And tell you. And tell you.

Trump has spoken repeatedly of his prowess with green lawns since returning to the White House — at some events even spending more time talking about it than the war in Iran, the economy or November's midterm elections.

It was on the president's mind just five weeks after his second inauguration, when he pointed out the Oval Office window during an interview with The Spectator. “You see the grass outside, right?” Trump asked before detailing his plans to pave over much of it. “Some people would like to leave it. But the problem is, you can’t."

Trump has kept on the topic constantly ever since, saying as recently as Monday at a White House event with military spouses: “Grass is like humans. It has a life.”

All told, he's mentioned grass in at least 45 public events or interviews over the past 18 months — or at least once every 12 days. That doesn't include the numerous social media posts that Trump has also made on the topic.

His gravitation toward grass speaks to Trump's decades as a New York real estate developer and personal love of building things and overseeing construction projects, but also to the amount of time he spends on the golf course and his extensive, second-term efforts to revamp the White House and greater Washington in his own image. He's already far outpaced the 26 times he mentioned grass during the entirety of his first four-year term.

The White House declined to comment. But Trump has made clear where his interest in — and knowledge of — grass comes from.

“I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses," he said while announcing the recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last August. "And, if you don’t have good grass, you’re not in business very long.”

A week later, while visiting park police officers in Washington, the president declared, “I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world.”

Trump frequently touts his Washington overhaul and Rose Garden patio

Matt Koch, the lawns research fellow for gardening giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, met recently with the president to discuss planting new grass on the White House’s South Lawn. He proudly considers himself a “grass nerd” and came away convinced Trump is an honorary one.

“An amazing dialogue, talking grass for half an hour,” Koch said of the Oval Office discussion. “Going back and forth about grass.”

Trump has managed to bring up grass at events as varied as the signing of an executive order on TikTok and the 2025 White House celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. He mentioned it while pardoning turkeys last Thanksgiving, while addressing the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, and while signing a directive on quantum technology.

Last September, while hosting Republican lawmakers for dinner, he pledged of green spaces around Washington, “We’re gonna re-grass them with the best guys in the country.” That same month, during an event announcing the intended renaming of the Department of Defense, Trump assured attendees, “I’m very good at grass.”

Trump most frequently mentions grass while promoting his Washington beautification efforts. In May, he spent 10 minutes of a Cabinet meeting detailing his efforts to fix fountains and give D.C.'s parks and monuments a facelift — sometimes sounding more like a small-town mayor than the leader of the free world.

Ironically, the president brings up the topic while defending his decisions to remove grass for new construction — like when he covered the lawn near the White House's Rose Garden with a stone patio.

“Problem with the grass, you couldn’t do anything with it,” he said during a 2025 Oval Office tour for hosts of the “All-In” podcast.

The president also frequently recounts that hordes of women, including journalists, Cabinet members and administration officials, used to complain to him about their high heels getting stuck in the mud in the old, grassy Rose Garden.

“The women would be lifting up their shoes, saying, ‘You’ve destroyed my shoes,'” he said during a luncheon last fall. When hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in July, he relayed that women in heels “would go down like quicksand.”

Trump's helipad is wiping out even more grass

Erecting a UFC octagon to mark his 80th birthday in June reduced large swaths of the South Lawn to dusty dirt. In the weeks since, crews have been building a sprawling helicopter landing pad, meaning even more grass has been removed from the lawn.

Trump said the helipad was needed because the new, more powerful fleet of helicopters now being used as Marine One tore up the previous sod.

“When you land on the grass, it’s not that the grass gets discolored — it gets ripped out,” he said in June. Trump even described tufts of turf going “all over” and said, “Half of the grass was sitting in front of the Oval Office front door.”

Scotts Miracle-Gro donated $1 million in monetary and product support to the National Park Service to restore the South Lawn after the UFC fight, and Trump used the meeting with Koch in June to select a custom turfgrass blend of four kinds of tall fescues and four Kentucky bluegrasses. The company's CEO, James Hagedorn, is a Trump supporter.

Trump, Koch said, asked good, detailed questions as he was shown carpet sample-like swaths of each grass variety.

“You can tell he spends a lot of time on golf courses," Koch said. “He obviously owns courses, and he knows grass from being around it.”

Koch returned to the White House last week as crews began resodding some areas of the White House lawn outside the helipad construction area. There are plans next spring to plant seeds from the grass blend Trump selected. By then, growth will be optimal, and the helipad work should be complete, making the lawn restoration easier.

Many golfers are obsessed with grass

Also key to the president's grass fixation is his love of golf.

Bert McCarty, a Clemson University professor of turfgrass science and management, said golfers like how top courses are so different — from incorporating the ocean in places near beaches to relying on inclines in the mountains.

Trump, McCarty said, is “like most golfers. He likes the challenge of the course and the differences of the course to add variety."

Last August, Trump pledged that, after his administration's various improvements, parks in Washington will “look like Augusta" — a reference to the home of the iconic Masters tournament, where aesthetics are so important that bags from the pro shop and food wrappers are green so that any possible litter blends in with the grass during TV broadcasts.

McCarty said most people “look at the beautiful flowers and the striped-up fairways, and they just think it’s heaven." But “Augusta basically spares no expense to achieve the look they're after," he added, and municipalities “can't compete with that.”

Cost aside, though, Trump may be thinking even bigger than Augusta, pointing to his own golf course in Northern Virginia.

“It’ll look like, more importantly, Trump National Golf Club,” he said. “That’s even better.”

Any concession would be tough for the Republican president, who has insisted there is no truth to his sagging poll numbers, the sluggish economy and the U.S. military’s dwindling stockpiles of key weapons following the Iran war he launched with Israel more than five months ago.

“He divides the world into winners and losers, and this would make him a loser,” said Eliot Cohen, who served as counselor of the State Department in the George W. Bush administration. “And the image of being a loser, I think, would be intolerable for him.”

The sticking point has been over control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows. While both sides say a deal is close, the Trump administration has ruled out any arrangement that would cement Iran’s grip over the Persian Gulf waterway, including Tehran charging fees.

But Iran has insisted on some measure of control, saying the strait will not go back to being an open international waterway as it was before the war. Despite thousands of U.S. strikes, Iran can still fire drones and missiles at vessels, giving it a chokehold over commercial shipping.

Cohen said yielding ground to Iran would be difficult for the president, even if the conflict keeps gasoline prices elevated and poses problems for Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

But David Schenker, a former State Department official in the first Trump administration, said the increasing economic pressure may actually prompt Trump to compromise on the strait, even if it's likely to have profound implications on global trade.

“There will be a lot of spin both ways, but my guess is that the president has tipped his hand as to the urgency for him of resolving the crisis,” said Schenker, now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This is a concession he may very well be willing to make.”

Trump says weapons stockpiles are ‘a little bit tighter’

Trump, however, has so far conceded little about the war.

He posted on social media Thursday that the U.S. military still has “massive amounts” of weapons and that large amounts are being manufactured. He threatened jail time for the alleged “leakers” of information on the nation's weapons stockpiles.

Trump was referencing a Washington Post story that reported his frustration with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the shrinking inventories of advanced weapons, as the Cabinet had gathered at Camp David last week.

A senior administration official said there had been a “robust and healthy” discussion about Iran in the Cabinet meeting and would not provide additional details except to say there had not been a "knock-down, drag-out fight” over the matter. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration deliberations.

Experts say the U.S. military is running short on weapons like advanced missile interceptors that have defended American troops from Iranian attacks. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, has released reports on declining inventories based on budget documents and other public information.

When asked later about weapons stockpiles, Trump told reporters that “we need more all the time.” He claimed that certain kinds of munitions are in “virtually unlimited supply” and others are “a little bit tighter.” He didn't offer more specifics.

He insisted that “we’re in great shape. But, with that being said, we always want more. We have to have more,” noting that the military could tap into U.S. supplies of munitions around the world if needed.

Hegseth was on Capitol Hill this week, meeting privately with Republican senators as he makes the case for billions of dollars in additional Pentagon spending as part of a major GOP budget package.

Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy pilot, said the weapons shortfall stems from a war that lacked a well-defined goal and strategy beyond striking more than 14,000 targets.

“My contention on this is, if you knew what the goal is, maybe the target list would have been 500 targets. Maybe it would have been 200 targets," Kelly said, adding the Pentagon wants "billions and billions of dollars to fix their self-inflicted problem.”

Trump has made a dubious claim about polling

Trump also has claimed in a social media post Tuesday that his polling numbers are the best “they have ever been.” He cited accomplishments including employment numbers and the “Denuclearization of Iran.”

But about two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran has not been worthwhile, according to a poll from late July by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as about 37% of Republicans.

On employment, the United States had nearly 159 million jobs in June, not including farmworkers, which was a record. In Trump’s second term, however, job growth has slowed considerably.

Trump also continues to claim that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial shipping. He said Thursday that the strait is “sort of open right now” and pointed to the Navy's blockade of Iranian ports.

“But they can always shoot something, they always have something or drop a mine,” Trump said of Iran. “And if you have one mine sitting out there, you sort of mess things up because people don’t want to take their billion-dollar boats and accidentally get hit by a mine.”

At least two ships were hit in the Strait of Hormuz in the past week, while several others reported near misses or warnings from entities claiming to represent Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Vessel traffic through the strait increased to 84 transits last week, up from 45 the week before. But traffic is still far below the more than 700 transits seen in a typical week before the crisis, Lloyd’s List said.

A deal over the Strait of Hormuz could hinge on fees

U.S. and Iranian officials say they are close to reaching an agreement to reopen the strait. That is even as the U.S. military insists the strait is open through a route it helps oversee near Oman’s coast, saying this week that it “remains free and open for all commercial vessels seeking to transit the international waterway.”

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the potential deal is being portrayed as a temporary solution to the dispute over the strait, and that it would allow ships to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through an Omani-controlled route.

The Trump administration has said repeatedly that it is strongly opposed to any arrangement that would see Iran charge fees.

Any temporary routes through the waterway will not have tolls, charges or other impediments, according to a U.S. official not authorized to comment publicly who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity. The official said Trump’s preferred choice is diplomacy and he “holds all the cards” in dealing with Iran.

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Associated Press reporters Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

Then she took the blame for the Indiana Fever's stinging 86-84 overtime loss to defending champion Las Vegas.

“Obviously, it just can't happen,” the three-time All-Star said just hours after she was one of 12 players named to the FIBA Women's World Cup team. “Those are free throws I usually make and certainly frustrating. Obviously, one of them gives us a two-possession lead and kind of caused my pain there, for sure, so that's on me.”

It wasn't a great night for Clark by any measure. While she scored 20 points, had eight assists and made two go-ahead 3-pointers in the final 4 1/2 minutes of regulation, it was the miscues she rued after first watching a 20-point first-half lead slip away and then failing to protect a three-point lead in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and a two-point lead at the end of overtime.

Jackie Young took advantage of the first opening by scoring a franchise-record 15 consecutive points to finish the second quarter and start the third. Chelsea Gray then made the Fever pay for their late miscues — making a buzzer-beating 3 to tie it at 75 following the missed free throws and then making another buzzer beater to win it following Clark's final turnover, forced by A'ja Wilson.

Clark went 7 of 20 from the field, 2 of 10 on 3s and had more fouls (four) than rebounds (three). Still, she didn't make any excuses.

“I didn't know we scored nine points in the third quarter, but you know we still battled, still fought, we put ourselves in position to win the game,” Clark said. “And then, honestly, it was me that made the costly errors for us. So that's on me to helps us win. That's my job. That's what I get paid to do.”

As usual, though, it wasn't just Clark.

Kelsey Mitchell, July's WNBA Player of the Month, missed one of two free throws with 9.2 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. And then, instead of fouling to prevent the tying 3-point attempt, or corralling the loose ball, Gray got her chance to tie the score.

“Aliyah Boston read it perfectly, her timing was perfect,” coach Stephanie White said, noting they gave up 18 points on turnovers, too.. “It's a loose ball and it bounced their way. We've got to come up with that play.”

White also acknowledged making her own mistake — not calling timeout at the end of overtime when they were struggling to get a shot, which led to Clark's turnover.

And, though, that seemed of little solace to Clark, White saw it another way.

“Players already hate that they miss free throws, right? They hate that they miss plays,” White said. “You've just got to keep them positive in those moments."

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

The rookie quarterback ran in from the 5 on the final play to give the Carolina Panthers a 33-30 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame game that kicked off the NFL preseason on Thursday night.

King, who was the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year last season at Georgia Tech, was 21 of 34 for 180 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for 39 yards and the winning score.

“Well, that was a lot of fun. Just the back and forth of it. Just a really good game,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said. “The guys were resilient and finish is what we preach as a team. We practice for these situations, end of half, end of game. ... Haynes did a fantastic job, just keeping the play alive, doing whatever he had to do, run it, throw it. Really proud of the group.”

Carson Beck also had an impressive debut for Arizona.

After Beck left, Kedon Slovis tossed a 1-yard TD pass to Bryson Green with 1:55 remaining to give the Cardinals a 30-27 lead.

But King rallied the Panthers on a night when both teams didn’t play their starters. Bryce Young was King’s biggest cheerleader on the sideline.

King’s 4-yard TD pass to Anthony Tyus III in the opening minute of the fourth quarter put Carolina ahead 24-20. King threw a 15-yard TD pass Ja’seem Reed in the second quarter. He had a 26-yard run on third-and-14 to keep the final drive going.

“These are things that he did throughout his career,” Canales said of King. “The bottom line is move the chains.”

Both teams gave their backups and reserves opportunities to shine.

Beck, Slovis and King took advantage.

Beck, a third-round pick from Miami, completed 15 of 19 passes for 188 yards and one touchdown. After leading the Hurricanes to the national championship game — a loss to Fernando Mendoza and Indiana — Beck wasn't overwhelmed by the national stage.

“It was a cool environment and for him to just kind of, it’s just another game and that’s the way he took it and he’s been in big ones and that’s how his mindset works,” rookie Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur said.

Slovis was 9 of 10 for 106 yards.

Veteran Jacoby Brissett is the Cardinals' starter and their backup is journeyman Gardner Minshew. But expectations are low for Arizona in a division that includes the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks, Rams and 49ers.

So Beck may get a chance to play at some point if he develops under LaFleur. Canales raved about what he saw from the opposing sideline.

“He operated like a professional. He looked fantastic,” Canales said. “He was accurate. He was on time. Our rush was decent. He got the ball out, threw some really beautiful passes down the field, up the sideline on some double moves, over the middle, to keep the drive alive in some third-down situations, so tip my hat to him.”

King is expected to be Carolina’s No. 3 QB behind Young and veteran Kenny Pickett.

The Panthers won the NFC South last season at 8-9 and lost to the Rams in a wild-card game.

Pickett started and was 8 of 11 for 62 yards before King replaced him.

Beck completed all six of his passes on a 98-yard touchdown drive that included a 35-yard strike to Jalen Brooks on third-and-7 from Arizona’s 7.

He threw a perfect deep ball to Brooks for a 49-yard gain and finished that drive with a 5-yard TD pass to Simi Fehoko.

Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love, the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, sat out even though he hoped to persuade LaFleur to let him play.

Gold jackets

Quarterback Drew Brees, running back Roger Craig, kicker Adam Vinatieri, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and linebacker Luke Kuechly make up the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

Tomlin makes his TV debut

Former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin made his first appearance with the NBC broadcast crew. Tomlin left Pittsburgh after 19 seasons and became the lead studio analyst for “Football Night in America.”

Brissett and McBride in the Hall

Brissett and All-Pro tight end Trey McBride stopped by the Pro Football Hall of Fame Museum to see their jerseys displayed for breaking records last season. McBride set an NFL record for receptions by a tight end in a season with 126. Brissett set a record for completions in a game with 47 against San Francisco last Nov. 16.

Honoring Fitz

Cardinals players wore red T-shirts with Larry Fitzgerald's No. 11 in warmups and on the sideline.

“It's a great feeling to know your organization stands behind you,” Fitzgerald said. “I'm really happy they would honor me like this.”

Up next

Panthers: At Buffalo on Aug. 15.

Cardinals: At Las Vegas on Aug. 13.

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

Authorities said two men attempted to rob a food delivery driver near Northwest 35th Avenue and Northwest 203rd Street around 2 p.m.

A barrage of gunfire was captured on a nearby doorbell camera.

“I just hear a shower of bullets. Boom -- like seven times,” witness Hector Joch said.

“Just bah, bah, bah,” another witness, Luis Ordonez, said.

Cellphone video from the scene appeared to show a man lying on the ground after the shooting. Witnesses said he was wearing a black ski mask.

“He was wearing a black ski mask, but it wasn’t fully on his face,” witness Isabell Ordonez said. “He was having trouble breathing.”

Another man was captured on camera pacing while talking on the phone.

A 911 caller reported that the food delivery driver had shot one of the people who allegedly tried to rob him.

Miami Gardens sources told Local 10 News the two men attempted to rob the delivery driver.

“I think he has a right to defend himself. Everyone has a right to defend themselves,” resident Anaaya Khan said.

SKY 10 video from above the scene appeared to show a sum of cash, sandals and a handgun near a Toyota.

“Very shocking. We’ve been living here for five years and this is the first time something like this happened,” Joch said.

As evidence markers covered the scene, the alleged suspect who was shot was airlifted to an area hospital, where he died.

Miami Gardens police are searching for the second suspect.

“It’s not good for the people living here,” Khan said.

The delivery driver remained at the scene and was detained.

The identity of the dead suspect has not been released, and there was no word on whether the second suspect had been arrested.

After the Rams held their final practice of camp Thursday, McVay said Donald's formal workout with the team went well at their regular training complex in Woodland Hills on Wednesday.

“He looked great, and he's still continuing to go through his process,” McVay said. “No new news on that front. ... We've had a plan in place for a while, and the workout was one of those things. (Calling it an official workout) was kind of semantical to be able to use the equipment and things like that under the (rules) of the CBA. He's very deliberate and intentional about what this looks like. I'm careful to say things are going in the right direction. He's feeling good, but we're not to where we're able to say he is or isn't ready to do it. But he's doing great, and he looked outstanding, as I think all of us would expect.”

McVay reiterated that the Rams will wait indefinitely for Donald's decision on whether to end his 2 1/2-year retirement. McVay also wouldn’t speculate on whether Donald would entertain the notion of returning to the Rams later in the regular season.

“He has earned the right to be able to say how he feels,” McVay said. “I saw (video of) the workout. I've been seeing the things that he's been doing. He and I probably talk every day, so it's one of those deals that if he wants to do it, we'd be excited about the possibility. And I think it's really important to acknowledge that if he doesn't, this guy gave this organization everything he had for 10 years. So if he is going to do it, he's going to do it the right way.”

Donald only began to entertain the notion of a comeback in early June after the Rams traded for Myles Garrett, and he has been working to get in football shape for several weeks. He has worked out at the Rams’ complex and at home while the team went through the past two weeks of training camp, which formally ends Friday.

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

Clark missed two free throws with seven seconds left in regulation and Indiana up by three, then lost the ball with seven seconds to go in overtime and the Fever a point ahead. Clark had 20 points and eight assists along with eight turnovers.

A’ja Wilson had 26 points, 13 rebounds and the key defensive stop against Clark that set up Gray’s winner. Jackie Young added 22 points, including a franchise-record 15 in a row to close the first half and open the second. Gray had 11 points, hitting three 3s.

Las Vegas overcame a 20-point first-half deficit, a three-point deficit at the end of regulation and a two-point deficit at the end of overtime to salvage a win in the three-game season series.

Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with 28 points, but missed a late free throw in regulation before Clark's misses. Aliyah Boston added 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Las Vegas erased its big deficit by closing the first half on a 15-0 run to cut a 42-22 deficit to 42-37. Young scored the final 13 points of the half, the first basket of the second half and five of the first seven points in the second half to give the Aces a 44-42 lead.

Indiana finally found its shooting touch midway through the fourth quarter.

It rallied from a 64-55 deficit with 6:16 left and led 75-72 when Gray hit the first of her two buzzer-beaters. Gray did it again in overtime knocking down a shot to erase an 86-84 deficit. Both plays withstood replay reviews.

The game was stopped for several minutes with 4:38 left in the third quarter when security escorted a woman, who was sitting in the front row directly across from the Aces bench, out through a tunnel. A few minutes later, she assisted back to her seat and two men who were seated near her were taken out.

The Fever issued a statement that said one fan was removed then elected not to return when it was determined the fan conduct policy had not been violated. Young told reporters someone had been “chirping" all night and at that point, she thought he had crossed the line. Young declined to elaborate on what was said.

Up next

Aces: At Minnesota on Saturday.

Fever: At Chicago on Saturday.

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

Pese a las críticas que ha recibido de ambientalistas, Sheinbaum ratificó el jueves su decisión de seguir adelante con las evaluaciones de los polémicos proyectos que podrían abrirle la posibilidad a México de disminuir la dependencia que tiene del gas proveniente de Estados Unidos, que es su principal proveedor. En la actualidad el país latinoamericano importa 75% del gas que utiliza.

La técnica de fracturación hidráulica, que implica la inyección de agua con arena y algunos aditivos a presión suficiente como para provocar microfisuras en las rocas y favorecer el flujo del gas natural, ha sido rechazada por los ambientalistas que sostienen que consume y contamina el agua potable con químicos tóxicos y libera enormes cantidades de gas metano que agravan el cambio climático.

Al exponer los alcances de los estudios que realizaron los 54 especialistas invitados por el gobierno, José Antonio Hernández Espriú, investigador de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), afirmó que para la fracturación hidráulica el grupo de expertos solo está recomendando que “se emplee exclusivamente agua salada” y que se descarte el uso del agua dulce debido a que está comprometida para el consumo humano, la agricultura y la ganadería.

Hernández Espriú dijo en la conferencia presidencial matutina que se debe reutilizar y reciclar, al menos, 75% del agua empleada en los procesos y establecer un sistema permanente de monitoreo para evitar los daños ambientales.

Sobre las regiones donde podrían desarrollarse los proyectos, el comité descartó la cuenca Tampico-Misantla, que está frente a las costas del Golfo de México y que abarca desde el estado de Veracruz hasta Tamaulipas, por las afectaciones ambientales y sociales que podría ocasionar.

Pero los especialistas dejaron abierta la posibilidad para continuar las evaluaciones de viabilidad de yacimientos no convencionales de gas natural en la cuenta de Sabinas-Burro-Picachos, ubicada en los estados norteños de Coahuila y Nuevo León, y la cuenca de Burgos del noreste de Tamaulipas.

Ante las recomendaciones de los especialistas, la mandataria anunció que el Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua iniciará las perforaciones de pozos exploratorios para determinar si hay agua salada en las áreas donde se podría extraer gas no convencional.

El informe del comité fue rechazado por unas 30 organizaciones civiles locales que acusaron a los especialistas de estar sesgados a favor del gobierno. En un comunicado sostuvieron que el estudio “no buscaba responder si México debía prohibir el uso del fracking, sino cómo usarlo con menos culpa”.

Sheinbaum —una científica experta en temas de cambio climático—por años estuvo en contra, al igual que su antecesor Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), a los proyectos de fracturación hidráulica.

Pero en los últimos meses decidió cambiar de postura en medio de las tensiones que han surgido en las relaciones entre México y la administración del estadounidense Donald Trump.

El año pasado México batió récords al gastar 9.100 millones de pies cúbicos de gas al día, de los cuales 6.800 millones fueron importados. La mayor parte del gas se usa para generación eléctrica y el gobierno prevé que necesitará 30% más para 2030.

El juez Bryan Biedscheid determinó en su fallo que 420 millones serán utilizados para servicios de atención para jóvenes. El resto del dinero se asignará a labores de concienciación y prevención, servicios de detección y otros costos durante los próximos cinco años.

En la primera fase del juicio, el jurado ordenó en marzo pasado sanciones civiles por 375 millones de dólares contra Meta después de determinar que la empresa perjudicó deliberadamente la salud mental de los niños y ocultó lo que sabía sobre la explotación sexual infantil en sus plataformas.

En la segunda fase, los fiscales habían solicitado al juez que impusiera cambios fundamentales en la compañía con el objetivo de poner fin a funciones adictivas, mejorar los procesos de verificación de edad y prevenir la explotación sexual infantil mediante configuraciones predeterminadas de privacidad, así como una supervisión más estrecha.

La decisión significa que el aspecto de las plataformas de Meta podría cambiar. El juez ordenó a Facebook e Instagram crear y desplegar frecuentemente banners y pantallas informativas para explicar con claridad sus funciones de protección, las mejores prácticas y herramientas para abordar, por ejemplo, los comentarios inapropiados. Esos cambios, así como una campaña educativa en Nuevo México, quedarían sujetos a una revisión por parte del estado.

“No estamos de acuerdo con el fallo y apelaremos”, indicó un portavoz de Meta el jueves por la noche en un comunicado.

“Trabajamos arduamente para mantener a las personas a salvo en nuestras plataformas y hemos sido transparentes sobre los desafíos de identificar y eliminar a los actores malintencionados y el contenido dañino. Seguimos confiando en nuestro historial de protección de los adolescentes en línea y continuaremos defendiéndonos de las afirmaciones que tergiversan los hechos”, añadió.

El Departamento de Justicia de Nuevo México no respondió de momento a un correo electrónico en busca de comentarios.

El tribunal destacó que las leyes federales de privacidad infantil impiden que Meta ponga en funcionamiento herramientas de verificación de edad a niños menores de 13 años. La Ley de Protección de la Privacidad Infantil en Internet --conocida como COPPA-- significa que no puede ordenar a que Meta solicite a los niños que presenten datos personales ni que sean rastreados de forma pasiva en línea, incluso con fines de verificación de edad.

La corte también señaló que ordenar únicamente a Meta, y no a otras empresas de redes sociales, verificar la edad de los menores "no sería equitativo y sería extremadamente perjudicial” para la compañía.

En su lugar, le ordenó a Meta seguir mejorando sus herramientas de garantía de edad en Nuevo México, las cuales incluyen el uso de inteligencia artificial para determinar la edad de una persona a partir de señales como quiénes son sus amigos y el tipo de contenido publican y consumen. Meta también debe tratar de desarrollar un “modelo de predicción para menores de 13 años” en los próximos dos años.

Además, Meta también deberá solicitar en Nuevo México un comprobante de edad a todo usuario de Instagram y Facebook que considere que es menor de 13 años. En caso de determinar que un usuario es menor de 13 años, o menor de 18 pero sin poder estimar una edad específica, Meta deberá tratar al usuario como si fuera un menor de 13 años o un menor de 18 años hasta que el usuario verifique su edad.

La empresa también deberá forjar alianzas con escuelas o con una organización de seguridad infantil para crear un portal de denuncias en donde el personal escolar pueda señalar a los usuarios que sean menores de 13 años. Además, debe eliminar cualquier información personal que haya recopilado de usuarios menores de 13 años.

Meta deberá informar sus avances en cuanto a las medidas de mitigación dos veces al año, de acuerdo con la orden.

___

Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

The TSA checkpoints for concourses E, F and G, along with surrounding areas, are reopening after being temporarily closed.

Travelers heading to MIA should continue to allow extra time as operations return to normal.

Nearly half of the Team USA athletes who competed in Italy came to the East Room reception, according to the White House, along with coaches, staff, and other representatives.

Among those attending was speedskater Jordan Stolz, whom Trump said was the single most-decorated American Olympian of the 2026 Games while marveling at his “very strong legs.” Stolz, during a rally with the president in Wisconsin earlier this summer, briefly placed a gold medal around Trump's neck.

“Today, we’re truly honored to welcome to the White House perhaps the greatest group of Winter Olympians in American history,” Trump said, as athletes in USA windbreakers filled rows of risers behind him.

They gave Trump a Team USA jacket and sneakers, and the president promised to hand out special coins and invited attendees to a post-event tour of the Oval Office.

Three hundred U.S. athletes participated in this year’s Winter Olympics and Paralympics, winning 57 medals in total. Thursday's event was originally scheduled to be held in the stone patio area that Trump had built near the Rose Garden, but was moved indoors as heavy evening rains fell.

“These men and women sacrificed years of their lives and countless early mornings to be the best in the world,” Trump said.

Then, apparently recalling himself as a one-time athlete, the president added, “That’s right. I guess you get up early in the morning, don’t you? I remember those days. But I didn’t do it as well as you. Not quite.”

Trump also asked who was already training for the next Olympics and most the athletes raised their hands. He noted that the 2034 Winter Olympics will be held in Salt Lake City and that Los Angeles is hosting the 2028 Summer Games.

The Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. men’s hockey team visited Trump at the White House in February and later received about a two-minute bipartisan standing ovation during his State of the Union address that night. Members of the gold-medal-winning U.S. women's hockey team declined an invitation to attend the speech, citing previously scheduled academic and personal commitments.

Trump said at the time that the women's hockey team would be honored at a later date, and two of its members, Abbey Murphy and Joy Dunne, attended Thursday's celebration and got shout-outs from Trump. He also spoke at length about the men's team, even though its members didn't make a return to the White House trip.

In a video posted earlier Thursday on social media, ice dancers Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik indicated that they did not want to come to the White House.

Trump stayed mostly focused on the Olympics and not politics in his remarks, though he told those assembled, “We’ve done a lot to help save women’s sports,” drawing only a muted reaction from some athletes. At his “Make America Great Again” rallies, Trump often gets cheers for declaring his opposition to transgender rights.

Trump also said Thursday that we’re “saving college sports” and called on Congress to pass legislation overhauling the way such sports are governed, promising to sign it.

“We’re doing everything we can to protect the cherished sporting traditions that have long been part of our nation from the beginning,” the president said.

La embajada china en Buenos Aires acusó el jueves a Estados Unidos de hipocresía después de que una cooperativa eléctrica de la provincia argentina de Neuquén denunciara que la embajada estadounidense amenazó con revocar las visas de sus directivos por un acuerdo con el gigante chino de las telecomunicaciones Huawei.

“Estas prácticas reflejan plenamente la arrogancia y el prejuicio de Estados Unidos, constituyen una grave falta de respeto hacia la soberanía de otros países y un grave menoscabo de los principios del libre mercado”, señaló la embajada china en un comunicado.

La embajada también pidió a Washington que “corrija su percepción de China y ponga fin a sus prácticas hegemónicas y a sus maniobras políticas”.

El cruce diplomático ocurre mientras el ultraliberal mandatario argentino mantiene un delicado equilibrio entre su cercanía con el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump, su principal aliado en la región, y el fortalecimiento de los vínculos económicos con China, uno de sus mayores socios comerciales.

El miércoles, Argentina renovó por otros cinco años el acuerdo bilateral de intercambio de monedas (swap) con China, reforzando la cooperación financiera entre ambos países. El canciller Pablo Quirno también tiene previsto viajar a China en los próximos meses. Su oficina declinó a comentar sobre el comunicado del país asiático.

El comunicado de China se produjo días después de que CALF, la mayor distribuidora de energía eléctrica del sur argentino, denunciara que sus directivos habían sido amenazados con la revocación de sus visas estadounidenses por negociar con Huawei.

La cooperativa dijo en un comunicado que uno de sus gerentes recibió mensajes por WhatsApp advirtiendo que quienes participaran en la expansión de las operaciones de Huawei en Argentina podrían tener restricciones a sus visas estadounidenses.

CALF anunció en julio que ampliaría su alianza estratégica con Huawei para impulsar la expansión de su red de conectividad en Neuquén.

El embajador de Estados Unidos en Argentina, Peter Lamelas, no respondió a una solicitud de comentario. Sin embargo, el jueves escribió en la red social X: “Decidir quién entra y quién no es una responsabilidad de cualquier nación. Negar o revocar una visa no es un castigo, es una decisión para proteger la seguridad y los intereses del país”.

CALF informó el jueves que Lamelas le envió una carta en la que pidió una reunión con sus autoridades y ofreció ayuda para buscar alternativas tecnológicas de empresas norteamericanas.

La Federación Argentina de Cooperativas Eléctricas y Otros Servicios Públicos (FACE), que representa a cooperativas eléctricas y de servicios públicos en Argentina, sostuvo el jueves que sus entidades “no responden a intereses corporativos ni a estrategias geopolíticas” y que cualquier diferencia debe resolverse mediante un “diálogo institucional, transparente y respetuoso”.

El equilibrio de Milei

El gobierno de Trump busca contrarrestar la creciente influencia de China en América Latina utilizando tácticas de lo que sus funcionarios describen como una versión moderna de la Doctrina Monroe, la política de 1823 que advertía de cualquier intervención de las potencias europeas en el hemisferio occidental.

Estados Unidos revocó este año las visas de tres altos funcionarios chilenos después de que Chile avanzó con los planes para construir un cable submarino de fibra óptica que conectaría al país con China. El año pasado, Trump también amenazó con asumir el control de Estados Unidos sobre el Canal de Panamá, en medio de la disputa geopolítica con Beijing.

Milei, que goza de excelente sintonía con Trump, calificó al gobierno comunista chino de “asesinos” durante la campaña presidencial.

Washington ha respaldado al gobierno de Milei con apoyo político y financiero, incluido un paquete de asistencia por 20.000 millones de dólares aprobado el año pasado para estabilizar el mercado financiero. Sin embargo, a casi tres años del inicio de su gestión, los productos chinos han inundado el mercado argentino y los vínculos económicos con Beijing siguen creciendo.

Plataformas de comercio electrónico como Shein, Temu y AliExpress se encuentran entre las aplicaciones de compras más populares del país; más de 20 fabricantes chinos comercializan más de 60 modelos de vehículos en Argentina. Y la empresa china Ganfeng Lithium ha invertido miles de millones de dólares en yacimientos de litio del norte argentino.

“En cierto sentido, Trump le ha dado margen de maniobra a Argentina”, dijo a The Associated Press Benjamin Gedan, director del Programa de América Latina del Stimson Center. “Pero los acuerdos con Huawei suelen ser una línea roja para Estados Unidos” porque habitualmente involucran infraestructura sensible y activos estratégicos, acotó.

Towle was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, an aggressive form of cancer in the bile ducts, in August 2023. Her mother, Elizabeth Morrow, and brother, Austin Towle, posted a video to her TikTok account confirming she died Wednesday.

“Syd went peacefully last night after an almost three-year long battle with cholangiocarcinoma,” her brother said. “She fought really hard, and we’re so proud of her, and we thank all of you for your support over the years.” Towle's mother said they appreciated the messages of support and that “she will not be forgotten.”

Her family described her as “an endless ray of sunshine” and a friend to many. Sydney Elizabeth Towle was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on Nov. 15, 1999, and grew up in Hobe Sound, Florida, according to the New York Times. The newspaper reported that she died at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

At the time of her diagnosis, Towle already had a presence on social media where she shared videos from her everyday life. She often posted from the beach and loved the outdoors. She was an avid surfer and runner.

Once she received the diagnosis at age 23, she began posting her unvarnished reality of the disease and treatment while holding fast to her hobbies, style and positive attitude. She had over 1 million followers on TikTok alone.

In a video posted days after she was diagnosed, Towle said, “I’m in good spirits, I’m smiling. If anything, it just makes me appreciate life more.” That essentially became the ethos that guided her online presence, where she shared videos of herself running, going out with friends and traveling alongside videos from a hospital bed or at chemotherapy appointments.

In a column this year advocating for increased funding for research of the rare disease, Towle’s mother wrote that she had seen her daughter become “a beacon of hope for so many” through her candid online presence. “Thousands of people send her messages, stop her on the street and leave comments on her videos, describing how her vulnerability has helped them through their own struggles,” Morrow wrote in February.

Towle graduated from Dartmouth College in 2022, where she studied government and environmental studies. She worked as a social media manager at Epic Games.

She had posted on her LinkedIn account about plans to run the 2026 New York City Marathon in November to raise money for the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation. She had raised more than $10,000 for the nonprofit that advocates for research and provides patients and caregivers with resources.

“I know it might seem crazy to try to run a marathon with everything going on,” she wrote on the platform months ago. But she noted the importance of hope in her experience with the disease. “Hope keeps us alive, it keeps us going, it makes the impossible seem possible.”

Towle is survived by her mother and brother. Her father, Philip Towle, died in 2016.

La policía desplegó varios retenes para registrar vehículos, buscando posibles sospechosos o explosivos, como parte de un cordón de seguridad. Los controles se concentraron especialmente en la vía que conecta con el aeropuerto, por donde arriban las delegaciones e invitados especiales que asistirán el viernes a la jura presidencial.

Mientras, en la vía que comunica con el vecino departamento del Cauca se ubicaron tanquetas militares y policías de las fuerzas especiales con armas largas. La víspera, hallaron en esa ruta a un autobús cargado con explosivos que tendría como destino a Cal y fue presuntamente enviado por la disidencia de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) que no se acogió al acuerdo de paz firmado hace una década con el Estado.

La seguridad se convirtió en el principal reto del acto que tendrá como protagonista a de De la Espriella, quien ha denunciado amenazas en su contra y prometido tener mano dura contra los grupos armados ilegales revirtiendo así la política de paz que impulsó su antecesor, Gustavo Petro.

"Hay mucha expectativa...lo único que yo quiero es que haya seguridad; ya el trabajo uno lo consigue", aseguró a The Associated Press Víctor Vélez, de 65 años, quien pasaba por un retén de las autoridades.

La juramentación se realizará en la tarde del viernes en un auditorio de la Universidad Santiago de Cali, con una capacidad para más de 2.000 personas. Sus alrededores fueron custodiados por agentes y las alcantarillas registradas por expertos antiexplosivos.

Voces críticas

Mientras los mandatarios locales celebraron que Cali albergue un evento destacado, asegurando que traerá beneficios económicos y reputacionales, algunos ciudadanos reprochan que se trata de una “provocación” para una ciudad en la que la mayoría de los votos los obtuvo el progresista Iván Cepeda, aliado político de Petro.

Para Ramiro Prieto Parra, un docente de 62 años, la toma de posesión presidencial no va a traer mejoras permanentes para la ciudad, mientras que puede generar “conflictos sociales, porque él (De la Espriella) sabe que esta es una ciudad donde él no es bien recibido", explicó a la AP.

En Puerto Resistencia, una zona residencial de Cali que fue epicentro de las multitudinarias protestas antigubernamentales de 2021, una decena de personas se preparaban para proteger una escultura que se alza cerca de 10 metros con un puño izquierdo que sostiene la palabra “resiste”. Se espera que ese lugar sea un punto de concentración de las manifestaciones en contra de De la Espriella durante la juramentación.

En el 2021 el país vivió el ciclo de protestas antigubernamentales más grande de su historia reciente. Iniciaron por un descontento por una reforma fiscal y se extendieron a reclamos estructurales por la desigualdad social. Según Naciones Unidas, más de 40 personas perdieron la vida en las manifestaciones.

De la Espriella dijo en campaña que de llegar a la presidencia tumbaría el “adefesio” de monumento que fue levantado por la denominada “primera línea”, como fueron conocidos en las manifestaciones de 2021 quienes estaban más cerca de la policía antimotines para defenderse, por considerarla una “oda al terrorismo”.

“Nos persiguieron, nos desaparecieron, nos mutilaron, nos sacaron ojos, nos hicieron irnos del país, nos encarcelaron. Y ahora, ¿por qué no nos dejan quietos?”, cuestionó Rolando Quintero, uno de los voceros de la “primera línea”. “El monumento hace parte de la ciudad y de la nación...es una expresión de los derechos del pueblo”, explicó a AP.

Quintero aseguró que harán actividades culturales y esperan una jornada pacífica, aunque teme que el dirigente envíe a los antimotines o militarice la ciudad una vez asuma el mando.

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said in a ruling late Thursday that the bulk of the money — $420 million — will be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years.

The new penalty is in addition to the $375 million in civil penalties that jurors ordered against Meta in March after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. In the second phase, prosecutors asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

The total amount Meta is responsible for — $942 million — is a small fraction of of its annual profit, which was about $60 billion in 2025. Investors seemed to shrug off the New Mexico ruling in after-hours trading Thursday, sending Meta’s stock down less than half a percent to $589.44.

Still, the ruling is another setback for Meta, which faces an avalanche of lawsuits from thousands of families of children harmed by social media.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said it sends an unmistakable message that companies will be held accountable when their product designs knowingly put children at risk.

“Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online,” he said in a statement.

Meta vowed to appeal.

“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content," the company said in a statement. "We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

The look of Meta's platforms could change

The judge ordered Facebook and Instagram to build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices and tools to address inappropriate comment, for example, and display them regularly. Those changes and an educational campaign in New Mexico would be subject to review by the state.

The court said federal children’s privacy laws prevent Meta from applying age-verification tools to children under 13. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, means it cannot order Meta to request children to submit personal data or be passively tracked online, even for age verification purposes.

The court also noted that ordering verification of children’s ages only for Meta and not other social media companies would be “inequitable and unduly injurious” to the company.

Instead, the court ordered Meta to continue to improve its age assurance tools in New Mexico, which include using artificial intelligence to determine people’s age based on signals such as who their friends are and what types of content they post and consume. Meta must also attempt to develop a dedicated “under-13-years-of-age prediction model” in the next two years.

Additionally, Meta should also request proof of age for Instagram and Facebook users in New Mexico it estimates to be under 13. If it determines a user to be under 13, or under 18 but without being able to estimate a specific age, Meta must treat the user as under 13 or under 18 until the user verifies their age.

The company must also partner with schools or a child safety organization to create a reporting portal where school staff can flag users who may be under 13. And it must delete personal information it has collected on users under 13. The court also ordered Meta to report on its progress twice a year on how it’s complying with the abatement measures.

Meta is gearing up for a trial this month in California amid flood of lawsuits

Meta is also gearing up for a trial later this month in federal court in Oakland, California. Here, Meta will face the first four of 29 states that sued it in a federal multi-district lawsuit filed in 2023 for contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.

Eight states, including Tennessee, where a trial is currently ongoing, filed lawsuits in their own state courts.

And late last month, Meta, along with TikTok, Snap and Google’s YouTube, were sued by the families of four teenagers who died by suicide over what they describe as “years of escalating harms” from using their platforms that eventually resulted in their deaths.

What comes out of New Mexico is the first of many dominoes that will fall for Meta, said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor at Northeastern University focusing on social media and cybersecurity.

“America is not going to pass a law that bans social media," Edelson said. "But if companies like Meta know they’re causing harm to users by product design, the states are finally finding a way to rein this in.”

____

This story has been updated to correct the judge's last name to Biedscheid, not Biedcheid. ___

Ortutay reported from Oakland, California, and Yu from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix 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.

The final tournament of the regular season determines the top 70 in the FedEx Cup who advance to the postseason.

James, the No. 1 player in the PGA Tour University ranking that came with a tour card, has to win to reach the top 70. He was tied for the lead until a bogey-birdie-bogey finish for a 62, both bogeys coming after he missed 6-foot par putts.

Koivun earned his card from the accelerated PGA Tour University program for underclassmen — he clinched his card as a sophomore and deferred it one year — and is in much better shape at No. 70. Koivun missed some birdie chances coming in and shot 67.

Hossler is at No. 122 in the FedEx Cup and also has to win to reached the first playoff event next week. He ran off four straight birdies early in his front nine at Sedgefield Country Club, and played the the final holes in 4 under with a 30-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th.

“Try and win a golf tournament,” Hossler said. “That's all there is to it.”

James, the 36-hole leader at the Canadian Open in his professional debut before crashing on the weekend, made a 15-foot eagle putt on the 15th that allowed him to catch Hossler.

With the chance at another 59 at Sedgefield, he three-putted from just inside 25 feet on the par-3 16th, birdied the 17th and then came up short of the green from the first cut on the 18th, chipped to 6 feet and missed the par putt.

Still, it was an impressive start at a tournament where so many players know they have to go low and finish high if they want to advance.

“Every week someone always shoots anywhere from 63 to 60 or 59 the first day, so it’s always there. You just try to put yourself in position, play the best you can,” James said.

No one had a more bizarre round than Sahith Theegala, whose postseason is safe at No. 43. He didn't make a par on the front nine — eight birdies and one bogey. And then all he could manage were pars on the back nine until stuffing his approach tight on the 18th for a birdie and a 62.

“Pretty wild,” Theegala said. "I've never had a round like that. I think historically I’ve always struggled to start rounds really well, so that was the first time I ever started a round with six (birdies) in a row. That was an incredible start. It didn’t feel like a fluke or anything, either.

“Got to the back nine and just stopped hitting fairways,” he said. “And really that cost me a lot of opportunities. Yeah, it was an interesting round.”

Eric Cole shot 63 and was in fourth, and the six players at 64 included five of them who are outside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup. The exception is Matti Schmid at No. 67, far from safe.

“I feel like I’m in a decent position if I play the golf that I know that I can play,” Schmid said. “I don’t really think about it. I just want to put three more good rounds on the board.”

Brooks Koepka, who returned to the PGA Tour this year after four years at LIV Golf, needs a high finish to reach the postseason and had to settle for a 67, which was closer to the cut line than the lead on a course that yielded 36 rounds of 66 or lower.

The focus is on those who risk finishing out of the top 70. That wouldn't be the end of their seasons, but most would need to play in the FedEx Cup Fall to make sure they finish in the top 100 to simply keep a full card for 2027.

James doesn't face those prospects because his No. 1 ranking in PGA Tour University makes him exempt through 2027. Even so, it would be a big feat to go from the library to the postseason in just over two months. Koivun put himself in that position by winning the 3M Open two weeks ago.

Hossler knew he had to win if he wanted to play next week in the playoff opener, but he is trying to keep it all in perspective.

“There's lots of players that this week’s performance does impact moving on or not or whatever,” Hossler said. “Obviously, every week that we play out here has implications for future years. I think if you let that consume you, it’s a dangerous thing.

“I'm going to go try and play great golf and kind of see where the cards fall.”

___

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

In a findings letter to the school, the department said that while administrators paid lip service to being race-neutral in admissions, they used other factors as stand-ins for race, including personal essays and whether someone was a first-generation college student.

The Durham, North Carolina, school said in an emailed statement it was reviewing the letter and is committed to following the law “in a manner that is consistent with our academic mission.”

“Duke Law School doesn’t get a free pass to discriminate against white and Asian students simply because it thinks it has good intentions,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division said in a news release. “Using ‘diversity’ essay questions to identify preferred races for admission is still illegal discrimination based on race.”

Affirmative action in college admissions has been illegal since a 2023 Supreme Court ruling. The same ruling said colleges could continue to assess how applicants’ backgrounds might speak to broader characteristics, but President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused colleges of using other proxies to maintain racial diversity, which conservatives view as illegal discrimination.

The department recently found that the medical schools at Yale University and the University of California, Los Angeles, illegally considered race in admissions. It announced in June that it was launching similar investigations into 15 other medical schools.

The Trump administration previously targeted undergraduate admissions at selective colleges, demanding they collect data to show they are complying with the Supreme Court ruling.

In its findings against Duke Law, the DOJ said Black or Hispanic applicants were much more likely to be admitted than white or Asian applicants with the same academic credentials. Further, it said, in 2024 and 2025, the median Law School Admissions Test scores of rejected white and Asian applicants exceeded the median scores of admitted Black applicants.

The department said it was seeking to reach a settlement with Duke Law.

Now, in the middle of hurricane season, Puerto Ricans are facing another crisis — no water.

Tens of thousands of people are trying to collect every drop before they’re forced to go without as the island’s government rations water during a serious drought gripping the U.S. territory.

On the way to the island is some relief from a company in Lauderdale Lakes.

Jeffrey Szur, with Altitude Water, is sending about 100 water-making systems built in South Florida to Puerto Rico.

Szur said the machines use condensation and atmospheric water generation technology to make water from the air.

The systems have been deployed during natural disasters before, including the fires in Maui and in hurricane-impacted areas like Asheville.

The units can be plugged into generators or run on solar power, making them useful in places with deteriorating infrastructure like Puerto Rico.

“It’s not just the drought, it’s also the infrastructure where they’re losing all this water. They can’t deliver it,” Szur said.

“Even before the drought, people were already without water.”

For many Puerto Ricans, this is the latest in a series of crises on the island.

Sofia Droz, who went viral earlier this year, shared the difficulties of living in what she called a paradise where many people are forced to leave.

“You have this generation who loves Puerto Rico and really wants to push the island forward, but the living conditions are just unbearable,” Droz said.

“This isn’t a third world country. We’re talking about a U.S. territory.”

About 100 of the water-making systems are on their way to Puerto Rico. The company said a distributor working with the government there purchased the units for about $250,000.

When asked whether he trusts the systems will make it to where they’re needed, Szur said he plans to travel to Puerto Rico himself to make sure they do.

“(Acting President) Delcy Rodriguez’s strategy is to buy time, it’s to discuss about the earthquake,” Jesus Armas, a former political prisoner, said. “She doesn’t want to discuss about free and fair elections, about democracy, about new electoral authority, about new members of the Supreme Court.”

Neither the government nor the opposition have said expressly when elections could be held in Venezuela.

“What is the regime going to do when it truly has its back against the wall?,” political analyst Luis Salamanca asked.

Salamanca believes democracy will eventually come to the country. But in similar situations around the world, organizing that process has taken up to a year and a half.

“I am one of those who believe that a path toward democratic elections will indeed emerge,” Salamanca said.

How Rodriguez may react if ultimately faced with leaving office would be a wildcard.

“It’s not going to be so easy, it’s not going to be fast,” Armas said.

Armas also says he believes Rodriguez will attempt to remain in power, but is hopeful the United States will force her out.

“I don’t want any other person in Venezuela, any other innocent to have to live what I live or what other political prisoners were living right now,” Armas said.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department released a statement celebrating this process, calling it a unique opportunity. The statement said the dialogue was Venezuelan-led, but many believe it’s all being guided by the United States.

Trash piled up on streets in Miramar, the upscale Havana neighborhood where the embassies from around the world are located, not immune to the effects of spiraling shortages and blackouts.

Though with full electricity, an assembly of leftist organizations from 25 countries in Havana came together with Cuba’s president front and center. They’re all there in solidarity, an anti-imperialist calling to arms and calling the U.S. a threat.

“The aggression will not end in 2028, and acceptable terms will not be reached with a weakened state; its very weakness makes it more violent,” Stephanie Weatherbee Brito, of the International Assembly of the Peoples, said.

The Cuban military is the latest target of Trump administration sanctions.

Five more organizations and eight more individuals are all involved in importing, producing and repairing weapons and military equipment.

The newest sanctions were announced as the CIA revealed a new spy task force, made up of analysts and covert influence specialists, to identify and exploit divisions within the country’s ruling elite.

“This is all part of a plan that Washington has to maybe crack the Cuban government at a time that they show no willingness to open up or change the regime,” Cuba analyst Andy Gomez said.

Last month, a State Department report built a case chronicling the history of Cuba’s spies partnering with Russia and China, sowing division in the U.S.

Some were revealed after damage was done: Manuel Rocha spying in plain sight. Before that, Juan Pablo Rique and the Wasp Network, whose intel played a role in the shootdown of Miami’s Brothers to the Rescue planes in the 1990s.

“What this report does is to the American people allows them to see for themselves this decades-long influence and espionage campaign that the Cuban regime has been supporting,” Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesperson, said on “This Week in South Florida” on Sunday.

Spycraft between Cuba and the U.S. has been underway for decades, but was scaled back in the last decade because of the medical incidents they named “Havana Syndrome.”

A department spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening that the department had received the contempt referral, is “reviewing it and will work with the Senate accordingly.”

The vote approving the contempt resolution came a week after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, an episode that raised fresh legal questions about the ability of Congress to compel testimony from a previously pardoned witness.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the committee chairman who pressed for the contempt finding, said that constitutional protection did not apply because Fauci last year received a pardon from Democratic President Joe Biden and thus did not have to worry about the threat of prosecution.

“Dr. Fauci faced no risk of federal prosecution,” Paul said at the outset of Thursday’s vote. ”All he had to do was tell the truth.”

He told colleagues that the issue before them was not Fauci’s opinions, policies or “anything he said from a podium six years ago.”

Instead, he added, “We were voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence.”

Fauci, in a statement last week explaining his decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, said he had good reason to fear the possibility of criminal charges given what he said was Paul’s determination “to get me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, quote, behind bars, unquote.”

Fauci’s lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement that the contempt resolution was “a continuation of Senator Paul’s personal vendetta against Dr. Fauci, who spent 50 years in public health and has saved countless lives.” Schertler accused Paul of abusing his power by trying to “weaponize the Justice Department.”

“Today’s partisan committee vote is a crude political stunt intended to punish Dr. Fauci for exercising his constitutional rights,” Schertler said. “The Senate should reject Senator Paul’s meritless and politically-motivated contempt resolution. For years, Senator Paul has proclaimed to anyone who would listen that Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted and put in prison. Dr. Fauci has committed no crime – and Senator Paul knows it.”

The pardon from Biden covered acts from 2014 through the January 2025 day it was issued, but does not shield him from state-level prosecutions or protect him from federal investigations into any testimony he did give that lawmakers deemed false. The current Justice Department has repeatedly initiated false statement investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump as part of what critics have called a retribution campaign.

Democrats who unanimously opposed the contempt resolution agreed with Fauci that he had a well-founded fear of self-incrimination given the publicly stated desires of Republican lawmakers, including Paul, to see him prosecuted in connection with COVID. The Trump administration has also raised questions about whether the Biden pardons were valid given Biden’s frequent use of an autopen to conduct official business.

“The goal was to wait for Dr. Fauci to make any kind of misstatement and then have a weaponized Department of Justice file criminal charges for that new statement that would not have been covered by the pardon, leaving Dr. Fauci little choice but to invoke his constitutional right to not walk directly into a trap,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., before the vote.

Trump himself weighed in Thursday at the White House, noting in response to a reporter’s question that two advisers from his first term, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, were jailed on contempt charges during the Biden administration after they defied congressional subpoenas and refused to even show up for their scheduled hearings.

“When you see that happen, you sort of say maybe he should,” Trump said of Fauci being prosecuted. “What he did is far more serious than a lot of crimes, frankly.”

Paul’s decision to send the referral directly to the Justice Department would leave it to prosecutors in Washington to decide whether to investigate or potentially attempt to prosecute Fauci for contempt. A referral from Congress does not compel the Justice Department to act.

The committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, questioned whether the referral would be legally valid if Paul did not seek a vote before the full Senate, where the 60 votes needed to pass the resolution are seen as unlikely. He said punishing a witness for exercising a constitutional right against self-incrimination would complicate future efforts by Congress to conduct oversight and compel appearances and testimony.

“If this committee now seeks to punish a witness for asserting their (constitutionally) protected Fifth Amendment rights, future witnesses will argue that appearing before Congress exposes them to punishment regardless of whether they comply with a subpoena and invoke a constitutional protection,” he said. “They will point directly to this vote — this vote — as a justification for refusing to appear at all.”

DOGE began posting its estimated savings on a web page known as the Wall of Receipts. Lawmakers asked the Government Accountability Office to evaluate the accuracy of the estimates, and the watchdog found them lacking in some cases.

Auditors found that 108 of 264 leases identified for termination on the Wall of Receipts were already in the process of termination when DOGE was established. In another case, DOGE reported $1.7 billion in savings on a Department of Defense contract for IT services, but in the end, no action was taken to terminate the contract, so no savings were achieved.

More broadly, DOGE was not transparent regarding the methodologies used to calculate savings. The GAO said DOGE officials did not respond to requests for information. The report concluded by saying the data quality issues found limit the value of the Wall of Receipts for policymakers.

“In addition, when government data are not reliable, it can hinder the public’s trust in government,” the report stated.

DOGE began posting its estimated savings on Feb. 17, 2025, and had reported savings of $110 billion as of July 7 across a wide range of contracts, grants and leases. President Donald Trump's executive order establishing DOGE sunset its operations on July 4. Billionaire Musk initially led its operations, but stepped back from that role after just a few months.

Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut requested the GAO report. Peters said everyone supports rooting out waste and fraud, but DOGE was a slapdash and deceptive effort that did real damage to the government's ability to serve Americans.

“Elon Musk and the Trump Administration claimed billions of dollars in savings it could not substantiate, took credit for work already underway, and refused to show its work, all while putting Americans’ sensitive data at risk and hollowing out critical agencies,” Peters said in response to the report.

La visita de Milei, la primera que hace un gobernante argentino desde 2007, empezó pasado el mediodía, cuando dejó una ofrenda floral ante el monumento a los héroes de la independencia ecuatoriana, según imágenes difundidas por la Secretaría de Prensa de la Presidencia. Los medios periodísticos no tuvieron acceso directo.

La misma secretaría difundió horas más tarde un comunicado conjunto de los gobiernos de ambos países sudamericanos detallando varios acuerdos, entre ellos uno nuevo de extradición en reemplazo del que data de 1933 que servirá “para la lucha contra la impunidad y el crimen organizado transnacional”.

Uno de los casos más icónicos es el de Herán Luque Lecaro, ex alto funcionario del gobierno de Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), pedido en extradición desde hace dos años por Ecuador, donde está acusado de delincuencia organizada y fue sentenciado en ausencia a 10 años de cárcel. El pedido sigue en proceso.

También se informó de un convenio de ciberdefensa, que fija protocolos de intercambio de información, capacitación y entrenamiento. Además un acuerdo automotriz para la venta mutua de vehículos y otro para mejorar la conectividad aérea, el comercio y el turismo. En Argentina, de acuerdo con cifras oficiales, residen unos 33.000 ecuatorianos.

Durante la visita, el gobierno argentino informó además que declaró como amenaza terrorista al grupo criminal ecuatoriano Chone Killers, tras lo cual John Reimberg, ministro del Interior de Ecuador, señaló en X que "no habrá fronteras que protejan a los terroristas ni refugios para quienes amenazan la paz de nuestros pueblos”. A inicios de julio, Estados Unidos —estrecho aliado de Argentina en la región— hizo lo mismo.

En mayo de 2026 Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador y Perú suscribieron el acuerdo de Santiago para enfrentar en conjunto la delincuencia transnacional, lo que contempla acciones coordinadas contra estructuras criminales.

Noboa también ratificó, según el comunicado, el respaldo de Ecuador a lo que denominó “los legítimos derechos de soberanía de Argentina sobre las islas Malvinas, Georgias del Sur y Sandwich y sus espacios marítimos circundantes" y pidió a que con Gran Bretaña se inicien negociaciones para buscar una solución pacífica y definitiva al reclamo argentino.

En agosto del 2025 Noboa visitó a Milei en Buenos Aires, donde ambos dirigentes conservadores coincidieron en avanzar hacia el fortalecimiento de la cooperación contra la corrupción, lavado de activos, terrorismo y delincuencia organizada.

En el primer trimestre de este año, la canasta comercial binacional evidenciaba un superávit argentino de 2.523 millones de dólares. Argentina mantiene superávit positivo por 28 meses seguidos.

Tras su paso por Ecuador, Milei tiene previsto viajar a Colombia para la jura presidencial el viernes de Abelardo de la Espriella, en la que también estará Noboa.

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Lighthouse Point police said officers responded around 10:13 a.m. to a home near the 2600 block of Northeast 52nd Street following reports of an “animal bite.”

Police said the attack occurred after two dogs escaped from a fenced yard and began roaming the neighborhood. They said the dogs encountered a smaller dog, identified by neighbors as Brody, on the front porch of a nearby home, where one of the loose dogs attacked it.

Authorities identified the two loose dogs as American Staffordshire mix dogs. Police said Brody is a spaniel.

They said Brody’s owner and neighbors tried to separate the animals but were unable to do so. The owner then retrieved a gun and fatally shot the attacking dog in an effort to stop the attack.

Police said the second loose dog fled and later encountered another resident nearby, biting the person in the leg and causing a puncture wound before leaving the area. The dog later returned to its residence, where it was secured by its caretaker.

Lighthouse Point Fire Rescue medics evaluated the wounded resident at the scene. The resident later chose to seek additional medical treatment independently, police said.

They said Brody suffered serious injuries and was taken by its owner to a local veterinary hospital for treatment.

Neighbors told Local 10 News they heard screams and rushed outside to find the larger dog attacking the Brody’s neck. Residents also described the neighborhood as a popular area for families and dog walkers.

“The dog was not letting up it grabbed his neck really good. He tried to punch it to stop it. Even the neighbor over there tried but couldn’t do it,” a man who lives nearby said.

Police said Broward County Animal Care staff members also responded to the scene and placed the dog in quarantine.

They are now working to determine where the two attacking dogs came from and the circumstances that led to the attack.

They said no charges had been filed as of Thursday. The investigation remains ongoing.

Anyone with additional information regarding this incident was asked to contact the Lighthouse Point Police Department at 954-942-8080.

Those in the race to fill the seat will oversee the county’s airport and seaport and will have regional responsibilities to include emergency management, environmental protection and public safety.

Caryl Shuham, currently a Hollywood commissioner, has a background in civil engineering and has been a construction lawyer for decades, skills she believes she can bring to the dais.

“I would be, I think, described as an elected official that represents their constituents with dignity and respect, and I plan to continue that on the Broward County Commission,” she said.

Eugen Bold has been a high-level Broward County staff member for the past five years. His experience stems from working as a director in policy for a county commissioner, experience he says can translate to the leadership the county is lacking.

“I am running to reimagine Broward County the way it operates, the way it delivers, the way it uses and spends taxpayers dollars, and the way it works with other agencies with the goal of improving quality of life,” said Bold.

A.J. Ryan is a former Dania Beach mayor and current commissioner. He said he is confident that his former experience in leading a city and with his youth and energy makes him the right fit for the job.

“I have the institutional knowledge, and I have the experience to really represent this place the right way,” he said.

Candidate Jeffrey Jones is a businessman who grew up in Hallandale Beach. Local 10 reached out to Jones for his comments, but he has not replied as of the time of this story’s publication.

Key issues the county is facing includes Amendment 3, a question on the November ballot to cut local property taxes and expand the homestead exemption.

It’s an amendment that the three candidates Local 10 spoke with were against.

Also at issue is public safety and spending from Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony.

The candidates each weighed in on wanting to see more transparency and accountability from Broward County’s top cop.

“I think there has to be a balance between ensuring that our officers are equipped to the best that they can be, but also that the taxpayers are not being hit with a cost with,” said Shuham.

“As an institution, I do believe that BSO can do a better job when it comes to accountability, transparency and working with the county commission,” said Bold.

Added Ryan: “He does not spare any expense when it comes to public safety and I understand that. You cannot put a price on a life, but when it comes to certain equipment, certain studies, new facilities, I feel like we could probably sharpen the pencil a little more on that.”

Nathan Thomas, who is younger than many of his students, teaches engineering courses online at Miami Dade College.

Thomas began taking classes at Miami Dade College when he was just 10 years old and earned his associate degree at 14.

“If you go to school earlier, don’t get influenced by other people’s decisions or paths because it’s different from yours,” Thomas said.

Thomas later earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering before returning to Miami Dade College to teach.

He is now entering his second year of law school.

The home was located in the area of Northwest 95th Street and 19th Avenue in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade.

According to authorities, two people were detained due to what was described as a possible theft.

SKY 10 was over the scene and observed several deputies appearing to point guns at the home.

Authorities have not provided any information on the circumstances that led up to the arrest or positively identified the suspect.

The group joined a lawsuit filed in May that sought to block the proposed $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund," which the Trump administration later scrapped after bipartisan pushback. The updated lawsuit, filed by legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, now also targets the audit immunity deal conferred on the president, his sons and the Trump Organization, which remains in place.

The updated lawsuit says Trump and his family are “obligated to pay taxes owed, just like every other taxpayer." But under the immunity order, IRS employees will be forced to drop ongoing audits of the president and his businesses, giving Trump "a lucrative and unconstitutional emolument," the lawsuit says.

“The integrity of our tax system depends on one fundamental principle: every taxpayer is subject to the same laws and the same standards,” Doreen Greenwald, the national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement. “When political actors direct employees to treat certain taxpayers differently, it undermines public confidence in our tax system and places dedicated civil servants in an impossible position.”

The lawsuit asks the court to bar the Trump administration from implementing or enforcing the immunity deal, which officials have said applies only to claims open at the time of the settlement and does not protect the president from examination of future tax filings. The case alleges the agreement violates a law that bars the president from interfering with tax audits.

According to the initial outline of the audit deal, spelled out in a one-page document signed by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the U.S. was “forever barred and precluded” from examining current tax filings or prosecuting any of the plaintiffs — Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization — as well as other “related or affiliated” individuals.

It’s unclear how much Trump owes the federal government in back taxes, but the latest details of the deal could wipe away what could be more than $100 million in back taxes, according to previous New York Times and ProPublica reporting.

The Justice Department and an attorney for Trump didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment Thursday.

The original lawsuit filed in May was focused on the “Anti-Weaponization Fund" announced as part of the settlement of Trump's lawsuit over his leaked tax returns. The fund was proposed as a way to compensate people who say they were politically targeted by the Justice Department, but it quickly drew outrage over the potential that those considered for payments could include people convicted of assaulting police at the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, blocked the administration in May from proceeding with the fund.

Days later, Blanche told Congress that the administration was no longer moving forward with the fund. Blanche on Sunday formally rescinded plans for the fund in writing amid pressure from two Republican senators who were threatening to block his confirmation as attorney general.

The updated lawsuit filed Thursday says Blanche's order on the fund doesn't go far enough to prevent the administration from moving forward with the payouts in the future and is asking the judge to permanently block officials from taking further action to create the fund.

The lawsuit notes that Trump has "made clear that he intends to keep the Fund alive, affirming his belief that the January 6 rioters and other Fund beneficiaries 'should be paid back for what they were forced to endure.'"

Pediatric emergency medicine Dr. Purva Grover with Cleveland Clinic says the past several months she’s seen a spike in tragedies for children from e-bikes.

“Largely there is a huge disconnect in information,” she said. “I think that that’s where all of these issues are leading out to.”

But it’s a problem nationwide regardless of age.

The latest data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission shows that between 2017 and 2024 there were an estimated 155,200 emergency room visits due to e-bikes. There were also 310 deaths reported.

In that same time period, e-scooters sent an estimated 380,000 people to the emergency room, but Grover believes the numbers are “severely underreported.”

“It’s just a matter of time when we’ll be able to collect this data much more appropriately to really understand the true scope, but I fear that what you’re seeing right now is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Grover.

Grover said it’s important to always wear a properly fitted, certified helmet that’s tested for higher speeds.

She says a regular bicycle helmet may not provide adequate protection.

Grover also said to follow local traffic laws and be aware that large vehicles have blind spots and may not see an e-bike or e-scooter.

“These are 50 to 60 pound big machines which can travel at a speed from anywhere from 20 to 28 mph and can cause significant injuries to the rider and to the passersby as well,” said Gupta.

Otherwise, mostly to partly cloudy skies and gentle, east-northeast winds can be expected for Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

Friday will offer a sun/cloud mix with the possibility for scattered showers and storms. Near seasonable temperatures are forecast -- lows in the upper 70s, highs around 90°F.

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Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said Daniel Borman, 36, of Springfield, New Jersey, started yelling at flight attendants who cut him off from alcohol.

Multiple off-duty law enforcement officers were on the flight, however, including the former chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, Brian O’Hara who said something “was just off.”

“I was standing on the chair while the other guys were behind him and just grabbed one of his arms,” O’Hara said. “I had to get his arm off of the chair, and put it behind his back.”

He added, “Apparently, my wife told me I was yelling at him to put his hands behind his back, like I was still a cop. But I have no memory of that.”

A deputy from the Bergen County, New Jersey Sheriff’s Office was aboard and had handcuffs to place on Borman, O’Hara said. The ordeal lasted about 45 minutes.

Of the man’s behavior, O’Hara said, “It’s bothersome to watch someone abuse women like that so disrespectfully and threatening them when they’re just trying to do their job.”

United Airlines issued a statement reading: “We thank our crew and customers for assisting with the situation and helping ensure the safety of everyone onboard.”

Borman, facing a disorderly intoxication charge, was no longer listed in Broward jail records as of Thursday afternoon.

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At a community meeting on Thursday, representatives for Related Group said the gathering was intended to address what they described as misinformation surrounding the proposal at 1301 South Ocean Dr.

“You want to come in and you want to build a skyscraper so the rest of us are sitting here and you’re like this,” one concerned Hollywood resident told members of the development team, reflecting ongoing opposition from some community members.

The proposal, approved by city commissioners this spring, would bring a 27-story luxury high-rise to a 3.5-acre site that is currently home to a community center, park and public parking lot. Under the plan, the community center would be rebuilt as part of the redevelopment.

Keith Poliakoff, an attorney representing the developers, said misconceptions about the project have fueled public concern.

“Some people think that the park is being demolished. Some people don’t understand that the community center is being rebuilt. A lot of people don’t understand the city is making $2.7 billion over the course of the 99-year lease for this project,” Poliakoff said.

Residents have spent years opposing the redevelopment, arguing that replacing public beachfront land with a high-rise would permanently alter the character of the area. During public meetings, many urged city officials to reject the proposal.

Poliakoff disputed the notion that the project lacks broad public support.

“I don’t think it’s unpopular,” he said. ”I think that it is again a misconception. There are close to 250,000 voters in the city of Hollywood. Of that you’ll hear from 20-50 at a meeting in opposition. That’s not a tremendous amount of opposition."

The development is moving forward under Florida’s Live Local Act, which limits local governments’ authority over zoning for qualifying housing developments. Under the law, local zoning regulations are preempted as long as 40 percent of the units are reserved for affordable housing.

According to Poliakoff, the project is entering its final stages of local review.

“We’re almost at the end,” he said. “We have a final planning and development board meeting, a final city commission meeting in October, and at that point, we’re starting the construction drawings and we’re ready to begin the project.”

En una reunión comunitaria el jueves, representantes de Related Group dijeron que el encuentro tenía como objetivo abordar lo que describieron como información errónea en torno a la propuesta en 1301 South Ocean Dr.

“Ustedes quieren venir y construir un rascacielos, mientras el resto de nosotros estamos aquí y ustedes están así”, dijo un residente preocupado de Hollywood a miembros del equipo de desarrollo, reflejando la continua oposición de algunos miembros de la comunidad.

La propuesta, aprobada por los comisionados de la ciudad esta primavera, llevaría una torre de lujo de 27 pisos a un terreno de 3.5 acres que actualmente alberga un centro comunitario, un parque y un estacionamiento público. Bajo el plan, el centro comunitario sería reconstruido como parte de la remodelación.

Keith Poliakoff, abogado que representa a los desarrolladores, dijo que las ideas equivocadas sobre el proyecto han alimentado la preocupación pública.

“Algunas personas piensan que el parque será demolido. Algunas personas no entienden que el centro comunitario será reconstruido. Muchas personas no entienden que la ciudad recibirá $2,700,000,000 USD durante los 99 años del contrato de arrendamiento de este proyecto”, dijo Poliakoff.

Los residentes han pasado años oponiéndose a la remodelación, argumentando que reemplazar terrenos públicos frente a la playa con una torre alteraría permanentemente el carácter de la zona. Durante reuniones públicas, muchos instaron a los funcionarios de la ciudad a rechazar la propuesta.

Poliakoff rechazó la idea de que el proyecto carezca de amplio apoyo público.

“No creo que sea impopular”, dijo. “Creo que, nuevamente, se trata de una idea equivocada. Hay cerca de 250,000 votantes en la ciudad de Hollywood. De ellos, se escuchará a entre 20 y 50 personas oponiéndose en una reunión. Eso no representa una enorme cantidad de oposición”.

El desarrollo avanza bajo la Ley Live Local de Florida, que limita la autoridad de los gobiernos locales sobre la zonificación para proyectos de vivienda que cumplen con los requisitos. Bajo la ley, las regulaciones locales de zonificación quedan anuladas siempre que el 40 por ciento de las unidades estén reservadas para viviendas asequibles.

Según Poliakoff, el proyecto está entrando en sus etapas finales de revisión local.

“Estamos casi al final”, dijo. “Tenemos una reunión final de la junta de planificación y desarrollo, una reunión final de la comisión de la ciudad en octubre y, en ese momento, comenzaremos con los planos de construcción y estaremos listos para iniciar el proyecto”.

The agreement was announced Thursday on the first day of classes for Bossier Parish Schools near Shreveport.

“Dismissal of the case allows us the freedom to make our own decisions that are in the best interest of all students, staff and our community, while keeping in mind the history of the past 61 years,” Bossier Schools Superintendent Jason Rowland said in a statement.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the settlement. Last month she announced she had helped lift a desegregation mandate for the rural Concordia Parish School Board along the Mississippi River.

“It’s long past time for these old consent decrees to come to an end. These decades-old cases are expensive, ineffective, and they take power away from local communities,” Murrill said on social media.

The U.S. Justice Department spent decades fighting for such cases but reversed course under Trump. Officials in his administration have framed the remaining segregation orders as federal intrusion into local school systems. Louisiana officials agree they’re no longer needed and describe them as relics of a time when Black students were forbidden from attending some schools.

The Bossier Parish Schools order said the parents who filed the original suit in 1964 that led to the oversight agreement are dead and that their children, who were part of the original court proceedings, couldn't be contacted.

The school system said it worked for decades with the Department of Justice, collaborating with its lawyers over “every new school, classroom wing addition and attendance zone change.”

Rowland thanked past board members and employees for doing everything the system needed to do to get out from the intense federal monitoring.

The superintendent said he trusts district leadership to make sure everyone in the system is treated fairly.

Cassandra Barksdale and her attorneys filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Kaiser Permanente alleging the mix-up led to the surgery and months of physical and emotional pain.

According to the lawsuit, another patient's tissue sample was mistakenly labeled as belonging to Barksdale, who at age 43 then underwent a full hysterectomy on May 15, 2025, and was told she would get instructions about chemotherapy.

It's unclear how the mix-up occurred. In September, Barksdale was informed that a DNA analysis found the tissue sample showing an aggressive form of endometrial uterine cancer belonged to a different patient and not to her, the lawsuit says.

“She came into Kaiser Permanente looking for answers, and she left with a diagnosis that did not belong to her. And every step that was taken after that was based off of misinformation,” her attorney Shannan Young said.

Barksdale went to Kaiser Permanente Southwood Medical Center in Jonesboro, Georgia, in early 2025 to seek treatment for heavy bleeding and fibroids, which are noncancerous growths in and around the uterus. She underwent a biopsy on March 10, 2025.

Barksdale said that after she got the biopsy results on March 17, 2025, she lived for months believing she had an aggressive type of cancer, sending her and her sons into a deep depression.

“I even started making funeral plans with them to let them know, you know, if I don’t make it out, this is what I want done,” Barksdale said.

Representatives for Kaiser Permanente wrote in a statement that, “Ms. Barksdale should not have experienced this.”

“We have highly trained staff and very thorough processes in place to prevent errors like this from taking place. After this occurred last year, we took immediate steps to ensure it could not happen again. We realize the impact of this incident and are committed to working with Ms. Barksdale and her counsel to resolve this in the most fair and accountable way we can.”

Because of privacy laws, information about the other patient — including what happened to her and whether cancer treatment was delayed — isn’t publicly available.

It is not clear just how often pathology samples are mislabeled or mixed-up during medical testing. An Ohio woman filed a similar lawsuit saying a 2019 error on a biopsy led to a misdiagnosis of lung cancer and unneeded surgery. Researchers studying prostate cancer discovered three cases of biopsy sample misidentification over two years, according to a 2011 research paper.

Labs have turned to a number of best practices to try and prevent errors, including barcode systems for specimen labeling and point-of-care testing.

The Georgia lawsuit asks for unspecified damages.

“There’s no amount of money that’s going to return back to her, her healthy organs, or erase the experiences and the pain that she’s had. But our justice system recognizes that when somebody’s negligence harms another person, accountability requires more than ‘I’m sorry,'” Young said.

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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.

“The abruptness and sustained magnitude of the increase” is largely due to the condition getting its own diagnosis code last fall, which is providing a more accurate picture of what was an underrecognized problem, the authors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report wrote.

Hospital emergency room diagnoses of the condition, cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, rose 16% from last October to May of this year, federal researchers found.

The syndrome — seen in people who frequently use marijuana, especially smokers — is characterized by recurring nausea, uncontrollable vomiting and excruciating abdominal pain.

Past research has suggested that an estimated 2.75 million Americans suffer from it each year, and that hospital emergency room visits have been rising as daily recreational marijuana use has increased.

But experts also have said that the syndrome probably has been underdiagnosed, possibly because doctors may not have understood patients' marijuana use or because they attributed the suffering to a different illness.

Tracking the syndrome depended on combining diagnostic codes for nausea and vomiting, and for cannabis use. But last October, a new code was introduced to streamline the diagnosis.

In the new paper, researchers at the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control looked at emergency room data from about 7,500 healthcare facilities across the country through May. From January 2023 through the summer of 2025, almost 200,000 syndrome-related visits were made to the emergency departments.

The burden on ERs was relatively flat over most of the study period. But then it jumped in October, when the new code went into effect.

The largest increases were seen in people aged 15 to 24, in teenage girls and women, and in Black Americans and in American Indian and Alaska Natives.

The increase in younger people diagnosed with the syndrome “was actually one of the surprising findings for us,” said CDC's Alana Vivolo-Kantor, the study's first author.

“Because the assumption going in was, ‘well, how can they have chronic use?’” she said. “How early were they using cannabis?”

The findings suggest a need to raise awareness about the syndrome, particularly in teens and young adults. The report also suggests a need for more research, including into how newer high-potency THC and hemp-derived products — some of which come in the form of vapes, drinks and gummies — are being used by, and affecting, younger Americans, she said.

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

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward dijeron que Daniel Borman, de 36 años y residente de Springfield, Nueva Jersey, comenzó a gritarles a los auxiliares de vuelo después de que dejaran de servirle alcohol.

Sin embargo, varios agentes del orden fuera de servicio se encontraban en el vuelo, incluido el ex jefe del Departamento de Policía de Minneapolis, Brian O’Hara, quien dijo que algo “simplemente no estaba bien”.

“Yo estaba parado sobre el asiento mientras los otros hombres estaban detrás de él y simplemente agarré uno de sus brazos”, dijo O’Hara. “Tuve que quitarle el brazo del asiento y colocárselo detrás de la espalda”.

Agregó: “Al parecer, mi esposa me dijo que yo le gritaba que pusiera las manos detrás de la espalda, como si todavía fuera policía. Pero no recuerdo nada de eso”.

Un agente de la Oficina del Sheriff del condado Bergen, Nueva Jersey, estaba a bordo y tenía esposas para colocárselas a Borman, dijo O’Hara. El incidente duró unos 45 minutos.

Sobre el comportamiento del hombre, O’Hara dijo: “Es perturbador ver a alguien maltratar a mujeres de esa manera, con tanta falta de respeto, y amenazarlas cuando simplemente están tratando de hacer su trabajo”.

United Airlines emitió un comunicado que decía: “Agradecemos a nuestra tripulación y a nuestros pasajeros por ayudar con la situación y contribuir a garantizar la seguridad de todos a bordo”.

Borman, quien enfrenta un cargo de intoxicación y alteración del orden público, ya no aparecía en los registros de la cárcel de Broward hasta la tarde del jueves.

La Policía de Lighthouse Point informó que los agentes respondieron alrededor de las 10:13 a.m. a una vivienda cerca de la cuadra 2600 de Northeast 52nd Street tras recibir reportes de una “mordedura de animal”.

La Policía indicó que el ataque ocurrió después de que dos perros escaparan de un patio cercado y comenzaran a deambular por el vecindario. Señalaron que los perros se encontraron con un perro más pequeño en el porche delantero de una vivienda cercana, donde uno de los perros sueltos lo atacó.

Indicaron que el dueño del perro pequeño y varios vecinos intentaron separar a los animales, pero no lo lograron. Entonces, el dueño sacó un arma y mató al perro que atacaba en un esfuerzo por detener el ataque.

La Policía informó que el segundo perro suelto huyó y posteriormente se encontró con otro residente cerca del lugar, al que mordió en una pierna y le causó una herida por punción antes de abandonar el área. Más tarde, el perro regresó a su residencia, donde quedó asegurado por la persona encargada de su cuidado.

Paramédicos de Lighthouse Point Fire Rescue evaluaron al residente herido en el lugar. Posteriormente, el residente decidió buscar tratamiento médico adicional por su cuenta, informó la Policía.

Indicaron que el perro pequeño sufrió heridas graves y fue llevado por su dueño a un hospital veterinario local para recibir tratamiento.

Vecinos dijeron a Local 10 News que escucharon gritos y salieron rápidamente de sus casas, donde encontraron al perro de mayor tamaño atacando el cuello del perro pequeño. Los residentes también describieron el vecindario como una zona popular para familias y personas que pasean a sus perros.

La Policía informó que personal del condado Broward también respondió al lugar e investigó el incidente.

Las autoridades ahora trabajan para determinar de dónde provenían los dos perros que atacaron y las circunstancias que llevaron al ataque.

Indicaron que hasta el jueves no se habían presentado cargos. La investigación continúa.

Cualquier persona con información adicional sobre este incidente debe comunicarse con el Departamento de Policía de Lighthouse Point al 954-942-8080.

El hecho ocurrió poco antes de las 12:30 a.m. del 27 de julio en Round1, informó la policía.

Bailey, de 35 años y residente de Miramar, está acusado de mantener relaciones sexuales de manera pública con Karina Manderson, de 35 años y residente de Pembroke Pines.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Pembroke Pines, los agentes respondieron a Round1 tras recibir reportes de dos personas que mantenían relaciones sexuales en el bar del establecimiento.

La policía informó que revisó las grabaciones de vigilancia, las cuales mostraban que Manderson “estaba inclinada hacia adelante a la altura de la cintura” mientras Bailey se encontraba detrás de ella. Un testigo dijo a los investigadores que observó a ambos teniendo relaciones sexuales y que, cuando les pidió que se detuvieran, Bailey se subió los pantalones y ambos se retiraron lentamente del área del bar.

Al entrevistar a los sospechosos, la policía indicó que ambos admitieron haber consumido varios tragos de licor en el bar. Los investigadores dijeron que Bailey reconoció que “ambos tenían los pantalones abajo” y que estaba exponiendo sus partes íntimas, pero aseguró que “nunca hubo penetración”.

La policía dijo que no encontró evidencia que sugiriera que las bebidas de alguno de los sospechosos hubieran sido adulteradas.

Ambos fueron arrestados más tarde esa misma mañana y acusados de exhibicionismo.

Bailey es un ex receptor abierto de la NFL que jugó durante tres temporadas con los Rams de St. Louis, de 2013 a 2015, después de ser seleccionado en la tercera ronda del Draft de la NFL de 2013.

En 2015, Bailey recibió disparos mientras estaba sentado en un vehículo estacionado en Miami Gardens. Aunque finalmente se recuperó de sus heridas, el tiroteo provocó su retiro del fútbol americano profesional.

Antes de asistir a la Universidad de West Virginia, Bailey cursó la escuela secundaria en el sur de Florida, tanto en Miami Carol City Senior High, en el condado Miami-Dade, como en Miramar High School, en el condado Broward.

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Now 19, Jah’Kobe Bessent awaits his fate for a crime spree in August 2022 that ended in the fatal crash. Investigators said Bessent, then 15, was driving a stolen vehicle and fleeing from police when he caused the wreck that killed 35-year-old Maria Tellez-Valderrabano.

State prosecutors said Bessent and 13-year-old Jacory Flournoy first broke into a Fort Lauderdale home while the residents were sleeping, stole their car and later crashed into another vehicle, killing Tellez-Valderrabano.

Tellez-Valderrabano’s family was in court Thursday wearing pendants with her picture on them as several of Bessent’s relatives testified in his defense.

“I saw it on the news. I had a feeling that he was involved in it,” one family member said.

During the sentencing hearing, Bessent’s aunt, Latonya Burns, described what she said was a difficult and traumatic upbringing that severely affected his mental state.

Bessent’s sister, who is also behind bars, testified that she and her brother were physically abused. She said there were times when their mother ordered her to hold Jah’Kobe down while he was beaten.

State prosecutors argued that the disturbing details of Bessent’s upbringing should not take away from the fact that a woman was killed and a family lost their loved one.

The victim’s family said they want justice for Tellez-Valderrabano’s death, but the judge will ultimately decide Bessent’s sentence.

At the time of this report, Bessent’s father was on the witness stand.

No, it wasn't a prank call.

Brown was indeed headed to the Philadelphia 76ers, where he was set to form an All-Star trio with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

Little did he know LeBron James was on his way to Philly, too.

Brown has slowly settled into his new team, all while admitting he's still processing the details of his messy breakup with the Celtics.

If the 29-year-old Brown lived in a perfect world, he'd still wear Celtics green this season, and for the rest of his career, if he could, rather than get traded.

He's ready to move on and try with perhaps the best starting five in the NBA to win a championship with the Sixers.

“I'm still processing to some degree," Brown said Thursday. “Just, the excitement of coming to a new city, a new place, new expectations, new energy. Then also leaving somewhere that you've been for a very, very long time.”

Brown, the No. 3 pick in the 2016 draft, formed a potent 1-2 partnership on the court with Jayson Tatum that resulted in the 2024 NBA championship. Their off-court relationship was dissected throughout NBA media circles and the topic of are they-or-aren't they friends could have strained their effectiveness in Boston.

Brown, who still has three seasons and about $182 million left on what was then a record, five-year, $304 million supermax deal he signed in 2023, was respectful of Tatum, but noted they had “not really” talked since the trade.

“We won a championship together," Brown said. “Anybody that you win a championship with, you think that’s what a brotherhood or a lifelong legacy would entail. Obviously, there’s ups and downs in any type of relationship, for sure.”

Brown has spoken in previous years about how he has felt disrespected by both media and people around the league for what he has achieved during his career.

Though he took Eastern Conference finals and NBA Finals honors during the Celtics' most recent championship run, he was left off the U.S. 2024 Paris Olympics roster.

Then, last season, with Tatum playing in just 16 games during the regular season while he rehabbed from a ruptured Achilles tendon, Brown averaged career highs in points (28.7), rebounds (6.9) and assists (5.1) while finishing sixth in MVP voting.

The Celtics promptly dangled him as trade bait to Milwaukee in a failed bid to land Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Brown said the “whole process” of how his career in Boston ended bothered him.

“Maybe one day, we’ll share the details of how everything transpired and all the moving parts that took place in this,” Brown said. "Obviously, it’s a lot of speculation; I feel no need to chime in on it because I’m focused on what’s in front of me.”

The 76ers and new team president Mike Gansey swooped in and landed Brown in exchange for Paul George and a slew of draft picks.

Brown alone was a significant upgrade and made the 76ers, who haven't won an NBA title since 1983, a serious contender to win the East.

Little did Brown know his presence was enough to help sway four-time NBA MVP and four-time NBA champion James, leading to the free agent signing last month with the Sixers.

“I thought maybe after Jaylen, we had a better chance,” Gansey said. “I guess that was all we needed.”

How's this for a starting five: two league MVPs in Embiid and James, a five-time All-Star in Brown, a 2026 All-Star starter in Maxey and third in last season's NBA rookie of the year voting in VJ Edgecombe.

Expectations this season are sky high.

Brown faced much of the same pressures to win in Boston, dealing with a hefty media corps and trying to please an overzealous fanbase. He thrived.

“I think at different points in my career, how I handled pressure would probably look different at this point,” Brown said. “I probably ignore a lot of it, you know, just water under the bridge. My relationship with the media hasn't always been the best. That's part of the reason why I started streaming (on Twitch) and stuff like that.”

Brown — deeply involved in Boston community initiatives — skipped holding the traditional introductory press conference at the Sixers' New Jersey complex or South Philadelphia home arena. Instead, he chose a recreation center where he was greeted by screeching, joyous children in Brown T-shirts, high-fived the mascot and a DJ pumped tunes until he and other team personnel arrived.

“As I’m still getting to learn this community, I just wanted to make it clear that this was an important pillar in my life, community and the foundation," Brown said. "As I’m getting started on the journey here in Philadelphia, the introduction, the first impression is everything. I just wanted to let people know in Philadelphia that this is something that’s important to me.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba

In an interview after his arrest, Aaron Farinacci said “fire is powerful, beautiful, and that things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth," Spokane County Detective Michael Drapeau wrote in a court filing Wednesday.

Farinacci, 37, is charged with starting the Old Trails fire, one of three blazes in the Spokane area that have burned more than 850 buildings, destroying whole neighborhoods and streets. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate and many still can't return home. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.

Farinacci is also charged in connection with four smaller fires ignited in the summer of 2025 and last month.

He was scheduled to be arraigned on five first-degree arson charges Thursday, but his lawyer asked for a competency evaluation before he enters a plea. Spokane Superior Court Judge Jeremy Schmidt said he would review that request. He set bond for $2 million, ruling that Farinacci was a risk to community safety, a flight risk and that there was potential for a violent offense.

Defense attorney Colin Charbonneau did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Farinacci denied starting the Old Trails fire when police initially contacted him, but during an interview with Drapeau, he confessed to that fire as well as others last year and last month, the detective wrote. That led to the four additional arson charges.

He told the detective that he always carries marijuana or cigarettes so he would have a legitimate reason to have a lighter and matches.

“He knows arson is an easy crime to get away from if you have time, and he had time,” Drapeau said.

Farinacci researched the weather to predict a day that would be hot and windy and have low humidity for starting the Old Trails fire, Drapeau said. He also looked up the work of a well-known serial arsonist and purchased items to make a “time delay device” for igniting a wildfire, using notebook paper, matches, a cigarette and a rubber band, the detective said.

Farinacci picked Saturday, Aug. 1, to start the fire because he knew there would be strong winds — reaching 50 mph (80 kph), the detective said.

Farinacci said he knew it was going to get bad but claimed he didn’t intend for it to grow as much as it did, Drapeau said.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said Thursday that it’s going to be weeks before people can safely return to their homes in areas burned in the Spokane fires. The other two major blazes, the Autumn Lane and Fairview fires, were also started by people, though not necessarily deliberately, investigators have said.

Paul Child, 64, has been credited with leading police to Farinacci. He was driving with his grandson along some railroad tracks when he saw a man standing there and looking toward nearby trees. About 10 minutes later, the man was still there.

“He was bent over in the brush, acting nervous,” Child told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “You get the feeling this guy’s up to something.”

Drapeau said Farinacci also admitted responsibility for 25 fires near his apartment building in summer 2025. Most were near the Spokane River or the Centennial Trail.

Farinacci admitted to starting the Aubrey White fire that ignited on July 6, 2025, near the Centennial Trail and threatened homes and structures, the court filing said. It led to evacuations and road closures. An investigation determined it was caused by arson, but police didn't have any suspects at the time.

Farinacci also faces arson charges for the Meenach fire that started on July 8, 2025, the Fort George fire on Aug. 11, 2025, and the Indian Bluff fire on July 24, 2026.

Farinacci served about a decade in prison after killing his father in Mesa, Arizona, in 2010. He also shot himself. He was charged with murder but pleaded guilty in 2012 to manslaughter and aggravated assault. Farinacci’s lawyer repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health during the case.

Drapeau said Farinacci indicated that he moved to the Copper River Apartments in the Spokane area in October 2022.

The detective said Farinacci's son was born in 2025, and he started having difficulty dealing with “life issues” and began smoking marijuana.

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Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden contributed to this story from Seattle.

Herbert Wayne Smith, 65, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the blaze that has destroyed seven structures and scorched more than 15 square miles (39 square km) of forest in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Calaveras County.

Smith is suspected of “recklessly causing" the blaze on Monday while “operating equipment capable of producing sparks” without clearing flammable vegetation as required, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Prosecutors will determine whether to file criminal charges.

An apologetic Smith told KCRA-TV that he was using a chain saw to cut some scrap wood when it ignited.

“I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened,” Smith told the news station. “This is going to destroy my life, one way or another."

Investigators will determine whether the fire contributed to the death of the person found in a burned home near the town of Angels Camp, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office said.

In eastern Washington state, three major fires continued to burn around the city of Spokane. Officials said Thursday that cooler temperatures and calmer winds have allowed firefighters to make progress against the blazes. No deaths have been reported, though at least 800 buildings have been destroyed.

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It happened just before 12:30 a.m. on July 27 at Round1, police said.

Bailey, 35, of Miramar, is accused of openly having sex with Karina Manderson, 35, of Pembroke Pines.

According to the Pembroke Pines Police Department, officers responded to Round1 after receiving reports of two people who were having sex at the bar of the establishment.

Police said they reviewed surveillance footage which showed Manderson “leaned over at the waist” while Bailey was behind her, and a witness told investigators that they observed the two having intercourse, and when asking the suspects to stop, Bailey pulled up his pants and the two slowly left the bar area.

When speaking to the suspects, police said both admitted to drinking multiple shots while at the bar, and investigators said Bailey admitted “they both had their pants down” and that he was exposing himself, but said “penetration never took place.”

Police said there was no evidence to suggest that either of the suspects’ drinks had been tampered with.

Both were arrested later that morning and charged with indecent exposure.

Bailey is a former NFL wide receiver who played three years for the St. Louis Rams from 2013 to 2015 after being selected in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft.

In 2015, Bailey was shot while sitting in a parked car in Miami Gardens. While he ultimately recovered from his injuries, the shooting caused him to retire from professional football.

Before attending West Virginia University, Bailey went to high school in South Florida at both Miami Carol City Senior High in Miami-Dade County and Miramar High School in Broward County.

The president said he was signing two executive actions on immigration, including one limiting the number of people eligible for U.S. citizenship after being born in the United States, while another focused on stopping people from coming to the U.S. to give birth.

The written executive order released later Thursday was narrower in scope than the previous one shot down by the Supreme Court and appeared to focus on restricting automatic citizenship to specific categories of people, including children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or organizations as well as anyone considered an “alien enemy” of the United States.

It also aimed to restrict birthright citizenship to anyone whose parents “engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship."

A second order seeks to curb what Trump called “birth tourism” by increasing restrictions on visitors to the U.S. who want to obtain visas to give birth while in the country.

It was not immediately clear how successful the president's most recent attempt to restrict birthright citizenship would be. Trump said he thought his latest actions would be constitutional and his drive to reopen the question reflected the administration's zeal to restrict who gets to become an American.

“I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, we had a bad decision, very unfair decision. Our country suffers because of it and we’re ending it a different way,” Trump said.

The Migration Policy Institute noted in a 2026 article that it’s already considered fraud and grounds to restrict a visa if someone seeks a visa specifically to come to the U.S. and obtain citizenship for a child. Previous administrations have also sought to prosecute so-called “birth tourism" schemes that helped women hide their pregnancies while traveling to the United States to give birth.

Birthright citizenship has become a key rallying point in the president’s second term anti-immigration agenda, with the president and supporters arguing it makes the country a magnet for immigration and that American citizenship should be reserved for those who truly value it, as opposed to just being given to anyone born here.

But immigration advocates and many legal experts say that the Constitution is clear in outlining who is considered a citizen. They've also argued that birthright citizenship is a benefit to the U.S. by giving everyone an equal stake in the country's future and that restricting who can become a citizen would create a second-class of people in America.

The Trump administration has painted birth tourism as a widespread problem. There's no official estimate of how many births can be considered “birth tourism” births, but an estimated 26,000 might fall into that category out of the roughly 3.5 million births in the U.S. every year, MPI wrote in its 2026 article.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s previous efforts to declare that children born to people in the U.S. illegally or temporarily aren’t American citizens, and upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship.

The American Civil Liberties Union predicted that Trump's second attempt would also be rejected.

“The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution. Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement Thursday.

On Trump’s first day in office of his second term, he signed an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, which allows anyone born in the United States to automatically become an American citizen.

Trump’s administration was immediately sued by opponents who said the executive order went against the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which makes anyone born in the country a citizen, with very limited exceptions.

The executive order was blocked by several lower courts and never took effect.

In June, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s order by a 6-3 vote. But the vote was too close for many immigration advocates and legal observers who felt the legal question of birthright citizenship was a long-settled issue.

When it came to the legal question of whether birthright citizenship was protected by the Constitution, the vote was even narrower. Only five justices said it was enshrined in the Constitution, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected the executive order, but did so specifically on the grounds that federal law conveys birthright citizenship.

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Santana reported from Sacramento.

In recent weeks OpenAI and Anthropic also have described instances of AI models going beyond humans' instructions to access the web and find ways around other companies' digital security.

Meta said in a statement that a “misconfiguration" during cybersecurity testing by Irregular, an independent company hired by Meta, inadvertently allowed one of its models to access the internet.

“The model subsequently exploited a security vulnerability in a third-party service, in a manner similar to previously-reported instances with other companies,” the company said. Meta said it is investigating the incident and will issue a report when that's complete.

The disclosure has added to worries about AI models acting autonomously.

Separately this week, the United Kingdom's AI Security Institute announced it had found “unsanctioned agent behavior” during cyber testing. In one case, an agent created fake online identities to pressure a person to approve use of malicious code.

“On investigation, we found that some of the agents being tested had engaged in sustained, potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organizations,” AISI said Tuesday. “We declared a security incident and, within roughly one hour of discovery, had contained it and begun a full investigation.”

During the agency's testing, Anthropic and OpenAI models took “autonomous, unsanctioned action” on the internet. Some guardrails to prevent misuse had been disabled, the agency said.

“As was standard in our cyber testing, we had intentionally permitted internet access, and model-provider cyber classifiers were deliberately disabled — conditions that do not reflect how frontier models are made available to the public,” AISI said. “We do this to best assess the maximum capability of models.”

Anthropic said it is “grateful” for AISI's work and added that it underscores the need for a broader conversation about how to safely evaluate AI agents as their capabilities grow.

OpenAI said the AISI incidents took place “in testing environments with reduced safeguards, under conditions that do not reflect ordinary use." It added it will continue working with others across the industry to "strengthen shared practices for conducting evaluations safely as models become more capable.”

The first company to disclose a hack late last month, OpenAI said it had tasked the AI models involved with pursuing “advanced exploitation using complex attack paths” to test cyber capabilities, but the technology went to unexpected lengths. It apparently decided on its own to target Hugging Face, a well-known AI development hub and marketplace, to obtain information it needed to carry out a task.

A spokesperson for Irregular, the San Francisco-based AI security company, said the Meta episode involves a test-environment issue that was disclosed last week by Anthropic.

Irregular said it's writing a paper to share “best practices for containment” to prevent such incidents in the future and securely run cyber tests.

The former Senate leader was first admitted to the hospital on June 14. He disclosed weeks later that his hospitalization was the result of a fall and said he was undergoing physical therapy.

McConnell, 84, gave no specific date for his return to the Capitol, but senators are expected to soon leave Washington for the traditional August recess. Votes are unlikely for the next five weeks once they adjourn.

“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business," McConnell said in a statement released by his office.

McConnell had polio in his early childhood and has long acknowledged some difficulty walking and climbing stairs as an adult. The Office of the Attending Physician has said McConnell was undergoing a strenuous course of physical therapy and rehabilitation since he left the hospital, which includes multiple sessions a day designed to rebuild strength and reduce the risk of future falls.

The senator is determined to finish out his seventh term, which concludes in January.

McConnell’s absence is being felt in the Senate as Republicans were unable to advance a farm bill out of committee Thursday. The committee's chairman, Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, said he spoke with McConnell this week about the bill.

“I know how much he would have wanted to be here to advocate for Kentucky’s farmers and rural communities,” Boozman said in kicking off the committee's meeting Thursday.

But there has also been criticism that McConnell has not been transparent enough about his health. The state's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, recently called on the senator to either prove that he is fit to continue serving after his lengthy hospital stay or resign from office.

The storms — called haboobs — occur throughout the U.S. Southwest when strong downdrafts from thunderstorms stir up loose dust and dirt that get blown along in front of the approaching storm cell.

They can produce massive walls of dust and debris that blind drivers and make people sick.

The latest storm rolled in during the early morning hours Thursday, three days after the other one struck. There were no reports of any significant impacts, though both storms reduced visibility to half a mile (0.8 kilometers).

“Luckily, they both happened when it was later at night, so there was less traffic on the roads,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Salerno in Phoenix.

Both storms were extreme, Category 5 events on a scale of dust storm severity, with huge concentrations of dust and wind speeds of about 50 mph (80 kph), according to researchers at Arizona State University, which helped develop the scale.

The scale — unveiled this year — was developed using data going back to 2010.

“To have Class 5 dust storms occur one right after another a few days apart is unprecedented in our records,” said Randall Cerveny, a professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State. “We don't see that.”

They were only the fifth and sixth dust storms in the last 16 years to reach Category 5, Cerveny told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

He noted the Phoenix region has been drier than normal, which can increase the amount of dust that is kicked up. Scientists have said human-caused climate change increases the odds of both severe drought and heavier storms that could set the stage for more intense dust storms in the future.

In the second week of her Massachusetts murder trial, prosecutors brought more friends, a former work colleague and her former father-in-law to testify about Clancy's mental and emotional state. They said she was mostly open about her postpregnancy mental health struggles but seemed like a loving mother who cared for her kids.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan.

Defense attorneys don't dispute that she killed her children on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending her husband out on errands, but they argue that she was too mentally ill to bear criminal responsibility for her actions.

Prosecutors, however, said that sending her husband out of the house was a ruse and that the 35-year-old former labor and delivery nurse acted intentionally. She remains paralyzed from the waist down after jumping from the home’s second-story window that night.

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

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A friend recalls a difficult reunion after the killings

Much of the week has been dominated by witnesses detailing their memories of Clancy in the days, weeks and months before the killings.

Outwardly, Clancy appeared normal, most said, attending family functions, lunches with friends and activities with her children. None of the witnesses Thursday testified they heard Clancy express suicidal or homicidal thoughts, talking of hearing voices or wanting to harm her children.

But after the birth of her third child, she told a friend she was having trouble sleeping and noted harmful side effects from medications she was taking. Another former colleague at Massachusetts General Hospital, Andrea Hennigan, recalled a lunch where Clancy said she wouldn't return to work because she “was not in a mental state to take care of patients.”

“She talked about insomnia and not feeling herself,” she said. “I believe she might have used the words brain fog or something like that.”

The month of the killings, Clancy texted Hennigan that she was experiencing “bad or negative side effects” from her medications. She told another witness, Amy Bevins, around then that the medications had “caused her to have some dark thoughts.”

Another witness, Bethany Decollibus, attended a birthday party for Clancy's daughter, Cora, in January 2023. Asked about her sleep troubles, Clancy said “things haven’t gotten better and that she feels like a zombie.”

Lindsay Clancy's former father-in-law testifies

Christopher Clancy praised his former daughter-in-law's mothering skills. But he admitted knowing she was having issues. At one point, he suggested the grandchildren stay with him and his wife, but his son declined.

“I knew she was having a hard time sleeping,” Christopher Clancy said. “I knew she just didn’t feel well. I knew she went to the emergency room where my wife was working. Those types of struggles.”

Lindsay Clancy's attorneys in criminal and civil cases have said that she had postpartum psychosis, a condition that a small fraction of women exhibit after childbirth, and that she had bipolar disorder that wasn’t fully diagnosed until after the killings. Her attorneys say her condition seemed to worsen on the psychiatric medications, some of them problematic for bipolar patients.

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

Another case that echoes Clancy’s is going back to court

Meanwhile, the judge and the district attorney learned Thursday that they face a retrial in another case involving a mother’s mental state when she killed her two school-age children in 2018.

Massachusetts’ top court threw out Latarsha Sanders’ murder convictions in the stabbings of sons Edson “Marlon” Brito, 8, and La’son Brito, 5.

Sanders told police in a recorded interview that she stabbed the boys because “bad people” text-messaged her commands to carry out a “ritual” connected to “Voodoo stuff” and the Illuminati. The latter is a purported powerful secret society at the center of various conspiracy theories, and Sanders’ family said she had become obsessively fearful of it.

Like Clancy’s lawyers, Sanders’ defense argued she was mentally ill and shouldn’t be held criminally responsible, while prosecutors said she acted deliberately.

A defense neuropsychologist diagnosed Sanders with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, among other conditions, and testified that she was “grossly psychotic” when she killed the children.

The appeal turns on psychiatric evidence

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court faulted the judge for not letting jurors hear many specifics from Sanders' medical records. They showed, among other things, that clinicians at a prison and a psychiatric hospital suggested similar diagnoses after Sanders’ arrest.

Withholding the records from jurors “impermissibly stripped” the defense of its medical foundation, Justice Frank M. Gaziano wrote in a unanimous decision.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz's office said in a statement that it was thinking through next steps. Messages seeking comment were sent to a clerk for Superior Court Justice William Sullivan and to a court system spokesperson.

Sanders’ lawyer, Robert F. Shaw Jr., said he looked forward to retrying the case.

“The hope is that those records and that evidence will be able to be viewed by a jury with fresh eyes,” he said by phone.

___

Peltz reported from New York.

Ahora con 19 años, Jah’Kobe Bessent espera conocer su destino por una ola delictiva ocurrida en agosto de 2022 que terminó en un accidente fatal. Los investigadores dijeron que Bessent, quien entonces tenía 15 años, conducía un vehículo robado y huía de la Policía cuando provocó el accidente que causó la muerte de Maria Tellez-Valderrabano, de 35 años.

Los fiscales estatales dijeron que Bessent y Jacory Flournoy, de 13 años, primero irrumpieron en una vivienda de Fort Lauderdale mientras los residentes dormían, robaron su automóvil y posteriormente chocaron contra otro vehículo, causando la muerte de Tellez-Valderrabano.

La familia de Tellez-Valderrabano estuvo en la corte el jueves usando colgantes con su fotografía mientras varios familiares de Bessent testificaron en su defensa.

“Lo vi en las noticias. Tenía el presentimiento de que él estaba involucrado”, dijo un familiar.

Durante la audiencia de sentencia, la tía de Bessent, Latonya Burns, describió lo que, según dijo, fue una crianza difícil y traumática que afectó gravemente su estado mental.

La hermana de Bessent, quien también está tras las rejas, testificó que ella y su hermano sufrieron abuso físico. Dijo que hubo ocasiones en las que su madre le ordenó sujetar a Jah’Kobe mientras lo golpeaban.

Los fiscales estatales argumentaron que los perturbadores detalles de la crianza de Bessent no deben restar importancia al hecho de que una mujer murió y una familia perdió a un ser querido.

La familia de la víctima dijo que quiere justicia por la muerte de Tellez-Valderrabano, pero será el juez quien finalmente decida la sentencia de Bessent.

Al momento de este reporte, el padre de Bessent se encontraba en el estrado de los testigos.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that they arrested Ángel Aguirre, Guerrero's former governor, on accusations of “concealing evidence to determine the whereabouts of the students" of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College.

The former governor, belonging to a party that gave rise to Mexico's ruling Morena party, is the highest-profile arrest in the case to date since the detention of former federal Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam, who is facing criminal charges of forced disappearance, obstruction of justice and torture. Aguirre governed Guerrero from 2011 until he resigned in October 2014, one month after the students disappeared.

The disappearance of the students from the rural teacher’s college of Ayotzinapa after they commandeered several buses on their way to a protest shocked Mexico and the international community, and continues to fuel outrage as the truth of the case continues to trickle out nearly 12 years later.

According to Mexican authorities, a cartel in Guerrero state's city of Iguala attacked the students in collusion with security forces as well as local, state and federal authorities, including the military. Officials were presumably involved by taking part in the crime or concealing it.

Ernestina Godoy, the Attorney General of Mexico, stated that two testimonies gathered this year indicate that Aguirre not only requested that officials hand over the security camera footage from one of the locations of the attack that night but also ordered the destruction of any evidence related to the events.

“The Attorney General’s Office has evidence proving that this order to conceal the evidence was issued directly by the then-governor, with the participation of high-level state officials,” she said.

“Far from being an isolated act or a technical oversight, the concealment of the recordings was the result of a malicious operation, deliberately orchestrated from the highest levels of the State Executive Branch.”

Godoy did not explain why the testimonies of a collaborator and a protected witness, collected in January and May 2016 respectively, were obtained more than a decade after the events. She only indicated that when she arrived at the Attorney General’s Office at the end of last year, she began a “reanalysis” of the case with a “new investigative approach.”

Hours later, the Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, which represents the families, stated in a social media post that neither the students’ parents nor their attorneys had been notified of the arrest and that they were unaware of the charges. “If it is solid and in accordance with the law, the process that is beginning could help settle a debt of justice for the families,” the center said.

The current federal administration had committed to inform parents first of any developments, a key demand from families for years.

Clemente Rodríguez, the father of one of the students, recalled that from the beginning families asked for Aguirre to be investigated. “He has to tell everything he knows,” he told The Associated Press.

After three administrations, dozens of arrests and an investigation plagued by irregularities, key questions remain unanswered. Authorities believe the students were killed, but only bone fragments from three of them have been found, and the motive for the attack remains unclear, although it is believed to have been linked to heroin trafficking in buses to the U.S. operated by the local cartel in collusion with authorities.

On Sept. 26, 2014, students were attacked in a coordinated manner at various locations. In one instance, cameras recorded the moment when security forces stopped one of the buses outside the Palace of Justice, the seat of the courts, but initial official statements claimed that this footage did not exist. Now, the federal prosecutor’s office confirms what investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) denounced years ago: that these recordings were hidden or destroyed to conceal evidence.

The administration of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who served from 2018 to 2024, described the Ayotzinapa case as a “state crime.”

During President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, which began in October 2024, the president said that new lines of investigation were reopened, some of which, according to the prosecutor, have led to the arrest of the former governor.

Paz dio un mensaje a la nación en la ciudad de Sucre por los 201 años de la fundación de Bolivia en el que pidió disculpas por sus errores y destacó el apoyo de la población a pesar de haber aplicado medidas económicas impopulares como el fin del subsidio a los combustibles.

El mandatario aseguró que todas las reformas “requieren de estabilidad política y continuidad institucional” por lo que convocó a “construir un gran acuerdo nacional” y apostar por el diálogo tras las movilizaciones impulsadas por sindicatos obreros, campesinos y seguidores del expresidente Evo Morales (2006-2019) que durante 53 días protagonizaron protestas y bloqueos que asfixiaron al país.

Adelantó que además del proyecto de ley de inversiones —que busca atraer capital extranjero— también enviará al Congreso un paquete de iniciativas que incluyen dos que buscan abrir el sector de los hidrocarburos y la minería a alianzas con privados.

Para que estos proyectos sean aprobados por la Asamblea Paz necesita negociar con todas las fuerzas politicas porque no posee mayoría.

Durante su discurso el mandatario reconoció que uno de los grandes males del país es la corrupción, por lo que anunció la creación del Alto Comisionado de Integridad Institucional y Transparencia en la administración pública.

Recientemente el secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, Marco Rubio, ratificó el apoyo al gobierno de Paz y celebró la profundización de la cooperación para “brindar seguridad y prosperidad a ambas naciones”.

Tras llegar a la presidencia a fines el año pasado Paz dio un giro en la política exterior y se acercó a Estados Unidos para relanzar las relaciones diplomáticas rotas durante casi 20 años de los gobiernos de izquierda de Morales (2006-2019) y Luis Arce (2020-2025).

En marzo Paz se reunió con el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump y varios gobernantes de América Latina para combatir el narcotráfico y el terrorismo, entre otros delitos, bajo el denominado Escudo de las Américas.

En ese mismo mes la policía capturó en Bolivia al presunto narcotraficante uruguayo Sebastián Marset, uno de los más buscados y que fue entregado a Estados Unidos.

Paz resaltó en su discurso que otros 16 capos narcotraficantes fueron detenidos.

Por la noche, en conferencia de prensa, el ministro de Gobierno Marco Antonio Oviedo aseguró que en el país existe “una lucha de carteles internacionales de narcoterrorismo que se están disputando el territorio boliviano”.

A su vez informó que los asesinatos de al menos cinco personas, entre ellas un oficial de la policía, en la región oriental de Santa Cruz, estarían relacionados con Marset.

Posteriormente, la policía presentó a siete detenidos. Oviedo dijo que cuidaban una pista clandestina "para hacer despachos de droga a Brasil”.

El 29 de julio, en la localidad de San Matías —fronteriza con Brasil—, se produjo una balacera donde murieron cuatro personas. Días después, en una localidad vecina un oficial de la policía que realizaba un operativo fue quemado.

La ola de asesinatos continuó con otros cinco casos que aún se investigan, mientras la policía realiza operativos en la frontera con Brasil.

The truck dumped the ducks from one side of a half-raised bridge. After forming a yellow pool in the river, the ducks floated for around 15 minutes before a winner and runner-up were plucked from the water.

The annual event, a fundraiser for Special Olympics Illinois, draws thousands of participants. At an accompanying festival, participants snapped pictures with inflatable ducks and doodled on a chalkboard under the prompt, “I adopt a duck because …” Some sported rubber duck-printed shirts.

Becky Cavanagh, the Ducky Derby ambassador and a 13-year Special Olympics athlete, held up the winning duck to the cheers of crowds packed on both sides of the river.

Cavanagh said her favorite part about the Special Olympics was “making new friends.” Asked before the race how she felt about picking the winning duck, she cheered. “Woo!”

Special Olympics Illinois organizes competitions across the state for people with disabilities and special needs. It costs $10 to sponsor a “lone duck,” which will feed an athlete lunch at a competition, and $30 for a “quack pack” of six ducks, which supplies gold medals for a team. The competition has raised more than $480,000.

The sponsor of the fastest duck wins an SUV, and the runner-up will win $2,500 in cash, said Pete Beale-DelVecchio, president of Special Olympics Illinois.

“It really is a fantastic day for our athletes,” he said ahead of the race at an area next to the river, where derby attendees posed with inflatable rubber ducks and bopped along to a live DJ.

___

Mayes-Osterman is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Ocurrió a primeras horas de la tarde del jueves en el área de la cuadra 20300 de Northwest 35th Avenue en Miami Gardens.

Los agentes acudieron rápidamente al lugar tras recibir reportes de una balacera.

Según Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, una persona fue trasladada en helicóptero al HCA Florida Aventura Hospital como alerta de trauma.

SKY 10 sobrevoló el lugar alrededor de las 2:15 p.m., donde se podía ver a agentes rodeando un vehículo que quedó con la puerta del lado del conductor abierta y varios objetos esparcidos en el suelo junto al automóvil.

Las autoridades no han proporcionado información sobre las circunstancias que llevaron a la balacera reportada.

Esta es una noticia de última hora que será actualizada a medida que haya nueva información disponible.

Pero Bracamonte, una enfermera jubilada de 74 años de Tucson, afirmó que siente que el calor ha afectado más aspectos de su día a día: planes de verano con familiares en toda la región, encuentros con amigos, viajes por carretera y su rutina diaria de caminata matutina.

“He notado al menos una diferencia de 10 grados en el clima. Cada verano, parece que hace más y más calor”, aseguró.

Al igual que Bracamonte, los estadounidenses sienten cada vez más un impacto personal del calor extremo, según una nueva encuesta de The Associated Press y el NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

De acuerdo con el sondeo, los adultos en Estados Unidos tienen más probabilidades de afirmar que el calor extremo ha tenido un “gran impacto” o un “impacto menor” en sus planes de viaje o vacaciones, en sus facturas de electricidad, en su sueño, en las actividades al aire libre de su familia y en más aspectos de su vida cotidiana que en julio de 2024.

Gran parte de ese cambio se dio entre personas que viven en el oeste o en la región centro-norte del país.

Los demócratas también tienen más probabilidades que los republicanos de decir que el calor extremo ha tenido un “gran” impacto en cada uno de los aspectos analizados.

El calentamiento ha puesto en peligro al planeta, especialmente en los últimos años; los científicos calculan que la temperatura media de la Tierra en 2025 se mantuvo entre las tres más altas registradas, junto con 2024 y 2023. Estados Unidos ha sufrido peligrosos domos de calor en los últimos años, y temperaturas inusualmente altas incluso a comienzos del año.

El reciente clima abrasador ha influido en miles de muertes relacionadas con el calor al provocar la muerte de más personas cada año que todos los demás fenómenos meteorológicos combinados. Aumenta el riesgo de incendios forestales, tensiona la infraestructura pública, devasta la agricultura y causa estragos en reuniones como eventos deportivos.

Ahora, la encuesta muestra cómo el calor extremo transforma la vida diaria de los estadounidenses.

“Tengo que levantarme a las 5 de la mañana para caminar antes de las 6, porque para las 7 (la temperatura) ya está en los 80 grados (Fahrenheit, alrededor de 27 grados Celsius)... Pierdo un par de horas de sueño porque tengo que despertarme más temprano”, añadió Bracamonte, quien dijo que se identifica como una demócrata muy liberal. “No puedes quedarte afuera sin enfermarte, a menos que bebas agua todo el tiempo; hace muchísimo, muchísimo calor”.

Aumentan las facturas de electricidad

Alrededor de 8 de cada 10 estadounidenses dicen que sus facturas de electricidad han tenido un “gran” o un “menor” impacto por el calor extremo durante el último año, frente al 69% en julio de 2024, según la encuesta.

Casi la mitad (el 44%) de los estadounidenses que viven en la región centro-norte dicen que el calor extremo ha tenido un “gran” impacto en sus facturas de electricidad, frente al 29% de hace dos años.

El aumento de los precios de la electricidad en los hogares se ha convertido en un tema político cada vez más destacado en los últimos años. El clima extremo es solo uno de los factores que afectan las facturas de electricidad, pero implica que la gente usa más energía para el aire acondicionado, o en los meses fríos, para la calefacción.

“Siento que mis costos de servicios públicos probablemente se duplicaron en los últimos tres o cuatro años”, afirmó Daemien Williams, un inspector de puentes de 50 años que vive en Cahokia Heights, Illinois, y se identifica como demócrata. “Sí reviso mis facturas con bastante detalle y veo que los kilovatios y el consumo en realidad han subido, no solo el precio que cobran por ello”.

Impactos en planes de viaje y vacaciones, así como en las actividades familiares al aire libre

El calor extremo afecta la vida de los estadounidenses de otras maneras, de acuerdo con la encuesta.

Alrededor de 4 de cada 10 estadounidenses dicen que el calor extremo ha tenido un gran impacto o un impacto menor en sus planes de viaje o vacaciones, frente a aproximadamente una cuarta parte en 2024.

“Ha afectado a toda mi familia porque normalmente nos reunimos mucho durante el verano”, explicó Bracamonte. “Tenemos familia en Texas y en el norte de Arizona. Y hemos visto que ha habido muchos más incendios, muchas más inundaciones, todo eso. Así que eso, en cierto modo, frena nuestros planes de viajar”.

Las olas de calor extremo aumentan el riesgo de incendios forestales, y un mundo más cálido potencia las tormentas que, en última instancia, podrían traer más precipitaciones.

Alrededor de 7 de cada 10 estadounidenses dicen que el calor extremo ha tenido un gran impacto o un impacto menor en las actividades al aire libre de su familia, frente a aproximadamente 6 de cada 10 en 2024.

Sean Conway, un especialista en marketing directo de 41 años en North Shore, Massachusetts, dijo, por ejemplo, que los entrenamientos de fútbol de sus hijos podrían posponerse o cancelarse debido a temperaturas extremas.

Pero para Conway, que se considera un independiente moderado con inclinación republicana, esto es algo menor. “A veces, simplemente hay que estar afuera con el mal tiempo”.

No sorprende que muchos estadounidenses digan que perciben los impactos, afirmó Jennifer Francis, climatóloga del Woodwell Climate Research Center, quien no participó en la encuesta.

“Las olas de calor brutales y potencialmente mortales se han vuelto más frecuentes, más intensas y más persistentes en muchas partes del mundo, incluidos nuestros estados del oeste y de la región centro-norte”, indicó. “El calor extremo, combinado con largos periodos de sequía, ha afectado directamente nuestra salud, además de tener efectos indirectos en nuestros bolsillos”.

La creencia en el cambio climático se mantiene en gran medida estable

Aunque más estadounidenses dicen sentir un impacto personal del calor extremo, eso no significa que un número creciente crea en el cambio climático.

Aproximadamente dos tercios (66%) de los estadounidenses creen que el cambio climático está ocurriendo, una ligera disminución frente al 73% en septiembre de 2025. Cerca del 17% dice no estar seguro de si el cambio climático está ocurriendo, y alrededor del 15% dice que no está ocurriendo.

Williams, el residente de Illinois, atribuye su creencia en el cambio climático en parte a cambios extremos del tiempo, incluidas temperaturas muy altas y muy frías.

“Mi mayor indicador del cambio en el clima es que las inundaciones ocurren con mucha más frecuencia”, observó, y señaló que cree tanto en causas naturales como humanas.

John Hazel, de 33 años, de Waco, Texas, dice que ha notado cambios desde que era más joven.

“Cuando era niño, parecía algo muy raro cuando (la temperatura) llegaba a 100 (grados Fahrenheit, o 37 grados Celsius); todo el mundo decía: ‘guau’. Y ahora es todos los días”, afirmó Hazel, investigador de escenas del crimen. “Las estaciones se sentían un poco más equilibradas. Ahora se siente como si el verano se quedara más tiempo: empieza antes y dura más”.

Hazel, quien se identifica como un republicano conservador y cree en el cambio climático, dijo que planifica en función del calor.

“En cuanto sales, ya estás sudando aunque no estés haciendo gran cosa. Definitivamente, he notado que tienes que tomar descansos de estar afuera; tienes que bañarte, ducharte más seguido, añadió Hazel. “Sin duda es una consideración mayor”.

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La encuesta, en la que participaron 1.165 adultos, se realizó del 23 al 27 de julio de 2026, utilizando una muestra extraída del panel AmeriSpeak de NORC, basado en probabilidades, diseñado para ser representativo de la población de Estados Unidos. El margen de error muestral para los adultos en general es de más o menos 3,7 puntos porcentuales.

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La cobertura climática y ambiental de The Associated Press recibe apoyo financiero de múltiples fundaciones privadas. La AP es la única responsable de todo el contenido. Encuentra los estándares de la AP para trabajar con organizaciones filantrópicas, una lista de las fundaciones y las áreas de cobertura que financian en AP.org.

___

Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

El propietario y presidente de Voepass, José Luiz Felicio Filho, figura entre los acusados por el suceso, que ocurrió en la ciudad de Vinhedo, a las afueras de Sao Paulo. Los fiscales locales aún deben decidir si él y los demás serán imputados en una fecha por determinar.

La policía federal también acusó a otros 15 empleados actuales y anteriores de Voepass de poner en peligro la seguridad del tráfico aéreo, lo que resultó en un desastre mortal, un delito que podría conllevar penas de hasta 12 años de cárcel. Entre los cargos adicionales contra algunos integrantes del grupo figura la omisión de fallas técnicas en los registros de mantenimiento de las aeronaves.

El percance ocurrió cuando el ATR 72-500 bimotor turbohélice, que cubría la ruta desde Cascavel, en el estado sureño de Paraná, hacia el aeropuerto internacional de Guarulhos, se precipitó 3.900 metros (13.000 pies) hasta el patio trasero de un condominio cerrado, causando la muerte de 58 pasajeros y cuatro tripulantes.

Los investigadores añadieron que las grabadoras de datos de la aeronave mostraron que su sistema de deshielo falló repetidas veces, o fue activado y desactivado manualmente durante 136 vuelos.

André Ribeiro, investigador de la policía federal, manifestó que se autorizó de manera irregular el despegue de la aeronave hacia condiciones severas de congelamiento de las que ya se tenía conocimiento, pese a que había presentado fallas en el sistema de deshielo en tres vuelos anteriores ese mismo día.

“Esto marca un antes y un después en los desastres por choques aéreos aquí”, declaró Ribeiro, que también planteó que los fiscales deberían examinar nuevas acusaciones contra la Agencia Nacional de Aviación Civil (ANAC, por sus siglas en portugués).

Thalles Andrade, un abogado de las familias de las víctimas, indicó en un comunicado que procurará obtener que “todos los responsables, personas y empresas, incluidos directores, empresas involucradas en la operación y en la venta de boletos” paguen indemnizaciones.

“Vamos a ir por todos los que, por acción u omisión, contribuyeron a esto”, advirtió.

Las 16 personas acusadas formalmente en el caso no hicieron comentarios sobre la medida de la policía federal.

La policía anunció sus hallazgos en una conferencia de prensa tras una investigación de dos años. Concluyó que omisiones deliberadas, prácticas de mantenimiento inadecuadas y fallas organizacionales contribuyeron directamente a que la aeronave partiera rumbo a condiciones meteorológicas peligrosas.

El mes pasado, una investigación de la fuerza aérea brasileña confirmó que una combinación de condiciones severas de congelamiento, al igual que fallas de sistemas mecánicos y distracciones de los pilotos, contribuyeron al choque aéreo más mortífero en el país desde 2007.

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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.

La presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum anunció el refuerzo de la seguridad en las zonas de producción de aguacates para impulsar la reanudación de las exportaciones lo antes posible y evitar cualquier impacto grave en la economía mexicana o en el mercado estadounidense.

Estados Unidos es un gran consumidor de aguacate mexicano: compró más de medio millón de toneladas en los cuatro primeros meses de 2026, unos 2.200 millones de aguacates. Pero antes de su importación verifica ‘in situ’ la calidad de la fruta para evitar que introduzca plagas al país. Si este control no se hace, detiene las compras y los precios pueden verse afectados.

Estas inspecciones se suspendieron el miércoles por motivos de seguridad en Michoacán, principal productor de esta fruta y región de alta actividad del crimen organizado.

No es la primera vez que se detienen las exportaciones. A principios de 2022, en vísperas de la Super Bowl, se produjo una interrupción que duró una semana, aunque no afectó al consumo de guacamole el día del partido porque los aguacates ya se habían enviado.

A continuación, las causas de esta nueva interrupción:

¿Por qué en ocasiones se paralizan las exportaciones?

En Michoacán operan muchos cárteles que, además de producir y traficar droga, se financian a través de extorsiones a todo tipo de sectores económicos, y el del aguacate es uno de los más importantes.

En las últimas dos décadas, los inspectores de Estados Unidos se han visto a veces afectados por ese escenario de violencia. En 2024 dos empleados del Departamento de Agricultura estadounidense (USDA por sus siglas en inglés) fueron asaltados y retenidos temporalmente.

En esta ocasión no se dio a conocer un incidente concreto y las autoridades de Michoacán dijeron que la suspensión fue “preventiva” por unas detenciones recientes ligadas a casos de extorsión.

El analista mexicano David Saucedo considera que la importancia de las exportaciones de aguacate a Estados Unidos es una de las razones por las que la administración de Donald Trump ha designado a cuatro cárteles que operan en el estado como organizaciones terroristas.

Además de la seguridad, ¿preocupa algo más a EEUU?

Sí. La Comisión del Aguacate de California pidió un mayor control de la fruta con destino Estados Unidos después de que el 4 de agosto se informara del hallazgo de una larva sospechosa durante una inspección a una empacadora mexicana. La comisión dijo en un comunicado que no pudo recogerse una muestra, pero podría ser una plaga controlada que se come las ramas del árbol de aguacates.

Las autoridades mexicanas no han hecho ningún comentario sobre este tema.

La comisión californiana también afirmó que no debe permitirse que el crimen organizado intervenga en el sector. “La Administración Trump hace bien en proteger al personal estadounidense y plantar cara a los cárteles”, dijo su presidente, Ken Melban. “No se puede permitir que los cárteles se aprovechen del acuerdo de libre comercio entre Estados Unidos, México y Canadá para socavar a los productores estadounidenses y destruir la producción nacional”.

El consumo de aguacates se ha disparado en Estados Unidos en las últimas décadas, y California solo cultiva una pequeña parte de los aguacates necesarios para satisfacer esa demanda.

¿Cuál es el proceso para exportar aguacates a Estados Unidos?

Los aguacates mexicanos representan más del 80% de las importaciones estadounidenses de este producto. En 2025 México vendió a Estados Unidos aguacates por 3.653 millones de dólares y solo en marzo de este año fueron exportadas casi 150.000 toneladas.

Pero como Estados Unidos también cultiva esta fruta, el Departamento de Agricultura de ese país envía a inspectores que vigilan las plantaciones y empacadoras en México para garantizar que el producto exportado no entre a su país con plagas.

¿Cuánto duran los paros?

Generalmente la situación se soluciona en cuestión de días porque los paros de las exportaciones dañan a todos. Este sector da empleo a unas 200.000 personas solo en Michoacán. Si se prolonga la interrupción de las ventas puede haber desabastecimiento en el mercado estadounidense. Y si no se mueve el aguacate, los criminales no pueden cobrar su extorsión, con lo que pierden dinero.

Un productor de Michoacán contaba a AP esta semana que él paga de extorsión 1 peso por kilo exportado y exporta unas 90 toneladas al día, lo que a él le supone pagos de más de 5.000 dólares diarios. Habló pidiendo el anonimato por miedo.

Cuando se detiene la verificación, las autoridades mexicanas suelen ofrecer más seguridad, como anunció el jueves Sheinbaum. La presidenta dijo el jueves que también van a evaluar con la embajada que sean funcionarios mexicanos los que verifiquen el producto. Esta opción ya se manejó en el pasado, pero USDA siguió a cargo de las inspecciones aunque con fuerzas de seguridad mexicanas acompañando.

Pese a que el ambiente se tranquiliza generalmente pronto, los productores aseguran que eso no significa que las extorsiones terminen.

¿Se mantienen las exportaciones desde otros estados?

Sí. La suspensión de actividades de verificación solo afecta a Michoacán. Únicamente otro estado mexicano, Jalisco, está autorizado por la USDA para exportar a Estados Unidos, pero la cantidad que vende es mucho menor.

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La periodista de AP Amy Taxin contribuyó a esta nota desde Santa Ana, California.

No, it's not quite rose-colored glasses. But the veteran quarterback is wearing red contact lenses during training camp this summer in his return to the team that drafted him in 2013.

Fashionable? Maybe. Functional? Definitely.

“It’s something that we’ve been doing,” said the 35-year-old Smith, acquired in the offseason from Las Vegas. “It blocks out the sunlight and all that, so it’s actually pretty cool. It keeps the glare from the sun out of your eyes.”

Smith was still wearing the UV protection lenses while speaking to reporters after practice Thursday, giving the quarterback's eyes an almost sinister look. One reporter joked that he was scared, causing Smith to break into a not-so-evil grin.

“As I got back here, I spoke to some eye specialists," Smith said, “and they suggested it and then we started doing it.”

The quarterback was asked if he was having eye issues or simply opted for the contacts over wearing a tinted visor on his helmet so there was less squinting and more seeing.

“It’s just something we’re trying out, just to see what it was like,” he said. “I like it, so we’ve been sticking with it.”

Several players around the league have tried wearing the glare-reducing contacts, including Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert last summer. Smith said he first saw them when then-Jets teammate Santonio Holmes wore them during the 2013 season.

Oh, and by the way, Smith isn't seeing red these days.

“The entire room is yellow, so it’s a yellow tint to everything,” he said. “But yeah, it’s pretty cool. You guys should try it.”

They seem to be working for Smith, who is off to a solid start to camp. He played his first four NFL seasons for the franchise before stints with the Giants, Chargers, Seahawks and Raiders. New York, looking for a veteran signal caller in the offseason, acquired Smith and a seventh-round draft pick in March from Las Vegas for a sixth-rounder.

He'll enter the season as the unquestioned starter and is feeling comfortable in new offensive coordinator Frank Reich's system.

“I’m excited about the schematic advantages that he’s able to create, but also the ways that he allows players to go out there and make plays and to have freedom to take ownership of the offense,” Smith said. “I think there’s a fine balance with X’s and O’s and also having great players and allowing those guys to be themselves. Coach Reich, he’s played in the league, so he understands that dynamic and that balance.”

The Jets play their first preseason game next Friday night at home against Tampa Bay and former coach Todd Bowles. It wasn't yet known if New York coach Aaron Glenn will play his starters, including Smith, at all in that game. Smith, who has played in the preseason the last several years, sounded open to the possibility.

“I love playing football.” Smith said. “Whenever coach tells me to go out there, I go play.”

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

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site soon after the Falcon 9 upper stage inadvertently plowed into the moon on Wednesday. Danuri made multiple passes, snapping photos from lunar orbit that were released by the space agency Thursday.

The terrain is noticeably darker where the rocket hit and carved out a crater, sending dust and rock everywhere. Korean space officials said Danuri gathered before and after shots.

NASA expects its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to fly over the crash site next week to view the aftermath.

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched Danuri from Cape Canaveral in 2022.

The company also sent a pair of private lunar landers to the moon last year. The upper stage from that launch is what crashed into the moon this week at 5,400 mph (8,700 kph), placed on an accidental collision course by solar activity and gravity, according to SpaceX.

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

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On Thursday, the Heat, in partnership with the Advocacy Network on Disabilities, hosted its annual back-to-school shopping spree.

Heat players and staff members helped children with their shopping at a Walmart in southwest Miami-Dade County.

Local 10’s Clay Ferraro was there for all the fun, and his full report can be seen at the top of this page.

Este jueves, el Heat, en colaboración con Advocacy Network on Disabilities, realizó su jornada anual de compras por el regreso a clases.

Jugadores y miembros del personal del Heat ayudaron a los niños con sus compras en un Walmart del suroeste del condado Miami-Dade.

Clay Ferraro de Local 10 estuvo presente para toda la diversión, y su reportaje completo puede verse en la parte superior de esta página.

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An arrest report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office states that TikTok tipped authorities off that Maylin Elena Viana, 29, had uploaded the illicit clip of herself and the victim.

The arrest report doesn’t state how Viana knows the child.

Deputies said Viana “admitted to recording the victim and his genitalia” and said they additionally found a video in an Instagram account of Viana engaging in further lewd conduct with the child.

Viana, who lives in the rural Redland area, was arrested on charges related to the promotion of child sexual abuse material and lewd and lascivious molestation.

As of Thursday, she was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Un informe de arresto de la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade indica que TikTok alertó a las autoridades de que Maylin Elena Viana, de 29 años, había subido el video ilícito en el que aparecían ella y la víctima.

El informe de arresto no indica qué relación tiene Viana con el niño.

Los agentes dijeron que Viana “admitió haber grabado a la víctima y sus genitales” y señalaron que además encontraron un video en una cuenta de Instagram en el que Viana participaba en otros actos lascivos con el niño.

Viana, quien vive en la zona rural de Redland, fue arrestada por cargos relacionados con la promoción de material de abuso sexual infantil y abuso lascivo y libidinoso.

Hasta el jueves, permanecía detenida sin derecho a fianza en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight.

Speier is appealing the ban, according to the MLB Players Association.

Additionally, Mariners manager Dan Wilson was also suspended one-game and will serve his suspension in the series finale Thursday against the Tigers. Managers cannot appeal a suspension. Manny Acta will serve as the manager for the Mariners.

Speier had relieved Bryan Woo in the eighth inning of Seattle’s 4-2 win. After getting the first two outs, Speier threw two inside fastballs to Torres, with the latter pegging him on the upper left leg on a 96.3 mph pitch.

Torres and Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh proceeded to have words with each other before the benches and bullpens cleared. There were no punches thrown, and Wilson was ejected in the aftermath after Speier was tossed from the game. It was the second time this season Wilson was removed from a game.

“It’s always frustrating when your guy’s the guy that gets thrown out,” Wilson said Wednesday. “I think, you know, their guy hits somebody and there’s no consequences.”

Torres was the fourth Tigers batter plunked after Woo hit three batters for only the second time in his career. Tigers rookie Max Clark took a pitch off his elbow guard leading off the third, Riley Green was hit by a pitch in the fourth, and Zach McKinstry in the fifth — both breaking balls on the back foot. McKinstry got first base only after a replay review showed that the ball grazed the front of his foot.

Raleigh had been plunked as well in the bottom half of the seventh by Detroit left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus with a 95-mph fastball in the bottom of the seventh.

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

Miller is facing a congressional ethics investigation related to domestic abuse allegations leveled against him by his ex-wife, and anxiety over his electability this fall is growing within his party. But the second-term, Cleveland-area congressman has continued to insist that he will hold the course.

In a post on X, Husted said he knows Miller, his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno, and their daughter, and “I do not see how a campaign for Congress benefits any of them.”

“I believe Max would be making the right decision to step aside as a candidate and resign from Congress to focus on what is in the best interest of his daughter,” he wrote. “Years from now, I believe he will look back and know it was the right choice for her.”

Another Republican senator, Tim Sheehy of Montana, also urged Miller on Thursday to “step aside and seek help.”

“Staying in this race makes it far more likely we lose this seat and hand Democrats a majority to impeach President Trump,” he said on X.

Miller faces Democrat Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker and local councilman, for Ohio’s 7th Congressional District.

A message seeking comment was left with Miller's spokesperson. The congressman has vehemently denied all allegations of domestic abuse leveled against him by his former spouse.

Husted’s and Sheehy's comments added to the increasing pressure on Miller from both Democrats and fellow Republicans. Sen. Bernie Moreno, the state's senior senator, reacted to Miller's livestream on X Sunday by saying that Miller is unfit to serve — though he never specifically urged Miller to resign or end his November campaign.

Under Ohio law, Miller would need to withdraw by Saturday to allow enough time for the replacement process to play out before the 4 p.m. Monday deadline.

Donovan O'Neil, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Ohio, an influential conservative organization, also labeled Miller “unfit to serve” in an X post Thursday.

O'Neil said Republicans just a month ago called out Graham Platner, a now-former Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, over a sexual assault claim he denied and they “should be just as willing to call out Max Miller and exorcise our own demons from the GOP.”

President Donald Trump, for whom Miller was a senior aide during the first term, has cautioned Miller that he may face an uphill battle this fall — but he continued to stop short on Thursday of weighing in on whether Miller should resign or withdraw.

The president was asked about the embattled congressman while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office at a Thursday signing event.

“Well, I’m not going to get involved in that,” Trump said. He echoed his earlier comments that it was a “very sad situation.”

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On Thursday, the Boca Raton Police Department identified the woman, found two miles off the South Florida coast in the Atlantic Ocean, as Patricia Brennan.

Brennan, then 51, beat and stabbed her 76-year-old mother, Regina Suknaic, at a home in the 1900 block of North 38th Avenue on May 17, 2014.

After she was stabbed and beaten, authorities said Brennan held her hostage inside the home and Suknaic could not escape until the next morning when her daughter fell asleep. She later died.

Brennan spent more than six years in state prison after being convicted of second-degree murder.

A brief social media post from BRPD did not indicate whether authorities suspected foul play.

They asked anyone with information to call 561-620-6246.

El jueves, el Departamento de Policía de Boca Raton identificó a la mujer, encontrada a dos millas de la costa del sur de Florida en el océano Atlántico, como Patricia Brennan.

Brennan, quien entonces tenía 51 años, golpeó y apuñaló a su madre de 76 años, Regina Suknaic, en una vivienda ubicada en la cuadra 1900 de North 38th Avenue el 17 de mayo de 2014.

Después de ser apuñalada y golpeada, las autoridades informaron que Brennan mantuvo a su madre como rehén dentro de la vivienda y Suknaic no pudo escapar hasta la mañana siguiente, cuando su hija se quedó dormida. Posteriormente murió.

Brennan pasó más de seis años en una prisión estatal después de ser condenada por asesinato en segundo grado.

Una breve publicación de la Policía de Boca Raton en redes sociales no indicó si las autoridades sospechan que hubo mano criminal.

Pidieron a cualquier persona con información que llame al 561-620-6246.

El accidente fue reportado en el área de North Andrews Avenue y Northwest 29th Street.

Funcionarios de Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue informaron que el adolescente fue atropellado por el vehículo y sufrió heridas que ponen en peligro su vida. Paramédicos de Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue lo trasladaron al centro de trauma de Broward Health Medical Center.

La Policía de Wilton Manors confirmó que una parte de la vía fue cerrada tras el accidente, con solo un carril abierto en dirección norte y otro en dirección sur.

Local 10 recibió reportes de que el conductor del vehículo huyó del lugar después del accidente, pero la Policía aún no ha confirmado esa información.

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The crash was reported in the area of North Andrews Avenue and Northwest 29^th Street.

FLFR officials said the teen was struck by the vehicle and suffered life-threatening injuries. FLFR medics transported the teen to Broward Health Medical Center’s trauma center.

Wilton Manors police confirmed that a portion of the roadway was shut down after the crash, with only one lane open going north and one open going south.

Local 10 received reports that the driver of the vehicle fled the scene after the crash, but police have not yet confirmed that information.

Ernestina Godoy, fiscal general de la República, señaló que dos testimonios recabados este año indican que Aguirre no solo solicitó a funcionarios que le entregaran los videos de unas cámaras de seguridad situadas en uno de los puntos del ataque esa fatídica noche, sino que ordenó desaparecer cualquier prueba relacionada con los hechos.

Ángel Aguirre gobernó Guerrero de 2011 hasta su renuncia en octubre de 2014, un mes después del ataque. Su arresto tuvo lugar en el Estado de México, la región que rodea a la capital mexicana.

Es el funcionario de más alto rango detenido en este caso después del exprocurador federal Jesús Murillo Karam, actualmente bajo proceso penal por desaparición forzada, obstrucción de la justicia y tortura.

La fiscal general dijo que hay elementos de prueba suficientes que acreditan "que dicha instrucción de ocultamiento (de evidencias) fue girada de manera directa por el entonces gobernador, con la participación de servidores públicos estatales de alto nivel”. Agregó que, “lejos de ser un acto aislado u omisión técnica, el ocultamiento de las grabaciones fue el resultado de una operación dolosa y deliberadamente estructurada desde la cúpula del Poder Ejecutivo Estatal”.

Godoy no explicó por qué los testimonios de una persona colaboradora y un testigo protegido, recogidos en enero y mayo de 2026 respectivamente, se lograron más de una década después de los hechos. Sólo indicó que cuando ella llegó a la fiscalía, a finales del año pasado, inició un “trabajo de reanálisis” del caso con un “nuevo modelo de investigación”.

Horas después, el Centro de Derechos Humanos Agustín Pro Juárez, representante de las familias, indicó en un mensaje en redes sociales que ni los padres de los estudiantes ni sus abogados habían sido notificados de la detención y que desconocen los términos de la imputación. “De ser sólida y apegada a derecho, el proceso que inicia puede llegar a saldar una deuda de justicia para las familias ", señaló.

El actual gobierno se comprometió a informar siempre de cualquier avance primero a los padres y madres, tal como ellos llevan años exigiendo, pero no lo hizo.

Clemente Rodríguez, padre de uno de los jóvenes, recordó que desde el principio exigieron que el entonces gobernador fuera investigado. “Tiene que decir todo lo que sabe", dijo a The Associated Press. "Siempre lo hemos señalado”.

Caso conmocionante

La desaparición de los 43 jóvenes entre 17 y 25 años hace casi 12 años conmocionó dentro y fuera de México porque en ese crimen confluyeron la violencia, la corrupción y la impunidad.

Después de tres administraciones, decenas de detenidos — militares incluidos — el caso sigue sin esclarecerse y no hay ningún sentenciado por las desapariciones. Las autoridades consideran que los estudiantes fueron asesinados, pero sólo se han encontrado fragmentos óseos de tres de ellos. Y las familias de los jóvenes siguen cuestionando la voluntad de las autoridades de llegar al fondo del caso porque continúan apareciendo análisis encontrados de los hechos desde distintas agencias oficiales.

La administración de Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) calificó el ataque como un “crimen de Estado” porque en él participaron autoridades y fuerzas de seguridad locales, estatales y federales coludidas con el crimen organizado bien durante el ataque o durante su encubrimiento, que llegó a suponer la elaboración de una verdad paralela a los hechos, según denunciaron investigadores de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH).

Los estudiantes fueron atacados en distintos puntos de la localidad de Iguala después de apoderarse de unos autobuses para trasladarse con ellos a una protesta, una práctica habitual de la escuela de maestros rurales. Aunque todavía no está totalmente claro el móvil del ataque, las investigaciones apuntan a que el detonante pudo ser que alguno de esos autobuses era utilizado por el cártel local para traficar heroína hacia Estados Unidos en complicidad con autoridades.

La noche del 26 de septiembre de 2014 hubo ataques coordinados en distintos puntos. En uno de esos lugares, el exterior del Palacio de Justicia —sede de los tribunales—, había cámaras que grabaron el momento en que las fuerzas de seguridad detenían uno de los autobuses, pero las primeras versiones oficiales aseguraron que ese material no existía.

Ahora, la fiscalía federal constata lo que investigadores de la CIDH habían denunciado hace años, que esas grabaciones se ocultaron o destruyeron para ocultar pruebas.

Durante el gobierno de Claudia Sheinbaum, que comenzó en octubre de 2024, la presidenta dijo que se reabrieron nuevas líneas de investigación, algunas de las cuales, según la fiscal, han llevado a la detención del exgobernador.

UEFA blasted Infantino and his organization again over his failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup, declaring it wants assurances that “attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.”

The reaction revealed the depths of animosity toward Infantino as he attempts to run for re-election next year while trying to quell outrage over the equity plan. FIFA issued an apology on Wednesday over the plan, and senior staff members at a crisis meeting in Rabat “reaffirmed their full support” for his presidency.

The UEFA response shows how the apology will not be enough to satisfy his fiercest detractors, who want a change at the top of FIFA.

That process will play out in the coming months with a vote in March among the 211 national member federations. Each nation gets a vote, and he needs a simple majority to retain his presidency.

Infantino left New York with around 200 letters of support from those federations. That number is likely to be depleted now, but it is not clear how many of those individual federations would turn against him when it comes to the vote.

Continental soccer bodies in Europe, Asia and North and South America have voiced varying degrees of opposition to Infantino's plans. Crucially, however, confederations are not obliged to vote collectively and there are no guarantees of reaching the 106 votes needed to ensure a majority in a contested election.

The English FA has withdrawn its support, as have Serbia, Sweden and Wales. Many, many others have been noncommittal.

Infantino, whose expansion of the World Cup has opened it up to more countries, has a traditional support base in Africa, which has 54 voting members. Even among the tumultuous fallout from the plan, he has received pockets of support from individual federations including 2022 World Cup host Qatar.

UEFA maintained its threat to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions and reiterated that it had lost confidence in Infantino.

"Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the FIFA President (and whose careers depend on his favor) agree with him changes nothing,” it said.

Infantino is fighting on

Wednesday's summit in Rabat was dubbed a crisis meeting after an internal backlash against Infantino's controversial plan.

His secretary general Mattias Grafström said it created “turmoil which is difficult to comprehend and accept.” Chief of global football development Arsène Wenger distanced himself from the plans, while Infantino’s senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned last week and chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said staff were “deceived” by the president’s lack of openness.

Infantino emerged from the meeting with a unified response from those in attendance — notably Grafström — confirming support for his presidency.

That was evidence of the Swiss-Italian's determination to resist the pressure on his position and win a fourth and final term in office through 2031.

The wording of FIFA's statement, however, was open to interpretation, saying “members of the FIFA Management Board in attendance” reaffirmed their support for him.

FIFA has not published a list of attendees, but it is reported Wenger, Lamour and chief football officer Jill Ellis were among those absent.

It would take at least 19 of FIFA's 37 council members to trigger an extraordinary general meeting where Infantino could be called on to explain his actions.

Finding a challenger

It's one thing wanting Infantino out, it's another finding someone who can drum up the support to take him on.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Qatari president Nasser al-Khelaïfi is widely seen as a good fit. He is the chairman of association of European Football Clubs, which represents the top teams on the continent including Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and Manchester United.

He was unifying force in the wake of the failed European Super League project and may be seen as the type of candidate capable bringing national federations back together following Infantino's similarly divisive plan.

There's one catch — he doesn't want the job.

A spokesperson told The Associated Press Al-Khelaifi had “absolutely no ambition, no intention and no interest in the FIFA role."

Canadian FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani is another name to throw into the mix. The president of Norwegian soccer Lise Klaveness has been outspoken in her criticism of Infantino, and the president of the Asian soccer confederation, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, also came out strongly in opposition of FFE.

Nov. 18 is the deadline for candidates to enter the next presidential contest, exactly four months ahead of the vote.

Pressure is growing

FIFA said it hoped Wednesday's meeting would “help restore confidence” in the organization after the turbulence created by Infantino’s project.

Infantino's detractors had other ideas.

UEFA's response was scathing, saying it had made it “abundantly clear” that it had lost confidence in Infantino’s presidency.

"That position holds,” it said.

Key dates

As well as the Nov. 18 deadline for candidates, the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5. would be the first potential target for UEFA's threatened boycott.

A potential boycott also raises uncertainty over the staging for the 2035 Women’s World Cup. The four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the tournament and the decision is due Nov. 23.

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

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

Under the new rules, when a natural caution occurs with 10 or fewer laps remaining in Stage 1 or Stage 2, it will be deemed complete at the time of caution — with that same caution period serving as the scheduled stage break.

NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell said Thursday on social media the change stems from the July 26 race at the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis, where he said fans were unhappy about too many back-to-back laps run under caution near stage breaks.

“Long periods of caution laps and not enough green-flag racing,” O'Donnell said. “We heard you, and we want to make a change. ... No more back-to-back cautions. No more elongated cautions laps. More green flag racing. More action for you the fans.”

When the field returns to the start/finish line under yellow, the leader will receive the green-and-white checkered flag along with the yellow, according to NASCAR. At the time of the caution, the top-10 stage finishing order will be determined using all available resources, including scoring loops and video replay — similar to how stage points are awarded.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing

Con estas palabras el presidente chileno José Antonio Kast presentó el jueves una batería de medidas con la que espera hacer frente al crimen organizado que incluye unas 30 iniciativas.

El mandatario encabezó en la mañana un operativo de seguridad en el que un centenar de policías realizaron fiscalizaciones para detectar a personas en situación migratoria irregular en el centro de Santiago, así como a individuos que tuvieran causas judiciales pendientes. La cifra de detenidos no fue divulgada hasta el momento.

“Juntos vamos a lograr que Chile vuelva a tener ese lugar que nunca debió haber perdido, de ser el país más seguro de toda Latinoamérica”, declaró Kast en una rueda de prensa.

Agregó que “tendremos que hacer modificaciones legales porque el crimen organizado, el narcotráfico, no respeta las leyes y nosotros tenemos que buscar cómo anticiparnos”.

Algunas de las propuestas impulsadas por el Ejecutivo promueven la creación de una nómina nacional de organizaciones criminales que operan en el país, un mecanismo para aumentar las penas a imputados que pertenezcan a esas organizaciones, el establecimiento de un régimen penitenciario especial y el congelamiento patrimonial de los acusados.

Según Kast, su administración igualmente buscará extender los derechos a la legitima defensa no sólo para el personal policial durante el ejercicio de sus funciones sino también para los que estén de franco e impulsar la aprobación de un proyecto que tramita en el Congreso desde 2023 y busca regular cómo y cuándo las fuerzas de seguridad y las Fuerzas Armadas pueden emplear la fuerza.

A estas medidas se suma el anuncio de una reforma constitucional para crear un nuevo estado de excepción en lugares donde se registre una “grave alteración de la seguridad pública” y en “territorios afectados por conductas delictivas”. Kast no detalló en qué condiciones se podría aplicar el estado de excepción ni qué medidas contemplaría.

El Ejecutivo también busca ampliar de cinco a 60 días el plazo de detención de quienes deben ser expulsados del país y tipificar como delito el transporte con ánimo de lucro de migrantes irregulares dentro del país.

El anuncio de la llamada Agenda contra el Crimen Organizado y el Terrorismo (ACOT) es el segundo mega proyecto presentado por el Ejecutivo desde que Kast asumió el poder en marzo y llega dos días después de que el Congreso aprobara una extensa reforma económica y tributaria que había concentrado la atención del gobierno hasta ahora.

Por su parte, el ministro de Seguridad Pública, Martín Arrau, destacó que la ACOT inaugura una nueva etapa para la nación sudamericana. “Se acabó el Chile que aceptaba que el crimen organizado mande a nuestras fronteras, que aceptaba que el crimen organizado mandara a nuestras cárceles, que miraba con más consideración al delincuente que a quienes mandatábamos hacer cumplir la ley".

Al asumir el poder el gabinete de Kast, el mandatario más conservador de la historia chilena desde el retorno de la democracia en 1990, prometió un gobierno de emergencia centrado en el combate al crimen organizado y la inmigración irregular.

Según los datos presentados por la presidencia el jueves, la cifra de homicidios bajó un 18,7% entre enero y julio en comparación con igual periodo de 2025, totalizando 486 víctimas —112 menos que el año pasado—.

Asimismo, los asesinatos el año pasado alcanzaron 1.091, un número que diversas autoridades han sostenido que consideran elevado pese a tratarse de una considerable baja respecto del récord de 1.330 de 2022, cuando Chile registró su máximo histórico de homicidios.

Whether it’s your child’s very first day of kindergarten, their final first day as a senior, or a proud family photo before heading out the door, Local 10 is inviting viewers to submit their pictures for a chance to be featured on-air. All photos will be displayed in a gallery below.

Students across South Florida will return to the classroom on the following dates:

• Broward County Public Schools: Monday, Aug. 10
• Archdiocese of Miami Catholic Schools: Tuesday, Aug. 11
• Monroe County School District: Wednesday, Aug. 12
• Miami-Dade County Public Schools: Thursday, Aug. 13

Photos may be featured in Local 10’s newscasts, on Local10.com and across the station’s social media platforms as South Florida students kick off the new school year.

Local 10 wishes all students, teachers and school staff a safe, successful and exciting school year.

Submit your back-to-school photos below:

That's part of what makes it all so sweet.

The 26-year-old knows she could have walked away following her final season at Oregon State in the spring of 2025, with a resume stuffed with Olympic and world championship medals and her place in the history of the storied U.S. women's program secure.

She tried, kind of. The athlete who had been going nonstop for the better part of 20 years gave her body a bit of a break after her NCAA career ended. It lasted a handful of weeks.

Then one day, she popped into the gym and, in the words of her father and longtime coach Brian, “started playing again.”

Emphasis on “playing.”

If there's anything the two-time Olympic gold medalist has learned, it's that taking this too seriously can quickly rob you of the joy that brought you to it in the first place.

Asked if she feels the weight of living up to the standard she's set for herself as the Phoenix native prepares to salute the judges at the national championships for a seventh time when the women's competition begins at Mortgage Matchup Center, Carey shrugs.

“I just feel like right now I have one more opportunity to just have fun with it,” she said. “No expectations, no pressure."

Maturing means understanding who she was in 2021 is not who she is in 2026. There have been times she'll randomly come across a video of her gold medal-winning floor exercise routine at the Tokyo Olympics five years ago and think “that was pretty hard.”

Whether she can get back to that level as she makes a bid for a third trip to the Olympics is anyone's guess, Carey's included. Her body has held up remarkably well through the years, thanks in large part to the pragmatic approach she and Brian Carey have taken toward her training.

“I don’t know if that’s coming back,” she said. “But you never know. And I feel like training, getting back into it this year, was really hard. But I’ve kind of hit my stride, and it’s getting a little easier and feeling a little more familiar.”

Sticking with the plan

Carey finished second in the all-around to 17-year-old Reese Esponda at the U.S. Classic a few weeks ago in her first elite competition since leaving the 2024 Paris Games with a pair of Olympic medals. She did it with routines that are designed to serve as a foundation as she methodically builds toward the summer of 2028.

The plan is to add difficulty as she goes along, but only when she's ready. In her mid-20s, Carey is not the same gymnast who took a circuitous path to the Tokyo Olympics that ended with the floor routine of a lifetime and the most precious of medals around her neck.

The amount of time she spends in the gym on a given day depends on how she's feeling. She and her father have an understanding that as long as she hits her numbers — meaning, how many times she works on an assignment — it doesn't matter how long she's there.

Some days she can knock it out in three hours. Some days, it's more like eight. On the days she's not feeling it at all, they'll work on a plan that spreads the workload out over a longer period of time, though that remains a rarity.

“Normally, it’s like she’s so fine-tuned with her skill, she just gets up and knocks it out,” Brian Carey said.

That's kind of what she does. What's perhaps the most remarkable thing about Carey's career is the way she simply keeps going. While some of her Olympic teammates have opted to take time off and recover after a triumphant performance — Tokyo Olympic champion Suni Lee announced last month she is preparing for a return after a two-year hiatus — Carey largely has not.

The internal desire to excel still burns bright

Her father credits an internal “fire” that doesn't need much to be stoked. He ordered her to take a vacation after her senior year at Oregon State. It lasted a month. There was never any formal discussion about pushing toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. It just sort of happened.

That doesn't mean slipping back into her routine was easy.

“I could tell my body was like, ‘What are you doing? You haven’t gone upside down in a while, like we don’t do this anymore,’” she said with a laugh. “But I’m like, ‘No, we’re going to, trust me.’”

She's well aware some of the skills she once mastered may never come back, so she'll need to evolve. That could mean opting for slightly easier (at least by gymnastics standards) elements and combinations, hoping to make up for in execution what she might lack in difficulty.

Brian Carey's job is to make sure she isn't in a rush to find out. Sometimes he still has to tell his daughter to “pump the brakes a little bit." There are days when Carey feels she's ahead of schedule. That doesn't mean the schedule is going to be adjusted. The short-term goal is to build toward earning a spot on the world championship team in October.

Yes, she understands the prospect of competing in a home Olympics is out there in the ether. And sure, it played a factor in her decision to give it a shot. The reality is, she probably would be here anyway, no matter if the Olympics were in Los Angeles or London or somebody's backyard.

The fire inside continues to burn brightly. She learned to respect it long ago. She has the rest of her life to not do gymnastics. Why douse the flames before she's ready?

“I’ve done so much that I just, I don’t know,” she said. "I just want to do this round again for fun and see how far I can push myself.”

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

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According to Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies, prior to being found, Jacques Voltaire was last seen around 11 a.m. Wednesday, in the 7600 block of Kimberly Boulevard in North Lauderdale.

Deputies said Voltaire’s family informed them that he suffers from dementia.

Luckily, Voltaire was safely located Thursday and has been reunited with his family.

Según agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward (BSO), antes de ser localizado, Jacques Voltaire fue visto por última vez alrededor de las 11 a.m. del miércoles en la cuadra 7600 de Kimberly Boulevard, en North Lauderdale.

Los agentes informaron que la familia de Voltaire les indicó que padece demencia.

Afortunadamente, Voltaire fue localizado sano y salvo el jueves y ya se reunió con su familia.

Knox, now 39, said Thursday in a post on Instagram that her show “honors Meredith Kercher’s memory and calls out the violence that was done to her and to me.”

The show is called “Cartwheel,” a reference to a story that claimed Knox did cartwheels in the police station after Kercher's death. The show debuts Friday evening and is due to run for 11 straight nights at the annual mish-mash of stand-up, theater and musical offerings in the Scottish capital.

The show is being marketed as a woman “approaching forty, juggling motherhood and finally getting around to being furious about the whole wrongful-imprisonment thing. Especially when half the world is telling her to get over it, while the other half still thinks she’s guilty.”

Knox was a 20-year-old student in Perugia when Kercher was found stabbed to death on Nov. 2, 2007, in her bedroom in the apartment they shared with two Italian women.

The case made global headlines as suspicion quickly fell on Knox and her boyfriend of just days, Raffaele Sollecito. She served nearly four years in prison during the investigation, initial murder trial and when she was freed by an appeals court in Perugia. The couple were acquitted by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

Another man, Rudy Hermann Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was eventually convicted of murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene. He was freed in 2021, after serving most of his 16-year sentence.

Knox returned to the United States in 2011, after being freed by the appeals court in Perugia, and has since established herself as a global campaigner for the wrongly convicted. She has a podcast with her husband and last year published a memoir titled, “Free: My Search for Meaning.”

Knox's post follows an interview that Meredith Kercher's sister, Stephanie Kercher, gave to the BBC during which she said the show “normalizes and trivializes violence against women.”

While insisting that Knox is “naturally free to continue with her life as she wishes,” she said “the problem with this particular project is that it is comedy.”

“It’s not about whether people think she’s guilty or innocent, if someone else was doing the show specifically against Meredith, I would still feel the same, it is obviously an added wound that it’s coming from her at the same time, but I do feel very strongly that it should be something that’s not given a platform,” she said.

An online petition calling for the show to be canceled has been launched and so far has more than 4,400 signatories. It states that the show “mocks the horrific events surrounding Meredith’s murder and aims to somehow turn this tragedy into entertainment.”

Knox said “a petition to cancel a show no one has seen, on the grounds of false accusations intended to shame and vilify a wronged woman into silence, is not an argument against Cartwheel.”

The Edinburgh Fringe, she added, “is the perfect place for a show like this.”

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But this year, they are prepping for more than just a new group of students.

“We’ve been preparing for this all summer long,” Irina Shearer, the principal of Silver Palms Elementary, said. “Right now, for us it’s the last last-minute touches.”

Under Broward’s “Redefining Our Schools” plan, Silver Palms will now welcome about 50 new students from Panther Run Elementary, one of six schools closed this year as the district consolidates campuses because of declining enrollment.

“We really want to make sure we’re embracing the families that are coming from Panther Run,” Shearer said. “One of my teachers is making a banner, their mascot was a Panther, we are the Dolphins, and really just showcasing those two schools coming together.”

District leaders say the goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible.

“I think it’s fresh energy,” Kristin Kavanaugh, a third-grade teacher at Silver Palms Elementary, said. “We’ve got new parents, new kids. I have a few more students in my class than I’m used to having. I have about seven kids coming from the other school.”

Educators like Dina Linero, who teaches music, say they have been planning for months, knowing their classroom rosters will look a little longer this fall.

“There is a little more prep involved this year, just because there’s more instruments we received from another school,” Linero said.

The closures are part of a larger district effort to address thousands of empty classroom seats.

Last year, the district closed just one. This year, six campuses were consolidated or repurposed.

Because of that, for some students, the first day of class will also be their first day at a new campus.

Teachers here say their biggest goal is making sure every student feels welcome on day one.

“My staff and I really took our time building these classes. And what we did is when we built the classes, it’s really important to make sure they’re with a friend, so those new students are with other Panther Run students,” Shearer said.

Pero este año se preparan para algo más que un nuevo grupo de estudiantes.

“Nos hemos estado preparando para esto durante todo el verano”, dijo Irina Shearer, directora de la Escuela Primaria Silver Palms. “En este momento, para nosotros solo faltan los últimos detalles de último minuto”.

Bajo el plan “Redefiniendo Nuestras Escuelas” de Broward, Silver Palms recibirá ahora a unos 50 nuevos estudiantes provenientes de la Escuela Primaria Panther Run, una de las seis escuelas cerradas este año mientras el distrito consolida planteles debido a la disminución en la matrícula escolar.

“Realmente queremos asegurarnos de recibir con los brazos abiertos a las familias que vienen de Panther Run”, dijo Shearer. “Uno de mis maestros está haciendo una pancarta. Su mascota era una pantera, nosotros somos los delfines, y queremos mostrar cómo estas dos escuelas se unen”.

Los líderes del distrito dicen que el objetivo es que la transición sea lo más fluida posible.

“Creo que es una energía renovada”, dijo Kristin Kavanaugh, maestra de tercer grado en la Escuela Primaria Silver Palms. “Tenemos nuevos padres, nuevos estudiantes. Tengo algunos alumnos más en mi salón de los que normalmente tengo. Aproximadamente siete estudiantes vienen de la otra escuela”.

Educadores como Dina Linero, quien enseña música, dicen que han estado planificando durante meses, sabiendo que este otoño tendrán más estudiantes en sus clases.

“Este año hay un poco más de preparación, simplemente porque recibimos más instrumentos de otra escuela”, dijo Linero.

Los cierres forman parte de un esfuerzo más amplio del distrito para hacer frente a miles de asientos vacíos en las aulas.

El año pasado el distrito cerró solo una escuela. Este año, seis planteles fueron consolidados o destinados a otros usos.

Por ello, para algunos estudiantes, el primer día de clases también será su primer día en un nuevo plantel.

Los maestros dicen que su principal objetivo es asegurarse de que todos los estudiantes se sientan bienvenidos desde el primer día.

“Mi personal y yo realmente nos tomamos el tiempo para formar estos grupos. Cuando los organizamos, era muy importante asegurarnos de que estuvieran con un amigo, para que esos nuevos estudiantes estén junto a otros estudiantes de Panther Run”, dijo Shearer.

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According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the dirty deed happened at International Parts Service, located at 3770 NE Third Ave. in Oakland Park.

A BSO arrest report states that an Oakland Park Fire Rescue captain saw the employee dumping the car care chemicals and got deputies involved, who later determined that Gonzalo Javier Paul put the employee up to it.

State business records show that Paul, 42, of Pompano Beach, is International Parts Service’s registered agent.

Deputies said they counted 38 drums in total near the rear of the business.

Paul was taken to the BSO Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale, where he was being held on a $2,500 bond as of Thursday afternoon.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Broward (BSO), el hecho ocurrió en International Parts Service, ubicada en 3770 NE Third Ave. en Oakland Park.

Un informe de arresto de la BSO indica que un capitán de Oakland Park Fire Rescue vio al empleado vertiendo los químicos para el cuidado de automóviles y alertó a los agentes, quienes posteriormente determinaron que Gonzalo Javier Paul fue quien le ordenó hacerlo.

Los registros comerciales del estado muestran que Paul, de 42 años y residente de Pompano Beach, es el agente registrado de International Parts Service.

Los agentes informaron que contabilizaron un total de 38 tambores cerca de la parte trasera del negocio.

Paul fue trasladado a la cárcel principal de la BSO en Fort Lauderdale, donde permanecía detenido hasta la tarde del jueves con una fianza de $2,500 USD.

The U.S. State Department announced a new set of economic sanctions against Cuba on Thursday. At the same time, two of Cuba’s top generals were also sanctioned, Alvaro Lopez Miera, Minister of Defense; and General Roberto Sotolongo, head of the armed forces.

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Aug. 5: CIA Task Force on Cuba created, per report

The New York Times has reported the creation of a CIA Task Force on Cuba with the purpose of putting additional pressure on the Cuban government to make political and economic changes to their system.

This news will probably be received by Cuba as an additional threat by the U.S.

Aug. 5: Cuban president confirms ongoing conservations between Havana, US

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel confirmed today that there are ongoing conversations between Havana and DC for the purpose of avoiding a military confrontation and trying to find solutions to the issues between both nations.

The Cuban government understands that they are running out of options and most likely will need to reach an agreement with the U.S. Will it include regime change?

Aug. 3 update: Rubio speaks about Cuba’s ongoing espionage activities in the US

This past weekend, in an interview with Fox News, U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio spoke about Cuba’s ongoing espionage activities in the U.S.

Rubio went on to say that Cuban spies continue to infiltrate the U.S. government, financial institutions, organizations, and academic institutions. Rubio claimed that Cuba continues to be a national security threat to the U.S.

Dr. Andy S. Gomez is Local 10’s Cuba Analyst. Gomez is considered one of the leading scholars on Cuba. He worked in higher education for 32 years before retiring from the University of Miami in 2012.

Athletes First announced the deal Thursday, hours after Gibbs took the field for the first time since the Lions' training camp started. His agents also noted the new contract includes $51.5 million guaranteed for the Pro Bowler.

Two days earlier, Atlanta briefly made Bijan Robinson the NFL's highest-paid running back.

Gibbs had been participating in meetings at camp, but Thursday was his first appearance on the field, an indication the Lions and his agents were close to a deal. Gibbs held his right arm high and gave a thumbs-up when asked if an agreement was close as he walked off the practice field.

He rushed for 1,223 yards and 13 touchdowns and had 77 receptions for 616 yards and five scores in 2025.

Colts running back Jonathan Taylor got a two-year, $44 million deal earlier Thursday.

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AP Pro Football Writer Teresa M. Walker contributed to this report.

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

El Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos anunció el jueves un nuevo paquete de sanciones económicas contra Cuba. Al mismo tiempo, también fueron sancionados dos de los principales generales de Cuba: Álvaro López Miera, ministro de Defensa, y el general Roberto Sotolongo, jefe de las Fuerzas Armadas.

5 de agosto: Según informe, la CIA crea grupo de trabajo sobre Cuba

The New York Times informó sobre la creación de un grupo de trabajo de la CIA sobre Cuba con el propósito de ejercer mayor presión sobre el gobierno cubano para que implemente cambios políticos y económicos en su sistema.

Esta noticia probablemente será recibida por Cuba como una amenaza adicional por parte de Estados Unidos.

5 de agosto: Presidente cubano confirma conversaciones en curso entre La Habana y Estados Unidos

El presidente de Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, confirmó hoy que existen conversaciones en curso entre La Habana y Washington con el propósito de evitar una confrontación militar y tratar de encontrar soluciones a los problemas entre ambas naciones.

El gobierno cubano entiende que se está quedando sin opciones y que, muy probablemente, necesitará llegar a un acuerdo con Estados Unidos. ¿Incluirá un cambio de régimen?

Actualización del 3 de agosto: Rubio habla sobre las actividades de espionaje de Cuba en Estados Unidos

El pasado fin de semana, en una entrevista con Fox News, el secretario de Estado y asesor de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos, Marco Rubio, habló sobre las actividades de espionaje que Cuba continúa realizando en Estados Unidos.

Rubio afirmó que espías cubanos continúan infiltrándose en el gobierno de Estados Unidos, instituciones financieras, organizaciones e instituciones académicas. También sostuvo que Cuba sigue representando una amenaza para la seguridad nacional de Estados Unidos.

El Dr. Andy S. Gómez es el analista de Cuba de Local 10. Gómez es considerado uno de los principales especialistas sobre Cuba. Trabajó durante 32 años en el ámbito de la educación superior antes de retirarse de la Universidad de Miami en 2012.

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According to an MDSO arrest report, Julio Cordova, 21, who has worked as a sales associate at the BJ’s at 17250 NW 57th St. in Hialeah since November 2023, processed fraudulent road hazard warranty claims between May 3 and Aug. 2.

Investigators said Cordova allowed friends and associates to receive free replacement tires through BJ’s Road Hazard Warranty program, even though the original tires had not been purchased from the retailer.

The warranty covers only tires sold by BJ’s, according to the arrest report.

Authorities said Cordova knowingly approved multiple fraudulent warranty claims, with each replacement valued at up to $550. The total loss to BJ’s was estimated at approximately $3,789.

The investigation also found that Cordova allegedly received kickbacks in exchange for approving the fraudulent tire replacements.

After being advised of his Miranda rights, Cordova agreed to speak with investigators, according to the arrest report.

Deputies said he admitted to processing the fraudulent transactions and acknowledged he knew the tires had not originally been purchased at BJ’s. He also told investigators he knew the warranty claims were false and violated the company’s road hazard policy, the report states.

Cordova was arrested on charges of organized fraud and third-degree grand theft.

As of Thursday afternoon, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $5,000 bond.

Según un informe de arresto de la MDSO, Julio Córdova, de 21 años, quien ha trabajado como asociado de ventas en la tienda BJ’s ubicada en 17250 NW 57th St. en Hialeah desde noviembre de 2023, procesó reclamaciones fraudulentas de la garantía por daños en carretera entre el 3 de mayo y el 2 de agosto.

Los investigadores informaron que Córdova permitió que amigos y conocidos recibieran neumáticos de reemplazo gratuitos a través del programa de Garantía por Daños en Carretera de BJ’s, aunque los neumáticos originales no habían sido comprados en la tienda.

Según el informe de arresto, la garantía solo cubre neumáticos vendidos por BJ’s.

Las autoridades indicaron que Córdova aprobó de manera consciente múltiples reclamaciones fraudulentas de garantía, con un valor de hasta $550 USD por cada reemplazo. La pérdida total para BJ’s fue estimada en aproximadamente $3,789 USD.

La investigación también determinó que presuntamente Córdova recibió pagos a cambio de aprobar los reemplazos fraudulentos de neumáticos.

Según el informe de arresto, después de que le leyeran sus derechos Miranda, Córdova aceptó hablar con los investigadores.

Los agentes dijeron que admitió haber procesado las transacciones fraudulentas y reconoció que sabía que los neumáticos no habían sido comprados originalmente en BJ’s. También dijo a los investigadores que sabía que las reclamaciones de garantía eran falsas y que violaban la política de daños en carretera de la empresa, señala el informe.

Córdova fue arrestado por cargos de fraude organizado y hurto mayor en tercer grado.

Hasta la tarde del jueves, permanecía detenido en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight con una fianza de $5,000 USD.

Founded by one man with a passion for flight, each has a unique origin story.

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Local 10 goes sky high to show you Miami Springs, a city that sits adjacent to a bustling Miami International Airport and has played a major role in the aviation industry. Hear from historians, airline workers and business owners who make the city what it is today.

The city of Opa-locka was inspired by a collection of folk tales known as The Arabian Nights, filled with eye-popping architecture and a sense of determination. A Grammy-nominated artist, longtime residents, and preservationists help tell the story.

Join us for “Celebrating a Century: Miami Springs,” and “Celebrating a Century: Opa-locka,” starting Monday at 8p.m. on Local 10.

Fundadas por un hombre apasionado por la aviación, cada una tiene una historia de origen única.

Local 10 se eleva por los cielos para mostrarle Miami Springs, una ciudad ubicada junto al concurrido Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami y que ha desempeñado un papel importante en la industria de la aviación. Escuche a historiadores, trabajadores de aerolíneas y empresarios que hacen de la ciudad lo que es hoy.

La ciudad de Opa-locka fue inspirada por una colección de relatos populares conocida como “Las mil y una noches”, llena de llamativa arquitectura y un espíritu de determinación. Un artista nominado al Grammy, residentes de muchos años y defensores de la preservación ayudan a contar su historia.

Acompáñenos en “Celebrando un siglo: Miami Springs” y “Celebrando un siglo: Opa-locka”, a partir del lunes a las 8 p.m. por Local 10.

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The city of Miramar is sending three truckloads of goods to those in the country who need it most.

The items collected in the city are headed to the Global Empowerment Mission warehouse in Doral, where they’ll be sorted and shipped to Venezuelan communities that are still recovering from the earthquakes.

“It’s a long-term effort and we want to continue to make a contribution as much as it needed,” said Miramar Vice Mayor Carson Edwards.

So far, GEM has sent more than 3 million pounds of goods worth an estimated $12 million, which is said to be one of the largest public-private humanitarian responses in Venezuela’s history.

“The community cares,” said Miramar Commissioner Yvette Colbourne. “Although we are diverse, we come together.”

City leaders said the response from the community has been incredible, with donations continuing to pour in over the last several weeks to help families who lost so much.

“We are one people, we are all one people,” said Miramar Commissioner Maxwell Chambers.

Officials say the city will continue to accept donations to help Venezuela for as long as they need to.

GEM provided the following updates to their Venezuelan donation collections amounts since the earthquakes:

Total Pallets: 3,177

Total Value of Aid: $15,108,946.89

Total Weight: 4,008,828 pounds

Total GEM Family Necessity Kits: 79,320

La ciudad de Miramar enviará tres cargas de camión con donaciones para las personas que más las necesitan en el país.

Los artículos recolectados en la ciudad serán trasladados al almacén de Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) en Doral, donde serán clasificados y enviados a comunidades venezolanas que aún se recuperan de los terremotos.

“Es un esfuerzo a largo plazo y queremos seguir haciendo una contribución tanto como sea necesario”, dijo el vicealcalde de Miramar, Carson Edwards.

Hasta ahora, GEM ha enviado más de 3 millones de libras de ayuda con un valor estimado de $12,000,000 USD, lo que, según la organización, representa una de las mayores respuestas humanitarias público-privadas en la historia de Venezuela.

“A la comunidad le importa”, dijo la comisionada de Miramar, Yvette Colbourne. “Aunque somos diversos, nos unimos”.

Los líderes de la ciudad dijeron que la respuesta de la comunidad ha sido increíble, con donaciones que han seguido llegando durante las últimas semanas para ayudar a las familias que perdieron tanto.

“Somos un solo pueblo, todos somos un solo pueblo”, dijo el comisionado de Miramar, Maxwell Chambers.

Los funcionarios dijeron que la ciudad continuará aceptando donaciones para ayudar a Venezuela durante el tiempo que sea necesario.

GEM proporcionó las siguientes cifras actualizadas sobre las donaciones para Venezuela desde los terremotos:

Total de palés: 3,177

Valor total de la ayuda: $15,108,946.89 USD

Peso total: 4,008,828 libras

Total de kits de necesidades básicas para familias de GEM: 79,320

“Nuestra familia quiere agradecer una vez más a todos los que nos han enviado oraciones, mensajes de apoyo y muestras de cariño para Perez. Su compasión y humanidad durante este momento tan doloroso han significado más de lo que las palabras pueden expresar”, dice el comunicado. “Esto ha sido increíblemente difícil y emotivo para nosotros, y se ha vuelto aún más complicado porque muy poca información ha sido puesta a disposición de nuestra familia. Mientras seguimos esperando más actualizaciones, mantenemos la esperanza”.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, agentes recibieron múltiples llamadas la noche del martes de personas que reportaban que Hilton aparentemente se estaba autolesionando con un cuchillo durante una transmisión en vivo en TikTok.

En el video, se escuchó a Hilton decir frases como: “Esto es lo que todos ustedes querían” y “Será interesante ver qué pasa después de que mueras”.

Los agentes dijeron que confirmaron con familiares que Hilton estaba solo dentro de la vivienda y trabajaron para reducir la tensión de la situación de manera segura. Las autoridades informaron que fue trasladado al Hospital HCA Florida Kendall para recibir tratamiento por sus heridas y posteriormente fue sometido a la Ley Baker.

La familia de Hilton dijo que la celebridad, cuyo nombre de nacimiento es Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., puede comunicarse, lo que “ha dado esperanza a nuestra familia”.

“Respetuosamente pedimos que continúen con sus oraciones, comprensión y apoyo mientras Perez sigue recuperándose”, continúa el comunicado. “Compartiremos información adicional a medida que recibamos datos confirmados y nos sea posible hacerlo. Por ahora, avanzamos un paso a la vez y mantenemos nuestro enfoque donde debe estar: en Perez y en su recuperación.

“Nuevamente, gracias, de verdad, por todo su apoyo y compasión. Estamos profundamente agradecidos”.

Hilton, cubano-estadounidense, alcanzó la fama gracias a su sitio web de chismes de celebridades antes de ampliar su cobertura a la moda y la música y convertirse en una conocida personalidad de televisión. Hilton tiene tres hijos: Mario, Mia y Mayte.

Si usted o alguien que conoce enfrenta una crisis de salud mental, llame o envíe un mensaje de texto al 988 para comunicarse con la Línea 988 de Prevención del Suicidio y Crisis.

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“Our family wants to once again thank everyone who has reached out with prayers, kind messages, and support for Perez. Your compassionate humanity during this heartbreaking time has meant more than words can express,” the statement read. “This has been incredibly difficult and emotional for us, made even harder because very little information has been made available to our family. While we continue to wait for further updates, we remain hopeful.”

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, deputies received multiple calls Tuesday night from people reporting that Hilton appeared to be harming himself with a knife during a TikTok livestream.

In the video, Hilton was heard saying things like, “This is what you all wanted” and “It will be interesting to see what happens after you die.”

Deputies said they confirmed with family members that Hilton was alone inside and worked to safely de-escalate the situation. Authorities said he was transported to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital to be treated for his injuries and was then Baker Acted.

Hilton’s family said the celebrity, who was born Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., is able to communicate, which has “given our family hope.”

“We respectfully ask for your continued prayers, understanding, and grace as Perez continues to recover,” the statement continued. “We will share additional updates as we receive confirmed information and are able to do so. For now, we’re taking things one step at a time and keeping our focus where it belongs, on Perez and his recovery.

“Again, thank you, truly, for all your support and compassion. We are so grateful.”

Hilton, a Cuban-American, rose to prominence through his celebrity gossip website before expanding into fashion and music coverage and becoming a familiar television personality. Hilton has three children, Mario, Mia and Mayte.

If you or someone you know is facing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Investors in SpaceX have pushed the shares down sharply in recent days in anticipation of insiders possibly selling in the first of several so-called lockup expirations that free them up to trade. More than 900 million shares became newly available to buy or sell with Thursday's release, doubling what was available previously.

SpaceX shares rose 6.1% to close at $114.92. A day earlier they had one of their biggest routs in SpaceX's short history as a public company, dropping nearly 14%.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said the expiration of lockup provisions that bar employees and others from selling was an opportunity for others to get into the stock cheaply. He believes the stock could rise to $300 by the middle of next year, nearly triple its current level.

Morgan Stanley was one of the investment banks that earned big fees helping take SpaceX public last month.

Earlier this week, SpaceX reported it had lost $541 million, or 9 cents per share, in the three months through June, less than half what financial analysts had forecast. Revenue jumped to $7.8 billion, up more than 90% from the year-earlier period.

The company also posted a massive increase in spending on R&D and infrastructure, particularly involving artificial intelligence, and other major projects. Investors are growing increasingly nervous with big capital spending figures in technology companies, triggering sell-offs.

In June, Musk sold SpaceX shares to the public for the first time in the biggest initial public offering ever. Shares jumped as high as $225 a share, briefly making Musk a trillionaire.

The plunge in the stock since has wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value, leaving the shares trading at even less than its initial $135 offering price.

He won the starting job protecting the blind side of Patrick Mahomes in the offseason, and the former Ohio State standout held fast to it throughout training camp. He was a stalwart through the first five weeks of the season, not only living up to the expectations placed upon him but, at least to those watching from afar, exceeding every one of them.

Then things went haywire, much as they did for the team as a whole.

Simmons was gone for about a month for what the team would only call “personal reasons.” When he returned, he managed to play just a few more weeks before a fractured wrist in Week 13 landed him on season-ending injured reserve.

Well, the wrist is healed now. The ACL injury that ended his final season with the Buckeyes has long since healed. Simmons has put on weight, gone through an entire offseason at full speed, and he seems ready to finally step into a starring role on the offensive line.

“Yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to add off of last year,” Simmons said following a recent training camp practice on the steamy fields at Missouri Western State University. “Obviously I went against a lot of good defensive ends, and I have one year of familiarity with the playbook. So it was really just kind of stacking up on that, that way I can come into training camp ready.”

For the Chiefs to bounce back this season, there are few players more critical to their success.

The first reason is this: Simmons has the most important job in protecting Mahomes, who is coming off season-ending surgery of his own, albeit to torn ligaments in his left knee. Mahomes sped through his rehab, and has participated fully in camp, where his mobility seems to be unaffected — though he's also wearing the comfort of a yellow no-contact jersey.

If Mahomes is to feel safe back on the field, Simmons will be providing his security blanket.

“He's trying to work on all the small things right now. He's got all the tools and he knows that,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said. “He got his weight up a little bit, and he's got strength, and now it's just a matter of being consistent with assignments and footwork and all that, which is so important on the offensive line. But he's working like crazy to make sure he homes in on all that stuff.”

Simmons is listed at 6-foot-5, 310 pounds, but that's on the lower side of the NFL average, and may even be a bit generous. But the Chiefs would rather have an athletic Simmons than the alternative — “You don't want cheeseburger weight,” Reid said.

That ability to move in space funnels into the second reason the Chiefs have such high expectations for Simmons: They signed Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III to a big free-agent contract in the hopes of revamping their running attack.

The Chiefs averaged just over 106 yards rushing last season, putting them squarely in the bottom third of the league. It also put more pressure on Mahomes and a young group of wide receivers that struggled to break through. The result was an offense that barely resembled the high-flying, high-scoring groups that propelled Kansas City to five of the past seven Super Bowls.

But judging by training camp, the Chiefs fully intend to run the ball more. And when they do pass, Walker's ability to catch the ball out of the backfield — coupled with Rashee Rice's explosiveness in the screen game — is tantamount to a running play as well.

Making it all work? That falls on the shoulders of Simmons and the rest of the offensive line.

Notes: The Chiefs held a shortened practice without full pads on Thursday. They'll be back in pads for two more days before getting Sunday off. ... WRs Cyrus Allen (bone bruise) and Xavier Worthy (shoulder), LBs Drue Tranquill (back) and Jeff Bassa (groin), CBs Kristian Fulton (hip flexor) and L'Jarius Sneed (knee) and DL Ashton Gillotte (hamstring) were held out of practice. CB Mansoor Delane (shoulder) continued to wear a yellow jersey.

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RWE U.S. Offshore said its leases represented years of planning, investment and partnership with federal agencies, but it determined there was no path forward to permit the projects for the foreseeable future. In exchange for $1.22 billion, RWE is relinquishing the wind power leases that could have provided about seven gigawatts of power, enough for more than 5 million homes. It does not have any remaining U.S. offshore wind leases.

President Donald Trump, who often talks about his hatred of wind power, has said his goal is to not let any “windmills” be built. The Republican administration has been buying back offshore wind leases from energy companies as it seeks to discourage the expansion of wind energy in favor of fossil fuels. Offshore wind produces electricity cleanly. Oil, coal and natural gas emit carbon pollution when burned.

RWE announced it is investing $900 million in a liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana and spending $300 million on natural gas turbines. The company is developing 15 natural gas projects across the United States. RWE is headquartered in Germany.

The administration adopted this strategy after federal courts thwarted Trump’s efforts to stop offshore wind development through executive action. Roughly $3.9 billion has been spent. States that are losing offshore wind energy are suing. California intends to sue.

Separately, a coalition of renewable energy groups sued Pentagon officials over their failure to complete national security reviews for new onshore wind farms on private lands. A federal judge in Oregon ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on Thursday, ordering the Defense Department to resume its review process and provide status reports on the progress.

Commenting on the RWE agreement, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Thursday that Americans “deserve an energy system built on common sense, not one dependent on costly subsidies or technologies that can’t meet our country’s current demand.” He said he welcomes RWE’s agreement and voluntary investment in projects that strengthen the nation’s energy security, provide dependable baseload power and help keep electricity affordable.

But Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the lease buybacks are effectively bribing companies to step away from clean energy that can displace more expensive fossil fuel plants, which in turn will raise costs for consumers.

“They are creating this enormous money pump, pulling billions of dollars out of consumers’ pockets,” he said. “That’s the real story of what is going on here. And that is both a cost story because of the billions in extra costs consumers pay, and it’s a corruption story because it’s Trump’s sneaky way of getting regular families to pay off his big fossil fuel donors. There’s method here, and it’s a real scam.”

Under the first agreement announced in March, French company TotalEnergies is getting nearly $1 billion — essentially a refund of its two offshore wind leases — if it invests the money in fossil fuels instead. Golden State Wind and Bluepoint Wind agreed in April to end their leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million, provided it invests equally in fossil fuels. Chicago-based Invenergy agreed in June to end its four offshore wind leases that were very early in development in exchange for reimbursements of lease fees totaling $765 million.

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

You might think it's 2020 again.

Six years after COVID-19 thrust the world into the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic, Republicans in power aren’t leaving it in the past. Instead, they’ve returned its familiar political arguments to center stage for new scrutiny, demanding accountability for the scientists and media figures whom they feel deceived and mistreated Americans years ago.

The efforts ramped up last week, when a Republican-led Senate committee chaired by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul subpoenaed the now-retired, 85-year-old Fauci to testify about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The former National Institutes of Health immunologist repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, after accusing the lawmakers of trying to coerce him to perjure himself to justify criminal charges. In response to his choice, on Thursday, the committee passed a vote to hold Fauci in contempt, a stunning move that could motivate the Justice Department to initiate an investigation.

Separately, Kennedy, a politically independent former anti-vaccine activist who now serves as the Republican President Donald Trump’s health secretary, spent part of his weekend in a combative live debate with CNN host Dana Bash about the pandemic's management and the media’s role.

Political scientists and historians say the focus on COVID grievances half a decade after the virus’ peak demonstrates how some wounds it opened have never been closed. Democrats, meanwhile, have slammed the federal government’s blaming of Fauci as a performative distraction that’s not based in facts.

While both Paul and Kennedy have spent years airing their frustrations about COVID, the Republican takeover of Congress and the White House last year created a new platform for them to steer how America remembers the pandemic, and who is held responsible for it, according to Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University.

It’s also allowed them to use the administration’s resources to surface new information.

“The response to COVID has become a touchstone for Trump’s Republican Party,” Dallek said. “They’re using their power now to argue they were right all along.”

Pandemic grievances have simmered for years

When the coronavirus began spreading widely in 2020, under Trump's first administration, groups of Americans revolted against requirements imposed by local authorities and businesses telling people to wear masks and stay at home to control the spread of the virus.

Vaccines supercharged those sentiments. Figures like Kennedy, then a leader of the anti-vaccine movement, accused the federal government of trampling on personal liberties by supporting vaccine mandates and social media takedowns of dissenting ideas.

While Trump has long expressed pride in his first-term Operation Warp Speed effort to disseminate COVID-19 vaccines quickly, saving millions of lives, his second administration has taken a different tone.

Under Kennedy's leadership, U.S. regulators have limited the availability of COVID-19 vaccines for Americans. Kennedy on CNN on Sunday questioned whether the COVID-19 vaccines protected children, even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website that they “help keep children from getting really sick from COVID-19.”

Frances Lee, a Princeton University political scientist, said debates over COVID-19 have erupted on the fringes for years. Now that some of the leaders of those debates are in power, they're hashing it out on the national stage — something she said needed to happen eventually.

“There are aggrieved parties, people who have a sense that they were done wrong during the pandemic and that there’s never been an accounting for that,” Lee said. “Most people don’t want to think about this topic, but nevertheless there are constituencies – so Congress is speaking to those constituencies.”

Lee said Kennedy’s decision to surface numerous diary entries that Fauci had made on a government computer – and Paul’s decision to publicize them last week – created an opening for “the first real showdown” in years around the pandemic’s handling.

While some of the entries – including Fauci’s uncertainty in the pandemic’s earliest days about how best to curb the virus – already were reflected in a 2024 memoir and in interviews at the time, they have nonetheless drawn attention from people who blame Fauci for policies they believe infringed on their rights as hundreds of thousands of people were dying.

Also discussed at Fauci's hearing last week was whether NIH-funded research in China played a role in how the pandemic started. The day of the hearing, Trump's White House also directed social media followers to a federal website that used to feature information on COVID vaccines, testing and treatment that now promotes the theory that the pandemic originated with a lab leak.

Many scientists believe the virus most likely emerged in nature and jumped from animals to people, coming to light when it spread at a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. There’s no new scientific evidence supporting the theory that the virus might instead have leaked from a laboratory, a theory Paul champions. A GOP-led subcommittee that studied the question in 2024 found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing.

Fauci has long said publicly that he was open to both theories but that there’s more evidence supporting COVID-19’s natural origins.

Republican lawmakers aren't stopping at the contempt vote. Sen. Ron Johnson said Thursday that Kennedy's department had given a subcommittee he chairs a copy of Fauci's cellphone from his time in government. Johnson indicated he intended to investigate it.

“Hopefully, this device will address many of the questions he refused to answer at last week’s hearing,” he wrote on social media.

Many dismiss the idea that Republicans’ COVID fact-finding is genuine

As Republicans hold up scrutiny of Fauci as important accountability, Democrats have called it disingenuous. Paul said Thursday he'd invited Fauci to appear for a private, transcribed interview, but Democrats accused him of not allowing the full, bipartisan committee to be present for it.

Paul also referred the committee's contempt vote directly to the Justice Department, instead of to the full Senate. He said he did not “want to waste time” with that route, while Democrats insisted all senators should get a chance to vote.

Last week’s hearing, at which Fauci pleaded the Fifth, came after the immunologist had repeatedly appeared before Congress over the years and talked about his thinking in the beginning of the pandemic and how it changed over time. Critics have raised concerns that the ordeal surrounding him will deter scientists from taking government jobs for fear of being similarly targeted.

Paul has long argued that Fauci should be criminally investigated, based on his belief that the scientist has been dishonest to Congress about National Institutes of Health-funded research and COVID's origins. Fauci's attorney last week called Paul's accusations about the scientist “false and disgraceful.” More than 150 infectious-disease experts also came to Fauci's defense, writing that “no credible evidence has been produced to support these absurd charges."

Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said the hearing didn't represent legitimate truth seeking.

“They were looking for a platform in which they could attack him, and he would not respond, and he would say ‘plead the Fifth’ over and over again,” Ornstein said.

He said while some Republicans are likely true believers that Fauci committed crimes, bringing him to the forefront serves a dual purpose in a midterm election year — distracting voters from less favorable headlines, including on the economy and foreign conflicts.

Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, said there are real lessons to learn from the pandemic, including more deeply examining which efforts to contain the virus worked and didn’t work. But he said Republicans in Congress aren’t chasing those.

“A review of revisionist history will accomplish nothing,” he said. “We won’t be any better prepared for the next pandemic.”

The change comes a year ahead of schedule. Kellogg said last August that it would remove synthetic dyes from its cereals by the end of 2027.

But the company said Thursday it has identified fruit- and vegetable-based juices that will give cereals like Froot Loops and Apple Jacks their distinctive colors. The Battle Creek, Michigan-based company said it has also invested in equipment that will allow it to transition to natural colors.

The company said it is also removing BHT, an artificial preservative, from the small number of cereals that still contain it.

“More and more consumers are looking for foods made with simple, recognizable ingredients and we are proud to meet those expectations even sooner than planned,” Kellogg’s Chief Growth Officer Doug VanDeVelde said in a statement.

Kellogg has faced pressure for years to remove artificial ingredients from its cereals, which it has already done in other countries like Canada. In 2024, dozens of people rallied outside Kellogg's headquarters and delivered petitions with 400,000 signatures asking the company to remove artificial dyes and BHT.

That pressure has grown under President Donald Trump's health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has urged food companies to phase out petroleum-based artificial dyes. Last August, Kellogg also signed an agreement with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton saying it would “permanently remove toxic dyes” from its cereals by the end of 2027.

Retailers are also forcing companies to act. Earlier this year, Target said it would stop selling cereals that contain artificial colors by the end of May. Walmart has also said it will remove artificial colors from its store brands by January 2027.

A little more than a week after reiterating he wanted to stay with Indy for the rest of his career, Taylor took a big step toward fulfilling that pledge by signing a two-year, $44 million contract extension, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Thursday. The person requested anonymity because the team had not yet made an official announcement and does not release contract terms.

The move keeps the 2021 NFL rushing champ off the free agent market next spring and comes two days after the Atlanta Falcons re-signed Bijan Robinson to a record-breaking three-year deal worth up to $75 million.

Taylor never doubted the deal would get done before Indy's season opener Sept. 13 against Baltimore.

“I have faith. I mean, there’ve been some good conversations, and I have faith between my agent and the front office,” Taylor said last week when he arrived at training camp. "Like I said, I’ve already said I would love to be a Colt for life. So, I have faith that things are moving in the right direction.”

This deal follows two other big payouts this spring, to quarterback Daniel Jones and top receiver Alec Pierce, and keeps Indy's primary offensive players together long term.

Taylor is now under contract through 2028 and won't celebrate his 30th birthday until January 2029. Teams tend to devalue running backs after they turn 30.

By then, though, perhaps the conventional wisdom among teams will change. Taylor already has seen a notable difference in how teams value running backs since signing his last extension in 2023 when he didn't participate in camp as his agent and late team owner Jim Irsay engaged in a nasty public back-and-forth that resulted in Taylor requesting a trade.

Taylor struggled with injuries in 2022 and missed the first four games in 2023 with a lingering ankle injury. Since signing a three-year deal worth $42 million in early October 2023, he has missed just six of 41 games and has shown no signs of decline.

Reliability pays off

Taylor led the league in rushing most of last season while quarterback Daniel Jones played through a broken bone in his left leg before suffering a season-ending torn right Achilles tendon in early December. Taylor still finished third in the league with 1,585 yards and led the NFL with 18 touchdown runs.

Now he's seeing the payoff — and not just for himself.

“I think it’s a testament to how hard not only myself, but guys like Bijan, like a lot of the other top backs, they work really hard to put a great product on the field in order to reflect that value," Taylor said Wednesday before signing his new deal. "So obviously, still more work to be done. But man, that’s awesome for Bijan man. Shout out to Bijan, man. You earned it. You deserve it.”

The Colts also have made it clear how much they value Taylor.

From Jones and receiver Alec Pierce to coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard, the consensus is that the threat of Taylor — as a both a runner and pass catcher — changes the way defenses must contend with the Colts.

Contract status

The only real question was how quickly a deal could get done. Ballard is entering the final year of his contract as are left guard Quenton Nelson and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. Taylor, Nelson and Buckner have all been selected to multiple Pro Bowls.

On July 28, report day at camp, Ballard said his contract status would have no impact on players' contract extensions.

“We always are working toward trying to keep our own players here, and I think you know my thoughts on both of them,” Ballard said when asked about Nelson and Taylor. "Quenton Nelson is a pillar, stands for all the right stuff, and Jonathan Taylor has been an excellent, excellent player for the Colts. I would love to have them long term. We’ll see.”

Now Taylor is in the fold for three more seasons.

The New Jersey prep star burst onto the scene with two 1,000-yard seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers. Leading up to the 2020 draft, critics contended Taylor was a risky early-round pick because of his college workload and questioned his pass-catching ability.

But the Colts selected Taylor in the second round, No. 41 overall, and an early-season injury to Marlon Mack forced Taylor into the starting lineup. He impressed right from the start, rushing for 1,169 yards and 11 TDs while catching 36 of 39 passes for 299 yards and another TD.

Taylor enters this season with 1,551 career carries, 7,598 yards, 69 TDs, 187 receptions, 1,469 yards and seven scores. He already owns the franchise record for touchdown runs and needs 1,629 yards rushing to surpass two-time NFL rushing champ Edgerrin James as the Colts career leader in that category, too.

Taylor also has the top two single-game rushing totals in franchise history, 253 against Jacksonville in January 2021 and 244 last season against Atlanta in Berlin.

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At least 345 people in 27 states have been reported getting sick from the salmonella strain linked to the jalapeños. Most have been in Minnesota and Colorado. No deaths have been reported, but officials say 36 people have been hospitalized.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the chili peppers were moved into the U.S. by Coast Citrus Distributors. The company has recalled the peppers and is notifying its customers, which include some prominent Mexican food restaurant chains, officials said.

Coast Citrus Distributors didn't immediately respond to a Thursday voicemail seeking comment.

The Food and Drug Administration said that of the 191 people interviewed in the outbreak investigation, 177 — or 93% — reported eating at a Mexican-style restaurant, including Chipotle Mexican Grill and Qdoba, from June 14 to July 14.

Chipotle Mexican Grill said Tuesday that it had removed jalapeños from some of its restaurants. Qdoba on Wednesday said the company had proactively removed jalapenos from all of its restaurants.

“Given their actions to remove product from their stores, neither of these establishments are considered a current ongoing risk to consumers in this outbreak,” CDC officials said in a statement.

Salad chain Sweetgreen said Thursday it also removed jalapeños from its menu, where they are an ingredient in two of its 15 dressings. It was more bad news for Sweetgreen, which also saw sales plummet in July because of customer concerns over the cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce. Sweetgreen doesn't serve iceberg lettuce but said Thursday that customers are generally concerned about fresh produce.

The FDA is investigating whether any of the jalapeños went to grocery stores. The agency may announce additional actions on its recalls webpage, health officials said.

Health officials in Mexico said they opened an investigation and made a field visit Thursday to a packing plant in the northern state of Nuevo Leon.

Salmonella bacteria cause about 1.35 million infections in the United States every year, and outbreaks have been tied to sources such as cucumbers, eggs, unpasteurized milk, fresh basil, geckos and pet bearded dragons.

Within hours or days of being exposed to the bacteria, infected people can suffer from diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps. The illness usually lasts four to seven days, and most people recover without treatment.

Young children, retirement-age adults and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk for more severe illness, according to the CDC.

Shares of Chipotle, based in Newport Beach, California, tumbled nearly 10% on Tuesday and have not recovered. Sweetgreen shares dropped 14% in after-hours trading Thursday.

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Associated Press reporter Fabiola Sanchez in Mexico City contributed to this story.

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