For now though, lower humidity and lots of late-September sun will allow us to enjoy being outside both today and tomorrow and although we’ll see highs near 90 degrees the lower humidity will make it feel more bearable.

It might not be a completely dry weekend however as the seabreeze will try to kick up a few very late-day showers mainly near the coast.

Otherwise, our rain chances are pretty low until moisture returns by next week and we get back into that familiar rainy weather pattern again.

There’s a high risk of rip currents at the beaches and a small craft advisory for the boaters as large swells roll down the east coast from a big storm up in the northeast this weekend.

The two sides agreed to keep working together on a Board of Trade on selected bilateral trade issues, with the White House saying in a statement Saturday that the board went into operation this week.

The summit produced no major breakthroughs, but some experts say the steps toward greater cooperation were still considered important, allowing the two powers to set up working groups that could prevent problems from escalating.

Chinese President Xi Jinping landed back in Beijing on Saturday, according to Xinhua. During the visit, President Donald Trump was remarkably warm to Xi, despite having escalated a trade war with China the previous year that had global repercussions.

The two sides agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding on strengthening crisis communications and preventing crises between the two militaries, China’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday in its readout. The one-page statement from the Chinese side was light on details.

Both sides will set up a communication mechanism for artificial intelligence -related incidents, to discuss related risks and benefits, with an AI-specific dialogue scheduled for November.

The statement said both sides will continue to work together on the pledge to reduce reciprocal tariffs on roughly $30 billion worth of goods. During the summit, the two leaders agreed to extend a trade truce by two months. The White House statement said China agreed to import at least 10 million metric tons of coal from the U.S. in 2027 and 2028.

Most of the reduction in tariffs is aimed at non-sensitive goods, such as agricultural products or holiday decorations.

The statement from the White House also said the two sides continued to work on American concerns about rare earths supply, “with the goal of ensuring shipment levels return to appropriate levels.” China put export controls on rare earths last year in response to the U.S. tariffs, cutting the supply sent to the U.S. and other countries.

Both sides agreed to meet at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November, and then later at the G20 at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida.

Both also said that Iran should honor its stated commitment to not develop nuclear weapons, and that no country should charge a toll on international waterways, in a reference to the Strait of Hormuz, which has seen significantly reduced traffic since the U.S. war with Iran began.

The U.S. statement also said it welcomed China's move to add export controls for an additional two precursor chemicals for fentanyl, and both noted that law enforcement had been able to make arrests in fentanyl-related cases recently.

Although the visit produced no major breakthroughs on the countries’ fundamental differences, analysts said the incremental steps were noteworthy.

“Personal diplomacy between the two leaders is important, but the emphasis on working-level engagement, military-to-military dialogue and crisis-management mechanisms suggests an effort to make that stability more durable and institutionalized,” said Wang Zichen, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization.

Firefighters said they began lifesaving measures at the scene before taking the child to the hospital. The person’s age and what led to the incident were not immediately known.

Sky 10 video showed a piece of playground equipment wrapped in crime scene tape as police investigated at the park.

Miami Police are actively investigating.

Russia has hammered Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, powerful glide bombs and jet-powered drones while front-line progress has slowed, some 4½-years after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

“It is essential that our partners not forget: Russia is escalating every single day. If the Russians have chosen to make their strikes even more brutal, the world must choose stronger responses to keep the war from spreading further,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Saturday morning.

He listed “numerous strikes on residential homes” in the cities of Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, and the Odesa, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions.

Two women in Zaporizhzhia died when they were trapped beneath the rubble of their destroyed home, Zaporizhzhia’s regional military administration said. A separate Russian attack on the city of Sumy also killed two people, local officials said.

Ukrainian drones target Russian refineries

Zelenskyy appealed at the United Nations earlier this week to countries to starve Russia of revenue through sanctions and trade bans, denying Moscow the money it needs to prolong the war. But despite years of diplomatic efforts, there is no sign of a breakthrough in ending the war.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s long-range drones have targeted Russian oil refineries and businesses. A Ukrainian drone attack on the southern Krasnodar region killed three people and wounded two, local officials said Saturday.

Writing on Telegram, regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that a Ukrainian attack sparked fires at two industrial sites, but did not give further details. Russian media outlets later reported that a local oil refinery was targeted in the strike.

Russian attacks spark fires in Kyiv

Elsewhere in Ukraine, two people were injured in the Kyiv region overnight after a Russian drone attack caused a fire at a warehouse in the Boryspil district. Russian drones also hit several districts in the Ukrainian capital itself, injuring four and damaging residential and office buildings, officials said.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said Saturday that its attack on Kyiv had damaged a data center that supported both cellphone internet services and Starlink satellite communication systems.

___

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

At issue is how someone can prove they are too medically frail to work. While federal regulations say the state can take the recipient's word for it for the first year, at least six states are requiring documentation immediately. There is a continuing push in other states to follow suit eventually.

Advocates say that could create problems, especially for new applicants to the joint state-federal health insurance program for lower-income people.

“Someone may not be able to work, but they can’t see a doctor because they can’t afford it. So they’re now applying for Medicaid,” said Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health policy and data at the research organization KFF. “But Medicaid is saying you need documentation from a provider.”

As some Republican-led states take a tougher-than-required approach to implementing the federally mandated changes, Democrats in 25 states are suing and asserting that the rules are too harsh.

Some say documentary evidence is necessary to avoid fraud

The Medicaid changes are projected to save the federal government $887 billion over the next decade and result in 7.5 million fewer people with health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2025 estimate.

The conservative Foundation for Government Accountability has been pushing states not to make it too easy for people to avoid work requirements, saying able-bodied adults are pushing enrollment and costs higher.

Jonathan Ingram, vice president of research and policy at the group, has been encouraging states not to take a beneficiary’s word for it, a process known as self-attestation.

“Self-attestation is fraud-by-design,” he said via email. “It is a policy developed by bureaucrats to maximize enrollment at the expense of program integrity.”

Self-attestation comes under penalty of perjury, so people who lie can be subject to criminal charges — though such charges are rare.

Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio all have laws or policies that bar self-attestation to qualify for the work requirement exception starting next year.

Republican Missouri state Rep. Darin Chappell said he worked with the Foundation for Government Accountability to craft a proposed amendment that would have enshrined Medicaid work requirements in the state constitution. It would have required “documentary evidence” of work or reasons for exemptions, specifically prohibiting self-attestation.

The amendment passed the Missouri House but died without a vote in the Senate. Chappell plans to try again next year.

“If someone has a debilitating physical ailment — or mental ailment for that matter — something that prohibits them from working, that’s totally legitimate,” he said. “But we’re not taking anybody’s word for it. I don’t mean to shock you none, but people do tend to lie about such things.”

Most nondisabled beneficiaries under 65 already work

The new mandate applies to up to 20 million lower-income adults without children at home who are enrolled in Medicaid through an optional expansion in 40 states and the District of Columbia. The requirement does not apply in the 10 states, mostly in the South, that did not expand Medicaid.

Beneficiaries will have to work or volunteer at least 80 hours each month or be in school at least half-time to qualify, with exceptions for situations including medical frailty.

The law had said medically frail people include those who have substance use disorders, disabilities or serious medical conditions. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a rule in June that went further and was stricter than states and providers expected, saying someone’s condition must “significantly impair” their ability to work, volunteer or attend school as required for an exemption.

Currently states generally decide once a year whether Medicaid recipients still qualify for benefits. The new law will require it to happen twice for most enrollees.

States will be allowed to accept self-attestation just once each time a person enrolls starting in 2028. After that, documentation would be required at least every 12 months to verify that they still have the condition and that it still prevents them from being able to work.

The government expects states to rely increasingly on third-party data — on things such as workers’ compensation claims or prescription information — to help make determinations. For conditions that do not show up in the databases, states can require a doctor's certification, a disability award letter or other proof.

While states have been ramping up the use of this information, the work requirements are still a big change, and many will first have to spend millions of dollars improving their computer systems.

States are already struggling in some cases to make changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance food program, or SNAP, that are required under Trump's law, including an expanded work requirement.

In Arizona, for example, enrollment plummeted by 55% from April 2025 to April 2026 — the biggest drop in the country — with more than 400,000 fewer people getting benefits now. Last month, the state said that was largely due to difficulties in putting in place new federal requirements that resulted in higher call volumes and additional verification.

Patient advocates worry aid will be denied to qualified people

Ingram said some of the concerns about ending self-attestation are overblown and people can get diagnoses to support their inability to work at many places, including charitable clinics and federally qualified health centers. He also noted that Medicaid allows retroactive coverage for doctor visits that happen before enrollment.

Patient advocates say it's not that simple.

“The added paperwork, the hoops you have to jump through lead to coverage loss,” said Nate Crippes, a lawyer at the Disability Law Center in Utah, where a law allows self-attestation to qualify for the work requirement exception on a provisional basis.

An added challenge is that most people in the Medicaid expansion group in his state have a mental health or substance use disorder diagnosis — or both.

“We’re choosing to make people with health conditions jump through a bunch of hurdles,” said Camille Richoux, health policy director at Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

It can be tricky if states decide to rely partly on patient diagnosis codes to determine whether recipients are able to work.

Lucy Dagneau, senior director of the state and local campaigns team at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said the codes do not indicate the severity of a condition. For example, some patients with a specific cancer can continue working, she said, but others who are in more advanced stages cannot.

“Our fear is by that banning self-attestation, unfortunately, the state lawmakers who pass those laws are going to have a hand in more people losing coverage in their state than would have,” she said.

____

Associated Press writers David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Laura Turbay in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed.

Journalists in Debrecen, Hungary — where Israel’s “home” game is to be played Sunday — were left waiting Saturday after being told the press conference was being pushed back until after training. That was 15 minutes before it was supposed to begin.

Training was also significantly delayed, however, with Irish broadcaster RTÉ reporting the players were still in their hotel more than two hours after the training session was supposed to begin.

RTÉ reported that some players had decided they did not want to play the games.

"And if they stay to their stated ambition that they have to be all in it together, if one or more want to be out, maybe they will all be out,” reporter Tony O’Donoghue told RTÉ Radio 1.

Pressure builds

The team has been coming under increasing pressure in Ireland, where affinity with Palestinians is strong, to boycott the two games — the first on Sunday and the second, Ireland’s “home” game, in Backa Topola, Serbia on Oct. 4.

Ireland midfielder Jason Knight said after Thursday’s 1-0 loss in Kosovo that the players were in a difficult situation and that he didn’t think the matches should be going ahead.

Ireland coach Heimir Hallgrimsson previously said “we’re not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide. We’re playing against Israel, we’re not playing with Israel” — drawing a furious reaction from the Israeli soccer federation, which accused the Icelandic coach of “stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy.”

The Football Association of Ireland had resisted calls to boycott the matches, arguing the team could be hit be punishing sanctions by UEFA. Ireland is co-hosting the 2028 European Championship with England, Wales and Scotland.

More than 160 Irish sportspeople signed an open letter urging the FAI to reconsider its decision to go ahead with the fixtures.

There were protestors outside the team hotel in Dublin last week calling on the players to boycott the games. The SIPTU trade union displayed a huge poster in central Dublin beside the River Liffey asking the players to “Go with your conscience!” and “Don't play with genocide” beside an image of a blood-splattered ball.

Former Ireland coach Brian Kerr said the FAI had “lost of the respect of the Irish people” for going ahead with the games.

“The Irish people and the soccer-going public don’t want the games to be played,” Kerr said. “I think they’ve made their opinions clear over the last year. The FAI back in November actually went to UEFA and requested that Israel be put out of the tournament on a principle. And yet they went against that principle.”

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Leo opened his second day in France by meeting with young converts, whose decision to join the Catholic Church has sparked optimism in the French hierarchy even amid an overall downward spiral of the practicing faithful in the once staunchly Catholic but now deeply secular country.

Leo has sought to encourage them during his visit, which began on Friday with his arrival and prayer at the newly restored Notre Dame cathedral, the first by a pope since the devastating 2019 fire. After Leo's Mass on Saturday, the pope travels to the Catholic shrine at Lourdes, where he is due to meet with survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

During a visit to the Catholic Institute of Paris on Saturday morning, the American pope said he was surprised by the numbers of new converts and grateful for what he said was God’s “unfathomable work” to counter all statistical and sociological analysis.

“We must recognize, welcome and protect the small flame that the Holy Spirit has kindled in the darkness of the night, the tiny seed that strives to grow even amid the thorns,” he said.

The number of adult baptisms in France each year has tripled since 2016, hitting 13,000 this year. But statistics and experts caution that the slight uptick, which has been recorded also in secular Spain, doesn’t counteract the overall generational trend of children of practicing French Catholics no longer going to Mass or baptizing their babies.

In 1980, there were 513,000 baptisms in France; in 2024, a total of 186,000.

Huge crowds come out to see the pope

The church's enduring influence in France has been visible in the throngs filling Paris avenues to see Leo's motorcade pass by, with road closures reminiscent of the security blanket that was thrown over central Paris for the Olympic Games in 2024.

On Saturday, those closures extended to one of Paris' most iconic neighborhoods. Leo was to celebrate Mass at the central Place de la Concorde, with crowds expected to fill the adjacent Champs-Élysées, essentially the heart of Paris and a symbol of the secular French republic.

With hours to go before the Mass, thousands of pilgrims flocked to secure a place under cloudy skies. Many didn't identify as Catholics, but came out of interest in the pope's message.

“People are seeing a lot of really terrible images. This kind of event reminds people of what is really important in life," said Thierry Chen, a 40-year-old Parisian start-up entrepreneur who is not Catholic. "You see a lot of different people here, so it’s not just about one race, religion or nation, but about a common belief in humankind.”

Sylvane Le Goff, 68, who lives in the Paris region, came with her 10- and 12-year-old grandchildren to “give them unforgettable memories.” Le Goff, who was raised Catholic but is not practicing, said she wanted to open her grandchildren’s minds.

"It’s not only about seeing the pope but it also is about his message of peace and unity, values I’d like to share with them,” she said.

Leontine Joseph, 42, a fervent Catholic, came with two friends of Moroccan origin who grew up in Muslim culture.

“The message of Pope Leo goes well beyond Catholic people; he speaks about social justice, for example,” she said.

Leo has clearly been impressed by the numbers and enthusiasm of the French, especially at a Friday night vigil that kept the 71-year-old pope out until nearly 11 p.m. after a packed first day.

Some 80,000 young people filled the national stadium north of the French capital for an extravaganza of fireworks and a theatrical retelling of French Catholic history.

“Thank you for your courage! Thank you for your presence,” Leo told the crowd, speaking off the cuff in French. “Thank you for your faith. You are the saints of France!” he said to raucous cheers.

Hundreds of thousands expected to attend Mass

The choice of Place de la Concorde for Saturday's Mass was significant.

Organizers said they chose it because it was the only area in central Paris that could accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend. More than 600,000 people registered. Last week, organizers extended the crowd site because they predicted more.

But the choice of the venue has been criticized by staunch supporters of secularism who argue that the site represents the Republic, and that other places such as the Invalides, a complex of buildings where Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in front of 240,000 people in 2008, would have been more appropriate.

France is a traditionally Catholic country, but adheres to a strict form of secularism in public life based on a 1905 law separating church and state.

The Place de la Concorde was designed at the end of the 18th century and was among the main sites of execution during the French Revolution. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were guillotined there. For many French people, the square embodies the Republic: French presidents traditionally celebrate Bastille Day there.

The Champs-Élysées has long served as a gathering place for large public celebrations, particularly after major sporting events. In 1998, an estimated 1.5 million people celebrated on the famed avenue after France’s football team won the World Cup.

___

Associated Press writer John Leicester contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

“No comment,” the pontiff replied with a beaming smile when a reporter on his plane to France asked whether the surprise sprung Thursday by the long-suffering team was miraculous and “Do you have anything to do with that?"

But the Chicago-born and raised lifelong fan of the White Sox left no doubt that he was thrilled, by adding: “Great things happen in Chicago."

The pontiff's oh-so-diplomatic answer was perhaps because he's had experience of how perceived papal rooting for one team or another can land him in hot water.

In June, he said “the pope is for all teams" but rubbed soccer fans in Barcelona the wrong way by adding that he personally roots for Real Madrid, inserting himself into one of the biggest rivalries in club football.

Real Madrid proudly posted the video of the moment, and social media filled with comments about how the club is “the team of God.”

Again being careful not to overtly take sides, the pontiff also showed on the papal plane that he keeps a keen eye on basketball, too.

In response to another question, Leo said that “the voice of the people of God” will be cheering loudly for Villanova University — where he studied mathematics in the 1970s — when his alma mater and Notre Dame play a men’s and women’s season-opening basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1.

“They tell me that the people coming to the match, 90% are Villanova and 10% Notre Dame, so the voice of the people of God will be very strong on the Villanova side,” Leo said.

The Catholic schools are promoting the matchup as a celebration of their shared mission and heritage. Long before he became the first pope from the United States, Robert Prevost graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the Augustinian school near Philadelphia.

The 71-year-old pontiff's sporting interests extend to tennis, too.

“I consider myself quite the amateur tennis player,” he said in a 2023 interview with the Augustinian Order, although the newly made cardinal added that his church responsibilities weren't leaving him much time to get out on court.

As pontiff, Leo likes to spend Mondays and Tuesdays at the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo in the hills outside Rome — where he plays tennis with his secretary, Monsignor Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, and goes swimming and horseback riding, too.

Last year, Leo granted a Vatican audience to top-ranked tennis player Jannik Sinner. But he declined Sinner's offer of a quick volley.

The pope looked around at the antiques and said, “Better not.”

___

Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Paris contributed.

The European Amputee Football Federation, or EAFF, inaugurated the new Conference League in Bucharest. The games were held Thursday and Friday, and the final concluded on Friday when Maccabi Haifa FC of Israel was crowned the winner after beating Scotland’s Ayr United 4-0.

The victory meant a lot to Ben Binyamin of the team from Israel. Back in 2023, the Israeli player had his right leg blown off during the Hamas attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival, which left him fearing he would never play soccer again.

“I am very happy that we won this tournament, we won without conceding a single goal,” he told The Associated Press. “Football itself for us is our physiotherapy, our life, and our second family. It helps us in life. It gives us strength.”

Four teams participated in the tournament: FCSB of host nation Romania, Maccabi Haifa FC of Israel, Ayr United of Scotland and Panathinaikos AC PwD of Greece.

“We are very satisfied, very happy to bring pride to the country,” Binyamin added.

Inspired by the European club competition model in able-bodied soccer, the EAFF described the new league as a “historic milestone” that represents “another important step in the development of European amputee football.”

“The Conference League creates an international opportunity for clubs from countries where domestic amputee football leagues are not yet established,” it says on its website.

Played in a seven-versus-seven format, on 60-meter (196-foot) by 40-meter (131-foot) fields, amputee soccer is a game for amputees and people living with limb defects. Players have one leg and a pair of crutches, while goalkeepers have both legs but one hand or arm.

Established in 2015, the EAFF aims to help people with amputations or limb defects gain access to amputee soccer throughout Europe. The World Amputee Football Federation was established in 2002 and a World Cup is held every four years.

The new league hopes to attract more spectators to amputee soccer and gives teams opportunities to build international relationships. The EAFF also organizes a Nations League, Champions League, Europa League, and holds other initiatives like women’s and junior camps.

Iain Matthew, manager of the Scottish team, told the AP that while his team’s 0-4 loss to Maccabi Haifa was disappointing, the league itself offered valuable experience for his players.

“The competition is great for smaller nations … to get European football experience,” he said. “I think we could have played better, we could have defended better, but you’ve got to praise your players for what they’ve done over the week.”

___

McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.

Russell's on pole for the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix in June, which was also his last win, after going almost a full second faster than anyone else in qualifying on Friday.

“It’s probably the biggest margin in my whole career,” Russell said. “The car’s been feeling great this weekend and, on a track like this, when you can hook it up like that, it feels really amazing.”

Charles Leclerc is second for Ferrari, with McLaren's Oscar Piastri third, while Antonelli starts 16th on the grid after he hit the wall in qualifying.

Still, Russell's not ruling his teammate out after Antonelli won from ever further back on the grid at his home Italian Grand Prix this month.

“Started 19th in Monza and now he’s in 16th, so he should be leading a few laps earlier this time,” Russell joked.

Mercedes has the car to beat in terms of straight-line speed, and the Baku City Circuit has the longest straight on the F1 calendar.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is a rare F1 race on a Saturday because it was moved to avoid a clash with a national day of remembrance in the country on Sunday. The only other Saturday race on this year's schedule is the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

___

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

The west-coast based Dockers dominated play in the third quarter but the Lions came back Saturday to beat the Dockers 14.12 (96) to 12.17 (89) before a capacity crowd of 100,023 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Brisbane made it consecutive Australian rules football titles last year with a a 47-point win over Geelong.

On Saturday, the teams were tied 43-43 at halftime, with each team kicking six goals worth six points each and seven “behinds” worth one point each in the opening half. The Dockers led by 10 points after three quarters.

Logan Morris put the Lions in front with a minute left, then kicked the sealing points.

Fremantle, a port city where the Swan River meets the Indian Ocean just south of the state capital Perth, joined the league in 1995. The Dockers are still seeking their first AFL title.

Two weeks ago, 100,021 spectators crammed the same stadium to watch the first regular-season NFL game played in Australia, won 27-7 by the San Francisco 49ers over the Los Angeles Rams.

Britain-based and Melbourne-born pop star Kylie Minogue provided the pre-game entertainment Saturday.

Australian Rules football is a often dynamic contact sport played by teams of 18 on an oval field and involves plenty of kicking. It was established in and around Melbourne in the 1850s and is one of the most popular sports in Australia. The top-tier national league, the AFL, features 18 clubs.

___

See AP’s full sports coverage here

Meanwhile, Iranian media outlets say the country's president has left New York after the United Nations gathering of world leaders that included Iran's indirect talks with the United States. And Saudi Arabia says it has intercepted another missile it blames on Iran -backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen.

Here is a look at the latest news from the Middle East on Saturday. More coverage of the U.N. General Assembly is available here.

Trump posts a map calling key waterway ‘Trump Strait’

Trump posted an image early Saturday morning on his Truth Social platform of the Strait of Hormuz labeled “Trump Strait,” in the first public indication of his thinking after Iran proposed the new deal and suggested it might help Trump ahead of the midterm elections.

The White House on Friday said only that U.S. officials were having positive and constructive conversations with mediators on the Iran war. Earlier in the week, Iran held hours of indirect talks with the U.S.

Iranian outlets say the country's president has left New York

Semiofficial media outlets in Iran reported that President Masoud Pezeshkian has departed New York for Tehran after the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders.

Pezeshkian's speech to the gathering pushed back against Trump's latest threat to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic, but he ended by saying Tehran remains open to diplomacy.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told journalists Friday night that under Tehran's proposal, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the United States lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.

Saudi Arabia says it intercepted a missile fired by Houthis

Saudi Arabia’s military spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, claimed early Saturday that a ballistic missile launched by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen was intercepted and destroyed. He said it was fired toward the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.

The Associated Press couldn’t immediately verify that independently. There was no immediate statement of responsibility, though it can take days for the Houthis to issue one.

A regional body representing Arab Gulf states, the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned the latest Houthi attacks as a “grave escalation and threat to regional security” and urged the international community to respond.

Iraq seeks exemptions to US sanctions on Iranian airlines

Iraq said it is in direct contact with the U.S. to secure exemptions from sanctions on Iranian airlines as Washington continues economic pressure on Tehran.

The Iraqi prime minister’s office said the aim is to get exemptions for certain airports, noting flights for humanitarian reasons such as medical treatment, education and religious pilgrimages.

Many pilgrims in neighboring Iran visit sites such as Karbala and Najaf.

Israeli settlers seize more water sources in the West Bank

Israeli settlers have intensified efforts to seize natural springs and heritage sites in the occupied West Bank. The springs are vital for drinking water, tourism and agriculture and increasingly inaccessible to the 2.8 million Palestinians living there.

In the Jordan Valley, settlers cut a water pipe to a Palestinian village, redirecting it to a pool they named after Herod, the Roman-appointed king of Judea. Israeli rights groups say the move is part of a broader effort to claim heritage sites.

The struggle for water access highlights the ongoing contest for control of the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced shortages since 1967.

___

This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

His thing is esports.

Meet Yuki Kurihara, the Japanese elementary school student who defeated Kang Dongshin of South Korea 10-2 on Saturday in the final of the Puyo Puyo Champions puzzle game at the Asian Games.

He defeated Tanarak Wongkitikun of Thailand in the semifinals, 10-1. The Thai player is a relative old-timer at 28.

“I’m really happy,” Kurihara said. “The gold medal is really beautiful, shiny and heavy.”

He said he also liked the little mascot doll he was given for winning.

“The plush toy is super cute, and it’s cool that it is gold-colored too.”

Kang, the loser in the final, praised Kurihara,

“It’s obvious that my opponent was skilled and above my level,” Kang said. “His technical ability and accuracy are incredible.”

Kurihara is believed to be youngest-ever gold medalist in the Asian Games, which date from 1951 in New Delhi, India. And he’s certainly the youngest in these Asian Games.

Japanese media has reported he trains eight hours daily and still keeps up his grades in school.

Esports was held in the Asian Games for the first time three years ago in Hangzhou, China. It was so popular that tickets were sold by lottery. It's also an audience favorite in Japan.

Youth is being served at the Asian Games. Kamus Wong is a 12-year-old competing for Hong Kong in skateboarding, and 13-year-old Yu Zidi of China won three gold medals in swimming.

A relative senior citizen, 17-year-old Japanese swimmer Shin Ohashi set a world record on Thursday in the 200-meter breaststroke.

___

See full AP coverage of Asian sports here

Los principales canales de Bangkok se llenaron con la lluvia acumulada, que superó los 20 centímetros (7,8 pulgadas), informaron funcionarios el sábado. Las aguas de la inundación se extendieron por la ciudad, en particular en las zonas central y oriental, bloqueando caminos y paralizando el tránsito.

El Departamento Meteorológico de Tailandia advirtió que las fuertes lluvias continuarían en la mayor parte del país hasta el domingo, y atribuyó la situación a un intenso sistema de baja presión sobre la región central y al fortalecimiento de las condiciones del monzón del suroeste.

Más de 84.000 personas en 21 provincias de todo el país se vieron afectadas por las inundaciones hasta el sábado, especialmente en la región central. Las autoridades enviaron mensajes de alerta de emergencia mediante el sistema de difusión celular a las personas en las zonas afectadas, indicó el gobierno.

Bangkok sufrió aguaceros durante gran parte del viernes y la lluvia intensa persistió hasta el sábado. En fotos y videos podían verse importantes vías anegadas y autos abandonados después de que los conductores no pudieron avanzar a través del agua que subía.

El gobernador de Bangkok, Chadchart Sittipunt, manifestó que se esperaba lluvia intensa hasta el sábado, pero que las inundaciones deberían retroceder una vez que disminuyan las precipitaciones. Los funcionarios municipales trabajan para drenar el agua lo más rápido posible.

Se habilitaron varios refugios para alojar a los residentes obligados a evacuar, mientras que se abrieron algunas instalaciones gubernamentales para ofrecer estacionamiento de vehículos, señalaron funcionarios.

———

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

Thailand’s Meteorological Department warned that the deluge, which has been pouring since Thursday afternoon, would continue in most parts of the country through Sunday.

Accumulated rainfall in many areas of Bangkok since Thursday exceeded 30 centimeters (11.8 inches), officials said. Floodwaters spread across the city, particularly in the central and eastern parts, blocking roads and stopping traffic.

While not all parts of Bangkok were submerged, the city declared all of its 50 districts a flood disaster area to allow authorities to respond rapidly to the crisis.

More than 84,000 people in 21 provinces nationwide were affected by flooding as of Saturday, especially in the central region. Authorities sent emergency warning messages through the cellphones, the government said.

Hwang Hwan-chung, who flew from South Korea and has visited Bangkok a dozen times, said he had never seen such “crazy” weather, adding that he couldn’t find a taxi.

Sukanya Tongsuk, a resident, said the current flooding was similar to the last time Bangkok was hit in 2011.

Meanwhile, Dutch resident Bjorn Franken, who has lived in the capital for two years, said he was able to cope although one event he wanted to attend had been canceled.

Many businesses in Bangkok closed on Saturday due to flooding.

Cars crawled along waterlogged roads in parts of Bangkok, and bikers were seen pushing their motorcycles. Authorities said some regional bus services from Bangkok to the eastern provinces were suspended.

Phetchaburi Road, one of the capital’s busiest, was unusually quiet as vehicles were turned back by floods. Some were left partially submerged.

Residents made their way through murky waters, carrying fresh water and food. Some were barefoot and others wearing rubber waders while several wrapped plastic bags around their feet to keep dry.

Air traffic control authorities confirmed flight operations were normal but some flights might face delays.

Bangkok Gov. Chadchart Sittipunt said despite the heavy rain, flooding should recede once the rain subsides, as city officials work to drain floodwaters as quickly as possible.

More than 200 shelters were set up across the city and about 900 people have moved in, Chadchart said.

But for the 2.8 million Palestinians who live in the territory, those springs and the stone reservoirs they fill are increasingly out of reach as Israeli settlers — encouraged by a hard-line government facing reelection — have stepped up efforts both to seize the springs and other heritage sites.

In one case this summer, water from a natural spring to the Palestinian village of Fasayil was illegally diverted to an ancient pool nearby. Whoever siphoned the water used it to fill up that pool, declaring it a new tourist attraction named after Herod, the Roman-appointed king of Judea.

Agreements reached in the 1990s indicate the pool is located in Area C, meaning it is under full Israeli military control. Research by Dror Etkes, who runs the settlement watchdog group Kerem Navot, determined the land was privately owned.

Palestinian farmer Saad Nemer, from Fasayil, said the water being cut off has devastated his fields, adding that his family has documents that prove ownership of the land. COGAT, Israel’s military body that oversees civil issues in the West Bank, acknowledged the water was diverted “without authorization” and said it would investigate.

Other swimming areas in the West Bank have also become sites of conflict. An Israeli father of six was shot and killed last week by a Palestinian at a spring in the northern West Bank, where he was bathing with his oldest son ahead of the Yom Kippur holiday.

Israel funds Jewish heritage projects in the West Bank

Israel has occupied the West Bank since it captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 war. Since then, it has built a network of settlements for more than half a million Israelis on land Palestinians seek for a future independent state.

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal. Earlier this month, during a rise in settler violence and other actions that have displaced Palestinians, the British government accused Israel of turning “a blind eye” to what it described as “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank — perpetrated by settler terrorists.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the violence but blamed it on a “handful of rioters” in the occupied West Bank he said do injustice to the “law-abiding settler public.”

The push to take over and claim heritage sites is part of this wider effort, according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem, which said in a report this month that such designations are used to “elevate the historical, cultural, and religious ties of the State of Israel and the Jewish people to the West Bank.”

The decision by settlers to name the pool near Fasayil after Herod was an attempt to “brand” the site as part of Jewish history, said Alon Arad, executive director of Emek Shaveh, an Israeli group that opposes the politicization of archaeology in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Archaeologists have never studied the site, so it's unclear when it was built. Other ruins in the area date to Herod's reign in the first century B.C.E., according to excavations conducted by the archaeology unit of Israel’s Civil Administration, a branch of the military that manages day-to-day affairs in the West Bank.

At the beginning of October, after the Jewish holidays, the pool will be drained so that the administration’s archaeologists can complete a full survey of the site, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said in an interview with The Associated Press.

He praised the group that originally diverted the water and said about $1 million has been earmarked by the government to rehabilitate the site. That is out of at least $166 million he said is now allocated for excavations and infrastructure at more than 100 sites he claimed are connected to Jewish heritage in the West Bank.

“We’ll turn this place into the Garden of Eden,” Eliyahu said during a visit to the pool, which is near the Petzael settlement.

There is “no such thing as a Palestinian nation” he added, before leaping into the water.

Fields dry up as water is seized

The struggle for water access in this strip of fertile land reflects a wider contest for control of the West Bank, and in particular the Jordan Valley, which Palestinians consider the breadbasket of their hoped-for future state and Israelis view as key to protecting their eastern border.

Palestinians have faced water shortages and restrictions since Israel took control in 1967. Interim peace accords in the 1990s recognized their water rights but preserved a system that allocated some 80% of water pumped from the main aquifer for Israeli use.

Now, soaring attacks by settlers are exacerbating the problem. Settlers have damaged, destroyed or seized approximately 160 water and sanitation structures, including pipelines and cisterns, in Palestinian communities in 2026, according to a July report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The attackers are increasingly targeting shared water infrastructure and have disrupted supply to all or large parts of several Palestinian communities, the report said.

In Al Auja, in the Jordan Valley, the seizure by settlers of the local natural springs has forced some Palestinian farmers to abandon their fields.

Murad al-Juba, 53, once grew an abundance of fruit and vegetables, including cantaloupes, eggplant, bananas and tomatoes. But after settlers encroached, harassing residents and diverting the spring water, he said he has been unable to plant.

“All these farms depend on the spring, but today, the spring is gone, because the settlers took it,” Juba said.

More recently, “settlers have completely taken over” the spring's waterfall and turned “the area into a quasi-military zone,” said mayor Hani al-Njoum, adding it has been devastating for local tourism and agriculture.

“This land was bountiful,” Juba said. “Today, it is a desert.”

___

Bwaitel reported from Al Auja, West Bank.

Leer en español

Deborah Singleton said her 33-year-old son, Marcel Carter, was killed Thursday morning when the car he was riding in crashed into a utility pole and burst into flames.

“I just don’t know what to do, and I can’t see my son,” Singleton said. “They won’t let me see my son. And I just have to wait.”

Carter, a father of six young children, was in the passenger seat of the car, according to his mother.

“I just want to hold him,” Singleton said. “That’s all I want to do is hold my son. And tell him how much I love him.”

The crash happened around 4:45 a.m. Thursday in the 6500 block of Nova Drive. Witnesses said the car was a white Corvette.

Singleton said her son was close to home when the crash happened.

“He was right there at his house,” she said.

Police say the investigation is ongoing, leaving Singleton with questions about what happened.

“I have so many questions because there’s so many different stories that’s going on, you know, and people are speculating and they don’t know what happened,” she said.

The other victim has been identified as Brandon Kleinberg.

His mother shared with Local 10 a picture of her only child.

“He was a good person. He was loved. He was adored and he had lots of friends,” she said.

As Singleton waits for answers, she is also preparing to bury her son.

“If anybody would like to donate to help us bury our son, I would appreciate more than anything,” she said.

Singleton said the loss was unexpected and reminded her of how fragile life can be.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family with funeral expenses.

Last month’s floods have destroyed everything once more.

With his home in a designated danger zone and no clear idea of where his family will resettle, Prassan is staying with his wife and children at a relative’s house and mulling another stint overseas.

“This flood has taken everything,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.”

A month after devastating floods swept through parts of Nepal, thousands are displaced like Prassan and rescuers continue searching for thousands others missing, including many believed trapped in six hydropower project tunnels. The disaster has left the government facing a long and costly recovery, with families confronting the loss of loved ones, homes and livelihoods.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah used his first address to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday to highlight the flooding as a warning about the growing climate risks facing the Himalayan region.

“The disaster was not just a local tragedy, but a warning to the world,” Shah said. “I ask you today: Have we really heard that warning?”

Shah also called for greater international support for Nepal’s recovery and stronger regional cooperation to prepare for climate-related disasters.

“Climate change does not recognize borders. Glaciers and floods do not travel with stamps and passports,” he said.

DNA testing delays final rites for some families

Nepal’s disaster management agency said 1,453 bodies had been recovered and 5,644 people remained missing. Only 112 bodies had been handed over to relatives, while 1,333 were temporarily buried pending identification. In neighboring China, officials reported 261 foreign nationals among the missing.

Tents have been set up at the Nepal Police Hospital in Kathmandu, where relatives can provide DNA samples to help identify the dead. Authorities are comparing the samples with DNA collected from recovered remains.

Laboratory officials declined to provide details, citing privacy concerns, but said experts from India, China, the United States, Singapore and South Korea were assisting with the work.

Rabi Kumar Thapa Magar, a hydropower worker who lost his wife, brother, sister-in-law and mother, said he identified his wife from a photo of the dead — but authorities had buried her body before the family could see it.

Authorities declined to release the body pending DNA matching, a process they said would take at least a month. The family later performed symbolic final rites using an effigy.

Families grieve children lost in the floods

Many others are still processing the grief.

Pasang Maya Tamang, 32, who lost her young son in the floods, said she still dreams of him pleading for help.

“The body of my son has been recovered but I was not able to see him for the last time. I am very sad about that. I hear in my dreams him saying why I left him alone,” Tamang said at a shelter home in the flood-affected town of Nuwakot.

Her son had gone to school with a neighbor when the flood hit. By the time she learned what had happened, the school had already been swept away. His body was recovered three days later in a southern district, but she was unable to travel there to see him.

The Aug. 26 flood hit in the morning, around the time students were arriving at schools or making their way there. Some children's bodies were later recovered still wearing ties bearing their school’s logo, said Asta Man Dangol, a resident in Nuwakot.

"The older students were able to run uphill and escape, but the little ones who were not able to run fast ... were swept away," he said.

Crews work to reconnect communities cut off by the floods

The Nepal government estimates reconstruction and recovery will cost $4.77 billion. Nearly 33,000 people have been affected, and about 7,500 homes were damaged or destroyed.

The recovery is now focused on restoring roads and bridges cut off by the floods, particularly in remote areas where damaged infrastructure has made it difficult to deliver aid.

Ishmita Shah, a roads engineer, said crews have been working with Nepal's army since the second day after the floods to reopen routes in affected areas.

Shah said bridges were being built to improve access to the worst-affected areas and make it easier to transport relief supplies. But the work remains difficult, with more bad weather expected in the coming days, she said.

“The upcoming few days are going to be very challenging because of the weather, but we are fully prepared for that too,” she said.

And with starting running back Turbo Richard out with an injury, Beebe gladly showed everyone what he could do.

On a night the Hoosiers looked nothing like the defending national champs, Beebe carried 24 times for 203 yards, scored one touchdown and his late 70-yard burst set up Josh Hoover's game-sealing 1-yard score with 1:56 to go as No. 5 Indiana held on for a 29-23 victory over Northwestern. Beebe was so good, he even earned the highest praise from coach Curt Cignetti.

“That guy’s got a lot of heart,” Cignetti said. “Boy, he’s got as much heart as anyone that’s been in this program the last three years. Not only didn’t he step in, he played and fortunately they couldn’t tackle him. It was all grit and heart.”

The Hoosiers (4-0, 1-0 Big Ten) extended the Football Bowl Subdivision's longest active winning streak to 20 games and the longest home winning streak to 19 — barely.

Northwestern was within 15-13 early in the fourth quarter and had two chances to tie because of a pass-interference call on its first 2-point attempt. But the Hoosiers stopped quarterback Aidan Chiles on a designed run to preserve the lead.

Following a facemask penalty on third-and-19 that gave Indiana a first down, Beebe ripped off a 39-yard run and then ran for a 4-yard TD with 9:39 left to make it a two-score game. After Northwestern cut the deficit to 22-20, Beebe ran 70 yards to the Wildcats 5-yard line. Six plays later, Hoover scored.

Northwestern fell just short of beating a defending national champion for the first time since 1971 and a top five foe for the first time since 1959.

“Our guys kept battling, our coaches kept battling, but the frustrating thing was — I have all the respect for Indiana — but we beat ourselves,” Wildcats coach David Braun said. “We should be coming out of here with the win.”

They certainly had Indiana befuddled in the second half, right down to the final minute.

Jackson Kleather made a 42-yard field goal with 58 seconds left to make it a one-score game, but the Wildcats (2-1, 0-1) couldn't recover the onside kick.

Hoover was 19 of 29 for 201 yards and a touchdown, Charlie Becker had seven catches for 98 yards and Beebe had his second 100-yard game of the season after Turbo Richard left with a lower right leg injury in the first half.

Chiles was 22 of 29 for 293 yards and touchdowns. He also rushed for a score.

The Wildcats opened the game with a goal-line stand, but Chiles fumbled the snap on their first offensive play and Rolijah Hardy tackled him in the end zone for a safety.

Indiana made it 5-0 on Nico Radicic's 43-yard field goal early in the second quarter and extended the margin to 12-0 with Nick Marsh's 8-yard TD catch with 5:04 left in the first half.

But that's all the Hoosiers could muster in a half in which they held Northwestern to 51 total yards and minus-5 yards on the ground.

The takeaway

Northwestern: The Wildcats couldn't get anything right offensively in the first half, but coordinator Chip Kelly turned Chiles loose in the second half and it got them back into the game. The failed 2-point try and the defense's failure to get off the field coast them late.

Indiana: Poll voters penalized the Hoosiers last week, dropping them one spot after a 38-0 rout of Western Kentucky. And this was as vulnerable as Indiana's defense has looked in more than a year. Whether it's an aberration is unclear, but it's likely the Hoosiers will drop in the AP Top 25 again.

Injury report

Richard appeared to suffer a lower right leg injury when he was tackled out of bounds in the second quarter though no penalty was called. Indiana is also missing RB Khobie Martin with a broken arm. The Hoosiers also lost linebacker Hardy in the second half, and he walked from the field straight to the locker room. Cignetti did not provide any postgame updates.

Northwestern played without injured cornerback Braden Turner and lost cornerback Josh Fussell on the game’s first series. He was in street clothes and on crutches before the first quarter ended. Chiles also left for one play after he apparently suffered a dislocated finger on his nonthrowing hand.

Up next

Northwestern: Has another big test next Saturday, hosting No. 13 Penn State.

Indiana: Visits winless Rutgers next Saturday in its first away game of the season.

___

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

Activistas por los derechos humanos alegan que dichas leyes forman parte de un andamiaje legal con el que se pretende restringir la libertad de expresión e información en el país sudamericano.

Las partes se reunieron en Caracas con el propósito de diseñar una agenda conjunta para fortalecer la democracia y restituir derechos fundamentales tras casi tres décadas de gobiernos socialistas.

En un comunicado, dieron a conocer la decisión conjunta de acompañar el anuncio del gobierno de la presidenta encargada, Delcy Rodríguez, de continuar y ampliar “el levantamiento de medidas administrativas” que durante años han restringido el acceso a numerosos portales de noticias, páginas web y medios electrónicos. Dicha restricción se llevó a cabo bajo el argumento de que su contenido atentaba contra la paz y la estabilidad del pueblo venezolano.

En el comunicado, leído por el influyente presidente del Legislativo, Jorge Rodríguez —hermano de la presidenta encargada—, y la exdiputada Dinorah Figuera —quien lidera a un grupo de exlegisladores opositores que en su momento intentaron destituir al expresidente Nicolás Maduro—, destacaron que el acuerdo forma parte de los “aportes realizados en esta mesa de diálogo” para “fortalecer la libertad de expresión, el pensamiento plural y el derecho a la información”.

Washington es el principal impulsor de los diálogos. Después de deponer y capturar a Maduro y su esposa en un audaz operativo militar el 3 de enero de este año, el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump propuso un plan de “tres fases” para Venezuela, el cual incluye la estabilización, la recuperación y la transición democrática. Maduro fue trasladado a Nueva York, donde enfrenta un juicio por el presunto delito de narcotráfico.

Desde 2004, los gobiernos del ahora fallecido presidente Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), y de Maduro (2013-2026) —su sucesor y heredero político—, promulgaron una serie de leyes que regulan férreamente la difusión y recepción de mensajes en los medios de comunicación y que derivaron en su cierre, algunos de ellos tras la imposición de multas millonarias. También permitieron ordenar el bloqueo de numerosos medios radioeléctricos y digitales, locales y extranjeros.

En agosto de 2024, Maduro ordenó bloquear el acceso a redes sociales, entre ellas X, como parte de una serie de empeños de su gobierno para tratar de suprimir el intercambio de información entre las personas que cuestionaban que él hubiera ganado los comicios presidenciales de ese año, en particular después de que la oposición presentó pruebas creíbles de que su candidato había sido el ganador.

El 17 de septiembre del presente año, la presidenta Rodríguez le ordenó al organismo regulador de las telecomunicaciones en el país autorizar a las empresas proveedoras de internet en Venezuela rehabilitar en sus infraestructuras varios dominios y portales informativos.

La organización no gubernamental Ve Sin Filtro --dedicada a monitorear, documentar y denunciar la censura digital en el país-- reportó en redes sociales que, después del anuncio, apenas habían sido rehabilitados 17 dominios, 15 de ellos sitios de noticias, mientras que 177 sitios web seguían bloqueados.

Ve Sin Filtro denunció entonces que “sigue la censura contra muchos medios", páginas de organizaciones no gubernamentales y de "iniciativas políticas”, entre otras.

Horas antes del cierre del segundo ciclo de conversaciones, la mandataria ordenó “levantar las medidas administrativas" contra un grupo de plataformas y portales web que aún permanecen bloqueados, indicó el Ministerio de Comunicaciones.

Las delegaciones en diálogo también acordaron conformar un Consejo de Revisión de Credenciales y Requisitos de los postulados al Tribunal Supremo de Justicia.

En el primer ciclo de conversaciones se acordó renovar en su totalidad el máximo tribunal, entre otras medidas. Estas incluyen renovar y ampliar el comité de postulaciones para la designación de los 32 magistrados que lo componen, así como conformar un consejo de revisión de credenciales y requisitos de quienes se postulen al TSJ, con el fin de evitar irregularidades en la designación de los magistrados, dijeron entonces los delegados en un comunicado conjunto.

Los adversarios de Chávez y Maduro han acusado al oficialismo de designar con su abrumadora mayoría a los magistrados entre sus aliados, con el fin de asegurarse el control del máximo tribunal. En los últimos 27 años éste se ha convertido en un actor decisivo en la trama política venezolana, con una gran cantidad de sentencias desfavorables a los críticos de los gobiernos socialistas.

Por su parte, el oficialismo ha dicho que los nombramientos de magistrados principales y suplentes se hicieron bajo “estricto cumplimiento” de las leyes.

The AI giant's models accessed publicly available information on two websites operated by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as U.S. Census Bureau data, the company revealed Friday. OpenAI did not find any use of SEC credentials, access to accounts or nonpublic information, changes to SEC data or systems, or evidence of a compromise or vulnerability, the company said.

The disclosure comes at a time of heightened global concerns about AI systems escaping human control and hacking into external websites, as well as industry calls for a slowdown on AI development, which OpenAI has said it supports.

OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeois said in a statement that the lab is continuing to conduct a review of “misaligned model activity" — meaning when AI systems behave in undesired ways — and is notifying organizations when it identifies potential impacts to their systems.

OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman said on social media Friday that there is an “extensive and ongoing review related to our agents’ use of internet access during training and evaluation.”

AI evaluator and research lab Transluce said Friday that through an independent investigation it also found that agents appearing to originate from OpenAI attempted a rudimentary hack on a Department of Education website for the department’s civil rights office, which did not succeed.

The Department of Education's “system operations reviews" found "no evidence of any impact to our website or databases,” a department spokesperson said Friday.

A Transluce spokesperson said as part of its investigation, it came across data on the open web that revealed fresh details about some previously identified OpenAI agents' activities on U.S. government websites and brought it to OpenAI's attention.

Transluce found “additional rogue activity, some of which is not clearly attributable to OpenAI," targeting other government agencies, including the Justice Department and the Commerce Department, as well as some state government websites in California, Maryland, Illinois, Texas and New York. The models were “using sites in unintended ways and sometimes violating explicit usage policies,” Transluce said in a statement.

OpenAI said it is reviewing Transluce’s report.

If OpenAI notifies organizations it identifies as being impacted by unexpected model behavior, that does not mean there was a security incident, the company said, and could identify a design issue or security weakness that impacted organizations want to address.

Most of the activity OpenAI said it has reviewed so far has involved routine research tasks where agents accessed public web content to answer questions, including government websites seen as authoritative sources of public information.

Several companies have disclosed incidents in recent months when they say their models have behaved unpredictably or hacked into other organizations' websites or systems. OpenAI disclosed in July that two of its most capable AI models were responsible for the cyberattack targeting AI startup Hugging Face.

Altman said in his social media post Friday that the Hugging Face incident “is still the most severe event we’ve seen.”

That incident stirred widespread panic in the industry and beyond about AI models going rogue, and several competing AI labs made similar disclosures in the days and weeks that followed. OpenAI most recently shared six reports of “unexpected or concerning” behavior in AI models and introduced a framework for tracking, probing and disclosing instances of what it called misalignment.

___

Huamani reported from Los Angeles.

The crash happened on Northwest 11th Place, where the vehicle came to a stop after crashing into the house, leaving a hole and debris behind.

Video obtained by Local 10 from a nearby home shows the driver hitting several parked vehicles. The driver also hit both of Chris Vonwittke’s vehicles parked in his driveway.

“Me and one of the neighbors looked at him, it looked he didn’t know -- he thought it was a different day of the week,” Vonwittke said.

In one clip, the vehicle’s airbag can be seen deployed.

Neighbors said the driver had a sunshade covering the front windshield.

More video from neighbors showed police arriving at the scene as people came out of their homes to see what happened.

One neighbor said the driver appeared disoriented after the crash and did not know where he was.

Sunrise police said the driver lost control while experiencing a medical emergency. Paramedics took him to the hospital.

Police said the driver was conscious and breathing, and there were no injuries reported to the driver or anyone else in the neighborhood.

The Lightning were looking for their first win over the Wildcats in 11 years.

Western led 6-0 in the second quarter before Mason Mora added to the lead. Mora bounced off defenders and raced 52 yards for the touchdown, making it 12-0.

Cypress Bay started to come back in the third quarter. Oomarion Beal aired it out to Zachary McKenzie for a touchdown, and the extra point made it a two-point game.

The game went into overtime, with Western getting the ball first. The Wildcats went for it on fourth down, but Jack Saeder was picked off in the end zone.

Cypress Bay was stopped on third down but went for the game-winning field goal. Nicolas Budejen knocked it through to give the Lightning the win.

Cypress Bay improved to 6-0 with its first win over Western in 11 years.

Chaminade also rolled to a win over St. Andrews.

Clinton Jean-Pierre took the handoff and ran it in for a touchdown as the Lions got rolling.

St. Andrews was able to move the ball early, but Keion Thomas came up with a nice pass breakup.

Chaminade went on to win 48-3.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the terms of Curry's contract. Curry was eligible to command up to $136 million, so he is giving his team a discount as he backs up his longstanding commitment to finish his career with the Warriors.

Golden State general manager Mike Dunleavy said last month he was optimistic of getting something done with the two-time MVP and NBA career leader in 3-pointers.

“We couldn’t be more excited about reaching an agreement with Stephen and extending his historic career with the Warriors,” Dunleavy said in a statement. “There has never been a better face to a franchise in professional sports history, both on and off the court, than Stephen Curry with the Warriors. He embodies everything this organization strives to represent through his legendary play on the court, his unique leadership and sacrifice, and his unmatched impact in the community.”

The 38-year-old Curry will complete a $62.6 million extension he signed for the 2026-27 season in August 2024 before the new contract takes him through 2029 — which would be his 20th season.

If he plays that 20th year, he would join Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas, the late Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Udonis Haslem of Miami as the only the players in NBA history to play 20 or more seasons with one franchise.

Curry averaged 26.6 points, 4.7 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals while playing 30.9 minutes but was limited to 43 games last season.

He missed more than two months with a nagging right knee injury before he finally came back in early April. He had initially hoped to return after the All-Star break.

Curry has won four NBA titles with Golden State, most recently in 2022.

“We’ve been incredibly blessed to experience 17 years of Stephen’s artistry and are thrilled that our fans will continue to have the opportunity to watch him perform and write additional chapters to his illustrious story,” Dunleavy said.

ESPN first reported Curry's new deal.

___

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

Incumbent Congressman Jared Moskowitz and political newcomer Pia Dandiya met with voters on Friday, with national Democrats bringing money and manpower to the state.

National Democrats had largely written off Florida in the last few elections. Now, they are back, seeing signs that Florida’s red tide may be turning.

The roundtable with Moskowitz was a long one. The Democratic incumbent met with Hispanic voters over croquetas, saying he believes they are ready to turn away from rising costs and the kind of immigration enforcement they never expected.

“Republicans are doing everything they can to talk about something other than the economy, but every month the bill comes due,” Moskowitz said.

Moskowitz is the Democratic incumbent, though Florida’s Republican Legislature redrew his district and three others to favor Republicans.

His challenger is former Boca Mayor Scott Singer, who is running on a Trump-leaning agenda.

“They drew these four seats thinking these would be easy pickups for them,” Moskowitz said. “The reason they are spending all this money against me is they have seen the numbers.”

U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said she is in Florida because the path to the majority runs through the state, including Florida’s 25th Congressional District.

DelBene is the campaign chair for Democrats in Congress. Her appearance is part of a show of national support Florida Democrats have not had in the better part of a decade, working to protect the incumbent here and support the challenger in another district.

Dandiya, a former teacher and public policy staffer at the White House and Apple, is running against Republican businessman Casey Askar for the open District 22 seat.

“The through line to all these parts of my service journey — how do we create a democracy where that American dream my family lived is actually in reach for others,” Dandiya said.

DelBene also spoke at Dandiya’s roundtable, pointing to issues including tariffs, what she called “the big ugly bill” and the war in Iran.

One of the hallmarks of these Florida midterms has been the lack of big debates. There has been a lot of drama and finger-pointing about who will and who won’t debate and why.

But in the end, Florida voters will not be seeing the candidates side by side debating the big issues.

La decisión pone fin a la operación, oferta, intermediación y publicidad de las apuestas. La medida provisional del ejecutivo entra en vigor de inmediato, pero necesitará la aprobación del Congreso en un plazo de 120 días para mantenerse vigente. Prohíbe nuevos depósitos en cuentas y da a los usuarios de plataformas de apuestas hasta el 5 de octubre para retirar sus fondos.

El gobierno de Lula también ha redactado un proyecto de ley para establecer delitos penales relacionados con las apuestas de cuota fija —el tipo más común y dominante de apuestas deportivas en línea—, como promoverlas y usar datos personales para captar apostadores.

“Tomé la decisión de adoptar una medida dura, drástica y necesaria”, declaró el mandatario a periodistas en Sao Paulo. “Es como el cáncer: o se extirpa el tumor, o el tumor nos mata”.

Lula también había criticado a la industria de las apuestas anteriormente esta semana en la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, al acusarla de “transformar la adicción en ganancia” y de “destruir hogares”.

Las encuestas indican que una prohibición cuenta con un amplio respaldo entre los brasileños. El senador Flávio Bolsonaro, principal rival de Lula en las próximas elecciones, acusó al actual mandatario de adoptar una “medida electoral”.

El presidente de Brasil ha criticado con dureza las apuestas en línea al menos desde abril, cuando pidió una prohibición. La reacción en contra creció durante la Copa Mundial de la FIFA, cuando los anuncios eran omnipresentes y se disparó el número de personas que apostaban.

Se estima que las apuestas y el juego le cuestan a la sociedad brasileña 38.800 millones de reales (7.000 millones de dólares) al año, y aumentan el suicidio y la depresión, según un estudio de 2025 del Instituto de Estudios para Políticas de Salud, una organización sin fines de lucro.

El banco central del país estimó el año pasado que los brasileños gastan alrededor de 30.000 millones de reales (5.700 millones de dólares) en apuestas cada mes. Esa cifra incluía el gasto de beneficiarios del programa federal de asistencia pública Bolsa Familia, que fue bloqueado en esas plataformas el año pasado.

Los legisladores, incluidos muchos del Partido Liberal, al que pertenece Flávio Bolsonaro, anularon en octubre del año pasado una orden de Lula para aumentar impuestos a las apuestas en línea y a los casinos virtuales.

El juego es ilegal en Brasil, pero el país abrió las puertas a las apuestas en línea en 2018 durante la presidencia de Michel Temer. El fenómeno se aceleró bajo la mirada del expresidente Jair Bolsonaro, padre de Flávio Bolsonaro.

En diciembre de 2023, Lula firmó una ley para regular y gravar a las empresas de apuestas por primera vez. Meses después, su gobierno bloqueó más de 2.000 sitios web de apuestas en línea que fueron catalogados como irregulares, incluidos algunos vinculados a organizaciones criminales como el Primer Comando de la Capital, de Sao Paulo, y el Comando Vermelho, de Río de Janeiro. Fue parte de un impulso nacional para regular el sector.

Lula y miembros de la administración federal han hablado de prohibir las apuestas en línea como algo necesario tanto para cerrar una sangría para la economía del país como para abordar un problema de salud pública, ya que muchos brasileños son adictos y atraviesan dificultades financieras por gastar su dinero en estas plataformas.

Analistas de negocios señalan que los ingresos de las apuestas deportivas, uno de los modelos de apuestas prohibidos el viernes, se estiman en más de 4.000 millones de dólares al año en Brasil, uno de los mayores mercados del mundo.

Antes de la medida del viernes, los principales clubes de fútbol de Brasil dieron la voz de alarma después de que, según se informó, empresas de apuestas advirtieran a los clubes que los patrocinios terminarán de inmediato si el gobierno prohibía las apuestas.

Los clubes afirmaron que la medida podría significar “el fin del fútbol brasileño”, una afirmación de la que se burlaron algunos usuarios de redes sociales en el país.

___

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

Alabama sued the social media company in 2025 claiming that the platform had negative effects on the mental well-being of youths.

The lawsuit argued that TikTok's “addictive properties” — namely its algorithm that curates highly specific content catered to users' interests — were harmful to children and that the company knew of those harms.

Through the settlement, TikTok will make several platform-level changes for teen users in Alabama, including the option for teens to select a non-personalized content feed.

The platform will also bar cosmetic procedure filters for teens, implement a two-hour daily time limit and ban nighttime use from midnight to 6 a.m. Young users in Alabama will also be prompted to take a “productive pause” after 15 minutes of continuous use, and again at 60 and 90 minutes.

In addition to the platform changes, TikTok will pay Alabama $100 million in restitution and remediation, which will likely go toward funding youth mental health services and other programs. If enough other states reach qualifying settlements with TikTok within a specific time frame, Alabama could receive up to an additional $183.8 million.

The platform-level changes outlined in the settlement agreement are roughly similar to changes Meta agreed to make when it reached a settlement this summer to resolve similar claims that were filed by nearly every state, including Alabama. Meta had called on TikTok and its other chief competitor, YouTube, to join it in adopting similar standards, but TikTok had not publicly responded.

Katherine Robertson, chief counsel in the Alabama Attorney General’s office and the Republican nominee to be the state’s next attorney general, acknowledged the similarities with the Meta agreement and told The Associated Press on Friday: “There's been a war on childhood coming from a million different directions.”

“We recognize that parents and youth are fighting a battle against a bunch of different platforms,” Robertson said. “They’re manipulating kids to get addicted to their product, essentially.”

The settlement also outlines more robust and user-friendly parental controls, stronger age verification measures TikTok must take, and stronger content moderation protocols. Teen accounts will also be set to private by default.

A spokesperson for the TikTok USDS Joint Venture said Friday in a statement that TikTok’s priority has “always been fostering a safe and positive space where people can be creative, discover what they love, and connect with their community. This builds on our commitment and core objective to continually enhance our robust safety tools to protect teens.”

Alabama would have been the first state to argue its claims against TikTok in front of a jury. The trial was scheduled to begin Monday.

TikTok has settled several lawsuits with similar claims filed by individuals before they went to trial, most notably in the landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles earlier this year. The jury in that case found that YouTube and Meta designed their platforms to hook young users without concern for their well-being.

TikTok also reached a $400 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in August, ending a 2024 lawsuit alleging the company violated federal children’s privacy laws.

———

Associated Press writer Kim Chandler contributed to this report from Montgomery, Ala.

In a scathing letter Thursday to Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, prosecutor Sheri Mecklenburg wrote that she was “retiring under protest.”

“You have forced me to choose between remaining silent while my professional reputation is destroyed and prematurely surrendering my cherished career," Mecklenburg wrote in the letter obtained by The Associated Press. "I choose the latter.”

Mecklenburg accused Boutros of “laying responsibility at my feet for a felony prosecution that you personally directed over my objection that the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges.”

“I was a convenient target to be scapegoated and publicly vilified,” she wrote.

Boutros’ office did not immediately return a request for comment on the letter. Joel Bertocchi, an attorney for Mecklenburg, declined to comment.

During protests last fall against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Chicago area, Boutros' office moved to press felony charges against six people for allegedly conspiring to impede an officer during a protest at an immigration detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview.

A grand jury twice refused to indict the group after Mecklenburg, an attorney on the case, presented them with evidence.

In the following months, the charges fell apart, and in May, Boutros dismissed the case altogether. It was among a string of cases in which the Trump administration leveled charges at anti-immigration enforcement protesters that did not ultimately stick.

The protesters, who have come to be known as the “Broadview Six,” have accused Mecklenburg of prosecutorial misconduct in her interactions with jury members, and have asked U.S. District Judge April M. Perry to consider sanctions on her. Perry is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case Oct. 1.

In a motion filed Thursday, Mecklenburg informed the court of her retirement and asked to appear as an independent party in the case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office had previously barred her from filing “anything on her behalf” and told her she “could be disciplined or terminated if she did so," the motion read.

Terence Campbell, an attorney for Andre Martin, one of the former defendants, said Mecklenburg's “forced resignation letter raises a number of serious factual disputes" between her account and that of Boutros' office about why the case was brought.

___

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.

Trump's Office of Management and Budget described the funding cut as focused on “the most harmful government spending.”

Most of the cuts are focused on Health and Human Services programs that serve refugees and unaccompanied minors accused of being in the country illegally. The administration says the funds are no longer necessary because illegal border crossings have diminished considerably.

Also targeted for cuts were a Department of Education program for migrant students, a Department of Justice office focused on reducing racial tensions, a business development initiative for minority entrepreneurs, housing counseling services from the Housing and Urban Development Department and a series of grants from the Health and Human Services Department that the administration called “outright harmful and blatantly ideological.”

A White House press release announcing the funding rescissions notes that some of the organizations are led by people who worked in the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama.

Trump’s move was condemned by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican in a tough reelection campaign and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Collins said in a statement that the action came without warning or consultation. She also said she would work to address with colleagues “these illegal actions.”

“Not only is the delay itself an impoundment that was not reported to Congress, but also it is a usurpation of Congress’s appropriations powers,” Collins said. “OMB is an agency of the executive branch. It does not get to decide which programs are worth funding."

Under federal law, Congress has 45 days to review the president’s proposed spending cuts before they take effect. But Trump made that all but impossible by announcing them with just five days left in the federal fiscal year and the House out of session through the November election. The Government Accountability Office, which is an arm of Congress, says the maneuver known as a “pocket rescission” is illegal.

Collins called it the latest attempt by OMB to “undermine Congress’s Constitutional power of the purse.”

A year ago, Trump issued a pocket rescission for the first time in nearly 50 years by blocking $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block those rescissions, saying that Trump’s authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision. This year, Trump is targeting domestic spending.

The use of a “pocket rescission” fits into a broader pattern by the Trump administration to exert greater control over the U.S. government, eroding Congress’s power.

What was essentially the last pocket rescission occurred in 1977 when then-Democratic President Jimmy Carter rescinded it, and the Trump administration argues it’s a legally permissible tool, despite some murkiness, since Carter had initially proposed the clawback well ahead of the 45-day deadline.

The administration has also fired federal workers, imposed a historic increase in tariffs, and started the war in Iran without going through Congress, putting the burden on the judicial branch to determine the limits of presidential power.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the lead Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, described the White House action as “theft from the American people, plain and simple.”

“These are funds Congress has delivered on a bipartisan basis and should be helping people—not cut off by a president more focused on building a ballroom than investing in families,” Murray said.

Murray said that in recent spending negotiations, Democrats fought to include language to prevent the administration from usurping Congress’ power on spending decisions, but Republicans have declined to go along.

“While Trump spends tax dollars on ads promoting himself, Congress needs to reassert its powers to help people, and it’s past time Republicans join us in that fight,” she said.

In addition to immigrant services, the White House said it was rescinding $70 million for what it called “woke” international education programs, $28 million in grant funding for Health and Human Services research programs, and $9 million in debt relief for foreign countries that fund climate change policies. Another $10 million was being withheld from a minority business development program.

Scott was reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to lift restrictions on the SAVE, a Department of Homeland Security database to verify voters’ eligibility for the midterm election on Nov. 3.

“If everybody in the government complies with the law and is cautious about how this tool is used, there should be no problem,” Scott said, adding that its use is voluntary.

The court’s emergency order grants President Donald Trump a temporary victory. Justices Ketanji Brown, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.

Scott said he is concerned that SAVE may wrongly exclude eligible voters.

“There will be people who are in fact U.S. citizens who are also in this database, and that’s what makes it such an imperfect tool,” Scott said.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. The database has long been seen to fall under federal privacy laws, she wrote, and there are real risks that legitimate voter registrations could be mistakenly revoked.

“The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the Government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,” Jackson wrote.

The plaintiffs pledged to do “everything in our power” to ensure the district court decision stands.

Trump administration tool has wrongly flagged some legal registrants

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that DHS help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to noncitizens. The Trump administration last year moved to significantly expand its search abilities. Since then, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics worry it could end up purging valid voters from the rolls.

Some registrants have already been wrongly flagged. In Travis County, Texas, for example, officials said they investigated 97 voters flagged by SAVE as apparent noncitizens and found that at least 10% of them — and likely up to 21% — were U.S. citizens. The county urged the Supreme Court to reject the administration’s appeal, while the state of Texas submitted its own brief defending the database.

In Denton, Texas, north of Dallas, voter Anthony Nels was disappointed that the Supreme Court allowed the continued use “of a system that harms people’s constitutional right to vote.”

Last year, after Texas ran its voter registrations through the SAVE system, Nels, 29, was flagged as a potential noncitizen, even though the South Africa native had become a U.S. citizen more than a decade ago. His local election office temporarily canceled his registration while he obtained a new passport to replace an expired one.

“This just seems like another illegitimate way to affect upcoming and future elections,” he said in a text to The Associated Press.

Stephen Richer, the Republican former top election official in Arizona’s largest county, said the Supreme Court’s ruling could be a positive step “if used responsibly.”

“That being said, the SAVE program has been shown time after time to be a highly-imperfect tool, so election administrators should only use it as a starting point, not as a definitive indicator of citizenship,” he wrote on social media.

SAVE is one piece of the administration’s crusade against noncitizen voting

Even though the use of the SAVE program was blocked for months ahead of Friday’s ruling, the administration has said in court filings that it has continued using Social Security Administration data “in certain cases to verify information and help determine whether illegal voting may have occurred.”

DHS in August launched its own investigation to find noncitizen voters on state rolls, according to a federal whistleblower statement that said the effort is rushed, filled with errors and potentially violates state laws. DHS has defended that investigation as being conducted “diligently and professionally.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also suggested over the summer that there could be as many as 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote across four states, an unsubstantiated claim that puzzled state election officials who said the numbers dramatically exceeded their own findings.

The effort to create a national voter list is among numerous steps Trump has taken during his second term to try to overhaul the way elections are run. Most of those steps have been blocked by various courts, in part because the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, but provides no such power to the president. In mid-September, the Supreme Court rejected a bid from Trump to restrict mail ballot procedures before the midterms.

Trump has remained fixated on the idea that massive numbers of noncitizens are voting in U.S. races, but all evidence says otherwise.

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Georgia’s secretary of state found that 20 of the state’s 8.2 million registered voters were not U.S. citizens. In Ohio, prosecutors secured indictments against nine people for voting as noncitizens over the span of 10 years. The state has some 8 million registered voters. Even with the Trump administration laser-focused on the issue in his second term, DHS said its investigations into potential noncitizens on voter rolls nationwide had led to 160 arrests.

Those numbers are supported by a mountain of research at the national and state level that has found the percentage of noncitizens on voter rolls is a tiny fraction of the nation’s nearly 228 million registered voters.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas, and Whitehurst reported from Washington.

The Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and Kansas Livestock Association said in a statement that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations have prompted delays in the shipment of thousands of cattle, resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue. The groups say ICE operations have disrupted operations at feedlots, dairy processors, feed and grain companies, and transportation hubs.

Scarlett Mabinger, the vice president of communications for the Kansas Livestock Association, said they have received multiple calls from their members reporting an increase in absences at their southwest Kansas businesses after these communities noticed an increase in federal immigration officers this week.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed their presence in Kansas but said they are not conducting worksite raids.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement that ICE has been “targeting heinous criminals,” but he didn't give a breakdown on the number of people arrested.

Several meatpacking plants in the Kansas cities of Dodge City, Liberal and Garden City typically process thousands of cattle every day, but Mabinger said some had to shut down temporarily and send cattle back to feedlots.

“So then they’re having to be returned back to the feed yard to wait, which, of course, causes an animal health issue, causes financial issues," she said.

The Kansas Livestock Association did not receive reports of arrests happening at worksites, but community members started noticing the arrival of officers on Tuesday.

Amy Soberanes, a 25-year-old community organizer in Dodge City, Kansas, has been helping deliver food to people who are afraid to leave their homes. She said cleaning crews stopped showing up at some locations, forcing plants to close.

“I have worked with so many moms who have told me that they don’t know what they’re gonna do because their provider has been taken,” Soberanes said. “I have seen kids cry to me because their mom and dad are gone. It brought a lot of hurt, and a lot of pain, and a lot of trauma for our community."

Several of the Kansas cities where ICE enforcement appears to have increased have large Hispanic populations. Their populations have risen in the last decade from new immigrant arrivals, mostly from Cuba and Haiti, according to federal data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press.

Voters in these counties heavily favored Donald Trump in the last election, with more than 65% casting ballots in favor of the Republican Party.

Republican politicians, who typically have sided with Trump on immigration, are making careful pivots in their messaging.

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican incumbent in a tight race against a Democrat, and Sen. Jerry Moran said they were both concerned and urged the federal administration to coordinate with local authorities. “Secretary Mullin assured me these warrants are only for the purpose of arresting individuals who have been charged with criminal activities,” Moran said in a statement shared on social media.

The administration has repeated claims of targeting immigrants with criminal histories, but recent data suggests more than half of those arrested in July had not been convicted of any crimes and were not facing any criminal charges. Less than a quarter of those arrested had been convicted of a crime.

Members of the Kansas Livestock Association are urging federal officials to conduct more targeted enforcement actions and provide more transparency.

Beef prices have soared to record highs in the past year, largely thanks to the smallest national herd in 75 years. The Trump administration has made efforts to bring down prices, like allowing some beef imports without high tariffs and reopening the border to cattle from Mexico, which had been closed because of an outbreak of a pest that can be deadly to cattle called the New World screwworm.

“If it continues for a long enough period of time, then it could therefore lead to increased prices, because we are not processing the amount of beef that consumers are currently demanding,” Mabinger said.

——————————

Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas.

Leer en español

Jordan Eugene Brown escaped Palmetto General Hospital, at 2001 West 68th St., on Thursday in Hialeah, hurt a woman while stealing her car, and sped away, according to Lt. Eddie Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Hialeah Police Department.

“It’s a crime punishable by life in prison if you are found guilty,” Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer told Brown in court on Friday about the felony charge of burglary with assault or battery, robbery, and carjacking.

During the chase that followed, Brown put lives at risk as he drove the wrong way several times and passed several vehicles, including a school bus.

Law enforcement performed several maneuvers to try to stop him. Shortly after 1:10 p.m., the car spun out after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper struck it.

Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office deputies pulled Brown out of the car through the window and handcuffed him at Northwest 17th Avenue and 79th Street. He was barefoot, shirtless, and wearing green pants.

Miami-Dade corrections booked Brown shortly before 8:45 p.m. on Thursday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to inmate records.

On Friday morning, Brown faced 10 charges in six cases. Seven charges were in three new pending cases, and the three others were in three warrant cases, according to Miami-Dade County court records.

In one case, Brown faced charges of burglary with assault and battery, robbery or carjacking, and battery on a person 65 or older. He had a pre-trial detention hold.

In a second case, Brown faced a charge of fleeing and eluding a police officer. In a third case, aggravated fleeing while attempting to elude police after damage, aggravated assault on a police officer, and resisting arrest.

In a warrant case, Brown faced a charge of leaving the scene of an accident with property damage. In the two other warrant cases, he faced charges of reckless driving and reckless driving with damage to property or person.

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 to remain anonymous.

Afternoon report

Thursday report

• Police pursuit ensues after man escapes Hialeah hospital, steals car in parking lot

Balogun's suspension for the red card was lifted after President Donald Trump spoke to FIFA leadership, allowing him to play against Belgium in the round of 16. Balogun was the top scorer for the Americans with three goals when he received the red card in a 2-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in the round of 32.

“At the time, I didn’t fully understand the criticism,” Pochettino said Friday ahead of the U.S. match Saturday against Peru. ”But now, with the benefit of time and looking back on it, the truth is that you have to learn from things, from mistakes. And I think sometimes the things that happen during a tournament have to stay there."

FIFA lifted the suspension, allowing Balogun to play in the round of 16, an extraordinary move that triggered praise from Trump and outrage from Belgium. It appeared to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World Cup didn’t result in a suspension.

Pochettino said Friday that the entire energy changed after the suspension was lifted. Analyzing that game now is difficult considering "it was not the best environment to go to compete in a World Cup,” he said.

Belgium beat the U.S. 4-1 to reach the quarterfinals, and Balogun had little impact in the loss.

Pochettino signed a four-year contract to remain as coach through the 2030 World Cup. The first roster of his second term as coach was announced last week. Balogun, who hasn’t played for Monaco this season after a possible transfer to Everton fell through, is not on the current U.S. roster. Pochettino cited a leg injury.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

In his first speech to the U.N. Security Council since his election as high commissioner for refugees last December, Barham Salih told its 15 members that they have “a unique responsibility to help make peace possible.”

“For the millions of people forced from their homes – and the millions more who should never have to flee – I urge you to use that responsibility,” the former refugee, who was president of Iraq from 2018 to 2022, told the meeting on the sidelines of the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders.

Salih stressed that humanitarians, like those working for the refugee agency known as UNHCR, deal every day with the consequences of conflict, but they can’t create peace. That responsibility under the U.N. Charter is entrusted to the Security Council which is charged with maintaining international peace and security.

The refugee chief ticked off conflicts that have forced people to flee.

The war in Sudan remains the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 12 million people inside and outside the country, he said. “As long as this war continues, people will continue to flee,” he said.

In Congo, Salih said, “generations have now lived through cycles of conflict and violence,” now compounded by an escalating Ebola crisis. In Ukraine, he said, war has displaced millions inside the country and sent millions more fleeing to other countries.

Generations of refugees from disputed Western Sahara, which Morocco claims, have grown up in camps near Tindouf in neighboring Algeria “facing uncertainty and limited prospects while awaiting a political solution,” he said.

In the latest Mideast escalation, Salih said, UNHCR has mobilized resources and staff to help more than 130,000 Yemenis who have fled recent hostilities and remain in the country, and over 3,700 who have sought safety in Djibouti.

The refugee chief acknowledged that a goal he launched earlier this year to reduce the number of refugees in long-term displacement who rely on humanitarian aid by half by 2035 “is ambitious.” But he stressed that “it must be, because keeping people alive year after year while they remain unable to rebuild their lives cannot be our end goal.”

Success can’t mean becoming better at keeping people caught in war alive for another year, or establishing a new camp in response to a 50-year emergency, he said, and it can’t mean having children inherit displacement from their parents.

“Success must ultimately mean creating the conditions in which people no longer need us,” Salih said. UNHCR’s ambition must be “to prevent displacement where we can, resolve it where it has occurred, and create the conditions in which people can rebuild their lives in safety and dignity.”

___

Edith M. Lederer has been covering international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.

Sean Ian Thompson, 25, and Dareon Publien, 18, were accused of breaking into a home at about 6 p.m. on Thursday in the area of Northwest 19th Avenue and Eighth Street.

Thompson and Publien were armed when a man who had used Airbnb to rent the home fired at them and injured Publien, according to police.

Police officers found Publien was shot in the torso, and fire rescue personnel took him as a trauma alert to the Broward Health Medical Center, according to police.

Thompson faced charges of attempted murder and home invasion. A judge denied him bond.

But the General Assembly's leader and health officials sought Friday to make sure that the lurking possibility of another worldwide disease emergency stays on the agenda.

COVID—19 sometimes “feels like a fever dream” of lockdowns, overwhelmed hospitals, shuttered schools, economic disruption, personal tragedies and Zoom calls, General Assembly President Khalilur Rahman said as he opened a day-long meeting on pandemic preparedness, prevention and response. He recalled his own sleepless nights when his daughter, a physician, treated coronavirus patients during the crisis.

“Sometimes it is easier to pretend that it never happened,” Rahman said, but “we cannot erase COVID-19 from our memories. Quite the opposite. We have to take a hard look at that period, at where we succeeded and where we failed.”

It's all the more important at a time when history’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak is spreading in Congo, he noted.

Since the depths of the coronavirus pandemic, various new international funds, collaboratives, scientific programs and agreements have arisen to tackle pandemic threats better. But the international community is navigating divides about the issue — and they were clear Friday, when countries couldn't reach consensus on a declaration that was intended to cap the special pandemic meeting.

Rahman said General Assembly members would consider the document in future.

The draft declaration, obtained by The Associated Press, reiterates an intent to scale up preparedness and improve coordination within countries and among them.

The document calls for enhancing financing, boosting lab capacity and promoting increased medication and vaccine access. Other provisions of the wide-ranging draft endorse trying to counter vaccine hesitancy and health-related misinformation, making all policies gender-equal and ensuring universal access to family planning and sexual health services by 2030.

Proponents said the proposed document would improve much-needed collaboration, risk monitoring and preparedness for a threat that doesn't stop at any one country's borders.

“That declaration can help the world move forward,” said former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, co-chair of Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, a group created after COVID-19 emerged. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference that the document “includes important commitments to concrete, measurable and urgent action to address gaps.”

Countries from South Korea to Cape Verde to Guatemala expressed support for the declaration, facilitated by Armenia and Rwanda.

It's “an expression of solidarity and international cooperation," said Burundian Foreign Minister Edouard Bizimana, speaking on behalf of a group of African nations. A Caribbean countries’ association also backed the document.

But it fell flat with some other nations.

In statements during Friday's multi-part meeting, the European Union said that the document didn't do enough to foster financing accountability and efficiency, among other complaints. Germany called for a stronger focus on prevention.

The U.S. objected to mentions of "divisive ideologies" and of a prospective separate arrangement for countries to share virus samples and in turn get tests, medicines and vaccines.

That potential deal is under negotiations as a follow-on to a pandemic agreement that WHO member countries approved last year. The United States has withdrawn from the World Health Organization and wasn’t part of finalizing the pandemic treaty.

Not far behind him at Medinah, British Open champion Ryan Fox wasted no time — he never does — in making three big putts on the last four holes for another close win, another full point.

It was like that all afternoon, and the result was familiar but no less stunning.

The Internationals swept the foursomes session for the second straight time, taking a 7-3 lead and putting the Americans in a hole they haven't seen in the Presidents Cup since 1998. That also happened to be the only time the International team won this competition.

Adam Scott, who set a Presidents Cup record Friday by playing in his 56th match, recalls the sweep at Royal Montreal in 2024 and what followed — the Americans won six of the eight matches on Saturday and rolled to another victory.

“If we take something from Canada, it’s not to celebrate too hard at this point,” Scott said.

But there was a confidence about this International team the Australian found inspiring going into the double session of fourballs and foursomes on Saturday.

“From where I sit, if any of the guys were lacking belief, they should have it now,” Scott said.

Scott and Christiaan Bezuidenhout never trailed in a 3-and-2 victory over Justin Thomas and Cameron Young. Hideki Matsuyama holed two big putts as he and Sungjae Im beat Russell Henley and Jacob Bridgeman by the same margin. The fifth match was the first point of the day for the Internationals, Tom Kim and Si Woo Kim beating Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, 4 and 3.

U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker kept reminding everyone there were 20 points still on the table and if it were a football game, it wouldn't even be halftime. He also recognized his Americans have never faced a deficit this large in the Presidents Cup.

“We’re not going to be able to get it back in one session. We’re not going to be able to get it back in one match. It’s going to be a slow, steady process to try to turn this thing around,” Snedeker said. “From where we are right now, we need to do it session by session, point by point.”

Taylor, in his first Presidents Cup at age 38, showed his clutch gene. This is the Canadian who chipped in for eagle to set up a playoff win at the Sony Open, who won a playoff in the Phoenix Open, and who most famously holed 72-foot eagle putt in a playoff at the Canadian Open.

He and Corey Conners were 1 up against Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns going down the 18th, where Taylor pushed his drive right into the rough and was blocked by trees. Conners could only get it back to the fairway, still farther away from the second shot for Scheffler.

“I wasn't sure if I could hit that close, to be honest,” Taylor said. “But it came out perfect. It was a nice feeling walking up that it was a kick-in.”

Burns had a chance to make birdie and halve the match, and he dropped to his knees when the putt rimmed around the cup.

Fox and Min Woo Lee were in an equally tight match, with the Americans taking their first lead on the 12th hole. Fox holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-4 15th to square the match, and he made a birdie putt from 20 feet on the par-3 16th to go 1 up. They halved the last two holes, with Fox making a 4-footer for par on the 18th.

“I’ve holed a couple of good putts this year, I think,” Fox said with a smile. “I felt it pretty early today with the putter.”

The other matches weren't close. Neither was the entire session.

“We obviously had a great day. Didn’t expect that to happen, but I guess we’ve got experience from 2024 having a Friday like that,” International captain Geoff Ogilvy said. “It’s obviously enjoyable to have a day like that on the golf course, but we reset tomorrow and start again.”

Saturday is pivotal in this format. After two days of one session each, there are four matches of fourballs in the morning and four matches of foursomes in the afternoon, and 12 singles to decide it on Sunday.

“There's no scenario where you ever want to get swept,” Thomas said. “But if we're going to do it, I would say Friday sounds a little bit better than any of the rounds tomorrow.”

___

See AP’s full golf coverage here

Leer en español

Gustavo Perez, who was involved in the crash, said he saw a red GMC Canyon Denali pickup truck heading southbound on Northwest 87 Avenue at a high speed.

Perez said the red GMC Canyon Denali pickup truck careened into the northbound lanes of 87th Avenue, and there was a head-on crash and a chain reaction.

“He rolled over on my hood. I saw the same bumper come this close to me,” Perez said.

MDFR deployed more than 20 units, including two air rescue units, shortly before 11 a.m. on Friday, according to the public record on dispatch’s active calls.

MDFR personnel assessed and released four people at the scene of the crash and rushed the two injured to two hospitals, according to MDFR.

MDFR used air rescue to take one of the injured to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.

A technical response pryed open the driver’s side door of a white sedan that was trapped between the GMC Canyon Denali pickup truck and another red pickup truck.

Related record

Location

Breaking news report

This is a developing story. Local 10 News Assignment Editor Sofia Mendez and Senior Assignment Editor Frine Gomez contributed to this report.

Enough moisture will linger Friday night for a spotty shower or two across the area. Otherwise, Miami-Dade and Broward counties can expect partly cloudy skies and light north winds. Temperatures are forecast to slip into the mid-70s overnight.

Saturday will feature sunshine, scattered clouds and a subtle north breeze. Though a stray shower is not completely out of the question, the north wind will usher in drier air across the region. Temperatures will make a run for the upper 80s.

Sunday will offer sunshine, scattered clouds and light north winds. Temperatures are expected to be in the low 70s Sunday morning, which should feel quite nice with less humid air across the region. Highs are forecast in the upper 80s, which is seasonable. The rain chance will be low.

In the first season of the big deal, Guerrero said during an interview with the Dominican television program “Grandes Ligas” that he was being paid for what he had done in the past, not what he was going to do in the future. A clip of the interview for a show to be aired Oct. 4 became public on Wednesday.

“They didn’t pay me because I’m going to hit 40 every year,” Guerrero said. “They paid me for what I already accomplished. People are confused about that, but I think the same way they do. Like, sometimes I even say to myself ‘Bro, they gave you all that money and you’re out here doing nothing.’ I try.”

After days of criticism, Guerrero was contrite.

“The main reason I’m here is because I regret my comments the other day,” Guerrero said Friday through a translator. “I feel from my heart that my fans, my teammates, they needed an apology from me and that’s what I’m here for. Obviously, I’m also here because I’m just going to tell everyone that I’m going to continue to keep working hard to make my contract a great one.

“I just gave it some thought and I felt like the comments I made the other day is not what I really wanted to say, and I really feel that everyone, my fans, everyone deserves an apology from me and that’s the main reason I’m here today.”

A six-time All-Star, Guerrero entered Friday with a .285 career average, 192 homers, 647 RBIs and an .840 OPS.

He hit eight postseason home runs last year to help the Blue Jays reach Game 7 of the World Series, which it lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 11 innings.

Guerrero has slumped to a .263 average with nine home runs and 56 RBIs this year, slowed by a back injury, concussion and right hamstring tightness. His home run and RBI totals are career lows for a non-shortened season.

“It’s been a disappointing year for me,” Guerrero said. “I couldn’t help my team more to accomplish our goal, which is hard for me.”

Guerrero’s deal is the third-largest in total dollars behind Juan Soto’s $765 million, 15-year contract with the New York Mets and Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million, 10-year agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Guerrero’s contract also includes a record $325 million signing bonus that protects the money from a possible work stoppage.

Guerrero said he had spoken to his father, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, and apologized to his Blue Jays teammates.

Asked about his comments after Wednesday’s loss at Baltimore, which eliminated Toronto from postseason contention, Guerrero had said he stood by his remarks.

__

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

The justices halted a federal appeals court ruling that would have revived the Republican-friendly map for the November elections, which will determine control of Congress. There were no noted dissents.

The Supreme Court instead let stand a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled earlier this month that a citizen petition prevents the new map from being used unless first approved by voters in a November referendum. The decision means Missouri residents will vote under the same congressional districts used in the 2024 and 2022 elections.

“At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos,” the high court wrote in an unsigned opinion. “The District Court and Court of Appeals should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the 2022 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.”

Republicans had hoped the new House map — which already was used in the August primaries — could help them win an additional seat as part of a nationwide redistricting battle pushed by Trump to gain an edge in the midterms.

The new map had targeted a district held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

“I think my reelection prospects shot up significantly,” a jubilant Cleaver said after the Supreme Court ruling.

A panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled Monday that switching districts between the primary and general elections would violate the U.S. Constitution. The panel directed a district judge to bar Missouri from using anything other than the new map but delayed the order's effect until next Monday to allow time for an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Republican Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins described the high court's decision as “a disappointing blow to representative democracy,” but added, “I appreciate the final clarity.”

The legal wrangling has caused confusion for more than a million potential Missouri voters — nearly 1 in 4 statewide — who were shifted from one district to another, resulting in different candidates on their ballots. Absentee voting began Tuesday under the 2022 congressional districts. Thousands of ballots already had been mailed, and some already have been cast.

A decision from the Supreme Court is “a big sigh of relief," said Kansas City election director Shawn Kieffer. He added, "We just want it over, so we can do our job properly.”

Republican redistricting focused on Kansas City

Republicans currently hold six of Missouri's eight House districts. At the urging of Trump and Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, Missouri lawmakers last September passed revised districts that were intended to help them win seven seats in the midterms.

The redistricting significantly reshaped a Kansas City-based district held by Cleaver. It shed parts of Kansas City to neighboring districts with Republican incumbents and stretched the remainder of Cleaver's 5th Congressional District far eastward into rural Republican areas.

The result was about 59% of potential voters were new to the district, according to an Associated Press estimate. The ripple effects also shifted some voters in most of Missouri's other congressional districts.

Cleaver was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin won a six-way Republican primary under the revised districts. They remain the candidates for the general election, even though the district boundaries have reverted to their prior lines.

Cleaver said the court ruling affirms the people's right to use to referendum petitions against state legislative actions they don't like.

“We just received a healthy dose of encouragement that the voice of people in the United States still matters," he said.

Brattin was a plaintiff, along with Republican Rep. Bob Onder and two other voters, in a federal lawsuit that led to the 8th Circuit's ruling and the last two appeals to the Supreme Court.

Brattin denounced Friday's decision as “a travesty,” calling the switching of districts after the primary “the most unprecedented form of voter disenfranchisement in American history.”

Missouri's redistricting prompted a big legal fight

At least 16 lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts related to Missouri's congressional redistricting. The battle has been the longest and most complex among roughly a dozen states that sought to change their U.S. House districts over the past year.

Missouri's new map survived most of the lawsuits, including ones contending that mid-decade redistricting violated the state constitution and that the new districts ran afoul of requirements to be compact. In one case, the Missouri Supreme Court allowed the new districts to be used while election officials worked to verify petition signatures seeking to put the map to a statewide vote.

Hoskins waited until the legal deadline on Aug. 4 — the day the new districts were used in the primaries — to reject the petition. He asserted referendum petitions aren't allowed for congressional redistricting.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that the referendum petition was valid. It ordered Hoskins not to use the new map and to instead use the districts adopted in 2022, after the last census. The U.S. Supreme Court let that ruling stand on Sept. 8. But minutes later, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued a conflicting order in favor of the new map.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 10 blocked Clark's order from taking effect. That day, the Missouri Supreme Court held Hoskins temporarily in contempt for telling local election authorities to use the new map after Clark's order.

But that wasn't the end of the matter. The 8th Circuit, hearing an appeal of Clark's blocked order, ruled in favor of the Trump-backed map Monday. That's what led to the latest decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said the group was pressing forward with its campaign to persuade voters to permanently reject the new map in the November referendum.

“We have said from the beginning, people, not politicians will be the final deciders on this DC power grab," he said in a statement.

___

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.

___

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

1 pound raw shrimp (21/25 size), peeled and deveined

cornstarch, for tossing

salt and pepper, to taste

For the batter:

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

salt and pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 COLD bottle of beer, lager

neutral oil for frying

Place the shrimp in a bowl, season with salt, pepper and toss with a little cornstarch (a couple teaspoons) to help coat the shrimp.

Make the batter by mixing the flour, baking powder, chili powder, salt and pepper with a little beer at a time until you get a nice smooth batter.

Keep very cold.

Heat 1-2 inches of oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pot to 350˚F. Working with a few shrimp at a time, dip them into the batter and gently lower them into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown on all sides. Remove and drain on a paper towel lined plate. Season with a little salt while warm.

Serve the tacos topped with a little cilantro slaw, chipotle mayonnaise and like wedges on the side.

For serving:

Cabbage and Cilantro Slaw:

¼ head green cabbage, shredded

juice of 1 lime

¼ cup cilantro leaves

salt

Combine all ingredients.

Chipotle Mayonnaise:

½ cup sour cream

½ cup mayonnaise

zest of 1 lime

juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon adobo sauce from a can of chipotles

1 teaspoon honey

whisk together until smooth

Warm flour tortillas

Lime wedge

1 pound chicken breast or combination of breast and thighs, poached in chicken stock and pulled into medium chunks (discard skin and bones)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 yellow onion, minced

3 tablespoons aji amarillo paste (Adjust to taste depending on your spice preference)

2 slices white bread, crust removed and soaked in 1 cup milk, smash and mix into a mush/puree (drain and discard any excess milk after soaking

salt and pepper to taste

heavy pinch dried oregano

½ cup evaporated milk

½ cup grated parmesan

steamed rice, for serving

To garnish:

toasted chopped walnuts

hard boiled eggs

black olives

In a large saucepan over medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil.

Add the aji amarillo and mix well. Whisk in the bread paste. Add the evaporated milk whisking. Simmer until fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Fold in the shredded chicken and cheese. Season well with salt and pepper, add the oregano. Allow to warm through.

Serve over rice with garnishes.

For the steak braise:

2 pounds skirt steak, cut in half

32 FL ounces beef stock

8 ounces tomato sauce

1 cup water

1 small yellow onion, peeled, cut in quarters

1 green bell pepper, seeded and stemmed, cut in quarters

3 garlic peeled garlic cloves, smashed

1 tablespoon sazon / complete seasoning

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 whole allspice berries

2 bay leaf

rice, for serving

black beans, for serving

Cut the skirt steak into 4 pieces. Add the steak and all other ingredients in a medium-size pot. Make sure the liquid completely covers the meat. If needed, add a little more water to cover.

Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook until the meat is very tender and easily shredded with a fork, at least 2½ hours. Meat should be able to be easily pierced with the tip of a knife and have no resistance. Make sure that the liquid in the pot never goes below the meat, add water if needed.

Once the meat is tender, remove the meat from the pot. Allow to cool then shred and set aside.

Strain the broth and reserve for the ropa vieja base. Discard any solids left from the straining process.

For finishing the Ropa Vieja:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 red bell peppers, julienned (cut into thin strips, not too fine)

1 large red onion, julienned (cut into thin strips, not too fine)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon sazon / complete seasoning

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon ground coriander

⅛ teaspoon ground allspice

1 cup crushed canned tomatoes

8 ounces red wine

+cooked meat

+strained sauce

1 tablespoon capers, drained

1 teaspoon kosher salt (season to taste)

Heat oil, add onions and peppers and cook until soft and tender but not browned.

Add garlic and spices, mix until fragrant.

Add crushed tomatoes and allow to cook down for 2-3 minutes. Add ONLY THE shredded meat from the ropa steak cooking procedure, stir.

Add the red wine, cook down. Add the reserved strained broth from the ropa steak cooking procedure, capers and salt.

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the meat is VERY tender, is no longer chewy and the sauce thickens a bit, about 1 - 1 ½ hours.

The runway was transformed into a luxury Gucci boutique, where Cardi B, wrapped in white faux fur, and Donatella Versace, wearing a stole from Demna’s first Gucci collection, sat on cushioned sofas. Brand ambassador Jannik Sinner took a seat beside Vogue’s Anna Wintour.

Models broadcast nonchalance as they strolled through the boutique, casting their eyes over jewelry cases, shelves of handbags and racks of ready-to-wear.

At a moment when the luxury business is struggling, the setting made the commercial imperative unusually explicit: These were clothes intended not merely to project an image, but to move from rack to wardrobe. And the runway offered flexible propositions for eager consumers.

“Gucci is about luxury that wants to be seen,” Demna wrote in show notes.

A bold silhouette made the first pitch, before the details became apparent. Men’s suits had exaggeratedly broad shoulders, while pagoda shoulders shaped women’s jackets and dresses. Collars were turned up, adding to the attitude. The styling remained Italian: cropped pants and elongated loafers with no socks for him, a cinched trench coat over a blouse and skirt for her.

References to Alessandro Michele’s eccentricity and Tom Ford’s sexualized silhouettes were less stark than in Demna’s debut. Instead of asking customers to embody one of his sharply drawn Italian “famiglia” archetypes, the collection proposes borrowing elements without becoming captive to them.

Layering made those identities harder to pin down. Low-slung trousers held precariously in place by three belts suggested the swagger of a maranza, or troublemaking urban youth. But a bourgeois tartan skirt of an impeccably groomed Milanese woman was destabilized by a leather bomber worn over a plaid shirt and finished with an oversized necklace.

The collection’s strongest looks had undoubted commercial appeal: A double-breasted navy peacoat paired with high-heeled equestrian boots — with spurs for a Demna flourish — and a rugby shirt with Gucci stripes for him layered under an Oxford shirt and Gucci logo jacket.

Moschino puts fashion back on the street.

At Moschino, Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo brought the cult credibility they built at Sunnei to their debut as creative directors, taking up founder Franco Moschino’s legacy of intellectual wit.

Their debut show was set on the top floor of a parking garage overlooking the 2026 Olympic ice hockey venue just as the setting sun created a pinkish sky in the background.

The runway was flanked by hundreds of people in their own clothes walking in the opposite direction throughout the show, creating a stream of personal styles that situated the collection among everyday wardrobes.

The house’s irony remained, but it felt less dependent on quirk and gimmick than in recent iterations. Grass fringe punctured the preciousness of luxury, while cartoonish graphics functioned more as art than as characters or caricatures.

Still, humor came through the clothes themselves: exaggerated side bustles brought Marie Antoinette proportions to skirts worn like denim, while padding turned the enhanced backside to suggest a female ideal. It was still recognizably Moschino, but the joke didn’t overwhelm the clothes.

Fans who look to Moschino for novelty bags shaped like milk cartons or cooking pots may be disappointed by the pared-down aesthetic. The bag of the season was a very practical, large bucket bag and the only nod to novelty was a bag shaped like a cat that perched on a model's shoulder.

The designers said they are forging a modern version of the fashion house that isn't stuck in previous decades.

“We want Moschino to become a cultural loudspeaker again,” Rizzo said. “We have the same urgency in terms of creativity and breaking walls, but it's 2026.”

But the legal battle between Trump and some of the media that cover him is far from over.

Here are some things to know about the White House press corps, lawsuits over press access, and the increasingly contentious relationship between the president and the Fourth Estate.

Trump said unfavorable press coverage prompted the ban

Last week, Trump said he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over what he called unfavorable coverage and “fake news.” Some journalists with those organizations had their White House press passes revoked, prohibiting them from White House grounds.

The affected news organizations sued, and several other news outlets and press associations filed legal briefs and released statements supporting them.

The president's attorneys later argued in court that the outlets' coverage threatened national security, but they didn't detail how the coverage put the nation at risk. Court filings cited letters the administration sent each outlet outlining stories it found problematic and dangerous, but the judge found that the standard they described was too vague to justify the ban.

Attorneys for the news organizations called the ban a blatant First Amendment violation and a clear case of ‘viewpoint discrimination’ — government action that penalizes speech because of the viewpoint expressed.

The news organizations scored a temporary win, but the case is not over

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order early Thursday, ordering the White House to reinstate the banned journalists' press credentials. That order lasts 14 days.

There will likely be another round of court filings and legal arguments over the next several days before the judge decides whether to issue a longer-lasting ruling called a preliminary injunction.

Preliminary injunctions are also temporary, often designed to last until a lawsuit is resolved one way or another.

Two constitutional rights are at play

Kelly’s temporary order focused less on whether the news outlets enjoy a First Amendment free press right to White House access and more on whether their Fifth Amendment due process rights may have been violated.

Existing case law is clear, Kelly wrote. Members of the press corps are entitled to fair notice from the government about why their credentials may be revoked, as well as an opportunity to state their case to the government on why their credentials should be preserved.

Kelly wrote that he issued the temporary restraining order because it’s likely the news outlets will be able to demonstrate they weren’t given proper notice or a chance to respond.

The press pool serves as the public’s eye on the president

The work of the president occurs around the clock and often in spaces too small to accommodate every journalist who covers the executive branch. The White House Correspondents' Association — a group of journalists who cover the president — created the press pool decades ago to ensure that a rotating roster of journalists traveled with the president wherever he goes.

The pool typically follows the president almost everywhere, including aboard Air Force One, at state dinners, in the Oval Office and on the golf course. The pool traditionally represents print and wire reporters, photographers and radio and television journalists.

The effort is designed to hold the nation’s chief executive accountable on behalf of the American public, providing information on the president’s activities and the work of the executive branch. The pool is always near the president so journalists can document unexpected developments.

The pool distributes in-person reports and imagery to the broader press corps. They also share their notes, video and audio with other news outlets, congressional offices and interested parties.

The White House video pool consists of five major U.S. television broadcasters that take turns shooting and sharing video. When the White House banned CNN — which belongs to the pool — the other four pool members declined to participate in a show of solidarity. For days, the pool provided no live video of the president. By Friday, the video pool was back in operation.

Trump's relationship with the pool has grown increasingly tumultuous

For decades, the White House Correspondents' Association selected the members of the pool, but that changed Feb. 25, 2025, when the White House announced its officials would pick the pool members — effectively giving the executive control over coverage of the American presidency.

The White House almost always selects journalists who are outwardly favorable to Trump as part of the mix.

To show his displeasure with a news organization's coverage, Trump has hurled personal insults at journalists or tried to exclude outlets entirely. In some cases, the news organizations sue in response.

During Trump's first term, the White House suspended the credentials of Jim Acosta, who was a CNN correspondent at the time. The same judge handling the lawsuit from CNN, MS NOW and Politico also decided Acosta's case, ordering the White House to restore his credentials.

Last year, Trump barred Associated Press journalists from some events and kicked the news agency out of the press pool after it refused to accede to the president's demands to change its style from “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.”

AP sued, and that case is ongoing, though a preliminary ruling from a federal appeals court said Trump could ban the wire service from some highly restricted areas such as the Oval Office or Air Force One.

___

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press journalists Jocelyn Noveck in New York and Laurie Kellman in London contributed.

“I wish it had healed a little quicker,” he admitted, “but it did not.”

The tension between Blaney and Carson Hocevar, who delivered the haymaker that left Blaney with the black eye last weekend, has apparently eased a little bit quicker. Blaney called the on-track incident that led to a pit-road fracas “just a racing” thing, upon further reflection, the kind of stuff that happens at a fender-to-fender track like Bristol Motor Speedway.

“It's kind of the opposite of how I normally am. I get fired up quickly but I calm down really quickly,” Blaney explained. “These things happen. The on-track, it happens really, really fast. You're making decisions in a split-second of a moment, and sometimes you can be skewed or not skewed on what you think happened, and then you know, watching the incident, pretty 50-50, I thought.”

The incident last Saturday night unfolded 41 laps before Joey Logano captured the checkered flag.

Blaney had just taken second with a pass around the outside of Hocevar, who countered by steering his No. 77 Chevrolet down the track. Blaney moved to block him, Hocevar stayed on the gas, and the result sent the No. 12 Ford spinning into the wall.

It was a big blow to Blaney, who had led a race-high 202 laps, and his hopes of winning a second Cup Series championship.

“It's just kind of built,” said Blaney, who now trails Kyle Larson by 52 points in the Chase for the championship. “A couple of rough finishes back-to-back and you realize, man, this is not going the way I thought it was going to go.”

Hocevar ended up third behind Logano and Larson last weekend.

But as he brought his car to a stop along pit road, Blaney was there waiting, and despite standing several inches shorter than the 6-foot-4 Hocevar, went right after him with a shove. Hocevar responded with two overhand rights, the first knocking Blaney’s hat off and the second connecting with his cheek, sending one of NASCAR's most popular drivers to the ground.

Blaney scrambled to his feet and threw a left hook that clipped Hocevar’s own hat before team members could intervene.

“We've been cool and stuff. I think Ryan is one of the coolest guys in the garage,” Hocevar said. “I didn't want to hit him, and looking back, I 100 percent see where he wanted to just throw a shove in there and yell. But in the moment you're not going to see that.”

Hocevar said he had no regrets over what transpired on pit road.

“I don't think so. My dad is probably the least controversial person I ever met in my life. He's got a local business so he freaks out if he gets a bad Google review. I texted him and was like, ‘Sorry about that.’ He was proud that I defended myself,” Hocevar said. “If we were racing anywhere lower than second, I think, you know, I maybe look at it differently, but I think Blaney does, too.”

With a brazen driving style, the 23-year-old Hocevar has made plenty of enemies — and, yes, quite a few fans — during his third full Cup Series season. It was just a few weeks ago he spun out Brad Keselowski during the Southern 500, leaving the frustrated former champion to declare: “His day is coming, and it's coming hard. Watch out, Carson.”

Turned out his day came at Bristol, only it was Blaney — not Keselowski — trying to deliver the punishment.

NASCAR seems to be leaning into the brewing feuds, too. Promotional posters for the race at World Wide Technology Raceway, which came on the heels of the Darlington dust-up, declared: “A Rivalry Worth Watching: Hurricane Hocevar vs. Bad Brad Keselowski.”

So it wasn't entirely surprising that NASCAR chose not to punish Blaney or Hocevar this week.

“We’re not going to encourage fighting, but what we are going to encourage is passion,” NASCAR chief executive Steve O’Donnell said during an appearance on Kevin Harvick’s podcast Monday. “Blaney’s showing his passion, showing his fire.”

Blaney called it the right decision by NASCAR, and not just because it kept the series from digging into his pocketbook.

“I would fully understand getting slapped with a penalty if I went over and initiated a punch or something,” Blaney said. “I initiated a confrontation, Carson defended himself. I'm glad they didn't do anything. They just let it simmer. I thought it was the right call.”

___

See AP’s full auto racing coverage here

JC Tretter wrote in a lengthy post on social media that players union officials have been talking regularly with the NFL to make sure the field is safe and playable for the league's latest visit to Brazil. That included union experts suggesting better traction to make the field more stable.

“They recommended reinforced stitching to help the surface hold together and brought in equipment to reinforce as much of the field as possible before the game,” Tretter said. “Our experts will remain engaged and continue evaluating conditions through kickoff.”

Maracana Stadium has been hit by unusually heavy rainfall over the past six weeks. Nick Pappas, the NFL's field director, told The Associated Press from Rio de Janeiro that the league shipped a tarp there to help protect the turf. A crew has been on site since Monday preparing the stadium.

“We’ve got to have plans in place to ensure that you can mitigate the weather the best you can and, right now, we feel we’re in a good spot,” Pappas said.

The NFL has been playing in Brazil since 2024.

The two previous games were at the 48,000-seat NeoQuimica Arena in Sao Paulo, a larger market where both games were sellouts. Some tickets remain for Sunday’s game in the considerably larger venue. The stadium made news this week after some soccer players raised concerns about the field conditions, though the NFL says it’s confident the playing surface will be fine.

The 78,000-seat Maracana Stadium has hosted two World Cup championship games, Olympic gold medal matches for men and women, and numerous clashes between South America’s biggest teams. Now the Ravens and Cowboys will play one of a record nine international contests on the league schedule this season.

Tretter said this week highlights bigger issues surrounding field standards for safety and performance, saying both the NFL and NFLPA have made progress. Tretter noted players' cleats melting in Nashville last week during Philadelphia's win over the Tennessee Titans or frozen fields creating “unnecessary risks.”

There have been field-related issues at two of the three games in Brazil, and Tretter said that's not a coincidence with the climate at this time of the year — it's early spring in South America — making it challenging to maintain the grass surface expected for NFL games.

“We owe it to them to provide the best possible opportunity to succeed,” Tretter said. “Players can overcome a lot. But they shouldn’t have to overcome the field.”

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

The 2026 World Cup's best passer Michael Olise threaded a fine pass and the World Cup's all-time leading scorer Mbappé rifled in a low shot in the 54th minute.

Mbappé then sat on the ground clasping his left leg and within minutes Zidane had to take him off.

The France camp said he suffered a knee tendon injury and would return to Madrid for treatment. A replacement was not immediately named.

“No, it’s not good. It’s not good, unfortunately,” Zidane told French television about Mbappé's injury. “We will not take risks.”

After failing to qualify for three straight World Cups, Italy’s rebuild under returning coach Roberto Mancini began badly with a 2-0 loss to Belgium in Rome.

Elsewhere, the Charles brothers combined to help Northern Ireland beat Georgia 1-0 in Tbilisi for a first-ever victory in League B.

Zidane's first lineup is a 4-3-3

Mbappé was on the left flank and fellow Ballon d’Or contender Ousmane Dembélé through the middle, with Olise on the right wing and Manchester City's Rayan Cherki in midfield.

A scrappy opening saw lots of botched passes from both sides, although the bumpy playing surface at Kocaeli Stadiuma stadium in İzmit was a factor.

Near the end of the first half, Olise's dipping shot forced a fine save from Uğurcan Çakır and midfielder Adrien Rabiot scooped the ball over following fine work from Cherki and Dembélé.

France goalkeeper Mike Maignan matched Çakır's save with a stunning one-handed stop from İsmail Yüksek's downward header. Çakır was then sent off in the 87th for blocking Bradley Barcola's shot with his arm when he was outside the area.

Fans stay away from Rome

Only 47,155 spectators showed up in the 70,000-seat Stadio Olimpico as winger Mika Godts, signed by Paris Saint-Germain from Ajax in the offseason, scored for Belgium after 20 minutes with a low finish past goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

A brilliant effort from Dodi Lukébakio following a run from the halfway line made it 2-0 midway through the second half.

Kvaratskhelia's slump continues

Shea Charles scored deep into stoppage-time for Northern Ireland after younger brother Pierce Charles had saved Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's penalty midway through the second half.

PSG star Kvaratskhelia has failed to score in the French league this season.

Other games

In League B, Ukraine won 1-0 at Hungary thanks to forward Danylo Sikan's goal, while Sweden beat Romania 2-1 on goals from Liverpool striker Alexander Isak and Arsenal’s Viktor Gyökeres. Robert Lewandowski's Poland drew 0-0 at home to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Georgii Arutiunian and Artur Garibyan scored in Armenia's 2-0 win against Latvia and Montenegro beat Cyprus 2-1 in League C games. ___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Brian Schottenheimer, coaching in his first international game as the Cowboys’ head coach, said players were well aware their visit to Brazil would feel like a business trip.

“It’s a little bit different from other road games,” Schottenheimer said. “We were very up front with the guys early on. You’re not going to have the free time to do what you’d normally do.”

The Cowboys practiced at the training grounds used by local soccer team Flamengo in a remote part of Rio about 26 miles west of the iconic Sugar Loaf mountain. They'll get their first look at the city's historic Maracana Stadium during a walkthrough on Saturday.

The Ravens practiced at the training ground of another soccer club, Botafogo.

The teams arrived in Rio on Friday morning following roughly 10-hour flights. Their game Sunday afternoon will be one of a record nine international contests on the NFL schedule this season.

"It has been a short week but we have a lot of time between now and the game,” said Schottenheimer.

Quarterback Dak Prescott, who will be playing in his first international game, also said the Cowboys are in a “strictly business trip” mode, though he noted he has enjoyed hanging out by the pool with his teammates and had tasted some of the local steaks at lunch.

“It is a place I want to return to as a tourist,” Prescott said, adding that he hopes to see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue from the bus when he heads to the game. “What we are looking for is a win.”

Prescott said he and other members of the team expect to be fully rested by Saturday morning after their long trip.

“This is a first for the majority of the team,” Prescott said. “It is great to have an extra day to massage the game plan.”

The NFL has been playing in Brazil since 2024, but the two previous games were at the 48,000-seat NeoQuimica Arena in Sao Paulo, a larger market where both games were sellouts. Some tickets remain for Sunday's game.

Teams involved in those other games — the Packers, Eagles, Chargers and Chiefs — had more activities in Brazil.

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Gustavo Perez dijo que vio una camioneta pickup GMC Canyon Denali roja que circulaba hacia el sur por Northwest 87 Avenue antes de desviarse hacia los carriles en dirección norte.

“Volcó sobre el capó de mi auto. Vi el mismo parachoques pasar así de cerca de mí”, dijo Perez.

MDFR desplegó más de 20 unidades, incluidas dos unidades de rescate aéreo, poco antes de las 11 a.m. del viernes, según el registro público de llamadas activas del centro de despacho.

Personal de MDFR atendió y dio de alta a cuatro de los heridos en el lugar del choque y trasladó de urgencia a los otros dos a dos hospitales, según MDFR.

MDFR utilizó una unidad de rescate aéreo para trasladar a uno de los heridos al Centro de Traumatología Ryder del Hospital Jackson Memorial.

Un equipo de respuesta técnica abrió por la fuerza la puerta del lado del conductor de un sedán blanco que quedó atrapado entre la camioneta pickup GMC Canyon Denali y otra camioneta pickup roja.

Registro relacionado

Ubicación

Reporte de última hora

Esta es una noticia en desarrollo. La editora de asignaciones de Local 10 News, Sofia Mendez, y la editora sénior de asignaciones, Frine Gomez, contribuyeron a este reporte.

Deborah Singleton dijo que su hijo de 33 años, Marcel Carter, murió la mañana del jueves cuando el automóvil en el que viajaba chocó contra un poste de servicios públicos y se incendió.

“No sé qué hacer y no puedo ver a mi hijo”, dijo Singleton. “No me dejan ver a mi hijo. Y solo tengo que esperar”.

Carter, padre de seis niños pequeños, estaba en el asiento del pasajero del automóvil, según su madre.

“Solo quiero abrazarlo”, dijo Singleton. “Eso es todo lo que quiero hacer, abrazar a mi hijo. Y decirle cuánto lo amo”.

El accidente ocurrió alrededor de las 4:45 a.m. del jueves en la cuadra 6500 de Nova Drive. Testigos dijeron que el automóvil era un Corvette blanco.

Singleton dijo que su hijo estaba cerca de su casa cuando ocurrió el accidente.

“Estaba justo allí, en su casa”, dijo.

La policía dice que la investigación continúa, dejando a Singleton con preguntas sobre lo ocurrido.

“Tengo tantas preguntas porque hay tantas versiones diferentes de lo que está pasando, ya sabes, y la gente está especulando y no sabe qué ocurrió”, dijo.

La otra víctima fue identificada como Brandon Kleinberg.

Mientras Singleton espera respuestas, también se prepara para enterrar a su hijo.

“Si alguien quisiera donar para ayudarnos a enterrar a nuestro hijo, lo agradecería más que cualquier otra cosa”, dijo.

Singleton dijo que la pérdida fue inesperada y le recordó lo frágil que puede ser la vida.

Se creó una campaña de GoFundMe para ayudar a la familia con los gastos funerarios.

Jordan Eugene Brown escapó del Palmetto General Hospital, ubicado en 2001 West 68th St., la mañana del jueves en Hialeah, hirió a una mujer mientras le robaba su auto y huyó a toda velocidad, según el teniente Eddie Rodriguez, portavoz del Departamento de Policía de Hialeah.

Brown condujo en sentido contrario varias veces y rebasó varios vehículos, incluido un autobús escolar. Las autoridades realizaron varias maniobras para intentar detenerlo. Poco después de la 1:10 p.m., el auto perdió el control y giró después de que un agente de la Patrulla de Carreteras de Florida lo impactara.

Agentes de la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado Miami-Dade sacaron a Brown del auto y lo esposaron en Northwest 17th Avenue y 79th Street. Estaba descalzo, sin camisa y llevaba pantalones verdes.

El Departamento de Correcciones de Miami-Dade ingresó a Brown poco antes de las 8:45 p.m. del jueves en el Centro Correccional Turner Guilford Knight, según los registros de reclusos.

La mañana del viernes, Brown enfrentó 10 cargos en seis casos. Siete cargos correspondían a tres nuevos casos pendientes y los otros tres a tres casos con órdenes judiciales, según los registros judiciales del condado Miami-Dade.

En un caso, Brown enfrentó cargos de allanamiento con agresión y lesiones, robo o robo de auto y agresión contra una persona de 65 años o más. Tenía una orden de detención preventiva.

En un segundo caso, Brown enfrentó un cargo de huir y evadir a un agente de policía. En un tercer caso, enfrentó cargos de huida agravada al intentar evadir a la policía después de causar daños, agresión agravada contra un agente de policía y resistencia al arresto.

En un caso con orden judicial, enfrentó cargos de abandonar la escena de un accidente con daños a la propiedad, conducción imprudente y conducción imprudente con daños a la propiedad o a una persona.

Los detectives pidieron a cualquier persona con información sobre este u otros casos que llame a Crime Stoppers del condado Miami-Dade al 305-471-8477 para permanecer en el anonimato.

La primera grúa cayó sobre la vivienda, ubicada en la cuadra 700 de Southeast Eighth Street, la mañana del jueves después de que un camión grúa volcara durante un intento de instalar una carpa para fumigación de plagas, debido al peso de la carga.

La segunda grúa cayó mientras la empresa, Cooper Crane, con sede en West Park, intentaba retirar la primera. Nadie resultó herido en ninguno de los incidentes.

El viernes, los equipos estaban recogiendo el líquido hidráulico derramado y preparando el equipo dañado para retirarlo, utilizando un camión de gran tamaño llevado al lugar para desmontar la grúa y transportarla.

“Estamos aliviados de que nadie haya resultado herido”, dijo un representante de Cooper Crane en un comunicado. “Estamos cooperando con el propietario de la vivienda, las autoridades y nuestra compañía de seguros. El incidente está siendo investigado y no podemos comentar sobre los detalles mientras ese proceso esté en curso”.

La Administración de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional de Estados Unidos participará en la investigación.

But as the 43-second video continues, Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, and Hochul, the governor of New York State, have a conversation that paints them in a negative light. At one point Hochul is described in a voiceover as “the political delusion pill for New Yorkers who would rather think about what four more years could actually cost them.”

That’s because the video is actually a campaign ad for Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for New York governor who is running against Hochul, the Democratic incumbent. The images of Mamdani and Hochul were generated using artificial intelligence. Blakeman’s connection to the video is disclosed in small text reading “paid for by Blakeman for New York” that appears throughout. Its use of AI is never mentioned, despite a New York law requiring such disclosures in political communications.

The New York State Democratic Party filed a complaint in August with the state’s Board of Elections about Blakeman’s use of AI in his ads, alleging that he has broken this new law. Blakeman’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Campaign advertisements that use AI to attack rival candidates are not uncommon in the 2026 midterms, some more obviously fake than others. A patchwork of state laws has emerged around how transparent candidates must be about this practice, but data shows candidates at times disregarding those laws. Experts say that although it is too soon to assess the impact such AI-generated ads will have on voters, with or without labels, more effective regulation is imperative.

“I’m generally not opposed to the sort of labels that exist, on narrowly targeted and materially deceptive content,” said Scott Babwah Brennen, the director of New York University’s Center on Technology Policy and a policy research affiliate at its Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics. He added, however, that because misinformation is the result of the existing media environment, it’s important to address the problem as a whole, not just on a case-by-case basis.

By the numbers

The Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks and analyzes election advertising, has identified at least 164 political ads generated or enhanced with AI during the current election cycle. A press release about the data cautions that there are likely many more since it can be difficult to tell definitively if AI was used. Of this total, 69% of the ads did not disclose the use of AI tools.

Asked about how many of the ads without disclosures were aired in states with laws about AI use in political campaigns, Travis Ridout, the project’s co-director, cross-referenced his data with that from the National Conference of State Legislatures. He found that in states with no laws regarding the disclosure of AI use in campaign ads, 32% of such ads contained a disclaimer anyway. Only 29% of those from states with regulations included a disclosure.

Ridout cautioned that there are some caveats to these findings. One, some ads in the project’s database are not subject to regulation by these laws because of how the AI was used. For example, Tennessee’s law only concerns deepfakes impersonating candidates. Two, an AI law may have been enacted after an ad aired. The fact that campaigns disclosed the use of AI when they weren’t legally required to still surprised him.

“I think it’s a time when campaigns are really trying to figure out what are the norms surrounding this, what are the laws surrounding this?” he said. “It may depend on the campaign consultant or the firm that’s producing the ads. It’s a time of uncertainty and so it’s all shaking out right now.”

Deception vs. satire

While some ads appear to be intentionally deceptive, others come across as humorous, satirical, or too extreme to be real.

Republican Mike Rogers, who is in a tight race against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed for an open Senate seat in Michigan, posted a video to X in June that showed him as a superhero performing physically impossible tasks such as stopping an out-of-control car with one hand. “Haters will say it’s AI,” the post read, presumably in jest.

The campaign for North Carolina Republican state Sen. Michael Lee posted an ad in August attacking his opponent, Democrat Jessica Bichler, for being too liberal. It shows Bichler, a yoga instructor, contorting her limbs into impossible positions. A disclaimer states, “You guessed it! AI was definitely used to generate these silly video clips.”

Out of the 164 ads identified by the Wesleyan Media Project, 80% were sponsored by either Republican candidates or pro-Republican groups. Eleven percent were from pro-Democratic sponsors, while the remaining 9% were ads for independent candidates in addition to ads focused on specific issues and more.

What’s next?

Basil Smikle, a Democratic political strategist and policy adviser, said that a lack of disclosure on AI ads could be intentional, but that it could also be an oversight or the result of campaigns simply not knowing that they should include one. He explained that the ease with which AI ads can be created means increased cost savings and efficiency for campaigns. However, their use risks a loss of authenticity and the potential for voters to feel misled. And of course, they can easily lead to the spread of misinformation.

“In the wrong hands, it could be a really dangerous trend, but if done well it can help do things that campaigns need to do and should do, which is tell good stories,” Smikle said.

Labeling ads as AI is important for accountability around technology “we still don’t fully comprehend,” he added, and gives voters the information they need to make good choices.

While they may promote transparency, an October 2024 report co-authored by Babwah Brennen found that labels can end up hurting a candidate. Respondents in an online experiment rated candidates as less trustworthy and less appealing when their ads contained AI disclaimers, and the ads themselves as less accurate. Labels also created a “backfire effect” in which respondents expressed lower opinions of creators of attack ads than of the candidates being attacked. As many as 37% of respondents didn’t even remember seeing an AI label.

Babwah Brennen advocates for more of an overarching approach to addressing the arrival of AI campaign ads. For example, improving campaign transparency in general and investing in local journalism. He also noted that because laws regulating such AI use are so new, it’s not yet clear how enforcement works and what falls within their purview.

Standardizing these regulations could help, Ridout said.

“If we could get something at the federal level I think that would make it clearer for campaigns what we can, what we can’t do,” he said. “Congress hasn’t done anything yet, nor have the regulatory agencies. And so into that vacuum many of the states have entered.”

Rosa Izquierdo, quien dedicó su vida a criar a sus hermanos menores y luego a cuidar de sus padres ancianos hasta que fallecieron, comentó que la visita del pontífice le produce alegría en sus momentos de soledad. “Le daré un abrazo y un beso en la mano al señor papa”, indicó la mujer de 70 años. “Me dará felicidad”, añadió.

El asilo de la congregación Hermanitas de los Ancianos Desamparados tiene una capilla con bancas de madera donde se encuentra la Virgen de los Desamparados, que protege a los enfermos y pobres. Es uno de los 197 hogares que la congregación tiene repartidos en América Latina, Europa, Asia, África y Oceanía.

Todas las tardes Izquierdo y otros ancianos participan del rezo del rosario, relató. Ellos esperan rezar junto a Robert Prevost, quien llegará al asilo la mañana del 16 de noviembre, dijo Izquierdo a The Associated Press.

Las nueve religiosas que administran el asilo reciben la visita de voluntarios e incluso de escolares que llegan a conversar o ayudar a los ancianos a los que les gusta relatar sus historias personales una y otra vez. En una pared hay un cuadro con la frase: “Benditos los que nunca dicen: ya ha contado eso dos veces”.

“Cuidamos los cuerpos para salvar las almas, ese es el único objetivo para lo cual estamos”, indicó Sor María Agripina, una de las religiosas. El anciano de mayor edad tiene 96 años, indicó.

Petronila Roque, de 72 años, dijo que nunca imaginó poder ver tan cerca “al ministro de Dios” al que siempre observó por televisión. ”Lo que más quiero es que me bendiga para que me cure de la migraña que sufro toda mi vida”, dijo la mujer que en su juventud se dedicó a vender dulces y también fue niñera.

Prevost vivió unos 22 años en Perú hasta 2023 cuando fue llamado al Vaticano por el entonces papa Francisco para ejercer un cargo clave. Fue obispo de Chiclayo, una ciudad de la costa norte de Perú, a 700 kilómetros de el Callao. En el puerto —donde el municipio le está construyendo una estatua— fue administrador apostólico encargado.

Pese a que los católicos en Perú han ido disminuyendo desde 98,5% en el censo de 1940 hasta 76% en el de 2017, la llegada de Prevost ha despertado interés en miles de peruanos. Algunos negocios han comenzado a fabricar camisetas, dulces e incluso una cafetería ofrece el rostro del papa en sus tazas de capuchino.

León XIV, de 71 años, visitará Sudamérica por primera vez en noviembre en una gira que incluye Uruguay, Argentina y Perú.

That wasn’t all, Maysa Jalbout, the director of Education Can’t Wait, recounted of her visit to the school a few weeks ago. Even with a classroom temperature of 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) and no water or electricity, “She pleaded with me to make sure that her siblings and her cousins and her orphan friends are also able to attend school.”

But the school was so small that hundreds more kids waiting outside couldn’t get in, Jalbout said. They asked her and the other visitors to deliver a message to build more schools – and she said that’s what she has been urging at the U.N.’s annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations this week.

The plight of the more than 500 million children in desperate need of an education has been one of the key issues on the sidelines of the meeting – and the appeal for money to make it possible is having some success.

Climate change and conflict are major impediments

Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister is now the U.N. special envoy for global education. He said Thursday that 273 million children are not in school and 270 million others are at school but aren’t learning enough to read and write or be proficient in arithmetic by age 11. Many of them are in areas affected by conflict or climate change, he said.

“The message, I think, is clear," he said. “Instead of the world developing only some of the potential of some children in some countries, we must be determined to develop the potential of all children at all times in every country.”

Governments whose children are not in school must be reminded, he said, that they promised 20% of their spending would go to education, and to remind countries giving aid that in 2015 they signed up for U.N. development goals including achieving quality education for all children by 2030. “We’re so far away from the goal."

Brown said it’s disappointing that the numbers of children not going to school isn’t falling and the message is clear: “If you deny a child the basic right to education, you are doing something that will affect their whole life and, indeed, the life of the family around them."

But the gathering of global leaders did produce some results.

At an event Wednesday, the Global Partnership for Education said $3.5 billion was mobilized from partners and funds to support over 90 lower income countries in transforming their education system to provide quality learning.

It said $2.1 billion came from confirmed and anticipated pledges from governments and private donors, and $1.4 billion in co-financing -- $1 billion from development finance institutions and $400 million from a growing coalition of philanthropic and private sector partners.

Investments can reach where they're needed most

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, co-host of the campaign, said the funding empowers “dynamic and youthful nations like Nigeria to break down the barriers that keep our children, especially our girls, out of school and away from learning, so they can achieve their full potential.”

Education Cannot Wait, which Jalbout heads, focuses on the 258 million school-age children worldwide affected by crises – “far greater than the number that we are able to reach.”

She announced a $3 million emergency investment for children in Gaza and the West Bank to help up to 13,000 of the most vulnerable children and adolescents — with priority given to those with conflict-related injuries and disabilities and to youngsters who have lost parents and are unaccompanied or separated.

Gaza now has more child amputees per capita than anywhere in the world. “For these children," Jalbout said, "survival is only the beginning — a child who has survived this war, lost a limb and perhaps lost their family should not also lose their future because we failed to organize around their needs.”

But the enormous needs far outstrip the funds. For a third year, she said, 660,000 children remain out of school in Gaza, and some 70,000 of the youngest have no access to preschool. Elsewhere, she said, the organization gave $1 million to help children from Nepal’s recent devastating floods start learning again.

During her recent Sudan trip, she said she announced $22 million in funding to help several hundred thousand children — but there are 8 million youngsters out of school.

___

Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.

Leer en español

The first crane fell on the home, located in the 700 block of Southeast Eighth Street, on Thursday morning after a boom truck tipped over during an attempt to install a pest fumigation tent, due to the weight of the load.

The second crane fell as the company, the West Park-based Cooper Crane, tried to remove the first. Nobody was hurt in either instance.

Crews on Friday were collecting spilled hydraulic fluid and preparing damaged equipment for removal, using a large truck brought in to take the crane apart and haul it away.

“We’re relieved that no one was hurt,” a representative from Cooper Crane said in a statement. “We’re cooperating with the property owner, authorities, and our insurance carrier. The incident is being reviewed, and we can’t comment on details while that process is underway.”

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is getting involved in the investigation.

Alcaraz and Mensik beat Alexander Bublik and Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4 in the final match of the day at the O2 Arena.

Rafael Jodar had broken a 1-1 deadlock after the day session by defeating Bublik 6-2, 6-3 in the evening's singles match.

In the day session, Brandon Nakashima made the most of his Laver Cup debut by beating Mensik 6-1, 3-6, 10-7.

The 16th-ranked Nakashima was a late addition to Andre Agassi's roster after U.S. Open runner-up Ben Shelton withdrew last week.

In the event's opener, Casper Ruud beat Francisco Cerundolo 6-7 (4), 6-4, 10-8 to give Europe an early lead.

There are four matches per day in the three-day event.

Wins are worth one point on Friday, two points on Saturday and three points on Sunday. The first team to reach 13 points wins.

Europe has won the Laver Cup five times while Team World took its third title in last year's edition of the Ryder Cup-style event.

___

See AP’s full tennis coverage here

Fortune was killed in a disagreement about drugs, and she fought hard with her attackers before she was killed, Jackson police Detective Samuel Dukes told the court. Citing the medical examiner's opinion, he also said the hanging was “staged.”

Fortune was Black, and the Aug. 3 discovery of her hanging body stoked fear and drew widespread attention because the scene recalled actual lynchings in the Southern state, which has a long and troubled history of racial violence.

Authorities haven’t disclosed the exact cause of Fortune’s death or said why they think her body was hanged afterward, but they ruled it a homicide and arrested two men, both of them also Black, on murder charges. A 45-year-old man turned himself in Friday after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was charged with murder and will appear in court Monday.

Outside court, Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, told reporters that she had been aware that her daughter died before her body was hanged. But that step, she added, “brought all the attention to it.”

“What bothered me was they said Tasia fought for her life. I know she did. I know my daughter,” Spivey said.

The hearing was meant to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send the case against the first man arrested, Jarques Ratliff, to a grand jury for a possible indictment. It will resume Sept. 30.

Ratliff, 51, was arrested in mid-September and has pleaded not guilty. He remains jailed without bond. Police arrested a second defendant, 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr., this week.

During Friday's hearing, Ratliff blurted out in court that he and Fortune were friends.

“It sounded sincere. Tasia had a lot of friends,” Spivey said later. “I hope if he is innocent that he can prove he’s innocent. We don’t want any innocent people going to jail.”

Ratliff’s stepdaughter, Lashuna Jones, was among her father's supporters at court.

“He didn’t do it, and I’m behind him,” she said.

Spivey has said her daughter, who had four children, struggled with homelessness in recent years, and that she wasn’t sure where Fortune was living at the time of her death. She said Fortune had talked about starting a cleaning business and was trying to get her life in order.

___

White reported from Detroit.

Until now, Mexico's government did not share comprehensive data on people who have been forced to flee their homes due to ongoing violence in many parts of Mexico, leaving civil society groups piecing together information to get a wider view of the problem.

The figures published this week by Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography, or INEGI — an autonomous government agency that has at times been at odds with Mexico's ruling party — offer the first wider snapshot of the ongoing crisis.

Between October 2020 and October 2025, people in 510,000 households across Mexico were forced to flee to another part of the country. That could range from a single person to an entire family. The displacement affected 1.6 million people, including those forced to flee and those left behind to cope with the consequences of the crisis.

The figures show the problem has reached every corner of Mexico, but the states with the highest rates of displacement from cartel violence were Zacatecas, Morelos, Michoacan, Queretaro and Colima.

Other autonomous agencies, civil society groups and Mexican state governments have published data on internal displacement, but their findings have often been limited in scope.

Tracking internal displacement can often be tricky because many people leave their homes in fear without the intention of being found or reporting their case, or hope to later return to their homes if they determine it's safe to return home down the line.

David Mora, Mexico analyst for International Crisis Group, described the new data as a “major breakthrough” that will pave the way for authorities and civil society to address the long-term humanitarian consequences of the crisis. Those who are forced to flee criminal violence have almost no resources to turn to when they disappear into the fabric of Mexico and often have to start from zero.

“For years, civil society and victims of forced displacement have been sounding the alarm on the issue and the federal government has not paid attention,” Mora said Friday. “So this coming from the independent INEGI, it’s a breakthrough. It’s huge that they’re trying to put a number on it, which is just the first step.”

The INEGI figures don't include people displaced before 2020, meaning the number of displaced people across the country is likely much higher. Cartel violence has raged in key areas of Mexico since the beginning of the drug war around 2006 under the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón. The data focuses specifically on internally displaced people, and doesn’t capture people who have fled to the U.S.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said little about the issue, focusing instead on the government's efforts to reduce homicide numbers and crack down on criminal groups. She is also facing pressure from the Trump administration to show progress on security.

She has addressed specific cases of families being displaced from bursts of cartel violence, noting that authorities were working on finding a way for them to return home, but has largely not spoken about forced displacement as a widespread phenomenon.

At her morning news briefing Wednesday, Sheinbaum questioned the figures and said she had asked INEGI to provide further details about the data, including the questions and methodology used to reach those numbers.

___

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

Instead, he will begin October by stumping in Alabama and Oklahoma, two of the most Republican states in the nation. His events are sure to draw enthusiastic crowds of fans, but his choice of destinations is a reminder of his deep unpopularity in much of the country during a campaign season he's sought to make all about himself.

Trump will hold rallies next week in Durant, Oklahoma, and Mobile, Alabama, where he is sure to draw crowds, but he has also raised eyebrows.

While organizers insist the rallies are in locations with media markets that span state lines and they will help bolster broader turnout, Trump's itinerary is yet another sign of the uphill fight that his party faces. Republicans have already been pouring money into red states once considered safe as they try to shore up candidates facing an unhappy electorate that has soured on Trump and his policies.

Some Republicans have also been distancing themselves from the president in recent weeks as they try to appeal to voters beyond Trump's “Make America Great Again” base. They have removed or downplayed references to the president on their websites and increasingly voiced opposition to his unpopular war with Iran.

But Trump's events — Thursday in Durant and Friday in Mobile — are also likely to deliver something else he craves: adoring crowds. He is almost guaranteed to fill the venues with the kind of die-hard supporters who fueled his political rise, projecting excitement as he tries to bolster enthusiasm and rally Republicans.

“The President’s ability to engage with and activate low-propensity voters is unmatched. That’s why he’ll be barnstorming the country to activate the voters we need to win in November,” said Republican National Committee spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre, promising more October rallies to come.

Democrats, meanwhile, celebrated the announcement. “The political floor is falling out from underneath Trump and Congressional Republicans, forcing them to scramble to spend and campaign in deep red territory in the final weeks,” said Viet Shelton, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Republicans expect Trump's appeal to cross state lines

The RNC noted that Durant, Oklahoma, is on the Texas border and next to the Dallas-Fort Worth media market, and will draw Republicans in Texas, which has emerged as one of the most critical states on the map. Scandal-plagued Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Trump backed over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, is locked in a tight race against Democrat James Talarico. Gov. Greg Abbott is also facing a stronger-than-expected challenger in Democrat Gina Hinojosa.

Mobile is next to Florida’s panhandle, a Republican stronghold where high turnout can help bolster Trump-backed candidates running for Senate and governor. However, Florida Republican Sen. Ashley Moody is not expected to attend.

In Oklahoma, Trump will be stumping for Mike Mazzei, whom he backed as the Republican nominee for governor during a competitive primary. Mazzei is running against Oklahoma's Democratic House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson.

“This race continues to get more competitive — and national Republicans are right to be worried about Mazzei,” Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said in a statement.

Alabama, meanwhile, holds deep nostalgia for Trump and his early supporters. He held his first mega-rally in Mobile more than a decade ago, drawing some 30,000 people to a college football stadium. The crowd made clear to skeptics of his campaign that he was more than a celebrity novelty.

“I think it’s very natural that he would host a rally here as he is gearing up for the midterm elections,” said John Wahl, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor and former chair of the Alabama Republican Party.

Although Republicans remain the heavy favorites in Alabama's statewide campaigns, they face a more challenging political landscape this year.

Former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones is mounting a vigorous campaign for Alabama governor against one of Trump’s most vocal allies, Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who said he welcomed the president's visit.

Republican Rep. Barry Moore, running to replace Tuberville in the Senate with Trump's backing, said the president's rally “will be the jet fuel we need to win big in Alabama.”

Mobile is also near Alabama's 2nd Congressional District, which leans red after its lines were redrawn but is not a slam dunk for Republicans as they try to dislodge Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures.

Figures has been criticizing the president's plan to lower import tariffs on foreign beef in an appeal to cattle ranchers as he tries to fend off a challenge from his Trump-backed opponent, State Rep. Rhett Marques.

Trump has promised to ramp up his campaigning in the election's final stretch and had said he would visit all of the most competitive districts.

“It’s all about 35 races,” he said at a recent Rose Garden dinner attended by Republican lawmakers. “I’m going to go to every one of those 35 places and we’re going to see if we can get everyone elected."

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou said he hoped Trump would visit his state, where he won in 2024 by 11 percentage points. Republican Sen. John Husted is facing a competitive challenge from Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown.

“We definitely want him here,” Triantafilou said. “He’s a turnout driver for us.”

___

Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press reporters Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

Leer en español

Nolo’s forecast has trended south and away from Hawaii over the past 24 hours, which lowers the risk that the core of what’s forecast to be a major Category 3 or stronger hurricane will directly impact parts of the state.

Unfortunately, the slight southward trend in the forecast doesn’t do much for the catastrophic, life-threatening rainfall threat Nolo poses in its outer edges to part of Maui and the Big Island this weekend – especially on east-facing slopes of the Big Island where the National Weather Service is forecasting as much as 25 inches of rainfall, nearly half of the rainfall Miami typically gets in an entire year.

In addition to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and dangerous mudslides on Maui and the Big Island from Nolo’s torrential rains, tropical storm conditions (winds 39 mph and stronger) and hurricane force wind gusts (winds 74 mph or higher) in higher terrain will spread over southeastern parts of the state as the storm passes by this weekend. The high winds on Nolo’s periphery could also extend westward to parts of Oahu and Kauai.

Treacherous marine conditions, including waves exceeding 20 feet, will batter north and west-facing shorelines of the state into early next week.

Another weak and fleeting storm for the sluggish Atlantic

The strong disturbance designated Invest 90L near the Cabo Verde Islands off Africa was upgraded to Tropical Storm Gonzalo late Thursday eastern time.

An unusual tropical storm warning was issued for the Cabo Verde Islands as the broad and disorganized storm lifts northward across the archipelago through Friday night.

Like nearly all of its six Atlantic predecessors this season, Gonzalo is expected to stay weak and shouldn’t even survive to next week.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Fay continues to spit and sputter as it creeps over the open central Atlantic. Fay is forecast to wind down again by Sunday and, barring another unforeseen resurgence, that should be all she wrote for the season’s comeback kid.

Elsewhere, no development is expected across the Gulf, Caribbean, or wider Atlantic into at least the start of October.

Polo surges back to a Category 5

Hurricane Polo restrengthened to a Category 5 hurricane for a third time early Friday, logging nearly 50 total hours at the apex of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

Polo is expected to finally begin to gradually weaken over the weekend as it bends back toward the Baja California Peninsula of northwestern Mexico for early next week, where it’s forecast to strike as a weakening but still dangerous hurricane on Monday.

Residual moisture will also peel off from Polo and contribute to heavy monsoonal rains and the potential for flash flooding across parts of the Desert Southwest into the Four Corners region for Monday into Tuesday.

En las últimas 24 horas, la trayectoria prevista de Nolo ha mostrado una tendencia hacia el sur, alejándose de Hawái, lo que reduce el riesgo de que el núcleo de lo que se prevé que sea un huracán de categoría 3 o superior afecte directamente a partes del estado.

Unfortunately, the slight southward trend in the forecast doesn’t do much for the catastrophic, life-threatening rainfall threat Nolo poses in its outer edges to part of Maui and the Big Island this weekend – especially on east-facing slopes of the Big Island where the National Weather Service is forecasting as much as 25 inches of rainfall, nearly half of the rainfall Miami typically gets in an entire year.

In addition to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and dangerous mudslides on Maui and the Big Island from Nolo’s torrential rains, tropical storm conditions (winds 39 mph and stronger) and hurricane force wind gusts (winds 74 mph or higher) in higher terrain will spread over southeastern parts of the state as the storm passes by this weekend. The high winds on Nolo’s periphery could also extend westward to parts of Oahu and Kauai.

Treacherous marine conditions, including waves exceeding 20 feet, will batter north and west-facing shorelines of the state into early next week.

Another weak and fleeting storm for the sluggish Atlantic

The strong disturbance designated Invest 90L near the Cabo Verde Islands off Africa was upgraded to Tropical Storm Gonzalo late Thursday eastern time.

An unusual tropical storm warning was issued for the Cabo Verde Islands as the broad and disorganized storm lifts northward across the archipelago through Friday night.

Like nearly all of its six Atlantic predecessors this season, Gonzalo is expected to stay weak and shouldn’t even survive to next week.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Fay continues to spit and sputter as it creeps over the open central Atlantic. Fay is forecast to wind down again by Sunday and, barring another unforeseen resurgence, that should be all she wrote for the season’s comeback kid.

Elsewhere, no development is expected across the Gulf, Caribbean, or wider Atlantic into at least the start of October.

Polo surges back to a Category 5

Hurricane Polo restrengthened to a Category 5 hurricane for a third time early Friday, logging nearly 50 total hours at the apex of the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

Polo is expected to finally begin to gradually weaken over the weekend as it bends back toward the Baja California Peninsula of northwestern Mexico for early next week, where it’s forecast to strike as a weakening but still dangerous hurricane on Monday.

Residual moisture will also peel off from Polo and contribute to heavy monsoonal rains and the potential for flash flooding across parts of the Desert Southwest into the Four Corners region for Monday into Tuesday.

An external review released by Utah Valley University found that the school failed to conduct a formal security assessment, did not create a written event action plan and deferred critical decision-making to Turning Point USA, the Kirk-led organization that scheduled his appearances on college campuses across the U.S.

A charismatic but polarizing figure, Kirk, 31, was killed on Sept. 10, 2025, by a sniper perched on a rooftop more than 400 feet (122 meters) away, authorities said. The conservative activist had been debating students before a crowd of thousands in an outdoor courtyard surrounded by tall buildings and elevated walkways on the campus in Orem, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City. His appearances often attracted protests, further complicating his security.

Tyler Robinson has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder in Kirk’s killing, a charge that could make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors say the 23-year-old defendant wrote in a text message about Kirk: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.” No trial date has been set.

Kirk’s killing was a watershed moment during a wave of political violence in the United States. President Donald Trump has survived multiple assassination attempts in the past three years, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was gunned down in 2024 and a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband were killed at their home in 2025.

Utah Valley President Jon Anderson said in a statement that the school has a responsibility to “learn from the findings of this review, and follow through on its recommendations.”

The report echoes complaints made by Kirk's family

Last week, Kirk’s family announced a wrongful death notice — a precursor to a possible lawsuit — accusing Utah Valley officials of hastening his death with a string of “reckless decisions.”

They included failing to conduct an adequate risk assessment, failing to establish a secure perimeter and failing to have first responders immediately available, which led to Kirk being taken to a hospital in a private vehicle instead of an ambulance.

The family’s lawyer, Brett Parkinson, said in a statement that the report reaffirms those allegations. By hosting the event, he said, Utah Valley assumed responsibility for the safety of all in attendance, including Kirk.

“The buck stopped with UVU leadership and law enforcement,” Parkinson said. “Justice for Charlie and his family requires true accountability for UVU’s fatal shortcomings that day.”

University officials had suggested other locations for the event

According to the report, which Utah Valley said was done independently by outside consultants, some university officials expressed reservations in an August 2025 meeting with Turning Point about holding the event in an outdoor space surrounded by tall buildings.

The officials suggested multiple other locations, including some that were indoors. But a Turning Point representative insisted that Kirk speak at a campus courtyard because he had been there previously and the organization was familiar with the location. The university ultimately allowed the event to go forward in the courtyard.

“In our assessment, those decisions were consequential,” the report said.

Turning Point USA deferred to Parkinson’s statement when asked for comment on the findings. The organization and its security team did not respond to several requests to participate in the review, according to the report.

The event location “created significant protective operations considerations,” the report said, but the planning process failed to include a documented line-of-sight assessment, pre-event briefing or walk-through with security stakeholders. Nor was there clear coordination with Kirk's private security team and external law enforcement partners, the report said.

An Associated Press review last year found that the campus did not use several public safety practices that have become standard at events around the country. Campus police did not fly a drone to monitor rooftops or coordinate with local law enforcement to secure the event attended by about 3,000 people. There were no bag checks or metal detectors.

The report notes a walk-through didn't happen the day of the event

The report also highlighted a lack of coordination and communication between campus police and Kirk’s private security in the days leading up to the event.

In foregoing a day-of walk-through and pre-event briefing, they missed opportunities to go over roles, assess staffing and equipment, add resources such as drones, and address any concerns or threats, the report said.

The university’s police chief sent a text message asking Turning Point’s security supervisor to meet at the event location a few hours beforehand, but no meeting ever happened, the report said.

Utah Valley University says it is making key changes

The report makes nearly 150 recommendations, including hiring a police sergeant to focus on campus events and creating clear criteria for when events must be moved indoors or to more controllable venues.

“This requires humility, an honest examination of our policies and practices, and a commitment to act on what we learn,” said Anderson, who took over as university president last month. He added that the university has made “meaningful progress in strengthening campus safety over the past year.”

That includes hiring a chief public safety officer to coordinate with emergency response agencies and hiring more campus police officers. At the time of the shooting, the university had just 13 sworn officers, which the report said was not sufficient for Utah Valley’s size and the types of events held on the campus. It’s the state’s largest university, with about 50,000 students on a sprawling campus in Orem, beneath the Wasatch Mountains.

___

Sisak reported from New York. Associated Press reporter Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed.

Celebrini was presented the captain's jersey at a team meeting by former captain Joe Thornton before practice Friday.

“It’s a huge honor,” Celebrini said. “It’s just something that I can’t really take lightly. Obviously, there’s a responsibility that comes with that. But at the same time I’m not really going to change who I am or what I do. Just a huge honor first and foremost and with that comes some responsibility.”

Celebrini takes over the spot that had been vacant since Logan Couture went down with a career-ending injury, becoming the 11th full-time captain in Sharks history.

Couture was given that role for the 2019-20 season and held it through the 2024-25 season even though he didn't play a single game that year because of a chronic injury to his groin and pelvic area that ended his career.

Celebrini was one of five players who rotated as alternate captains last season but now has the role for the foreseeable future. He is the youngest player to fill the leadership role, with Patrick Marleau previously holding that mark when he was named captain at age 24 in 2004. He is also the youngest current captain in the NHL, edging out 21-year-old Connor Bedard, who was named captain in Chicago earlier this month.

“He’s earned it through the way he works and competes and the way he’s played on the ice and the way he’s handled himself off the ice,” general manager Mike Grier said. “I don’t know if anyone drafts someone at 18 and thinks by the time they’re 20 they’re going to be leading your team and be your captain. But there are those rare special players who do it and Macklin is one of them.”

Celebrini has become the face of the franchise since being drafted first overall in 2024 and quickly developing into one of the game's biggest stars. He signed a five-year, $94 million extension this summer and is under contract through the 2031-32 season.

Celebrini, who turned 20 in June, has 178 career points for the fifth-most ever for a teenager and his 70 career goals are seventh best for a player before turning 20.

“We’ve seen it since day one, the type of player he is, but also the type of person he is,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “The way he leads our group on and off the ice. The guys gravitate towards him."

Celebrini had 45 goals and 70 assists last season, with his 115 points breaking Thornton’s franchise record of 114 set in 2006-07 and trailing Wayne Gretzky (137 in 1979-80) and Sidney Crosby (120 in 2006-07) for the most in a season for a player before turning 20.

He had the 10th-most points ever for a player who missed the playoffs, recording a point on 46.2% of San Jose goals for the second-best rate in the league behind Connor McDavid (48.9%) and the best ever for a teenager.

He also was the leading goal scorer in the Olympics, with five goals to help Canada win the silver medal. He then served as captain of Team Canada for the World Cup in the spring.

Despite Celebrini’s exploits, the Sharks still missed the playoffs for the seventh straight season. They improved by 34 points for the 10th best single-season jump in the last 30 years but landed four points out of the playoffs.

“It definitely starts with his work ethic,” teammate Tyler Toffoli said. “It’s not always the things he says. Obviously, he’s very vocal in the sense of he’s still a young kid and he enjoys coming to the rink and cracking jokes and having fun. But at the same time, when it comes to work and in the middle of a period in a game, he can be serious. It’s one of those things when whenever he talks, you listen."

Celebrini is part of a strong young core in San Jose alongside fellow promising players like Michael Misa, Will Smith, Igor Chernyshov and Sam Dickinson. The Sharks added even more young talent this offseason with three first-round picks headlined by Swedish left winger Ivar Stenberg at No. 2 overall.

Grier also brought in veteran reinforcements at the start of the offseason, trading for defenseman Darnell Nurse and signing defenseman Jacob Trouba and forward Mason Marchment.

Now with those veterans and Celebrini leading the way, the Sharks are hoping to get back to the postseason.

“When you get a special player, it changes, you know, the trajectory of things that you’re on,” Grier said. “He gives the group a certain level of belief that things are possible. We were fortunate to win the lottery and be able to select Mac."

___

See AP’s full NHL coverage here

The U.S. president delighted in the personal rapport he says he's built with Xi, while the Chinese leader emphasized the two sides “must hold the line” to ensure there is “no conflict and no confrontation between us.”

The two leaders discussed the wars in Iran and Ukraine as well as artificial intelligence and Taiwan. The biggest policy announcement of the visit was modest: an agreement to extend by two months a trade truce that had been set to expire in November.

Here are seven key takeaways from the visit:

Trump shows deference to Xi after trade tussle

Trump's red-carpet treatment for Xi is remarkable considering less than a year ago the two were locked in a tariff battle that threatened to send the global economy into a recession.

The warmth sharply contrasts with the hostility Trump shows for America’s northern neighbor and biggest export market, Canada, and Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Only China and Canada fought back against Trump’s tariffs last year with retaliatory tariffs of their own.

But Trump has been deferential to Xi while raging against Ottawa, announcing 50% tariffs on some Canadian imports and a ban on some Canadian products, including motorcycles and alcohol. The ban takes effect Tuesday. Trump even posted an image of himself in a U.S. hockey uniform, looming over Carney cowering on the ice.

Former U.S. trade official Jeff Moon said the explanation is simple.

“Trump is a bully who enjoys punching down when he can but will stop when he can’t,” said Moon, noting Canada sends about 70% of its exports to the U.S.

Trump eased up on China last year when Beijing cut off supplies of critical minerals needed for advanced manufacturing. “Punching down was no longer possible,’’ said Moon, the founder of China Moon Strategies.

No breakthroughs on the thorniest global issues

The leaders are facing calls to collaborate on guardrails for artificial intelligence even as they compete to dominate the rapidly developing technology.

Xi acknowledged that the U.S. and China have the “responsibility to develop and manage AI for good” while ensuring it remains under human control. But Trump appears more focused on his push to rebrand artificial intelligence to “super intelligence,” claiming on social media Friday that Xi “seems to like” the term without divulging the substance of their discussions.

Trump, a Republican, has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want to impede the industry and that the U.S. must ensure an edge over China.

The leaders also delved into the Iran war, which Trump is struggling to wind down. China urged Washington and Tehran to return to talks and an interim deal, but Iran’s largest trading partner has played no major public role in pushing for peace despite its outsize influence.

The costs of the war -- including higher gasoline prices and dwindling stockpiles of advanced weapons -- are hurting Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Xi’s push on Taiwan with Trump alarms Taipei

In their private talks, Xi told Trump he hoped the U.S. will “adhere to the correct position of opposing” the independence of Taiwan, a self-governed island, according to an official Chinese statement.

Trump hasn’t said much yet about his private conversations with Xi. But Taiwan’s foreign ministry said the Chinese statement was “distorting” the facts, while underscoring that Taiwan’s sovereignty belongs to its people.

The Chinese government’s choice of the word “adhere” is revealing, because it implies Beijing believes Washington is already behaving in ways it wants, says Craig Singleton, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“Beijing’s objective is to get Trump to absorb Chinese red lines into his own definition of a stable relationship,” Singleton added.

Anxiety was already heightened about Trump’s position on Taiwan. Following his May visit to Beijing, Trump paused a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan.

Xi challenged Trump’s zero sum worldview. Trump didn't push back

Xi seemed to subtly reject Trump’s framing of global competition as zero sum with nations either winning or losing.

The Chinese leader said any competition with the U.S. should be limited and “within bounds” and suggested that Trump need not worry about trying to contain China.

To be sure, Xi couched his remarks in history and diplomatic nuance. But Trump did not offer a counterargument.

U.S. policies have tried to contain Chinese manufacturing through tariffs and export controls. Those have achieved mixed results. China continues to innovate with electric vehicles, match AI breakthroughs and expand its global trade surplus.

“It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses,” said Xi, openly contesting Trump’s claims that the front-runner in AI automatically “wins.”

Trump takes his military rival into his helicopter

The U.S. president took pains to show Xi around and spent time looking at a new helicopter landing pad he had rushed to finish ahead of the state visit. But it was surprising when Trump invited Xi -- the head of a communist country that is a key military rival -- to step on board the chopper, which is one of the most secure and well-protected aircraft on earth.

Trump has had other issues with airborne security recently. A luxury jet gifted to him by Qatar for use as Air Force One lacked the advanced defense systems of the traditional presidential aircraft — a problem acute enough that Trump in July was concealed in a catering truck before secretly flying out of Turkey on a different plane in the face of credible threats from Iran.

Trump also showed off the construction site for his new White House ballroom, a project he has partially justified because it will house military and security operations. At Xi's state dinner, Trump invited Chinese officials and all his guests to walk over for a firsthand look at the project. It’s unclear whether anyone took him up on that invitation.

Trump's ongoing media battle created an awkward dynamic

Trump last week barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, sparking a legal fight that overshadowed Xi's visit.

The White House’s five-network television pool rotation refused to cover Trump’s events in response to the action against CNN, and Trump grumbled on social media that TV networks “refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years.”

His fight with the press created an extraordinary split screen as he welcomed the world’s most powerful autocrat with a lavish state visit all while battling in court to keep prominent American media outlets out of the People’s House.

It’s all to be continued …

After Xi’s trip to Washington, the two leaders are still on track to meet two more times this year.

That means their exchanges are part of an ongoing dialogue, rather than a set of finalized agreements. It also creates opportunities for the trade truce that was extended for two months through Jan. 10, 2027, to get another extension.

In November, Xi will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, and in December, the Group of 20 summit will be held at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida.

Xi confirmed before leaving Washington on Friday that he expected to see Trump again soon.

Instead, he’s in contention at a big European tour event for the second week running after shooting a 6-under 65 on Friday to be three shots off the lead at the halfway point of the French Open.

Matt Fitzpatrick, the world No. 4, shot 64 and held the second-round lead on 13-under 129 at Le Golf National outside Paris, where the Ryder Cup was staged in 2019.

Jeff Winther was a shot back after also shooting 64, while defending champion Michael Kim of the United States — the first-round leader — bogeyed the last hole for a 68 that dropped him into third place.

Then, in a share of fourth place, was the No. 23-ranked Gerard, who wasn’t picked by U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker in his 12-man roster for the Presidents Cup taking place at Medinah despite a third-place finish at the Tour Championship last month. That came after he contended briefly at the British Open.

Even last week, Gerard led by two shots after 36 holes at the BMW PGA Championship — the European tour's flagship event — before finishing tied for 27th.

___

See AP’s full golf coverage here

The band ripped through a seven-song set including an encore of “With or Without You” for hundreds of students in the schoolyard of Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin and a crowd of others who got word of the gig or — like a construction crew several floors up a nearby building — were lucky to be within earshot and have a bird's eye view.

“We escaped the lab — how’s the experiment going for you?” Bono said as he pointed to the science classrooms.

The band got its start at the school 50 years ago when a 14-year-old Larry Mullen posted a note on a message board reading: “Drummer seeks musicians to form band.”

Originally known as Feedback, the group consisted of singer Paul Hewson, now Bono, guitarist David Evans, known as The Edge, and Adam Clayton on bass.

The rest, as they say, is history, though it would be a couple of years before they settled on the name U2 and not until 1980 that their first album, “Boy,” dropped, featuring “I Will Follow,” the first tune they played for the enthusiastic children.

The 30-minute gig was not quite as secret as it may have seemed. A camera crew was rolling, international news media were gathered and a group of 32 students accompanied the band on stringed instruments for the hit, "One.”

It was part of a promotional push for their new album, “Carnaval De Luz,” which features a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton, who died of cancer last month.

They later performed from a balcony to a crowd of fans on popular Grafton Street in central Dublin.

Students, some sticking their heads out of classroom windows, screamed and cheered. They captured the moment on their phones and sang along to the familiar tunes. Some yelled, “I love you Bono!”

Bono thanked his captive audience but noted they had “nowhere else to go.”

As he counted down the signature start of “Vertigo,” with “uno, dos, tres, catorce” (one, two, three, 14), he quipped: “If you’re taking Spanish lessons, don’t take them from me."

In a tribute to teachers, he became philosophical about his time at the school, saying it was where the band began the “humblest and hardest lesson” of learning how much they needed to be taught.

“Part of that started here and the sense was that maybe all we needed was around us, just under our feet — if we could see it in our mates, our wider community that was going to help us get through the next 50 years," he said. "So we want to thank them — and the wider community around this rock ‘n’ roll high school.”

___

Melley reported from London.

The jury found over 43 million violations of state consumer protection law and it is now up to the judge to determine how much the company would pay, with attorneys representing the state asking for the maximum $5,000 penalty per violation.

“The verdict marks a significant victory for New Mexico consumers and holds one of the world’s largest technology companies accountable for its conduct,” the New Mexico Department of Justice said in a statement.

The two-week trial in Santa Fe centered on accusations that Facebook, owned by Meta, deceived users about a data breach stemming from a third-party personality quiz that harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to generate targeted ads. The now-defunct firm’s clients included the 2016 campaign for Donald Trump.

Jurors sided with prosecutors, finding Facebook made deceptive statements about protecting users’ data that affected New Mexico’s entire population of more than two million people. The jury also found Facebook misled the public about investigations into third-party app developers that harvest user data following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Facebook claims state's evidence was ‘outdated’

“We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record,” said Alex Burgos, a spokesperson for Meta in an email.

During closing arguments, lawyers for Facebook claimed the state’s evidence was outdated and that despite having five years to gather material, New Mexico found only one other instance of a data breach.

In one of the few wins for the defense, jurors found the state didn’t prove that Facebook made false claims about removing harmful content, including misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state claimed the company favored certain accounts and allowed for violent or inaccurate content to proliferate. During closing arguments, Randi McGinn, an attorney representing the state, argued that Facebook profited off harmful content.

Facebook denied the claims, arguing the company has adapted its policies since the state's lawsuit was filed in 2021 and that it removes 99% of content that violates standards. In a deposition played for jurors, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company had robust systems to determine whether content should be taken down.

“Meta’s platforms are forums for free expression. We have a First Amendment right to manage those platforms in a way we believe best serves the interests of our community. This means prioritizing free speech, protecting our users’ information and giving them control over their data,” Burgos said in a statement after the verdict.

Expert says impact on the company remains unclear

Despite jurors finding millions of violations, it's unclear how much of an impact the case will have on the company's bottom line, given how profitable Meta is.

"It's unlikely that this is going to be the case that effectively penalizes the company in a meaningful way," said Peter Ormerod, an associate professor of law at Villanova University.

Ormerod said the social media company has very high margins and previously skirted regulatory actions on its platforms.

If the state successfully persuades the judge to award the maximum civil penalties for every violation, the company could owe over $200 billion, with interest accruing if it decides to appeal. The judge will have to weigh complex arguments from both sides about what penalties are fair. In a previous case, New Mexico secured $942 million over the platform’s policies to protect minors.

Ormerod commended the state’s “dogged prosecution” of the social media giant, but isn’t sure the judgment will be significant enough to change Meta’s ways.

“There’s been a lot of criticism that none of these amounts of money are enough to discipline the company,” Ormerod said.

Judge will decide penalties at later date

The judge will decide on penalties during a hearing on Oct. 1. Attorney General Raúl Torrez told reporters following the verdict that all money awarded will go into a fund for the state's education system. The state is also seeking an injunction to stop similar practices in the future.

Friday's verdict follows several others against Meta recently.

In August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle a multistate lawsuit involving child safety issues. Buried in the 130-page settlement was an agreement to release Meta from future liability related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach, making New Mexico the only state to decide to pursue a case on its own. Florida was the only other state that did not sign the settlement, saying it was not tough enough on Meta, leaving the door open for future litigation.

Also this year, New Mexico won judgments totaling $942 million from Meta in a two-phase trial about the company’s safety protections for minors. The court ordered Meta to implement new safeguards, including age-verification technology and time limits on its platforms.

—

Schuettler reported from Phoenix.

— 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.

Thousands of people rallied in rain to express their anger over the verdicts earlier this month that found former President Hashim Thaci and three others guilty of war crimes during the 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia. The Netherlands-based court also sentenced them to 13-25 years in jail.

Residents of Kosovo view the verdicts as unjust, saying that the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, which Thaci once led before entering politics, fought against Serbian oppression. More than 13,000 people died during the conflict, which ended after a NATO bombing forced Serbia to pull out.

Though largely peaceful, protests dubbed “Not in my name” have added to already high political tensions following an impasse of more than 18 months, which has blocked the election of the president and led to two early elections.

Kurti, who took office nearly two weeks ago after an election in June, faces an Oct. 6 deadline to reach a deal with opposition groups on the next president, or another early election will be held. This would further damage the economy and deepen the uncertainty in one of the poorest countries in Europe.

The war crimes protests have “complicated even more the political scene, and the divisions now have become even deeper,” political analyst Artan Muhaxhiri told The Associated Press.

The issue, he said, is “being used for political reasons and, of course, all the parties want to benefit maximally from it.” He said that “the protests are putting big pressure on the government.”

Thousands have come out every day since Sept. 17

The war crimes rallies have been attended by mostly young people, with tens of thousands of people expected at a big gathering in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, on Oct. 1. Protesters on Friday carried red and black Albanian flags, and banners praising the KLA and the jailed former fighters.

The opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, formerly led by Thaci, has demanded that Kosovo limit the reach of the Specialist Chambers based in The Hague, Netherlands, which tried Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.

Kurti, who traveled to New York for the U.N. General Assembly this week, has yet to respond to the opposition bid. He has promised to stand by the jailed Kosovars and provide any help they need.

Muhaxhiri said that any anti-court initiatives are “more symbolic than realistic” and could strain relations with the European Union, which has backed its founding. Kosovo's parliament on Monday also is expected to pass a declaration about the war crimes verdicts.

The EU is seeking to restart stalled talks to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which have been tense since Kosovo declared independence in 2008 without Belgrade’s consent.

Kosovo’s independence is backed by the United States and most EU countries while Belgrade has the support of Russia and China for its claim on the territory. The EU has told both Kosovo and Serbia they must resolve problems to move forward in their efforts to join the 27-nation bloc.

Protesters want concrete action

Protesters in Kosovo say they want the government to take concrete actions to help the former rebel leaders, including financially and by hiring law firms, said Ismail Tasholli, from the Freedom Has a Name group behind the protests.

Tasholli said that the protests will continue until the convicted former rebels are released from prison. He warned that “the government has reached the final moment when it must react, because we have no other option.”

“We will not back down in the face of this injustice,” Tasholli said. “It is not good for those in power to create a gap with the citizens.”

“While we're in grave danger, but I think there is a possibility that 2026 will be looked back upon in the history books as the beginning of a positive tipping point,” Gore said in a sit down interview with The Associated Press during New York Climate Week. He sees a good chance the world is peaking its use of coal, oil and gas, which cause global warming, as solar and other renewable power is overtaking dirtier fossil fuels.

History makes the former U.S. vice president hopeful. He compared the effort to make a cleaner world to the U.S. civil rights movement, Nelson Mandela's anti-apartheid movement and women's equality efforts as “the other great morally based challenges that humanity has confronted in the past.

“And in all of those prior movements,” he said, "there were times when the advocates felt despair but they kept going because courage is not the absence of fear, it's the determination to go forward in spite of it."

Nature makes him nervous because Earth's warming is accelerating and with it extreme weather, such as heat waves and the deadly glacier collapse and flooding that killed 1,300 people in Nepal.

“I’m temperamentally optimistic, but the dangers are extremely grave, getting more so all the time,” said, Gore, often accused of being a doomsayer by nonscientist political opponents. “We’re seeing these extreme events come fast and furious. They’re worse as well as more frequent. ... It’s like a nature hike through the book of Revelation.”

A race between old and new power

“This is a close race between the unfathomable risk we are taking, the unacceptable damages we are enduring on one hand, and the incredibly exciting advance of all the clean, cheap, job-producing alternatives that people not under the sway of the fossil fuel industry are adopting in droves,” Gore said.

He ticked off factoids such as Africa installing 100,000 solar panels per day, that 91% of the new U.S. electricity generation was renewable and that 30% of all new car s sold globally this year will be electric. And, he said, in Pakistan the common dowry now includes three solar panels.

Who will win the race? “The answer is in our hands,” Gore said. “The last chapter of this story won’t come for a while, but I think we really are at a turning point."

Ten years ago, 55% of the world's investment was in fossil fuels and 45% in renewables. Now it's 65% renewables, Gore said. He said society changes when a new technology becomes cheaper than the old one, much like cellphones supplanting, then replacing landlines.

Experts say Gore is right to be optimistic

Three climate scientists basically agreed with Gore's assessments of both increasing dangers, but also still had an optimistic outlook.

"I agree with Al Gore that we have incredible progress on exponential rise in adoption and decline in price for renewable electric green solutions," said Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research in Germany. “But the dilemma, so far, is that they largely meet growing energy demand. We are not yet bending the curve on oil, gas and coal.”

Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare of Australia said he's generally optimistic like Gore “about what we can achieve particularly with the rapid development of clean technology." But, he said, "I am the at the same time fearful that this is not fast enough and is being held back by the fossil fuel industry.”

Even though change isn't fast enough, the University of Pennsylvania's Michael Mann said Gore's tone is crucial: “Doomism, despair and disengagement is the greatest threat at this point. We must not fall victim to it.”

Gore is having none of that. At 78, he thinks he'll see meaningful bends in the carbon pollution curve in his lifetime. But even if it takes longer, that's OK, Gore said, paraphrasing the Jewish Talmud:

“You are not required to finish the work, but you are required to undertake it.”

___

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.

Woodford Town is getting a full game replay.

An FA Cup qualifying match will be replayed because of a refereeing mistake made in Mulbarton Wanderers' 2-1 win over Woodford last weekend, both lower-division clubs announced Friday.

The original result has been voided and the teams are set to square off again Tuesday.

Woodford had filed a protest with the English Football Association based on the referee's ruling following a penalty in the first half.

Woodford scored from the spot but the referee disallowed it because of encroachment by its own players.

The match official then awarded an indirect free kick for Mulbarton. But Woodford argued to an FA panel that was a mistake.

“The sub-committee concluded that a technical error had been made by the referee, determining that the correct outcome under Law 14 should have been either the awarding of the goal or the ordering of a penalty retake,” Woodford said in a statement.

As a result, it said, the FA determined that “the original fixture was not completed in accordance with the 2026-27 FA Cup Rules,” and must be “replayed in its entirety.”

Mulbarton said in its statement Friday the FA had originally determined the protest was not allowed, but that Woodford further appealed and prevailed with a rules sub-committee.

“The club is deeply upset and disappointed by this decision, the impact that it will have upon our football club, and the potential wider implications regarding the finality of results for any FA Cup match in the future played by any team and the integrity of the game as a whole,” Mulbarton said.

___

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

Pakistan’s Information Ministry said in a post on X that its forces repelled what it called an “attempted Afghan aggression” in the Gulistan sector of southwestern Balochistan province. It said “at least 13 Afghan Taliban personnel were killed and several injured” Thursday night.

The strikes marked a sharp escalation in fighting between the two South Asian countries and risked further complicating international efforts to ease tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. Pakistan routinely accuses Kabul of allowing militants, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, to operate from Afghan territory and launch attacks across the border. Kabul denies the accusation.

The Pakistani Information Ministry rejected a claim by Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry that Afghanistan had destroyed a Pakistani post near the southern Afghan border town of Spin Boldak, opposite the Pakistani city of Chaman. It posted videos it said showed Pakistani troops firing artillery at Afghan positions.

Residents in Chaman said the exchange of fire continued for hours on Thursday.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the footage or the casualty claims by either side. An uneasy calm prevailed along the border Friday, with no new fighting reported.

In Kabul, Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry denied that its forces had suffered any casualties. It said in a post on X that Afghan personnel had instead destroyed a Pakistani post Thursday and described Pakistan’s account of the fighting as false.

The competing claims came a day after Pakistan said it carried out airstrikes on 10 sites in Afghanistan that it described as storage and launch facilities for drones used in attacks against Pakistan on Wednesday.

Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Thursday that the Pakistani strikes hit the southern and eastern provinces of Kandahar, Paktia and Khost, killing four civilians.

Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a statement Thursday that the strikes were carried out after eight drones were launched from Afghanistan and Afghan forces shelled Pakistani border posts. He said the attacks followed an attempt by militants to infiltrate Pakistan that was thwarted by Pakistani troops.

Tensions had already intensified Monday when Pakistani fighter jets struck sites in eastern Afghanistan that Islamabad described as militant hideouts. Pakistan said those strikes killed 28 militants, while Afghan authorities said three civilians were killed, a toll confirmed by the United Nations.

The renewed hostilities threaten mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia aimed at securing lasting peace between the two countries.

The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. The group has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.

____

Afghan reported from Kabul.

Según el Departamento de Policía de Miami, agentes acudieron a la cuadra 400 de Southwest Eighth Court alrededor de las 5:45 a.m. y encontraron a la víctima herida.

Paramédicos trasladaron al hombre de 33 años al Centro de Traumatología Ryder del Hospital Jackson Memorial. Las autoridades dijeron que se encontraba “estable” hasta la mañana del viernes.

Las autoridades no han anunciado ningún arresto ni un posible motivo.

La policía dijo que está investigando las “circunstancias que rodean este incidente”.

The decision allows the Pentagon to continue to remove Anthropic’s Claude models from its systems and bar the use of its products for Defense Department work. Judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 in the Pentagon's favor.

“Today’s DC Circuit Court ruling completely validates the Department’s position,” the Pentagon’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote in a social media post.

The dispute between the AI company and the government broke out in February when President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of endangering national security and designated the company a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones.

The ruling is separate from one this summer in California, where a federal judge found the Pentagon acted illegally by punishing the AI company for its criticism of the Pentagon’s views on AI use. This case, which was filed earlier this year in Washington, D.C., focused on a different rule the Pentagon was using to try to declare Anthropic a supply chain risk.

The majority opinion states the Pentagon had “ample support” for its actions. It notes that by Anthropic's own admission, “the company encodes restrictions into Claude that prevent the model from performing tasks that Anthropic wishes to prevent.”

“The Department reasonably feared that Anthropic might manipulate Claude’s design to prevent it from performing national-security functions that the Department deems contractually authorized and necessary,” Judge Gregory G. Katsas wrote in the majority opinion. Both Katsas and Judge Neomi Rao, who formed the majority, were nominated by Trump. The sole dissenter, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, was nominated by Republican President George H. W. Bush.

The judges said that they have "no reason to doubt" that Anthropic acts with “noble intentions” in restricting Claude, specifically with respect to its concerns around privacy and AI safety. But they said the definition of a supply chain risk in this context hinges “on what Anthropic does, not why Anthropic does it.”

An Anthropic spokesperson said in a written statement the company “respectfully disagrees” with the court’s decision. “Another federal court has already held the government’s parallel designation unlawful,” the statement continued. "We remain confident in our position and are considering all options, including further review.”

The judges who ruled against Anthropic said they had “no quarrel” with the conclusions of the the separate case that was filed in San Francisco, but they found that a “bad motive” on Anthropic’s part is not required to support a supply chain risk designation.

The Department of Defense began removing Claude from its workflows earlier this year, and the ruling upholds its ability to do so, including prohibiting contractors from using Anthropic products in their work for the department. Anthropic’s products are not barred from the federal government as a whole under this ruling.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A weekend nor'easter bound for New England has prompted the cancellation of the English pop singer's concerts Friday and Saturday in Foxborough, Massachusetts, about 22 miles (37 kilometers) southwest of Boston. Refunds will be provided.

“Due to the severe weather warnings in place in Boston and New England throughout the weekend and following consultation with local officials, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Ed Sheeran concerts at Gillette Stadium,” concert promoter Messina Touring said in a statement Friday.

The decision “was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority,” the company said.

The storm is expected to sock much of the East Coast with strong winds, coastal flooding and heavy rain. The National Weather Service said gusts could hit 60 to 65 mph (97 to 105 kph) on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket on Friday night, and about 50 to 55 mph (80 to 89 kph) around Boston.

The storm also led organizers of the Global Citizen, CBGB and All Things Go festivals to cancel performances in New York set for this weekend. Global Citizen, which had already raised nearly $210 million this year for its antipoverty efforts, was going to be headlined this year by Ms. Lauryn Hill and her Fugees’ bandmate Wyclef Jean.

All Things Go in New York was going to include performances by Zara Larsson, Lola Young, Brandi Carlile, Carly Rae Jepsen and others, while CBCB headliners included Morrissey and Patti Smith.

A tumultuous two weeks for Sheeran's Loop Tour

The cancellations are the latest disruption to Sheeran’s Loop Tour after Macklemore was dropped from the lineup for making pro-Palestinian comments onstage during a Sept. 5 show in New Jersey and supporting acts withdrew in solidarity.

Sheeran said at a concert Saturday in Philadelphia that he wants his music and shows to be about unity and humanity, not politics. But he said the attacks in Israel of Oct. 7, 2023, were horrific and called what is happening in Gaza “catastrophic and unjustifiable.”

The decision to drop Macklemore came at the urging of Robert Kraft, the owner of the NFL's New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium, who said in a statement that it was the result of the rapper’s recent comments “and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.”

Sheeran has said he was not responsible for cutting Macklemore from the tour, blaming the tour promoter.

Macklemore said last week that he was donating $1 million to support Palestinian relief efforts and called on Kraft to match the gift. A spokesperson for Kraft said the billionaire and Sheeran each agreed to donate $2 million, but they haven't specified where the money will be directed.

As of last year, the Grammy-winning “Shape of You” singer was the No. 3 top-earning concert act of the millennium, according to industry magazine Pollstar.

___

This story has been updated to correct that Sheeran’s Philadelphia concert was on Saturday, not Sunday.

Leer en español

According to the Miami Police Department, officers responded to the 400 block of Southwest Eighth Court at around 5:45 a.m. and found the wounded victim.

Medics took the 33-year-old man to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. Authorities said he was “stable” as of Friday morning.

Police were combing a Nissan as they investigated.

Authorities have not announced any arrests or a suspected motive.

Police said they are investigating the “circumstances surrounding this incident.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Miami police or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

The vast majority of the total 214 companies, which are based in 11 countries, are Israeli. Five of the 158 companies listed last year were removed in the latest update.

The blacklist, first published in 2020, was born of a vote by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, which has no ability to force companies to act. Its main goal is to name and shame businesses with ties to the settlements.

It is unclear how the inclusion on the list has affected the companies financially.

“This report is another reminder to companies that they have human rights responsibilities and are expected to conduct due diligence to ensure that they do not become involved in human rights violations or abuses,” said Volker Türk, the U.N. human rights chief, in a statement.

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva, which has repeatedly criticized the rights council, called the database a “political tool” used by Türk's office “to advance a smear campaign against business enterprises that committed no wrongdoing.”

The latest report comes as Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas have faced new scrutiny.

Earlier this month, Britain banned trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, where it says “settler terrorists” are carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians. France and Canada announced they would take similar action.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill, also a Democrat, had given Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell until Friday to resign, seeking to end a scandal that threatened to be a drag on her fledgling administration.

Republicans have hammered Sherrill for weeks about the investigation into Caldwell, who served as acting governor in her absence. He also oversaw elections as New Jersey’s secretary of state, and his resignation comes weeks ahead of midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress.

At a news conference announcing the resignation, Sherrill said she was committed to changing what she called a longstanding problem in state government of people turning a blind eye to sexual harassment.

“There has been a culture in Trenton, probably since the birth of our nation, to sweep this under the rug,” she said.

“That is not the kind of government I’m running,” she added. “When I say there is a culture change taking place, I mean it.”

The governor had called for Caldwell to resign on Thursday after a law firm she hired released a report saying he behaved inappropriately around women.

In a statement Friday, Caldwell said he stepped down to keep the controversy from interfering with Sherrill’s important work, while maintaining that the matter had damaged his reputation.

“My decision to resign should not be interpreted as an acceptance of the report’s findings,” he said. His attorney, Thomas Calcagni, said they were looking into legal options to challenge the report.

Caldwell's resignation was far from certain

Sherrill picked Caldwell, a Methodist pastor and former president of Centenary University, as her running mate last year. They took office in January, but within four months, Caldwell had become the subject of an anonymous complaint about his behavior with women.

Caldwell at first showed no signs he would leave office willingly. In New Jersey, a governor can’t fire the lieutenant governor, but Caldwell could have been impeached and removed by the legislature.

Sherrill told reporters she'd spoken and texted with Caldwell in recent days, but wouldn’t say whether he expressed any remorse.

Sherrill faces questions about her judgement

Republican state Sen. Kristin Corrado on Friday questioned Sherrill’s judgment for allowing Caldwell to serve as acting governor when she left the state, even as his conduct was being investigated.

“New Jersey residents deserve leadership, transparency, and answers from their government,” she said. “So far, we have gotten none.”

The resignation probably won’t move the needle much in New Jersey’s midterms, said Matt Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University, but it gives Republicans fresh ammunition against the governor.

Still, he said, Democrats can contrast Caldwell’s swift dismissal with the Trump administration’s attitude toward controversy.

“This wouldn’t even make page six news if it was at the federal level,” Hale said.

The allegations went beyond inappropriate comments

The law firm’s report released Thursday said Caldwell committed several violations of state policy. It said Caldwell, 66, made an advance toward a staff member’s friend and when he was rebuffed told the staffer, “you young women are looking for young sperm.”

The report said Caldwell had tried to get a promotion for a state employee he was dating and brought personal guests to the opera and other ticketed events without paying for them, as required by ethics rules.

Caldwell’s lawyer said his client “categorically denies” making the sperm statement but acknowledged that Caldwell had recommended the woman for a promotion, although he denied ordering anyone to promote her. Caldwell denied other claims, including that he gave out his business cards to women for inappropriate reasons.

In a letter included in the report, Caldwell said he suspected his relationships with women were being subjected to extra scrutiny because he was a single Black man.

“This (resignation) might hurt her with some Black Democratic men,” said Richard Bensel, a government professor at Cornell University, “but I suspect that will be more than compensated by the approval of Black Democratic women.”

Until a new lieutenant governor is named, state Senate President Nicholas Scutari will step in as acting governor if Sherrill is away or unable to perform her duties. The secretary of state roll will be filled by the acting state comptroller, Shirley Emehelu.

Lieutenant governor turmoil isn't unique to New Jersey

In neighboring New York, a similar impasse has played out over the past year between Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and her estranged Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who launched a caustic primary challenge to unseat her only to withdraw from the race as the election neared.

Hochul is now running for reelection in November with Adrienne Adams, the former speaker of the New York City Council, as her replacement lieutenant governor nominee.

Caldwell, the fourth lieutenant governor since the position was created in 2009, is the first to resign. But he’s hardly the first Garden State politician to be felled by scandal.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who quit in the wake of his 2024 bribery conviction, and New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who resigned in 2004 after coming out as gay as questions swirled about him appointing his one-time lover as the state’s homeland security adviser. Both are also Democrats.

___

Marcelo reported from New York.

Let's play two more.

The league is going to an 84-game regular season for the first time since 1994 — it was in place for two seasons — and just the second time in its 109-year history. Players and owners agreed to the increase from 82 for each of the 32 teams as part of the collective bargaining agreement that is in place through 2030, doubling down on more hockey for all.

How much more? A record 1,344 regular-season games because there were fewer teams in the early 1990s.

“That will power some of our growth,” Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said. “That uplift is very subtle. People aren't realizing it, but that's an organic way to grow.”

The change meant shorter training camps and fewer exhibition games, and it could have an effect on everything from goaltending tandems to stats and records.

“Eighty-four games is a long, long road,” said ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro, who was a player the last two times the schedule was this long. “I’m just interested to see what the new rhythm of the season will be like.”

Early start spreads out the games

The Sept. 29 opening night is the soonest play is getting underway in North America and matches the earliest start date on the calendar worldwide from when Los Angeles and Anaheim took the ice in London in 2007. The season started Oct. 7 each of the past two years and Oct. 10 in 2023.

“I’m excited that we’re starting early,” Boston winger David Pastrnak said. “That’s probably the biggest change or thing that I’m excited about is that you don’t have to wait until Oct. 10, 11 when you’re already in the town the whole September.”

The 1,344 games are spread out over a 194-day span before every team plays its finale on April 10 ahead of the playoffs. With the exception of the holiday break for Christmas and the All-Star break in early February, there are only two days without at least one game on the schedule.

“There’s going be more time in between games,” Tampa Bay's Jake Guentzel said. “I think last year it was kind of condensed with the Olympic schedule, so I think the spread-out of games will help. ... You just got to take care of your bodies (because) it’s obviously a war of attrition.”

Pittsburgh has the most back-to-back sets with 15. Vegas and Calgary are tied for the fewest with eight each.

Less fake hockey evens out the workload

Rod Brind'Amour, coach of defending champion Carolina, made headlines by saying he'd rather go to 86 games and eliminate the preseason altogether because it lacks value for fans.

The way the NHL Players' Association sees it, limiting the exhibition schedule to two games for anyone with 100-plus games of experience more than makes up for extending the regular season.

“The thought behind it is the workload is the same, if not a little less,” said NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey, who played 17 seasons from 2002-20. “Those exhibition games sometimes are more difficult than a regular-season game. You’re out there with players, not necessarily NHL players, and things get a little haywire. Whereas, there’s a lot of reasons that if you just flip two exhibition into two regular season games, it’s a good thing."

What to watch for in an 84-game season

— Gone are the days when a goaltender would play in nearly every game. Grant Fuhr's single-season record of 79 appearances in 1996-97 is safe, and the last time a goalie surpassed 70 was Cam Talbot's 73 in 2016-17. Utah's Karel Vejmelka started 63 games last season and played in 64. The NHL has become much more of a rotation in the crease and coaches now have an extra two games to apportion the responsibilities.

— Alex Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's career goals record of 894 in April 2025, and now Washington's longtime captain returns for a 22nd season, sitting on 929 with a couple of extra chances to put the mark further out of reach for the next player who might one day approach it.

“He knows how to score goals,” said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby, who holds the record for the most point-a-game seasons with 21. “You don’t lose that. Maybe as you get older, you might have to adjust a little bit, but his shot is his shot and that’s not going anywhere.”

— Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov and Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon have combined for the 11 highest-scoring seasons among active players. With two extra games, any of them — plus San Jose's Macklin Celebrini — could set career highs and maybe even top McDavid's 153 points that are the most since the salary cap era began in 2005. The NHL record is 215 points set by Wayne Gretzky in 1985-86.

What happened the last time the NHL had 84 games

In 1992-93, the first season with 84, there were 24 teams so there were 1,008 regular-season games in all. The following year, the NHL added two teams wo there were 1,092 games.

The idea then was to grow the game by playing real games in non-NHL cities. So every team played a pair of neutral-site games in Atlanta; Cincinnati; Dallas; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Hamilton, Ontario; Indianapolis; Miami; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Oklahoma City; Orlando, Florida; Peoria, Illinois; Phoenix, Providence, Rhode Island; Richfield, Ohio; Sacramento or Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. A few of those cities now have NHL teams.

In 1993-94, Gretzky led all scorers with 130 points, while Pavel Bure scored the most goals with 60. The New York Rangers had the best regular season and won the Stanley Cup, ending their 54-year drought.

Mario Lemieux's Penguins won the Presidents' Trophy in '92-93 but got knocked of the playoffs in the second round. The Montreal Canadiens hoisted the Cup that spring and remain the last team based in Canada to do so.

___

See AP’s full NHL coverage here

Leer en español

According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Johnathan Richard Albury sent the victim “multiple sexual videos of the two, including one in which she can be heard on the video stating she does not want to be recorded” and had multiple videos taken without her consent.

MCSO spokesperson Adam Linhardt additionally said Albury, 23, “called and texted the victim hundreds of times and waited for her at her place of employment without her consent” and “repeatedly threatened the victim.”

Authorities said they obtained a warrant for Albury’s arrest and took him into custody on Thursday on charges of stalking, digital voyeurism, and sexual cyber harassment.

He did not appear in MCSO’s active jail roster as of Friday morning.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado Monroe, Johnathan Richard Albury envió a la víctima “múltiples videos sexuales de ambos, incluido uno en el que se puede escuchar a ella decir en el video que no quiere ser grabada”, y tenía varios videos grabados sin su consentimiento.

El portavoz de MCSO, Adam Linhardt, dijo además que Albury, de 23 años, “llamó y envió mensajes de texto a la víctima cientos de veces y la esperó en su lugar de trabajo sin su consentimiento” y “amenazó repetidamente a la víctima”.

Las autoridades dijeron que obtuvieron una orden de arresto contra Albury y lo detuvieron el jueves por cargos de acoso, voyeurismo digital y acoso sexual cibernético.

Hasta la mañana del viernes, no aparecía en el registro de detenidos activos de MCSO.

Decenas de millones de personas se encuentran en la trayectoria del meteoro, que ya comenzó a azotar con fuertes vientos y lluvia a una región que se prepara para lo peor. Se esperan inundaciones peligrosas en la región central de la costa del Atlántico, especialmente cerca de Nueva Jersey y Delaware, según el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional.

En el municipio costero de Surf City, Nueva Jersey, el agua, con olas que agitaban su superficie, inundó las calles y algunas viviendas. A unos 54,7 kilómetros (34 millas) al norte por la costa, en Manasquan, donde algunas carreteras también se estaban anegando, el alcalde, Mike Mangan, dijo que esperaba “mucha agua en las calles durante un tiempo prolongado”. Con anterioridad se emitió un aviso de evacuación voluntaria en algunas zonas bajas de la comunidad.

Se cancelaron conciertos y decenas de vuelos que debían llegar a aeropuertos de Boston, Nantucket y Martha’s Vineyard el viernes y el sábado. Varias aerolíneas ofrecían retirar algunas tarifas por cambios o cancelaciones para algunos vuelos de la costa este durante el fin de semana.

Comunidades de Nueva Jersey se preparan para grandes inundaciones

Brian Kelly, alcalde de la pequeña comunidad costera de Sea Bright, Nueva Jersey, indicó que el municipio se prepara para vientos de hasta 80 kilómetros/hora (50 millas por hora), e inundaciones que podrían alcanzar hasta 1,8 metros (6 pies) de altura en algunas calles. Las autoridades prevén que las inundaciones comiencen el sábado y empeoren hacia el mediodía.

“Va a ser peor que el promedio. Probablemente sí tenemos uno o dos episodios de inundaciones al año, a veces más, a veces menos, pero creo que este estará más cerca de un episodio de inundación a escala de Irene”, dijo Kelly, en referencia a la tormenta de 2011 que causó grandes inundaciones en el noreste. “Espero estar equivocado, pero esa es mi corazonada”.

Kelly espera que cientos de residentes que viven en zonas bajas consideren evacuar. Dijo que el pueblo abrirá su centro recreativo para los evacuados.

Vientos peligrosos amenazan la costa de Nueva Inglaterra

Las ráfagas máximas de viento podrían acercarse a entre 97 y 105 km/h (60 a 65 mph) en Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard y Nantucket el viernes por la noche y el sábado, en comparación con unos 80 a 89 km/h (50 a 55 mph) en el área de Boston y 56 a 64 km/h (35 a 40 mph) más hacia el interior, según Matthew Belk, meteorólogo del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional en Norton, Massachusetts.

“Definitivamente va a ser un caso en el que, cuanto más cerca de la costa se esté, hay más probabilidades de ver impactos de la tormenta”, apuntó Belk.

Según el meteorólogo, las tormentas del noreste no son inusuales a medida que Nueva Inglaterra se adentra en el otoño, pero una preocupación en este momento inicial de la temporada es que las hojas aún están en los árboles, lo que crea una mayor resistencia al viento. Eso podría aumentar el riesgo de caída de ramas, lo que a su vez puede provocar cortes de energía y dejar escombros en las carreteras, dijo.

A lo largo de las costas atlánticas de Nueva Jersey y Delaware, las ráfagas de viento podrían alcanzar los 96,6 km/h (60 mph), según el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. En el sureste de Connecticut y el este de Long Island, Nueva York, podrían alcanzar el mismo nivel, con la posibilidad de derribar ramas de árboles y líneas eléctricas.

La tormenta suspende conciertos, partidos de béisbol y vuelos

Más de 200 vuelos con origen y destino en aeropuertos en Boston, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard y Nueva York fueron cancelados el viernes y había más cancelaciones previstas para el sábado.

Los Medias Rojas de Boston anunciaron modificaciones en la serie que disputarán este fin de semana contra los Cachorros de Chicago: el juego del domingo por la tarde al viernes, con lo que se disputará en una doble cartelera. Por otra parte, Ed Sheeran anunció que sus esperados conciertos del viernes y el sábado en el Gillette Stadium de Foxborough, Massachusetts, se cancelarán por la tormenta.

El servicio público de transbordador que conecta Cape Cod con las islas de Nantucket y Martha’s Vineyard registraba cancelaciones generalizadas el viernes debido a los fuertes vientos y el oleaje.

En Rhode Island también se cancelaron los transbordadores hacia Block Island. Se prevé que las interrupciones del servicio de transbordadores se extiendan al sábado.

Para las personas que viajan con regularidad hacia y desde las islas, la posibilidad de quedarse varadas en un lado o en el otro forma “parte de la vida”, comentó Sean Driscoll, portavoz de la Autoridad de Transbordadores de Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard y Nantucket. La mayoría de la gente tiene planes alternativos para cuando se cancela el servicio de los barcos.

“Es una molestia, pero ya sabe, a estas alturas sabemos qué hacer con este tipo de cosas”, dijo. “Esto no está fuera de lo normal”.

Ashley Destino, de Gloucester, una ciudad costera del norte de Massachusetts, disfrutó de un paseo por la playa con sus dos hijos pequeños antes de prepararse para resguardarse en casa durante la tormenta.

“Vinimos a la playa el viernes por la tarde porque sabíamos que íbamos a estar adentro todo el fin de semana”, explicó Destino, quien tiene Legos y actividades de artes y manualidades preparadas para entretener a sus dos hijos, de 7 y 4 años.

Se preparó también para los fuertes vientos y las mareas asegurando su bote con cabos adicionales, y su esposo sacó un generador por si se va la electricidad.

___

Willingham reportó desde Boston. Los periodistas de The Associated Press Michael Casey en Boston; Rodrique Ngowi en Gloucester, Massachusetts; y Anthony Izaguirre en Nueva York contribuyeron a este despacho.

___

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

Se prevé que Nolo se intensifique hasta convertirse en un huracán de categoría 3 el sábado. Sus vientos máximos sostenidos aumentaron a 169 km/h (105 mph) el viernes. El ojo de la tormenta se ubicaba a unos 235 kilómetros (145 millas) al sur del punto más meridional de Hawai.

Los meteorólogos advirtieron que partes de la Isla Grande podrían registrar acumulaciones de lluvia de hasta 38 centímetros (15 pulgadas), con la posibilidad de hasta 64 centímetros (25 pulgadas). Estas cifras son inferiores a las previstas anteriormente, que estimaban hasta 89 centímetros (35 pulgadas).

“La gente va a querer, en cierto modo, resguardarse en casa en la Isla Grande, estar en su lugar seguro, ciertamente más tarde hoy, esta noche, y bien entrado el sábado”, dijo el viernes Michael Brennan, director del Centro Nacional de Huracanes. “No salgan si no tienen que hacerlo a ese peligroso entorno de inundaciones, pero también de vientos fuertes. Podemos tener árboles y líneas eléctricas caídos”.

Aunque no se pronosticaba que Nolo impactara directamente las islas, también era posible que hubiera lluvias intensas en las otras islas de Hawai, indicó el NHC. Maui también podría registrar lluvias fuertes e inundaciones y deslaves potencialmente mortales, advirtieron los meteorólogos.

Cuadrillas en la Isla Grande pasaron horas el viernes tratando de construir bermas para guiar el agua y mover escombros grandes antes de lo peor de la lluvia, dijo Erika Kapu, gerente del programa de Hawai para la organización humanitaria sin fines de lucro CORE.

CORE y otros colectivos sin ánimo de lucro pasaron la semana empacando y enviando suministros como estufas de campamento y productos de higiene por aire desde Oahu hasta la Isla Grande para un centro comunitario de ayuda que está activo desde el paso del huracán Lala de agosto.

Hawai se prepara para azote de Nolo

El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, aprobó el viernes una declaración de emergencia para el estado de Hawai, autorizando a la Agencia Federal para el Manejo de Emergencias a coordinar asistencia de todo el gobierno federal y proporcionar apoyo de financiamiento para medidas de emergencia.

Funcionarios de Hawai dijeron a los residentes que prepararan kits de emergencia, y el gobernador emitió una proclama de emergencia, que activa a más de 230 miembros de la Guardia Nacional de Hawai. Las escuelas cerraron en algunas zonas.

Funcionarios del condado de Hawai en la Isla Grande instaban a los residentes en zonas propensas a inundaciones a considerar refugiarse en los albergues que se estaban habilitando u otros lugares.

Es probable que la lluvia más intensa de Nolo caiga sobre la misma región del sureste de la Isla Grande que fue golpeada por Lala y donde el terreno aún está húmedo por precipitaciones adicionales. El NHC informó que la marejada ciclónica podría alcanzar de 30 a 91 centímetros (1 a 3 pies), creando olas grandes y peligrosas e inundaciones costeras.

Hawaiian Electric, la principal empresa de servicios públicos del estado, dijo que los operarios que han estado trabajando para restablecer la electricidad en Kauai después del huracán Lowell de este mes regresarán a Oahu, Maui y la Isla Grande en preparación para la tormenta que se aproxima.

Residentes y turistas en la Isla Grande estaban ocupados preparándose.

En Hilo, donde caía una lluvia fina el viernes, residentes llenaron bolsas con arena y grava en el Francis Wong Stadium, donde las autoridades instalaron un centro de distribución de arena.

Dean Taise apuntó que el agua estaba empezando a meterse en la entrada para autos de su casa, así que decidió tener listos algunos sacos de arena ante posibles inundaciones.

“Dicen, prepárense para lo peor, ¿no? Esperen lo mejor”, apuntó Taise.

Montones de sacos de arena se alineaban en la terminal del Aeropuerto Internacional de Hilo, donde Daniela Mendoza intentaba regresar a su casa en Oahu luego de que Southwest Airlines canceló vuelos. Solo Hawaiian Airlines seguía desde el aeropuerto el viernes por la tarde.

“Espero poder irme”, manifestó Mendoza. “Mis gatos me están esperando”.

Polo gana fuerza tras recuperar la categoría 5

México seguía el viernes bajo la amenaza del huracán Polo, que se dirigía hacia la península de Baja California luego de dejar condiciones de tormenta en la costa suroeste del país.

El Centro Nacional de Huracanes de Estados Unidos (NHC, por sus siglas en inglés) señaló que Polo ganó fuerza de manera significativa durante la noche del jueves y la mañana del viernes, y descargó fuertes lluvias en partes de la costa de México en el Pacífico. No se reportaron daños importantes ni inundaciones a lo largo de la costa hasta la mañana del viernes.

Para el mediodía del viernes, la atención se centraba en la península de Baja California, donde se preveía que el huracán pasara entre el lunes y el martes. Las autoridades locales se preparaban para abrir refugios, y el gobierno de México anunció el viernes por la tarde que cerraría puertos en la región mientras nubes oscuras giraban sobre sus cabezas.

Los vientos máximos sostenidos estimados más recientes eran de 280 km/h (175 mph).

Los residentes apilaron sacos de arena para reforzar los comercios frente a la playa y evacuaron sus viviendas en algunas zonas costeras el jueves. Las autoridades mexicanas abrían refugios y retiraban a la gente de las playas, y se desplegaron 15.000 elementos de seguridad a lo largo de la costa. Las escuelas cerraron.

En la ciudad portuaria de Lázaro Cárdenas, en Michoacán, el agua de mar ya había irrumpido en viviendas y dejó muebles esparcidos en las calles. Habitantes y autoridades retiraban escombros y paleaban el lodo espeso que cubría gran parte de la localidad.

Alicia Contreras contó que los muros y el techo de su restaurante habían sufrido graves daños por olas de 4,5 metros (15 pies). Se preocupaba por cómo se recuperará económicamente, ya que no tiene otra fuente de ingresos.

Brennan dijo que algo de humedad asociada con Polo será empujada hacia el suroeste de Estados Unidos para el lunes, lo que posiblemente producirá inundaciones repentinas dispersas en la región de Four Corners, particularmente en partes de Arizona y Nuevo México.

Biólogos trasladaron el viernes huevos de dos nidos de tortuga marina golfina en las playas de California al Aquarium of the Pacific en Long Beach por precaución debido a las mareas altas y el intenso oleaje mientras las autoridades monitorean el huracán Polo.

Fuertes tormentas durante El Niño

El Niño está provocando importantes cambios ambientales en todo el mundo, recrudeciendo la sequía en algunas zonas y las inundaciones en otras. Tradicionalmente atenúa la temporada de huracanes en el Atlántico, pero tiende a intensificar la actividad de ciclones tropicales en el Pacífico con aire húmedo y pocos vientos cortantes.

Una tercera tormenta en el Pacífico, el huracán Odalys, estaba en categoría 4 y aún se encontraba lejos de tierra el viernes, aproximadamente a 1.537 kilómetros (955 millas) al oeste-suroeste del extremo sur de la península de Baja California.

Otras dos tormentas poderosas avanzaban en el océano Atlántico, pero no estaban cerca de tierra.

En el Atlántico norte, la tormenta tropical Fay se reconstituyó el jueves. Hasta el viernes, se encontraba a unos 1.674 kilómetros (1.040 millas) al oeste-suroeste de las Azores, informó el centro de huracanes. Frente a la costa occidental de África, la tormenta tropical Gonzalo se fortaleció temprano el viernes al acercarse a las islas de Cabo Verde.

___

Los periodistas de The Associated Press Dave Collins, en Hartford, Connecticut; Gabriela Aoun Angueira, en San Diego; Kathy McCormack, en Concord, Nueva Hampshire; y Hannah Schoenbaum, en Salt Lake City, contribuyeron a este despacho.

___

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

The crisis could merge conflicts in several parts of Ethiopia and draw neighboring Eritrea into another war. Here are five things to know:

Fighting has returned to Tigray

Federal and Tigrayan forces accuse each other of restarting hostilities nearly four years after signing the Pretoria peace agreement.

Ethiopian Airlines suspended flights to Tigray this week following the seizure of Mekelle airport by Tigrayan forces. Residents told The Associated Press that roads connecting Tigray with the neighboring Afar region had been closed, although AP could not independently verify the closures.

Internet monitor NetBlocks also reported disruptions across northern Ethiopia, reviving memories of the previous war, when Tigray was largely isolated and civilians struggled to obtain food, medicine and reliable information.

Former enemies have joined forces

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front has joined six other opposition groups in an alliance that aims to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.

Its members include the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Oromo Liberation Army. Tigrayan and Amhara forces fought on opposing sides during the previous war.

Magnus Taylor, deputy project director for the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group, described the coalition as combining political opposition to Abiy with an “opportunistic military alliance.”

Effective coordination could force federal troops to fight across several regions. But it remains unclear whether groups divided by territorial disputes and deep grievances can conduct joint military operations.

The 2022 peace agreement is close to collapse

The Pretoria agreement ended major fighting in November 2022 but left disputes over territory, security and accountability unresolved.

Taylor said the agreement was “on life support.” A TPLF spokesman told the AP this week that it was no longer valid.

Laetitia Bader, a regional director at Human Rights Watch, said key provisions had been violated for years. She cited continuing abuses, including what the organization describes as the forced expulsion of ethnic Tigrayans from western Tigray. AP could not independently verify the allegations.

Eritrea could turn it into a regional war

Eritrean troops fought alongside Ethiopia’s federal forces during the previous Tigray war. Relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara have since deteriorated sharply.

Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of supporting armed opponents. Eritrea has accused Abiy’s government of preparing for war as Ethiopia presses for greater access to the Red Sea.

Taylor warned that the fighting could spread across Ethiopia and draw in Eritrea. That would create another regional conflict next to Sudan, which is already experiencing a devastating war and humanitarian crisis.

Civilians again face the greatest danger

Researchers at Ghent University have estimated that the earlier war caused about 500,000 civilian deaths in Tigray alone. The estimate includes deaths from direct violence, but researchers attributed most of the toll to famine and the collapse of the region’s health system. The conflict also displaced millions of people across northern Ethiopia.

The war’s effects persisted after the ceasefire, with researchers later documenting deaths from hunger in Tigray.

Bader warned that another Ethiopian conflict could deepen the wider regional emergency. Transport and communications restrictions could quickly interrupt supplies of food and medicine while making civilian suffering harder to document.

Preventing a wider war would require an immediate halt to the fighting, renewed negotiations and sustained international pressure before Ethiopia’s separate conflicts converge.

_____

The White House maintains the ads are “public service announcements” like those used by past presidents, but multiple lawmakers of both parties on Thursday criticized the first one, questioning its legality and appropriateness given its political nature, proximity to November's midterms and the use of taxpayer funds.

The new, minute-long ad features scenic videos of Mount Rushmore at night with quotes and clips from Trump’s Fourth of July weekend speech there honoring the country’s 250th anniversary.

“We know that this is not an ending,” Trump says in the ad. “This is only the beginning of the golden age of America.”

At the end, text appears onscreen that reads, “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”

The ad's costs weren't immediately clear but it was airing Friday on Newsmax, with a spot on at least two programs, “Carl Higbie Frontline” and "Greg Kelly Reports," according to AdImpact, which tracks media spending.

The first ad, a 30-second spot that began airing Wednesday, features clips of Trump talking about defeating communism interspersed with onscreen text promoting the “largest tax cuts in history,” “reigniting American manufacturing” and a call to “defend law and order and police.” The ad’s soundtrack includes a chorus singing “love me” repeatedly and ends with a message disclosing it was paid for by the U.S. government.

The White House on Friday defended its ads as “very clearly not campaign ads,” saying Trump isn't on the ballot and the ads don't include a call to action. It provided examples of past administrations from both parties that bought network time for public service announcements, including George W. Bush's administration airing a campaign about a Medicare law and the Biden administration running one about COVID-19 vaccinations.

“Patriotism isn’t partisan. These public service announcements are unapologetically American, clearly disclosed, and aimed at the country — not a line on the ballot,” the White House said.

It didn’t answer an inquiry about what part of the government supplied the funds.

Politicians of both parties on Thursday criticized the ads, with some noting that laws prohibit taxpayer funds from being used for “publicity or propaganda” and limit the partisan political activities of government employees. Republicans running to defend their majorities in Congress in the upcoming midterm elections have created ads with similar messaging about communism, the economy and crime.

Several House Democrats with senior committee roles on Thursday demanded that the first ad be taken off the air, calling it “the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican who is not running for reelection, called the ad “inappropriate” and likened it to something he would expect from the former right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

An embassy spokesperson in Harare confirmed the decision and released remarks delivered this week by U.S. Ambassador Pamela Tremont at an event titled “Beyond assistance."

Tremont said the end of U.S.-supported health programs followed “Zimbabwe’s decision to decline a bilateral health MOU." She added that the U.S. will now shift its relations with Zimbabwe “from one largely focused on health and humanitarian assistance, to one built on broader economic, trade and investment opportunities.”

Zimbabwe is among the first countries to face the consequences of Washington’s new approach of tying health aid to bilateral country-to-country agreements.

The withdrawal casts uncertainty over programs to combat HIV and other diseases in a country where shortages often force patients to bring basic supplies such as bandages to clinics and buy their own medicines.

For decades, the U.S. has been Zimbabwe’s largest health donor, supporting HIV prevention and treatment, tuberculosis and malaria programs, clinical care, laboratory systems, health workers, medical supplies and community-based programs.

Zimbabwean officials have raised concerns over diminishing international aid, saying the country would prioritize raising funds domestically as assistance from the U.S. and other Western countries dries up. Some health advocates, however, question whether Zimbabwe’s financially troubled government can absorb the costs.

“Zimbabweans have already been suffering gravely as a result of abrupt disruptions to lifesaving malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV programs caused by the U.S. stop work orders and USAID award terminations in 2025," said Asia Russell, executive director of Health GAP, an international advocacy group. “This deadly decision will trigger a public health catastrophe,” she added.

The dispute dates to February, when both countries announced the collapse of talks on a bilateral deal proposed under U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign aid.

Zimbabwe government spokesperson Nick Mangwana said the proposal contained conditions the country could not accept, citing concerns over data sharing, fairness, sovereignty and Washington’s shift away from global health institutions.

According to Mangwana, the proposal was tied to “comprehensive access to Zimbabwe’s sensitive health data, including virus samples and epidemiological information from our citizens.”

Namibia also rejected a bilateral agreement with the U.S. because of concerns about provisions for sharing health data and biological specimens, local media reported. In early September, the U.S. said it would start phasing out its financial support for Namibia’s HIV response programs. The U.S. will provide Namibia with $45 million for its HIV response in fiscal 2027 before shifting to “technical cooperation,” the two governments said in September, but did not cite the health data fallout as the reason for the development.

African governments have in recent months increasingly called for “health sovereignty,” reflecting efforts to finance and manage their health systems with less reliance on foreign aid.

Africa CDC has described the continent as facing “an unprecedented financing crisis,” saying official development assistance to Africa has halved over the last five years.

Under the Trump administration’s new approach, Washington has been negotiating country-by-country health agreements that it says will reduce donor dependency and increase domestic financing. So far, 35 countries have signed such agreements, the majority in Africa, according to KFF, a U.S. health-policy research organization tracking the deals.

At least four African countries — Ghana, Zambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe — have publicly resisted or failed to conclude new U.S. bilateral health agreements, while Kenya’s agreement has faced a legal challenge.

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said Friday the U.S. wanted information about endemic diseases and the country's medical records and that Ghana would have no right to inspect medications or medical products brought into the country.

Mahama was in New York for high-level meetings and the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly. Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, he said the U.S. proposal was taken to the Cabinet and “thrown out in record time.”

“I've never seen anything thrown out as fast as that,” he said.

___

AP Writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report from New York.

___

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

___

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The court's three liberal-leaning justices publicly dissented from the decision.

The emergency order allows states, for now, to use the Trump administration's revamped version of a Department of Homeland Security program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, in their efforts to verify the eligibility of voters on their rolls. It's a program that has drawn scrutiny for its use of voters' sensitive personal data and its tendency to wrongly flag some eligible voters as noncitizens.

States' use of the SAVE program is voluntary, limiting the ruling's impact on the midterm elections. Existing law also blocks most states from systematically purging voters from their rolls within 90 days of an election, said David Becker, an election law expert who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research. He said DHS itself has admitted the data is not perfect.

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who has refused to participate in the SAVE program, said the ruling will have no effect in her state because it “does not force states to change the way we run our elections.”

The plaintiffs and their lawyers in the case called the ruling “profoundly disappointing” and said it puts “millions of Americans at risk of being unlawfully targeted by the administration’s unreliable voter purge database” before the midterms.

On X, James Percival, the general counsel for DHS, responded to a post about the decision with, “Yes, you read that right. We had to file an emergency petition in the Supreme Court just so we could use government data to help states stop noncitizens from illegally voting.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Ruling pauses a lower court's ban on the tool

The court’s order puts on hold a federal judge’s June ruling that had deemed the Republican administration’s recently revamped version of SAVE illegal. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan had blocked the use of the tool, saying it violated Americans’ privacy rights and could result in voters being wrongly removed from the rolls.

A federal appeals court let her order stand.

But the Supreme Court majority found that a 1996 law explicitly allows DHS to obtain information on citizenship and immigration from other federal agencies. The federal government also has “an obligation to respond” to states seeking to verify citizenship.

“The order below prevents the Federal Government from using the program it believes is best suited to the task,” the majority wrote in the unsigned order.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. The database has long been seen to fall under federal privacy laws, she wrote, and there are real risks that legitimate voter registrations could be mistakenly revoked.

“The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the Government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take,” Jackson wrote.

The plaintiffs pledged to do “everything in our power” to ensure the district court decision stands.

Trump administration tool has wrongly flagged some legal registrants

The SAVE program was created under an immigration law mandating that DHS help federal, state and local agencies prevent government benefits from going to noncitizens. The Trump administration last year moved to significantly expand its search abilities. Since then, at least 67 million registrations have been scanned through the program, but critics worry it could purge valid voters from the rolls.

Some registrants have already been wrongly flagged. In Travis County, Texas, for example, officials said they investigated 97 voters flagged by SAVE as apparent noncitizens and found that at least 10% of them — and likely up to 21% — were U.S. citizens. The county urged the Supreme Court to reject the administration’s appeal, while the state of Texas submitted its own brief defending the database.

In Denton, Texas, north of Dallas, voter Anthony Nels was disappointed that the Supreme Court allowed the continued use “of a system that harms people’s constitutional right to vote.”

Last year, after Texas ran its voter registrations through the SAVE system, Nels, 29, was flagged as a potential noncitizen, even though the South Africa native had become a U.S. citizen more than a decade ago. His local election office temporarily canceled his registration while he obtained a new passport to replace an expired one.

“This just seems like another illegitimate way to affect upcoming and future elections,” he said in a text to The Associated Press.

Stephen Richer, the Republican former top election official in Arizona's largest county, said the Supreme Court's ruling could be a positive step “if used responsibly.”

“That being said, the SAVE program has been shown time after time to be a highly-imperfect tool, so election administrators should only use it as a starting point, not as a definitive indicator of citizenship,” he wrote on social media.

SAVE is one piece of the administration's crusade against noncitizen voting

Even though the use of the SAVE program was blocked for months ahead of Friday's ruling, the administration has said in court filings that it has continued using Social Security Administration data "in certain cases to verify information and help determine whether illegal voting may have occurred."

DHS in August launched its own investigation to find noncitizen voters on state rolls, according to a federal whistleblower statement that said the effort is rushed, filled with errors and potentially violates state laws. DHS has defended that investigation as being conducted “diligently and professionally.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also suggested over the summer that there could be as many as 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote across four states, an unsubstantiated claim that puzzled state election officials who said the numbers dramatically exceeded their own findings. In one of those, Nevada, DHS said it had identified 185 noncitizens on the voter rolls, but the state attorney general's office wrote to the agency earlier this week, saying a records check found that all of them were, in fact, U.S. citizens.

The effort to create a national voter list is one of the many steps Trump has taken during his second term to try to overhaul how elections are run. Most of those steps have been blocked by various courts, in part because the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to set election rules, but provides no such power to the president. In mid-September, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s bid from Trump to restrict mail ballot procedures before the midterms.

Trump has remained fixated on the idea that massive numbers of noncitizens are voting in U.S. races, but all evidence says otherwise.

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Georgia’s secretary of state found that 20 of the state’s 8.2 million registered voters were not U.S. citizens. In Ohio, prosecutors secured indictments against nine people for voting as noncitizens over the span of 10 years. The state has some 8 million registered voters. Even with the Trump administration laser-focused on the issue in his second term, DHS said its investigations into potential noncitizens on voter rolls nationwide had led to 160 arrests.

Those numbers are supported by a mountain of research at the national and state level that has found the percentage of noncitizens on voter rolls is a tiny fraction of the nation's nearly 228 million registered voters.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas, and Whitehurst reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jessica Hill in Las Vegas also contributed.

Breel Embolo will not join the squad in Scotland as planned, the Swiss soccer federation said Friday, due to fresh reporting in national media about his past case of obtaining forged test certificates in 2021.

“This decision aims to allow the team to remain fully focused on the next matches,” the federation said about the Atlanta United forward.

Switzerland captain Granit Xhaka agreed with team officials last weekend to withdraw from the squad because he is implicated in an investigation of a doctor issuing fake vaccination certificates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Xhaka, the Swiss record holder with 152 caps, admitted getting the forged document in 2022 and accepted he made mistakes.

Switzerland starts its Nations League second-tier group Saturday at North Macedonia, plays at Scotland on Tuesday, then has home games in Lucerne against Slovenia and North Macedonia.

Embolo already was suspended for the game Saturday because of his controversial red card against Argentina in the World Cup quarterfinals.

Soccer’s Zurich-based rules panel, known as IFAB, later acknowledged Embolo was mistakenly sent off in a breach of video review protocol.

On Friday, the Switzerland Today outlet reported details of Embolo’s financial sanction imposed last year for the previously known false test result documents.

At the World Cup, the 29-year-old Embolo scored in Switzerland's opening game — a 1-1 draw with Qatar — despite arriving at the tournament days later than teammates because of a visa issue with United States authorities. He also scored in a round of 32 win over Algeria.

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Madison police said some of the men, who they described as pledges to the fraternity, had signs of being physically assaulted.

Police went to the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house Wednesday night after receiving an anonymous tip. Two fraternity members, both 20, were arrested on tentative misdemeanor charges of hazing and disorderly conduct, police said. No formal charges had been filed against them as of Friday morning.

The university said it was taking the incident seriously and launching its own investigation.

“UW–Madison is fully committed to preventing and addressing hazing and takes all incidents involving our community seriously,” the university said in a Thursday statement.

Any student found to have broken the law or university policy could be subject to sanctions ranging from a written reprimand to expulsion, the university said.

Police released a photo that shows about two dozen men, all shirtless, in the basement of the fraternity with trash and other debris littered on the ground. The faces of the people in the photo are blurred out.

Police said the thermostat was set to 81 degrees, causing hot and humid conditions in the basement where the walls appeared to be painted black. A majority of those in the basement were 18 years old, police said.

The fraternity’s status as a recognized student organization on the Madison campus was terminated in 2015 for holding events while suspended. It had been suspended in 2013 for hosting a party in which a 17-year-old and another person were taken to detox after being served alcohol at a party hosted by the fraternity, according to university records.

The termination came after a fourth incident involving either events, alcohol or both, the university said.

Since 2016, there were seven additional allegations involving the fraternity related to intramural sports, disrespectful behavior, drinking and hazing, the university said.

Because the fraternity is still recognized by its national organization, it is able to operate as a fraternity chapter unaffiliated with the university, UW-Madison said.

Jon Pierce, spokesperson for the national fraternity, said it is taking the allegations “very seriously” and will cooperate fully with investigations. Any member found to have participated will be expelled from the fraternity, he said.

“Hazing is a betrayal of everything our fraternity stands for,” Pierce said. “There is no place for it in AEPi. No exceptions. No excuses.”

The fraternity house is located just blocks from the heart of the UW-Madison campus, which is home to about 52,000 students.

Police said their investigation is also ongoing. The university's Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards is also investigating in accordance with its nonacademic misconduct process, UW-Madison said.

Leer en español

Morgan Cole was the apple of her grandfather’s eye, and he was the light of her world. When her grandfather was afflicted with a terrible disease, Morgan used her wit and ingenuity to improve his quality of life — and their favorite pastime.

“My grandfather was the best grandfather I ever could’ve asked for,” Cole said.

When Morgan thinks of her grandfather Howie, she thinks of him as a role model, a mentor and a friend.

“I could tell him anything. If I was having a good day. If I was having a bad day, he would listen to me for hours. We’d talk. We’d play games,” she said.

The pair would spend hours playing cards, and Grandpa would seamlessly turn fun and games into a workout for the mind.

“He would give us word problems or math problems and he would time my brother and I, and we would race to see who could guess them faster,” Morgan, a student at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, recalled.

But before Morgan finished elementary school, Grandpa Howie’s health took a dramatic turn.

“My grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018,” Morgan said. “It was hard for my family to see him in some ways disappear.”

To help her grandfather and guard their time together, the Gen Alpha teen went online in search of games he would enjoy.

“He would get one of those ads and it would completely distract him,” Morgan said. “No matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t find something that worked for him.”

So she got to work. Harnessing her computer coding skills and penchant for taking on challenging projects, Morgan developed an inclusion-focused app at age 16.

“The whole process took two years,” she said.

The app was aptly named after Grandpa.

“Howie’s Place doesn’t have those extra buttons that can make an experience complicated for a user. all you have to do is click the buttons and play the game without every experiencing an interruption,” Morgan explained.

Howie’s Place boasts six interactive games, along with various modes for selecting a skill level. For the more challenging puzzles, there’s a lifeline.

Since its launch in April, the app has seen up to hundreds of downloads a day.

“We’ve seen kids playing with their grandparents, being able to have that engagement together through that technology,” Morgan said.

That was the goal: to create a platform that bridges generations and stands as a tribute to her beloved Grandpa Howie.

“I feel that in some ways his memory and his legacy is able to live on through the app,” Morgan said.

Howie’s Place is trademarked and completely free to download on both iOS and Android devices.

Grandpa Howie died in 2023, before the app was completed. But Morgan is confident he would have enjoyed it.

Reports Friday said an independent panel had upheld nearly all of the 100-plus financial charges against the club in a case that was initiated more than three years ago.

City did not confirm the decision, saying its case with the Premier League was “ongoing."

City, however, would appeal a guilty decision and the process would take several months, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to respect confidentiality elements of the process.

The Athletic first reported that City has been found guilty of all but one of more than 100 charges laid by the Premier League, which accused the club in February 2023 of providing misleading information about its finances over a nine-year period from 2009-18. The report said the sanctions have not been decided and all possibilities remain open.

The BBC also reported the story.

In response, City said in a statement: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality.”

City added that its position “remains consistent” with previous comments about the case. The club has always denied the charges.

“The club has diligently respected due process for eight years,” City said, “on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”

City’s punishment could be a huge points deduction, and as extreme as expulsion from the Premier League.

When contacted by The Associated Press on Friday, the Premier League said it couldn’t comment on the reports.

City has always protested its innocence after supposed leaked emails and documents, likely hacked, were published starting in 2018 by German magazine Der Spiegel. The documents allegedly showed City tried to mask the source of revenue from deals tied to Abu Dhabi, whose ruling family bought the club in 2008 and has overseen the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars on some of the world’s best players over the following two decades.

City has been the most dominant team in England over the last 15 years, winning eight Premier League titles since 2012 as well as the Champions League in 2023. Over the period in question — 2009-18 — City won the league three times, in 2012, 2014 and 2018.

Friday's news comes after Pep Guardiola stood down as City manager at the end of last season following an unprecedented period of success.

Guardiola always maintained the club's innocence.

“What people accuse us of, we do not agree with what they say,” he said in 2023.

And Spain midfielder Rodri, who played for City from 2019 until leaving this offseason for Barcelona, said he still believed the club has done nothing wrong.

“They always expressed the confidence that they never did something wrong, and we believe in that. That’s the thing,” Rodri said of City's ownership.

“Until the moment they are proved wrong, we believe in the club. I’ve been there, I know how they work, and how they co-operate.”

Speaking at Wembley Stadium on Friday night the day before Spain plays England in the Nations League, Rodri said nobody would be able to take away City's recent titles.

“It is something that is not paid by money, it is paid with effort, with partnership and with being shoulder to shoulder every day,” he said.

“We had a lot of success over the years, and here in Wembley, so I can tell you everything was deserved and I’m glad I could live one of the best eras of English football.”

Former Manchester United and England player Rio Ferdinand suggested City's titles should be expunged and awarded to the runner-up for each season in question.

“Another premier league medal to be added to the cabinet,” he posted on X in reference to City’s 2012 title win over United.

The Premier League competition has had financial fair play rules designed to ensure clubs essentially spend what they earn from deals that are assessed to determine if they are at legitimate market value. City had previously been accused by UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, of overstating sponsorship revenue to comply with Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

In 2020, UEFA ruled City had committed “serious breaches” of FFP regulations from 2012-16. But a two-year ban was later overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport because allegations were either rejected or found to have happened too long ago to be investigated.

The Premier League charges came subsequently, after a four-year investigation. City was accused of more than 100 breaches including providing misleading information about its finances and failure to co-operate with the investigation.

___

Douglas reported from Sundsvall, Sweden

___

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

___

See AP’s full soccer coverage here

Tens of millions of people are in the path of the storm already beginning to lash the region with strong winds and rain as it braces for much more. Dangerous flooding is expected along the Mid-Atlantic coast, particularly near New Jersey and Delaware, according to the National Weather Service.

In the coastal New Jersey borough of Surf City, water, with waves rippling along its surface, flooded the streets, inundating some homes. About 34 miles (54.7 kilometers) up the coast in the borough of Manasquan, where some roads were also flooding, Mayor Mike Mangan said he expected “a lot of water in the streets for a long time.” A voluntary evacuation had been issued earlier in some low-lying areas of the community.

Concerts were canceled, along with dozens of flights going into airports in Boston, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard on Friday and Saturday. Several airlines were offering to waive some change or cancellation fees for some East Coast flights through the weekend.

New Jersey communities prepare for major flooding

Brian Kelly, the mayor of the tiny New Jersey beach community Sea Bright, said the borough is bracing for winds up to 50 mph (80 kph) and flooding that could reach up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) on some streets. Officials expect the flooding to start Saturday and worsen by midday.

“It’s going to be worse than average. We do have probably one or two flooding events a year, sometimes more, sometimes less, but I think this one will be closer to an Irene-scale flooding event,” Kelly said, referencing the 2011 storm that caused major flooding in the Northeast. “I hope I’m wrong, but that’s my gut feeling.”

Kelly hopes hundreds of residents living in low-lying areas will consider evacuating. He said the town will open its recreation center for evacuees.

Damaging winds threaten coastal New England

Peak wind gusts could approach 60 to 65 mph (97 to 105 kph) on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket on Friday night and Saturday, compared with about 50 to 55 mph (80 to 89 kph) around Boston and 35 to 40 mph (56 to 64 kph) farther inland, according to Matthew Belk, a meteorologist with NWS in Norton, Massachusetts.

“It’s definitely going to be a case of the closer to the coast you are, the more impacts from the storm you’re likely to see,” Belk said.

Belk said nor'easters are not unusual as New England moves into fall, but one concern this early in the season is that leaves remain on the trees, creating more wind resistance. That could increase the risk of downed limbs, which in turn can cause power outages and leave debris in roads, he said.

Along the Atlantic coasts of New Jersey and Delaware, wind gusts could reach 60 mph (96.6 kph), according to NWS. In southeastern Connecticut and eastern Long Island, New York, gusts could get almost as high, potentially downing tree limbs and power lines.

Storm disrupts concerts, baseball and flights

More than 200 flights to and from airports in Boston, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and New York had been canceled Friday, and more cancellations were already in place for Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox announced their weekend series against the Chicago Cubs would be adjusted. The team moved the Sunday afternoon game to Friday to create a split doubleheader. Separately, Ed Sheeran announced that his high-profile Friday and Saturday shows at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, would be canceled due to the storm.

The public ferry service connecting Cape Cod with the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard was experiencing widespread cancellations Friday due to strong winds and choppy water.

In Rhode Island, ferries were also canceled for Block Island. The disrupted ferry service was expected to also spill into Saturday.

For people who regularly travel to and from the islands, the possibility of getting stuck on one side or the other is “part of life,” said Sean Driscoll, a spokesperson for the Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority. Most people have backup plans in place for when boats are canceled.

“It’s a nuisance, but you know, we know what to do with this kind of stuff at this point,” he said. “This is not out of the realm of ordinary.”

Ashley Destino of Gloucester, a coastal city in northern Massachusetts, enjoyed a stroll along the beach with her two young children before preparing to hunker down at home during the storm.

“We came to the beach on Friday afternoon because we knew we were going to be inside all weekend,” said Destino, who has Legos and arts and crafts activities prepared to entertain her two children, ages 7 and 4.

She also prepared by securing her boat with additional lines, and her husband pulled out a generator in case the electricity goes out.

___

Willingham reported from Boston. Associated Press writers Michael Casey in Boston; Rodrique Ngowi in Gloucester, Massachusetts; and Anthony Izaguirre in New York contributed to this report.

"As of right now, surgery is not on the table, and we haven’t discussed IR,” Peters said on 106.7 The Fan. “So it’s just a matter of how we’re going to get him back on the field. That’s still to be determined.”

Peters said Daniels returned late Thursday night and was meeting with the Commanders on Friday. Team officials have talked with medical officials around the country, and Peters called it a medical decision that Washington is working through.

Being placed on injured reserve would mean Daniels would miss a minimum of four games.

Daniels was hurt during Sunday’s loss at Dallas on a broken play at the end of the first half. He took a snap under center, and left guard Chris Paul stepped on Daniels' foot as he backed away from the line. Daniels braced himself with his non-throwing arm, which bent awkwardly under the pressure.

A similar thing happened last November, when Daniels used his left arm to brace himself and dislocated his elbow against Seattle. He returned just over a month later, only to aggravate the problem and miss the rest of the season.

Marcus Mariota is set to start Sunday’s home opener against Seattle.

Coach Dan Quinn said Friday that he'll have updates later on the guidelines for Daniels' return once he gets to that stage. For now, he is considered week-to-week.

Asked about his initial reaction to the injury, Quinn said sometimes the scenarios that play out in someone's mind “are worse than the actual news.”

"But you just wait to get all the information you can, and then, spoke with him (Daniels) on the phone and again we had a chance to visit this morning. So, I thought just what a great bit of news for him and for us,” Quinn said.

The coach said the team has a lot of confidence in Mariota.

“In fact, so much — I thought this was such a cool thing — the captains huddled up with me earlier in the week and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to make Marcus our sixth captain.’ And I thought what a great tribute of brotherhood of those guys asking,” Quinn said. “Of course, they were all like as on board, as you can imagine. I thought it was awesome, too, but what a great example of teammate and leadership.”

___

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Leer en español

Video shows deputies arresting Francisco Mendiola, 31, who officials said is homeless.

Investigators said Mendiola was drunk when he fired four shots inside an MIA garage. One of the bullets hit a car windshield.

Mendiola went before a Miami-Dade County judge on Thursday.

Mendiola was previously arrested in California in December for criminal charges at Los Angeles International Airport.

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, he was sitting on a bench firing the gun when he was arrested.

It was a mad dash for cover as passengers were confused and worried there was an active shooter.

SKY10 flew over the chaos, which shut down parts of the airport for several hours.

Dozens of deputies with tactical gear could be seen swarming the departure area before it was opened back up.

Mendiola has been in Miami for a little less than a year.

He remains behind bars on a $26,000 bond.

Authorities said they are trying to figure out how obtained the gun.

Un video muestra a agentes arrestando a Francisco Mendiola, de 31 años, quien, según funcionarios, no tiene hogar.

Los investigadores dijeron que Mendiola estaba ebrio cuando disparó cuatro veces dentro de un estacionamiento de MIA. Una de las balas impactó el parabrisas de un automóvil.

Mendiola compareció ante un juez del condado Miami-Dade el jueves.

Mendiola fue arrestado previamente en California en diciembre por cargos criminales en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Los Ángeles.

Según la Oficina del Sheriff de Miami-Dade, estaba sentado en un banco disparando el arma cuando fue arrestado.

Los pasajeros corrieron desesperadamente para ponerse a salvo, confundidos y preocupados de que hubiera un tirador activo.

SKY10 sobrevoló el caos, que provocó el cierre de partes del aeropuerto durante varias horas.

Decenas de agentes con equipo táctico fueron vistos desplegándose por el área de salidas antes de que fuera reabierta.

Mendiola ha estado en Miami durante poco menos de un año.

Permanece tras las rejas con una fianza de $26,000 USD.

Las autoridades dijeron que están tratando de determinar cómo obtuvo el arma.

Leer en español

The pursuit was after a shirtless man with green pants pulled a woman out of her car at about 10 a.m. in the parking lot at the Palmetto General Hospital at 2001 West 68th St., in Hialeah, according to a witness.

That man has since been identified as 35-year-old Jordan Eugene Brown.

“The suspect approached a female victim exiting her vehicle and forced himself inside her car and fled the scene,” Lt. Eddie Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Hialeah Police Department, said.

Shortly after 1 p.m., Brown drove on the wrong side of road several times, and passed a school bus. Law enforcement performed several maneuvers to try to stop him.

Shortly after 1:10 p.m., law enforcement hit the car twice until it spun out, and law enforcement approached, guns drawn.

About five minutes later, deputies pulled Brown out and handcuffed him at Northwest 17th Avenue and 79th Street. He was barefoot, shirtless, and wearing green pants.

Brown is facing charges of burglary, assault and battery, robbery, carjacking, battery on a person 65 or older, fleeing and eluding a police officer, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and reckless driving.

He’s being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with bond listed as “to be set.”

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 to remain anonymous.

Morgan Cole era la niña de los ojos de su abuelo, y él era la luz de su mundo. Cuando su abuelo fue afectado por una terrible enfermedad, Morgan utilizó su ingenio y creatividad para mejorar su calidad de vida y su pasatiempo favorito.

“Mi abuelo fue el mejor abuelo que podría haber pedido”, dijo Cole.

Cuando Morgan piensa en su abuelo Howie, lo recuerda como un modelo a seguir, un mentor y un amigo.

“Podía contarle cualquier cosa. Si estaba teniendo un buen día. Si estaba teniendo un mal día, él me escuchaba durante horas. Hablábamos. Jugábamos”, dijo.

Ambos pasaban horas jugando a las cartas, y el abuelo convertía de manera natural la diversión y los juegos en un ejercicio para la mente.

“Nos planteaba problemas de palabras o de matemáticas y cronometraba a mi hermano y a mí, y competíamos para ver quién podía resolverlos más rápido”, recordó Morgan.

Pero antes de que Morgan terminara la escuela primaria, la salud del abuelo Howie dio un giro drástico.

“A mi abuelo le diagnosticaron Alzheimer en 2018”, dijo Morgan. “Fue difícil para mi familia verlo, de alguna manera, desaparecer”.

Para ayudar a su abuelo y preservar el tiempo que pasaban juntos, la adolescente de la Generación Alfa buscó en internet juegos que él pudiera disfrutar.

“Le aparecía uno de esos anuncios y lo distraía por completo”, dijo Morgan. “Por más que buscábamos, no podíamos encontrar algo que funcionara para él”.

Así que se puso manos a la obra. Aprovechando sus habilidades de programación y su inclinación por asumir proyectos desafiantes, Morgan desarrolló a los 16 años una aplicación enfocada en la inclusión.

“Todo el proceso tomó dos años”, dijo.

La aplicación recibió apropiadamente el nombre del abuelo.

“Howie’s Place no tiene esos botones adicionales que pueden hacer que la experiencia sea complicada para un usuario. Todo lo que tienes que hacer es pulsar los botones y jugar sin experimentar ninguna interrupción”, explicó Morgan.

Howie’s Place cuenta con seis juegos interactivos, junto con varios modos para seleccionar un nivel de dificultad. Para los rompecabezas más desafiantes, hay una opción de ayuda.

Desde su lanzamiento en abril, la aplicación ha registrado hasta cientos de descargas al día.

“Hemos visto a niños jugando con sus abuelos, pudiendo tener esa interacción juntos a través de esa tecnología”, dijo Morgan.

Ese era el objetivo: crear una plataforma que conectara generaciones y sirviera como homenaje a su querido abuelo Howie.

“Siento que, de alguna manera, su recuerdo y su legado pueden seguir vivos a través de la aplicación”, dijo Morgan.

Howie’s Place es una marca registrada y se puede descargar de forma completamente gratuita en dispositivos iOS y Android.

El abuelo Howie murió en 2023, antes de que se completara la aplicación. Pero Morgan está segura de que la habría disfrutado.

It was 1969, and he was fresh out of Illinois Wesleyan, where when not in class he had played football and baseball, and listened to Cubs and Cardinals games over the radio. Matthews had called some high school games, but when he applied for the Royals job almost on a lark, his big league experience consisted of a demo tape he'd made of a couple innings at Busch Stadium.

But the pool of applicants kept getting whittled down, from hundreds to dozens to just one.

So it was that a 26-year-old Matthews found himself in the broadcast booth at old Municipal Stadium, some 57 years ago, alongside the late Buddy Blattner, describing the action as the Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 in 12 innings.

On Friday night, Matthews will describe the action for the 8,000th time when the Royals play the Cleveland Guardians.

The 83-year-old Matthews is one of only four broadcasters in major league history to be with the same team for at least 50 seasons, and only the Dodgers' Vin Scully (67) and Jaime Jarrin (64) have done it longer. Over his 58 seasons, touching base in seven different decades, Matthews has called seven division titles, four pennants and World Series titles in 1985 and 2015.

The names of exactly 1,058 different players to wear a Royals uniform have tumbled out of his raspy-yet-somehow melodic voice.

And to think: Matthews never thought he'd get the job.

“I did have the advantage when I was growing up of listening to some really, really good broadcasters out of Chicago and St. Louis,” he recalled. "I would lay in front of the radio — I was 10, 11, 12 years old — and I had my baseball cards, and I just lay there.

“You never think you're going to be a broadcasters when you're 10 years old. You want to play. Get some kids in the neighborhood and go out and play. But I didn't know at the time, listening to those guys all those summer nights, I was getting a college education in how to broadcast baseball, and I didn't have to pay tuition. I didn't have to do homework. But I was still getting a great education."

The voice of Kansas City baseball

Even after Matthews was hired by longtime Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, it was never his intent to stay. His dream was to move to Chicago or St. Louis, and call games for one of the two clubs that had such a profound impact on him as a youth.

Yet when those opportunities came along — and they did, more than once — the tug of what had become home was too strong.

“I went to Ewing Kauffman, and I sat down,” Matthews said. “I was still a little intimidated by Mr. K, but he told me, he said, ‘I’ll tell you what, young man. You're going to have decisions to make as you work your way through this business.' And he said, ‘You have to weigh them carefully, and then you’ll make a decision. But I want to tell you one thing.' He said, ‘We like the way you do games, and you can stay as long as you want.’ And I said, ‘Wow. This is just my third year. So that’s pretty strong.'”

There was never a reason to move, even when teams in New York came calling.

“If you're unhappy in your job,” Matthews said, “you're probably looking to move. I've never been unhappy in this job, period.”

So, as the game went through changes large and small, Matthews' voice over the airwaves remained a Kansas City constant. He was there to describe the first games in the career of a scrappy third baseman named George Brett, and the last. He was there when labor stoppages turned fans away, and there to welcome them back. When the pandemic hit in 2020, and few people were allowed inside the ballpark, Matthews was still behind the mic, calling games from his suburban Kansas City home.

Asked the secret to his longevity, Matthews replied: “Luck.”

“Good health,” he added. “I mean, there's a lot to that. Take care of yourself. And again, be comfortable, as they say, in your own skin, and I've always been comfortable out here, because of the people. This is a comfortable place to be.”

The historical context of a Hall of Fame career

Matthews was bestowed the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence in 2007, and he was honored alongside Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn during the induction ceremony at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

Ripken played 3,001 games during his career. Gwynn played 2,440 of them.

That puts the 8,000 that Matthews will have broadcasted after Friday night into perspective.

Better yet might be this: The price of gas was 33 cents a gallon when he drove into Kansas City for the first time. Richard Nixon was the president, “The Brady Bunch” had just debuted on TV, and exactly 103 days after Matthews called that first ballgame against the Twins, the world sat in rapt attention in front of their televisions as Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

Over his first 32 seasons, Matthews called 5,061 games while missing just 23 for various reasons. And while he began to trim back his travel starting in 2001, he's continued to be a mainstay at Royals home games, with an occasional trip to Chicago or St. Louis.

Curt Nelson, the director of the club's Hall of Fame, has saved every scorecard from every game Matthews has called, and folks within the organization knew he was nearing 8,000. One day last November, more than a dozen people showed up at Kauffman Stadium for a counting party, and they realized that he'd hit the mark the final week of this season.

On Friday night, when the Royals played the Cleveland Guardians.

Matthews has thought about calling it quits over the years. He's even talked about it with Ryan Lefebvre, who has been calling games with him since 1999. Yet the pull of the game has always been too much, and Matthews plans to keep going next season.

“We decided that the end of the season is a terrible time to be thinking about retirement,” Matthews said, “because you're probably thinking, ‘Man, I’m tired of this season. I want to get some free time.' Then it's spring training, and here we go again. There's just something about spring training. The birds are chirping outside and it's getting warming, and you think, 'Spring training. Let's go.'”

___

See AP’s full MLB coverage here