tied at nine golds each atop the medal table.

The Italians pulled out the victory in the men's 4x400 relay final, and the home team settled for silver. That means Italy topped the table with 10 golds and an overall 22 medals, three more than Britain's total.

Italy also topped the medal table two years ago in Rome.

In the penultimate event of the championships, the Dutch women's 4x400 relay team won gold when star Femke Broeders-Bol held off Britain's Emily Newnham down the stretch. It was the third straight women’s 4x400 relay championships title and Broeders-Bol's sixth career gold at the championships.

In the women's 1,500 final, Britain's Georgia Hunter Bell improved on her silver medal from two years ago by crossing the line first in 4:07.78.

Larissa Iapichino had added to Italy's gold tally by winning the women's long jump, leaping 7.00 meters for the title.

Memorable marathons

Amanal Petros made sure there was no photo finish this time.

The German won the men’s marathon on Sunday morning by a whopping 7 seconds, less than a year after missing out on gold in a photo finish at the world championships in Tokyo.

Petros crossed the finish line in Birmingham in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 11 seconds — breaking the championships record in the process. Italy’s Pietro Riva took silver with his 2:09:18, three seconds better than Israel’s Gashau Ayale.

Last September, the Eritrean-born Petros settled for silver behind Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu in the closest marathon in world championships history. Both men were officially clocked at 2:09:48, but it was determined that Simbu crossed the line a fraction sooner.

In the women’s marathon Sunday, Finland’s Alisa Vainio dominated the field to finish in 2:22:26, nearly five minutes ahead of silver medalist Lili Anna Vindics-Toth of Hungary. Britain’s Abbie Donnelly took bronze. Vainio broke Christelle Daunay’s championship record from 2014 by almost three minutes.

___

See full AP coverage of European sports here

Monday

Heat advisories persist to start the week as a ridge of high pressure in the upper levels of the atmosphere and a westerly wind at the surface combine to bake Central Florida. High temperatures will climb into the mid-upper 90s with “feels like” temperatures ranging 108-112ºF. Rain chances will remain low, sitting at around 20%. Rain chances are better the further north you go. North of Seminole County will see about 20-30% coverage after 2pm. South of Seminole County will only see about 10-20%.

Mid-Week

Rain chances begin to rise, up to 60% by Wednesday, as an upper level low develops over Florida and moves into the western Gulf. This will break down the ridge and increase moisture and instability in our atmosphere. Rain chances will stick around through the second half of the week and into the following weekend.

Cameroon finally won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday with a 3-0 victory over tournament debutant Malawi.

Marie Ngah Manga headed two goals and Naomi Eto scored the other while Cameroon kept Malawi’s Chawinga sisters in check to claim its first win in the final at the fourth attempt.

The Indomitable Lionesses, who failed to qualify for the previous edition of the tournament, had lost on their last three appearances in the final – all to 10-time winner Nigeria.

“I feel like it’s a dream because you know Cameroon have been working hard to have this moment and today for us to be champion of Africa is a very, very wonderful thing,” Ngah Manga said.

FIFA's under-fire president, Gianni Infantino, attended the game along with CAF President Patrice Motsepe.

Infantino later helped Motsepe hand out medals to the top three teams. Algeria defeated Morocco in the third-place decider on Saturday.

Infantino also posed with Motsepe and Samuel Eto’o, the president of the Cameroon Football Federation, for a photo with Cameroon forward Monique Ngock after she received the player of the tournament trophy.

Cameroon too strong

Malawi made the better start but suffered a double blow when Ngah Manga headed the opener from close range in the 21st minute, shortly before Eto – who had her back to goal – turned brilliantly to send the ball inside the right post.

Eto was also involved in the first goal, forcing a save from Malawi goalkeeper Mercy Sikelo before Ngah Manga scored.

Malawi failed to muster a response and Ngah Manga effectively sealed the result on a break when Eto got to the ball before Sikelo and produced a perfect cross for her teammate to head her second goal of the game and fifth overall in the tournament.

Cameroon substitutes ran onto the field to celebrate with their teammates.

The Chawinga sisters had pushed Malawi after the break. Tabitha Chawinga felt she should have had a penalty, but a VAR check deemed otherwise. Then she drew a good save from Michaely Bihina, and her sister Temwa went close from the rebound.

Cameroon veteran Gabrielle Aboudi Onguéné went on in stoppage time and duly scored, only to have the goal ruled out for offside. The 37-year-old Onguéné was part of the Cameroon team that lost the final at home to Nigeria in 2016. Despite her disallowed goal, this time she could celebrate.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Frank Gounder was among the Indianapolis residents assessing the damage Sunday, which also happened to be his 37th birthday.

The furniture maker, who lives on the city’s hard-hit northside, less than a mile from the White River, had been at home as floodwaters crept up his driveway until they were about 2 feet deep (0.61 meters) in the house and his workshop.

Now Gounder is left to pick through waterlogged materials and handmade furniture in various stages of completion to see what, if anything, could be salvaged.

“It’s a lot. Before the water had actually gotten into my house and I saw that it was going to happen, I started freaking out, getting mad,” he said. “But after you realize you can’t do anything about it, you kind of just have to let go and just continue, or else you’re just going to be miserable.”

Storm victims mourned

A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.

Among the latest confirmed victims was a 31-year-old cyclist found dead early Sunday in a hole that opened up on a washed-out road in Henry County, east of Indianapolis.

Henry County Coroner Brian Clark said the man, James Briar, appears to have gone around a barricade and fallen into the collapsed road.

Officials in Jennings County, in the southern end of the state, said the youngest victim reported so far was killed Tuesday when a tree crashed through his bedroom during strong winds.

“This is obviously unexpected,” Cody Low, chief deputy at the Jennings County Sheriff’s office, told the local ABC affiliate. “There’s nothing we can say that is going to make it any better. We’re going to push through this as a community.”

The other victims included a 19-year-old man whose body was recovered Saturday. Officials in Delaware County, located east of Indianapolis, said Matthew Morey had jumped off a bridge into the rushing waters of the Mississinewa River with friends three days earlier.

Family and friends gathered earlier in the week at the bridge to remember the recent high school graduate, who was headed to Purdue University, and warn of the dangers of swollen rivers.

“There are no words that can ease the pain of losing a child,” Delaware County Sheriff Tony Skinner said in a statement on Sunday. “Our hearts are with Matthew’s family, friends, classmates, and everyone who knew and loved him.”

Skinner's office also confirmed Stephanie Sallee and her dog were found dead in a cornfield Friday, not far from Sallee's car. They believe the 58-year-old had been driving on a flooded road when the vehicle was swept away.

In social media posts, Sallee's family remembered her as a sweet, kind and “spunky lady” who adored her grandchildren and other young relatives.

Recovery efforts are underway

In Indianapolis, flooding from the White River peaked early Sunday morning before receding, the city Department of Public Works said.

The agency reopened city floodgates Sunday, though they urged residents to be cautious as they returned to flood-damaged neighborhoods. Emergency shelters remained open after hundreds of homes along the river and its canals were evacuated. First responders used boats to rescue people stranded by rapidly rising floodwaters.

Recovery efforts were also underway elsewhere in the state.

“I must admit it is a good morning,” Christine Altman, president of the Hamilton County board of commissioners, said during a Sunday briefing. “It’s not raining, and the water is receding.”

She said the county, located just north of Indianapolis, escaped without any loss of life, though officials were assessing whether a significant bridge damaged in the flooding could be repaired or if it needed to be completely replaced.

While northern parts of Indiana dried out, a cluster of storms was expected to pass through the central and southern regions later Sunday, bringing the potential for heavy rain, flash flooding and damaging winds, the National Weather Service warned.

Nearly 130,000 utility customers statewide remained without power as of late Sunday, down from a peak of around 300,000, according to the online utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

Storms brought historic flooding to Indiana

Heavy rains hammered Indiana over the past week, causing rivers to crest and setting records as roads and bridges were seriously damaged or washed out entirely by the rushing waters.

The White River crested at more than 24 feet (7.32 meters) in the communities of Anderson and Noblesville, surpassing records set in 1913.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the flooding was the worst the city has seen in more than 30 years.

Gov. Mike Braun’s office said more than 350 evacuations and scores of rescue and welfare checks have occurred elsewhere in the state, including at a senior mobile home community north of Indianapolis.

President Donald Trump on Saturday approved Braun’s request for federal disaster assistance to help with flooding response and recovery efforts.

The drenching rains and destructive flooding were among the impacts of severe storms that have wreaked havoc across the Midwest and beyond in recent days.

Tornadoes, heavy rains and flash flooding brought serious damage to communities from Illinois to western Pennsylvania.

___

Marcelo reported from New York.

Arenado pulled himself out of a 5-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the fourth inning Sunday with what was described as left trunk discomfort.

He only hopes it's not too serious, especially when the Diamondbacks are vying for a playoff spot. They came into the day in a three-way tie with San Diego and Philadelphia for the final two NL wild-card spots.

“I am worried,” Arenado said. “I’ve never had that before, so I don't know what it is.”

Arenado said he initially felt the pain while bending over in the batter's box and it felt worse after he swung. He slowed up noticeably while running to first and quickly decided to leave the game.

“I felt a little bit of pain in my intercostal area,” he said in the clubhouse afterward, pointing toward his left rib cage. “I don't know. It just didn't feel right. I haven't really felt that before, so I had to get get taken out of the game.”

With the team heading to Boston for the start of a three-game series on Monday, Arenado will have as MRI to determine the extent of the injury.

“It doesn't feel great,” he said. "I felt it before the at-bat, but it didn’t feel like pain or anything. Then, when I swung, I was like ‘ahh.’ It wasn’t getting drastically worse, but it doesn’t feel right. So I thought I would let them know.”

That raised the concern of manager Torey Lovullo.

“The last thing he wants to do is take himself out of the game,” Lovullo said. “That's just his mentality. He's ferocious. He wants to play every inning of every game. When I got that news, it wasn't great.”

While expressing cautious optimism that the injury isn't serious, Lovullo was taken aback when told by the media that Arenado described it as an intercostal issue, referring to the muscles between the rib cage.

“That's news to me,” the skipper said. “If he's concerned, then that will ramp up my concern. We care about each other in this clubhouse.”

The 35-year-old Arenado, an eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, has made a big impact in his first season with the Diamondbacks. He is hitting .241 with 20 homers and 62 RBIs after being acquired in a salary-dump trade with St. Louis during the offseason.

“He's having a tremendous year," Lovullo said. "I thought about giving him the day off, but he hit two home runs yesterday and had a really nice day. He didn't want it, nor did he ask for it, but it's one of those things where you're got to be careful in different situations. He's just been playing hard, but something didn't feel right, so he spoke up.”

Arenado said he's used to the normal aches and pains at this stage of his career, especially when playing the day after a night game.

“It's a day game, so it's hard to get going," he said. "You always feel things that don't feel quite loose, but you get loose as the game goes on. I didn't feel it hitting it the cage today getting loose for the game. I didn't really feel anything until I bent over to put my leg guard on. Then I felt a little something swinging and that was it.”

Arenado was replaced by Ildemaro Vargas, who homered in the seventh to tie the game at 2, before Atlanta's Matt Olson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the frame.

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The alarming milestone at Lake Powell, reached Saturday, comes about a week after the river’s other major reservoir, Lake Mead, also hit a historic low. Plummeting water levels pose a major threat to the Colorado River Basin, which is a key resource for wildlife, hydropower and more than 40 million people in seven U.S. states.

The historic lows come as the federal government and states that rely on the river — California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado — struggle to reach agreement on a long-term management plan for the dwindling resource. Persistent overuse combined with a record-dry winter and rising temperatures have been depleting both Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Lake Powell’s elevation dropped to 3,519.91 feet (1072.9 meters) above sea level on Saturday, dropping just slightly below a previous record set in April 2023, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The lake is more than 20 feet (6.10 meters) lower than it was at the start of the year, USBR data shows.

The reservoir is now about 30 feet (9.1 meters) away from the point at which turbines would stop producing hydroelectric power. Federal officials warned in April that a “major intervention” would be necessary to avoid reaching that threshold by the end of this year.

USBR in July proposed a 10-year plan that includes major potential water cuts for Arizona, California and Nevada.

The crisis has been in the making for years. Both reservoirs are at the lowest they have been in nearly seven decades, and levels may continue to drop, USBR data shows.

The last time their combined storage was this small was in May 1957 when Glen Canyon Dam that holds back Powell was being built, according to a recent paper published by a group of academics and retired water officials. Powell began to fill in 1963.

The depletion has also impacted Lake Powell’s substantial tourism industry, forcing marinas in the reservoir to adapt. Boat ramps have closed or moved, new ones are being added and marinas have been temporarily relocated to deeper waters.

The talks aim to salvage the plan for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war.

At stake are the lives of some 2 million people in Gaza and reconstruction of the crowded enclave now largely controlled by Israeli forces, more than 10 months since the ceasefire ended major military operations. A meeting between Kushner, fellow envoy Steve Witkoff and Hamas leaders in Egypt last year helped clinch the ceasefire, whose progress until now had been stalled over the key issue of Hamas’ disarmament.

The more than two-hour meeting in Egypt with Hamas' Khalil al-Hayya was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also there.

Hamas in a statement later called on mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire to “compel” Israel to approve the road map for next steps.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week rejected the 15-point plan in a rare public show of defiance against the Trump administration, Israel’s closest ally.

Kushner, former British prime minister Tony Blair and the Board of Peace director, Nickolay Mladenov, are to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a source familiar with the plans and a diplomatic source. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.

Regional powers accuse Israel of obstructing peace efforts

Several regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a statement condemning Israel’s rejection of the road map, saying that “Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.” Other signers included Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the ceasefire mediators.

The foreign ministers' statement called on the Board of Peace and the U.S. to take “immediate and concrete measures” to keep any party from obstructing the plan’s implementation.

Kushner’s meeting with the Hamas leader aimed at ensuring the militant group’s commitment to the road map, particularly disarmament, before his meeting with Netanyahu, the regional official said.

The Hamas official said the group is committed and waiting for mediators to start the 14-day negotiation period to work out a timetable for implementation. That period requires all parties' approval of the road map to begin.

The Hamas official also said the Hamas leader demanded that Israel halt its attacks on Gaza and withdraw to the so-called “yellow line” dividing the territory before beginning implementation. The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza.

In May, Netanyahu said the next step was to move to 70% control, with Israel “tightening the grip” on Hamas “from every direction.”

The White House had no comment on the talks

The White House referred questions about Kushner's meetings to the Board of Peace, which did not immediately comment. The Tony Blair Institute did not comment.

Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza. But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government rejects.

The road map involves Hamas gradually giving up its weapons while Israeli forces halt attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza. But Netanyahu says Israel will not retreat from any position in Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed.

That stance leaves other elements of the ceasefire, including reconstruction and the deployment of international forces to separate Israeli forces from committee-controlled areas, on hold.

Netanyahu faces a challenging election on Oct. 27 as he tries to hold on to power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza, and it's not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then. Also coming up is the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war.

Netanyahu's Likud party on Sunday responded to the statement by regional powers by claiming that “Arab states want to topple” Netanyahu so that centrist challenger Gadi Eisenkot and center-left party leader Yair Golan "will give them everything they want. That will not happen.”

___

Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Anna from Lowville, New York. Collin Binkley in Washington and Sylvia Hui in London contributed.